Chasing Cherry Blossoms.

If you are to ask a Korean what is the most beautiful season, I bet the answer would be Spring. Here they call it "The Queen of all Seasons", and I could totally agree to that. What makes Spring so worth the wait are the cherry blossoms. I'm sure everyone knows how delightfully pretty these flowers are especially when they're in full bloom. I gotta say walking on a street filled with rows and rows of cherry blossom trees, and flowers draping above your head like a canopy is such a magical experience.

On my second day here, Chris took me to Yeouido where the Cherry Blossoms festival is happening. We went there after working hours hoping that it wouldn't be so crowded anymore, but we were wrong. The traffic was so bad and it was hard to find a parking space. Not even the freezing cold temperature could deter the wicked number of tourists from visiting. It was a little early to visit Yeouido. The flowers are still not in full bloom, but I'm sure next weekend, it's gonna be a hundred times more beautiful. Here's how the Sakura Festival looked like.

Other than the cherry blossoms, these are the things that caught my attention. I'm not sure what the ribbon thingies are for, but I'm guessing it's people's wishes that are written on it. It's quite common to see this in Korea, but what I can't understand is that how writing wishes in special ribbons and hanging it for everyone to see could help make it come true.

There were a lot of artists that night. They make beautiful portraits of people with cherry blossoms on the background for a very steep price.

Even though it was awfully cold that night, still I saw some people having picnics right beside Han river. I can't really blame them though... The river and Seoul's city lights look pretty spectacular at night.

Hope you all enjoyed the tour!

A Different Side of Korea.

"Hongdae" is relatively a shorter term for "Hongik University" which is well known in Korea for it's Art Department. But more than the university itself that has thousands of students dying to get accepted, it is the dazzling nightlife that makes it worth a visit. They say the area near the campus is a living, breathing expression of art in motion, and I couldn't agree more. Flocked with hundreds of one-of-a-kind cafes, eclectic shops filled with products you couldn't find anywhere, restaurants sampling different world cuisines, and funky nightclubs all boasting state of the art equipments, Hongdae is the perfect hub for the thrill seeking, art enthusiast youngsters.

We went there on a Sunday afternoon, but the hordes of Koreans, mostly young and hip people wearing the most fashionable clothes there are that filled the streets made me check my calendar twice to see if it really is a Sunday afternoon.

Hongdae has an entirely different culture. It's far from the conservative, sometimes obnoxious Korean ways you're used to. I love how different and open this place is. Everything is cool (to a much, much higher degree), fun, vibrant, and quirky. You could never be too weird, too hip, or too out-of-this-world here!

Here's a plate number I saw that has 'attitude'.

Graffiti is something I'm not used to seeing in Korea. But in Hongdae, it's as normal as seeing a cigarette butt lying on the floor.

I'm not into the Korean music scene, but I heard Drunken Tiger is the best hip hop artist here in Korea.

This small sausage stall attracts so many customers. The average waiting time to taste that sausage is somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour.

Whatever it is that you're looking for, you could find it in these stores.

The 3rd floor is actually a restaurant. It's not really old and rusty, it's just their concept.

So if the things around you bore you to death, why not visit Hongdae and experience a totally different, somewhat outrageous side of Korea.

Of Lee Sun Shin's Monument.

Saturday started terrible, I was sluggish, sleepy, and aching all over from having the worst Friday night of my life. Mid-day, it started to become better, and by dinner, I was able to get my butt off the bed, and into the streets of Seoul to meet my friends T and M. I brought Chris along cause he said he wants to visit Gwanghwamun to see the newly-constructed shrine of Lee Sun Shin and the whimsical fountain he saw on the news.

After dinner, we went to see the monument and fountain. We were swamped by a sea of bobbling heads, all going to the direction opposite from ours. Just as the four of us got near to the shrine, enough to hear the children's shrieks and get our clothes a bit wet from the fountain, the final performance ended. There were still so many people there, especially kids cooling off the summer heat by getting drenched in the fountain.

Here's how it looks like...

The fountain looks really cute and Chris swore that it wouldn't be the last time we'll visit there!