First Post

Hello there!

Thank you for dropping by this journal. I hope you'll enjoy yourself while you're here.

In 1984, as a graduation present, my mother took me on a coach tour of Europe. We were gone nearly a month (in the days when the exchange rate of the Philippine peso to the US dollar was still fairly reasonable), and after Europe, we flew to the United States to visit friends in San Francisco.

It was my first major trip out of the country. I'd been to Singapore and Hong Kong on short summer vacations; day-tripped to Malacca and Johore Bahru. But it was for Europe that I made the specific resolution to bring along a thick notebook and a pair of good ballpens, in order to write down an account of each day of the tour. While adding weight to my day bag, it was always good to have my writing kit handy, to jot down details of the tour while the memories were fresh.

That first journal was originally intended to be a hard copy project, laid out in Aldus PageMaker and illustrated with clippings from souvenir maps and brochures. It resurfaced on the internet -- albeit in extremely bare-bones format -- as a journal on Blogger, but I removed it while I was in the process of eliminating various internet accounts that had either expired or lain dormant for longer than I had expected.

With the amazing developments in online journaling, I felt the urge to repost the contents of this maiden travel journal. The idea will be to retain that wide-eyed wonder of a first visit to the Continent, while making sure that grammar, spelling, and sentence construction pass the eagle eye of the readers.

Here's hoping you enjoy your stay!