Cherry Blossoms!

My friends (2 couples from the states) invited me to go with them to Jinhae to the cherry blossom Festival 2012. So excited since I thought I might miss seeing the cherry blossoms and there have been much talk about these cherry blossom trees. As a South African I have not seen them. Maybe they are in SA, I just never took notice.

Shame what good friends, the squeezed in, in the back to make space for me.
From left is Amanda Grove, Chelsea Diamond and myself. On your way to Busan.

Costco inside

Just thought it was funny how they
tied the fish up together.

So in the car (6.40 is very early….) we jetted of to Busan first for a very imported stop. Costco. Wanted to be there nice and early to miss the masses. In south Africa terms, it is very similar to our Macro stores. Where you can buy produce on large scale.  Ready to shop at 9, we found out the store only opens at 10!!! No reason, just changed the time….. so we ended having to kill time. I guess the early bird forgot the worm might still be sleeping. Wish I had budgeted to do groceries there. First place I have seen where I would dare to buy any red meat. Also, they had these amazing hot dogs and cola for 2$. Absolutely delicious. It seemed as if Derik enjoyed a lot. Funny how out of everything you could possibly by i walked out with a bottle of red wine. Somethings will just never change.

Streets of Jinhae

Then the long drive to Jinhae began. The drive was beautiful, with Cherry blossoms all along the road. We took a chance and hope that they were in full bloom. Luckily for us a lot of the trees were in full bloom. There are different shades of cherry blossoms. A pinkish, light purple blossom or a white blossom. I fell in love with the white blossoms. The bigger the trees, the more amazing it looked. As you drive down the town area of Jinhae its just cherry blossom trees everywhere.

Chelsea and I in the cherry blossom spirit

Street with stream in the middle and the
wooden walk way on both sides

Same stream but from down
below.

This is us just trying to get some shots of
the stream.

On the dech trying to take my picture
 without  someone stealing my spot

Just walking around Jinhae

We came to the festival area and there were so many people. Koreans as well as foreigners. Everyone trying to get the perfect shot of the cherry blossoms. The festival was this two sided street up the hill with a stream running in the middle of the 2 roads. It had a beautiful wooden walk way all along the stream with the cherry blossoms hanging over the stream. 

Only problem was there were

Amazing waffles!

 so many people so had to 

kind of push your way into taking a photo, and even then you had to 

wait for people to pass or ignore 

the idiot pushing you on the side.

We wanted to take a picture of all 5 of us in the shot so Jeremy would let the Koreans just walk past us and look at their cameras. When he saw a couple with a professional looking camera he stopped them and asked to take our picture. Then suddenly this random korean guy jumped into the shot and just wanted to take a photo with foreigners. SO weird!

One option was whale meat

Now I have to mention the amazing street food we ate. It as a waffle folded in two with cream and strawberry/blackberry jam in the middle. It was to die for. But there many other things you could also eat. Now

Koreans can build a little restaurant just where ever they want to. Fold up chairs, tents and tables and you have yourself a Korean restaurant. Many of the menu's also comes with pictures. The down side of that is you know exactly what you are eating. I have heard of many weird things you can eat in Korean but have not yet seen any of these so called crazy foods. Until this festival. If the little feet on the larvae they sell you do not freak you out, their smell will definitely. Or the big being BBQ in the middle of the street with the feet and head as additional snack. 

Beautiful view going up the stairs

But the craziest and saddest thing i saw 

at this festival was the whale you could eat.

The chunks of whale meat and fin could be seen from the street into the movable restaurant. Needless to say, i did not try the whale.  

There was another street filled with vending shops and street food and just silly things you could buy. There streets bike you could hire to drive around and do sight seeing 

and then at the end of your trip you just return the bike. With a lot of people making their way up and down the street. We decided to go up to the tower looking out on Jinhae. 

The only problem was you had to climb 365 stairs. One for each day. Up the hill. But the surroundings were beautiful and the climb quick. Then we had to climb another 8 floors stairs up the tower. But worth every step as the view on top was unbelievable.

So the view from the top of the tower was beautiful. The tower is designed that on each floor you can walk in a circle and get a 360 degree view of Jinhae. Definitely worth the stairs we had to climb. Coming down Jeremy and Derik found these hoola hoops. Unfortunately I don't have the pics to show, but it was hilarious to see these guys move there hips to get these hoola hoops swinging. 

Exhausted we made our way back to the car. Felt bad for Jeremy having to drive back as us girls got a  nap in at the back. It was a lovely day all in all and i love seeing all the different places Korea has to over. Loving the festivals and love sharing it with awesome friends.

I just realized again that God is amazing as He made every little single little pedal, every little flower, every tree and every person looking at these flower. What a blessing to see His wonder.