I thought of having a themed wedding so to make it easier for us to focus and decide on what we want for every details of our wedding. Besides, I think a having a themed wedding is cool! :)

Now there's no other theme I can think of that perfectly fits our personality other than a travel themed wedding. He's a Norwegian and I'm a Filipina. Obviously we came from two different sides of the world and two different cultures. I feel like we're really destined to each other because of how we amazingly crossed on each others path back in year 2004 in Hongkong. Since then, we knew that we wanna travel the whole world together and now after five helluva years, we're planning our journey to our travel themed wedding! :)

The London Eye

So we went to London last week and we stayed there for 8 days. It was my hubby's business trip actually but we took advantage of it and took a few days vacation together. We both love travelling and this is something that we really enjoy doing. I like learning the history and culture of each countries and I love taking lots of pictures. There is lots of different shops there, expensive and affordable ones. I went crazy and my shopaholic-ness attacked again. I did a mega shopping aside from the new laptop we got there. I bought lots of winter clothes since the winter is coming really soon. Here in Sweden there's only a few shops so there's less options of what I want to get. It sucks when you buy some clothes and you can expect to see someone wearing the same. That's how small it is where we're living now. Most of the time during our stay there, I loitered around the city alone. I did lots of walking! We stayed in the Central London, Oxford Street to be specific. It is a big city and I felt like I was in Manila. There's lots of people so it's kinda stressful while I was shopping. I had so much fun from our vacation and I'm looking forward to move and live there which could happen anytime, sooner or later. :)

Anyways, here's some more pics of our London trip :

The Big Ben

Some fun entertainment on the busy street to London Eye

One of the famous icon we met in Madame Tussauds

Välkommen till Stockholm!!!

I've been living here in Sweden for about 4 months and last Monday was my first time to go to Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden. We went there to apply for my visa in British Embassy. Yes, we might go to London by end of this month so *fingers crossed!*. :)

From 3am, it took us more or less than 5 hours drive from Göteborg. Me and my husband loves travelling so it's always fun doing something like this. I had to always talk and entertain him so he won't fall asleep. Haha. We brought Jacky with us and thank God she's not car sick anymore. After we're done at the embassy we just look around the city, eat in a restaurant and that's it. We drove back home at night coz I have school in the morning. It's not enough time but we surely will go back there again sometime. :)

Anyways here's some of the pics we took there:

Beside this nice park lies the embassies of UK, US, Norway, Japan etc.

What a beautiful day :)

Just showing how it looks like there :P

Perfect timing when we got there, we saw this whatever you call it and I don't know what they're up to! :P

Of course, there's always camwhoring! :D

Their horses are pretty big. I felt like I'm watching a movie when I saw this. :P I'm not sure but I think this is how they do their changing of guards in the palace. Someone told me that they always do this everyday in the afternoon. I'll find this out next time we go back there :)

I don't know who those people are in the carriage, maybe a politician or some important personalities but I know for sure that they're not the Royal King and Queen of Sweden. :P

Infront of Kungliga Slottet - The Royal Palace of Stockholm

Waiting for my prince! :P

Alright, we're on a rush when we went there so I don't know what's that building in the background so pardon me :P.

Arghh, this one too! I promise to find this all out and learn about it next time ok. :)



Ciao! xoxo

Just right after we got engaged, me and my fiance' instantly talked about our wedding. First things we thought of is ''where'' and ''when''. Since he's a Norwegian and I'm a Filipina, we've had a hard time deciding about it. It is very important for him to have our wedding in Norway. For one, it's gonna be the first wedding in their family. Everyone is excited for him and everyone wants to be there on his wedding of course. Aside from that, Mimmi, who is his grandma is very close to him as he is the first grandson. His grandparents can't really travel that far now due to their age. For me, of course, I want everyone special for us to be there on our wedding day. But my family would be upset if it's not gonna be in Philippines. I have lot's of relatives and we can't afford to pay for all their plane tickets and accomodations if our wedding is gonna be in Norway. We both doesn't wanna give in. We both want all our friends and loveones to witness our special day. So to make it fair for everyone, we decided to have two weddings eventhough we're not really sure about our budget. hihi. So goodluck to us. :P So now is the ''where's?''. We chose to do it in our hometowns since that's where we grew up and it's accesible for all our relatives to get there. But the purpose of this post is to brag about our hometowns. So here's a few pics of the places that is worth seeing, visiting and experiencing to where we grew up...

