After a week of rejection, a new discovery for the love of blogging and bad news from home, I need to escape. So my friend Joyce and I went to Jinju. I had been to Jinju before as I visited the Lantern festival in October. I fell in love with it then at night. Now I needed to see it during the day.
To some it may not be much. But to myself, who loves to walk along a beautiful pathway everyday, the paths along the river in Jinju are so long…I want to live there just to walk them every day. The views are spectacular, but thats my opinion. On top of that, Jinju’s main attraction, Jinju fortress has great paths to walk through as well. I love walking over the bridges. At times, it didn’t feel like I was in Korea.
I finally ate at Zio Ricco`s. I had read about the place. It is an Italian restaurant in Jinju. The ambiance is amazing. The outside looks quaint. On the inside, as soon as I walked in, an aroma of spices went through my nose and made me instantly hungry. I had an italian cherry soda (which was good) and meat lasagna (which was very good). There is a bar on top but it was closed. My friend Joyce and I have decided to come back sometime and spend the night in Jinju just so we can see the bar at night. Plus, I have heard it is a foreigner hangout and I am all for meeting new foreigners.
That last statement is funny because for the last 8 months I have been avoiding them. Now I want to meet them all. Maybe I am like a bear coming out of hibernation.
Definitely go to Jinju, the cherry blossom festival is next week, and the Jinju Lantern festival is in October.
I hear what you’re saying! I lived in Jinju from 2000 to 2003, and it’s such a pretty city that it easily spoiled me for the rest of the country.
To anyone living there, I recommend taking time on a weekday to go to the castle and just sit and meditate for an hour or so by one of the many momuments. No-one being there on a weekday, and not being able to hear any city sounds, it’s very serene.
That may not sound like much, but once you move to somewhere like Busan you’ll realise how important it was to have somewhere like that so close to you. Now, Busan is certainly more dynamic and fun, but I can never escape from the noise and the lights. But in Jinju, the castle was just 10 minutes away from me…sigh…
I also recommend push- biking around the surrounding countryside exploring, especially the north of Jinju. It can take you years to do it, and some of the scenery is quite spectacular.
Jeez, I miss the place! Did I mention I met my wife there too?