A Spontaneous Trip to Tagaytay

I had nothing to do when I woke up. It was just a usual, sad Saturday for me and I thought I would just spend it alone. For the bulk of it, I mostly did. I was so stressed recently and I needed a mental break so I played a game and spent hours and hours playing it. While I was playing, I couldn't stop hearing Linkin Park's songs in my head. I eventually caved in and played the entirety of the Hybrid Theory album. It felt like I was back in 2021 and I spent the morning until the late afternoon playing the game.

In the evening, Rene suddenly called out of nowhere. He said that we should get coffee and he and Sammy are coming to pick me up soon for coffee. I was still a wreck so I took a while to get ready, but I got out and noticed they they pulled up in a pickup. I was shocked beyond belief because I didn't expect my friends to come pick me up in a car, and especially not in a large, red pickup truck. I suggested that we should get coffee at Starbucks in BGC, around 32nd Street but they had other plans. Rene and Sammy wanted to go to Tagaytay.

My eyes immediately lit up. I had dreamed of this moment for such a long time: going away with friends in an out-of-town trip to Tagaytay for a while. I had planned this with Jaze before but it never went through, and I'm glad I still had friends to bring me out of my rut and take me on a night out of town. I thankfully brought my pocket Wi-Fi and we set on a trip to Tagaytay and it was so fun. We went through SLEX talking about the tech/IT sector, how they've been, how life has been for us after graduation (for them, I didn't graduate), and they also teased me to one of our batchmates. I told them I wasn't interested, but they kept teasing me towards them throughout the entire trip.

Our original destination was Starbucks Reserve™ Hiraya but then I told them that I wanted to eat at Mushroomburger. They thought that it was just a menu item and we'd stop by one, but I insisted and that I just set the GPS directions on Rene's phone after he and Sammy agreed. Rene also asked me to text his gf that he was driving and I turned on Life360 for his phone. After a while driving through Cavite's roads, we eventually got to Tagaytay. We passed by Tsokolateria which Sammy said had good chocolate and even described the consistency of it, and how it was unlike any other. I was so curious and said that we should check it out later on in the trip. Then we arrived at Mushroomburger. Sammy and Rene couldn't believe that we were actually supposed to go to a restaurant named Mushroomburger, they just thought that we were going to get a dish called "mushroom burger" and I laughed at them. We got out of the car and eventually went inside. Unfortunately, they didn't accept Gcash as payments so we had to go to the Shell gas station down the road. When I went in and asked where an ATM was, the store clerk told me to go down to the Petron gas station further down the road. I agreed and we 3 eventually got there. I withdrew some cash and bought the same pasalubong snacks I got the last time my family went to Tagaytay. I got 2 strawberry-filled marshmallows and 1 matcha-filled one, I also got water, and the standard chocolate Magnum.

When we were walking back to Mushroomburger, I eventually opened up about the most recent person I liked to my friends. I think I told Rene about this 2 years ago, but he probably forgot and I told him what had happened between me and the girl, and how much money I've spent these past few years. I also told him where she actually worked and that she was my coworker. They gave me a bit of advice, then we arrived at Mushroomburger. I asked them what their orders were and, since I had money this time in Tagaytay, I went and ordered 2 bowls of their mushroom fries. Sammy ordered chicken with spaghetti, and Rene asked the cashier what their best-seller was and ordered that. I paid for all of the orders, but it was fine with me since this was a very rare thing, and I just got my salary yesterday. While waiting, Rene asked if I had a pet cat and I said yes, and then he told me that it was obvious, then he looked at my shirt. We found a table and sat down, then got our orders.

I loved the mushroom fries. They were absolutely worth the almost 2-year gap since I've last had them. I remember how small the portion I got because I had to use some of my mom's money but now that I got 2 full bowls, I just shared it with Rene and Sammy. We talked about other things while eating, and then Rene pointed out that Sammy's shirt had Twice on it. I also messaged my sister that I was in Tagaytay and she could not believe it. I asked her if she wanted anything from here and I got her a few things. I also ordered another 2 bowls of that same mushroom fries that we just had before leaving. We eventually finished eating as the store was closing and we drove to Starbucks Hiraya. I told Rene that his car still had that new car smell and that the mushroom fries smelled good inside the car.

When we drove to Starbucks, we noticed that there was a reaaaaalllyyy long line of cars just going to it and that the parking lot was full of cars. I said that there were so many people from Metro Manila coming to Tagaytay for a quick coffee stop to "act cool" and made fun of them, even though we were literally doing the same thing. We drove to another Starbucks up the road, but that was also full and I made the same remark. We also passed by Tsokolateria which was already closed, unfortunately. They said that we were going to try and visit this Starbucks place they saw on TikTok and Rene kept searching for it. While they were opening their phone, I noticed that their gf got mad at them for just reading their message but not replying. He had to chat with her for a bit, then Rene found the location and we drove to Starbucks Tagaytay Nasugbu Road. While driving there, a song titled "The Show Goes On" was playing and it perfectly encapsulated the night. Driving to the next Starbucks took a while and we passed by a part of Tagaytay that had so much fog. It was like we were in Silent Hill. We had a hard time finding parking because it was full of people and, when we parked and got out, the air was a bit chilly. I wasn't bothered much by the cold because I wore my usual long-sleeved shirt/my standard 2024 outfit.

We got in line and the line was long as hell. We waited a bit before giving up and just went to get pasalubong. Sammy recommended a place called Jaytee's Filipino Cuisine where we can get pasalubong and we set our destination to that. Rene also said that he knows the place because he's already eaten there before. It didn't take us long before we actually got there and we got a few snacks. We also had a taste test of the buko pie they were selling and I ordered a few things like spicy butcheron, yema, pastillas, and chocolate rock candy for some reason. I also got that buko pie that we tasted. We took a photo and left Tagaytay to have our Starbucks drinks elsewhere.