Celdran Tours

For my BFF Reyn's birthday, I thought I'd do something new... We barely see each other, and it's almost always at home. So, when Louie told me about Carlos Celdran's Manila tours, we immediately signed up for his Livin' La Vida Imelda tour of the CCP complex.

I'm not going to disclose info in this entry... he said things that are pretty much best experienced firsthand, meaning from Carlos himself. But I was saying "Whoa!" and "Really?!" and "I didn't know that!" at every revelation. It was a great, informative and even slightly scandalous tour. :D

I didn't take so many pictures coz I wasn't sure I was 'allowed' so here are the few pics I sneaked...From L-R, Carlos in front of the PICC reflecting pools, a nostalgic look at the PICC where I graduated, and Carlos with Hitler's picture... you'll have to attend his tour to find out why that pic is in an Imelda Marcos themed tour. :)

Having enjoyed the first tour, I dragged Tere to the 'If These Walls Could Talk' Intramuros tour. Since I can still pretty much remember my Philippine history (thank you Sir Azor!), there weren't too many 'revelations' here. But I did get a new perspective on how I saw Manila, and a different view on Spanish-Filipino history, American-Filipino history and World War II. And taking a peek inside Casa Manila and how life was lived during the Spanish era? It's really an experience.

The front of the San Agustin Church from different angles (Tere took these pics... kaya maarte) :) The San Agustin Church was the only church that survived the bombings of WWII.

Posing with free Chocnut in Father Blanco's garden...

Carlos as he talks about the time the Americans came to Manila...

And then we went inside the San Agustin crypt while Carlos talked about World War II, and how we were caught in the middle of a war that wasn't even ours to begin with. And how thousands of people were massacred during that siege, including the hundreds buried in the crypt plus the priests who were stacked one on top of the other on the monument seen in the middle pic. What's weird is... all the pictures we took inside the crypt, and I mean all, had this hazy, blurry quality in them... creepy.

Inside the San Agustin Church.. Notice the 3D like appearance of the murals on the ceiling? They're actually just paintings made to look like, well, 3-dimensional. :)

..and the tomb of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, first Spanish Governor General of the Philippines.

Lastly, we crossed the street over to Casa Manila, where the tour took a more lighthearted tone again. Pictures weren't allowed inside the Casa Manila, but it showed a very Pinoy looking home... with eclectic design patterns from French cabinets, to wood furniture, Chinese bowls, chairs that didn't match...made me think of my own 'eclectic' house.

I really enjoy tours with Carlos Celdran because not only are they entertaining, but also because they add a different perspective to what we see as 'ordinary'. It's weird that I had to travel so far away to realize we have our own little treasures here as well. And we don't need to go to Boracay or Bohol, we don't even need to leave the city! Even the buildings, structures and streets of Manila have their stories to tell, and it's just great that Carlos Celdran in his own way, is making these stories heard, to the people who need to hear them most.

Visit Carlos Celdran's site for Tour Dates and other information. :)

Ten Things : Tagged by Jeng

BTW, I'm home :D Been busy...and I still have some major updates to post... but first, Jeng tagged me on Multiply to post ten random things about me. :) So I felt 'obliged' to put up my own list before posting my updates.

First, the rules:

• Each blogger starts with ten random facts/habits about themselves.
• Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their ten things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose ten people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don't forget to leave them a comment telling they're tagged, and to read your blog.
  

Now the facts:

1. I have really bad eyesight. Yeah, I know most people know already, but I mean it's reaaaallly bad. :D I wear uber thick glasses, until I graduated college, and only wore contacts when I started working.

2. One of my friend's dubbed me as a 'goldfish', he says it's coz I have a memory span of about 3 seconds...well I don't agree! Wait, what were we talking about?

