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Things to do in Manila – Experiences from A Westerner
We never know where we end up in life. Sometimes you wander into a bar looking for a drink. Sometimes you stumble into a country on the other side of the world. The two events are different, but not unrelated. I grew up in Europe (Slovakia, to be more precise), lived most of my adult life in the United States, and, last year, married a Filipina. That's not a trajectory that I could have predicted when I threw rocks into ditches as a 9-year old in Slovakia. I've visited the Philippines a few times now as a westernized adult, and it is quite an interesting place. It is marketed as…
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What to Do When I Retire Early?
People are scared of retiring. Why? Because they think that they're going to get bored and lose their sense of being. They're so used to being waken up by an alarm clock and having a purpose: taking a shower, eating, going to work for 9+ hours, going back home, decompressing, eating, chores, sleep and doing it all over again. The cyclical nature of our working lives becomes a habit, which becomes harder to break. I think that's why people have a hard time going back to their routine of working when they go back from vacation: their entire cycle has been broken. But what if you break it for good? What…
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Three Faces of Canada: Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Vancouver
Oh, Canada! The first thing I think of when I imagine Canada is the vastness of it. It’s the second biggest country in the world by total area, behind only Russia. If you wanted to drive across the whole of Canada, it would take you 2 full weeks! I also think of hockey rinks, maple syrup, moose, Arcade Fire, and bears. And also a weird accent which seems to hook words and twist them (how about becomes ah-boot). In truth, Canada is very urbanized, since more than 80% of people live in big cities. We recently had a chance to visit two of the three biggest states in Canada: British…
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What is your anti-frugal guilty pleasure?
Here in A Journey We Love, we aim to be frugal, but not so extremely that we can’t enjoy the little things in life. We refuse to deprive ourselves of experiences that we like (i.e. travel), nor would we deprive ourselves by not buying our own home. However, we are sometimes a bit anti-frugal in a sense that we also indulge in our personal guilty pleasures. It may not happen often, but sometimes we spend on a few things that most frugal people would cringe just thinking about spending money on. Ready for a deep dive on our anti-frugal guilty pleasures? Join in and answer in the comments below: What…
