This is the last of my tour of the cherry blossoms. Overall I am kind of sick of cherry blossom viewing, but they are beautiful.
The cable car brings you to the top of the mountain. However, the line for the cable car was ridiculous. Also, I have already been to the top. Mt. Namsan is the same mountain Seoul Tower is on. So, I opted just to walk along the trails.
You can see the yellow workout equipment available to the public in the background of this picture.
Flowers other then cherry blossoms.
Say "Kimchi!" Everyone getting pictures taken in front of the blossoms. (By the way, kimchi is actually what Koreans say instead of cheese, when taking a picture.)
Couples everywhere and me the lonely American wandering around with her camera. The weekends, when I am not out with friends, I take on a monk-like existence. I don't speak, besides for the random annyoung hasehyo and kamsamnida , when I a purchasing items. It's a nice contrast compared to my week, when I am speaking seven hours straight at school.
Seoul Tower.
Shrine.
I noticed these stacks of rocks in numerous places walking up to the shrine. I was curious to why they were there. On the way down a girl in front of me took a stray rock and added to one of the piles. She was careful to balance on top, so the pile would not fall over. Then she folded her hands and prayed for a moment.
The view walking down from the shrine.
Everyone taking pictures! I am probably in the background of a thousand photos.
A group of camera wielding Koreans.
This cherry blossom tree was beautiful. Everyone was snapping photos of it. I don't know if it stood out from the rest because as your turned the corner it was the first thing you see or because it was the only cherry blossom tree by itself, but it was striking.
These are the yellow blossoms you see everywhere, as well.
Older Koreans stopping for a rest and some shade. It went from being fifty degrees everyday to just under eighty everyday.
There where a lot of couples that you could spot just off the trail in the forest picnicking away from the hoards of tourist.
The next two pictures where taken, while a strong wind blew. Thousands of cherry blossoms petals started to fall to the ground like flurries of snow. The whole crowd gasp and screamed and hurried to find their cameras to take pictures. It is amazing to me how quickly the cherry blossoms come and go. In the beginning of the week, the trees where just starting to bloom, mid-week the trees were full of pink blossoms and at the end the blossoms were competing with the green of the leaves staring to appear on the branches along side of them.
View from leaving the mountain and the continuous stream of visitors approaching it.
