Seoul Lantern Festival

 Every November, Seoul hosts the Lantern Festival at the Cheonggyecheon Stream.  Its amazing and completely not what I expected! I expected just normal lanterns that you would hang up at home floating in the stream, but these were massive works of art! The stream is a really good location to see no matter what time of year, but this was the perfect way to kick off the winter season. It's not too cold yet so you can still enjoy being outside. It's very organized, there is only one entrance at the beginning and people are herding you along so you keep moving, but there is plenty of time to stop for photos and it wasn't too crowded, even for a friday night. I went with a friend and we had an amazing time! I really have got to figure my camera out, night photos are the hardest for me. But these were just taken on auto and not edited and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I loved this Willy Wonka looking tree! The floats were a great mix of traditional, cultural things and obviously it wouldn't be Korea without a lot of cutesy things mixed in. A lot of other countries had lanterns in there too! You may see someone you recognize (if you're American)....   The festival runs the whole month of November and is available to view any time, day or night. It takes about an hour to walk the whole stream, depending on how crowded it is. Family friendly and free! There are activities you can do midway through the stream. Mostly for kids, but you can decorate lanterns and buy some souvenir type things and there is always street food up above the stream for snacks!