As signs of spring are starting to appear in Korea, I’ve been reflecting on weekend trips taken last year and starting to plan what I hope to do this spring. I’ve been revisiting photos of various getaways and one in particular that stands out was the weekend spent in a southern city of Korea, called Jinhae, for their famous cherry blossom festival.
After a long day of travel by subway, train, and bus we made it to Jinhae and were immediately greeted by streets lined with blossoming cherry trees. The Jinhae cherry blossom festival is one of the most well-known events in the country and attracts thousands of visitors each year. We started our afternoon at the festival walking through rows of tents set up as shops, game booths, and restaurants, before landing on one of the restaurant tents for a quick pig roast and makgolli lunch.
Once we had finished eating and walked through all of the tent lined streets, we started exploring to find the river we’d all spent the week dreaming about via Pinterest and Instagram. Seeing as there really were thousands of people at this festival it wasn’t terribly difficult to find. All we had to do was follow the masses in hopes of making our way to the front of the line to take a photo of the brightly colored river umbrellaed by blossoming pink and white trees.
We spent hours walking along the river and eventually made it to a coffee shop around dusk for a quick rest and caffeine fix. As the sun set we ventured back out into the crowds and found that the paths had been lit up by arches wrapped in white lights making the small town seem just a bit more magical.
Hours after arriving in Jinhae, when we had had our fill of the festival, we made our way back to the bus terminal. Our next stop for the weekend would be Busan. A coastal city in Korea that would be hosting the annual Holi Hai festival the following day.
Always in search of an enticing weekend get away, when a friend mentioned this festival last winter I was equal parts gung-ho and yet seriously questioning my desire to spend the weekend in a teeny tiny town surrounded by snow. Ultimately I decided that if nothing else it would be an adventure, and I purchased my ticket.
One of the wonderful parts about living in Korea is that the country is small enough to be able to make it to any coast just to spend a weekend away from the city. After a stressful week post 2016 election, some friends and I were looking for a peaceful weekend away, perhaps on a beach. We decided to head out for central Korea, towards a city named Sokcho. Near the larger city of Sokcho are both Seoraksan Mountain, as well as, a cozy little beach town, Ingu. Both would be my destinations for Saturday and Sunday.
My travel mates had previously hiked through Seoraksan National Park so we decided to part ways for a few hours as they went straight to Ingu, and I left for the mountain.
Ingu is a tiny surf town that runs about four blocks long and is set against the Sea of Japan. There are coffee shops, burger restaurants, and countless surf shops. This appears to be the city where all of the few Korean hipsters have settled. It is amazing.
After leaving the coffee shop it was time to get to the beach. While my friends hit the waves, I opted for the warmer option of reading a book on the sand. Somewhere in the middle of chapter two, a beautiful friendly golden retriever came up and sat down right next to me on my blanket. His owner seemed to be mortified, but it was everything I could do to keep him right next to me for as long as possible. Once again, perfection. Calming, peaceful, quiet perfection.
As our trip to Tokyo was coming to a close the Asakusa Sensoji Temple was at the top of our list for our last day in the city, and we began our venture to the other side of Tokyo.
One of the most memorable parts of visiting the temple was a small area to get your fortune. This was especially exciting to see as it was the start of the Chinese New Year. They had instructions set out in English and the process began.
One of my favorite aspects of living in Korea is the access I now have to other parts of Asia. While I have to say that Japan was never on my bucket list of places to venture off to it turned out to be one of the most fun traveling experiences I’ve had abroad thus far.
Fall in Korea is beyond gorgeous. Even being from a place with a nice fall season, I was mesmerized by the colors on the trees in this country. Everything becomes painted with shades of orange, red, and yellow and seems to stay that way for months. Set against the backdrop of mountains and blue skies it makes for a dreamy walk to work each day. That said, with all of its beauty Korea unfortunately lacks in the customary autumn festivities. There isn’t any apple picking or hot apple cider. Starbucks doesn’t serve pumpkin spice lattes. Halloween is not celebrated. There is no pumpkin carving or scary movie marathons on TV. While the weather is beautiful the traditional feeling of fall can be hard to come by.
We made it to the festival expecting to see stands selling apple cinnamon baked goods, apple cider, apple wine, and of course miles of red spotted orchards to go apple picking. What we discovered is that even in its best efforts, Korea’s idea of an apple festival is unfortunately quite lacking in the standard festivities we are used to from the United States. Ironically, the festival was less about apple themed festivities and more about apples themselves. SO MANY APPLES.
various types of tea, and even a little apple juice. It turned out there weren’t any apple orchards for picking bundles of apples, or at least not that we could find, but at that point we were happy just to be taking home our apple pies.
A string of national holidays in October leads to a number of long weekends in the beginning of fall and a lot of opportunities to explore the country. One of these holidays is National Foundation Day which is a celebration of the founding of Korean as a nation. While this year I’ll be doing some adventuring outside of the country, last year I used the the extra day off work to explore Nami Island {one of over 30 islands in Korea} with a friend.
Towards the end of the day we went off the beaten path a bit and discovered a quiet area on the edge of the island by some water to watch the sunset. As we started making our way back to catch the ferry home we realized that those “balloons” from the tree lined path were in fact little white lanterns that magically lit up the trail as we waited in line for the ferry. A perfectly charming ending to a long and exciting day.
bbm travels 