Cherry Blossoms

It's spring time in Korea. Spring isn't spring without the cherry blossoms. They remind us that spring is here. Cherry blossoms only last a couple weeks and are a big attraction in Korea. People flock to the cities with cherry blossom festivals. They are quite beautiful no doubt.
Well, since we really missed the boat last year, we made sure not to miss it this year. On Sunday morning, we decided to join our friends on a last minute adventure to Jinhae. Jinhae is a popular place to go to see cherry blossoms. They have different festival events going on for a couple of weeks. It was a 3 hour bus ride to Jinhae and we arrived around noon. We didn't exactly know where to go, but there were cherry blossoms everywhere. Almost all the streets were lined with them.
Speaking of lines, we saw a bunch of people lined up for a few blocks. We figured out that they were lining up to ride the bus into the Naval Base. Apparently this is a popular place to go during the festival. So... after some hesitation at the size of the line, we decided to wait. It only took about 20 minutes to get on the bus, then another 15 to get there.
When we arrived, we were rather surprised. I wish I could say it was a good surprise, but it was a disappointing surprise. There really wasn't anything happening there. There weren't many blossoms and there wasn't much else there. People were crowded around to watch some guys driving around on motorbikes back and forth. It was impressive how they drove together in formation, but it wasn't anything spectacular. Other than that, there was a boat and some sort of museum thing and a ton of porto-potties. So, we stayed about 10 minutes and headed back.
After that, we found some grub and walked around the city looking for the blossomed areas.
We did a lot of walking. It was nice to see so many blossoms. There was a market along the way with tons of food. They were selling all kinds of snack foods. There was a great big stage set up there, but nothing happening. We must have missed some of the events there.
Overall, it was worthwhile I think. Just to go and see all the blossoms was something to rememeber. It may be the last time we see them.

We went on April fools day...go figure! (nah, it was a good time)