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Bonjour, Geneva!

October 28, 2011September 30, 2017 Tina 3 Comments

Also known as: The little city of Geneva

Our first stop for the mission was Geneva, not only because the mission volunteer for YFC Europe was based there, but also because the cheapest plane fare we could get was from Madrid to Geneva. After another day of “shopping” and booking tickets (for me to go to Vienna), two of the three mission groups headed to the Madrid Barajas airport for our flight to Geneva. As if to excite us further, we also met another WYD delegate in the airport who was going back home to Geneva and she started telling us about the different things we should do in the city. :)

Our Swiss Air flight was delayed, which I kind of didn’t mind even if I was separated from the group again (I have the worst luck with plane seats). I managed to get some reading done and also a nap, which helped a lot because we arrived in Geneva around midnight because of the delay. It was a short flight, but because of the travel stress, we were glad to get there. :)

We were all expecting it to be cold there — at least, colder than Madrid was — but alas, it wasn’t. Oh well.

The YFCs in Geneva picked us up from the airport and the couple coordinators for the area gave us a ride to go to our host home. Here’s an interesting part of our journey there. We arrived at Geneva, but our host home was actually across the French border. So in one night, we managed to be in three countries: Spain, Switzerland and France. Awesome. :)

We had late, late dinner at our host’s house, and I must say: Filipino hospitality extends even to the other side of the world. :) We were happy and full that night, even if I ended up sleeping by two in the morning to finalize the rest of the mission details. I also ended up rebooking my flight back from Geneva to Madrid so I can stay longer in Vienna — I thought it was only a 6-hour train ride from Vienna to Geneva…turns out it was 13. Heh. Ouch on the wallet!

geneva02 — Buenos dÃas, Ginebra … er, Francia!

Gracias, Madrid!

October 19, 2011June 7, 2014 Tina 1 Comment

Also known as: Madrid, the city that welcomed us for most of the trip

This post is a little over a month late — I apologize. Real life caught me in its grip and refused to let go. I still owe you guys like, a ton (or okay, five or so) entries about Europe. And so…here I am.

After the WYD festivities ended, we all had one more day to use up our free city passes and our unused food stubs from the past week. After a long night of figuring out our mission trip for the next weeks of our Europe trip (where I suddenly became one of the heads of our mission team) and booking our tickets, we all set out on a sunny Madrid summer Monday for a city tour. :)

I’m no expert in history or even tourism, and the fact that we had our city passes for free meant I really hardly got to experience Madrid in the most “rugged” way possible. We were only armed with a guide in our WYD pilgrim packs that lists the Top 20 places we should see in Madrid, which we attempted to visit. Attempted only, because the heat makes it really hard to go around. I think we managed to hit up to 8?

Anyway, photo dump up and comments up ahead! ((I’ve decided to quit putting the gigantic watermark on the images — it was tiring, and distracting. More subtle watermark from this post onward :P))

Here’s one thing I learned as we toured the city: the train systems are nice, but the best way to really experience and see Madrid is to ride the buses. The buses in the city are pretty efficient, and if you have a multiple-ride ticket for the metro, you’ll be able to use that for the buses, too. Oh, and they’re not like the buses here in Manila, too — they’re more of coasters with pretty comfortable seats and sometimes, Wifi. Interesting, yes?

We weren’t really sure were to head out first, so we just decided to ride a bus to Sol and figure stuff out from there. Of course, since it’s our first time to ride a bus to Sol and we were used to riding the metro, we weren’t sure where the bus would go. After some time, we decided to go down and we had no idea where we were going. But then we ended up here:

And it turns out to be the real start of our walking in Madrid adventure. :D

madrid01 — Cookie at Plaza de Espana — one side of it, that is :D

Because we’re hardcore like that

March 24, 2011December 19, 2012 Tina Leave a comment

Also known as: The epic pre-birthday Pinatubo trip

I wasn’t planning on any trip for the month of March because March is usually the busiest month of my year, being my birth month and all. But my best friend had other ideas and decided to invite us all to go trek to Mt. Pinatubo.

Like I said, I wasn’t really planning a trip, so I thought of passing on this one because I usually have to many things going during March. But after my friends started confirming that they were joining the trek, I realized that if I don’t go there now, I may never be able to go there again because the people I usually go on trips with have already gone. Of course, I can always go alone or I can find another group to go with…but it’s really so much fun to be with these people.

And so I went. It could be a pre-birthday trip.

Trust my luck that I was on midshift the night before. I got off work as early as I can, met up with Happy, stayed up late talking then headed to the meeting place at 3 in the morning. No sleep, all ready to trek.

I know, it sound like a very bad decision, right? Especially when they asked us if we wanted to go do the shorter 30-minute trek for with an additional fee and we refused. Come on! It’s supposed to be a trek! It’s supposed to be long, climbing rocks, crossing rivers and all that! We refuse to go the 30 minute trek — we want the 2-3 hour one! We’re hardcore!

Yep, kind of a bad decision.