Some of my Travels from the First Half of 2025

A lot of changes in my life this year and it kicked of at the first week of the year when I found out that the position I applied to in the organization, despite how far it is from my previous positions and also having zero background on the field, was offered to me. I was super excited and cannot believe it myself! I still am very happy and grateful 4 months after since I started last May though still on this crazy journey of being new to the position and to the workload.

But having said that, I would first like to thank my dearest blog friends for their support from my last couple of posts, and giving me the motivation and advises that I need and will treasure with me as I move forward. But this time, it's about looking back and sharing you some photos from my trips in the past months since the year started.

Kampong Glam, Singapore - January 2025

SINGAPORE - I was so happy when I found a promo fare going home to the Philippines with Singapore Airlines. Normally this airline is very expensive but after tracking cheap fares daily at the second half of the year last year, I stumbled upon this opportunity! Of course, just as I usually do on my layovers home, I looked for an itinerary that has a long layover so that I can visit the connecting city and that's how I end up on the Lion City for 12 hours!

Iloilo City, Philippines - February 2025

ILOILO, PHILIPPINES - I was home at the beginning of the year. Gratefully, I try to go home once every year to see my father. As much as I really feel that Spain is my home now, being able to have the opportunity to see my father and my family and also my childhood friends is deeply gratifying. For this trip, I took my father, my brother, and my cousin to an Island province 1 hour away from Manila by plane and we had a great time!

La Grotte de Choranche, France - March 2025

CHORANCHE, FRANCE - It was my very first Workshop for work just before I left my old team. So I was in Grenoble for a week and I stayed a few more days to spend time with my colleagues who live there who are also like family to me on this new life in Europe. My best friend and his wife and baby took me to this beautiful Cave in the Vercors mountains. It was so amazing and beautiful! I-m afraid of caves in the Philippines but this one it was lovely and dry when we visited.

Perpignan, France - April 2025

PERPIGNAN, FRANCE - This trip was a quickly planned weekend because it was Good Friday and I had nothing to do in Barcelona so I decided to buy a bus ticket just nights before the trip and it was great! Perpignan can be doable on a day trip from Barcelona but I stayed for a night just to make the most of the long weekend. Here you will see my VLOG Episode from my YouTube Channel that I filmed during my stay in Perpignan. You'll see more of me on this adventure and hope you enjoy the episode! WATCH IT ON 4K!

Bologna, Italy - June 2025

BOLOGNA, ITALY - To celebrate my birthday, I am so thankful to my best friend Ervis who is like a real brother to me. He was my teammate from my last position and even if we parted ways at work, he's always been there for me! He took me with him on his trip back home to Albania and we did the drive from France to Albania for 5 amazing days! This one was from our first stop in Bologna enjoying a giant cold beer (I asked him for just the smallest one!) in the plaza. Bologna was so beautiful!

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It has been so nice to share these memories and adventures to you and it was also shocking for me to look back and see how much places and journeys I have done in just this year and that still does not include the remainder of our trip through the Balkans and my adventure in Romania last month! 

I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I was when writing it and I wish you all an amazing week ahead! Work starts again soon but I still have a few hours to enjoy the rest of Sunday and I hope I won't be able to think of work thoughts all the time before tomorrow morning!

Never Stop Remembering!

Stevenson

Vic

About 70 kilometers north of Barcelona is the city of Vic. Just a little bit more than an hour by train from Barcelona Sants, this city has an iconic plaza that has been preserved through the ages. It is located in the plains and is perfectly in the center of the Coasts of Barcelona and the Pyrenees range thus giving it a very special climate and vegetation that makes its winters a lot colder than most of Barcelona province.

I went there on a weekend of May, just for a day trip as part of my New Place Sundays. (Which I haven't done in the past two weeks now because I fell ill but I'm getting better now little by little). It was a quiet city especially since I went there on a Sunday where everything is expected to be closed here in Spain.

    
Stores line up on beautiful medieval alleys

Vic also has a prominent university wherein Spanish students and even from neighboring countries chose to take their degrees. It was once a big textile producer just like other cities in the Barcelona province, but now this industry is slowly fading away if not completely. But one of my favorite sausages, the fuet which is a thin cured pork sausage is being manufactured mostly here.

    
Some interesting signs I saw around the city, including a cafe with my name.

Just another amazing city very close to Barcelona. Truly, the region that I am living in boasts a lot of beautiful sights and colorful culture that is both distinctly their own and at the same time, distinctly Catalan. I feel really blessed to call this region my new home.

