Exploring Intramuros. Saint Malo, France

Shame on me but prior to this itinerary, I’ve never even heard of the island of Saint Malo. I was like, is that in England? Hehehe. So I did some very expensive research last night (internet rates on the ship is craaaazy) and found out that Saint Malo also has an Intramuros. The old city is surrounded by thick walls all around. It’s such a quaint little town with super narrow cobblestoned streets and old brick buildings.

I walked around mostly by myself although I did meet a lot of friends along the way. I just felt like being alone this afternoon. Living in the ship, I mean, I like it, but I must admit it can be quite claustrophobic sometimes: enclosed quarters and seeing the same people every day, I guess you’ll need a break sometime.

So I enjoyed walking around and exploring their walled city. It reminded me of another walled French city I’ve been to called Aigues Mortes. They’re both similar in the sense that you can almost feel the history of the place by just soaking in the surroundings. They’ve kept the same architecture but now of course the place is filled with shops and restaurants.

My heart almost skipped a beat when I entered this street filled with pastry shops, confectioneries and boulangeries. I could be here for days just trying to taste everything. I walked around a bit before I followed my nose and found this little shop called Maison Hector Gaufrerie and Sandwicherie. They had a beautiful display of the biggest beignets I’ve ever seen. Bigger than my face even. Lol. I knew I just had to get one. And may I just say that it was super rich and super delicious, filled to bursting with my favorite filling: Nutella. Yummy! Nothing could’ve made it better except for maybe some bananas. Heehee. But as much as I enjoyed that freshly fried beignet (it’s almost like a fancy French doughnut), I just couldn’t finish the whole thing. I did my best though.

So all in all, I had such a great day today. Who knew I would enjoy Saint Malo so much when I’d never even heard of it before? There’s a lot of truth in that statement about how the best things in life can come from the unexpected.  

 isn't this the cutest post office building ever?

 huge stacks of nutella on the 2nd floor. forget about robbing a bank, how bout here instead?

 lookit my huge beignet! bigger than my face noh? :)

I AMsterdam

I’ve had fond memories of Amsterdam when I came here five years ago with my cousin Gigi. I remember going to the Anne Frank house and wonder of wonders, I found out that her full name is actually the same as mine. Annelise. Pretty cool, eh?

So this time, I only had two hours to explore the city. Good thing we were docked right behind their old train station so it was only about a 20 minute walk to get the central part of the city.

I generally just shopped around and took a bazillion pictures. Here are some of the good ones.

 coffee shops everywhere. ;p

hey, i've been here before. :)

 lots and loooots of bikes

 my fave blue boys including junjun lord who i knew from when i was a kid. :)

I heart Scotland, two times. :D

Scotland is one of my mostest favoritest place that I’ve ever been to. I think there’s really something special about the sexy Scottish accent, the kilts, the eerie bagpipes or maybe the magnificent lochs, but it is one beautiful country.

I didn’t think I’d get to see it again for some time but fortunately, our itinerary in this Voyage of the Vikings cruise included Invergordon, Scotland, a town right by Inverness where you can find the Loch Ness and who knows, maybe even the monster.

Here are some pictures of me, Randy and Ronaldo and some of the other guys we met while hanging around town.

 you buy food, you be the bagger. lol. :)

 our snack of the day: potato chips (balsamic vinegar and caramelized onion flavor) and Carlo's favorite beer

The ship also docked at South Queensferry the following day. It’s a town near Edinburgh (only an 18 pound taxi ride away. Yikes.) I only planned on staying for a short while because we weren’t docked at the pier. Their pier was too small I guess for a ship the size of ours. So we set anchor a couple of miles at sea and you’d have to take the tender towards the mainland from the ship. It took like 15 minutes for a one way trip so it ate a lot of my short break time.

I met up with Ronaldo again and we strolled around their village with my newfound friend, Frederick, who works with Ronaldo in the garde manger or appetizer kitchen. I was insistent on some fish and chips. Hey, can’t visit Scotland without eating a steaming batch, right? And can I just say, YUMMY!! Freshly battered and deep fried filets of haddock with fries (which they call chips) smothered with their special brown sauce and lots of salt of course.

South Queensferry was such a pretty and quaint little town. They didn’t have too many traffic signals, instead, they had a lot of one lane two way streets where cars took turns passing. It was super cute. Check out our pictures. My favorites include the ones taken with the Fort Rail bridge (the red one) in the background.

me and Ronald on the tender

someday, i want a house with a chimney like one of these. :)

lookie how narrow their streets are. :D

FISH AND CHIpS!!

my fave shot. thanks Ronald. :)

purple cguro ang fave color sa tag-iya. heehee. kyoot.

this is how far away the ship was anchored.

with some of my favorite blue boys

Bye Scotland, I'll see you again soon. :)