.

i don't want to live in this country anymore

2012-01-19T19:07:00.004+07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-xpsiGMSR0

see it for yourself.

they look like they're about 12 or something.

boyband somehow "IN" again in this country.

in case you're wondering the lyric.

growing up sucks.

2012-01-17T09:59:00.002+07:00

i'll miss this moment, for all the ideas of them that i knew.. :(

so long..

2012-01-12T20:45:00.001+07:00

aku ingin terbang bebas di angkasaa~~~ hey! baling-baling bambu!!

transition

2012-01-05T06:27:00.002+07:00

i hate changing habits

i hate changing my rituals

i hate adapting to new things

especially when it comes to 'this matter',

that involves a person other than myself.

*i already dislike 2012. i had a great year back in 2011.

Rage

2012-01-03T18:20:00.001+07:00

I want to burn down one place, I want to smack someone's head agaisnt the wall, lastly, I want to rip out a woman's brain because I know she'll live anyway without it since she never used it. Revenge is for those who felt betrayed and lost. No, there'll be no revenge from me, I swear. I'll just put my head ip high and see you in couple of years when you beg for mercy. Because he more you try to put me down, the harder I will raise back up to kick your sorry ass.You've been warned. I accept your challenge with pride.

tuhan suka becanda #10

2011-12-30T22:12:00.000+07:00

my boss called me to investigate a negataive romour she heard. so apparently i'm just "another girl" and later this day i asked again about my commision, muti and i was that close to give ourresignation letter this afternoon.. thankfully the matter sorted out quite well..then later in theevening we played "ball game" and yes, umpan disambut.. maksudnya baik..

all of you can just go fuck yourself, assholes!! shame on you.

Diandra Canti Hadiawan, S. Ds.

2011-12-22T13:08:00.004+07:00

finally the three of us will get that 'picture' :D

* more update later when i have time to transfer all photos..

Happy Pills

2011-12-19T20:36:00.004+07:00

no matter how dull the office is, as long as i still have them, i think i'll be alright.

(by the way, we were so bored we tried every photo-application on our free ipad)

if

2011-12-17T11:26:00.002+07:00

i have nothing to lose, does it mean i have nothing to give or i have no life to live?? or maybe it means i fear nothing and literaly numb of the fear itself? i believe i just simply dont give a single fuck.

looking forward for that trip Mi~~

2011-12-15T20:48:00.003+07:00

Mia posted this on her blog, she said it was dedicated to me (original post)

i do really miss our traveling time together. one of the best 50 days of my life for sure, and if i have to redo everything all over again, i wouldn't change a single thing from our clumsy yet fun trip.

Bad author

2011-12-13T06:27:00.003+07:00

The fact that my mood has been chrased right after I opened my eyes is one thing, the reality of the similar story repeating itself under different circumstances turned out to be beyond devastating to me. Gah! Again?!! Seriously.

Why so jealous if I put a smile on my face because I'm actually finally happy after a while? I don't ask much, sometimes I do need you to support my choice. (and not only for academmic purpose as you always do)

i know what i miss

2011-12-10T12:41:00.001+07:00

my epic "korean" life. :(

i miss watching some korean dramas, and miss the after-shocking-effect i usually got.

anyone knows a good korean drama these days?

geen probleem

2011-12-09T17:28:00.005+07:00

with the maag, i think in the normal situation i would just get it over with. things that happened recently really made me want to do the most coward thing i always do every time the low point hits me. stay away from other people. God, give my sanity back by next week please.. i can't keep this on.

by the way, i have some nice stories to share:

1. Last week i went to watch breaking down with DeeDee.. and yes, we had our black-out but it was worth it. (believe me, we enjoyed it as a guilty pleasure)

2. I got my hands on conan. yes, i finally able to completed my colection since i was in grade school. in addition, i also got Salad Days--the one that I've been meaning to read but never got a chance to because it's not in production anymore.

3. Today, as an output for my "condition" i cooked my dad some stuff and to my surprise he added more and more to his plate (i assume that's a good sign)

Seafood risotto with fungi

Asian Prawn ala anak kos

Honey glazed chicken with rosemarry

Awesome

2011-11-28T21:12:00.005+07:00

when my internship product made it to the front page of a design/architecture magazine. yep, the blue arm chair is my baby.. :D --maybe this is how it feels to have kids and see them go to college.

*Griya asri vol 12 December

farewel

2011-11-22T09:07:00.002+07:00

she's one of my first 'real-life' teachers. i love her unconditionally.
if there are some things i learned from her is i learned to let people in and accept them the way they are, despite their imperfections. She also taught me to appreciate the wonderful life i have. She's one of a kind for sure.

Penguji

2011-11-17T19:49:00.010+07:00

back to this place today with Boi!!

we were invited to be the "judges" for our High school product design class final examination.

these are the worst product of the day (especially the ashtray)

these are the good ones

we loooove the sword!!

i never received any penghargaan from this school when i studied there, today, i finally got one.

thank you Lord for this wonderful day..

bocah!

2011-11-15T13:19:00.002+07:00

i grew in a place i'm gonna call "kandang serigala" at my campus, and i didn't know then that when a boy lost a "battle" in getting a girl they'll act literally like stupid little boys that lost a fight in hide-and-seek. wow. i'm speechless.

speechless because of two points, my campus mates are more mature than most boys, indeed.
and age really is just numbers. (this guy that "lost the battle" certainty older than me and his opponent)

BOCAH!!!

gaji buta #3

2011-11-14T14:36:00.005+07:00

went to a meeting outside the office. it's actually nearby and i could just get a bajaj to take me there.. but since my office has some pride to maintain i had to take muti with me (well, actually we just needed to get out of the office and stated that muti's car is the only way to go there)
and after the meeting, we took a little detour to enjoy a gift from our office mate that just came from china. (the little red--of course it's red! it's made in china--thing)

Mood breaker

2011-11-14T10:08:00.004+07:00

Not that I’m not used to it, it’s just the fact that people will always try to investigate your bad part to the very core no matter how well the outcome you’ve given them. I feel like punching (or maybe hurt them with any kind of blunt objects over and over again) the on the head, simply just to see what’s inside their rotten mind.

Someone once taught me, "before you judge people, try—I’m not saying it’s gonna be easy—to measure their good feature first. ANY good features, even if it’s just the fact that they have beautiful smile." I’ve been keeping her words in mind ever since. But what’s the point of behaving yourself towards those bastards that cannot wait to see you to mess up and laugh to your face right away, huh?

I went to college and learned more about people. During that time I manage to create my own way to judge people. I want to believe they’re good, until the result says otherwise. Having some faith in humanity surely is a hard thing.

*loosen the critics a bit, would you? and try to take a look into the mirror on our display.. there are a lot of it!!

Dear you,

2011-11-13T21:10:00.000+07:00

the baby steps i'm taking might be a little too little. sorry if you have to wait, and sorry if the atmosphere's weird every now and then around my house, we don't get a lot visitors..

thanks anyway.. :)

gaji buta #2

2011-11-10T09:50:00.000+07:00

another day without anything to do (big boss is out off the country) so we made these.

gaji buta #1

2011-11-09T09:38:00.000+07:00

all started from the "nothing-to-do-ness", me and my office mate finally decided to make these owls.. first of all we planned to make it the next day with proper fabrics, but boredom stroke and we just used whatever we got in hands--magazines paper..

muti's owl(the left one) looks like oom2 flirting with my owl.. :D

girrrlllsss..

2011-11-08T08:51:00.002+07:00

accidentally played these this morning. i miss nongkrong at kosan simply just to learn the moves then of we went to NAV afterwards for a real practice.. :(

Radio Dalam

2011-11-04T21:56:00.002+07:00

the right place for an office. i didn't expect to meet her today, but then she said "can i come during lunch time?" so she came.. soooo happy that i met her today!!! :D *masih euphoria.*

wish

2011-11-01T21:34:00.000+07:00

luck.

because finally i stepped out of the soooo called comfort zone i manage to keep all these years. :)

Tuhan suka becanda #9

2011-10-26T21:14:00.002+07:00

1. it's a small world after all

remember the cute old couple i mentioned a few weeks ago? turned out they're the grandparents of my junior high school friend, who was my ex' crush when they were little, and our moms know each other, and my brother is also a friend of her little sister. (aarrgghh weird sentence, fix later when i'm not too tired)

2. ETAAAA

seriously??!! it's not a big deal anymore, though. but this is just a full 'tuhan suka becanda' moment for me personally. And i did laugh so hard on this matter. who knows how bad/well it'd turn out? we'll see

Did slap me!

