As I've mentioned before, I try to spend more time in Hive and share my stories. We're having a hot, rainy summer here in Korea, and due to the high humidity, it's very difficult to be outdoors where there is no any air conditioner. So today, I'd like to tell you a bit about summer in Korea.
In this weather, Koreans eat hot, spicy food. It's believed that this helps endure the unbearable summer weather more easily. Perhaps they're onto something. After all, once you finish a hot soup, you'll sweat out all the water in your body and then you forget about the unbearable weather. Speaking of food, here's an interesting fact: Koreans can eat boiling soup without any problems! I don't know how they manage not to burn their mouths and everything else. But it's a fact. Unfortunately or fortunately, I don't have that skill.
I tried to find some photos of boiling soup in my gallery but since I can't eat the soup when it is boiling I don't have such pics haha
And I wasn't kidding about the rainy summer. Before, the rainy season lasted about a week and followed a schedule. If they said it would rain from Monday to Sunday, that's exactly what happened. But this year, meteorologists say the rainy season will last more than a month. It seems it's already started, but it's not as heavy as before. I'm glad about that, especially when there's a little breeze outside.
Moreover, it's not just a light summer rain; it's a downpour. Often, it pours like buckets of water. Because of this, rivers overflow, and there are floods. If you've seen the Korean movie "Parasite," the scene where the basement homes flooded is a very real problem many people in Korea face every year.
But despite all this, summer in Korea is also beautiful. Koreans love various festivals. Among them, my favourite festivals are the flower festivals, where entire fields of a particular flower are planted in parks. For example, there's a sunflower festival going on now, soon there will be a lotus festival, and earlier this summer there was a hydrangea, rapeseed, and other flowers festival whose names I didn't remember.
Such festivals are a great marketing move for tourism development. But I think, first and foremost, they are very pleasant and often free little joys for people.
Summer food is certainly specific, but I'll tell you more about that next time, in more detail.
I tried to find a few photos in my gallery. Some of them are old.
In general, travelling in Korea in summer has its pros and cons. I try to choose days when the rain tires out and takes a little break.