The Long Way Up

So... aside from being bloggers, writers, film buffs, and music lovers, my girlfriend and I are also travel junkies. Like crazily-addicted-to-road-trips-and-sightseeing travel junkies. Between the two of us, we've been to, toured, and/or set foot on 14 countries of the world's 195 territories. That pretty much leaves us with 181 more nations to visit. During one of our daily phone conversations, she and I ended up talking about the places that would be awesome to travel to and the different relatives and friends living in each territory (for potential free accommodation). Our thoughts wandered through the varied exotic and popular tourist destinations that we wished to see with our own eyes and tread upon with our peripatetic feet. We virtually went around the world during our two-hour phone call. I mentioned to her that I came across a Facebook article detailing an intricate, 48-state road trip throughout the continental United States and our imaginations just lit u...

You're never quite sure what to bring when traveling to a foreign country. Even though you've done your homework by surfing the Internet for specific details about the locale you're headed for, there's always some minutia you're bound to forget or be unprepared for. The year was 2015. The month November. I was on the verge of leaving for Europe on a three-month missions trip and preparing for it got me predictably frenzied. A year before this I had travelled to New Zealand to spend some time with my family for a couple of months, so I already had an idea what packing for long, international vacation looked like. However, I have never had the opportunity to experience winter abroad, and I've never experienced it at all living in a tropical island nation. "What does one pack into their suitcase when looking to spend three months of winter in another country?" Thermal Underwear One of the first few suggestions I received from friends and ...

When you've been raised on the move -- living from town to town, city to city, island to island -- you grow up loving movement. You don't get the privilege of establishing deep roots, or the nostalgia of claiming the title of being someone's childhood friend. You just don't have the currency for that, being peripatetic and all. When you've been brought up on the go -- changing addresses in a quick, three-year-cycle -- you get used to living out of a box, and get the hang of fitting your life in medium-sized back pack. You learn, along the way, the value of avoiding becoming a pack rat, and the necessity of discarding excess baggage. When you've been weaned on Sundays on the beach and frequent road trips, your heart learns to dream beyond the confines of your juvenile machinations, and soar beyond the perimeter of your economic limitations. You become more optimistic at the possible opportunities that are potentially opening up to you and for you. ...

After having done my business with Notre-Dame de Paris -- my feet tired from the four-hour walking tour that started at the bus station at Porte Maillot -- I was now looking to set my sights on the grand Avenue des Champs-Élysées : the penultimate stop on this seven-and-a-hour Parisian tour. Champs-Élysées, according to Wikipedia, is  "widely regarded to be one of the most recognizable avenues in the world." When I arrived at the eastern tip of the busy boulevard, I was surprised at how wide, how busy and how colorful it was. It reminded me a little bit of Cebu City's own  Osmeña Boulevard,  albeit much more expansive and -- from the looks of it -- much more expensive. I remember -- as I was strolling on the northern side of the avenue -- being amazed at all the lights that emanated from all the night signs from the shops, restaurants and theaters. I think, somewhere deep inside, I felt a little bit like Ewan McGregor's wide-eyed character,  Christia...

Somewhere and sometime during my movie and TV series viewing life, I heard someone say that memory changes over time . In the middle of writing all these entries about my short tour of Paris, I began thinking that my recollection of those experiences there might have been (slightly? greatly?) altered because of the two-and-a-half-year gap. Still, I know I experienced them... perhaps the chronology and some minor details may just have been shuffled around... a bit... Ooops! :) Nevertheless, moving on with this mini-series! I was making my way to the eastern-most stop of my night visit to Paris: the Notre-Dame Cathedral ! This would be the tip of my almost seven kilometer tour route (one way) and where I would make a U-turn and walk all the way back to the bus station (another seven kilometers). En route to Noter-Dame, I kept checking my watch for the time because I needed to be back at Porte Maillot by ten o'clock to catch the 11 p.m. FlixBus to Frankfurt. The excitement to...

The rest of my seven-and-a-half hour tour of Paris was like a whirlwind trip to wonderland with a little bit of a suspense-horror vibe going on. Why, you might ask? Well, I arrived from Maastricht at around four in the afternoon. The sun was getting low and the darkness of the cold mid-winter night in the French capital was slowly creeping in. So, after about 30 to 45 minutes of just being mesmerized by the Eiffel Tower and its peripherals, I proceeded with my self-made itinerary, using the river Seine as my main point of reference. On my list of spots to briefly visit and take pictures of (and with) were the Louvre , Cathedrale Notre-Dame , Champ Elysees , and the Arc de Triomphe ... all of which I crammed into my walking tour. I make it first to the Louvre after Tour Eiffel. The museum was already closed, but I wasn't really there to see its interiors; I was after its very interesting external architecture. Perhaps I came at the right time of the day because both of th...

