When I go to Europe

Europe has always been on top of my bucket list, how could it not be?  I've seen thousands of pictures from my sister Lilliane’s travels and photos on my news feed, everyone else seem to have already been to Europe but me. This map of Europe has served as my desktop since the end of 2013.  Stars have aligned for me and after 2 years of planning, Europe, here I come.

I have already gotten my visa from the French Embassy and have already purchased my ticket for my grand Euro trip.  The reality of my travel pushing thru did not sink in because for the past two months, I have been spending all of my time with my sister Pincky and my niblings who were visiting from Japan. 

I have done a skeletal plan of my 12 week long trip that is going to cover a good amount of countries in Europe.  Ideally, IMO, the best way to travel is to have a loose plan and then just book the tickets as I go along. It is good to plan ahead for sure, but you’ll never know what’s going to happen in between. The dilemma of wanting to stay longer in one place or needing to catch the plane you booked earlier is one of the most dreadful feeling a traveler could ever experience.

I got so many ideas of things to do other than the usual tourist route and see the amazing architectures.  I cannot wait to dine in cafes in Paris, partake in the biggest tomato fight in Buñol, eat gelato and pizza in Italy everyday, speak Spanish in Spain, drink wine in France, beer in Germany, eat chocolates in Belgium, and do some stuff in Amsterdam.

photo credit www.wrenkitchens.com

Here I am now, a week since my sister left and I CANNOT contain my excitement!!! Everytime I think of my trip my heart pounds half a beat faster and I get extreme butterflies in my stomach. I am less than a month away until I leave for my grand trip and… pardon me as I puke my excitement out. 

Bitter about Mexico

I really had zero idea what Mexico would be like when I decided to go;  I did not expect how amazing it would be.

Mexico is gorgeous!   Peppered with amazing gigantic Catholic churches.  I cannot even begin to describe how beautiful the interiors of the churches are.  I am at a lost of words.  The most beautiful church I have ever seen was the Sto. Domingo Church in Oaxaca.  It was like the artist got really angry and thought, you want Baroque?! you want Baroque!? I'll give you Baroque.  BAM!  Every square inch of the church was decorated with bas relief.  Very ridiculous.

I've heard a few times from travelers that we look a bit like México and I guess there is some truth to that; some small towns I have been to, do look like provinces in Philippines.  Both our countries have been colonies of Spain; we are bound to look somehow alike.

But no... Mexico City... and I am specifically talking about Centro de Historico.  It is SO GRAND.  SO GIGANTIC.  SO AMAZING. Surrounded by the Ayuntamiento or some sort of Municipio de Gobierno and a church.

I may not have been to Europe but being there felt like I was.  It was so old and beautiful, it's grand and extravagant, it's majestic and almost magical.

Let's not just talk just Mexico City, what about Puebla?  Puebla has approximately 365 churches within the city, that's 1 church every day of the year and none of them are ordinary, one trying to out do the next. Here are just the few I saw in 2 days:

Looking at Mexico as whole, I feel bitter.  My first thought was: Hey!  We were under Spain for 300 years too, why didn't we get better architectures?  grander churches?  Nice ones we had were destroyed in World War II and Manila became the second most destroyed city in the world (after Warsaw, Poland).

I imagine how beautiful Manila could have been with all the Spanish colonial buildings and plazas.  Have you ever been anywhere else that have made you feel this way about your country?

Interesting Useless Travel Stats

This blog post is inspired by wanderlass' post of her #useless #interesting RTW Stats, I have decided to do the same with my trip.

View Full Size Travel Map at Travellerspoint

Statistics are indeed fun!  Especially useless ones, so here are some of mine.