2011-10-22T05:35:00.002+07:00

What adnan said..

"you need to stop testing the water. Don't you realize that you need the water?!! You and I, we both have a same major problem when it comes to this stuff, we're affraid of commitment. You know, I faced my fear earlier and now I'm happy with my girl friend. Let loose a little lit.. Let loose."

:(

2011-10-18T20:44:00.001+07:00

Accidentally click kbs and saw poseidon. I know now how much I miss trashing my time watching Korean series with ramyeon as my dinner.

we got the ISO

2011-10-16T17:46:00.003+07:00

and this is the "celebration" no cake, no food, no drink, not even a toast, just "thank you".. anyway, this is my new 'class'. every time i wake up and go to work, i actually feel like i'm going to campus--thanks to these wonderful people (not so wonderful working hour though, but hey! nothing's perfect, right?!)

HEY!

2011-10-15T10:29:00.001+07:00

kupu-kupu butterfly!!
you are so cute just like I.

*if you don't know the song, don't judge the grammar!! :D

2011-10-12T09:30:00.001+07:00

A few days ago, I was at the office all alone. It was Sunday so everyone else had their weekly day off while I didn’t. When I was about to close the showroom, a car pulled in, and an old couple came out off the car. Apparently, they’re planning to build a wardrobe and kitchen for their new apartment. Let me describe this couple. They’re about 60-ish and I bet very rich. I greeted them and showed them around the showroom.

They started off as a costumer, asking about “what new stuff do you have?” which means that they’re an old costumer coming back for another purchase. They stared arguing with each other in Dutch!—yes, it’s so meant to be, but they’re actually Indonesian—and I tried not to laugh until the lady finally realized that I understand Dutch. After the language barrier, they started to treat me not as a sales woman anymore, but more as a ‘new girl that just got her job, let’s try to make this a good experience for her’ attitude.

The old guy kept saying ‘I want this, I want that, look! It’s so great! Oh wow, I want it featured in my house.’ And the old lady kept saying ‘oh my god! The apartment is not even ready yet, stop making her confuse and just get to the point! We can take care of what’s inside the wardrobe later.’ Which replied by the old guy ‘but it has to be good, kijk dit is mooi.’

They also have the behavior of old couple that’s adoring—in some ways. The old guy couldn’t stop sneezing and the lady would look at me while rolling her eyes saying ‘he’s really old, once he sneezes he wont stop’ the she smiled.

My office offers a discount for costumers. To get this discount they must play with our dartboard then pop a balloon to know how much discount they get. And when I said that, they both were so exited and the old guy said ‘you do that’ to his wife then look at me ‘she’s better at this stuff than I do, but can I also play? Can we throw twice?’ with a playful look in his eyes. They only got 10% discount instead of 49,9 but they jumped on their feet happily. *ah, seriously I’m tearing up remembering this*

It’s warming in some ways to see they still fought each other in ‘old couple demeanor’ and they still play around feeling like they’re just as young as me. I was actually very happy to meet them. I didn’t grow up with the luxury of having my grandparents around, so I never really knew how to deal with old people—although I have a very sensitive part about it, I fall easily for old people instead of dogs or babies. They made me feel welcomed. Moreover, this energy they have toward each other is—again, I just realized—actually something I always seek in someone. I want that.

I don’t want a lover to be with me and adore me in our youth, but I want a best friend to grow old with. I want to be looking at that person not just as ‘my man’ (sorry for the choice of words) but as a great friend I want to spend the rest of my life with. I want to be 60 and that person still look at me with that adoring shine in his eyes, no matter how much wrinkles I get at that time. No matter how old I look. I want to look at that person saying ‘that’s my best friend, and my husband. We’ve been through a lot, and we had fun living our life. Because when life sunk us to the very bottom, we know we got each other as our best friend.’

i miss

2011-10-10T10:09:00.002+07:00

doing what i'm doing at this very moment (a whole day of nothing-to-do-ness--if that's even a word) and browse stuff that makes me tearing up right now because i realized how much i've missed my old days. growing up sure is a pain in the ass, but i'm having fun doing it. it'll worth something years from now, i'm sure of that. but still, a day off from it all and stuck browsing in front of computer, downloading all series i've been missing for a few weeks sure is ultra fun.

advantage.

2011-09-28T21:03:00.004+07:00

of working in an office that sells kitchen and appliances.

this chef apparently is quite famous in Indonesian cooking "industry". he shot his upcoming episode in my office using one of the kitchens in the showroom, and of course, the wagyu beef was for me and my office mate who's been sitting behind the reception all day long--and the rest of the transTV crew.

tuhan Suka Bercanda #8

2011-09-27T20:39:00.000+07:00

1. my manager gave me and my office mate this book, to learn how to "communicate" with people better..

2. This is the "first aid kit" in my office. if you read the notes that comes along with it, describing the purpose of the kit, you'll understand why it's in 'tuhan suka becanda' tag.*

3. the best rule i've ever seen

*sasaran p3k: menyelamatkan nyawa: aim of the first aid kit: to save life--in this term, it means to save life from a near-death experience. while what's available in that box is only stuff for headache and "masuk angin"

sunday

2011-09-25T19:08:00.001+07:00

breakfast, yes, i always have breakfast now.

lunch. fusilli with any left-overs i could find: milk, canned beef, smoked beef, bell paper, and zenetto.

dessert. layered crepes with nutella and kahlua whipped cream.

after a while, cooking felt really good. :D

wee bit of time

2011-09-20T11:46:00.007+07:00

yes!! i have a day off today, and i'll dedicate myself to this book, and hanggul lesson later on this afternoon.. ^^

i miss

2011-09-18T11:01:00.003+07:00

a good home-made-from-sracth pasta
a good yet affordable wine (unlike normally-cheap-but-stupid-Indonesian-government-made-it-super-expensive-crap)
napping
traveling
learn new things everyday
a good book
time to read a good book
cooking
studying
"God's prophets"
CSI
Masterchef (shit, can i catch up with that this evening?!)

good day yesterday

2011-09-18T10:45:00.005+07:00

although my prediction of 'the road will be traffic-free' was right, turned out that the bus that operates on Saturday morning were very view, ergo, i was packed in a small bus with dozens other people and it was literally like sardines in a can.

however, i still managed to see the fun of it (since i didn't get the scary kenek i got the other day). and i don't know if i'm gonna jinx it or not, but i kinda like--leaning towards 'love'--my workplace. i like the people in it (well one particular person, i could just 'nothing' it). i learned the product knowledge yesterday, so that today i could also help just in case there are more costumer at the same time.

i went home at 4 o'clock and i got the sweetest kenek ever!! i sat right beside the driver, he and the kenek talked all the way to Ciputat in Padang-language. then the kenek turned to me and asked, "mba, ngerti ga?--dou you understand, miss?" with a very sincere smile on his face. later we chatted a bit about everyday language and stuff and yesterday was actually the first time 102 bus stopped at Ciputat (usually it's just near Ciputat) so that i didn't have to walk too far to get into my next transport--angkot.

and the angkot just pass through without ngetem!! so i got home before 6 o'clock.

*kenek : co-driver(??)
**angkot : smaller public transportation
***ngetem: waiting for passenger to fill up the public transportation until it's full

todays' nonsense

2011-09-15T15:56:00.005+07:00

kenek 102
So after three days in a row I got the same bus and the driver, today I got the different one on my way to the office. I never expect to get a seat when I’m catching the bus in the morning (it costs Rp.2000, who cares about sitting down). Well, today I got one and stand near the door because that’s where the air was, but then the kenek came to me and poked me in a most displeasing way, I thought it was just my obligation to pay the fare, but then she—yes, it’s a woman—shouted “move back!! Stop making the bus look full!” which she could say in a more decent manner. So I moved and she still poked me and everyone else to move back while there’s no more space at the back.
If that’s not annoying enough, she couldn’t stop complaining all the way. I had no idea whether she had a problem with the driver or not, but all the way she shouted “ah, ngapain narik penumpang, biarin aja supirnya yang usaha.. masa dy seenaknya.” , “biarin ga gue panggilin penumpangnya, biar ga dapet setoran.” “anjing, babi, monyet lo setan.” “ngapain mas naek angkot, enakan naek busway, dingin pake ac.” and so on..
I mean, I’m a believer that every woman was born in her own beautiful way, but this woman was demon. Obviously she’s not pretty. She didn’t have any manner. She’s not even trying to appreciate other people personal space. She didn’t look clean, well she’s a demon.

