International Fireworks Competition

 

I came home from Norway and immediately jumped into doing....laundry.  You have no idea how long it takes to do laundry with a combo washer/dryer.  One load if you dry it takes 4 hours.  If you don't, 2 hours.  So that pretty much killed the rest of my day.

However, that night, I headed down to the beach on my bike for the International Fireworks Competition.  Over the course of 4 nights, 8 teams from around the world shoot off fireworks set to music over the water.  Last year, China won.

I really wanted to see the Chinese and their night happened to be the night I just got back.  So tired as I was, I hopped on my bike hoping it would warm up and the rain would stay away.  I found a nice bar on the non-touristy end of the beach bars, propped up my feet on the seat and enjoyed a nice glass of white wine and a book while waiting.  The first to go at 9:45 were the Austrians:



The next were the Chinese:

You can hear some of the music, including my beloved dance/house/techno/electric.  You can also hear the wind, which played a huge factor.  The Chinese were good, but you could see that a lot of their rockets were shooting off directly into the water.  Sad I went on a rough night and then ended up riding home in the rain.  I would say it was worth it though - very relaxing.

I went on Friday night this week too - no videos because I just wanted to enjoy them.  The Spanish and the South Korean team went - the Spanish were great, but I loved the South Korean music choices.  Both shows were definitely great.  Last night was raining, so I didn't head down to the beach, but I'm sure on a clear night, it would have been epic.  I can also now say that I've ridden my bike 2 different ways to the beach and ridden my bike through a sea of 60,000 people all in various forms of transportation (walking, bikes, trams, cars).  Mayhem!  The worst parts are that all of those bikes may be motor scooters, which are treated the same here as push bikes and some of the push bikes are ridden by 9-15 year olds who are erratic.  It's like leaving a sporting event right when everyone else is leaving, getting in your car, sitting in traffic, except the people operating the cars could be 9 year olds.  Its insane.  I tried to leave a bit later, but that didn't help either.  I made it back in one piece with only 3 major uses of the brakes.

That's it for updates - headed to London next weekend to find a dress for A&A's wedding.  Hoping to squeeze in a show as well....the listing of playing shows is so tempting.