Irish Festival~

     The Irish Festival was yesterday, in light of St. Patrick's Day the Irish association of Korea organized a whole slew of events. Music and dancing in Insadong followed by drunken debauchery in Itaewon and Gangnam...

entrance photo taken by VeganBeats

      I arrived at 인사동 around 1 to an enormous amount of people, all sporting green and trucking beers, from what I heard all the GS25's had sold out. There was a Korean Irish band that played traditional celtic music along with doing some Irish dance (trip!) There was also U2 covers done... The festival began at 11:30 and continued on to 6 or so...I left early but regardless of the dwindling music and stage presence, people were piling into the fesitval spot. The energy of the place seemed overall joyful and even playful. An added bonus is that 인사동 is my family's home town...so in many ways I felt closer to my family. My qurter Irish heritage was done proud ^^*!~ My family in the states would have thoroughly loved the shows too!
     Jaxs came up a bit later and her and I wandered the streets in search of a quaint tea shop and we found 인사동이야기! It's close to 종로 and located on the 2nd floor of a building...(obviously!) Tea is of abundance along with lots of rice cakes...

beautiful Jaxs^^*!~ (photo taken by VeganBeats)

      This place was very cute, smokey lighting and lots of personalized letters and notes stapled ot the walls. I can picture a lot of cozy dates (with friends or interests ^^*!~) happening here.

     Jaxs and I skimmed the menu to find lpts of teas, persimmon leaf, green, earl grey~ and they had cocktails and beer, which we were both suprised about. Jaxs and I eventually made a decision and she went with the jujube tea and I got a ginger tea.

my ginger tea on the left, Jaxs' jujube tea on the right...rice cakes and snacks behind! (photo taken byVeganBeats)

     Being in 인사동 means cute rice cakes and treats...these were some of the best I've had. Light, soft, not too sweet...and too cute.

cute rice cakes! (photo taken by VeganBeats)

I don't know what these are called, maybe puffed rice cakes? (photo taken by VeganBeats)

     Jaxs and I signed the guest book, a cute ratty paper filled concoction that now I notice was what was stapled to the walls.

jujube tea and guestbook! (photo taken by VeganBeats)

      The tea was resonabley priced (I think so considering ambiance and quality) about 5,000W per cup...soa  bit pricey but hell...yummy! I love me some ginger tea and forgot how much I really love it ^^*!~ Plus, I got more Jaxs time~ win!!
     After tea I opted to go home and nap for a lengthy planned evening...around 11:30 I went to 이태원 and met up with the crew for some drinks and a rugby match~yea Ireland! The game didn't start until 2am but I was wide awake and getting well educated on the importance of such a game (thank ye Pol!)
     After many shared drinks, banters, yelling, and cheering the crew started to leave...Todd and Pol stuck around and we met up with another friend to go for some SUPER late night noms. One of Pol's friends brought us to a small and very cute 삼겸살 place and it was adorable. An actual resturaunt with great decor...

소주 decorations...(photo by VeganBeats)

     It was quirky and a bit artsy and had a great energy about it. Very open, accepting..but that could just be because of the fabulous group I was now with. ^^*!~
두부김치 was my love, free of meats and all that stuff of course, and ugh....hot 김치 and fresh 두부~
     Irish Festival was a wonderful experience, a great time and really fun. Enjoyed from beginning to end, great times with friends...and I got some Irish dancing in too!!