It is finally spring time in South Korea which means cherry blossoms! I know there are a TON of places all over Korea to find cherry blossoms but there were so many roads filled with cherry blossom trees surrounding the base, as well as our neighborhood. I drove around every single day checking the status of the trees and they literally bloomed OVERNIGHT. Trust me, if i could have kept exploring to find more i would have, lol. I just wish they were around longer than 2-3 weeks. I would have loved to see some of the sights in Seoul with the cherry blossoms as well as Busan but time didn't allow for that.
Since the blossoms are only around for a short time we were limited with places to see, but here is where some of these photos were taken:
JINHAE CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL:
This is one of the best locations to see cherry blossoms. Jinhae has a yearly festival that goes on, and there are vendors selling cherry blossom everything. Jinhae is about a 3-4 hour drive from the Pyeongtaek area. I took advantage of a day trip from MWR/outdoor recreation on post; Other bases will also offer these trips as well. The price included admission, and transportation. The bus was spacious and it was nice to relax and not have to worry about driving, traffic, or even worse - parking, which i knew was going to be chaotic. If you do decide to make the drive to Jinhae, Busan is pretty close and worth a stop. It was crowded but manageable. We took the city bus around there to the stops. Use the never app; type in the bus number and it will bring up the route. Follow along in the app to know where to get off.
Gyeonghwa station - this is where the train is located. It is a photo prop and no longer in service. There will be a line. I waited maybe 30 mins so it wasn't too bad.
If we were going to be in Korea next year I'd skip this one (Jinhae was worth experiencing, but I think it would be a one and done kind of thing) and do the one in Busan and/or Daegu.
PYEONGTAEK UNIVERSITY CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL:
DRESS - can dress it up or down.
This was a cute fest. It had a lot more food options than the Jinhae one, and even had rides for the kids. This was about 20 minutes from the house so we were able to take the city bus to avoid parking and traffic. I didn't take many photos here because it was crowded.
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