Chasing Sakuras

Woopsie doopsie, rewind a few weeks back, to those cooling moments, instead of this toasting temperature in Paris— was a blissful chase for sakura sightings. My unplanned trip in Korea was a little late for the sakura season. However, the sakura gods were kind enough to let me have a little taste of them before they were completely gone. 

Around two weeks before my arrival, my IG feed were constantly spammed with these beautiful flowers. However, when I arrived, there were much lesser blooms in the streets. While Felicia and I were deciding our next location to visit after our long cafe break, I was constantly on #instagram scrolling for the best location places for possible sakura viewing. That led us to the Changdeokgung Palace's Secret Garden— Except we arrived late, and the secret garden was closedddddd. And I suspected that the remaining prettier blooms were inside... 

Changdeokgung Palace

It was still flooded with tourists. Since the Secret Garden was closed, we got the basic visit tickets at 3000won each.  A little tip: If you dress up in Hanbok, you'd be able to enter the Palace grounds for free! Though I'm not sure if it's valid for the Secret Garden too. So there's a lot of people dressed in Hanboks. It's the sweetest thing that there were actually quite a number of korean couples dressed in matchy hanboks and taking photos. 

So obviously at the first sighting of a sakura tree, everyone crowded around it to take photos. The whole Palace is quite big, we didn't really explore the whole place. I was stuck to the sakura trees, and had very little time left to explore other forbidden grounds. 

 
It’s a reminder that life is beautiful but that it’s also tragically short.
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The earth laughs in flowers
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Changdeokgung

Also known as Changdeokgung Palace or Changdeok Palace, is set within a large park in Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the "Five Grand Palaces" built by the kings of the Joseon Dynasty.

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Seoul Grand Park

Second hunting ground was Seoul Grand Park. I guess it's the biggest spot of sakura's I've ever seen. Went there a few days later after Changdeokgung, with a superb sunny weather. Mr Sun and warmth decided to greet Seoul, lots of families came out with their picinic basket. However, Seoul Grand Park was actually outside of Seoul, in Gwacheon. It took us an hour of public transport, switching between bus—subway to reach there. 

We made a stop at the convenience store for Banana milk. It was one of my *things to try in Seoul*. Turns out, I didn't really like it, I preferred strawberry milk. It kinda had that nostalgia feeling drinking strawberry milk, as if I'm back to 5 year old. So then, once you walk out of the station, you'd have to follow the korean crowd for a bit before actually seeing rows of pinky trees. Lots' of families have a basket for their picnic stuffs holding hands with their little cutie pies.  We walked, trying to look for the perfect spot to sit around and snap photos, but there were too many people. The next time, with a better planning, I'm sure it'd be easier to find the perfect spot for a picnic! 

 
 

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Carol G

Born in Singapore, raised in France. I'm currently an art director living in Paris.
Stay tuned to my experiences and discoveries through my "double" personalities. 

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