Made it to Jersey!

Hello Everyone! 

Weeeee'rrrreee baaaackkkk, this time reporting to you live from the Channel Islands. After an unexpected delay with our plane allegedly being too heavy and the runway being allegedly too wet (even though there was no weather on the island that day) I was stuck in London Heathrow for the night. I will have to give credit to my airlines for setting me up in a lovely free hotel from the 70s when they still smoked, think Vegas, with the green carpets permanently stained with ash and the smell of cigarettes that can never be removed. Sometimes my stubborn nature can pay off and this was definitely one of those times, I was rebooked for a flight the next night, and well that just wasn't good enough for visiting my best friend across the world! Hours of customer service lines, and an absolute refusal to take no for an answer, and I was booked the very next morning on the first flight out, one of three for the day, because island life. As you can see below, we had absolutely beautiful skies and even a little rainbow for the 40 minute flight! 

Jes and I started this tradition back in London 2019 where we come up with creative signs to meet each other in the airport with and this year did not disappoint! We started the morning with instant giggles and  fully belly laughs, so much so that our cheeks and abs hurt. 

She picked me up in the biggest smallest two-seater electric car, Ami, and thankfully we all fit with my luggage! 

After arriving to their apartment greeting Tiny, and having a quick outfit change, we immediately went on a walk to the local artists shops for some air drying clay for our trip's crafting project. Jes and I plan to collect seashells and sea glass during the trip and then press them into ring dishes before we leave. Life in my 30's is looking a lot different, but I can't complain one bit! I'm in crafters heaven! I almost had to laugh when I walked outside and it looked like Balboa Island.

Fun fact, Jersey has the third highest tidal range in the world, and it was quite obvious when we walked to the harbors where all the boats were on the sea floor! Apparently the island only has one harbor that has water all the time and there is a 25 year wait list to get a spot. 

We also walked past the old train station which was converted to shops, since there's really not much need for a train when the entire island is only 9 miles by 5 miles.  

Walking around, you definitely know you're in English territory. For example, here's a picture of the island's most popular bar, the Lamplighter. 

Jes is famous for her microadventures wherever she lives. Basically she gets strangers around the island to go for walks or sea swims or any cool activity you can think of! We walked by her book community box where I snagged a copy of horrible histories, Vile Victorians edition. I was shocked that it was a children's book! To be fair, most of history isn't pleasant, so I thought it did a good job of giving a more honest recap of the reality of the era. However, you can only imagine my jaw hitting the floor when the first page I turned to was "The Man Who Could Not Hang."

We then moseyed into the central market in town,. It reminded me a lot of the Gove farmer's market, with lots of little stalls open every day. I got a great pistachio filled cookie and had lots of fun walking into all the shops. There's a strong puffin themed decor on the island  (along with the infamous jersey cow theme) on pretty much any item you can think of, pillow cases, mugs, tea towels, and even necklaces! It's rather funny though because according to Jes there's really only 5 or 6 puffins on the entire island, and yet they've made a whole brand of it here. 

I think my second favorite part of the day was when I matched the purple State Assembly building! Maybe if California had purple buildings I'd work for them too lol. 

We also walked past the Piquet House which was used as Military Police Station up until 1926. Quite impressive that they didn't need anything more substantial beforehand. It adds to much of the island's charm, just like the honesty boxes. I imagine this is what small town living would be like. We've already run into a few of Jes' work colleagues today! And stopped for quick chats of course, because like in Prescott, they wave with all five fingers here instead of one like in LA haha. 

Continuing our way home we passed Liberation square. Guernsey and Jersey were the two islands occupied by Nazi Germany and this balcony was where they declared WWII and German occupation was over. Jersey has a special Liberation Day they celebrate with parades and reenactments to commemorate their freedom. It always takes me aback when I come across such historic places, because those were just things I grew up reading in  history books, but you can see that it really creates lasting wounds and memories in the places that survive history's horrors.

As we finished our exploration, we came across these morbidly cute benches which have the names of sunken ships around the island. I need to be more careful what I get excited about here, I thought they were adorable and super clever until Jes told me what they memorialized. Thankfully we were the only ones on the road so no one else overhead my faux pas, oops! On a lighter note, they also have benches with the NATO phonetic alphabet, which was lots of fun to walk by, each letter had the flag sign and Morse code.

We made it home just in time to rest a bit before tonight's dinner with local school friends of Jes and Pete. I realized I totally should have taken a picture at the jazz bar, (where they played old American crooner Jazz, to which I was probably the only patron who could sing along to every song) and at the yummy thai place by the beach where we ate dinner. I admit I did fail as a blogger for forgetting to take pictures with friends and food,  BUT we did see lots of bunnies on the lawn on the way home, so you can enjoy a picture of them instead! 

Signing off until tomorrow's adventure.

Sending you all love!

Carolyn

Last Day in Manila

Hello Everyone!

Today is our last day in Manila and I can’t believe our trip is over, time has been flying. We decided to go back to intramuros so that we could visit the churches and buildings we weren’t able to enter during our night tour because they were closed. We started at the Manila cathedral and there was an actual wedding inside but they didn’t stop tourists from coming it. It was so strange! But also really nice to see some of a traditional wedding here. 

