Bike Ride and Cherry Blossom Festival

One weekend, I decided to ride my bicycle the 30 or so kilometers from Bundang out to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Seoul proper. My ride began with the twenty minute ride I took to work every weekday along the small river in town. I passed some of Bundang's largest and most distinctive buildings on the way.

The H-shaped building is particularly impressive.

The stream was, as always, a pleasure to cycle beside. I would always show up at work feeling energized and in a good mood after seeing the reflections in the water, along with the cranes and other wildlife.

A long way out of town, I got to an area where the fish were frantically active across the whole stretch of river. Maybe they were spawning?

The frantic fish were at the base of what looked like a military base. 

After a long while, I made it to the point where the little tributary I was following meets up with the Han River. I followed the path along the Han, taking in views of Seoul.

After another considerable distance, I made it to The National Assembly for the Republic of Korea. The area is technically an island since a trickle of river cuts it off from the rest of the South bank, but since every road bridges that gap, a much more noticeable division was the prevalence of cherry trees. 

Cherry blossoms are bitter sweet for Koreans because they are both beautiful and a symbol of the times in their history where they were conquered by Japan. I was thus a bit surprised to see that symbol surrounding the seat of their legislature. Perhaps it is an homage to Washington D.C. ...

The festival had a street fair feel, with lots of merchant stalls and live music, including in unexpected genres such as jazz and country. 

A slight tilting of my camera can make the scene feel peaceful...

... or make it clear how busy and crowded it really was. 

I don't know what this water-front building was, but I like the architecture.

In Korea, everything is anthropomorphized into a cute cartoon character, so I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was to see the National Assembly Building itself as male and female mascots of the festival.

I walked around for an hour or so before seeing a parade of traditional dancers march through the street. 

As I was about to leave, I noticed some garden exhibitions, some of which were quite pleasant.

The awesome street lights on the island were powered through both solar and wind!

The festival itself was fairly tame, but I did enjoy the incredible beauty of the cherry blossoms.

The ride back seemed much longer, and I actually had to stop a few times because my knees were so painful (and if you know me, then you know that me actually stopping to address some bodily complaint means that it was rather intense). When I got back to my neighborhood, I saw one of my students, Annie, and she couldn't process seeing me outside of school and speaking to her in Korean. It was rather amusing to see her shocked into incoherence, though she didn't think it was a big deal anymore when I saw her on Monday.