happy new year!

miss igorota and the ladies behind her idyllic expeditions would like to wish you all a new year that's as fun and as colorful as the rainbow!

pop the champagne, bring out the keg, pour some sparkling wine, kiss the person you're with, light some fireworks (but don't lose a limb), make some noise and hope for the best in 2009!

have a great (and safe) new year's eve celebration!

Dinner at Tiffany's

While Kohlmarkt literally means cabbage market, this shopping street in the Vienna city center has anything but cabbage to sell. With premiere jewelers and high-end fashion labels, it is Vienna's address for luxury goods. 

A special store there took Miss Iggy's fancy:

Miss Iggy channelling Holly Golightly, Aubrey Hepburn's Breakfast at Tiffany's character

How charming!

How lovely!

take my wreath away

While Miss Iggy has a small Advent wreath at home, she was excited to see a gigantic one on the Wiener Rathausplatz (Vienna City Hall plaza) at their Christmasmarket (a.k.a. Christkindlmarkt):

Miss Iggy by the Advent wreath. The building in the background is the Hofburg Theater.

"The Advent wreath is a Christian tradition that symbolizes the passage of the four weeks of Advent in the liturgical calendar of the Western church. It is usually a horizontal evergreen wreath with four or five candles. Beginning with the First Sunday of Advent, the lighting of a candle can be accompanied by a Bible reading and prayers. An additional candle is lit during each subsequent week until, by the last Sunday before Christmas, all four candles are lit. Some Advent wreaths include a fifth, "Christ" candle which can be lit at Christmas. The custom is observed both in family settings and at public church services." 

More on the Advent wreath on Wikipedia.

Miss Iggy goes shopcrazy

Being the savvy shopper that Miss Iggy is, she's excited to score some bargains at the year-end sales. In Vienna, the year-end sales start two days after Christmas (St. Stephen's Day is celebrated on 26th of December and is an official holiday). While most stores offer 30% to 50% discounts, some stores' prices even drop down to minus 80%. 

At fashion boutiques like Mango and H&M, you can expect long lines at the dressing rooms AND the cashiers. Patience is key in getting good bargains. For Miss Iggy, it's worth the wait.

Miss Iggy in front of H&M on Am Graben

While finding a the perfect purchase can be stressful, just walking on Vienna's festive shopping streets at night is entertaining.

Am Graben where Miss Iggy usually goes to the H&M flagship store for fashion finds, Tchibo for nice practical stuff and Accessorize for accessories

Rotenturm Straße, where she likes going to Lush and B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful (but never really buys stuff, haha) and in the summer gets her ice cream fill at Zanoni & Zanoni

Kärntner Straße, where Miss Iggy loves window shopping

nangka river

miss igorota looks longingly at part of nangka river as seen from within "9 waves ciudad christia resort." the river serves as the boundary of the municipality of san mateo, rizal and marikina city.

hopia like it!

miss iggy droppped by the famous chinese deli & pastry shop "eng bee tin" in binondo--manila's "chinatown"--to buy her favorite hopia (mung bean cake). it's best to get the hopia straight from the source for guaranteed freshness and complete variety.

their hopia comes in different flavors such as mongo (original mung bean), baboy (pork), buko pandan (coconut and pandan leaf), and the curiously new "moccachino." for people who are conscious of their sugar intake, there's also sugar-free hopia.

her all-time favorite flavor, though, is "ube" or purple yam.

hopia is just one of the popular food items that filipinos bring back from the philippines as "pasalubong" or vacationer's treats to family and friends.

Greetings from sunny Phnom Penh

... from all of us in Cambodia - Z, R, Max and Miss Igorota.

*P.S.
Sorry for not being able to post lately; we were all away for Christmas :)

pork que?

miss iggy wants to keep the ball (of ham) rolling by posting a photo of herself enjoying an actual glazed ham (jamon) from jersey city--new jersey's own filipino district where filipino food items can be bought.

the ham is truly the star of many a filipino family's noche buena feast. "noche buena" which literally means "good night" in spanish, is the traditional christmas eve feast shared by the family after hearing the midnight mass on christmas eve. another noche buena staple (not shown in photo) is the queso de bola or ball of cheese. see the spanish influence on the philippines?

meanwhile, here are some of miss iggy's favorite gifts...first is a harajuku lovers fragrance by gwen stefani. not only does it smell cute, the bottle itself is cute, because it has a cutified version of gwen.

she also got a mini attache case-shaped business card holder. she wants to travel with it! haha.

miss iggy hopes everyone had a wonderful holiday...what gifts did you get? miss iggy reminds everyone, though, that "the best gifts are those tied with heartstrings."

miss igorota meets the star of the noche buena feast

Purefoods Fiesta Ham. you know it's Christmas when you smell this juicy ham!

season's greetings

miss iggy and the ladies behind her globe-trotting adventures (namely fortuitous faery/conniechiwa, gingmaganda, princess ody and zj/sreisaat) would like to greet you all a happy christmas...or to be more politically correct, happy holidays!

miss iggy is wishing you a merry christmas in filipino, although she is also tempted to say "happy hanukwanzaamas."

the native christmas lantern called "parol" above was recently acquired from quiapo's souvenir shops in manila to bring comfort and joy in miss iggy's jersey home.

may your holidays be filled with warmth, laughter, and love wherever you may be and no matter how you celebrate!

