Cherry Blossom Festival

After Sionna napped for an hour or two, we met Pauly on Easter Sunday morning to head off to see the Cherry Blossoms. We actually learned from our new Korean friends the night before that there was an actual festival that happens only one day a year. Yahoo!

We headed into Gangnam, got onto another bus which happened to be the wrong one (damn Daniel), quickly got off and jumped into a cab where the driver made fun of us the entire 20 min ride. We arrived and wandered down some streets and through a park full of hundreds of people. We were actually quite disappointed because we thought there would be more to the festival. But the scenery and all of the lines of cherry blossoms were absolutely breathtaking. We searched for a hamburger and fried egg for Sionna (she had a craving). After pushing through people and almost getting run over by people on two-seater bicycles, we found a street vendor who offered eggs cooked inside of pancakes and some delicious pineapple on a stick! I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to eating things un-kabob style. Everything just tastes better on a stick!

Eventually, we met up with our new friends Sean and Young-Ju. See this is where Korean friends come in handy. They took us right into the festival where the streets were all closed off and everything. Now this was a festival! Happy Easter to us!! We climbed a few trees and took a few hundred photos. We even saw some Korean elders dressed in traditional costumes playing various instruments and dancing around. Video to come!

We also stumbled onto a string of about 100 kites which made Pauly and Sionna's day:

Si: "Pauly, OMG, kites....look!"

Pauly: (Looking at the ground) "Where?"

Si: "Why are you looking at the ground? Look up!!!"

Pauly: "Where? Those are birds!"

Si: "Yes, Pauly all lined up perfectly in a row."

We walked around a few more hours until we had our fill of the magical Cherry Blossoms. Now it was time for Butterfingers (our Sunday breakfast joint). Fortunately for us, Sean was heading into Gangnam as well so he offered us a ride in his car. It was actually all of our first times being in a car in Korea that wasn't a taxi. Quite enjoyable! We arrived at Butterfingers and ordered everything on the menu. It turned out to be not such a bad Easter after all.

In times of need, create your own family. Sometimes they're all you've got...