Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossoms are sprouting out everywhere in Seoul, signifying (finally) the beginning of spring! Yong Hui, Ruowen and I went over to Yeouido today to attend the cherry blossom festival. It’s probably a must-see for all visiting tourists, especially since the flowers bloom only for approximately 3 weeks, before they fall and get replaced by green leaves instead.

And we did not make a wasted trip! When we got there, the entire street was lined with cherry blossom trees, resulting in a sea of pink. This was the first time I got to see cherry blossoms, and the scene was really spectacular! And probably because the viewing festival was ongoing, the street was filled with people, even though it was a Friday afternoon. I saw dating couples, women walking their dogs, families with young children, groups of students and many tourists.

Besides cherry blossoms, many other flowers are in bloom too. Around Yeouido Park, there are plenty of flowers, creating a dazzling sea of colours. At first, we even thought the flowers were fake, cause we never ever get to see such a scene in Singapore.

And of course, being a festival, performances were held everywhere along the street. To add to the buzz, there were people selling food every few hundred metres. This one is probably selling some kind of rice cake. The most disgusting ones were the vendors selling boiled silk worms and some shelled insects. Wah piang, the stench can be noticed from miles away, and it’s extremely nauseating. No idea how Koreans can find it a delicacy!

As we walked, we caught an elderly group dancing a traditional Korean dance, a footballer demonstrating his nimble soccer skills and a mime act too.

We also took pictures with some mascot of the Korean police force, who was making all kinds of cute poses. There was also a pair of weird Korean what-ever-that-thing-is for people to take pictures with.

Here’s a picture that deserves mention. This is actually a mobile toilet! Damn nice right! The mobile toilets in the Singapore pasar malams all cannot make it one lor.

And to end off the entry, here’s a typical high school couple on the streets. Notice how the girl carried her backpack? This is actually the in way to carry bags for all school girls, and there are many girls on the streets that sling their bags this way, which I have no idea why this is so. It feels damn uncomfortable even looking at it!