My attempts at blogging my travels/adventures :)
(9 countries in 3 weeks in Phil’s case!)
A bit crazy if I think about it now. It’s been more than a year to this date of writing, but I still remember every detail of this trip with Phil around central/eastern Europe in the summer of 2015. It was the first long trip with him and I thought it could define how good Phil and I would be as travel buddies! :)
There wasn’t a “16for2016” (i.e., 16 countries in year 2016), which could have been the third following from my 14for2014 and 15for2015 projects in the last 2 years. Nonetheless, this year I managed to step on 4 continents (Phil did 5 though, because America!)—which is why I think 2016 is equally awesome as the previous years!
Spring of 2014. In the midst of a very busy audit engagement. It was a temporary escape. Went far up north, in another kingdom. I’d like to call it Kingdom. I thought it sounds so cool. Scotland!—farther, in the Scottish highlands! When I think about Scotland, I used to imagine camping—with the soft earth as my bed, the canopy of stars my roof and the chirping of the birds my lullaby at night and my alarm in the early morning. That’s how I imagined my Scotland visit would be.
It was Spring Bank holiday in 2015 when Phil and I decided to visit Northern Wales and hike up Snowdon Mountain. I was quite excited about it because (1) it’s another “country” in the UK (2) mountains, and Snowdon is one of the peaks that’s generally included in the UK 3-peak challenge (with Ben Nevis in Scotland and Scafell Pike in England on the list); and (3) it’s my first long weekend trip with Phil! ❣
Nope, I’m not talking about the lovely coastal south of France. I am talking about visiting Strasbourg and Colmar in the north of France. Yup, in the north, near the border of the south of Germany.
November 9, 2014. It’s my big 3-0 and I thought I deserve an amazing trip and an amazing experience—seeing the Aurora Borealis (or the Northern Lights); which also meant ticking off one of the items in my ever-expanding bucketlist! And so the trip to the Land of Ice and Fire happened.
It was supposed to be Batanes, one of my dream Philippine destinations, but because I wasn’t able to get flight deals (and because I am not willing to pay the regular price of the flight), I ended up booking for a flight to go to a Batanes-like destination–Palaui Island.
April 2015 (Summer–very summer!)
It was a one-way plane ticket to the hottest city (they say) in the Philippines, Tuguegarao, and then Jillian and I took it from there!
I’d go with the flow; if anyone invites me, I’ll go!
And maybe it’s the same feeling that I had during this trip to Italy–I felt the beauty and madness of going solo. For whatever the reason was, I guess it doesn’t really matter now.
‘cause they’re the backbone of my existence; my strong support group. They are the constant reason that makes me nostalgic and melancholic while working my ass heart out and simultaneously daydreaming about traveling and seeing the rest of the world. While I have the means and opportunity to somehow feed my wanderlust, they don’t. And therefore, I made a silent promise to myself that as long as I can afford to, I want them to experience a part of my life—a life that I embraced while I was away from them. I wanted them to see and experience the places which I believe are beautiful and which I believe they would love to see and experience for themselves!
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