Yohooo!  We’ve just came back from our six-day vacation in Barcelona with lots of pictures.  Last night, M transferred the pictures to the PC and we enjoyed watching them + reminiscing.  We stayed up late coz of it!  We had to weed out unnecessary ones to save some disk space as each pic has a size of about 6MB.   Sometimes the viewer freezes, which makes me think we need to speed up xp, aw no, we’re using Windows 7 already!

Anyway, Barcelona was amazing! I felt like being in the Philippines, seeing signs that I would see back home and the food… well, let’s say it was food heaven for me.  I was finally able to eat sea foods again and discovered choricitos (obviously it means mini chorizos)! Well, it makes sense, having been colonized by Spain for 333 years, we adapted a lot of their language, food, and ways.

Sharing a little of the thousand pics we have!

this is for my dad, who loves to read his “periodico” everyday, that was before online news came about.

it would have been nice to see what’s inside La Boqueria Market. unfortunately, it was closed when we came.

Casa Batllo by Antonio Gaudi.

Placa de Catalunya.

Sagrada Familia by Gaudi.

The Columbus Monument at Port Vell.

and this is the yummy little goodness they call choricitos!

I ate Paella thrice and ate plenty of sea foods!  Six days weren’t enough to try all the food. teehee! (:

And it was because of this adorable niño (M’s nephew), who celebrated his 1st birthday that we came to Barcelona, the rest were just extras.

We’re back in Prague! It’s been five days since we returned from our vacation in the Philippines. It was a short three-week visit, the shortest of all the vacations I had there; I usually stay there for three months.

It was short but well-spent. We got to see beautiful places, none of us got sick, and all the planning I did went smoothly except for some minor glitches that turned to our advantage. Mother’s Day was spent in my uncle’s place in Silay where they prepared lots of yummy Negrense food! I had my birthday in Boracay with the whole gang (Dad, Mom and my sister included); my pretty niece flew in from Cebu and we were able to visit the local scenic spots in Negros. Then M and I had our three days Palawan escapade without the kids; gazillion thanks to my sister Carey for taking care of the kids while we were away! We went to see the Underground River, which was recently named as one of the new 7 wonders of the world; we even managed to do the Honda Bay island hopping before we flew to Manila. We also toured Corregidor Island for a day.

Afternoon feast @ my uncle’s place on Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day dinner @ a thai resto.

Birthday in Boracay.

The gang @ Boracay.

@ Pacific Shores, Talisay City, Negros Occidental.

Our happy family. (:

Going inside the Underground River in Palawan.

@ the Underground River, Palawan.

@ Pandan Island, Palawan.

@ Corregidor Island.

@ Corregidor Island.

All in all, it was really a fun time spent with my loved ones, and I‘m sure my family was glad to have us around and have enjoyed the company of the two adorable kids. M also had a lovely time seeing Philippines’ beauty; he got to eat to his heart’s content all the delicious seafood, mangoes, coconuts, etc. which he was prohibited to eat the last time we were there because he developed some skin disease after their Mt. Apo climb. It was a well-deserved treat for him!

Most importantly, I am fortunate that my parents are still around and are still very much healthy; they’re the reason why I make sure we go home as often as we can despite the travel/vacation expenses. With the four of us, travelling can really be costly. The kids’ fare cost about 75% that of the adult. Whew! We could have used the money to invest in some income-generating project or buy gold coins, but nothing is more important than being with the people we love!

Last week my father-in-law arrived from his three-week Asian tour with three of his friends.  I got souvenir magnets from him to add to my collection and some goodies from Negros!

They went to Singapore, Philippines and Bali, Indonesia.  Their Philippine stint included a tour in Taal Lake, Tagaytay, Corregidor, Intramuros and other parts of Manila and Makati.  Sheeeshh, I haven’t even been those places yet! We found a travel agent that took very good care of them and even went out of his way to make their stay a pleasant one.

