[leisure] Spring destinations in Seoul: Seokchon Lake cherry blossoms @ Jamsil, Seoul

I LOVE SPRING. But then after a long cold winter who doesn’t? The weather is getting positively warmer. People are slowly discarding boring black items and instead warming up to a more uplifting fashion. Most importantly, spring is the season of blossom which is pretty much what photography lovers like me practically live for. As I’d done quite a lot of Seoul/Korea traveling before joining this blog, I figure these photos taken back in the days must not go to waste, which is probably the only reason why I’m starting this spring destinations in Seoul thingy until spring officially comes. I hope you’ll enjoy the photos and visit these places in spring because oh god are they beautiful.

UPDATE (and it’s important so READ IT FIRST): So after I wrote this post I kinda got excited and decided to go see Seokchon lake this year. And guess what? The whole place now is a MESS. Don’t even bother going there this year. JUST DON’T.  They’re building a lot of stuff right now and everything is covered with dust and concrete. The trees looked just sad and ill and yea. If you still stay in Seoul until next spring or visit Seoul spring 2k15, maybe Seokchon lake will be better then.

[eat] Hearty Korean lunch at 가마솥뚜껑 @ Jamsil, Seoul

As I blogged, yesterday the lowcarb buddy and I made a trek to Seokchon lake to hail the blooming cherry blossoms. As we were happily posing like typical tourists, it rained, hard. And it was cold with strong wind slapping our faces :\ Deciding that no sensible person would wait under the rain until it stopped, we hurriedly left the lake and looked for a place to have lunch. I was worried, though: Cheap as we are, Jamsil (which belongs to the big-and-great-and-rich Gangnam area) can’t be an ideal place for lunch. After wandering around for 5 minutes, we came across a Korean restaurant whose food put huge smiles on our faces and restored my belief in human goodness.

[leisure] Cherry blossoms around Seokchon lake @ Jamsil, Seoul

Despite the freaky weather here (sunny for 5 mins, cloudy for 2 mins, rainy for 7 mins then snowy for 1 min then the process starts again), spring has really come. As for me, the best part of Korean spring is cherry blossoms. Last year I went to Yeouido (too many people) and Namsan (gorgeous), so this year I am frantically looking for new cherry blossom hot spots. I came across the announcement that from 12th April, Seokchon Lake Cherry Blossom Festival 2013 will begin–sounds fun. That’s why today my lowcarb buddy and I braved the 9 degree Celcius cold to make a trek to Seokchon lake. Our few hours there were enjoyably spent. Although most of the time it was raining/heavily cloudy, we managed to take some pictures of gorgeous blossoms under the sun. As the cherry blossoms have yet to be in their full bloom, we will go to Seokchon lake again this Monday as well.