After 3 hours trip on the train, we came in Vienna, I must say Vienna is not very different with other city in Germany, it’s clean, the public transportation is always on time, and everything is in Germany so I’m able to understand something .

The city itself is famous as the city where Mozart start his carreer as a professional musician.  So as we can axpectedI can find the trace of Mozart everywhere like the house of mozart, the mozart music box, the mozart postcard, or even mozart chocolate shop!

After we put our stuff on the trusted locker of Vienna central station we started to walk and our first destination is the information point (well, everybody always need a map to go around the city) then we go to Schonbrunn Palace, the summer palace of Austrian imperial, basicly it’s free to enter the garden, since we were lazy and don’t have much time to walk around it we took a motor train that took us around the garden, and then the journey begin with the Palm garden where we had our lunch there, it was the best lunch ever I mean I ate cheese and tuna sandwich while looking at the most beautiful green house, surrounded by flowers and sometimes I could see squirrels walking, heerlijk! the next stop is Gloriette the gift from Joseph II from Belgium to Maria Theresa when they got married, from here I could see the view of the city and the palace from the top. After walking down the garden to the palace and take enormous number of picture we decided to go to the city.

Vienna is one of the city in the world with the highest quality of life, so you would expect that they have integrated transportation system, numbers of park, lots of free event, and also nice costumer service (at least it’s better than Netherland). After we took the metro to city center we visit St.Borromeus (the name same like my hospital in Bandung) cathedral and TU Wien, then when we wanted to head to the city shopping line we started to lost for 1 hours, but we took that time to take a rest and pray in a quite park. We continued our walk to Heldenplatz, here we walk through the all famous building of Vienna start with the National Theater, the nature history Museum and other things (so many thing, and I couldn’t remember) and then we crossed the street to go to Museum Quartier, it’s a quarter with pack of museum, just like the name all the museums are art museum, from art history museum untill modern art museum it’s quite pricey when you wanted to enter the all the museums. By the time we got there it’s already started to close.

Then we took the u-bahn and headed to the city center, the center isone of the UNESCO World Heritage Site so it hasn’t developed since ages. There were street performances, many people offerabout theater or music show and lots of store especially about accessories. St. Stephen Cathedral is the main attraction of the city center. After had some dinner and shopping we headed to the station and took the bus to the airport where we spent almost sleepless night, I was so tired during the trip I even slept all the flight.

In literally blink of an eye (because I was sleeping) wearrived in Schiphol. Another sunny day in Amsterdam!

I never thought I could go to Budapest, when I as a little I always though that Budapest is the communist part of Europe, so it never cross on my mind to visit the city.

To be hinest Budapest is the most east part of Europe that I ever visited, just the previous cities that I visited before I don’t understand any word on Budapest and my lips are getting curly if I wanted to say something Hungary. One thing for sure I always heard they say ‘Ahoy’ to say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’.

My firdt impression of Budapest is ‘dusty’ the public transpostation is covered by dust, the station seems to be really old, the air feels very heavy and the people seems to be more grumpy. But after few step around the city the I really awe the city, the city was really georgeous especiallya at night.

My friend booked me a nice hotel on the middle of city, the skin of the building is really (I should say it again) ‘dusty’ but it was a nice apartment they have like garden inside the apartment, the lift is little bit scary but it was a nice place the interior of the apartment remind me of the flat complex in Sarijadi. When we arrived in the city we were lost and spend like 1.5 hours to look for the hotel with carrying our heavy bag.

The journey start with the famous Szechnenyi chain bridge that connect the Buda part and Pest part, the west and east part of the city. I have to say that that suspension bridge is one of the most beautiful thing that I ever see in my life. The structure it self looks like the Manhattan Bridge in New York, but on a smaller scale.

We continue our journey to the Buda castle, to the top of the bill, and by the time we got there there were American student who will have their gala dinner, they were taking picture everywhere kind of annoying, but since it’s a public place I can’t argue anything about it. Since we were hungry we were heading downwards to the Parliament Building, took some shot over there, try to comment of the building, we agreed that it seems to look like London’s Westminster Palace but on the gothic style.

Then we went to the station and look for the train ticket to Vienna, the ticket price is suprisingly expensive!it’s 34.2 euro each for 3 hours trip, the central station doesn’t look very impressive either and furthermore the train looks so old and poor maintained. After long walk decide to return to the hotel and take some rest to continue our journey at night.

Night journey startwith the same track od the bridge, the castle and the church, and the parlement building, as a say before the view is really spectacular, as someone who came from a small city in Netherland look over those building on that ginarmous scale it makes me feel like I’m a small creature in the world.

Before we went home we went to Mc Donalds for a hot coffee and it was my mistake that we missed the last metro, I thought the last metro is in 12, but actually the station already close at 11.30, luckily there is a nice lady who helped us choosing the right bus and waiting on the right bus stop, she was a saviour!

Next day for sure, we packed our stuff and head on to the station, Vienna! here we come!