After their stay in Manila, they transferred to Negros to visit my parents.  It’s the second time for them to see each other.  The first time was when my parents came to Prague to see us.  Mom prepared a well-planned itinerary for them; tour in the Victorias Milling Company to see how sugar is made, they attended the reenactment of the Cinco de Noviembre battle in Silay where their presence was recognized by the Mayor, they visited the Negros Museum, saw the Ruins, trekked the hilly Mambukal terrain up to the 7th falls, went swimming in Pacific Shores, etc. etc.  It was a fully-packed and very busy 4 days for them in Negros and of course, aside from seeing the sights, my family made sure that they get to taste the famous delicious Negros cuisine and Filipino hospitality at its best.  I am glad our Czech guests enjoyed their stay in the Philippines.

I’m posting some of their pics courtesy of mah sistah (Happy Steps Travel Blog)!

Lunch by the sea. They feasted on oysters, crabs, fish and shrimps! They’re seated from tallest to shortest! haha

Lunch at Pacific Shores with my family…

At Don Salvador Benedicto…


Mom with the towering Czechs. (:

The Mambukal Boating Lagoon

Posing in front of their cottage at Mambukal Mountain Resort.

My two dads. (: At home, during their farewell lunch.

I was silent for sometime because of this:

Yeah! We went on weekend to Wolfgangsee, a lake in Upper Austria that lies mostly within the state of Salzburg (think Sound of Music!).  We were actually supposed to go to St. Gilgen but we got there past 7 in the evening with no accommodations. M just randomly called hotels and pension houses for any vacant rooms. After what seemed like a dozen tries, we luckily found a room in Wolfgangsee.  Whew!  It was a blessing in disguise, coz our pension house was sitting near the centre and we also found an open beach nearby in a camping site.  It wasn’t crowded, and the water is shallow enough even for little Adie to wade on.

Pardon me, but we’re taking advantage and savoring the last summer days with real summer warmth outdoors.  Plus I have tons to prepare for Caity’s 4th birthday this weekend and next week, our lives will change dramatically (well, mostly MY life) as our little girl will start preschool. We haven’t gone shopping yet for her school stuff.

Anyways, I hope you’re having fun days as well where ever you are!

Day 11 in Finland, we borrowed my bro-in-law’s car, dumped the kids to my sister’s care and drove off to Helsinki for a day. Yeah, we only had a day to see what the city has to offer. We thought, without the kids, we’ll be able to accomplish lots of things.

Helsinki is the capital and the largest city in Finland. It is about 225 kilometers away from Pori. We made it to the city in less than three hours, stopping briefly when M had to return his office’s call. We parked near the Helsinki Central railway station for 2.5 euro/30 minutes (I forgot the name of the parking center) and started our tour on foot at the Helsinki Cathedral.

Helsinki Central railway station.

The Helsinki Cathedral. It looks grand and huge but inside it is actually small.

Statue of Alexander II.

We were just in time for the Marching Band’s performance.

The Senate Square, view from the steps of the Helsinki Cathedral.

Corinthian columns of Helsinki Cathedral.

Then off we went to the Market Square where you can find Finnish crafts, souvenirs, local produce and foods.

Souvenirs!!!

Magnets!

This is where we stopped for lunch – salmon with mixed vegetables and potatoes. Yummy!

After eating, we continued our tour…

The Presidential Palace, right in front of the Market Square.

Next on our list to see is the Ustepenski Cathedral. We followed the addressed inputted by dear M in his GPS, and that’s where our walking around in circles began. Huhuhu. We actually wasted our time, energy and money (our parking clock was ticking euros!) looking for this church.  My mistake, I didn’t bring the map and the M’s navi that’s supposed to direct us to our chosen places was out of battery. Waaaaa!   It turned out the address of Ustepenski that M found in the internet was not correct!!! We finally got ourselves free map from the Museum of War, thanks to the friendly Finnish guy there who gave it to us. By that time, my patience and energy was super depleted coz it was a super hot day, the hottest ever since we got to Finland.

Random pics while searching for Ustepenski Cathedral.

Ahhh, there it is!!!!  If you scroll back up in the Market Square pictures, you can see the tip of the dome there. Yeah, it was close to the Helsinki Church, and we actually passed by there on our way to the market.  We even got intrigued what the beautiful building was, and planned to go there after we see the Market Square!!!!  What a big joke, right???!!!

The Ustepenski Cathedral.

Anyway, I’ll end for now and give you a rest from the pics overload. Beware though, there will be more pics on my next post!