EATS: Starbucks ~ Greenbelt 3

For our first trip at the Greenbelt, we stopped by to get some drinks at Starbucks.

I got a Strawberry and Cream Frappuccino (No coffee, 'cuz I don't like it with coffee) while my mom and my sister got a Chocolate Chip Frappucino.

We also got our drinks with a Chocolate Glazed Doughnut (for me) and a Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie (for my sister).

It looked more high-quality in my phone. Sorry!

My frappuccino tasted really good at the start, until I found out that it didn't fully mix, so the strawberry syrup stayed to the bottom of my glass, leaving me with a less-fruity (and therefore less awesome) taste once I got to the middle of my drink. It was practically just milk and a faint taste of berry when I was at the middle. I got a great *burst* of fruit and milk goodness at the start of my drink, but not when I was halfway. Kinda like winter?

Strawberry to the left :D

For the doughnut, it tasted really creamy, but there wasn't enough chocolate. Or I'm just a hardcore chocolate lover. Who knows?

This is literally my second (if not my first) trip to Starbucks. So don't judge me as I judge their ambience.

The place was really comfy and gives off a nice, relaxed vibe to it. Christmas music was still playing (as this was experienced about two days before Christmas eve), and the smell of butter croissants baking in their kitchen delightfully gave me a grin on my face that was wiped off the exact time the strawberry syrup was wiped off out of my Frappuccino. The staff was very welcoming! Even the security guard occasionally comes in to the building and says "good morning"! No joke!

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Public Library of Stockholm

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Greenbelt Mall

Our trips to Manila for our vacation here in the Philippines frequently end up here, in Greenbelt Mall, so I think it's about time I give you some insight about it.

Greenbelt is a shopping mall in Manila, and (from what I understand) is kinda separated to Greenbelts 1 through 5. Each part of the Greenbelt houses different kinds of services.

Based from Wikipedia, Greenbelt 1 features hardware stores and stores that sell home appliances, while Greenbelt 3 and 4 feature international brands (like Topman, Hermes, Calvin Klein...) and boutiques of the high-end quality (such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Prada) respectively. Filipino boutiques can be found on Greenbelt 5. Most of the "parts" of the Greenbelt have some eating options, both sit down and fast food.

One of the many entrances of Greenbelt 4.

The mall is very popular to the public. It's not as popular like the Alabang Town Center when it organizes major discounts and "perfect for haul" days where lots of shops have freebies and even half to 70% off discounts, but I have seen lots of people gather around it's clothing stores and its make-up shops.

Greenbelt also features a chapel, which adds to the popularity of the place. The chapel sparks a "nature-theme" because of the GREEN around it.  Also, the gardens near the chapel contains a koi pond and some sculptures (I really think they're sculptures. It's gonna be awkward if they're not) like this one:

Behind the sculpture is the Greenbelt Chapel.

Also, the chapel is near to a walk filled with coffee places like Starbucks and Seattle's Best Coffee!

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EATS: Jollibee @ Festival Mall

Ahhh Jollibee. If you roam around the streets of Manila, there's a 90% chance of you spotting one or two (or four, or twelve...), Jollibee is the most iconic Philippine fast food chain. It serves fried chicken, burgers, sandwiches and even pasta. 

We went to the Jollibee at the Festival Mall's fourth floor. No doubt, it was really busy. If you're living in Scandinavia, Jollibee is as busy, if not much more busier than Jensen's Böfhus. 

So they're famous for their Chickenjoy, which to me is a really weird name for fried chicken. My sister had this. 

I had the Burger Steak! They're basically two burger patties smothered with some kind of special gravy and a bit of mushrooms. The patties were "eh". I needed more gravy and mushrooms though.

Some fries on the side. There fries are really good because their long and crispy. Highly recommend!

Honestly, Jollibee is just one of those things that you need to experience when you're going to Manila, or the Philippines. Just get some fries and a Coke or whatever, and just experience the atmosphere. I really don't know if you'll like or hate the atmosphere, but as long as you experienced it. 

***

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Festival Supermall

From panoramio.com

Currently (As of 3 January, 2014), Festival Mall is only composed of four floors, with an okay variety of shops, restaurants and kiosks. In my opinion, it's outside looks unappealing in some areas. It has two of each supermarkets and hardware / shops, and a department store.

Also, 'till this day (date above), it's going through (what they call) "A facelift like no other" or some other thing like that, in order to expand the space, and maybe bring some new life to a mall that opened in 1998. 

