Friday, March 29, 2024
LANGUAGE&CULTURE

Yeouido Spring Flower Festival

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The Yeouido Spring Flower festival is held from April 12 to April 18 this year when the cherry blossom is supposed to be in full bloom. We went down to take a look although we already knew that most of the trees are not in full bloom yet!

Yunjungno, the road behind the National Assembly building, is the most famous road to see cherry blossom in Seoul. Because the weather has been so cold this year, the blossom is late, but there were still quite a few people out and about and lots of food stalls selling all sorts of snacks including candy floss, waffles, silk worms, ginko nuts, corn on the cob, and dried squid.

From National Assembly station (line 9 ) we walk towards the river and pass the National Assembly building.

Then we pass a newly constructed house called 사랑재 (sarang-che) which is for use by the National assembly to entertain guests. Lots of trees surround the house and the air smells of pine. The house is also built of pine.

The road behind the National Assembly building is usually packed during the cherry blossom festival. But this year it’s quiet. There’ll probably be a lot more people here next weekend!

But over at another part of the river the trees are in bloom. There are several food stalls along this road too and lots of snap taking of the blossom!

Dried squid is one of the various snacks on sale along the Han River

As well as food stalls, there is also face reading and palm reading available. I decline to have a go though – what if the fortune teller says I have an unlucky face? 😕

I can’t avoid the temptation of some kind of snack. So I go for a bag of ginko nuts. It’s 5000 won for a small bag. Mr Kim is shocked at the price and asks several times if the price really is 5000 won! I think he’s shocked because the streets are lined with Ginko trees here and in autumn people can be seen picking the fallen ginko nuts from the ground (for free 😉 ) This stall is also selling roasted chestnuts.

After passing through the cherry blossom roads we stumble over an event in the park. There seems to be some kind of karaoke event going on and lots of stalls around the edge of the park selling similar snacks as before.

Many of the people at the event are dressed in mountain gear. It’s a great day for hiking. But I don’t know if they have actually been hiking or simply had a stroll along the river in hiking gear…

I love this view of the open space of the park with the modern business district of Yeouido in the background. Lots of people are riding bicycles and tandems today.

This picture looks like it’s a hot day but although it’s sunny, it’s still only 10 degrees C and the wind is FREEZING. I should have worn a hat!

You can rent bicycles and tandems here so lots of parents and kids, or young couples make the most of this. Looks like fun 🙂

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