Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival and 10km

Jinhae Tower and the 1 year stairs

This weekend was another active one. We went on our second Enjoy Korea adventure in a row, but this time we were in Jinhae for the more famous of the Cherry Blossom Festivals in Korea (there are a lot of them!). Jinhae is only about 2 hours from Daegu, so not a bad trip at all. There are a few different locations in Jinhae that are famous because they've been used in Kdramas (Korean soap operas/tv shows), so we got to see both of those locations. We were dropped off in Jinhae to basically just do whatever we wanted for 6 hours. We hung out with our friends Lily and Jonathan again for most of the day. After getting a quick bite to eat at a festival food stand, we decided to walk up the 1 year stairs to the top of a hill with Jinhae tower on it. The stairs were lined with cherry blossom trees and heart-shaped archways. The staircase is called the 1 year stairs because it's 365 steps to the top, and the steps are labeled at random intervals as

Romance Bridge

you climb up them. The view from the top of the tower was stunning. Jinhae is on the coast, so you could see the ocean and the mountains and small islands in the distance. You could also see the clusters of cherry blossom trees all around Jinhae. After the tower, we decided to head to the so-called "Romance Bridge." That's a site from Kdramas that I've heard about. It's basically a street lined with cherry blossoms divided by a stream with a few wooden bridges along it. It was very pretty, but there were so many people there that it was hard to enjoy it for very long. Some people walked along the street and saw a colorful umbrella art display, but we didn't. Instead, we had ice cream on our brains, so Gianni, Jonathan, and Lily got ice cream horns, and I got a delicious freshly made churro. For our third stop, we decided to walk the 20+ minutes to get to
another Kdrama shooting location, Gyeonghwa train station. It was a very, very long walk away from the main festival site. It's famous because it's basically a train track lined with cherry blossoms. Again, it would have been nicer if there weren't tons of people there. Also, I'm sure there are more secluded areas of the tracks that are densely populated with cherry blossoms. I've seen some pictures with tons of blossoms and a train passing by, but the trains, I think, were stopped for the festival. We walked

Us on the Gyeonghwa Station on the tracks

along the tracks and took pictures for a bit before heading back to the festival site where the bus was parked. On the way back, we stopped at a delicious kimbap restaurant for lunch. We saw most of the main cherry blossom sites and were tired, so we grabbed some coffee before boarding the bus. The traffic was insane all over jinhae. We had tried to get a taxi to take us back from the train station to the festival area, but he said no because of the traffic. I fell asleep almost immediately after getting back on the bus, but when I woke up about an hour later, the bus was still in Jinhae! Once we got out of the city, it was smooth sailing back to the Daegu, but it took us about an hour longer than usual to get back. Still, it was a very nice day. I'm glad we've seen it, but I'm not sure if we'll be going back next year. I want to go to Duryu Park and experience the blossoms that are around Daegu.

It was an early start for me the next morning because I was running the 10km race as a part of the 52nd

Our 10km race team! Me, Sian, Thomas, Maria, and Jake

Annual Daegu marathon. I'm not a very good runner, but my friends were organizing a group to run together and get shirts made, so I decided to try it out. It was the longest run I've actually ever done, racing or otherwise. I typically run around 3 miles, and this was 6.2! I was a little nervous about it, especially since I really didn't train. I ran two four mile training runs, but that was all...oh well! I had to get up at like 5:30am on Sunday to get ready and go meet my friends. We got these cute, bright blue shirts that say, "What the f억세이?" That's "What the fox say?" written in Konglish. That song was really popular with our students in Korea, and we thought it'd be funny to have something written in Korean...or sort of. Underneath that the shirt says, "Why are you running away? I'm just tryin to practice my Korean!" They were pretty cute. Too bad it was cold, so I ran most of the race with my sweatshirt covering it along with my race number...we'll see if they were able to get any pictures of me running anyway. I am very proud that I was able to accomplish both of my goals for the race: I finished the race within the time limit of an hour and a half,

Me at the finish with my lovely medal!

and I ran 4 miles of the race before taking a walking break. I finished in 1 hour and 11 minutes and 20 seconds, and I did a run/walk for the last 2 miles of the race, but I did run most of it. I went at my own pace, and I think I got between 10 and 11 minute miles while I was running, which is my usual pace. I was really happy with my performance. Gianni, Maria, and Matthew were at the finish line cheering us all on. Somehow they saw Jake and Maria who finished well before me and Sian and Thomas who finished after (they were both pretty sick), but they missed me. They were standing right at the finish, and I saw them. I waved, and I thought they saw me, but they were all surprised when I finished and then walked back up behind them. Oh well. I saw them at least. After the race, we walked to Daegu Station to catch a train. Outside the station is a tourist info booth, and I stopped to grab the stamp book I've been meaning to get. Daegu has a stamp trail where it gives you some sites to see in Daegu, and you get a unique stamp for each of the places you see. If you finish the book before Halloween, you get a Daegu souvenir. The English book has far fewer locations in it than the Korean one, so I bought both books. I figure I can try for the Korean book, but I'll probably be able to do the English one. I've been to a few of the locations before, but I'm excited to get started on it. Thomas, Sian, Maria, Matthew, Gianni, and I decided to go out to brunch at Hami Mami's, a place right outside the gates of Camp Walker. It's in the direction of our house, but it's a pain to get to. The food there was delicious! I had eggs and french toast, and Gianni got biscuits and gravy. It was a really nice post-race meal. After lunch, we all went our separate ways because those who ran were particularly tired. Gianni and I took a nap and relaxed the rest of the night.