Escape from the city

Reason #3785 why I love this country... Yesterday was voting day in Korea so all public sector workers got the day off! Amazing!

It would have been easy to waste the day staying in bed till noon and then in my pyjamas for the rest of the day but I was determined not to let that happen. I don't know much much longer I have left in this country and I don't want to waste another second! I want to make the most of every chance I get to explore and see as much as I can.

So last week Ruth and I decided that we'd head out of Seoul for the day in search of some cherry blossoms. We found a festival in Cheongpunghoban that was due to begin that day so all seemed perfect and that's where we planned to go.

We left Seoul early and travelled the two and a half hours (it took me another hour before that to get across Seoul to the bus station) to the small lakeside town only to find that the festival had been cancelled due to the unusually late spring and the fact that the trees had yet to produce any blossoms! FAIL!

But it wasn't a fail at all! We made the most out of a bad situation and ended up having a great day! We had Korean BBQ for lunch, and that's winning right there, if you ask me! Had a nice walk around the town. Met a little old lady that wanted to be my friend! I even taught her a Korean word, would you believe?!?!?! Jumped off the bus at the last second when we realised we closer to the lake than we thought which was hilarious. Spent time walking around and looking at and taking pictures of the famous lake. Found a cute little coffee shop and drank coffee and ate rice cake. (Voluntarily I must add!! What a turn of events!)

So yes, although it didn't turn as exactly as we'd planned, a wonderful day was had nonetheless. We escaped the hustle and bustle of this gigantic city, we made the most of our day off and we saw somewhere new. Massive non-fail! :)