An afternoon in Yeouido

It's been a long and cold winter in South Korea this year according to my workmates and Korean friends. However, the weather is finally getting warmer and it's starting to feel a lot like spring.

We had heard that the cherry blossoms were in bloom in Yeouido, so we decided to go and check them out seen as I had also wanted to visit the "63 Building" which is in Yeouido for a really long time.

Walking to the 63 building we encountered so many cherry blossoms! They are so pretty and make for great photos.


We finally arrived at our destination, The 63 building, which you can see is very tall and mirror like. When we got inside we were bombarded with things we can do. As well as having a viewing deck, the tower also has an aquarium, wax works and IMAX amongst the usual shops and eateries. However we decided just to visit the viewing deck which also includes the world's highest art gallery.

The view from the top of the tower is amazing, you can see so much of the city and can really see the contrast between the areas of town that are filled with the identical skyscrapers and the older parts of town that appear to have grown more organically.

The art gallery was really amazing too, it had a really great photography exhibition on with mainly Korean photographers. However, it felt like the art got a little bit "lost" on the viewing deck as it seemed like most people there wanted to check out the view and not look at art - which is fine. But it seemed like this wasn't the best place in the world to have an art gallery even if it is the highest art gallery in the world.



After we had out lunch we decided to check out a large garden in Yeouido whilst walking to the station. There were so many people!! Especially people on bikes and roller blades - it was pure madness and it wasn't even a great day weather wise - I wonder what this place will be like on a really nice spring day.

Jinhae Blossom Festival

On Saturday, Rich, Dani and I travelled with about 50 other foriegners to Jinhae, near the bottom of the Korean Penisula to take part in the Cherry Blossom Festival.

We spent a huge amount of time travelling, but it was totally worth it, even if the blossom's weren't in full bloom due to the fact that it has been a particulary cold winter in Korea this year and spring is a little late this year.

When we first arrived at Jinhae, the group separated and everybody went to find lunch. We decided against sitting down for lunch and ate street food and had a look around Jinhae to see how many cherry blossoms we could find.





After "lunch" we met up again with the rest of our group and got on a bus to see a turtle ship. Jinhae is a coastal town and there is a strong navel presence, a turtle ship is a type of warship which was at a navel base of some sort. You could have a look on board the turtle ship but the line was very long so we chose to check out the area around the ship instead which included a giant anchor and lots of Korean people taking photos.



When the bus returned to town it was time to walk a huge amount of steps to the top of a hill, and then walk up more steps to the top of a tower (we could have taken a lift to the top of the tower but the line was really long and we didn't want to wait).



We finished up the day with a look around the markets at Jinhae which had been set up for the festival. Most of the stalls were food, but on the upside we did get some great kebab's (it was the first time I've had a decent kebab in Korea).

Easter Time

It's Easter time in Korea and although a lot of Korean people are christian, Easter isn't a public holiday so no glorious four day weekend for us like there has been in the past.

But that's ok because friends and family (namely my Mum and Jess) sent us plenty of Easter treats and I found this really cute bunny video on you tube today whilst looking for video clips for a class about pets.

It's also good to know that after a very long cold and snowy winter that spring is on the way and it's nearly time to put my big winter jacket away!

Rich and I are even heading to a cherry blossom festival this weekend with Dani in Jinhae - it is five hours away by train. It's going to be a big day trip so fingers crossed the blossom's are worth it.

Happy Easter to everyone back home - enjoy your cadbury cream eggs and your long weekend!