The Travel Tales of Julia Sheldon

TIL: there is an edible delicacy based on bat poop. April 18: The Puerto Princesa Underground River was TOTALLY worth it. A van picked me up at 7:30am and drove 2 hours to Sabang. We got a on a boat to a beach, then walked a bit to the waiting area for the cave. A boat for 10, with a guide paddling, took us on a tour through this UNESCO world heritage site, named the 7 th natural wonder of the world.  I’ve never seen anything like it, and the geo kid in me was flipping out. It was difficult to take pictures in the dark, but I did try … and we were given an audioguide. Some of the rocks look like vegetables. This is a banana heart. The ecosystem is VERY fragile within the underground river, which is why humans are only able to easily traverse 1.5km into it by paddle boat. We were asked to keep our mouths closed to avoid swallowing guano (bat poop) and various minerals that drip from the ceilings. It started to rain on the way back, so we weren't able to zipline, bu...

April 8: Travel day. Sigh. Left the hostel in Moalboal at 915am in a stupidly expensive rented car because apparently the buses don't go up the west coast of Cebu, but only go to Cebu city (on the easy coast). Caught a 2 hour ferry and was surrounded by a family of hardcore Catholics ... so had a 45 minute chat about God. I asked them if they knew how to catch a bus, and they offered to take me to the terminal - another example of Filipino generosity and hospitality. So kind! Took a bus across the island of Negros Occidental, from San Carlos City (a smoke-free city! Whoa!) to Bacolod, only to then learn that I should have got off at the second stop. So, back on a bus to return the way I came. I borrowed a girl's phone to text my friend, just to be sure that I would get off at the right stop. Buses here are interesting: a ticket is bought once on board, with cash, and aside from an actual terminal I have no idea how to determine what is a bus stop or how to find them. With the...

April 3: Packed my bags, ate lunch with Clovis (sweet name, right? Cool dude from San Fran), and went to the airport to catch a flight to Cebu; delayed due to weather. Womp womp. Seems many flights to/from Caticlan airport were either delayed or cancelled for at least 24 hours due to heavy winds and rain. Twas unexpected. Landed in pouring rain around 5:30pm. Had the most harrowing cab ride to Moalboal: thank goodness so many people use signals and horns and high beams as signals. I would never drive here. Cebu is a metropolis and it took us 2 hours to get out of it. I arrived at my hostel in Moalboal at 9:30, because of speed demon taxi driver who definitely overcharged me significantly. For some reason I was exhausted, and was asleep by 10. Technically, I'm not in Moalboal because it has no hostels ... I'm at Pangasema Beach, about 20 min outside of the town of Moalboal. April 4: Woke up, at breakfast, and went canyoneering. Really not sure why they refer to it as such......

Getting here was an adventure, to say the least. #jsheldswin March 27: was looking for a check-in email from the airline, which arrives 24h before a flight. Somehow I thought my flight left at 8pm on March 28 .... turns out, it left at 1:45am. I have never packed so quickly, or with the help of so many people. I'm not even certain what I've packed or how I misunderstood my flight time so terribly, but I do know that 5 notebooks is too many. March 28/29: 1 hour drive to YYZ, 15 hour flight to Taipei, 4 hour layover, 2.5 hour flight to Manila, 3 hour layover that includes an hour of customs, luggage retrieval, taxi to domestic terminal (far enough away to need a taxi), 45 minute flight to Caticlan, very confusing 1.5 hour van/ferry/tuk tuk thing to Boracay. Total: 30 hours from leaving my house in Waterloo to arriving at my hotel in Boracay. Can't remember the last time I was so excited to shower and brush my teeth. Yowza. Mad props to EVA Air: delicious meals on BOTH fligh...

I spent 8 weeks in Denmark: 5 at a camp with 71 others, mostly 11 year olds, and 3 weeks in Copenhagen chillin' out after camp. I can understand a bunch of Danish now, which is super cool, and I think the language sounds hilarious. I'm a fan. So here are 10 Fun Facts I learned about living in Denmark. 1) Danes are super friendly, if you speak in English. Locals told me it's easier to speak in English when you need help, cause people are more willing to help silly tourists than people who "should" know where they're going. 2) You can't really find typical Danish food. It mostly consists of bread, potatoes, and some sort of meat. So, you'd make it at home - read: there are no restaurants. 3) Copenhagen is the only place that I know of that has an amusement park (with roller coasters, no less) in the middle of the city. It's literally right beside the central train station. And, it's really friggin cool! 4) There are more pigs than peopl...

A week in Mallorca? Why not?! Chose to stay in Puerto de Soller, rather than in Palma de Mallorca. It's a half hour drive, through 2 tunnels. Not too shabby. Thus far, when it rains, it is only at night or in the morning. If clouds come, they don't stay for long. It is incredibly hot in the early afternoon, so we totally understand the need for a 3 hour siesta, and we take one too. Surprisingly, Mallorca is FULL of Germans. Most shop keepers speak German over English, because this place is swimming with Germans. We took a paddle boat with a slide in the saltiest water I've ever been in. But I mean, paddle boat with slide?! Heck yes. First, Mallorca is beautiful. Second, I am surrounded by mountains that are great for hiking, beaches great for swimming, and cute little towns that are great for exploring. There are olive groves, orange groves, beautiful views, old school trains, and a tonne of hiking trails. Also, as you fly over Mallorca, you can see a whole b...

Right, so. Staying and visiting with CISVers for 3 full days in Brussels means getting to know a bunch of the local stuff rather than all of the touristy stuff. Fun things I did/learned: Brussels is French; around the city is Dutch; and then there's a Flemish part of the country. Apparently there's a bunch of drama between the regions due to culture and language. The Grand Place aka main square is totally beautiful, inlaid with all kinds of gold. It looks super old, but, turns out that Napoleon burned the crap out of the main square in the 1800s. They rebuilt it, so this square is quite new.  Brussels' big claim to fame is Mannenkepis: A tiny little boy peeing into a fountain ... he's maybe 2 ft tall. They dress him up in various costumes (firefighter, soldier, businessman, geisha, etc.), and tons of people take a photo with him. One idea for this: the mentality of "We'll never be better than France, so let's be funny!" They've got a peeing b...