Travelling abroad seems to be a very far fetched idea for me right now and for the near future. After all, COVID-19 pandemic is still here. It's okay though. There's already so many awesome places in the city I want to visit!
1. Belfry Cafe
This cafe can be found in Intramuros, Manila. It is a newly opened cafe with a name that comes from where it is located: the ground belfry of Manila Cathedral. Dining under a huge church bell! Awesome!
2. Flower Ranch Cafe
This cafe has been all over my Instagram feed lately and for a good reason! It's such an Instagrammable place in the city to visit! As the name implies, it's not only a cafe but also a flower shop so if you love flowers and coffee, then this place is a must visit! I love coffee and I have recently come to appreciate having flowers (dried flowers) in the house.
According to their website, they started out as a small flower shop hidden in the middle of a gray and busy highway of Mandaluyong. After a trip to Seoul, the owner got the idea to marry her dream of having a coffee shop with their flower shop and that's how Flower Ranch Cafe was born.
3. Papakape
This glass house cafe is located in Palanan, Makati. I first learned about it through Spot.ph. Papakape is founded on the Filipino phrase, "Papakape ako" or "I'll make you coffee". This small cafe serves unique kind of signature coffee or tea that's combined with ginger. I wonder how that would taste like?
4. Hidden Garden
Another place in the city I want to visit is this Hidden Garden located in Lawton, Manila. It's one of the city of Manila's projects that involve open air green space. It used to be a dumping ground and a parking lot. Now it's been rehabilitated and turned into something beautiful!
The place has a series of pocket gardens, lots of open air place to walk around and there's also a cafe!
5. Presidential Car Museum
I love taking trips to the museum. In fact, pre-pandemic, one of my dearest friends and I were even planning on going museum hopping! The Presidential Car Museum is where you can see the largest collection of historic state cars in the Philippines. This is located in Quezon Memorial Circle, Quezon City.
6. Coffee Shop @ Bonifacio Shrine
Finally, on my list of places in the city I want to visit is this coffee shop that's also located in Manila. Like the Hidden Garden, I first learned of this place in the news. This coffee place is described as modern meets old.
Tomorrow, it's officially a year since we were put on lockdown. One year has passed and cases have ballooned up again, almost surpassing the peak of our cases last year so I'm staying home as much as I can. For now, these places are just going on my city adventures bucket list. Hopefully when it's safer to go roaming around again, they're still around.
