March 10 – 12 | La Union
Photos are in random order; Cameras used: Canon AE-1 Program and Lomography Reloadable Camera; Films used: Rollei Crossbird Creative 200 (sepia, old vibes, heavily grainy), Lomography 100 & 800

Asis and I planned a three-day getaway in La Union. It was sudden when Asis decided to go there. His leaves were already plotted a month or two ago, and he just told me a week before the said trip to also file for a two-day vacay leave. Thankfully it got approved despite the late notice.

We stayed in an Airbnb. It was such a rustic and homey place with a nice view of the sea. Johnny, the host, was really accommodating too. It was also close to everything, but still farther away from the night noise of people and establishments. It was kind of a struggle for me, who doesn’t have a healthy lifestyle, to go back to the Airbnb because it was situated uphill. Lol.

Anyhoo, we arrived late afternoon on our first day (we left home around 9 or 10am and we had so many stopovers). We just settled in then went to the shore, watched people surf, and waited for the sun to set. We then grabbed our dinner in one of the restaurants along MacArthur Highway, then went back to our Airbnb and hung out in the open area in front of our cabin. On the second day, we initially wanted to go to Tangandan falls, but then we still had to trek for more or less than an hour to get there so nope. Funny how we wanted to save our energy, relaxing, instead of doing activities that require too much effort. So, we decided to try one of the cafes nearby and then went to the beachfront. I wasn’t really the type of person who likes to swim in public (too much hassle) so just stayed nearby and watched Asis, the surfers, the waves, and the people with their dogs. As usual, I took lots of photos since I missed using my film cams and I’ve also read a few chapters of the book I’m still reading up until now. It was really nice that time because it had been so freaking long since we last went to the beach together (I think it was in the year 2016 the last time we went on a vacation, just the two of us.). So we then grabbed our lunch in Amare La Cucina and tried their wood-fired brick oven Margherita pizza with Buratta cheese (finally tasted this gooey ball of cheese), then went back to our cabin to kill time. We just went back out when the sun was about to set and grabbed dinner. It was crowded that Friday night! Elyu is like one of the meccas of nightlife. People are going there just to chill and drink! As for us, we spent our last night back in our cabin and drank coffee (me) and beer (Asis) and talked about everything and nothing. We basically just wanted to unwind. Work had become too tedious, and I was feeling unmotivated then, so this trip was just what I badly needed.

We checked out early on our third day because we didn’t want to get caught up in traffic. We went straight to my parents’ house and spent the night there, then on our last free day, we met up with Asis’ fam in UP, then also returned the car that we borrowed from Asis’ sister. All in all, it was quite a relaxing getaway and a time well spent with both our families.

P.S. Was not happy with my shots. Most were overexposed. And the Rollei was really something. Not your typical go-to film. (¬‿¬)