Cherry Blossoms!

One of the best times to be in Korea is spring. In fact, I'm starting to think this may be my favourite time. After a brown and bleak winter, spring happens very suddenly and is always marked by almost instantly warmer temperatures and the gorgeous cherry blossoms.

On Thursday, my school allowed teachers to leave early to go enjoy the short lived flowers. So we went to Bomun Lake. Unfortunately, the warmer temperatures had temporarily vanished and it was a blustery and chilly grey day that eventually became a very rainy night. Nonetheless, here are some pictures from our beautiful walk around the area.

Swan boats are an iconic symbol
of Gyeongju. 

I included this picture to laugh at my
own insanity. I have a strong and
irrational fear of dead animals, and
very often panic when I see what I
believe to be little corpses. This
pair of umbrellas gave me quite
the stomach flip as I was sure
it was a dead pigeon...

Cherry blossoms AND some bamboo.
Quite the Asian photo if you ask me! 

The following morning, after the rainstorm,
the streets were strewn with petals.
Luckily, the blossoms survived until
the weekend!

On Friday, my friend Samantha and I headed to the neighbourhood across the river called Chunghyo. This neighbourhood has a big street lined with cherry blossoms, so it has a little festival when they bloom. The word 'festival' is used rather loosely in Korea and often means a collection of tents that always sell the same stuff. This festival includes the usual tent suspects, but also has a gorgeous street with a ceiling of blossoms, which is beautiful in natural sunlight, then again at night when light from underneath by variously coloured bulbs.

Samantha and I walked down the street in the daylight, then stopped for dinner in one of the tents. The servers were thrilled to see us. We were told, as we so often are, how beautiful we are and how big our eyes are. Samantha's shockingly blue eyes were especially popular. We ordered pajeon, a favourite of ours, and a bowl of makoli. The server thought we were brand new tourists, because when setting up our table she slowly said "kimchi" while placing it on our table. So I tried to explain (in my so sos so so very limited Korean) that we were locals and taught in Gyeongju. She understood and was so proud, we heard her bragging to all the other servers that teachers were present. They all then began addressing us as "teacher." When a drunk elderly man got a little too friendly, the server came to our defence. She told me that we were pretty, had big eyes, were English teachers, but that he was not allowed to poke us. She was firm, and he obeyed. We thanked her, and she beamed.

Next, as we were finishing up, she commented on the cold and we agreed (again, in the simplest Korean you can imagine). This prompted her to give us free odeng soup! It was such a surreal little dinner where the kindness and generosity of Koreans overwhelmed me. Once done with eating, we completed our evening with a final walk down the street. By this point the sun had set, and the trees were all aglow in different colours. Sadly, it's incredibly difficult to capture the beauty on camera, but hopefully you'll get the jist of it.

Just before heading home, we bumped into one of my co-teachers. His eyes looked like they would pop out of his head and he asked "How did you get here??" It always amuses me just how helpless they sometimes think I am.

SO. Pictures!

My view crossing the bridge in Chunghyo.

A beautiful non cherry tree blossom.

And the main road! I wish they would cut it
off from cars for the festival, but I suppose
it would be a nightmare for the people
who live here..

Along the street were these tents, making it a festival!
Tents include food, toys, socks, teas, and
little restaurants.

For example, here is some freaky
dried fish.

Freaky dried fish heads.

All kinds of freaky dried stuff.

This stall even had dried mussels! 

This tent had massive amounts of seaweed.

Restaurant tents include gigantic
soups bubbling away.

Here are some stuffed squid, and some stuffed... well..
Sea creatures...

Sadly, festivals almost always include whale meat,
though I've only seen people eating it once.
(At the whale festival..)

Here's our tasty dinner! Pajeon, Korean seafood
pancake, and Makoli, Korean rice wine.

Pajeon was my very first meal in Korea
and will always be very special to me!

Look how happy I am!

And finally, our free soup! Odeng is processed fish bits
.. kind of like fish ham? Very mild tasting and much
better than my description would lead you to believe.

And the sun has set!

The next day, Saturday, was the day of the Cherry Blossom Marathon. I participated and ran the 5k! I'm going to make a separate post for that in a moment, so let's fast forward to Sunday. I completed my blossom themed weekend with a walk in the park with my friend Tina. Note the amusing outdoor exercise machines. Many, such as the one I am playing on below, are super fun.