spring – The things I've seen. The places I've been.

I wasn’t really keen in visiting Busan. I had this idea that it would be good to visit during the summer as it is a city by the sea. But who can resist a Train to Busan as a title! Yes, we took the KTX train to Busan which took us 2 hours and 15 minutes while the regular trains will take up to 6 hours. (The KTX trains are the Korean equivalent to the Japanese Bullet trains yet so much less expensive.) It was a smooth, uneventful train ride. Although, a question was posted on my TikTok asking if there were zombies! 🙂

Our hotel was right infront of the Haeundae Beach and across the Busan X the Sky, a 100 floors building . Our room was facing the ocean so it was so lovely! Haeundae beach is really clean and beautiful. It was fun to look at the skyscrapers coming to life at dusk. For dinner, we had huge dumplings and noodles at a nearby restaurant and was blessed by a short, light rain on the way back to the hotel. The next morning was spent exploring the Busan X the Sky before heading to Jinhae.

I heard that Jinhae has around 350,000 Cherry Blossom trees which makes it a must place to visit during the Cherry Blossom season. We took a tour with Trazy on a very comfortable bus and Jinhae didn’t fail us at all. It was indeed very pretty but there were also lots of people! I really enjoyed trying out the street food and I especially like the Strawberry Milk and Strawberry Mochis. I also enjoyed watching how Dalgonas are made – melting sugar, pouring it gently to form a circle then stamping a character on it with a hot metal. Dinner was Kimchi potato pancakes at a very homely restaurant with only three long tables. It had a very friendly atmosphere and the people from the next table showed us their food so that we can order. There was no English at all and I really liked how everyone participated so that we can get food. It was really a fun day in Jinhae. We returned to our hotel in Busan at 23:30 and I can’t believe that I was indeed under the Cherry Blossom. At this point, I felt like I was Cherried Blossomed! 😀 And of course, while we were waiting for our ride to Jinhae, we went in a selfie booth and got a selfie for the first time ever in our entire lives. We have so much fun and laughter!

What’s next!

Check out the reels here:

A Visit to Busan

Today in Busan and Jinhae

More photos from Busan by Ari Vitikainen can be found here and photos from Jinhae here.

Spring came to Helsinki. Very beautiful, sunny Spring. There are places with Cherry Blossoms closed by. I can even see one through my window. In Helsinki, we are allowed to go out for walks and exercise but being cautious not to get close to anyone. This week, I stood under the Cherry Trees and wished for some normality. Although, it is sad to be missing Hanami Festival this year in Helsinki, I know that there will be a next year. It was lovely to find Cherry Blossoms in the neighbourhood parks.

It’s also my birthday week. I celebrated it yesterday by waking up to music, flowers, a birthday cake and coffee. Dinner was ordered in from the Japanese restaurant that we frequented pre-COVID.

I had some 500 birthday wishes from many parts of the world in different languages on Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, YouTube, phone call… There were voice messages and songs, virtual and hand-drawn cards and even my name handwritten in fantasy Korean! The postman also came by and brought me something. Thankful to God and feeling blessed to celebrate my special day quarantined style!

Today, I introduce a new character together with Emiko. I don’t know her name yet so she is called No Name as of now. Also, I can’t decide on her colour so I decided to make her change colour every once in a while. I’m planning to combine my illustrations to print out a book called COVID diaries. If you are writing one, what will you include there?