I spent my first night in Seoul at the Yeouido Park cherry blossom festival. Took a long train journey to Yeouinaru Station (subway line 5) and exited from either exit 1 or 2.
Official website: http://english.visitseoul.net/event-festival/Yeongdeungpo-Yeouido-Spring-Flower-Festival-2016_/16479
I can’t remember which exit I took but I do remember buying 11 pairs of socks from the bustling train station. There were a lot of stores in the underground station! The store had a “Buy 10 + 1” sale and each pair ended up costing less than 1000Won! Aren’t they adorable 8D??
The park was a little distance away from the station and I wasn’t particularly aware of where to turn. SO I basically just followed the crowd and prayed I was going the right direction ahahhaa. The masses of crowd going to the same place was directions enough but if all else fails, try Google map.
The Yeongdeungpo Yeouido Spring Flower Festival 2016 usually runs from early April and last a week or so. I went on the 8th April.
Around 1886 Yoshino Cherry Blossom trees line the park. Other than the Cherry Blossoms, they also features other flowers such as azalea, forsythia, royal azaleas, bridal wreath spirea and deutzia. Sadly though, I saw very few of them. And being no very botanically inclined, you can say I proabbly wouldn’t be able to tell which flower is which 8D! Online sources says you can get a good view of the Han river but since I was there in the late evening, the darkness shrouded park gave no clue of any river.
My advice is to go in the late afternoon so you can marvel at the beauty of the flowers in different light.
Walked past this beautiful gate which I think is the gate for the park. To enter the park, I basically walked a huge circumference to get to the enterance.
The spring festival held at Yeouido park was huge! It was a very long stretch of road with stalls and buskers at every corner – probably no as long as the CHerry Blossom path in hadong but still pretty impressive.
I even spotted a few trees with strings attached in between them to hold prayer knots. I wonder if there's a temple around here.
There was a stage show happening when I arrived – it seemed to some magic x gag show (comedy) which I failed to appreciate since I didn’t understand the language.
There were plenty of street performers too!
Some celebrity standees hurhur. I wish I know who they are!
I have to say though , the light illumination at the park is horrible. Green is a horrible colour to illuminate cherry blossom trees.
Any road with cherry blossoms in bloom is a romance road hehehe.
The fact that I came so late made the festival a little bland because most of the stalls had closed and I couldn’t find any food to fill my growling stomach.
Am I right? Why do they use green lights?!
Not sure what flowers these are but they are extremely small and nt Cherry Blossoms.
These are cherry blossoms. I just can’t stop myself from fangirling over them!
Since I had just came from Busan, I found Seoul extremely cold! The temperature that night plummeted to 7 degree celsius. I tried to wrap myself up as best as I could and looked like a suspicious Hobo LOL.
I thought it was just me but it seemed like many locals were caught up by the cold too as I see random girls with towels wrapped around their waist and kids wearing adult’s jacket. Not sure if it’s just me but I always feel so happy when I see the locals shiver along with me. It’s like a “HA! I’m not the only dumbass tourist here!” kinda feeling hurhurhur.
I wasn’t sure how to go around the festival so I followed the only road and walked from start to end. The whole walk took me roughly 1hr 45mins.
I think the black reflective thing further out is the Hand river. But seriously, it doesn’t stand out at all xD I didn’t even remember I saw any river until I reviewed the photographs.
At that point I was absolutely famished but nothing at the park caught my eye. I finally decided I wasn't going to let the night end without at least trying some of the street snacks so I bought myself a skewer of meat outside of the park. This stick cost me 4000 frikin yen !
Has anyone tried this shell snack before? It smelt like the dumps but yet it’s literally everywhere! I was really curious about it’s taste but decided I wasn’t adventurous enough hahaha. If you’ve tried it before, comment and let me know how it is! Is it worth trying?
My hostel was near Hapjeong train station. I tried to find a place to eat but there wasn't any English menu and I was feeling too tired to be adventurous. So I bought some drinks from the convenience store and bought some rice cakes from the road side stalls. A whole bag full of rice cakes cost me only 1500 won! There was only rice cakes inside it and the sauce wasn't as viscose and tasty as the ones I bought in Busan but the price makes up for it. On a side note, things in Seoul is surprisingly cheaper than Busan! Everything in Busan felt expensive ! So if you're looking to shop in Busan, here's a heads up for you.
I bought a dress and a cardigan in this little shop inside Hapjeong Train station. Each item only cost me 5000 Won! That’s like SGD $5.76!!!!!!! You can check our my Korean Shopping Haul video & blog entry by clicking here.
Anyway, I’m going to end the entry here. It was a simple evening with nothing much to blog about but I hope you enjoyed the photographs!
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