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After a visit to Prague I continued my journey to Bratislava, it took about 3.5 hours by bus. By the time we reached bus station we waited for another 15 minutes because Mba Dian’s friend (Mey) picked us by the station.
we started to walk by the end of the day to look fo a dinner, we went to a cafe, I prepared to pay 8-10 eur for dinner, but it turns out that Bratislava is one of the cheapest city in Europe like for dinner we only have to pay for 6 eur including the drink, I was so happy about it, hail Slovakian policy of trading!
The next day was presidential election day, we spent all morning on the embassy, Mey helped the technical aspect on election, Mba Dian voted for president, I took all pictures of them and all the bustling activities and played with all small children (Hey! I already voted in Netherland) see? eventhough we’re 6000 miles away from home and were on our vacation we spent time to think about the future of our country.
After do the voting We went to Bratislava castle, but too bad the castle is on renovation, and when I say renovation I mean the whole facade of the castle was cover and we can’t see the beauty of the castle, and then we just took picture of the city from top. We wanted to go to the museum but it turned out it’s just the exhibition room,they even charged us to enter the exhibition, oooh to be honest the our first hours trip to Bratislava was not very impressive.
After the lunch that we had on embassy (they served us splendidly Indonesian food yay!) the trip was getting better, we went to presidential house, prime minister building, and we even saw the so called ‘Megawati’s tomb’. Then we walked through the city center where we could find statues like the watcher, the Papparazzi or the sitting Napoleon. I found the city was very beautiful and interesting, the center itself is a very small for a capital city, but I feel they have like a mini version of anything.
On the afternoon the next stop was..Shopping mall, gosh It’s been sometime since I entered a mall, it was a huge mall, and I couldn’t help my self to buy some clothes *there were huge discounts every where* even Mba Dian bought tons of shirt, I even don’t know where she will put on her small bag *she managed it somehow*.
We returned to Mey’s room late in the night, oh have I mentioned that Mey lives on student dormitory? the condition is not very different with our so called hostel in Prague so we’re not really shock about that, furthermore I only have to pay 5 eur per night, what could I complain more?
In the morning we return back to Bratislava’s bus station and continued our journey to Budapest.
not so long time ago I believe that friend is someone that you really able to count on, but now I don’thave any faith on that words.
I mean, to be honest, all my friends hurt me, stab me, dissed me, left me, and sometimes they didn’t know that I’m exist.
All my journey makes me think the necessity of friend, do I really need them?
I do feel alone a lot of time, and I know that I won’t be able to shed the feelingif I don’t see snybody else. But do we have to call the friend?
I’m kinda skeptical with all these friend thing they hurt me so much, just like my boyfriend always do. But my friends they are meanier, I mean sometimes you didn’t do anything and they just let you go.
People say thatfriendship is just like platonic love, you love people but you can’t expect the love will return back, it’s tragically true. But I’m a demanding person, I don’t like if someone don’t reply my love, my affection, or whatever is the name, and I’m easily to have trauma. Once my heart is hurt, I don’t want to get hurt anymore. That’s why I’m not easy when it comes to friend people relationship, and sometimes I regret it I really want to be friendly but I can’t or I should say my heart and my mind not in the same place.
My beloved fella, I dunno what should I say about it, I know I should change myself but I dunno where to start, but most important question is still a mistery will I ever get a good, nice friend, hat will accomply my standard?
Right after the international symposium thingy I went for my celtral europe journey, I met mba Dian on Delft station , and we just rushed out to the to the airport (that god damn schiphol) we choose cheap airlines to prague, the name of the airlines is Sky Europe, the airlines was so cheap we even have to wait for 1 hour delayed flight, and to hear the announcer dry jokes after we hear the delayed flight news.
We arrived on the city by the midnight, and we have to rush to the hotel, luckily there’s no curfew for the hostel, and the hostel was indeed a cheap accommodation (8 eur/night). It was student boarding house, and moreover we got a room that used to be a boys room, well you could imagine the decoration of the wall it was filled by naked girl and extreme sports (whoa!) but luckily the room was spacious, the hot water was running, and yeah despite of the fact that we have to climb over the hill every time we have to return to the hostel it was a good bargain.
At the first day, we went to Prague castle, little bit lost on the first time especially due to the fact we’re not get used with the language, and the metro is showing us weird sign of the spotlight and we just follow the sign on the metro that showing the prague castle. Eventually, we were back on the track saved by trem 21. Prague castle is a complex of castle, church, vineyard, it is beautiful complex and now it is used as president’s residence. The building itself is pretty gothic, with lots of gargoyle and weary colour of wall.
