My Visit to Cagayan de Oro, City of Golden Friendship

My First Night in Cagayan de Oro

The moment my parents and I touched down CDO airport, I wanted to see my best friend. It's just that I dunno how I was going to excuse myself since the main reason why we visited CDO was to be with my grandpa. We arrived at 4pm not knowing if someone from my granny's household would pick us up. The oldies are not that good at communicating important things like this so we were prepared to take a cab and just check-in at some hotel in the city.

Luckily, my mom recognized one of my step grandma's teachers who came with their driver (my grandparents are educators and as much as possible they take in servants while helping them get an education degree. In fact, our former tutors/yayas/maids now have PhDs and I find that amazing.)

So anyway, we headed straight to Apovel Subdivision where my grannies live. Going back there is like a trip back to memory lane. How many times have I told myself before that I will never go back yet there I was eating (again) every word of my promise.

Well, it wasn't so bad. I felt like we were welcomed. But since some of my step grandma's relatives were already staying in the air conditioned guestroom, we didn't want to intrude so I insisted that we'd just check-in somewhere in the city. My step grandma wanted us to stay in our former "dormitory" since her other relatives would be leaving soon. You see, there's this separate 2-floor dorm where my step grandma's nieces and nephews and all of us grandchildren stayed before when we were still studying. It's now the quarters of the maids. I said thank you but I, personally, don't want to stay in a non-aircon room. All my fats would melt because of the heat. Just kidding! So I insisted that we'd just check-in somewhere since I wasn't really comfy in those little bunk beds.

Then we had dinner. My mom got to bond with her father and later that evening, I was able to meet up with Mer and my goddaughter. We just stayed at Bo's Coffee and chatted the night away. We seldom talk and even if we both work online, we rarely say hi to each other. But I just know, as always, that when I see her, it would be as if it's just yesterday.

It was late when I went to my hotel room in Riverview Hotel along Carmen. The standard room was on promo for only Php600, while I got my parents a bigger room for Php950. When I got to my room, I realized it was too big for me and I started feeling very lonely...

I missed my hubby. I urged him to go with me countless times but he couldn't... actually, he wouldn't. He was never really comfy with my grand folks and it's probably all my fault because I always tell him horror stories about my experiences with them. Anyway, that's that.

The Big Birthday Bash

The next day was the birthday bash. A lot of oldies were there... mostly people who were familiar to me because I grew up seeing them so often in my granny's house. I have an uncle who thought that I had just graduated from college. I told him I'm not that young anymore and my grandpa told him I'm already married and has been working a long time. I think that could pass up as the highlight of my whole vacation. Hehe. Other than that, in my cousins' eyes, I've grown really fat. I can't blame them. I was really thin when we were kids. Who would've thought I'd have big boobs and big curves when I grow up? That, and I've been eating a lot too because of my anxiety attack and stress. Darn it.

After the party, my step grandma asked us to check out of our hotel and stay with them the rest of our vacation. I guess I'm still the obedient little granddaughter they have coz I said okay. It wasn't so bad. I stayed inside the room most of the time reading Danielle Steel novels. My grandma has a huge collection of it and it's in their library where I actually first discovered these kinds of novels and I got hooked since.

Late that afternoon, I went with my cousin and their tutor to a videoke place in Divisoria. The KTV place is called WHATEVER I had fun! It was a blast.

Their videoke room only cost about Php150-Php180 per hour. it was sooo affordable, I can't believe it! The room was huge, has cable TV aside from the huge LCD screen and a computer in the corner with wi-fi. The room has its own bathroom too. Awesome!

Dancing with My Star

The next day, I woke up late and decided to meet with Mer. We had snacks at Dunkin Donuts along Divisoria then we stayed at Style and Motion Studio for dance lessons.

Mer was fantastic! She's always been a great dancer since she was a little girl! I'm really praying that her dancing business succeeds. I got to learn a bit about zumba and belly dancing.

For someone like me who only exercises whenever I'm in the mood, learning those dance steps was hard and exhausting. I must've given up only after a few minutes! Tsk, tsk. Next time, I should really prepare for it.

On our fourth day it was time to go. I couldn't wait to go home and be with Peter. He actually told me later that evening how miserable he has been without me. Awwww. I missed him too! So we promised from then on that unless he has some other important business to attend to, we should always travel together. No more solo flights.

That's it for my Cagayan De Oro trip. Hopefully, next time, Peter does go with me so we can finally do the white water rafting and try our the zipline adventure in Dahilayan. ^_^