Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival

What an adventure we had this weekend. We decided a couple of weekends ago to go to the Jinhae Cherry blossom festival with our friends Brandon and Amanda. We signed up with a group called Enjoy Korea, so there was a lot of other foreigners along for the adventure. We woke up at 6:20 am to catch a taxi to the bus station so we could catch the 7:30 bus to Daegu. We got into Daegu around 8:00 and took the subway to meet our new friends. When we arrived we were greeted with AMERICAN muffins and orange juice! (I had a double chocolate chip muffin and Nick had the Cinnamon streusel muffin, both were devoured quickly.) Our buses left later than planned because some people called and were lost. We finally pulled out a little before 10:00 am. 

As we were about to get onto the highway a girl comes to the front of the bus to talk to the girl who was in charge. What happened next was happened so fast and was unexpected. Our bus was hit by a crossover who attempted to cut us off but he didn't give himself enough room. The driver slammed on the brakes and that girl flew forward and hit the dash. The girl was okay, she was at the front of the bus to say that she wasn't feeling good and wanted off the bus. You could tell she was in shock. 

The police were called and everything was taken care of. It didn't take too long before we were on the road again. As you can see in the picture, there are a few important things to note. First, a policeman that is actually doing his job (hard to find in Korea) Second, although you can't see it the policeman has a pink camera! HAHA. Third, note the traffic cones... As soon as the crossover was let go he went through them. Turns out that is why he cut us off. He took the wrong exit. 

We finally hit the road again and made it to Jinhae for the rest of our adventure.

This was the awesome parade!

After the parade we decided we were hungry so we went in search of food. The street was lined with food and fun festival games. Nick decided to take a crack at the shoot game.

He won a light up Minnie bow headband!

I threw darts at some balloons and won a cute little key chain teddy bear. There were a lot of different kinds of games. The one that I found most interesting was hammering a nail. If you got the nail into the wood by three tries you won something. 

So back to food. We were really hungry and people on the street would grab you and pull you into their area trying to get you to eat there. Don't get me wrong, it smelled and looked delicious, but we were in the mood for something else.

What they wanted us to eat:

This pig actually looked yummy..

 These are bugs and they smell really bad!

 These are the cute little swirly shell slug things, I'm not sure what they do with them. YUCK!

Look closely to what this is and if you figure it out leave a comment.

WHAT WE ACTUALLY ATE:

Better don't you think!

After we ate we walked around A LOT! We decided to walk up 365 stairs to the top of a mountain. Thank goodness it had a beautiful view. It was way worth the pain in my legs and feet later on in the evening.

The mountain with the stairs!

 We made it!!

The view was so amazing! I'm so excited we went up. On our way down we decided to be adventurous.  We went down different stairs on the other side of the mountain and found a little park with HUGE hula-hoops. 

I will be the first to tell you that I can't hula-hoop. However, these ginormous ones made it super easy.

Nick and I decided to battle our hula hoops. Watch this video to find out who won!

After we finally made it back down the mountain we decided to find some Cherry blossoms that were still in decent shape. On the way Nick decided to be a cone head.

 

We ran into a dead end.. Turns out we were next to a South Korean Navy base. The gate guard wanted to take pictures with us.

 Brandon and Amanda

The best of the Cherry Blossoms  on the other side of the gate.

Now time for some random pictures:

 Choo Choo!!!!

 Face Painting!

 Nick hammering some dough!

 Kids dressed as fireman and putting out a fire.

 Nick in a cool hat!

 HA this is a funny story, Brandon bought some taffy candy from this gypsy-clown lady. After, she did a little dance for us and tried to Kiss Brandon. It was so funny!

Here is a darling little girl eating ice cream and chilling in her car. Yes it works and she drove it all over the festival.

We had such a great time at the festival. I'm so glad we went! On our ride home we asked if we could be dropped off in Changnyeong because we were going to pass our town. If they weren't able to drop us off we would have caught the 11:00pm bus home (That would have sucked) Lucky our driver agreed to drop us off at our exit on the interstate. We walked down the ramp and passed the toll booth and saw our awesome town sign all lit up!

As we were walking to the bus station we ran across this awesome chicken restaurant.  The smurf is a greenish color, and we can't figure out where the word smoper came from.

We made it back home safely and again we had a great time! I will leave you with this awkward picture.. Me with a coconut. Love you guys!