PM(?)
warning: not trying to be racist at all.
So there’s this CAHYADI lady in my office. At first, I didn’t know what I did wrong. I only been here for four days, and I’m trying my best to catch up with the system. Long story short, my tutor wanted to show me how to use the copy machine and we’d like to copy some documents and one of the document consists of a file in an A3 paper.
My tutor asked me to get the paper on the desk in the middle of the office, so I went. While I was getting the fucking paper, this cahyadi lady glared at me from head to toe with an expression that made me really want to punch someone. Because I still think I didn’t do anything wrong, I grabbed the paper and went back to my tutor. Suddenly I had this question in my head, “mba, do we have to write somewhere if we take a PIECE of paper?” then my tutor smiled and said “someone was being mean to you wasn’t it?” and I nodded.
Apparently, we do have to write somewhere if we want to take a piece of paper, especially if the paper only belongs to a significant someone.
Yesterday I have encountered some awkwardness with the very person, I asked to borrow a measure tape, and she looked up from her table, looked at me from head to toe, and said “Mana gw tau meteran gw dimana. Meteran gw ilang. Dipinjem ga dibalikin.” And she said that as if it was my fault that she lost the measure.
Yeah, so without trying to be racist at all, now I’m in the “sales” shoes,, and I remember in my old office everybody almost hate the sales person. Should just take it all in with a smile and silent curse to that lady(?)

PPKN
The rules I posted before, turned out i have to memorized it, as in one day, my GM will come and ask me the content of the rules given.

However, I still like what I’m doing.. it's different from my everyday world and also different from the office i did an internship with, and i like it here. I like the people in ‘sales group’.. and I’m here to learn, so I should just wish for the best.

first

2011-09-12T20:43:00.004+07:00

Real job.. ^^

the only odd thing was the 'rule' stated we shal not pick our ear wax nor scratch our dandruff. (yet no 'rule' about farting, picking nose, and burping--which are more common) :D

Goodluck 초찬티~~

2011-09-11T13:48:00.004+07:00

either it's Monday or Tuesday, GOODLUCK!!^^

(gw sama Tendy selalu siap jadi "back-up dancer" ko.. we wont steal the spotlight, don't worry, we know you are the 'birthday girl' indeed)

Last leisure

2011-09-08T20:34:00.001+07:00

a new H&M store just opened in Singapore, and never in my history of shopping in H&M i had to queue before i enter the store, and queue again for almost 30 minutes to try on some pants (which i didn't do in the end) and yet another queue on the way to the cashier. And as long as i'm in there, i heard a lot of Indonesian accent. later i knew that it's still holiday for the private school students.

my dad went berserk in IKEA, which was surprising for me, since i'm the one that usually have that kind of behavior (this time i only purchased 3 items!!). IKEA produced this halal meatballs for the moslem which taste like craps. last news is the fact that my brother had became this shopaholic boys. oh, and those mr. simple outfit turned out to be 'ultra hip' nowadays.

No 'deadline' today

2011-08-31T17:53:00.008+07:00

Happy Lebaran everyone!! one stupidity from my country's government, made all muslims in our country celebrate Ied Mubarak today, instead of yesterday like the rest of the world.

It's a tradition to visit our elders during this celebration, but since all elders in my family had passed, and my father is on duty, we decided to stay at home until Saturday, then visit some Aunts in Bogor. The good thing of not meeting the elders are the happy sensation of not being asked these questions "mana pacarnya? udah lulus? kerja dimana? kapan kawin?" (where's your boyfriend? have you graduated yet? what do you do now? when are you getting married?) later today i heard from my friend who's a newlywed being asked "kapan nih ngasih momongan?" (when will you get pregnant?) --> and she was frustated when everything in our life really is about that fucking deadline. (i wonder what's the next annoying question after those newlyweds have kids)

anyways, I spent almost all my time to be actively online lately (while i still have some free time, before 12th of September) and i stumbled on some stuffs that i personally think are nice.

(all images from http://www.9gag.com)

i miss friends so much!!

and Harry Potter (according to the book)

and this one's for Raffy.

After more than two months

2011-08-28T19:49:00.006+07:00

Finally the three of us could meet face-to-face, altogether at the same place and time.

the ridiculous thing was, we all lived in the same city for the past 5 years, and we almost see each other EVERYDAY. Never in our history we wore a similar theme of outfits. Yes, sometimes we had same color, or same way to put out tops and bottoms together, but never the same color, theme, pattern, and so on.

Well, yesterday i met Ayu at Gandaria City and saw her dressed up in her red flannel. We both laughed and decided to sms Boi to tell her not to wear anything red. She replied "too late". then Ayu and I wondered wether she has any red flannel at all, and we came to a conclusion 'no, her flannel outfit are dark colored'.

We waited at Basilico until Boi showed up. She showed up with her red-checkered(plaid?)-flannel.

Here's the thing, three of us rarely wear the outfit we wore yesterday. Red wasn't really our color (Ayu's yellow, or anything bright or grey, Boi's black, green or blue, I'm brown, white or anything bright) so to saw each other in that same color, same pattern, same fabric was very embarrassing. we felt like we're on a stupid study tour to a mall.

Nevertheless, i'm happy we met and spent stupid night at Ayu's Bude apartment. It's been a while since we had a sleep over, and last night was fun. I went to bed with a soar throat because we laughed all night. till next sleep over~~~

Kids nowadays

2011-08-22T11:42:00.003+07:00

think that twitter is a place to do and express ANYTHING.

this is way too embarrassing when they decided to use it as a media to 'fight'. it's just lame. moreover, they think it's macho somehow, that fighting via twitter is something ultra cool. i feel like smacking their heads through a hard wall.

i'm not against twitter when it's function is to 'keep-in-touch' and share your knowledge and other useful stuff like that. but when it comes to 'look-at-me, see-what-happen-to-me,me-me,me-the-world-is-all-about-me' and that behavior followed by minute-by-minute posts that actually kinda make me wonder "do you even sleep at night?" it think it's too much.

nope, scratch that, 'too much' wont even describe how overrated it is.

Tuhan Suka Bercanda #7

2011-08-15T22:10:00.000+07:00

anything wrong, anyone??

*fun fact: boy spotted this a while ago(as in months ago). she's relieved that finally i saw this AND PUBLISH it.

Finally met Ahjumma

2011-08-14T11:53:00.002+07:00

Daily classes

2011-08-09T11:27:00.003+07:00

there're certain things i need to achieve during the next 6 months period--please God help me to achieve this one. crying and whining wont do the trick, so i'm teaching myself these stuff now. some of my friends just had their first day of school (of the new semester), and in some way, i'm having mine too.

Tuhan Suka Bercanda #6

2011-08-07T21:05:00.003+07:00

He answers our prayer in the most unique way. although this time, His way is too extreme borderline 'are You seriously reaching through me?' kinda way. but however, it did draw a wide smile on my face and i could laugh myself till my stomach hurt today because of that fact that i just realize.

God sent a 'wahyu' indeed. *even until now i still cannot stop laughing on how ridiculous it is*

Baby steps

2011-08-07T12:18:00.006+07:00

never attracted to Drawing Pen nor Water Color. I gave them a second chance and turned out i kinda like them now. Sure it's more fun when i don't have any pressure to impress my teachers to get good scores in "gambar bentuk" class.

Storm before the calm, or not.

