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Spring has sprung! The cherry blossoms were out in force and I wanted to head some where to walk about in their beauty and, of course, take some photos. I don't know what it is about cherry blossoms, but they just put a smile on my face. Maybe their beauty is amplified as they are the first real flowers after winter. I just wished they lasted longer, cherry blossom season is too short. The flowers would be at their peak on 9th April in Seoul. The KTO (at least I think it's the KTO) publishes a guide stating the dates when the cherry blossoms peak in different regions and cities of Korea. So I was only a couple of days late. Ideally, I had wanted to visit somewhere that wasn't too busy, but I knew I would be pushing my luck. Anyway, I asked a friend if they knew of any secret spots. She said she'd search on naver, the Korean google. Total oxymoron, searching on the biggest search engine in Korea, to try and find somewhere peaceful and quiet.
However, we found a place, Mt Ansan, in Seoul. There were a few photos online and it didn't look too
busy, and more importantly it looked very pretty. We took a bus from Sinchon to Seodaemun-gu office, and then it was a steep walk up the hill to reach the park. We got to the top, and didn't know which way to go to see the cherry blossoms, up the mountain or down to the right. After asking a woman, we found out we had to go down to the right. It was a short walk and we were, then, surrounded by cherry blossoms. The flowers were gorgeous. The park was busy, but not too busy, so it didn't feel like hell. We spent a while taking photos of the flowers, the trees were absolutely gorgeous. We walked through the first part of the park and came to the second part. There was a stage set up and there had been some kind of festival to celebrate the cherry blossoms. The second part of the park was even more gorgeous. It was a street lined with cherry blossoms and lanterns floating in the breeze. It was set on a hillside, so you could look down on the path leading up the hill, it was stunning.
After having our fill
of the cherry blossoms, we took a walk around the base of Mt. Ansan. Illness, tiredness, and a bout of lazyitis, stopped us from climbing to the peak. The trail up is only 1 kilometre, and I doubt it would be too strenuous. There was a poem on some columns, I think it was written by a famous poet and is about nature and the forest. We took a walk around the trail, they have built a boardwalk, so it is a nice and easy walk. There was a vantage point and you could see the bigger mountains of Seoul in the distance, and of course many high rise apartment blocks. Once, we had enough of walking around the trail, we headed down to the subway station. There seem to be a few different places where you can access the trail from.
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