This week we had a really fun meeting here in the Philippines. In addition, we have started making new travel plans in the country, and we finally remember to show film number 4. Happy Friday!
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A fun meeting
Many years ago we interviewed Katarina Söderberg, a long-time resident of the Philippines, about her commitment to a school on the island of Bohol. "We follow each other on Instagram, and we knew she was coming to the Philippines again. But we didn't know if we would be able to organise a meeting. When we thought she was there, we sent a message and Katarina replied "I'm in Tagbilaran right now". And where were we? Well, in Tagbilaran for some shopping ...
Tagbilaran is the main town on the island Bohol, and is close to the touristy island of Panglao where we were staying at the time. We had rented a moped to check out the city, and maybe do some shopping, and were in a mall when Katarina texted her reply. "Shall we have lunch together?"
All said and done. Katarina and her Filipino friend Esther met us at a restaurant in Tagbilaran for lunch. Great fun to meet, and very interesting to hear about Katarina's experiences!
New travel plans
We have spent some time in Bohol and Panglao, which belongs to the province of Bohol. Here we have checked out various sights, such as The chocolate hills, ghost animals and "Mirror of the World", but we also took it easy and did a lot of work.
This trip did not turn out as intendedand of course there are many different feelings about it. That we planned such a long trip to the Philippines was connected to a writing project that we planned together with our friends, and which sadly did not work, even though we put a lot of time and emotion into it. Now we had to find new goals, but you just have to bite the bullet and go for it!
We have some time left in the Philippines, and now that we're here, we want to use the time to see and experience interesting places. We are therefore planning a really exciting "final sprint". In order for everything to come together, we have to spend a lot of time planning and booking routes and experiences. Sometimes we run into challenges (like when it was only possible to pay online with Philippine bank or the Philippine digital wallet GCash), but in the end everything works out. Happy Friday!
Easter
Now Easter is here, and Easter is a big holiday in the Philippines. As we understand, much is celebrated in the church, so we don't think we will notice much more than that much will be closed, but we will see. In any case, we wish you a really nice Easter weekend!
Below you'll find some Easter reading. If you want to look for Easter eggs - and at the same time win a trip to lovely Poland - we can recommend the following sites Polish Tourist Office egg hunt!
Film number 4
You may know that Peter edits films about our travels, which are also published on the After Work TV. The last one (film number 4) I (Helena) would have published here on FREEDOMtravel already. former Friday, but I forgot... Here it is!
Best this week
The best part of this week? That we have pulled ourselves together and started planning how to utilise our remaining time in the Philippines. It will be exciting, we can promise!
And for you, what has been the most positive aspect of your week?
The week ahead
In the coming week, there will be reports from Panglao and Bohol. There will also be guest reports from an interesting country in Europe, and maybe even about an exciting country outside Europe if there is time. Soon we will of course also tell you about our further travel plans!
Did you miss the last Happy Friday? Read the We've left the boat Dotche - new adventures await us
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Ditte says:
How nice that it was so good to meet Katarina and she has great and broad experiences from the Philippines after having lived here for a long time - And it was precisely when Katarina lived in the Philippines and we in Beijing that I found her blog. Now I follow her on Instagram.
Wishing you now a continued nice stay and travel even though the plans you had from the beginning did not work out.
07 April 2023 - 15:43
Helena says:
Yes, really nice that we could meet! And thank you so much! Wishing you a nice Easter!
08 April 2023 - 14:46
BP says:
So nice to see your film! The islands remind more and more of the Robinson Islands in Malaysia, but also of "Murder in Paradise". A great adventure. What is the difference between the islands - really?
Fun with a lunch "in town". Laughing at the huge portions of rice. When you get home, there will probably not be rice for a while - or;-)
Didn't realise you had a writing project going on with your friends. What happened next? Is/was it a travelogue or...?
07 April 2023 - 17:58
Helena says:
I'm glad you liked the film! What makes the islands different? Well, there are lots of islands... There are many similarities, but also differences. Some have sandy beaches, others are more rocky. On some, lots of people live very close together, on others there are only palm trees and accommodation for tourists, One island (where we could not stay with the boat) was very special because it is basically a reef, and people more or less live on stilts.
Rice? Yes, they like it here 🙂 In some restaurants you can get "unlimited rice" for an extra money, and it is very popular! And yes, you could say that it was a kind of travelogue. I put a lot of time and commitment into it, so for me it felt sad that it did not work.
08 April 2023 - 14:55
Lena - good for the soul says:
It's so sad when plans don't turn out the way you intended. But, just break down and then bite the bullet, and things will work out in the end. Just in a different way. Looking forward to "keeping up".
The best thing for me, during last week, was that I suddenly got an extra day off. Soooo nice after a number of very long working days.
Hug Lena
10 April 2023 - 8:58