"COD" christmas show lives on at greenhills shopping center

miss iggy felt like a kid again watching the traditional animated christmas display at the greenhills shopping center in san juan city.

this show was originally conceived by alex rosario, sr. to attract shoppers into his department store called COD ("cash on delivery") in manila 51 years ago. this free holiday spectacle easily became a hit with people that he continued doing this until he transferred his store to its more popular location in cubao's araneta center.

many a filipino child remembers trooping to cubao on a cold december night (some even came from the provinces) to watch this 15-minute display of moving mannequins set in themes that either change or occasionally recur every year.

the COD department store may long be gone in its familiar spot in cubao, but the tradition lives on for new generations, and hopefully, for more to come. the christmas show now has a new home at the greenhills shopping center, where people can conveniently do their christmas shopping (at their christmas "night market") and haggle for the final price after watching the show.

exempli gratia, hello kitty items for the hello kitty lover in the family:

or imitation havaianas flipflops:

here are a couple snippets of the show from this year which features a horse-drawn carriage ("calesa") and a musical band playing a christmas song. the theme was environmental and even used the voice of a beauty pageant winner.

to read more about the COD christmas show, click on this inquirer story.

department of tourism

the department of tourism (DOT) in manila, philippines was decked with parol lanterns and a huge banner with "merry christmas" and "a prosperous new year" in filipino. if you maximize this image, you'll see the photos of DOT secretary joseph ace durano, president gloria macapagal-arroyo, and philippine tourism authority's general manager and CEO, mark lapid.

miss iggy dreams of being the next poster doll for philippine tourism. wait, if that happens, she'll actually be the first poster doll! haha.

two more days to go before christmas!

miss iggy at the Philippine Air Force Museum

miss iggy feeling patriotic standing by the Philippine flag.

the Philippine Airforce museum has undergone a facelift a few years ago but always, the main attraction seems to be the "airplane garden" outside where kids can go up and inside some of the planes and helicopters!

here she is with the oldest GPS system evarrr: (or so the sign says)

the Philippine Airforce Museum is a frequent destination of schoolchildren on Field Trips in the greater metro manila area. it has recently undergone a facelift and is now two stories high with supposedly interactive computer displays (all were turned off at our time of visit). the museum lacks guides though to explain the significance of the memorabilia on display, however there are enough labels and signs for the discerning crowd.

teachers who take their wards here need to foster curiosity and encourage learning and appreciation and touch on the lessons of war to complete the whole experience. sadly most just go through the motions and take souvenir photos. such is the sometimes sad state of supposedly educational field trips these schoolchildren go on to. some even get taken to the malls!

the children though, enjoyed the airplane garden immensely. it is not everyday you get to stand beside these magnificent flying machines.

reis-a-roni

Miss Igorota was warmly welcomed to Gelnhausen, Germany by the monument of Philipp Reis. The Gelnhausen-born scientist and inventor Philipp Reis was the inventor of the first prototype of the telephone.

The obligatory photo opp with the monument. 

Miss Iggy loved the romantic charm of the old town. The colorful buildings looked like images from a storybook.

a star is born

miss iggy was bedazzled by incheon airport's starry, starry duty free shops.

to shop or not to shop, that was the question.

she ended up buying three tubes of roasted beef-flavored hot pepper paste to help recreate bibimbap back in new jersey.

hey, only three more days till christmas!

back to the middle ages

Miss Iggy went to Ronneburg, a castle on top of a hill in a town with the same name in Germany. She was awestruck by the medieval characters walking around - witches, knights, swordsmiths.

Miss Iggy with a knight in shining armor

Baskets full of magically intoxicating potions

What's brewing? See the black cloak on the left side of the photo? That belonged to a witch.

Even St. Nick paid a surprise visit to the Christmas Market!

kimchi the snowman

miss iggy was all giggly meeting these cute snowmen at incheon international airport.

miss iggy also saw a lot of these lotte christmas trees around the duty free shops. she remembers "lotte" as this popular bubble gum brand back in the philippines. with a little googling, she found out that lotte is a big south korean conglomerate which includes candy-making as one of its businesses.

walking in a winter wonderland

miss iggy woke up to mounds of snow on friday outside her jersey home.

about 8 inches of it...then freezing rain followed. dangerous driving conditions.

miss iggy is feeling the holiday spirit, so she wants to send out her own postcard for free to people out there who wish to get one. consider it her little way of saying thank you for dropping by her blog. your visits give her the warm fuzzies, like a nice cup of hot chocolate on a wintry day such as this.

just email us your name and complete mailing address at missigorota@gmail.com with subject heading, "free postcard!"

soon to be "sikat"?

miss iggy found out that she was featured at whatsikat.com's blog under the "travel" category for not yet "sikat."

"sikat" is a filipino word meaning "famous" or "popular." it's something miss igorota is hoping to become. one can dream, right? even dolls do. oh yes, they do.

christmas scenes at incheon airport

ever heard of the phrase, "as pretty as an airport?"


apparently, incheon international airport is the place to experience "prettiness" in all aspects. after all, it's been voted "world's best airport" by business traveler magazine "global traveler" for three years in a row.


now that's star quality!

museum hopping

While in Frankfurt, Miss Iggy stopped by (or actually in front of) some interesting museums:

Museum for Communication:

Museum for Modern Art:

Historical Museum:

Her favorite was the Museum for Modern Art, which featured an exhibit with works of Takashi Murakami. Unfortunately, camera weren't allowed inside. Miss Iggy didn't go home empty-handed, though. She bought a few postcards.