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I have been looking forward for the Cherry blossom to bloom. Unfortunately, it came a little bit late due to prolonged cold weather 😦 Looking through the forecast in the website, me and my friends were thrilled knowing that the cherry blossom were blooming earlier in Jinhae. The place is very famous for its cherry blossom festival. Though it is located around 5 h from Seoul, it didn’t stopped our enthusiasm to visit the city.

Actually there are many ways to get there by public transportation. The easiest way is to join a tour which you can find in G m****t. There are two options, one day or two days tour. This way usually will cost cheaper and more convenience because all you have to do is just sit nicely on the bus, sleep and when you open your eyes.. ta da! you’re there already. We couldn’t join this tour because the tour fixed schedule was not fit to our schedule. Another way is using a regular train or KTX but it will be very costly and considering the money that I had in my pocket, this way was eliminated 😀 The last option is by public bus which go directly to Jinhae from Nambu Bus Terminal. The bus can be booked easily from the Nambu Bus website but sadly we cannot booked the return ticket 😦 We have to buy it directly in Jinhae Intercity Bus Terminal. So it’s like gambling because during the festival the bus will be full. Despite all the bad things that might happen, we bought the ticket from Nambu Terminal to Jinhae.

The day we were leaving Seoul was a bright day. We had our lunch already and with full tummy we get on the bus at 2.30 pm. 2 hours later the bus stopped at the rest area somewhere in Geumgang for 10 minutes and then continue the long journey to Jinhae. Finally at around 7 pm I know we were entering the Jinhae city because the cherry blossom trees and the banner for cherry blossom festival were everywhere. The city is half surrounded by mountains and the other half by sea. We arrived at Jinhae intercity bus terminal and went to the ticket counter directly to bought the return ticket. We asked for 12 pm bus in the next day but unfortunately that bus was full! We got the 2.40 pm bus and it was good enough for us.

It is said that the location of Yeojwacheon, the most famous stream spot for Jinhae’s cherry blossom, is 10 minutes walk from the bus terminal. We thought that it will be easy to find and there will be a clear direction about how we can get there but we were totally wrong. We got no idea how we can go to the stream, had no map and bad Korean Language. We then found a city map at Jinhae rotary and started looking and asking about the direction. It took almost an hour until we finnaly found the stream. The lights was on, the view was amazing but the place was like fully crowded. I was rushing into the crowd to find my spot for taking pics. I had my tripod set but since the people were moving and shaking my camera, I couldn’t get a good light festival picture. Well… maybe that is just my excuse for not being able to take good pics, hehee…

We were then busy finding a motel for us to stay that night. We didn’t booked any motel because we think there will be a lot available motels in town. We walked for miles and miles and found nothing but full booked motel 😦 We also tried to find Jimjilbang, a Korean communal bath that usually open 24 hours and provide a place to sleep. After a very looong desperate walk in the midnight (ㅠㅠ), we finally found Oasis Jimjilbang and it really feels like finding an oasis in the middle of desert…the same excitement since we’ve been trying to find it for hours. We felt very relieve to find a place to sleep. I didn’t slept well but I was glad that night we’re not becoming homeless people that sleep outside. The next morning we went to Gyeonghwa railway station. The location is near from Oasis Jimjilbang so we went there by walk for around 10 minutes. Went we got there, we saw so many photographers already placed their tripod and waiting for the train to come. The view in Gyeonghwa was dramatically beautiful. Pink Cherry Blossom trees were covering the side of railways creating a stunning cherry blossom roof. I placed my tripod too and took some pics after the train was coming. We then head back to Yeojwacheon Stream by taxis, we kinda surprised knowing that it took only 10 minutes taxi ride but last night our legs were almost broken because too much walk ><The day view of Yeojwacheon was breathtaking. I took tons of cherry blossom picture and the stream..I just can’t get enough of it. I was so fortune to be able to visit this beautiful city. Walking beneath the cherry blossom trees was so romantic.. I hope I can comeback again next year~

Anyway, here are my lovely Jinhae's cherry blossom pics ^^