Tambay at Jose Rizal’s Bedroom

I couldn’t, for the life of me, remember if I have been to the Rizal Shrine before or not. But what I am sure of, is that my mother had fond memories visiting this place when they were still students. Growing up, she’d always bring up their visit to the Rizal family house in Calamba whenever we’d talk about the national hero.

Yesterday, I had to go to the Toyota dealership in Calamba for a quick errand. I finished early so April (who graciously shared her car with me, thanks Apes haha) and I found ourselves having a lot of time to spare. So after our Jollibee breakfast, we just fired up our Waze to go to the Rizal house (it’s labeled Rizal Shrine on Waze and Google Maps) now formally known as the Rizal Museum.

The museum is open every day except Mondays, and admission is free (but they do accept donations). When we set foot inside the grand “sala” I had a feeling that it was indeed my first time there. It just became so familiar to me because of my mother’s stories (I called her about the visit and she asked if the balon is still there. It’s still there), and of course because of my history classes from childhood to college.

There’s a lot of interesting items on display and most of them almost gave me goosebumps. It’s so chilling to see handwritten notes of people who have lived many years before us. But of course, that’s just my very shallow take haha. What’s more important is seeing the things that shaped Jose Rizal into the extraordinary person he has become. Looking around the house, you’ll see that Jose Rizal had lots of support that paved the way to his greatness.

It is noticeable how many parts of the house have already been refurbished but still it’s one of the places in the country that we should all experience at least once.