2011-08-02T11:57:00.002+07:00

turned out everybody has their own falls. all my close friends had that. different types of course. break ups, educational, parents, work, you name it. and when that happened to them, secretly i kept thinking to myself 'when's my turn? can i handle it as good as my friends did?' i mean, i know the world cannot be as great as you think it is, and one day you'll just have to be ready when it comes for your own down fall.

they all experienced the same behavior that i'd like to call symptoms, and i will examine the symptoms:

You feel like crap
because you do feel that way, you chose to stepped away from people
you're angry with everybody and staying alone in you room is the best thing to do
you started thinking for help (in my case, God's)
you tend to avoid chatting when it comes to your friends who's already live their life.
you keep everything minimum, to your usually-trusted-friends.
you try to make yourself busy doing shit that your sane mind knows that it's rubbish
you started to create this little world on your own with your selected people in it, and think that that world is the real one simply because there'd be no one there questioning you or what you do. (in my case writing)
you always feel like smashing something or crying or screaming whenever it comes to face your problem (in my case, check my email)
you hate it when your friends share their great stories of their life, but still be that hippocrite that smiles and said "i'm happy for you"--with those dead-at-heart smile.
Internet connection became your best friend.
you started to think of doing something else that's not related to the skills you're supposed to enriched. (in my case language and cooking)
you get this crazy thought inside your head that your close friends think you're angry with them or they know you need some space. and at the same time, the drama queen inside you just want to crawl and cry to them just to get the shit out of your system.
then you think that thought before was weak, and that everybody has their own problems they need to deal with.

after all it's the Kubler-Ross model for the five stages of grieves: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. judging by this post (and walk back to my previous posts) i think i'm now in the 4th stage. which i try to see for it's silver lining--soon enough it will be the 5th stage.

as i always say: If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere, or in my language it will be 'Kalo ngga ada masalah di depan ga seru'

everybody got their own level of hell

2011-07-29T10:19:00.001+07:00

and whenever i feel this way, i always remember what my good friends and i always discussed everytime any of us hits rock bottom. every body has their own problem, you should never compare yours to them. and we are dealing with it the best way we know.that kinda thought obviously help to create less drama in your life :D

p.s: no, i'm not whining, just sharing.

silver lining

2011-07-26T09:51:00.006+07:00

Met the best interviewer, ever. The difference between working with our people and with their people. Their people don't postpone the decision and make the rest of our week miserable just to wait for the end result whilts they knew that we're not accepted. And they also pointed out your flaws to encourage you to do better. I wish indonesian will cut off the basa basi just to sound polite one day, it'll be a nice working world if people just honest without trying to drag someone's spirit down.

Didn't get the job though, but i learned today. Silver lining.

Anyway, i was waiting in line in a bank, when i heard two tante-tante talk about their views of life. They just met and they talked as if they've known each other for a while. I got a revelation from eavesdropping their conversation. He always works in an effective way to reach in, isn't He?

How to cope with dilemma?

2011-07-25T09:32:00.003+07:00

have a good friend around and talk.

aaaaarrrgghh.. i'm pissed. when we were in Bandung all we had to do was call and 5 minutes later we'd end up in some cheap eating place in Cisitu and talk until we ran out of conversations. meeting up nowadays took a lot of efforts.

thank you, anyway.

dangerous

2011-07-22T15:22:00.004+07:00

Comfort zone IS dangerous.

*they let me had my own adventures, but when i fell, they were always there to welcome me back home.

....

2011-07-18T17:10:00.002+07:00

Let's put an end

2011-07-18T13:21:00.002+07:00

to this shit that's been bugging me. what's wrong with the word "nyusul"?? anyone? just because it happens so fast in your life, doesn't mean those people (including me) that's not even close to walk down that aisle are picky. and of course we're okay. and no, we're not waiting for the 'left-overs'. so, thanks for nothing.

despite all the dramas in 3 days

2011-07-17T14:44:00.003+07:00

I miss these..

my head hurts

2011-07-16T16:55:00.009+07:00

Since last Thursday i was in Bandung. My head constantly hurting for lots of reason.

Meeting counselour for 'future talk'
Met a girl (or woman? Ahjumma??) and believed that tuhan suka becanda INDEED.
BAd mood+PMS
Graduations = 'hey, what are you doing now?? Where do you work?" conversations
Owwww myyyy goooddd. I don't know how to describe this one. Contributed a lot of headache at the moment
My close friend (close--nobody could seperate us during middle school-close) is getting engaged.
Sm*sh's on tv as i wait for my travel home

I need my blanket, raffy and gareth, friends dvd, wine, and laying down.

Thank you

2011-07-13T13:52:00.004+07:00

for making this huge decision in your life whilst considering my future too. can't believe i'm saying this but i think as the time goes by you are getting more and more mature. fights sure will come ahead but we'll always forgive each other anyway. once again, thank you. thank you. if i were in your position a few years ago maybe i'd chickened out but you went out there and did it anyway. now i know finally we can try to count on each other.

How Am I Supposed to Fill it?

2011-07-11T10:30:00.002+07:00

Can't believe i'm saying this to myself:
화이팅
oh, so far my research came to this conclusion, i MUST pass Korean version of TOEFL first to enroll.

wow.

Real life, baby! part. 2

2011-07-06T08:26:00.002+07:00

The more i stepped into it, the more i realize that my passion IS studying.
To be a part in these coorperate stuff kinda drives me nuts. As scary as is looked to me before now i jump right into it makes me fear of it even more. I know it's a cowardy comment on my behalf but i don't need to bw a hipocrite saying that this thing's fun when it's not.

By this morning as i filled out a recruitment form, i possitively made my mind: i'll try my best and will do whatever it takes within my power (mentally and financially) to try to get a next degree for my study.

I chickened out today, just don't judge me
Not because i think i can't but simply because i don't want to.
Growing up does take time, indeed.

...

2011-07-03T16:11:00.003+07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More furniture

Stumbled

2011-07-01T21:42:00.000+07:00

in this rather cool site called yes-butno.. and i just like the simplicity of it. simple yet cynical enough for me. let me share some that related to me:

(all images belong to YES-BUT NO)

an early birthday present from my little brother

2011-06-25T17:03:00.000+07:00

meet raffy's new boyfriend, Gareth.
:*

just because

2011-06-23T11:13:00.003+07:00

you had it all figured out, doesn't mean you can judge me when i'm trying to clean up my mess! i know i didn't judge you when you were in my shoes not so long ago. what happen with support, huh? if you can't support, then shut up!!

i know my weakness already without your help of pointing them all out.

currently reading:

2011-06-23T11:04:00.004+07:00

the most touching of all is of course the Pak Harto one. i read another book that tells anything about his bad regime--and i think it's been a talk in this country as well--and now to have him described by his closest people and read about another side of him was kinda nice. i agree with some people in this book that said "we all remember him when he went down in 1998, but we forgot that despite all his judgement he also helped to unify this country as one and helped it grow from a coloniliezed country into a growing country. we also forgot how strong our country was when he sat on the throne, no one wanted to mess with Indonesia at that time, because they all scared of him."

a simple phone call

2011-06-22T00:46:00.001+07:00

Led to a huge slap-on-the-face revelation. I know why i haven't lift my butt and give my all, that's because i have no competition, i have no pressure, and no deadline. But thnaks to my bestfriend, he made me realize my weakness and drag me back on track. I'll run as fast as i can to compete you now. I'll try to get there too.

Oh, and a simple judgement from him also help "this is not your behaviour. You're not usually this helpless."

Thank you.. Thank you.. Thank you..

!!

2011-06-11T09:15:00.002+07:00

"sure the future is scary, but you cannot stay in the past just because it's familiar"

-Some dialogue from 'how i met you mother'

Real life, baby!

2011-06-07T11:09:00.003+07:00

i woke up this morning from a bad dream. apparently i was in this "reunion" and those who are in it aren't just my college friends, but also my high school friends. i greeted everybody and did a little chit chat. when they asked what I've been doing lately i told them i just got back from a trip, then i asked them the same question. and this was where the nightmare started.

some has gotten married. one i remembered already got a child with his wife. i saw a group of my friends dressed up in office outfits looking professional. one of then was a lawyer. many of them just got their master degrees.

this scene happened in a huge ball room and i don't know why in that very ballroom, there's a mall! and those people i mention above shopped till they dropped simply because they have the ability to buy new expensive stuff with the money they earned.

to make it even worse, the 'unmentionable' also came to my dream and talked to me. he still looked like he used to. messy, dirty, annoying. and he's the only one there without the fancy suit. the only one without the great job title. the one without any further degree. without any good money to spend on anything but food. he's the only one reflected 'me' in my dream.

i woke up to that.

now i get cranky, trying to find something to do. my friend texted me about a program related to her job. another friend of mine texted me about an opening for a job. (just as i awoken). dear Lord, i need a week from this and i promise, I'll work my butt off again.

#50. Jakarta

2011-06-03T12:19:00.002+07:00

i couldn't sleep on the plane because i'm too exited to go home. JAKARTA!! i'm home~~~ it's hot and dirty and has a lot of traffic but it's home and i love it!!!

