If you have extra time on your hands when traveling and want to take home as many stories as you can, would you take a graveyard tour? Eerie?

Chances are you already have. Little did you know that some of the popular attractions you have visited are also graveyards. Temples and shrines are some, like the Fushimi Inari. Your favorite shot in the vermillion tori tunnels of the shrine are dreamy but did you notice the many graveyards alongside the tori trails as you ascended to the topmost shrines?

Old Churches and chapels double as burial sites as well. If the tomb is not displayed n plain sight (like the tomb of Saint John of Nepomuk in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague), gravestones can be seen on the floor of a church’s nave and the transept. Or you’ve totally missed it with all the attention focused on the grandeur of the altar, the ceiling design and the majestic marble statues by the church walls. If you're curious enough, you'd say yes to visiting the crypt. 

How about graveyards? Sites like the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin or the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Khmer Rouge Killing Fields Museum in Phnom Penh are frequented by tourists. I’ve been to the Cambodia capital’s attractions and the places are eerily quiet even with numerous visitors present. All you’d hear are whispers, and perhaps some don't even come from the people you see. The experience can be depressing. Silence becomes a part of you for quite a while after leaving the place. 

How about when you find yourself in a totally deserted graveyard on a gloomy, drizzling cold day? 

There’s so much to see and experience in Paris, yes. But what about when you want to explore it “deeper” than the popular sites that define the city, like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, and far from the city center?

Pere Lachaise is also one of Paris’ popular attractions but it is seldom, if not, seen on the must-visit list. Opened in 1804, it was the first garden cemetery which became the largest cemetery in Paris. With 3.5 million tourists visiting yearly, it is the most visited necropolis in the world.

After making the usual rounds around city and looking for a new place to check out, the suggestion visit Pere Lachaise came. It is the resting place of many famous personalities like Chopin, Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde.

You will lose your way in the 44-hectare property. It's wise to buy or download a map. You don’t want to get stuck inside the place when darkness falls with the gates closed and locked. It’s eerie enough during the daytime much more when the light fades.

How about you? How many graveyards have you toured?

Also published in the SunStar Davao newspaper.

Another adventure comes to an end. After a month of hopping in and out of planes, moving from one place to another, seeing familiar sights and rejoicing as entries on the bucket list are ticked off, I make a final luggage check in at the Singapore Airline counter in Charles de Gaulle airport bound for the P.I. via the Lion City.

Heading back home.

I bore an extra luggage this time, one I’m not checking in. It was packed and heavy but totally weightless. It was that of fond memories of this trip, all 30 days of fun and frolic, new ideas. Throw in a few unpleasant ones, which broadened my perspective and taught me a few more lessons about traveling. This trunkful of memories is the most precious of the lot I’m taking home with me. Weightless, priceless.

Europe is love.

It was great to see Rome, Florence, Versailles and Paris once more. It’s a few of the cities that one may never get enough of. There’s always something brewing, a new corner to discover, exciting destinations always.

Joy. The city of lights by day.

Sunset at the Vatican City

The king's bed at the Versailles Palace

Pisa was a new place for me, a short and pleasant getaway destination off Rome. I will be back for more.

Pisa was a new place for me, a short and pleasant getaway destination off Rome

Madrid, more than anything else, was a food destination. Ask me about Madrid and food will take the top story, the paellas most especially. The city I will always remember as having to eat a year’s worth of food. Gained weight I did, and it was only the second leg of a long journey across Europe.

Ask me about Madrid & food will take the top story. I'm not suprised that the famed Casa Botin's 'lechoneros' are Pinoys

Ticked off my list was a selfie with the famed astronomical clock in Prague’s Old Town Square. The Czech city is enchanting and easy to fall in love with. The fact that you can explore the old quarters all the way up to the magnificent castle grounds (where the St. Vitus Cathedral is also located) via the historic Charles Bridge and back down, at you own pace, makes it even more appealing. Praha’s history is rich and it is excellently preserved. The new age artworks, strategically situated, make an exciting contrast to the old world vibe of the city.

Ticked off my list was a selfie with the famed astronomical clock in Prague’s Old Town Square

As if the Versailles palace was not enough, I had to visit three royal palaces in the Scandinavia. If not for good friend Des, I wouldn’t have seen these attractions, along with the cities’ other top attractions—the Little Mermaid and the canal in Copenhagen, the Gamla Stan and Vasamuseet in Copenhagen, the Ekeberg and Frogner parks, the Scream at Munchmuseet and many more. Two nights in each of the Scandinavian cities is not enough. I will go back for sure.

Well, hello there. The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen welcomed me on the onset of my Scandinavian tour

Gamla Stan in Stockholm should top your list & make the Vasamuseet next

Interesting characters at Gamla Stan in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Ekebergparken is fabulous! It fuses art & nature for happy eyes & happy heart

The few nights left in Europe was spent in Paris with my cousins who made it their home. I would have though I have seen the attractions I wanted to check out, but no, they pointed me to a couple more. One was Pere Lachaise, the burial grounds of personalities. It was an eerie place to have selfies with the graves of Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison or Oscar Wilde.

Eerie tourist spot in Paris, the Pere Lachais. It has amazing mausoleums though & here lie the remains of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf & other personalities

Good times will always trump the sleepless nights, tired body, unpleasant encounters and even the busted diet. I took it all back here and related my tales via this column. Yes, I could have added the #TBT on all the titles, but does the destination have an expiration date? Nope.

Thank you, Universe! Tales of another journey will find its way on this page next.

Europe is always fun when toured with friends you can call family. Thank you Tenny for taking me along this memorable ride.

Thank you Des for a great trip around Scandinavia.

Expect impeccable service when taking Singapore Airlines.

For more photos about this story, & other travel & lifestyle stories, visit http://jeepneyjinggoy.blogspot.com/ and http://apples-and-lemons.blogspot.com/

It’s totally unfair to ask a frequent or seasoned traveler to pick one particular place he/she’s been to and mark it as “the favorite spot on earth”. That’s the stress I put these 15 individuals in; 15 who have roamed the earth and have on their list the most beautiful, exotic and enviable places; 15 who have found charm and uniqueness in each of the spots; and 15 who, with much remorse, have to narrow their choices until they come to one.

If you’ve walked the same traveling shoes they had, you would be nodding in agreement. I did.

This story is about drop-everything-pack-your-bag-and-go because procrastinating on your dream travel/s can lead to a “what if” moment, a question that will hound you for the rest of your life. Not a good state to be in.

Here are 15 people consumed by wanderlust who can pinpoint you to your next destination this 2015, and tips on how to enjoy the place to the max, which included this: “Pictures are great, but take the time to put down the camera, take a deep breath and soak it all in.”



Carmen Go: Santorini. Explore the island by renting a car or ATV because there are nice beaches far from the main beach. Taking the Sunset cruise is a must.

Carmen Go explored the island of Santorini by renting a car & ATV

The abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres

THE perks of being by yourself (or with yourself) when traveling is you own your time -- all of it! Wander aimlessly, stop and look at any time, as many times, at interesting points, linger longer when you want, rest when tired, eat when hungry.

I find fun and fulfillment in walking through streets I’ve never passed before, discover new niches, and what excites me most is entering places of worship I’ve never been visited before.

Surprise! Along the avenue, chanced upon an art show in a courtyard exhibiting metal sculptures.