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Veni, Vidi, Venice!
The Merchant of Venice, The Tourist, The Italian Job and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, these are just some of the movies filmed in Venice. I was so excited to finally visit Venice from my few days’ stay in Florence following the footsteps of Robert Langdon in Dan Brown’s novel, Inferno. Luckily, I arrived in the morning at Santa Lucia Station which is just five minute walk to my hotel. After having my breakfast at a coffee shop next door, I hastily went to Piazza San Marco or St Mark’s Square, as if I was thrilled to witness a Carnival in Venice. Venice is the birthplace of the famous…
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A TASTE OF THE BIG APPLE – NEW YORK
“Start spreading the news I am leaving today I want to be a part of it. New York, New York…” This timeless song “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra kept ringing in my head while on the train from my chosen hostel in Central Park area. It was the beginning of my American exploration that started in New York. The very first thing I did was to go to Times Square which is the heart of the city to collect The New York Pass that I purchased days before my flight from Dubai. I decided to collect it at the Big Bus Information Desk at Madame Tussauds and had…
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An Insightful Travel Experience – Nepal
Before I started my own travels, I had been reading the articles found on https://www.hillmanwonders.com. I was fascinated by the insights Howard Hillman put into words about his passion for travelling and at the same time creating interesting and helpful tips for other would-be travellers. I wish I could travel as much as he accomplished and could document not only the famous places but also the weird and wonderful sites that I would encounter on my journeys. His website became my benchmark that I would gladly cross out the relevant places as soon as I was back from travelling. Given the ways and means, I would definitely visit all of…
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My Own Piece of Hollywood Glamour
It was one of my dreams that if and when given a chance to travel to America, I would definitely visit California. There must be something to this state that the majority of my Kabayans choose to stay in and call it their home. Apparently, as of 2018, there are more than a million Filipinos living in California alone. California is a huge State with so many well-known attractions which made it difficult to decide where to go especially for someone who had limited time and resources to travel. Enticed by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood movies, I chose to visit a city in Southern California that is called…
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My Book’s First Review
I would like to, once again, say special thanks to Jan Schwetzingen who posted his insightful review about my book entitled INSPIRED TO TRAVEL, TRAVEL TO INSPIRE – A TRAVEL MEMOIR. He is the first person to completely read my book and post his review after it was published on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com websites. To all those others who have kindly got a copy of my book, I would also love to receive your honest comments about it. For your information, I share with you below Jan’s appraisal: “My review on Amazon: This is not your ordinary travel guide. What you will find in your hands is an essay…
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Searching for the Lighthouse of Alexandria
It’s been a month now since my book INSPIRED TO TRAVEL; TRAVEL TO INSPIRE – A TRAVEL MEMOIR was published and made available online via Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. I am pleased with the current interest especially to hear comments and suggestions from those who got their copies and have already read the book. One of my friends was so pleased that I had included Egypt as she is interested to visit the country and is considering traveling probably by the end of this summer. Like most of the questions that I have been asked so far, she wanted to know what made me decide to travel to Egypt…
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Salzburg “The Sound of Music” Tour Experience
“The hills are alive with the sound of music . . .” Salzburg is where the movie The Sound of Music was filmed. It may have been released in 1965, almost a decade before I was born but I must admit that I have seen this film several times. It stars the adorable Maria (Julie Andrews), with the Von Trapp family; the father played by Christopher Plummer. When I decided to travel to Austria and naturally Salzburg I made sure to pre-book The Sound of Music tour. I simply had to watch this classic film all over again. Luckily,…
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Discover Norwich
It was in December 2016 when I first set foot in England via Heathrow Airport where my partner Richard met me. From London we then traveled by train to Norwich, the capital city of the County of Norfolk, in the East Anglia region of England where we spent Christmas with his family. I will be writing a separate blog about my first English Christmas experience but for this blog, I will share with you my perception of Norwich and some of the surrounding areas. Speaking of “Norwich” what initially came to my head was that it’s just a name of an insurance company but not as a place or a…
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A wishful thinking?
Still a wishful thinking? Not anymore. I was, for a time, a Psychology student at Silliman University in Dumaguete City. One of the revered names in the field is of course the Father of Psychoanalysis himself, Dr. Sigmund Freud. Studying Psychoanalysis is one of the major prerequisites of the course, as well as to study the life of its founder and proponent. To realise a long-held dream, I visited the Sigmund Freud Museum at Berggasse 19, in the Alsergrund District of Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 1971 and covered Sigmund Freud’s life story. Standing outside the building, I was probably like a neurotic trying to suppress my extreme excitement;…
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The Gretna Green Experience
During my second time to visit the United Kingdom, I asked my partner if we could go to Scotland. Well, my interest had been sprung after having watched numerous movies and series from Netflix depicting Medieval Europe. Like the other prominent figures in history in England, I was also eager to see the place of the famous Mary, Queen of Scots, who was also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland. My interest also includes the history and life of her son, King James VI (Scotland) and James 1 (England & Ireland) (James Charles Stuart 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625). He was the King who sponsored the translation of the…