#49. Schippol (going home after all)

2011-06-02T10:21:00.002+07:00

Today i'm going home after 48 days spent in Europe. during this journey i learned a lot. and for sure i'd love to do this again if i get the chance, the time, and of course the fund. but like i said to a guy in the ticket desk yesterday, "ï'm done with Europe, next will be East Asia."

wish me a pleasant flight and a save ride home.. i miss Indonesia very much i'm very exited to go home at last.

#48. Schippol

2011-06-01T21:21:00.004+07:00

i woke up at 6 in the morning so that i could catch a train on 7 o'clock. i managed to do that. when i got to Schipol it was only 8.30 and i'm sure i could see the station manager.

i was a bit late. he's already at the gate, but the good thing was he'll return to the desk.

i chatted with my dad's colleague about over weight and all kind of tipical chat you'll have with your dad's co-worker, but then he had to go to the gate to check the plane so i left alone.

this guy Michael, a desk keeper (he's a ctually being paid to get all the jobs before flight done) finally talk to me. he saw me the first day i was here, and he's wondering if i'm still here for the same reason.

i told him my luggage stuff and the reason why. he just laughed and confused why do people always asked someone coming from Netherlands to bring the cheese. he's around my age so it's easy to chatted with him. he asked me where's my next plan, and i said i'm done with Europe, i'll try something else.

anyways, despite the nice chat i still have to see this station manager guy, and after waited for two hours i finally got to see him. i gave him my dad's letter and he asked how much is my overweight. when i said 40 kilo he just scratch his head and said "waduh, kalo 10 kilo saya lolosin deh, tapi sekarang ini bukan keputusan saya lagi. ada bos baru disini, dan orangnya saklek. kamu temui beliau aja dulu, minta keputusan dari beliau."

so i went to the office to see this guy.

he's a bataknese, he's a huge scary guy, and yeah, he's absolutely not my favorite person. i got a nicer deal since he said "saya nggak bisa kasih free, tapi saya kasih setengah harga" and Veronica, the lady i met the other day was so curious with how my luggage end up.

i told her i got a half price, and this nice lady looked at me and tried to cheer me up saying "it's better than nothing." she also help me to booked my seat and made sure the people at the desk tomorrow will get the note saying i only pay half price. i like this lady very much!! she's very helpful and kind, and when she said she'll call back, she did call back.

i really miss home right now, i miss everything, i miss everyone. i can't wait for tomorrow.

#47. Zaandam

2011-05-31T21:17:00.002+07:00

no story today. i just went to Zaandam to grocery shop for my mom's titipan, to add more weight to my overweight luggages. i did it today so that i could finish all my packing nessesity.

and i re-packed. so in total my huge luggage weight 27 kilo, my backpack 17 kilo, and my new borrowed bag weight 10 kilo. i weighted it with a house scale, so i'm not sure if that's accurate. but at least it's less than what i expected.

#46. Amsterdam - Schippol

2011-05-30T21:17:00.002+07:00

i went to the Airport to re-check my flight (second reason), first reason was i needed to know wheter i'm aloud to have an exess bagage. why? according to my ticket i'm allowed to bring a 20 kg lugage, whilts mine weighed 54 kg.

never in history i ever stayed lower than 22 kg (and that was very good). i'm very good at packing lugage so when people can only fit a few things in theirs i could fit a lot more things with the same amount of space, ergo my lugage weight more.

so i went to Garuda Indonesia office in Schippol and asked to see the station manager to talk to him about the exess weight, but he wasn't around. so the lady at the desk told me to come back in a hour.

i wasted my time by sitting at the front part of the airport, sipping coffee and had scones that i bought days before from a winkle called "the bakeswinkel" my teacher recommenden me this, mia and i wanted to try that earlier but the winkle already closed, so when i got a lot of time in Amsterdam, i went for it.

an hour passed and i went to see the lady again. she said Pak Angki, the station manager wont be there and maybe i could leave him a message and such. so i did. she also made a copy of my ticket reservation and my surat sakti from my dad. then this conversation happened:

Veronica: It says here in your ticket you're allowed of 20 kg.
me: yes, i'm aware of that. That's why i'm here.
Veronica: How much is the overweight?
Me: around 40 kg.
Veronica: 40?? haw many bags do you have?
Me: 3 bags.
Veronica: 3 bags?? but you're ALONE.
Me: (smiled) exactly.

later i chatted with ayu, she mentioned "lit, the last part 'but you're alone' was a bit ambiguist ya.."
indeed.

i decided to spent the rest of my money in the city today, so went shopping. lush. h&m. hema. stuff i cannot get back at home. (adding more weight in my luggage)

#45. Koog a/d Zaan

2011-05-29T21:17:00.001+07:00

it's Sunday and nothing's open here except Amsterdam. my aunt has been reminding me about a family reunion she's having this afternoon, so i planned to stay at home today.

oh but that didn't happened exactly as planned. the girls asked for cheeses as their gifts, my parents wanted the same thing and i haven't got any cheese except for the Camembert i got from French. so i took out the bike and rode to Zaanse Schans.

the wind was blowing very hard (oh, have i mentioned it's windy and drizzly today, the temprature was around 14 degree) i sometime had to stop and get down from my bike otherwise i'll fall. and in the middle of the road the rain fell. rain as in rain, not drizzle. i'm too far from the house, and not yet in Zaanse Schans and basicly i'm just in the middle of nowhere so i had to go forward.

i got the cheese, went home, got a serious headache from the combination of the rain and the wind.

at night as promised, we had a family reunion and it was nice.

#44. Zaandam

2011-05-28T17:04:00.001+07:00

i went to the city near my uncle's place called zaandam. i ran out of credits in my OV-card. let me explain. to travel by train--usually to get to another city--with OV-card in the Netherlands you have to have at least 20 euro credits in it. i don't know why, but i know that i could get fined for more than 50 euro if i insisted on taking a train with limit under 20 euro. i'll leave the country in 5 days so i might as well be wise on what to buy, so i didn't add more credits to my OV-card and chose to travel by city bussed instead (with busses you can travel with at least 1.20 euro in your OV-card).

zaandam has changed since the last time i went here. last year it was Sunday and almost looked like a dead city, but today's very crowded. not as crowded as Amsterdam but the kind of country-side crowded.

that picture i attached here was a famous new landmark of zaandam. last year it was there, but it's not finished just yet. this time i figured out that it's a hotel. with the city center, train station, and bus station under it. i bet that's a pricey hotel.

one other thing i love with riding with bus: it stops right in front of my uncle's alley. with train i have to walk 20 minutes to the train station, with bus i just need to ngesot to get home.

#43. Utrecht

2011-05-27T20:04:00.001+07:00

to waste some time i planned to get out of Amsterdam and try to visit another city. my options were Den Haag, Rotterdam or Utrecht. i checked my OV-card balance and the credits i have left only enough to take me to Utrecht.

this city located in the Sout-East of Amsterdam and took about 30 minutes non-stop ride in a fast train. once i stepped out of the platform i already found myself stranded in a huge "mall". as usual i visited H&M first, simply just to browse stuff, i'll buy them later when my days are almost over with whatever money i have left.

after window shopping, i got out of the mall and went to the centrum. this city looks slightly like Amsterdam but got a different aura to it. it's more quite. the famous thing about this city was the domerak (it's a tower, almost like a church tower) and i went for it. i planned on climbing it but too bad, it's only open for tour. and i need to sign up for that tour, and it wil last for about an hour. i don't really like being in 'tour' so i continued my journey around the city.

i miss Mia really. i mean, travelling alone doesn't suck, it's just boring. to put it in correct word: mati gaya!

so after wandered around for 3 hours i stepped into febo to ate Kroket, then i went home.

#42. Amsterdam

2011-05-26T19:37:00.001+07:00

another day of wine-hunting. i'm still curious with that particular wine and i googled it, Mr. Google said that there's a wine shop in Amsterdam that sells it. here i go.

I took a tram to go further from the Centraal Station and right in front of my stop there's a Starbucks, i'm collecting their City Mugs and i haven't got the Amsterdam yet, so i went in and bought it. surprisingly, they have the same mug in Starbucks airport, the only difference was the one in the airport cost 4 euro more than the one in the city.