You won’t believe it but the cathedral now has a cafe in part of the tower, so we stopped for some fries and coffee with a view. The locals like to joke it’s for a tax break, which may not be too far off lol. This cathedral was built in 1581 and has since been rebuilt multiple times because of a typhoon, fire, earthquakes, and even WWII bombing. Hard to believe that they kept building in the same space, I would have likely give up the second time but this cathedral has been rebuilt eight times!

Afterwards we walked to San Austin’s church where we stumbled upon a local market for food and crafts. They even had a live band so that people could sing karaoke. This church is interesting because it has Chinese lions here in an attempt to convert the immigrated Chinese population to Catholicism. They also have carved pictures of Chinese people on their wooden doors. If you look at the ceiling you’d think that this little church was more opulent than the famous cathedral. However upon second glance you might realize that it’s all paintings! The artists did a great job tricking the eye with their fresco. 

We ended the day at a very special dinner with my Auntie Kristine and her sister. They happened to fly into Manila right before we left so we met up at the famous Shangri-La hotel. Then we all went back to the very first mall of our trip, the Rockwell, for a dessert tour where we got our last taho, halo halo, and the street famous dirty ice cream! Don’t worry, the ice cream isn’t actually dirty, that’s just what they call ice cream in the street carts here. We were all in a total food and sugar coma by the time we said goodbye. And just like that, with our bellies and hearts full, we ended our time here in the Philippines. 

Until my next trip!

Lots of love,

Carolyn 

Shopped Out

Hello Everyone!

Today’s post is going to be short and sweet because it was another mall day. We met up with Uncle Vic’s cousins from Nuvali and went to the Glorietta mall. I realized that going to the mall here isn’t just for shopping, it’s an easy way to beat the heat and go outside for a few hours while still remaining in air conditioning, so it’s really used as a social hub for everyone. Isabel and I are kind of done with Filipino food, so we managed to find Korean for lunch and a salad place for dinner. What we are most looking forward to is coming home to Mexican food, only two more days left!

Miss you all,

Carolyn

Intramuros

Hello Everybody! 

Sorry for the delay in post, I was so tired when I got back last night that I crashed and slept a whole nine hours! We had a really busy day that started at the Mall of Asia. We met up with two of Isabel’s family friends who are way more capable shoppers than me for sure. It took us hours to walk the entire mall, that’s how many shops were inside! Around 5 pm we were shopped out and got to go to the historical part of Manila called Intramuros, which means within the walls. Basically it was the starting place of Spanish colonization in the Philippines.

The best part was we took a calesa tour, which is an old horse and buggy! I was so excited to be around horses. The local horses here are small and feisty, and our tour guide made an awesome joke that he was taking us around in his Ferrari with one horse power lol! 

The whole town is basically a bunch of repurposed churches, monasteries, and convents. Even the jail cells were turned into food stalls! The Spaniards were trying really hard to convert Filipinos to Catholicism which meant they put a church every few blocks in this town, but realizing that it’s now overkill, they buildings are more functional now as schools and government buildings. One crazy thing I learned was that after Spain brought smallpox to the Philippines, everyone was dying in masses. Spain wanted to send the vaccine but it was only good in a vial for 14 days and the boat takes 6 months to get from Spain to PI. So, they injected orphans and used them to carry the vaccine here as human refrigerators!

We ended our tour by going around Fort Santiago which was a mixture of U.S. barracks to prison cells and was basically their main military hub. There’s even old war cannons from WWI and WWII. But now it’s a memorial to their national hero Rizal who was executed for treason against the Spanish government. He was the leader of one of the two revolutionary groups in the country at the time and was an accomplished intellectual, doctor, and writer. We weren’t expecting to see the statue of him in the prison cell and both jumped when we turned the corner! 

All of us then went to a very touristy but entertaining dinner where we watched some of the national Filipino dances. The first was binasuan, I was so impressed when they spun around with the juice on their head but didn’t drop anything. The other dance is called tinikling where they dance between the bamboo as it’s snapped open and closed. When they asked for audience volunteers you can bet I was the first to try! It was so much fun and reminded me of the folk dance I used to do back in high school. 

Sending you lots of love, 

Aisha 

14 Hours in the Car

Hi Everybody!

Today is another short post because as you can probably guess by the title, the majority of my day was spent sitting in a car. The road trip back to and around Manila was filled with traffic, even though we left earlier in the morning. Coming down the mountain was beautiful and we even saw monkeys on the road! But that’s about the extent of excitement from our day. Once we hit the outskirts we were bumper to bumper all day. And I mean the second worst traffic I’ve ever seen, the only city worse was Dhaka, Bangladesh. Today took us 2 hours to go 5 miles this evening! On a Wednesday! 

We did make a few stops during our day at the dupe market and at the popular Bonificio High Street mall. I was too overwhelmed to shop but it was entertaining to watch everyone else haggle. The best part of the day was when we finally made it back to the hotel at 11 pm and I got to rest in a nice fluffy bed with chocolates! 

Stay tuned for tomorrow, I promise it’ll be more exciting as we’re going to the famous Mall of Asia and Intramuros which is the historical section of Manila.

Lots of Love,

Carolyn