Leaving you this post with a photo of me on the city's iconic square, thanks to a group of students who passed buy and were kind to take this solo traveler's photo.

Never stop taking pictures!
Stevenson

Girona

Catedral de Santa María de Gerona

Girona is located 100 kilometers north-east of Barcelona. It has its own Airport but you can reach this beautiful city by train from major stations in Barcelona in an hour and a half. As it is located in between Barcelona and the French border, visitors not just from Spain and Catalunya but also from France make this a popular destination.

In my case, I rode the earliest train from Barcelona Sants that took me straight to the French border city of Cerbère. All of it in another post but the bottomline is, I went to Girona just as a side trip on my way back from France.

Estació de Girona

I arrived 2 hours late than intended because our train got stranded just a good 20 kilometers before Girona due an accident with the train that went first than us. But it was not that bad because I was able to have time to read my book and also it was still a bit early. But upon arriving, I was greeted by the nice (and cooled) Girona train station. So I tried to purchase my tickets back to Barcelona and then moved forward

Pro Tip: When doing a spontaneous weekend trip, upon arriving to your destination without yet an outgoing ticket to your next destination or in my case, home - best to buy your tickets in advance before leaving the train station if possible. This will save you time and anxiety as you can plan when you need to be at the station for your outgoing train.

   

My room for a night at Girona

I was supposed to do just a day trip but hearing a number of people telling how nice Girona is, I thought I'd stay a night. I booked the cheapest thing in Booking.com and I saw Residència Universitaria Pare Claret. It looks simple and clean, as long as it has a private bathroom and an AC in this hot Spanish Summer, it's a deal for me. And I was happy with my booking, especially mentioning again the AC!

Residència Universitaria Pare Claret

Rda. Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 28

17002 Girona

So after a shower because it was an extremely humid August afternoon, I set foot to the old city. This "modern" part of the city is separated from the historic quarters by the river Onyar.

Riu Onyar

Even from here I can see the medieval buildings already which excited me so much. It was a Saturday afternoon and there were quite a crowd but not Barcelona afternoon level. I wanted to go to the Cathedral as it is one of the filming locations of the Game of Thrones Series which I followed since it aired its second season.

The Facade of the Cathedral of Girona

This beautiful cathedral was really enormous! It is so beautiful that it was the chosen location to depict the Great Sept of Baelor on HBO's The Game of Thrones series. I had to use my phone's 0.5 lens just to capture it from bottom to top thus the distortion but still I love the photo that I shared it with you. 

It is also known as the Cathedral of Saint Mary of Girona and is a Roman Catholic church that was and completed in the early 18th century. But it has a long traced history dating back to the 6th century before it was transformed into a mosque by the Islamic conquest of Iberia. 

Sant Martí de Girona

Another place on my list was Sant Marti de Girona. Honestly, this is my favorite place in Girona. The reason is that one of my favorite Filipino Movies had scenes filmed in Girona and one of those iconic locations was this one. I mean, it's both grand and romantic at the same time right? And to be able to see it in my eyes was very touching for me.

Just like on the movie, the base of the dividing staircase is a busy café with summer chairs and tables and I wanted to see it without all the other tourists (which I successfully achieved the next morning when I decided to visit it again).

   

But of course, what summer getaway would ever be complete without some ice cream! There's a lot of ice cream shops around the city but I chose this cute shop Roli Gelateria not just because it has a high rating in Google Maps, but because the interiors were cute. Good thing I did because the crew were very nice (as you can see I did not feel shy to ask my photo to be taken) and I felt a bit adventurous that day to try new flavors. I opted for a scoop of Speculoos and another of Lime. I never had Lime ice cream and I tell you, Roli's lime flavor is amazing! I highly recommend Roli when you visit Girona!

Roli Gelateria

Carrer de Santa Clara, 3

17001 Girona

Catalan Architecture

Overall, my trip to Girona was a very good one! I can confidently say that it is my favorite place in the region of Catalunya, well of course next to my Barcelona. People are nice and chill and there's a lot of things to see, flavors to taste, and memories to make! These are moments when a side-trip became a very good destination which you are sure to visit again in the future.

Never Sleep on Sidetrips,

Stevenson

Garraf

Located south west of Barcelona, Garraf is a 45-minute train ride from Sants Station. It is a quaint seaside town but boasts stunning blues - both the sky and the sea. There's a small bay where people enjoy the beach and walking further west is a Marina where you can enjoy the breeze in a very quiet spot.

      

I went there in Spring so the weather was perfect, spent just a few hours to take pictures and enjoy a new town just outside home. I did not see any big restaurants or hotels on the stretch I walked by but it was a very cute place.