Number of Countries: 2
Number of Days traveled: 90
Number of Kilometers traveled: 38,067 (23,655 miles)
Number of States: 11 US + 6 MX = 17 States
Number of Cities:  17 US + 8 MX = 25 Cities
Number of Pyramids: 9
Number of Plane Rides: 13
Number of Bus Rides: 13
Number of Photos Taken:  6401 both camera and mobile
Number of Balikbayan Boxes: 2
Number of Diarrhea: 0
Number of Dysmenorrhea: 3, TMI haha
Number of New Facebook Friends: 51
Number of USD spent: USD 9000

Favorite Experience:  Dia De Los Muertos in Oaxaca

Favorite City:  Mexico City
Favorite Landscape:  Grand Canyon, Arizona

Favorite Cityscape: Chicago
Favorite Beach:  Tulum Ruins, Tulum

Favorite Bus Company:  ADO Bus - Mexico
Favorite Museum:  Museo Nacional de Arceologico
Favorite Pyramid: Coba

Favorite Metro System:  New York
Favorite Beer:  Blue Moon Beer from Colorado
Favorite Shopping:  New York & San Cristobal de las Casas
Favorite Church:  Sto. Domingo, Oaxaca

Favorite Cellphone App:  Google Maps
Favorite Hostel: Hostal Zocalo - Merida

Best Pork: Pulled Pork - Franklin's BBQ Austin, TX
Best Burger:  Hamburgesa de RibEye - Asadero in Mexico City

 Best Fries:  In and Out, Los Angeles
Best Seafood: BBQ Shrimp - Bourbon House, New Orleans, LA
Best Vegetable:  Road side Sweet Corn - Pawtucket, RI
Best Looking Men:  Washington, DC
Most Interesting Experience:  Rode the bus of the Mexican Marines
Friendliest People:  NOLAns (New Orleans, LA)
Drunkest Place:  Bourbon St., New Orleans
Scariest Area:  Tenderloin, San Francisco
Least Favorite Hostel:  H.I. International Downtown SF
Most Expensive:  USD20 Vodka Redbull in Las Vegas
Failed Expectation:  White House, Washington DC - it's so small!

Did I miss anything that you were interested to know? :)  Ask away!

Lifestyle of a Solo Traveler

I just got back after my 3 month long trip; I am now back to the regular programming of my life (and actually writing this blog post from my office table) and I reminisce the difference of lifestyle!  So here is my list:

• Waking up late with no pressure
• Choosing white rice over brown
• White bread over wheat
• Meeting new people that you will prally never see again
• Making new meaningful friendships
• laying on my bed before having a shower
• Miss brushing my teeth before I sleep
• Get into bed without washing my feet
• Dont require my chiropractor all the time
• Walk, walk, walk
• Waking up with no purpose
• Caring about no one else but yourself
• Skipping breakfast because I can eat lunch at 4 or whenever I want to
• Start drinking alcohol at 11am
• Learning how to adjust to different kind of beds and pillows
• Learn how to do laundry
• Waking up and having to fix the bed *couchsurfing

• Cleaning up after myself
• Constant awareness of my passport, cellphone and wallet
• Mastering Google maps
• Carrying my bag up and down the friggin stairs by myself
• I guess I complain alot less too
• changing my mind at the last moment and it doesn't matter
• Not having to do anything else but what you want
• Sharing bathrooms
• Speaking bad Spanish mixed with excellent miming skills
• Still cant live with no internet

I look forward to this lifestyle again soon.  So many places, so little time.

My First Impressions of Mexico City

Ideally for my blog, I should write my first impressions of all the cities I have been to; but since I only write when I feel compelled to, I only write once in a while hehe.  So without further ado, here are my first impressions of Mexico City.

Architectures are awesome.  I guess architecture is really one thing that impresses me the most while traveling (this comes second to food).  The churches, government buildings or just random buildings are just BEAUTIFUL.  I find myself breathless when I enter a church.  I have been into approximately 30 churches in this trip and 80% of the time I am just shaking my head in disbelief of how beautiful the structures are.  It's like the artists gone crazy and art just exploded onto the walls.

Sometimes I see the buildings like they are superheroes.  They are so special and yet they are living and existing amongst normal buildings!  You will be walking through a random ally and BAM!  there's a beautiful building not even mentioned in any kind of guidebook.  I feel a little bitter when I walk around Mexico, especially when I see the churches.  It makes me really sad to remember and realize even more that Manila was indeed the 2nd most destroyed city in the world after WW2; otherwise, we would look just like Mexico.