3. I can't draw to save my life. Let's just say I'm more into performing arts rather than the actual "arts" arts.

4. Back in elementary, I was able to maintain good grades without even trying, but I got addicted to pocketbooks during 5th grade. To the point that I read during class hours! This of course, caused my grades to slip and got kicked out of the honors class. The books I read? Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High, Sweet Dreams, RL Stine and Christopher Pike books. But I managed to get my act together and finished High school with several awards. :D

5. I'm a cynical person... I just hide it well.

6. I've always loved computers, probably influenced by the thought that 'hackers are cool'... and I was one of the early adopters of the Internet in Manila... I had the whole alternate identity, my own website, cyber-buddies, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, whatevers...yeah, I was (and still am) a geek. Don't judge me! My BFFs Jeng and Reyn were all into it too! Now I use the internet solely for 'research' and blogging purposes. :D

7. It's easy for me to fall in love... and when I do, I fall hard. But then, it's also easy for me to fall out of love, if there is such a thing.

8. When I was a kid, I wanted to be the President of the Philippines... or Ms. Universe. Go figure. Now I wouldn't want anything to do with any of them. :P

9. I was a bit of an athlete when I was young, or maybe I was just more active... I was a serious swimmer, I played volleyball, badminton, table tennis... Now, the only exercise I get is from walking in malls. Oh, and the occasional Aikido practice, hehe. :P

10. In grade school, I used to 'fake' illnesses to get out of classes. Sometimes, I would pretend to have a fever, curl up under my blanket to make sure I was warm so when my yaya would wake me up I could feign a high temperature. Or sometimes, I would pretend I had a really bad cold by slathering myself with Vick's... or I would stand in front of the aircon/fan... so I would feel clammy. :)) Yeah... those were the days. And sometimes during I would skip class by pretending to get a headache, sometimes with tears in my eyes... I did this often to my Filipino class. But I was so good at it, my teachers didn't suspect a thing. Oh I'm sure my parents knew, but I got good enough grades for them not to mind. :)

Anyway... those are the 10 things I decided to share. There's more, if you would care to get to know me better, hehe.

And here's the people I'm tagging. I hope some of you have time to finish this, I found it interesting, especially when I thought back on the things that I used to do when I was younger:
Mich, Louie, Jong, Jun, Esti, Eric, Tere, Reyn, Cindy, & Kat

The Paris Chronicles : Day 4

It's taken me more than a month to complete this... but hey, better late than never. :)

Our last day itinerary includes the Arc de Triomphe, the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, Place de la Concorde and the Opera. We moved at a relatively relaxed pace, just taking in the city and enjoying the limited time we had left in Paris.

We stayed at the Hilton Arc de Triomphe, as the name suggests, this was in very close proximity to the Arc de Triomphe. :)

The Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris, France that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, also known as the Place de l'Étoile (Star Square). It is at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. The arch honours those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. On the inside and the top of the arc there are all of the names of generals and wars fought. Underneath there is the tomb of the unknown soldier. --Wikipedia

It was very cold and windy, and the wind would rush at us from all directions.The Arc stands at an overwhelming 165 feet in height and a 148 feet wide. I uploaded a vid of how big and majestic this landmark is. You'll notice my voice shaking slightly from the cold. :)

Then, we made our way to the Grand and Petit Palais, which stood right in front of each other, with the Invalides at the top. Like an upside down U, with the Grand Palais on the right, the Petit Palais on the left and the Invalides in the middle. The pics below are of the Grand Palais, the monuments with the gold statues are from the Invalides.

On our way to the Petit Palais, we took time to take a picture with a statue of Winston Churchill.

The Petit Palais, a museum right across the Grand Palais. I was more impressed with this structure, mainly because of the 'gold gates' pictured below.

Then, we took another long walk and headed over to the Place de La Concorde. This place had a gruesome history, probably most famous for being the place where Marie Antoinette was publicly executed via guillotine.

During the French Revolution the statue of King Louis was torn down and the area renamed "Place de la Révolution". In a grim reminder to the nobility of a gruesome past, when the "Place de Grève" was a site where the nobility and members of the bourgeoisie were entertained watching convicted criminals being dismembered alive, the new revolutionary government erected the guillotine there. The first notable to be executed at the Place de la Révolution was King Louis XVI, on January 21, 1793. Other important people guillotined there, often in front of cheering crowds, were Queen Marie Antoinette, Madame Élisabeth, Charlotte Corday, Madame du Barry, Danton, Desmoulins, Lavoisier, Robespierre and Saint Just. --Wikipedia

At the center of the square stood a huge obelisk. This an authentic Egyption obelisk, which is one of Cleopatra's needles (which is according to Wikipedia, misnamed since it has no relation to the Egyptian queen). The other two needles are in London and in New York. Here we stopped and rested for a few minutes, the pic below shows us gamely posing while looking out at the huge plaza.

