Words by George Putong | Illustration by Ryan Jay Kabigting
Click photo for a larger view
Who could ever imagine our national hero booking the cheapest flight to Hong Kong? Jose Rizal may be your first class doctor, linguist, writer, and revolutionist— but more often than not, he travels on a shoestring. Fasten your seatbelts ladies and gents, we’re flying with our man, Jose.
Notes, mementos and various correspondences reveal a paper trail of adventure. I say adventure in fine print because he’s not the boring academic who confined himself inside the four corners of a room. He was the kind of man who wanted to fully experience and observe everything he saw. He wanted to be on the move whether for educational purposes in Belgium or writing gigs in Spain. He wanted to pick up a new language. The history books say he studied a total of twenty-two languages!
Rizal was a man who feared of his ideals vanishing without making a lasting impact during the Spanish-Philippines era. That was his legitimate fear. But he also possessed a lack of fear in something most of us still have a hard time on. He was unafraid to leave his home.
Europe for a starry-eyed first timer
On those long boat rides he made it a point to interact with his fellow passengers. Maybe he did this to distract himself from the seasickness he wrote about in his journals. You have to understand that today’s two-hour Manila to Singapore flight was a few days’ boat ride back in his day. I can’t imagine a boat ride from Singapore to Sri Lanka that could take almost a week. Jose Rizal humored himself by playing chess with the passengers on board.
Naples in Italy was where he first set foot on European soil back in June 1882. He was barely 21 years old with the grandeur of Europe right in front of him. Naples was only a layover because his real destination was Spain via Marseilles port in France. In Spain he studied medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid.
Rizal’s curiosity led him to explore the beautiful city of Paris in the summer of 1883. He wrote to his parents about the museums, hospitals, and buildings he visited in Paris. One thing he did not write about was the Eiffel Tower because it wasn’t built yet.
He returns to Madrid to continue his studies and then proceeds to Germany to further his study of ophthalmology. He also becomes a linguist eager to learn the language. In 1886, he notes that his life is full of potatoes in Germany. (Somebody pass the rice.)
Germany during this period was bustling and handsome. Some of this beauty that Rizal saw would be destroyed in World War II.
It was the beauty of Heidelberg that inspired him to write a poem about flowers. It’s also in Heidelberg where he met Ferdinand Blumentritt who became a close friend in his later years. Rizal’s love affair with Heidelberg was heralded in his writing. He particularly enjoyed watching the fifth centenary celebration of the University of Heidelberg.
Also in Heidelberg he observed student duels at Gasthaus zur Hirschgasse or “Guesthouse on the Hirschgasse”.
He traveled to Frankfurt where he visited magnificent buildings like the Städel Institute, the Opera House, Zoological Garden, and various coffee shops where he enjoyed reading the newspaper.
In Berlin he frequented Café Bauer and enjoyed walks on the Unter den Linden which was a street loaded with coffee shops.
He made observations in Leipzig, Germany. Here he witnesses a festival highlighted by the inauguration of a lovely fountain. By 1887, Rizal’s immersion in Germany was given applause after he delivered a speech in German. People were amazed at his fluency.
Rizal wrote the last chapters of his first novel Noli me Tangere in a quaint house owned by Pastor Karl Ullmer in Wilhelmsfeld.
In 1887, Rizal enjoyed beer in Baverleche, Bierhalle, Basel, Switzerland. Try saying that five times fast. Evidence of a paper napkin with the establishment’s trademark proves this. By this time he was selling his Noli.
Rizal celebrated his 26th birthday in Geneva, Switzerland.
June 1887. Rizal explores Rome and visited the Capitollo, the Roca Tarperya, the Palatinum, the Forum Romanun, Museum Capitolinum, and the Church of Santa Maria.
Taking a vacation home
Rizal returned to the Philippines for a brief time to see how Filipinos were receiving his Noli. He also wanted to check on his love Leonor Rivera and he had to operate on his mother’s eyes.
His trip back to the Philippines wasn’t as easy as taking a flight from Paris to Manila. He headed to Marseilles to board a boat to get him to Egypt. He made his way to Port Said and arrived at the Suez Canal, then proceeded to Colombo, Singapore, Saigon, and then Manila.
Rizal’s life back in the Philippines was paved with troubles as the friars were on to his subversive writings. After a few months he accepted his fate and returned abroad.
East Asia and America
He traveled to the thriving harbor of Hong Kong early in 1888. He got to explore Macau as well— which was under Portuguese rule at the time. By late February of 1888 Rizal is in Japan. Here he writes to Blumentritt his thoughts on the locals. To him the Japanese are kind, industrious, honest, and clean. This is where he meets one of his lovers— one who he fondly calls O-Sei-San.
In April 1888 he crosses the vast Pacific Ocean to arrive in San Francisco. He is quarantined for about six days before being able to step out into the city. Now in the United States he explores San Francisco and heads east passing by the cities of Sacramento, Reno, Denver, and Salt Lake City. He reaches New York by the middle of May 1888. Having no time to waste he heads back to Europe by crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
When he arrives Liverpool in England, he has basically circumnavigated the world.
Return to Europe
He stays in London before returning to Paris by 1888. Now, the Eiffel Tower has been built and Rizal is one of the first people to see it in its full, unspoiled, non-commercialized beauty. He stayed at Hotel de Paris. While it may sound like a luxury residence in a posh European city— it actually wasn’t. Hotel de Paris was cheap.
In 1890 he goes to Belgium as part of his plan to look for books about the Philippines. He is most interested in meeting scholars who write and research about his home country.
Turmoil at home
The situation in the Philippines was getting worse and his family was suffering at the hands of the friars in Calamba. The magnificence of Europe was nothing compared to the love he had for the Filipino.
In 1891 Rizal left for Marseilles and then for Hong Kong. He wrote on his journal how irritated he felt when vendors in Alexandria invaded his boat. On this boat ride he met interesting personalities like a bishop who had been to the Philippines and a Russian naturalist.
During his stop in Colombo he went to see the museum, hospital, and temple of Buddha. He observed the different Buddhists he saw on the street. In Saigon, he visited the museum and zoological garden. He finally arrived in Hong Kong in November 1891. Here he sent copies of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo to a friend in Singapore.
Before his arrest in early 1892, Rizal visited local destinations like Malolos, San Fernando, Tarlac, and Bacolor.
Rizal’s travels ended when he was exiled to Dapitan in June 1892.
Rizal the traveler
Rizal had the zest to explore the world, learn, and write his beliefs all at the same time. He even surrendered his jewels and valuables to a pawnshop so he could have money for exams back in 1884. He showcased his love for the Philippines by meeting with foreigners who studied the country. He honored his fellow Filipinos by giving a speech about two famous painters, Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo. The former winning 1st prize for his Spolarium painting in Madrid.
Rizal was an exceptional and responsible traveler. He ventured into the world to understand it more but he also achieved in letting the world know what was happening to his beloved Philippines at the time.
The author Samuel Johnson once wrote, “All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.”
And that’s what Rizal did resourcefully, without the seat sale.