Note: Always bring the transportation ticket during the day and night on Budapest, even though the ticket seems very useless and also it was verified by hand. In every metro station there always be a controller who will check the ticket.

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!

Everytime I had short period time of break I’m always think to spend my time to go around Netherland.

Alkmaar and Haarlem are two cities in Netherland I’ve ‘targeted’ for a long time. Alkmaar is famous for it’s cheese market, eventhough the cheese market is reproduction from early 20th centu’s ry, but many tourists enjoy the attraction. Mean while in Haarlem, I have to admit that the city square is very beautiful, it is the best from cities I have visited in Netherland.

How should I explain about Alkmaar cheese market? It is not really impressive, despite of it’s great name, all I can see is some guy (they pretend to be the seller) carrying the stack of 8 cheese weighing 10 kg each, the kaasmeisjes (literally cheese girl) went around to sell the brochure, and there’s guide explaining about the process of cheese market in english, Japan, Italian, and Germany. Actually, I was enjoying the museum more than the attraction, there’s Kaas Museum nearby the square and there I could understand the process of cheese making. But since the weather was really nice, I made colourful photography during the Market.

Haarlem indeed a nice city, I think it’s one of the oldest city in Netherland. A long time ago they used the city as tulip planting area,  it was one of the luxurious city. The city itself pretty interesting, the square it’s really huge and surround by the stadhuis, church, restaurant, fountain, statues, and everything that possibly use as decoration hahahhaha..

One think I like from Haarlem is the secret garden, some of the old housing complex has secret garden on it and the municipality turn the garden as public garden, so we can enter freely, take something to eat and chat as long as we didn’t disturb the house owner.

Both of the cities certainly show beautiful aspects of Netherland, I like those cities better that flat landscape, farm, red bricky house that I saw everyday.

On a sunny day of June, amy friend asked me whether I ‘d like to join them on a summer excursion, at first I kind of skeptical about the trip. First, because it was held my christian community, so I’m affraid it would be like christian ‘joy and blessing’ trip. But since I was really bored on my room and I need sunshine plus my friend from Islam community also join the trip so I gave it a go.

The trip turns out to be fun trip, just let me explain it the way that a 3rd grade schooler explain. I woke up at 9 in the morning and rode on my bike, I make appointment with my friend on the corner of the street (this is so Indonesian, meet in the ‘pengkolan’ hahahhahaha), we spent 10 minutes to wait for my other friend (Ms.E) and then we were riding our bike again, after riding our bike for 15 minutes we were realize that we were lost, the appointed place should be 5 minutes distance from TU Delft. But yes, we spent like 10 minutes rode our bike and another 10 minutes to return back.

Our destination was Hoeve Ackerdijk, it was an ecological farm, I bet someone who read this blog wondering what’s the different between ecological farm and normal farm? I’ll tell you on the folloeing paragraph. By the time we got there, some of the international student from ISS-Den Haag already gather, the owner prepared us some drink and explain about the history of the place. He showed us the aerial picture of the area, and believe it or not it hasn’t change since 1970, we’re not even on outskirt of city but even the rural development not change since 1970.

Ecological farm treat their cattle differently from normal farm. Eventhough all cow came from the same breed, most of the cow are american-frisian cow and they were imported from French, confuse? welcome to globalization. Eventhough the size is enormous, they didn’t feed the cattle with trans genetic (TG)  food the cow was fed by natural grass or wheat, the farmrs only gave pellets if the cow was sick or during the milking period.

Unlike modern farming, these cow were treated more ‘humane’ they were able to walk on the prairie, able to milk their children, and the during the milk producing the treatment is not as cruel as modern farming. The sewage treatment also conducted naturally, the manure of the cow is thrown on the prairie around the farm so it could nourish the soil. They put priority on local content especially for the food.

Well too bad my journey on Hoeve Ackerdijk, must end during the noon, afterwards me and my friends (Mr.C and Mr.R) went to Oriental to look for our dairy needs, it made me realize we’re not ‘ecologically-aware’ and afterwards I spent time to chat with them in McDonalds, It was a happy day..

Last friday (finally a recent post) I went to Pasar Malam Tong Tong with my friends, well technically I walked all by myself because we were separated on Pasar Besar. this event has long history from 1959 and this year celebrating their 50 years and they didn’t seem to celebrate with invite some great artist, perhaps they already get a big name so whether it’s celebrated or not it doesn’t really matter.

This is the largest festival for European-Indonesian culture in Netherland. Inside the festival  they provide the information of indonesian culture, and like heir name “Pasar Malam besar” or literally Big Night Market they sell various thing, from craft, typical indonesian food, hobby paraphernalia, massage, tropical fruit *such as durian*, and many many other stuff that I don’t think it will be available like fortune teller.

I had a great time ther, eventhough I walk alone I never walk alone, everyone speak Indonesian and I met some friends who live in Den Haag and worked as a waiter (in Dutch:Ober) there, it was a nice night, it took gorgeous photo, and eventhough I had little regret I can’t get along with my friend, at least I get new experience ofnPasar Malam besar.