Contradictions and mixing of opposing cultures.  You see sooo many churches but outside you will see people reading tarots or cleansing your aura among other stuff; or celebrating practices that are very non-Catholic, for instance Dia Delos Muertos.  Another example is that you'll see so many bridal shops around, especially near churches which shows the strong influence of the Catholic tradition but also nearby you will see adult shops that are open and not obscured. 

First World.  Third World.  Some things about Mexico make you feel like you're in a first world country.  Such as their super awesome intercity bus system, museums, and architectures--they are organized and well maintained; but also at the same time, there are parts that are so third world like pot holes in highways, noisy street vendors, local crazy buses, and sometimes inefficient store clerks.  The third world part I can most definitely relate to the Philippines lol.

Not a lot of beggars.  Mentioning above that it is a third world country, there really aren't a lot of beggars.  Kids who come near you are usually just selling you stuff.  People are just always selling things which is great!  I think I have seen more beggars in the US than I have here in Mexico.

Huge parks everywhere.  I love the abundance of parks around Mexico!  They are always clean, well lit and beautifully maintained. Sometimes I would just sit and watch people walk or sit around the park and once in a while shaking my head no to vendors trying to sell me stuff; I love how locals also utilize their parks, they would meet up or hangout there with family, friends, and lovers.  How I wish my lifestyle back in Manila includes "hanging around the park" and not worry about getting robbed or getting my clothes all dirty.

PDA or Public Display of Affection.  You will definitely see couples PDAing at the park; but the thing is, you see them EVERYWHERE!  I tell you, everywhere.  You will see a girl sitting on her bf's lap, you will see shameless necking, kissing, ass slapping, caressing, hugging, touching and some romantic lovin'.  


Foods look the same.  Yes, I do not speak Spanish and I do not always know how to read the menu, but so far, everything I have been eating looks the same!  They all look like tacos!  Meat on some kind of tortilla, sopa, bread, or taco. haha don't get me wrong, i love it!  they just look all the same to me. lol.


W.C. or toilets.  I appreciate very much the abundance of toilets around the cities.  When in need of a lavatory, just raise your head up and look for the WC signs and you're home free.  They are almost always clean and smell clean too.  They will provide you will tissue paper upon entering after you have paid the usual amount of MXN 5 (~PHP 20).  Sometimes if there is no attendant, the toilet is gated, like how it is in Metro stations, you drop a MXN5 in and you can go through the gate.

Gowns and costumes.  You could definitely tell that Mexicans love to dress up.  You'll see men in Mariachi clothes, women in gowns, or kids in costumes.  They seem to go hand in hand with celebrations and there are a lot of celebrations here in Mexico!  You will never be bored here.  Mexicans KNOW celebration.

Tourism.  There are definitely a lot of tourists in Mexico!  Why not?  This place is awesome!  But they have for sure, not reached their full potential yet.  You will notice that signs and captions in archaeological zones are usually only in Spanish and English.  Mostly the tourists here are from Europe and Latin American countries, I sometimes feel so out of place because most of the tourists speak Spanish.  Not much Asians (just mostly Japanese).  American tourists are scarce outside of Cancun (area), I guess it's all those negative propaganda in the US on how dangerous Mexico is and etc.  but the truth is, if you stay away from the borders (where the cartels are), it's very safe.  I have never feared for my safety in my 5 weeks here.

So many bookstores.  There are so many bookstores around here!!!  Both old and new, brand new or second hand books!  Not just books but magazines!  So much magazines too!!!  I guess Mexican people fond of reading.


Ridiculously difficult wifi password.  I don't get this at all! Almost all wifi passwords that I have to ask for are ridiculously long and difficult to remember!!!  Talk about security.  No one is ever going to be able to just guess what the wifi password is.  It is almost always alpha numeric and a dozen character long or something.  Crazy.




*These are just my observations and opinions based on my experience and no way saying my words are gospel.