Amsterdam 2018

December 8-10, 2018

Heyyyy, long time no see.

Life kind of got in the way between I posted about my Paris trip and now; in between Thanksgiving and Christmas and my dad losing his job and getting a new one meaning that I had to find a new place to live, and moving out, and moving in, and two other trips...  It's been a really crazy past few months.

I'm going to try to make up for it in posting a lot in succession.  Maybe.  Who knows.  We'll see.

The design overhaul I'm trying to work on as well is coming up, but that's going to end up on the backburner for a good long while.

Anyway.  On to the Amsterdam/Netherlands trip.  I'm not sure whether I should call this a Netherlands trip since I did not spend all my time in Amsterdam, or an Amsterdam trip since most of our time was definitely spent in Amsterdam.  The graphic says Amsterdam, so that's what I'm going with on this one.

S is a huge fan of the Netherlands, pretty much all for personal reasons, and she really wanted to share this with me.  So she booked the tickets out of JFK with Norwegian (our favorite airline!) and she spent time talking to me about her special Dutch friends.

Paris 2018

October 12-14, 2018

I realize I never finished posting the next few parts of my Bilbao trip from July, but I do make these trips frequently enough that I just didn't feel like continuing the posts.  If anyone wants me to finish posting about the trip I will, I just don't feel it's necessary right now.  I really just want to focus on getting my Paris trip done and out of the way because it was already a month ago, and I really should have posted sooner.

So here goes.  A post about my adventures in Paris last month.

Euskadi 2018 - Part 1

July 2-10, 2018.

It's that time again!

Time for me to post about a recent trip, even if it's one I make every year now.  It's always a long time coming, but it's so much better for me to make it at least once a year instead of once every who-knows-how-long.  I promised my best friend, and myself, two years ago that I'd make this a regular thing, and I will keep that promise.

I booked the tickets in March or April, about the same time I booked the tickets to the Philippines, after talking to my best friend about the dates, and when she confirmed they'd work for her, I booked them, and when the time came, off I went.

My flight left at 10 PM out of JFK, so I'm not really counting that day as a travel day, since only about 2 hours were actually covered, fewer if you count in the time difference that inevitably occurred within two hours of flying east.

SE Asia 2018, June 7-11 - Day 5, Oslob

June 11.

Probably my favorite day of the entire 4 that I spent in the Philippines was this one.  We left around the same time we left to go to Moalboal a few days earlier and arrived at our destination at about the same time, if not earlier.  The only pit stop was for a half-hour Jollibee run, because you're not in Asia without going to Jollibee, which is basically fast food, but instead of getting fries with everything you get rice.  You may be able to order fries too, but you basically get rice.  Because it's Asia, and it's not a meal unless there's rice.

Anyway, we made the drive down to Oslob, a trip complete with inside jokes, made all the better by the fact that the days of the week in Cebuano are the same as they are in Spanish, so that was fun.

I'm still a little hesitant about this entry because it deals with the apparently controversial topic of swimming with whale sharks, so if you absolutely believe that swimming with whale sharks is bad even though you are not a certified marine biologist, you can let me know.  Or don't.  I kind of don't really care.  I just know it's controversial, but as someone who's had a thing for whale sharks and marine life since I was a little kid, and after seeing the experience first-hand, I have some thoughts about the pros and cons of how the Oslob whale shark experience is handled.  If you are a marine biologist and have your opinion as a trained expert in the situation, you are even more welcome to share your opinions.

SE Asia 2018, June 7-11 - Day 4, Cebu City

June 10.

After the craziness that was the trip to Moalboal the day before, Sunday was a day for relaxation.  Kind of.  We stayed local like Friday, exploring a few more places, like a Filipino shopping mall at the SM Seaside and Sirao Gardens.

There's not much to say about the mall; the SM Seaside is basically a Filipino version of Westfield malls, since it's high class (they have a Benefit store if you're a makeup junkie, only it's one of the few stores where the products are more expensive than they are in the US) and massive, and they have them all over the country.  I actually really enjoy the shopping experiences abroad though, and I'm not one to complain that I'm taken to a mall when I only have 4 days in a country.  SM Seaside is big but comfortable, as there's actually a rooftop park with jungle gyms and play areas for kids as well as walking paths and views of Cebu. It's places like this that really make you feel like you made the right decision in hanging out with locals.

Plus I got a new phone case and tempered glass screen protector for my Galaxy S8 at a fraction of what it would cost in the US.  So there's that.