We didn’t took a chance to explore the interior of the building, since they charge people about 20 eur if we wanted to get into the whole building, so we just walked around the area start form the castle untill the vineyard, one thing that interest me the most is they also use the area as to play teather and also there are few fancy restaurant surrounds the area. Ridiculous fact, one museum that available on the area is Toy Museum since they charge ticket on it I didn’t enter the museum.
We continue our journey to the city center to see the famous astronomical clock and then we continue walk to Jewish quarter, after return back to the bridge and another time of getting lost somewhere (that’s why they called it lost because we have no idea where we were), we took funicular to Petrin look out tower (Petřínská rozhledna) the tower resemble the Eiffel Tower, the history said that the tower was built by a group of people who adore Eiffel Tower on just 2 years.
We continued our journey after the sun set, but unfortunately we were little bit late, so by the time we wanted to took picture prague castle during the night it’s already turned off, moral of the story start early maybe a profit for me.
By the next day we spent time on focused on Charles Bridge and surrounds, the modern side of the city centre and (offcourse) shop for some souvenir, mba Dian is a big fan of Swarovski crystal, she bought like 8 crystal necklaces, while I’m only bought some matryoska broche.
In the afternoon, we went to the bus station and continue our journey to Bratislava.
When I met my friend Achmad Aditya for the first time I would say that he is typical doctoral student on Engineering, but when I talked to him it turns that he is a man with a big dream and ready to turns his dream into reality. He has a big dream to gather all Indonesian scientists who live abroad on one community. That’s why he established this simposium, and that’s why I came to help him (or rather put my self on more trouble).
He has a dream to establish one symposium that gather all Indonesian young scientists to think about the future of our nation, and after 4 years of hard work to look on sponsor, 2 years of planning,1 event cancellation (this event should be conducted last year in Germany), and finally his dream came true.
My position is the coordinator of science and technology committee, basically I invite some speakers to do presentation on my committee. I’m not really fancy my position, it was quite demanding job, furthermore the other member don’t seems eager to help me untill the D-day. But it turns out that they help me along the way during the event, especially during the time when we have to make recommendation, when I don’t have any clue how should start anything.
It was really one experience for me, it’s one hell tiring experience, especially because they forced me to picked all the attendee on schiphol and that give me trauma to go to schiphol again.
But, you know, just being there and see all the spirits of Indonesian student from all around the world and all the scientists that willing to dedicate their live to build a better Indonesia, it’s trully inspiring, I even wonder will I be like one of them on someday.
If you ever wonder about the event, I think they still keep the website.
http://si-ppi-2009.com/index.php
FYI, they established Young Indonesian Scientist Society it is acknowledge by LIPI (Indonesian Science Department), I believe that those dreams is not only just a dream.
I spent most of my summer vacation at home, but to be honest it was really bored, most of my friends they spent time to work on their thesis,since I haven’t started my thesis I try to find another activities. I will make a quick list about all things that I did during this vacation:
1. Became commitee on Indonesian Student International Simposium (SI-PPI 2009), I didn’t expect that I’ll be in charge of science and technology comittee,it was surely hard work I barely enjoyed my time her. To be honest I’m very sceptical about the result of this simposium. But, you know, to see all these students that devote them self into the future of our country, it really inspired me, nonetheless I got friend from all over the world, and just think about that it makes me feel grateful to be alive.
2. Had a central europe trip. With Mba Dian, I had 6 days of journey on Central Europe, we went to Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna. Except Vienna whom located on Austria, all those countries using different languange from Indo-Europe, and it’s totally different, everyday we had to twist our tongue to say the name of the metro station or just name of tourist attraction. It really drives us crazy, especially when it comes to the quality of hostel (most of the time we lived on student dormitory), and during our meal we just pointing to something that we like and hopefully they eill give us right order LOL.
3. I went to London by myself, two weeks after I had central europe trip I went to London & Nottingham, most of the time I walk the cities all by my self (during my stay in Nottingham my friend accompany me for one day). It was my first time step on United Kingdom and for me it was very impressive, I never thought being on english speaking country would be able give the some kind of ease. By the time I went home to Netherland, part of me feel that I feel envy with all my friends whose studied there, part of me feel thankfull to live here, one fully organized country (London was such a mess!)
4. During the august I spent my time looking for a new house, because my friend didn’t allow me to extend my stayon my old house, after all those attemp to look on my new house I decided to stay on Himmel’s old place, it was 1 bedroom and 1 living room house located under the attic, as you can predict the roof is inclined so during the first 2 days I always bump my head into the roof. Since we lived (yeah I have to shared the room with mba endah so I could save more money) on the 3rd floor, everytime we head to our room we always panting because the stairs were really steep. But, oh well, home sweet home, when we have to live on the attic, then attic it will be!
