holiday part 4 (rome oh rome) August 20, 2008

rome one of the oldest city on earth, the history of this city starts long before Jesus born, the legend said that this city built by romus and romulus they was fed by a wolf, but actually this city grows because it was built by 4 tribes they support each other economically and socially.

i dont think spend 3 days in rome will be sufficient to explore the city, so many thing to do and to be seen. first day we arrived here we just too tired to do anything, we get picked up by rahma, mba dewi and alif after waited in the Ponte Mamolo metro station for mon than 1 hour. The best thing from livin with your friend is you could explore the city from the local insight, and they are also student, they know that to live in europe we have to suffer and sacrifice a lot.

Rome’s first night was not really impressive, we just stayed in the room, try to adjust with the host, since they also had a programme to go around Europe but they were worried because they didn’t have Italian residence permit, so we told them to avoid the border that may cause them into trouble just like Italian-Switzerland border or German-Netherlands border, we also give them some practical issue like how to travel by train, how to arrange stay in hostel, and how to make travel schedule.

They were very excited when we showed them the Indonesian ingredients that we bought from Netherlands, they also amazed when we said that we have unlimited internet access and when we said that we only have to wait for a month to get our residence permit.

After long talk at night and superb dinner *they made us spaghetti bolognese* finally we get rest at prepared for a ‘hell walk’.

The rome walk trip start at 9 in the morning, rome already shows the real heat of summer the walk started at circus maximus *it use to be a horce race stadium* through Colloseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountan and end up in Vatican city, that’s a long walk on the heat of summer *last time we checked on Vatican  it was 36  degree*. After a long walk we decide to go home, and as usual our host made our dinner, and the menu was… pecel, spice chicken, and rice! after a week I finally ate rice again.. aahhh.. what a relieve…

In the morning all of us are terribly tired, and we woke up late to see the Piramid, and everything that surrounds it we went to the sport center saw the preparation of Democratic Party celebration and we have to caught the train in the station so Mei could home safely huhuhuhuhu byebye Mei..

The night was amazing it’s like summer night in Rome we saw the classical music concert *or it’s not very classical since Rizky didn’t know the author* and go around the colloseum to enjoy the building by night.  The morning after was our time to continue our journey to Florence.

I really thank to our nice host during our stay there Rahma, Mba Dewi, Renar, Alif, I’ll never forget this trip.

holiday part 3 (venice oh venice) August 8, 2008

the best part of holiday is you could spend time or just waste the time, but vacation with rizky means scheduled holiday, get up early stay up late and always come to site that already listed even though we could finish it in two days, if we’re able to visit all site in one day we’ll do it!

That’s what happen in Venice, we arrived on the campsite *it’s not hostel* we got a room with 3 rooms and literally sharing facility they put the toilet and shower outside the room and we had to walk for about 50 m to go to the shower, but still we had a hot shower bath.

Venice is a damp city with narrow street and super expensive food *the assumption based on burger price on McD* due to the city reputation as merchant harbor in middle ages, venice has her golden age during the renaissance era *according to preserved building* the best landmark definitely ponte vecchio *too bad they turn this bridge as commercial bridge* and piazza st.marco, i think it was the best piazza in Italy, where I could find big astromonical clock, the tower, the music concert, and a palace that combine the byzantine and roman architecture.

In venice we spent the most expensive daily ticket ever they charged us 21 eur for 36 hrs ticket, it’s true we could went around the city by ferry but it doesn’t mean that we will get a seat and venice didn’t provide fresh air, could you imagine i always had a bumpy ride from one place to another, very crowded, very slow, very humid and seasickness always haunted me every time i took a ferry ride.

We went to almost every landmark on Venice, every casa, Murano, Burano, the Island that only comprise of tomb, and end up the day with another bread and pate but with live music as our dining entertainment.

To conclude this day as usual we were late to the campsite and we missed the last bus. after 6 hrs of walking around the city we have to add up another 2.5 km of walking on the side of highway and Mei wore her summer dress, it worries me because when we walked all car jst like want to crash us. huhuhuhu

After another hot shower we finally felt asleep and another hectic morning to check out from the hotel, in the middle of that rush i’m still thinking to do the laundry, and it will make us late for 1 hr or so, finally we didn’t take the public bus and took the shuttle bus for 2 euros.