I continued my journey to the wine shop. i found the store and got in. asked the guy that spoke English about the wine, then he aked the old guy about it. the old guy looked at me and made sure about 'wine X-Chateau de-something?' and i nodded.

he widened his eyes and gave me two thumbs with a smile that said "that's a good wine, young lady." then he said something to the younger guy, which he kindly translated to me.

the HAD the wine. but then their importer lincence has expired, so maybe i have to look in the internet which dealer that has it now.

later tonight i seached that wine in the internet, and it's official that the wine doesn't exist in Netherlands.

one day i'll get it. one day!!

#41. Amsterdam

2011-05-25T16:26:00.002+07:00

The Metro's working again!! so i finally got to IKEA. there's a detour to Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA, why? because my dear brother addicted to football shirts lately and i don't really know his reason, but he asked me to buy him Ajax original jersey.

then IKEA. i only shopped a bit (compare to my usual behavior in this store) i only got mattres, bed throw, frames, and some little stuff that i forgot. they all came to a grand total of 60 euro, see, i didn't shop that much here. believe me, i usually spent more money when it comes to Ikea shopping.

one point i learned today, those things i bought cost less than one Ajax original jersey. it's only a frickin' t-shirt!!

#40. Delft - Gouda

2011-05-24T20:01:00.002+07:00

my original plan was to go to IKEA to shop there. it's been a ritual of mine actually, to go to ikea and shop until my lugage can't handle it. so i went to the centraal station then continued with metro number 54 that'd take me to Bullewijk.

two stations before Bullewijk the metro stopped and all passangers asked to leave the train. turned out thereé something wrong with the metro system and they decided to stop it altogether. i asked one guy how to get to Bullewijk and he said i have to return to Amstel station and take bus from there. one thing i'm not really familiar with the Netherlands transportation system was the busses. there're too many and too complicated (compare to the trains and metros) for me.

in the end i texted my Dutch friend Ron wheter he's free today and he said he was. i went to delft instead.

In Delft, i honestly have no idea what to do, Ron didn't know what to do so he adviced us to go to Gouda to visit his parents. i've never been to Gouda before so i think that's a good idea.

we visited his dad in his garage, his dad has this 'bussiness' of camping van that he remade from Citroen something. he saved off the rust, rebuilt it, give it a paint job, and ta-da! new van called "My's Mooi".

then we went grocery shopping. Ron has an Indonesian girlfriend and i think he's totally in love with Indonesia. everytime he cooks he'll cook something in Dutch ingredients mixed with Indonesian taste.

anyway, he suggested me to spend the night there, since he invited me for a BBQ in his house in Delft, but i forgot my nose spray and i could literally suffocate without it. i went home.

thanks guys, thanks for having me today.. see you when i see you

#39. Amsterdam

2011-05-23T21:57:00.002+07:00

Still need to rest. i blogged today. i entered pictures to my posts, and it felt great to see internet through a huge screen. i miss Bobi, my laptop.. tomorrow i'll start another trip. maybe around Holland just the near cities, i still need time to shop and buy everybody back at home presents.

it's 21.57, good night~~

#38. Amsterdam

2011-05-22T19:37:00.001+07:00

the schedule on my ticket said i'll arrive in Amsterdam at 6.30 but when i awoken at 5.00 i'm already at Den Haag and that's really close to Amsterdam. i have no idea where the guy that sat next to me last night but when i put on my shoes i saw him laying on the bus floor. apparently sleeping in the middle of the aisle was more comfortable to him than sleep in seating position in a cleaner seat.

i got to the station at 5.30 in the morning and bad luck for me it was raining HARD. i had to wait inside the station. i was looking for a coffee shop but there was nothing. coffee vending machine, none. Amstel Station was a small station near Amsterdam so it's not really well equipped. many people waited for the first train (on Sunday the train started to work from 7.30) and they just sleep on the floor. some people really were scary. i kept watching my bags and myself all the time because i had this bad feeling about them, and my instinct usualy right.

at 7.00 a little coffee shop apoened and i ordered a cappucino. i didn't know how i looked like but the lady asked, would you also like something to eat? while offered me a bagel. i refused. i just need my morning coffee.

with 16 kg on your back, around 7 kg extra at the front and 2 bottles of wine on your hand, it's kinda hard to move from one train to another. without any companion to talk to (I miss Mia already) with those burdens just seemed to get heavier. i used my last streght to press the bell on my Uncle's door, got in, took a clean-nice-lux-shower, had a quick breakfast, then passed out.

#37. Paris - Amsterdam

2011-05-21T22:23:00.005+07:00

My story today was "wine hunting." let's say i'm curious with "wine X" and i've came into each wine shop i could find in Italy and Paris to find it. it's French white wine from a special region which apparenntly only sold in Bordeux, French.

i was desperate i finally bought one white one as a gift for my Uncle and Aunt back in Holland and bought the red one for myself. But i didn't gave up just yet.

We stopped at McD and found internet connection, so i tried to google the wine. SOMEBODY SELL IT IN PARIS!!! so i searched the address and google map it right away. i took 3 metros to get to the station. walked in a wrong direction for 4 blocks, then another 4 blocks of a wrong direction. finally found the seller.

i came, waited and showed the guy the picture of "Wine X". he replied in French that i understood completely (don't ask me how i could understood all that), he said "yeah, that's the king of wine, one of the best wine from France. we sell it but you have to order it before. we don't have that wine today. sorry."

at least i tried each and every way i know best to get it, if i didn't get it, it wasn't because i didn't try hard enough but because it wasn't available.

one day, i will drink that wine! just wait, i will find it (not on Ebay) and i will drink it!!!

anyway, this is my last day with Mia. we came to the same bus station, but it's weird that we had two different boarding cards. she left for London, i left for Amsterdam. it'll be a weird bus ride without her beside me--for i already get used to sleep next to her for a month.

so Mia and I had went through:

12 Countries

18 Cities

10 Bus Stations

8 Train Stations

8 Airports

without any quarell, without any catfight. we didn't hate each other. she's a nice companion and i'm glad that i was travelling with her!! till next trip!!

#36. Barcelona - Paris

2011-05-20T23:21:00.003+07:00

one more great thing about our hotel in Barcelona: when we said we needed to check out before 7 o'clock, the nice beautiful receptionist, Laia (the same one that welcomed us the night before) offered us wheter we want the breakfast to be packed as a picnic? dear God, this is the first time ever a hotel actually has this kind of system. usualy when you missed breakfast, you missed breakfast! i recommend this hotel to everybody who's looking for a great place with affordable price: L'esplai youth hostel Barcelona

we cathed our flight to Paris, this time we had no problem at all with Ryanair. remember the cheesy 'cheap' welcome song that the airline plays each time its landed on-time? we got on the on-time flight this time so we got the 'welcome song' again. this time more cheerful because once the "tet-te-re-teet-te-te-teeetttt" (click there!!) played, 5 Spanish guys beside us cheered "OLE'!!" succedeed to brought tears to my eyes and a quite painful stocmacahe. but it's worth the pain, really.

we had to paid 15 euro to get from Beuvais airport to the center Paris. Mia looked at me with "are they kidding? that's expensive" look but i only replied with my flat "welcome to Paris" tone. turned out, the 15 euro we paid was kinda worth it. it's a 77 km ride (i believe it's longer than that) took us more than an hour to get to the center Paris and we felt like we're on a Travel from Jakarta to Bandung.

after a perfect hotel in Barcelona, our hostel in Paris was absolutely the worst one. This hotel was the most expensive we paid for this journey but this one's also the nastiest and least comfortable one. i felt dirtier after taking a shower here than before i did.

We found a restaurant selling chinese food by weight (so you paid for how many gram you have on your plate) and we got this idea to order more and take it Champ de Mars, the huge field in front of Eiffel Tower and have a picnic there. so we went back to the hotel, took my kain bali, then left for Eiffel tower.