Enjoy!

Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway

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Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)

Vigeland Park, Oslo

Opera House, Oslo

Heddal Church, Telemark

17th Mai, Norway Independence Day

Norway Famous Fjords

Ice Skiing

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Camarines Sur, Philippines

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Camarines Sur Water Sports Complex

Ecovillage

Kaogma Festival - May 23 - 29

September

Penafrancia Festival, Naga City

Mount Isarog

Caramoan, Gota Beach Resort

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FIN

Most of the people I know wonders or usually ask me this question. Question should be, where we met. Some would guess that we met thru internet or online chatting. I don't know why they think that but they sound like as if online chatting is the only way to know or meet a foreigner boyfriend. I know that lot's of pinays nowadays do that and I know a lot of friends/people who found their love through internet but that's not what happened in our case ;-)

We met on December 27, 2004 in Hongkong. We were both young back then. I was 19 years old and he was 23. I don't wanna be so detailed here but it was a Cinderella type of story :P. I was working in one of the bars there as a waitress while he works in one of the US-based computer gaming company situated there. I was just there for 3 months while he was taking a break there for almost a year after he's been travelling around the world and enjoying his young and bachelor life. A Filipina and a Norwegian, came all the way to Hongkong just to meet each other?! I call it a destiny :).

From the very first time we met, we knew we like each other already. We started dating without talking about our feelings. I wasn't even sure if he's my bf already. I was clueless about our relationship back then. All I know is that we like each other. But we were tested with the time and situation. I had to go back to Philippines and I thought I will never see him again. But he made a way. He followed me :). He went to Philippines to meet my family and to get to know me more. That time I dont know what's really going on. My parents wouldn't even believe me when I told them that we were just friends. What should I tell them? He didn't even ask me if I love him and he never told me he loves me. But after his 2 weeks vacation with me, he realized he doesn't wanna live without me. To cut the story short, he brought me back to Hongkong until I realized that we're actually living in together already. Our situation, not being old enough and the visa problems that keeps us being separated is what pushed him to finally confess his true feelings for me. It was like a music in my ears when he finally said he loves me :)). But our trials and challenges doesn't end there. Ours is one of a long and tragic love story. If I could write it all and submit it for MMK (Maalaala Mo Kaya), i think it could win a most tearjerker story award! haha.

Anyways, that's how we met and that's how our love story started. I might blog more stories on my next posts but that's all for now. Ciao! :))

Today is one of my happiest day ever. After a few weeks of worrying, and bothering myself with so many questions like, ''Will I get it?'', ''Is it going to be approved?'', ''Am I going back to Philippines?'', and after checking our mailbox for like 2-3 times a day, crossing my fingers waiting for the letter from the embassy, now I can finally take a deep breathe and say ''Finally!!!'' After all that we've been through, it was really worth it. :))

The residence card I got is valid for 5 years which means I'm allowed to stay and travel in all the countries of the European Union without a visa. After 5 years, I can become a Swedish citizen. :)

The application process was really fast and easy. And hey, it's free! That's what I love in Europe, almost everything is free and very convenient. :) We were told that the usual processing time was up to 2 months, but it took us exactly 3 weeks only! And while waiting for the result, I'm already allowed to work, study or live just like a normal resident. I thought that was really cool! :P

I am very thankful and I am feeling so blessed for this especially that it means that me and Papa Lars would never be separated again and that this time, we could live happily ever after, TOGETHER. ^_~