Like most of you already know, Fotostrasse was one of the 16 winners of the #BigBlogX and we exchanged places with Tipsy from GooglyGooeys for 10 days last month. Since I did all the posts I had to over there, now it is time to bring the information and the beautiful landscape to my own blog, right?

This first part I’ll tell you everything about Manila, the capital of the Philippines, but first I’ll give you a small introduction of what is Manila and what to expect from this post.

Manila is the capital and the second largest city in the Philippines and inside the, what we call, Manila, live around 12 million people. Manila is how we call the NCR, or National Capital of the Philippines. In other words is the huge area of Manila plus the cities around. It is composed of the of Manila and the cities of Caloocan, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon , San Juan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Taguig, and Valenzuela, as well as the Municipality of Pateros.

manila

This city is a huge business center and is where people migrate to if they want to have a good job and make money. But like any other busy and insanely huge city, there are very big social problems.

On my 2 days in Manila I saw things that made me laugh, that made me happy, that made me sad and thing that made me want to cry. Manila is a typhoon of emotions, it is fantastic, exotic, amazing and cruel.

On my day time tour of Manila, Pong, the husband of Tipsy, took me to see the amazing historical center with the San Augustin, the fort Santiago and after everything we went go kart racing! Fun, fun, fun! After all that Pong drop me off in a nice cafe and I met Chichi Tullao and her friends and we rushed to an amazing food fair (with a halloween theme!!!) in Manila.

The San Agustin Church

This church is located inside the Manila Intramuros city and it is by far the oldest church in the Philippines made out of stones. It is well known as the first religious structure in the island of Luzon. It was built during the Spanish colonization and San Augustin church is the last standing survivor after Intramuros was burned to the ground in 1945.

Fort Santiago, Intramuros

After the amazing stone church, we walked to this amazing site called Santiago. A 5 minutes walk between the 2 places. Fort Santiago was the most important defense structure in the area and now is an amazing and huge park in memory of the national hero, Jose Rizal.

To go there is to get to know a little more about the military past of Manila and the most important moments of the country. This fort can be dated to the XVI century and it was built on top of the last pre-hispanic chief of Manila. From the privileged location of the fort gives you a wide view of everything on the Manila Bay.

When I was there, it was a religious holiday and because of that I had the pleasure to see this parade inside the park! Magical!

And here are photos of the park and the valuable view of Manila Bay that made this spot so important.

Halloween Food Fair in Greenfield District

Later on the same day, Chichi, a friend from everybody, took me to a inspired food fair. I have to say that it was my favorite part of the day! Food from all over the world, local fruits and vegetables and everything from a guy that made his costume with chocolate sprinkles to the dead corpse of Joffrey Baratheon! Sublime! But most importantly because I was with people, solo travel is fun but in Manila can be a bit harsh.

I guess on this one the pictures will speak better than words since it is food and food is better described with images, right?

If you ask me what was the most delicious thing I’ve tried on this fair, I gotta say that is the Ashitaba. Ashitaba is an herb. Its root and stem are used to make medicine and apparently, the most delicious ice tea a person can try.

And it won’t stop there, it will help you with anything from acid reflux, peptic ulcers, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gout, constipation to allergies, kinds of cancer, smallpox, food poisoning and other conditions! In other words: delicious magic! Does anybody knows where I can this here in Berlin?!?!

Well, this was my short stay in Philippines’ capital and I hope you like it.

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