We hung around there for about 4 hours and we witnessed some memorable stuffs:

first, there're these all-american girl (well, maybe i used the term wrong here, but it sounds cynical enough for me) 4 of them. they dressed up, super dressed up (they dressed up the way the girls in Gossip Girls do. The Upper East Side style) to the fricking Eiffel tower where everybody just laid around cared about nothing but the tower itself! 3 of them are tiny with firm butts they couldn't stop showing to the boys on the right side. they weren't very noisy, but i heard everything they said. and everything they said sounded stupid. to get to my point, they tried to get a decent picture of each of themselves with the Eiffel tower as the background. the picked a spot under the shadow of the trees. they couldn't stop complaining "oh, it's too dark. no, it's not good, the picture's too dark." it's shadow dear, unless you didn't notice, it is dark. they kept doing that for the next an hour. each and everyone of the probably would have a hundred pictures of themselves in front of the Tower. Stupid and narcists.

second, we couldn't handle the stupid American girls so we decided to move. we ate our food and simply just enjoyed ourselves with the surroundings. then this nice couple came and sat near us. they brought wine and crackers. i could listen to their conversation, and it was a casual nice conversation. Mia and were talking and suddenly we heard this: "really? you wanna be my wife?" and they kissed. at that moment we felt like we've been hit by a truck. i found my voice first and said to Mia "did he just purposed?" Mia only smiled. but we both felt the same thing: we wanted to congratulate them!! because they look like a nice casual couple. but we didn't. we didn't want them to know that we've been listening to their conversation the whole time.

Paris gotten dark and cold (the last one's a bit unexpected) and we couldn't wait until the tower shone. finally it did. after we got what we wanted we went back to our nasty hotel to try to rest.

#35. Barcelona

2011-05-19T22:54:00.009+07:00

(i like the bassist! left one with white fedora)

at 2 a.m we arrived at Barcelona. thanks to Ryanair, the most punctual airline, we got to search our hotel in a dangerous time of the night. all the people that boarded on our plane mostly also had to take the same night bus as us, even the cabin crews so it was a safe ride until i read the instruction on 'how to get to the hotel' page. stop a the first bus stop near the police station. we did that. all the people inside the bus looked at us curiously and i think i know why. the first bus stop was really close to the airport, logically there'd be nothing to find near it. honestly, we're also affraid that we got off the wrop stop but the stop was near a police station, so maybe we're on the right track.

we walked the road according to the map i printed at home and after a view confusing blocks there's a man walking his dog (at 2 a.m). he's wearing his pajamas and his wife's sandals (unless his taste was a beady sandals with flower as decoration) and his little dong that wont stop barking at strangers. he tried to calm that dog though. so we asked him about our hotel. in English. he answered in Spanish. cute thing was we talked! of course the body language involved but we talked. i think what he was saying was that he needed the number so that he could help us, but we had no number, then he said "if you have no number how could i help you? without numbers you'd be blind." but he tried his best to show us the right path before he turned to his home. muchas grasias senyor!!

we were lost for about two blocks. Tell you what, being lost during the day was fun, during the night was terrifying. we also got our huge backpacks on our back and both of us had planned to put it down and run as fast as we can in case the worst thing happened.

we found our hotel 15 minutes later. and it's a hotel. i remembered mia looked astonish and ask "Lit, how much do we have to pay for this? can we afford it?" the answer was it cost 23 euro a night for one person. for that amount of money we got: nice welcoming doorman and reception, private bedroom with airconditioner and private bathroom, nice beds, towels, linens, balcony, breakfast (and not just the standart coffee-milk-bread-breakfast, real breakfast!), nice guidance from the receptionist to visit Barcelona. the best hotel in this trip really. it's quite far from the city but so what? it only took us 40 minutes and 1.50 euro to get to the city center. not a big deal, right?!

we went to parc guël first. turned out Barcelona was famous for one of it's artist namen Gaudi. i don't really know what he's done actually, but i think it involved a lot of mozaic pattern with ceramic (please, correct me if i'm wrong for i haven't research anything about this guy). this park located a bit to the north and it's a hill. we could see the whole Barcelona from above and it was amazing! to get there (up there) we were accomodated with escalators, maybe back in the days the tourists are complaining a lot about this so the escalator's finally featured. but to get down, stairs'all we had.

next stop was Sangrada Familia. it's a bit too small compare to the one i have in mind. it didn't really wowed me so i'll move on to the next thing, the casa-something in Catalunya. this building's qiute famous, i think Samantha Brown has been there before because it looked familiar to me. i think this building is what Gaudi's style's all about. next to this building was a pavement, and there's a pledge on it said "the modernism walk".

Mia's a big spender today, she bought a Swatch watch. after she cleaned up her wallet we walk through Rambla. a famous street (don't ask me why) that located right at the end of Catalunya. one thing i just realized, not only the British guys that fit my eyes, the Spanish does too! there're good looking, really. (for my eyes i choose Spanish, for my sanity and fun i choose Italian, for my ears and eyes i choose British. yeah, i'm greedy.)

it's a long day for us, because we only got today to visit Barcelona. we found a chinese restaurant on our way to Rambla and had a luxurious dinner contained RICE! at night we finished Rambla with a glass of Mojito by the sidewalk, then to the marina, then home. i seriously love our hotel.

#34. Rome - Barcelona

2011-05-18T22:30:00.003+07:00

We used the time left in Rome to visit Basilica del Popolo. The bad thing about travelling more than 10 countries in a month is you'd lost interrest in the end of your trip (especially the last countries) and although we tried to make the most of it, lots of time we spent just to sit around and enjoy the atmostphere. So, we spent some time in the park above this basilica then decided just to go to roma termini to book shopping.

At around 3 we already back at our hostel and ready to picked up our bags. We had to take a shuttle to go to Ciampino Airport and the journey itself would be a 40 minutes trip outside Rome. According to our time schedule, we'd be in the airport on time before bording time.

We were right. We arrived, checked our bags in (my bag hasn't past the weight limit, which was 15 kg) and we spent sometime outside to sunbath before we really had to be boarded. Now i've said before that Ryanair didn't have a fixed seating so everybody had to line up before entering the plane and they'd run to the plane once it's ready. We're in line for about half an hour then suddenly a lady's voice in the intercom announced something in italian. But we did catch one word of what she was saying. The plane's delayed. We're looking to a couple behind us, hoped they were italian and understood what that really meant, but turned out they were spanish. But the guy finally came to the desk to ask, and what the lady in the intercom really said was 'the plane to barcelona's delayed and the passangers will be able to board to plane on 22.15. Which was two and a half hours! Seriously, i don't mind the price for the plane ticket but the service, dear God!

So yeah, we're too far from Rome and we had nothing to do exept writting in our diaries and pissed out. When it's time for boarding the gate's changed so the whole passenger ran to a different direction and it was a real chaos. The worst part was the announcement only spoken in italian, no english whilst there're lots of spanish and other people from the countries that don't speak italian. But we're on the flight anyway in the end, and i got a change to email the hostel regarding our unpunctuality to them (they have curvew) thank god they said it's okay and the doorman will open the door for us.

See you in barcelona, at around 1 a.m maybe, if we're lucky.

#33. Rome - Vatican

2011-05-17T15:31:00.005+07:00

As any normal tourist, we visited one of the major sight in Rome, Colleseum. I'm a hostel princess! So far in our journey, i successfully picked good hostels with good location and good price! And yeah, mia just had to admit that. She's the transport queen and i'm the hostel princess. Nice team work. Anyway, the Collesium located only 7 minutes walk from our hostel so we could just use our feet.

First sight of this building was great. I haven't really research the story behind it but i know the main story of what this building (now ruins) was for. We went around and decided to enter. It's fricking €12 but we paid anyway, never knew when we'd got a chance to visit this site again. I got to tell you that the inside looked like every picture you saw, but i'm not sure if it looked the same as the one in Gladiator movie. The building itself was quite complicated and from the diagram provided in the 'galery' i saw how it used to be like. It's true they put wild animals as a trap bellow the main field. On our way out, we saw a group of gladiators in front of the building. Thir purpose was to 'take a picture together' Mia and i took turn to take pictures with them, dressed as Cleopatra being fed up some grapes from the gladiator. What i love the most about this group (a lot of gladiators offering pictures but this group's the best) they also have ABAH Paus Paulus in the picture!! :D

After collesium second major sight in Rome: Vatican.

Although i don't go to church, but st. Peter basilica wowed me (is that even a word?). The decoration was so complex and lux. I'm no fan of religious paintings but the one displayed here was just awesome. While we were there, some 'jemaat' were having their masses and they sing in the local language and i got goosebumps. It's a true amazing experience. The cute part about this place was the guard. They called 'the swiss guard' and if you think the queens's guard in London has riddiculous outfit then you should check out the swiss guard's outfit.

