Cherry blossoms (벚꽃 축제)

As taken from Yonsei Campus

Every year all over the world people celebrate the cherry blossoms, mainly Asia though, which luckily means that it can also be found here in South Korea!

Cherry blossoms: A cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese Cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is sometimes called sakura after the Japanese (桜 or 櫻; さくら). (taken from Wikipedia)

Being that this is South Korea, this piece of information is actually really interesting. During the colonization of Korea by Japan, the Japanese also brought cherry blossom with them, and the celebration as well, which means that some Koreans actually despise the festival. Not that many years ago a lot of cherry blossom trees were removed from historical sites here in South Korea, due to the sole fact that it was the Japanese that brought them there.

Despite all this, I would say that almost everyone loves this time of year. Taking pictures and joking around, or going to cherry blossom festivals is a really popular thing to do. It gives great opportunities for taking fantastic pictures, and being outside with friends or family in the now nice weather. This of course also involves hiking - just to add it in there.

Besides joking around on campus, some danish friends and I also went to Jinhae (진해), a place really famous for its cherry blossoms festival! If you are in South Korea at any point in time during the cherry blossoms, I would definitely recommend that you go there.

The Jinhae Gunhangje Festival, as it is called, is the biggest cherry blossoms festival in South Korea with more than 300.000 trees, and attracts more than two million visitors every year - just for the sake of viewing this spectacular sight.

Here are some pictures from my trip to Jinhae

The weather was a bit sad, rainy and cloudy, but still a really nice trip with lots of food, interesting booths and some entertainers ass well, all adding to a joyful experience. Personally I enjoy the eating aspect the most. Some of the things I recall one could have was tons of seafood, fast-food of different kinds of sweets. My personal favorite was fresh coconuts with a straw in them, opened as you bought them - <3

I do not know what happened here, I guess the lighting changed every once in a while.

As you can see I am a victim of the weather and having no actual camera, so I will give you some links to how it actually looks in Jinhae during the cherry blossoms - at least how it looks through a camera!

http://www.google.dk/search?hl=da&biw=1505&bih=678&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=jinhae+cherry+blossom+festival&oq=jinhae+cherry+blossom+festival&gs_l=img.3..0i19l2.4533.4533.0.4765.1.1.0.0.0.0.213.213.2-1.1.0...0.0...1c.1.12.img.Tkagl_9Yl9A

Definitely go and check these pictures out on google! (or just imagine the campus pictures in the ones from Jinhae, that should work as well)