After the Place de la Concorde, we stopped by Jardin Tuileries, however, there wasn't much to see, because there were still no flowers... another place I'll return to when I go back (if given the chance).

Our last stop was the Paris Opera, or to be more specific the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique. Although I wasn't able to go inside, I was still impressed by the outside facade. Who wouldn't? From Haydn to Bach, and Mozart to Beethoven, the outside of the opera house boasted the names of the most famous of the classical masters

For lunch, we were trying to find this restaurant that was owned by a chef... can't really remember the name anymore. We looked for hours for this place, even ended up in a street that boasted sex shops at every corner! It was funny, we asked a couple of policemen if they could point us to the restaurant, but we obviously murdered their language coz they couldn't understand a word we were saying. By 2PM, we were just so hungry we settled on eating at this brasserie (which I can't recall again). I had steak, and a strawberry milkshake, with Camembert cheese for dessert. :)

We were supposed to continue our last day in Paris with a few more stops, however, it rained hard, and we were all very tired, we decided to head on back, and get ourselves ready for our flight back to Bratislava.

And then it was time to go home... it was a nostalgic feeling, riding the bus back to Orly airport. I know I'll be back in this city... I'm just not sure when. But I will go back. Definitely the most beautiful city I've seen as of yet.

The Paris Chronicles : Day 3

Tama ba namang makalimutan ko na agad ang pinuntahan namin? :P

Day 3 in Paris doesn't include Arc de Triomphe yet. For this day, we visited the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Pantheon, Invalides, Diana's Flame and the Eiffel Tower at Night.

Our first stop? The Statue of Liberty.

Then, we went to the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to go up the tower but the crowds of people was just overwhelming! We knew we wouldn't be able to go anywhere if we waited. So we just had to be content with taking pictures from ground level.

Then, being Easter Sunday, we went to hear mass at Notre Dame... or at least tried to. Like the Eiffel Tower, this place was mobbed with people... Tip: Don't go here when mass is being held, and if you want a solemn mass, I wouldn't suggest the church either. I was disappointed... but still, you can't deny the grandeur of the Notre Dame.

Then we had lunch at this cafe near just to the side of Notre Dame, and the lasagna was delicious! Maybe I'll make a post just on food... but really, I loved it. And the hot chocolate? Mmmm....

Anyway, our next stop was the Pantheon. This mausoleum contains the remains of some of France's cultural greats, like Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie and Alexandre Dumas. There was actually an event going on when we arrived, volunteers were raising money for Cancer research. I bought a bag from a very nice, Frenchwoman who gave me a 'discount'. But now when I think about it, maybe I shouldn't have asked for a discount since it was for charity... oh well... habit I guess. :)

A few steps away from the Pantheon was the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, which contains the shrine of St. Genevieve's remains, the Patron saint of Paris. This is another beautiful church... I can't seem to get enough of them. The tomb of Blaise Pascal is also in this church, yes, that Pascal, who is regarded as the father of the modern computer.

Then, we went to Les Invalides. It's a series of buildings that are related to the military history of France. Unfortunately, we weren't able to go inside because the museum was already closed... we would have loved to see Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb, which is housed inside the Dome of the Invalides.

Afterwards, we passed by Diana's memorial, Liberty's flame... a memorial for Princess Di over the tunnels where she had the tragic accident that killed her and Dodi Al Fayed.

We then went back to Montmarte, to Sacre Coeur to buy souvenirs...This time, we rode the furnicular up instead of taking the stairs. Then we ate somewhere around the area, enjoying another great dinner in Paris. Then, we made our way back to the Eiffel Tower, which was impressive by day, but amazing by night... I can't explain how a steel structure could be so beautiful! It was overwhelming. And when the light show started, Marbi, Jess and I couldn't help but scream out loud of excitement! It was that amazing!
To end this post, take a look at the video of the Eiffel Tower Light Show... I swear, my camera doesn't do it any justice. I was really, really blown away by the Eiffel Tower... and I can't help but say it again and again. :) Enjoy!