Never Stop Exploring Small Towns!

Stevenson

Pictures from Verona

Last June, my teammate from work who became one of my bestest friends, let me tag along on his trip home to his country by land so that I could also celebrate my birthday with him because he's basically like family to me. For the first stop of our 4 day drive to the Balkans, we stopped at Verona. It was a quiet city compared to the big giants like Roma, Milano, or Venezia but it was really beautiful!

Here are some pictures from my camera - unprocessed and unaltered - that I would love to share with you all from the City of Love!

“There is no world without Verona walls,

But purgatory, torture, hell itself.

Hence banished is banish'd from the world,

and world's exile is death.

Fes through my Nikon Z 30

Just a short note to say thank you to everybody who sent me kind words with regards to my photographs and stories regarding my last few posts about my trip to Morocco. Here's a few more shots but this time through my camera. I am a very lazy guy to bring something extra such as a camera when everything can be done through the smart phone, but sometimes it just does more magic when you have it on your neck right? All of these are taken using my Nikon Z 30 with just the kit lens.

ISO1100 36mm f4.2 1/125s

ISO450 24mm f3.5 1/125s

ISO900 24mm f3.5 1/125s

ISO640 24mm f3.5 1/125s

A Walk thorough Time in Fes

Walking around this beautiful city is a marvel on its own. It's like you just entered a portal to a millennia past, and that you are the hero inside that era. I did not have guns or swords, just my camera and my self. Experiences like these make me realize that time will come and I won't be rich - will never have cars or luxury bags to flex and keep, but I will always have memories that will never be stolen nor will ever fade, and with that, truly money (and time) well spent.

    

    

    

    

Fes - Morocco's Cultural Capital

Morocco is quite known to Filipino travelers like me as it is one of the countries that are kind enough to accept our weak passport for tourism. But also known to most Filipinos is how hard it is to travel all the way to Africa, without passing through either Middle East or Europe, which of course is not visa-free for us Filipinos. So together with this blessing of my new life in Spain, is the opportunity to fly just 2 hours and see this beautiful country.

Honestly, it was a very spontaneous trip for me because I did not plan this at all. I just thought that I really need a week vacation to spend summer just anywhere. Initially I thought about the Spanish cities of Valencia and Alicante, but the cost to travel there is just the same or even more than going outside of the Iberian peninsula. And then at google flights, there it was - Fes.

It was the cheapest Flight I could see in such a short amount of time left to depart. But I forgot about it's big consequence - the 45 degrees celsius kind of days. Well of course that did not stop the adventurer in me so I flew to my 30th country.

Coming out of the plane, I was slapped by how hot the weather was. 45 degrees really was no joke, but it was dry air unlike in the Philippines and even in Barcelona where humidity was high so it was not super bad and draining. Good thing the airport was air-conditioned well so it was a relief while waiting for Passport Control. It took almost half an hour just for our flight alone but it was nice because the immigration police were very welcoming and very happy to know I came all the way from the Philippines to visit their country.

I made sure I exchanged some money so it will not be hard anymore. Before we usually do the exchanges on the city of anywhere I visit, but in this case I opted to exchange it all in the airport just for convenience. But a lot of shops and restaurants accept Euro as payment but I suggest you still exchange your Euros into Dirhams for better conversion. 

Me and my friend from Fez Fresh Juice Bar

My first impression of the city was a very good one, mainly because of its locals. Everyone was smiling, greeting, and welcoming you verbally and around he environment. Yes, there are some hustlers who will pretend to stop you going in the wrong way but it's quite easy to distinguish who are those from the kind and welcoming locals. I felt like I was back in the Philippines with all the happy and hospitable energy that surrounded me.

To battle the heat, I saw this juice bar and it was like an oasis in the middle of the dessert! The drinks were cold (but better drink it fast because it warms up so fast as well!) and all made from fruits that they juice themselves right in front of you. 

Inside the Medina it was very nice. There were two main streets that will lead you through the city from end to end but be sure to stay close to these two streets because the old city is a real labyrinth and it is very easy to get lost. 

The whole streets reminded me so much of the world of Aladdin with the colorful souk and so much things being sold - honestly everything that you can think of can be found and bought there. But of course, Fez specialties are the ones that stands out - ceramics, leather, brass, and argan.

This is just the first part of my Morocco series and I really wish to write more in the coming days to share you all about my adventure and of course, photographs that I took from this very picturesque old world. There's still so much I would like you to see including a day trip to the famous Blue City, and of course, some tasty moroccan dishes that I tried.

Never Stop Exploring,

Stevenson