Cherry blossoms and spring flowers in Korea

As I wrote in my previous post, this is cherry blossom season in Korea. Actually, the term "cherry blossom" is a little reductive since different kinds of spring flowers are blossoming, which makes Korea even more beautiful at this time of the year.  You can admire these flowers in a lot of places, there are even a few world-famous festivals, but the cool thing is you just need to go out in the street to see blossoming trees like this one.

In the Busan area, there are quite a few good spots to enjoy the view of cherry blossoms. Last week, I walked up the road from Haeundae Beach to Dalmaji Hill, which is famous for its beautiful cherry blossoms.  It's in town, so cars may ruin your pictures, but it's quite pleasant to take a walk there.

You may also want to go a little further, which we did last weekend, at Daejeo Ecological Park. A festival will take place there in a few days (Nakdong River Yuchae Flower Festival) but we chose to go earlier for fear that it may be too crowded then. In fact, it's already pretty busy, and the festival hasn't started yet:

To get there without being stuck in traffic, take line number 3 of the subway, get off at Gangseo-gu Office station and take exit 1 or 3.  You just need to follow the signs (and the crowd) and you'll be there in about ten minutes. This article describes the place as  "lovely busan countryside." Well, I wouldn't exactly call this "countryside", but it's still pretty charming.

These places and festivals are very popular. The view is stunning, and it gives you an opportunity to take dozens of pictures and selfies (don't forget your tripods and selfie sticks if you go there). 

 

Even evil wizards fall under the spell of the place.

As you can see in these pictures, and as I said before, it's not only about cherry blossoms, even if that tree-lined alley, albeit crowded, is really beautiful. You can also admire canola/rape flower gardens (sorry, I'm not sure what difference, if any, there is between canola and rape flower) spreading as far as the eye can see, stroll through a bamboo grove, and we even found a few tulips.

If you go there a little late in the afternoon, you'll get to enjoy  the view both during daylight and after sunset. The cherry-tree-lined walkway is lit up at seven p.m. , which makes it even more beautiful.

On top of that, even if the Nakdong River Yuchae Flower Festival only started a few days after we visited, we could already enjoy a concert given by an apparently nationally famous singer performing famous Korean hits that seemed to delight the audience very much, judging by the number of people standing on their chair and dancing. There were also a few food vendors selling traditional Korean food. Only on the way back did I stumble upon that "insect repellent auto sprayer" machine.That could make it to my list of things I had never seen before moving to Korea. It's ok that I didn't use it, though, apparently it isn't needed in the spring, only in the summer.

In short, the view was beautiful, the mood was good and I really enjoyed it. And I'm happy that I'll have the opportunity to visit a lot of other such places every year when cherry blossom season is back.

You know you're living in South Korea when...

I have already made a random list of unexpected things that I have seen or stumbled on in Korea. But this list goes on and on, as I keep discovering new things that make my everyday life full of surprises. So here we go for another list of small things that are different here. Of course, some of them may not exist in Korea only. But if you see all or most of them in your daily life, then there's a good chance you're living here.

Take a look at the car doors

You may remember that I wrote about mosquito trucks and electric cables the other day. If you take a closer look at the picture I posted then, you'll see a third item which to me is typically Korean : door guards on cars. Since the first time I came here, I've been surprisd to see how popular these kinds of sponges stuck on car doors are. The reason may be simple : Korea is a rather small and crowded country. Consequently, there's a lack of space so parking spots are pretty tight and you need these items to avoid dings and scratches. Ok, but why would these door guards have to be blue or pink? That's something I cannot get used to. Seeing a brand new, shiny black Mercedes with pink sponges on its doors makes me wanna cry. Really. The good news is I have noticed that there may be fewer of these monstrosities than there used to be. Nothing could make me happier, but I'd better not count my chickens before they're hatched.

The horror!

Fortunately, there are not only eyesores. This week, for instance, Korea's cherry blossoms are in full bloom, and that is amazingly beautiful. As an ignorant westerner, I always associated cherry blossoms with Japan, and I have just discovered that there are a lot of places where you can admire them in Korea too. I didn't need to go very far: the following picture was taken in front of our apartment building. But we'll soon visit places that are famously gorgeous during cherry blossom season, so expect more posting about that very soon.

Cherry blossom in Busan

Speaking of our home, another sign that you're living in Korea is that you probably don't have keys in your pocket. Virtually all apartments now have digital door locks. I never really thought about it before coming here, but I must admit that  the good old keys we use in France seem quite outdated to me now. Still, I wonder how many tries you have if you enter the wrong code on the number pad, because you can't remember it or you came back home drunk. And what happens after your last try? Hopefully I'll never get to know the answer.

Digital door lock in Korea

Another reason why I shouldn't get back home drunk is these stepping stones near our home. I've seen that in several places in Korea, and that's very exotic to me.

If you're very tall or  reasonably tall (I'm six foot one, which is clearly above average in Korea, but it's above average in france too...), there's also a chance you'll often bump your head and you'll have to get used to bending down when getting on and off the bus or the subway (where the straps are at nose level for me), or even when visiting some places like this temple, or this café in Busan. Being tall is all the more inconvenient in a country where you may have to sit and eat on the floor, and it's sometimes complicated when you go to the restaurant or you visit you in-laws and you have to fold and unfold yourself before and after eating (not to mention the back pain and asleep legs). But on the plus side it will help me work on my suppleness.

Last but not least  I'm still a little caught off guard when I see this in Korea. I do know that the swastika is a very ancient symbol that is now used in Buddhism, but I still feel some kind of cringe sometimes when I see one. I guess it'll pass, though.

As I said, I think it's very unlikely that you can find all of these things anywhere else on earth. That's what makes Korea so unique, on top of all the other features that I have written about on this blog. It may look like a lot, but I feel like I haven't even started yet!