Straight to the station and went to rome, Rome here I come!

holiday oh holiday 2 August 8, 2008

my journey continued..

After spending sometime time in zurich and surrounds city, It’s time to continue my journey to Milan, 3 words to describe my first expression in Milan is dust, crowded, and hectic. Milan central station is an old station that being renovated when we arrived, the city metro located outside the station (ok it’s inside but somehow i feel, the metro station it’s not connected to the station perhaps due to the fact that i have to walk in conventional stairs with strained ankle, it’s killin’ me) we arrived on hostel on the mid day, from the station we have to walk for 10 minutes, with my speed i have to walk for 20 minutes (when i remember that day i still could feel the pain on my ankle) thanx to risky and mei we’re able to arrive in hostel safely, the next 2 hours i spent with traveling to Turin *it’s a city of Juventus* well Rizky said we could see the towel with Jesus face *unfortunately the church is closed when we arrived there* by the time we arrived there I’m surprised when I saw the shopping lines in Turin despite of the size of the city Turin as a shopping street comprise of the expensive Italian branded shop *yeah I did feel I finally arrived in Italy on that moment* but with my sharp eyes I still saw H&M shop spout out between the expensive clothing line *go H&M!*.

Italy is famous with their piazza (square) , I dont really count how many piazza I have visited id one city has two piazza, so we’ve visited 22 piazza, that was a hell alot

The best thing from Turin was the Kebab! the portion is enormous, the taste also fabulous, the meat was very juicy and I’m lovin every minutes when I ate it * yeah I know it’s Italy, but I only could afford Kebab or bread, I’m a drop dead budget tourist*

Return back to Milan with a regionale train that look totally different with previous train, return back to our first and last air-conditioned hotel *and we only pay 20 eurs for that*

in the next morning we continue our journry to Milan with Duomo and McD as the main attraction * actually what kind of traveler am I?* Duomo is superb, as one of the biggest gothic catholic roman church in Milan, I went to the top of Duomo, with lift offcourse,it only cost 2 eur more than the stairs *yes they did put charge on the stairs*

The view from the top of the duomo is breath taking, and off course it’s an honor for me to be in the same location as the cover of Lonely Planet.

Next hour would be one of the most dramatic moment on my holiday, first we lost rizky and that made us lost one hour from our trip, and next I couldn’t find the god damn san siro souvenir shop that made us went around the super huge san siro stadium, and due to this thing we didn’t manage to catch the train *because we still had to take baggage from the hotel, actually due to my strain ankle i waited in the station, they took all my stuff* and the final result is we went by regionale and i bought extra ticket from Mei *later on Mei will discuss this event with rizky, we she thought I already felt asleep* so here we are on the Italian train go to the most beautiful city in the world venice *or is not so beautiful?*

vacation oh vacation August 1, 2008

This summer I spent my holiday to Italy and Switzerland, in Switzerland I went to zurich, geneve, luzerne. Switzerland is amazing country they use 3 languages as their national language those are Italy, Germany, and French. The landscape of this country is really amazing compares to Netherlands *super flat country* with Alpen mountain range, super clean lake, and a cute little lodging *very typical Switzerland house*. Despite of the air and water freshness, it’s very expensive country everything there is 1.5 times more expensive than netherlands but yet they used CHF (conferentie helvetica franc) as their currency, 1 chf=0.6 eur, for some thing it’s more expensive, but some of them cheaper *like clothes* but yeah I didn’t buy any clothes there. I will never forget the feeling of being Zurich-ian for 4 days, it’s amazing, astonishing, and anyway i live there for free *thanx to Titte*

Nebeng on in other word ‘being parasite’ August 1, 2008

Since 2 days ago I’m officially being an european hobo, damn what a silly name, I live in my friends house, well actually they are not really good friends of mine, i never really knows them personally, and sometimes when they talks about their personal life i feel like lost in space. There are 2 peoples living in this room, they knowed each other well, once more I feel like an alien in a place that I know, I’m just wondering is it me with super sensitive feeling or everybody feel this way every time they spent a night with someone they really don’t know. I feel really really insecure here, stranded and very lonely. God, I feel very lonely here, if you could grant my wish, please give a good friend that I could be able talk everything to them, that i’m able to be comfortable with, and if you able please granted my wish now…