Travels with My Toddler and New Philippine Tourism Website!

What’s happening now, mommy?

What’s that over there?

Where’s Opa’s house now?

You’re hungry now!

Daddy, the Polizei are behind us!

I knew all along, that the day would come, and now it finally has. Our little smiling, sometimes crying, always pooping baby has grown up and become a toddler-talking-machine.

Finding his way in-between adjectives, mixing up pronouns, and the complication of both languages, he is just as fluent in English as he is in German, and just as inquisitive.

You can imagine that this makes for very interesting road trip conversations—many of which, he is having with himself. Whether narrating what’s going on outside, or pestering us with questions, or singing to himself, there’s always something going on in that head of his.

And I’m glad for that. Since Karsten was three months old—no, since he was in my tummy—we have been on the road, in the air, in nearly every kind of public transportation mode possible in all (last count was seven countries), and he has fallen in love with traveling. (Read my article on What To Pack for Travel with a Baby, in Smart Parenting Online.)

This makes long journeys like the 28 hour drive we just did yesterday (Italy to Germany), so much more bearable. He sits comfortably in his car seat, with hardly a wiggle, enjoying the great outdoors, the highway trucks, the zooming along the autobahn, all the while counting every clock-tower in Tuscany.

I’ve also been reminiscing my own travels, not only here in Europe, but back in my country of birth, the Philippines. Fresh on assignment for the Philippine Tourism website, I’ve been time-traveling back to when I first got better acquainted with the islands, and garnered some pride in being from an amazing part of the world.

Wanna know what it’s like in my islands? Check out More Fun in the Philippines, which launched just a few days ago!

Como Diaries: Milano!

It always takes the shove of a visiting friend to get me to actually see the sights around Lombardy, and get me out of my snail’s pace routine of lazy life on the Lake. I had the pleasure of one of my best girlfriends visiting me from Manila, and so off we went, south of the lake, to the dazzling, city of Milan. –Tourists for a day!

We took a midday bus to Colico train station, then rode for nearly two hours, before reaching Milan’s central station. I had been promising Karsten a train ride for weeks, so he was bubbling with excitement.

It was still another inner-city ride on the underground Metro, with four stops to the Duomo, where we decided to start our exploration of the city streets. We did have a map in hand, but no particular plan or destination.

Coming from our tiny town in Lake Como, the first sights of Milano were as grand for my two-year-old as they were for me. For a moment, my previously tranquil state of mind (as tranquil as can be with a 2-year-old on a 3-hour-journey) gets a little lost, as I find myself suddenly in a mass of fashionable people, crowded trams, speeding trains, all in the glamorous side of modern-day Italy.

I had seen it before, when I was pregnant with Karsten three years ago—but the Dome or Duomo, with its gothic ivory spires, still shone radiantly under the sun, capturing the essence of Milan and all its glory.

Deciding to not even try to wait through the lines to get to Leonardo’s Last Supper, we hit the streets for a long, long stroll. By 2 o’clock, Karsten was sagging with tiredness, and I carried him down a few blocks before hunger pains took over, and we decided on a café/bar near the Dome. Thinking the expense of lunch could only be high because of the positioning, and maybe the taste of food would make up for the prices, we settled.

Never, never settle!

I ended up paying €5.50 for the WORST cappuccino I have ever tasted in two years of living in Italy—watery, thin…disgusting for that amount of money.

Now that I am back from the Golden Square, I wish I had read Lonely Planet’s practical advice on Budget or Blow-Out, here. It just makes sense to do your research before heading out into an overwhelming city like Milan.

We eventually found Torino road, and spent a couple hours wandering the shops—Saldi, Saldi everywhere! I spied a favorite pair of summer shoes (shoes make me happy, can’t help it!)and was so tempted to purchase them, but knowing we will be travelling again, more shoes meant more luggage. And, a scolding from my husband!

So we window-shopped for a couple more hours, watched a street musician on his sweet violin, stopped to look at every clock tower (my son’s favorite pastime), and chatted the giddy way only two girlfriends can when no man is around.

By sundown, we took the two-hour train home, just Karsten and I…and waved our friend Ida Noelle goodbye—she was off, journeying solo to more adventures around Europe, and we hoped our paths would cross again, in some random corner of the world.

Changes and Challenges: Time to Lose Weight!

Everything around me has changed. From my physical location, to my everyday routines, and now, by God’s grace and some good old hard work, my exercise and eating habits. I’ve learned over the last few weeks that change comes in stages, and one of those stages is when we fight against it—usually in the beginning. But then, comes acceptance, and deciding how you are going personally face the challenges that life gives you. How you are going to tackle them, and win.

Besides deciding to live in a new country, and all the changes that come with moving house, relocating, and starting all over again, I am also looking at myself both on the inside and the outside, and it’s time to make more changes there, too.

Physically, I really want to get my pre-baby body back. I had a C-Section birth and the recovery took very long. So for the next year and a half, I used my wounds as an excuse to not exercise properly, or at least to not prioritize it. Second, my job (and what a great job!) of testing out the best resorts and restaurants in the country, gave me delicious chances nearly every day to EAT. I love eating—all kinds of food. And, I love drinking. There were buffets every week, beer buckets every night.

So now, I’m rethinking my every day habits, what I’ve got used to doing, how my body has been used to reacting to everything. It’s not easy with a two year old (no more nanny!—another huge change!) to exercise every day, but I am determined to make it work. I am getting inspiration from others who have succeeded before me, staking out their websites and blogs, and challenging myself to home workouts every day.
A couple of the workout videos I use are:
Insanity by Beachbody.com
Home Workouts with BodyRocker.tv

…and then, just transitioning from sitting at a desk most of the day, to chasing my toddler around seems to have done wonders for my energy level. I am exhausted at the end of the day, yes, but it’s a different type of exhaustion (as opposed to feeling stuffed and tired from all that eating at some event!) and I am excited to get back on track.

As hard as it is to do this in Western Europe, with all the good food around, I’ve been trying my best to change my eating habits—more salads and fruits instead of wurst, cheese and beer, almost no rice since leaving Asia. I love my red wine at night, and this is still my indulgence.

I know that getting to a healthy fitness level is a mind/body/soul journey. I want fast results, yes–but I also know that long-term results mean changing my lifestyle, not just crash-dieting for a week.

So at this point, I am two kilos down since Christmas—not a whole lot, but that’s a huge deal for me, since making a conscious decision to set my mind—and my body—to this. Now, I am publicly putting it down here so that it will force me to stick with the progressing stage.

Here’s hoping I can stay focused, active, and make these lifetime changes in the best way possible. I’ll keep you updated!

It's tough to lose weight in Germany!