The chase between May Day and James Bond in A View to a Kill. Lois Lane hiding under the elevator in Superman II. The premiere target of the nanobots in the first G.I. Joe movie. All these transpired in one of France's best-known landmarks: the Eiffel Tower. Over the years, the motion picture industry has utilized this iconic structure in various ways and in different genres, yielding distinct results. There's just something about this tower that brings filmmakers back to its beauty and grandeur. Having said that -- and having seen Gustave Eiffel's masterpiece in person -- I can conclusively say that there is an awe-inspiring, enticing and captivating quality to this Parisian landmark that even the most artful depictions could never convey. As I made my way down the stairs of the Palais de Chaillot and onto the greens of the Trocadéro Gardens, the physical and figurative enormity of the Eiffel Tower became more and more obvious. All the years of wishing, hoping...

Expectancy was escalating as I was nearing the Eiffel Tower (the Holy Grail of this crusade). It may have been the years of seeing this world-famous landmark on the silver screen that fueled it; or it could quite possibly have been the factual and fictional stories that were perpendicularly, adjacently or tangentially related to this architectural and engineering wonder; or perhaps it might have been the months-long preparation for this Europe trip; or the combination of all these that raised my adrenalin levels to the maximum. It was supremely phenomenal. After leaving the convenience store, I headed further up Avenue Poincaré and landed on the six-way roundabout of Place du Trocadéro, where my first sighting of the Tour Eiffel occurred. I had to stop for a few minutes to take some pictures (of course) and to just take in the view and the 'dream-come-true' moment of seeing the landmark with my own eyes. Everything from then on became a series of one breathtaking expe...

On my way up to the main tour stop on this dream trip, I got momentarily caught under a light, mid-winter rain. It didn't dampen the whole experience, though. In fact, it enhanced the mood of my tour: "a rainy Monday afternoon in Paris" sounds like an idyllic and romantic turn of phrase that you might read in a Nicholas Sparks book; the experience of it, however, is something not even my four-decade worth of vocabulary can succinctly describe. So, as I stood under the canopy of the bus stop on the corner of Avenue Raymond Poincaré and Avenue Poch, waiting for the drizzle to die down, I took a moment to absorb the reality of me finally being in Paris: walking its streets, seeing its sights, and showered by its rains. I felt a mixture of incredulity and gratitude flooding my senses. I remember a bus stopping to pick up a local girl. I remember looking up at the sky to see patches of grey clouds floating against the blue Parisian sky. I remember  thankfully and ...

There's not that many moments in my life that I can categorize as " dream-come-true " moments. It's not that I haven't experienced great things in my life; it's just that I've only ever wished for a few great things to happen to me... and not all of them ever came to pass... except this one! On February 8 of 2016, I got to experience the lengthiest walking tour I've ever been on in my entire life in the city that I have always wanted to see since I was a teenager: PARIS ! Lengthy because I've spent most of my stay in Paris on foot: a total of seven and a half hours of walking around to see the major landmarks that I wanted to see. (Now I'm regretting why I didn't decide to spend a night or two there when I had the time and the money to do so... 2020?) Anyway, this short tour of the City of Lights and Love was one of the most anticipated stops in my European trip, which lasted three months. Right from the moment I boarded the ...

Its history is visible Its grandeur is discernible  Its beauty, inescapable It's Italy ! Desirable! The stature of cathedrals rule The mysteries they could unspool Milano 's structure? Truly cool The city's also worth a drool ' There's nothing common ,'  Como says Majestic lake, and mountain tress A chilly night, I under-dressed Those giant hands left me impressed Then a visit to my great-aunt In lovely Lucca , quaintness flaunts A walled city where epochs haunt ' You will linger ,' this locale taunts Leaning tower, cathedral dome World's best pizza call Pisa home Endless arch ways and streets to roam Endless as its historic tome Breezy Brescia  begged me to stay Lofty castle blew me away Lovely mountains, houses arrayed I adored her all in a day The town of Sirmione wows It is peninsulated now Blue waters are its castle's grounds With many treasures to be found Th...

Up until today, I've really only had a mental list of things that I would like to do while my time on Earth isn't through. People these days call it a bucket list; some, a wish list. These are just some of the things I am hoping I get to do in my lifetime (in no particular order): set foot on every country in the world (this is the general wish; some of the following will be specifics) go to the less-visited portions of the Great Wall of China spend a considerable amount of time in El Nido, Coron and other locales in Palawan, the Philippines go back to Paris and take more time to explore the city (I only spent a little over seven hours when I went in 2016) see more of France -- Normandy is on top of that list take a Southeast Asian land trip that would cover Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the other visa-free countries in the region... and try the exotic cuisine earn a living as, or make a consistent pastime out of being a singer, songwriter se...

I flew into Frankfurt One chilly winter day Knew it would be awesome Now I have this to say Deutschland  is efficient At traffic rules and more Countrysides are verdant With so much to explore Smaller towns like Zo blitz Just made me want to stay Feeling oh so rustic I could have slept all day Marburg , with its castle Set on a mountaintop Offered lovely vistas The wonders never stopped Giessen is historic Destroyed in time of war Heavy bombing happened In 1944 Then there's the town of Mainz Where printing press was born Where flows the river Rhine It left me all lovelorn I got lost in Aachen No net cafes around All ended in relief When my host had me found By Gera , Jena passed My bus from Chemnitz left Eight hours on the road Seared emotional heft Wunderbares Deutschland A charming month has waned There's still more ...