The 20 Million (Swedish) Crown Painting

My mom, my sister and I met with a nice Filipino lady the other day and took us to her nice and cozy apartment. After we took the little tour, she offered us some snacks and a strawberry drink. 

She then showed us this:

Nothing much, just a painting right? That's what I thought until I heard my mom's friend say "It's worth SEK 20,000,000". 

My jaw just dropped. How can this painting be worth so much? Is there something I missed? Some kind of hidden message I didn't get? Hmmmmm..... 

I know it isn't exactly travelling, but isn't it mind boggling? 

------ 

Remember to submit your travelling ideas/experiences/tips to euansuarezblog@gmail.com! Or, click here to learn more. 

SHOUTOUTS:  Patricia Balla | Elleina Suarez | Leah Suarez   {thank you people!} 

READ MORE: Skansen - The Open Air Museum

READ MORE: The Stockholm Metro (Tunnelbana / Subway)

------

Read More

Travel To The Philippines! Part 2 - FOOD

Before you continue to read this post, make sure you read part one. Read part one here.

So in my previous blog post, I talked about the fun and exciting things you can do in your visit to the Philippines. Now, I shall talk about gastronomy!!

• Pan de Sal & Ensaymada

These are the most iconic Philippine breads. Pan de Sal is a simple, small bun. That's it. Just a small bun. Filipino's like this in the morning with some Dairy Creme (butter) or some Cheez Whiz (cheese spread). Ensaymada, on the other hand, is my favorite Philippine bread. It's basically like a brioche, but it's topped with cheese and sugar. Simply amazing. 

• Kwek-Kwek & Fishball

Now for the Philippine version of street food. Street food vendors typically have a bicycle with a cart that has everything needed for them to cook tons of varieties of street food. Fishball is a typical example. These are basically fish, flour and other stuff mixed together, before being deep-fried onto the cart of the vendor. These are very cheap indeed. 1 piece typically costs 50 Philippine cents, which is about a U.S penny. 

My personal favorite street food is Kwek-Kwek, which is basically a quail egg deep fried with an orange batter. I also like Tokneneng, which applies the same principle, but uses a normal sized egg. 

Tokneneng (image by ph.news.yahoo.com) 

• Batchoy 

Oh my God, Batchoy. One of the most awesome inventions of mankind. It's basically noodles, chicken stock, crushed pork cracklings and beef loin. I have nothing left to say. Batchoy -- best there is. You can buy these in some restaurants (mostly family owned). There are also some hawkers by the sidewalks, but I don't buy this from them... 

• Lumpiang Shanghai 

Another one of those things that you just need to try. It's basically pork mince, carrots and other vegetables mixed together, stuffed inside an edible spring-roll wrapper, wrapped and deep-fried. You can see this in most Philippine restaurants that have a predominant Filipino or Chinese menu. My family once went to this fast-food place in Tagaytay and I ate a whole serving of this. That's about 15 spring rolls as big as your ring-finger. 

• Turon 

This basically has the same method of cooking as Lumpiang Shanghai, but is stuffed with banana slices and is covered with brown rice before deep-fried. I really like this because it's a hot dessert, and is not typical. Recommend buying this from hawkers. If you do purchase some, make sure that there's a lot of brown sugar coating that is not burnt. Turon can be gross if the sugar is burnt. 

• Sago't Gulaman 

You know that craze "boba tea"? This is basically like boba tea, but replace the "boba" things with squares of gelatin. And the liquid is basically some kind of infusion of pandan leaves and brown sugar. I have a family relative from Cavite in the Philippines that makes this and the smell of the pandan infusion and the sugar drags you to the kitchen (literally and figuratively). Do not buy this from the street / street vendors.

Read More

Government Shutdowns are like Travelling Frustrations

So in the news, the United States is experiencing a government shutdown. Apparently, the shut down happened because of debts and stuff like that. I'm not quite updated with recent news, so I really don't know.

Everything in life can be treated as a challenge. Recently, we had problems with banking, thus lowering the chance of going to the Philippines on Christmas. The latter may be treated as a hindrance, a hurdle or an obstacle.

Whilst travelling, you're brain needs to "shut down" from all the hassle and stress from your day-to-day life. But sometimes, you can also "shut down" (literally and figuratively) from your travel, because of the actual stress you deal with travelling.

Travelling should be a leisurely past-time and not something that causes your brain to explode. Make the most out of your travelling and most importantly, plan ahead!

If you do come across some travelling frustrations and want to express your opinion against them, email me at euansuarezblog@gmail.com or click here to learn more.

Want to learn more about the United States' Debt Limit? Here's a video from one of my favorite YouTubers, C.G.P Grey. He does educational videos about all sorts of stuff.

 .

~~~~~~~~~~~
READ MORE: Stockholm's Public Library 

Read More