What Festival Mall is today (3 Jan) is represented by the picture above.

Here's a picture of what Festival Mall would look life after their facelift:

From skyscrapercity.com

Based from the picture above, Festival Mall will look absolutely gorgeous from my perspective. I would say it would be more gorgeous than the Alabang Town Center.  

Back to it's features. The mall has two arcades, one of which contains a roller-coaster. Yes, a rollercoaster in a mall.

• Opinions

- I think that the mall is very child-friendly, because it does have attractions suited for children, such as a ride mocking a train going through various parts of the mall on the ground floor and a fun house on the third floor connected to an arcade, actually named Pixie Forest. 

- The mall has a numerous amount of fast food restaurants, if you're a person who likes to dine on fast food. However, I prefer the restaurants near the Alabang Town Center, which are more sit down and order than line and order before you sit down. 

- Finally, I think that the mall will be much more popular among the people when the renovation is done, and I can say that I am looking forward to go there when it is. 

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Group Bonding @ the Alabang Town Center {Timezone}

After 5 months in Stockholm, it was really good to meet The Group and have some fun! I see them almost every day back in the Philippines, so it'll be very good to meet them again.

On the picture is (from left to right) Yonits, Pauline (Pau), Sean (Mica), Michael and me.



We went to the Alabang Town Center! What I like about this mall is that it's really big (for me), and that it has lots of "natural elements" to it. It has an open area in the mall which is a nice touch for like, sitting down and thinking about your life (there's a coffee shop right next to the open area, so think about your life while downing a latte).

The main mall building has a whole lot of shops, may it be electronic, restaurants, bookstores, kiosks (which often sell tees, shirts, etc), and et cetera. There's also a food court, a 7-11, a movie theatre, and a lazer tag center.

 

The Open Area @ The Alabang Town Center

Photo from panoramio.com 

We spent most of our time in Timezone, which is an arcade on the topmost floor of the Alabang Time Center. 

Timezone has lots of ticket redemption games, claw machines {spoiler: they never let you win} and they even have karaoke stations! You're required to load up a card and swipe the card on the swiping things on the machine you want to play. 

Our experience was really fun! Yonits and Pau really enjoyed DJ Teknika while Michael didn't even come close to 6,000 points in the Temple Run arcade game... I enjoyed Slam a Winner, cause it was a piece of cake to get 100 tickets.

Everybody clearly enjoyed the karaoke booth! {The topmost picture was us in the booth}

We ended the bonding with a dreadfully long walk to the open area shown above and to Jollibee for a sundae.

The 1st group bonding was (In my opinion), the best one we had. This was fun though, nonetheless! Looking forward to meet y'all again!

This post has a clue on the Big, Huge, Gigantic, Fat, Fantastic Surprise on the 19th of Jan!

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~~

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The Filipino New Years

Happy first day of 2014 people! How was your new years?

So to start the year off, I want to give y'all an insight (if you're not a Filipino) on what we Filipino people do on New Year's Eve. As always, these are superstitions that most of us follow.

Pancit. Photo from: vicenticos.com

• Eat Pancit. Pancit are just noodles. Filipinos call them differently, I think because of the type of pasta used and the meats and such served with the pasta. They believe that this represents having a longer life. 

• 12 Spherical Fruits. Watermelons, oranges, a cantaloupe, grapes, et patati et patata. I know that each fruit represents a month of the year, but I don't exactly know the significance of the "fruit" or the "round-shaped" element of it. 

• Polka-Dotty Attire. Some families have parties on the actual New Years' Eve (like our family always does) and count down for New Years Day. It's very, very common to see people wearing polka dots, signifying prosperity and wealth for the incoming year. The dots represents coins. 

• Aim High. Children commonly believe that you need to jump as high as you can in the exact minute of midnight, because they believe that it'll make them taller. 

• Get These Dang Spirits Away From Me. Again, at the stroke of midnight of the 31st, people normally roam their house screaming, and activating all sorts of noisemakers, blowing all kinds of whistles and so on... They believe that it drags all the negative spirits away from it's house.

• Boom. Finally, we Filipinos enjoy paputok (firecrackers). They should be activated either before, exactly or just after midnight and goes on until morning. Or if you're in a really festive neighbourhood, it might go on for the next week or two. No kidding. (They might also go off a week or even three weeks before!) 

Hope y'all have a prosperous and long life, so don't forget to eat your pancit and wear those polka dotted tee! :) 

PHILIPPINE'S BLOG POSTS WILL BEGIN TOMORROW! 

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