Cherry Blossom Hysteria

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For three glorious weeks, cherry blossom trees coat Korea in a shower of white and pink beauty. I'd heard it was a big deal, but good grief, it was bigger than big. Most streets are lined with cherry blossoms, so it was an enchanting walk to work, the grocery store, and especially by the beach. The Koreans came out in hordes and with them, hundreds of cameras. They pretty much fulfilled every stereotype about Asians and their frantic picture-taking. At least I didn't look out of place.

Jinhae is home to one of the biggest cherry blossom festivals in Korea, due to its overwhelming amount of blossoms. Many of my friends went on the weekend and enjoyed the music, food, and markets. Haley and I, however, were too tired to go. So instead, I slept all day Sunday, literally, and woke at 5 am on Monday to get a 630am bus to Jinhae with Haley. It took 70 minutes.

Turns out, the official festival had ended the day before, but no matter: we had the blossoms to ourselves, which was infinitely better than trying to blur out all the people around. We attempted to get a cab, since the info booth was closed, but the man didn't understand us. We were a little worried, but then he followed us and shouted: he had called someone on his phone that spoke English! What a nice guy. He then drove us to "Romance Bridge," a gorgeous, otherworldy walkway. We became friends with another early riser, a Korean man with a nicer SLR than mine, and he was kind enough to take the few pictures of Haley and I together. Otherwise, its just a smörgåsbord of pictures of just Haley or just me. Too bad I don't need to send out any fancy announcements - would be an ideal photo opportunity.

Our new friend had told us of a pretty mountain area, so we got a new cab, said "mountain? pretty? picture?" and the cabbie understood us perfectly! Helped that I had my camera slung around my neck with obvious intent. The mountain view was nice, and then, oh joy, we found a map of Jinhae in a ditch! That helped us get back down the mountain. That and with the help of many other Koreans with a bigger map. Koreans sure are helpful.

Last, we went to a long, pretty stretch of train tracks and walked the right of way for a bit. Also very lovely. Then it was time to catch the bus back to Busan. I got to work with seconds to spare, and promptly crashed. It was a looong day, but completely worth it.

Team Haley and Kathleen score one for the books!

More pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/k.a.sheridan01/CherryBlossomMania#

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