Adventures of a Supermom...: travel

Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Seoul Searching

Finally the day came and we were off to Seoul. I was really excited since it'll be our first time to travel there. Dennis was absolutely wonderful and planned our itinerary, studied the places and printed a map to guide us around. A must for me and Matt, spoon and fork! We had a difficult time eating when we were in Hong Kong so this time, we came prepared.

Arrived at last, and when the airport glass doors slid open to the outside, my face quickly went numb from the cold. It was freezing! Coming from Manila with the weather at 33 degrees celsius to 0 degrees, it was a shock to the body! We quickly put on our jackets but poor Dennis, his thermal jacket was in his bag which couldn't be opened because the combination lock had reset. Out of desperation, he broke the zippers just to get it. Yes, it was that cold! The Filipino waiting for the bus with us came prepared. They were wearing their bonnets, gloves and scarves. It said Baguio City on them. Now we know where they got their "winter" clothes :o)

Incheon is pretty far from Seoul but I enjoyed looking out the window to see the view. There was no more snow as winter had already ended. It's supposed to be spring. When we got off the bus, Dennis said we could walk to the hotel. I wasn't prepared for the cold, honestly. I started to get cranky because walking in that cold and not really knowing if we were headed in the right direction at 10pm, with an empty tummy just did it for me.

I loved every single day while in Seoul, despite the cold. I enjoyed the long walks to see the city, palaces, parks, the shops, the tourist places, etc. I love traveling! The experience, the quick immersion and learning their culture is really something. Seoul is beautiful. You can see where the tax payers money go. Sigh. Everything was efficient. The people were so interesting to watch. Very stylish!

Saddens me why my own country can't be as progressive, safe, cleaner, organized...and to think it's much smaller and not too difficult to manage, in my opinion. I can go on ranting about the problem with our country because of the people we elect to supposedly take care of us and our nation. But who am I?

So many cafes, tea places, bakeries, pastry shops...etc. Them Koreans love their waffles. As you walk past these places, a person would always be eating waffle with whipped cream topping, yet they're all slim. I can sit all day sipping my hot coffee and just watch people go about their business.

We will definitely be back :)

Namsan park

N Seoul Tower

Changdeok-gung Palace

Namdaemoon Market

Gyeongbok-gung Palace

Insadong Street

Cheonggyechon Stream

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Matt's post birthday gift

(Meant to post this last month but was very busy. This was actually in November.)

Turning 7 years old is a huge deal. I was told that it’s similar to a debut for kids since it’s a milestone. We asked what kind of party he wanted to have but he wasn’t interested. He likes birthday parties, except for the balloons (terrified because he’s had bad experiences with balloons popping on his face). He wanted to go to Disney. Now isn’t that every kids’ dream? So off we went!!!

I always make sure that we have a checklist whenever we go out of town. What more going out of the country. We only had 2 weeks to prepare. Dennis and I are poor at planning things ahead because we just go wherever our feet take us. So, checklists are very important. To make sure that we didn’t bring too much (and leave plenty of room for shopping!), I listed down the clothes that Matt and I were going to where for 4 days. I was assuming it was going to be hot as it’s been a summery December, considering this is the “coldest” time of the year in the Philippines. It was so hot in Manila! With our messed up weather, I assumed it was going to be warm even if I was told it was going to be chilly. I wasn’t prepared at all. It was freezing! Worse, I thought the “cool” or stylish clothes I brought were fine. Was I wrong. Define stylish! People on the streets were so stylish that you’d think that there was runaway or something. All were in their branded bags, tall/ankle boots or heels and black stockings, scarves and thick coats. Most were in leather prints or just really dark colored outfit. And what I brought with me? Aside from my jeans, I brought my red jeans, floral pants, silver flats and nautical stripped shirts. Feeling summer? Imagine how I stood out. Well, at least if I got lost, Dennis would easily find me.

I truly enjoyed HK. Such a small country but so progressive. All spaces were maximized, yet they were still able to create parks and playgrounds, which I really appreciated. Spend more time outdoors instead of malls which tempt you to make unnecessary expenses. It was very clean and public transportation was efficient. No need to have a car, in my opinion. Public toilets everywhere (with running water, tissue papers and pretty clean). This might be common to many countries but not in the Philippines. I don’t mean to offend anyone but it’s the truth. Even the toilets in the malls don’t have tissues unless it’s the pay toilets. Pay P10 for a toilet with tissue paper. Pity. I mean, it’s the little things, you know. I guess all countries have their good and bad sides, right? What I missed, though, is customer service. This is something the Philippines can really boast about. Every Starbucks I went to was different and I missed our friendly and cheerful baristas, which we’ve all been used. Even just the small conversations. I tried to make small talks with the barista and asked if they also had the Starbucks planner promo thing and showed him the card where I had all the stickers. He wasn’t interested and seemed I was wasting his time. Hehehe!

Anyway, I super enjoyed our HK trip and hope to return. Matt loved Disney. Doesn’t everybody? He didn’t enjoy Ocean Park as much, though. I would have if Dennis and I were able to go on the rides but we couldn’t since Matt didn’t want to and we wanted to go together. It’s not like we could leave Matt on the bench to wait for us. Hehehe! No way!

Enjoy the pics!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Ukraine - Kiev & Yalta

Brief background on Ukraine:

Ukraine was the largest and most powerful country in Europe during the 10th and 11th century. It was part of the Soviet Union which then gained its independence in 1991 when communism was dissolved. Eastern Orthodox Christianity had a great influence on the Ukrainian architecture, art and music, which is the dominant religion.

I wanted to share these pictures of Kiev and Yalta taken in 2004. It was a great experience! Definitely, the architecture caught my attention the most. I can't find the pictures I took of the buildings in Kiev and only had this with the temple background.