Vatican is a country in a city, and one thing i love about it was the fact they have their own mailing system! Yep. Poste Vaticane!! I think that's cool. Too bad i'm affraid my mail wont be delivered to my friends back at home so i didn't send them anything from here (despite the super pricey stamp) but i did purchace one postcard with 'abah' (paus paulus--the one that passed in 2005) and a rosario as a gift for my aunt.

the last thing to visit today was Fontana Di Trevi. we were looking for it this morning and couldn't find it. we stop at the Metro stop stated 'fontana di trevi' but once we came out we didn't see a fountain we usualy see in pictures. it was just a mermaid-ish fountain. Mia suggested to throw our coins anyway but i refused. i asked some mas-mas near Vatican later on where the fountain actualy was and he pointed it out right away in our map (while he was also dancing to the music in his stall). so the metro stop was right, only the fountain that was wrong. we had to walked 5 blocks to get to the real fountain.

I really love Italy. And Italian. I mean, according to my eyes, the British guys are more good looking than Italian, but i have to admit Italian guys are funny and charming. There're nice people to chat with, and even if they tease you, you wont feel played because they keep the jokes universal. For sure i'd love to go back to Italy, especially Venice. :D

#32. Venice - Rome

2011-05-16T23:00:00.003+07:00

Our train shceduled to leave at 9.20, so we put on our alarm at 6 a.m and we're at Santa Lucia station by 8-ish. We thought we had the luxury of time, so we're just sat at the front and sunbath until 10 minutes before our train left.

We double-check the time in out ticket, the one in the station said 09.27 but the one in ours said 09.20 and we're supposed to be in carriage 9 whilst the train only had 7 carriages. So we asked the kondektur. He took one glance at our ticket and lightly said "oh, it's from Mestre. You missed it".

So, let me explain. There're two major stations in Venice, Mestre which located outside the the Venice island and the other one is Santa Lucia that located inside the island. we arrived at Santa Lucia the first time we're here so we thought the train that'd take us to Rome would also take off from the same station. but we were wrong. So, as the kondektur said, we missed the train. we had to buy new tickets. Cost twice that we already had. And we'd be in Rome at 20.00-ish. Which was 5 hours late from our original schedule.

The good part was WE GOT TO SEE VENICE FOR 3 MORE HOURS. WITH ITS SUN. yeah, it's sunny today. I went souvenir shopping again for my friend, i promised her, if i could get out on venice in sunny day i'd buy her present. And since Venice is her ultimate destination if she's doing a Eurotrip, i really think i should buy her something from here, as a charm.

At 13:07 we took off from Venice to Rome. It was a nice and quite train ride for two stations until a family of cahyadi entered (without even trying to be a rasist). 2 BOYS: ONE FAT AND NOISY, ONE SLIM AND UGLY. one baby and one ignorant lady that we're still confiused wheter she's the mother or the servant. We had our worst bus ride ever from Edinburgh, now we got the worst train ride ever. They smell weird. They spoke all the time. In their language mixed with Italian. Loudly. The fat boy couldn't stop moving (i'm talking about jumping, getting in and out of the compartment, sit down, get up, jump, and so on). The little boy just looked annoying. The baby wont stop crying. The lady wont stop yelling. So yeah, the bus ride we were 'cape badan' and this train ride we were 'cape mental' which was worse.

But in the end we arrived at Rome. Checked-in and passed out. We got two American roomates. They're couples who decided to sleep on the same bed. I'm impressed really. The bed was a single bed, and they have american size body, and they managed to sleep on the same single bed. If that happened to me, i think the boy would end up on the floor in the morning.

#31. Venice

2011-05-15T23:03:00.003+07:00

Rain storm. Seriously rain storm in Venice. We did check the wheather for today and yes, it said raining, but without the storm. Because our hostel has a rule about a lock-out between 10 a.m to 13.30 p.m we had to leave the hostel anyhow. So we're stranded on st. Marco's square, wet, and longing for a small cafe to sit in to wait for the storm. McD, our great sponsor located in the other land and to get to that land we must get into a boat first, so we agreed to find a little cafe near st.marco's square. We found it. It's a cute little place called 'the indian place' but the poeple in it are no Indians, they all Italiano. We ordered our drinks and write postcards.

Turned out the rain didn't stop until 13.00 so we went out of the cafe anyway and went souvenir shopping. Honestly, it's still fun. we didn't espect to get hit by rain storm in Venice, but it's still fun anyway, we got to experience the sunny day and the rainy one.

After souvenir shopping the wind was just kinda unbearable so we decided to go home and planned to go out again in the evening. Of course the rain gotten worse and yes, we ended up ordering pasta in the hostel cafetaria which tasted great and we still got a chance to watch the sunset (yep, the sun decided to shine at 9 p.m).

#30. Milan - Venice

2011-05-14T23:54:00.005+07:00

It's been a month!!

We took the train to venice and by two and a half hour we're in Venice already. I saw from afar how venice was and once we crossed the bridge and entered venice I litterally act like kid travelling to Disneyland. Call me mellow or anything but one of the reason this city is in my 'things to do before I die' list was because of my curiousity of its beauty. Venice didn't let me down. It is beautiful. And romantic.

Our hostel located abit far away from the main land so we had to get a 'bus'. 'bus' meant boat. The city built on water and there'd be no use having a car here. I grin all the time we're on the boat. Everything just cutely different. The system's different, the gas station's different, the workshop's different. Everything they built adjusted to the needs of travelling on water and that's just something nice to see.

After we checked in we went to st.Marco square just to be astonished even more by this city. The canal, the gondola, the cafes, even the pengamen are just great. I don't know how else to describe it. I had the moment before tears due to happiness here. Everything you saw on TV or internet about Venice are true. It is that beautiful (word count beautiful, I used it a lot).

After we saw enought of the city and it's gotten dark anyway, we went home and agreed to go souvenir shopping tomorrow. So goodnight venezia!

#29. Milan

2011-05-13T23:44:00.004+07:00

Material connection was the main reason why we're here. If Mia wasn't planning on going to Milan, maybe I wont come here, but I kinda like the city anyway so it's okay. Material connection is a kind of library for materials. It's not huge but as far as i'm concern if I went there when I was doing my final project, I don't think i'd have any problem convinving any teachers about my lightweight material. I bought 4 books about material here, worth the price but I don't know whether my backpack could handle it or not.

After material connection we went to Duomo. Eva said that it's place we have to see if we're in Milan. Now we're talking. Duomo fitted the image of Milan I have in mind. The street full of Bvlgari, LV, Armani, Ferrari and stuff that name i'm sure you're familiar with. I said to Mia, we wont be able to shop here anyway so just walk though it take pictures and go home.

We ended up with 3 shopping bags each on our way home.

It's not Italy without pasta, we bought ready made pasta yesterday and cooked it tonight. It was tortelini and I liked it. Maybe it'll taste much better in a real Trattoria but the instant one was good enough for us.

#28. Prague - Milan

2011-05-12T23:22:00.003+07:00

It's a relieve to know that Prague only has one airport, really made things easier because they provided good public transportations. When we got into the bus stop that'd take us to the airport, a whole bunch of other backpackers were also lining up with us. It was a nice thing to look at, because we share the same kinda way to travel.

According to experience, Easyjet was waaaaaaay better than Ryanair. The sevice was not that 'cheap' and the flight was actually smoother, execpt when we're about to land, the plane rocked right and left and later that I know that that'd happened to every flight from every airlines landing in Italy area. Everything supposed to end smoothly if only I didn't forgot my jacket. I left my jacket in the cabin and had to wait for more than an hour to get that back from the lost and found team.

Bought our ticket to the city and to be honest I felt like we're in Jakarta already. The building, the mess, almost the same. Milan didn't really look like a city I have in my mind when I heard it. I thought it'll be high class city with boutiques everywhere, but to me it was almost like a trip to 'kota tua' in Jakarta.

We met Eva and went staight to her place to put our bags, then we headed out for pizza. So there was this famous pizza parlor in Milan (according to eva's info) and they only serve one kind of pizza, Margareta. We ate it and good God! It tasted great. The mozzarella cheese literally melt and beleberan from the plate.

We called it a day, I like Italy, I like the language and I like the people.. All you need to do just nod along, saying 'si' and laughed because everything they said sound funny.

#27. Prague

2011-05-11T21:31:00.002+07:00

Old town square was the first place we're headed for. It's a famous place (according to my Eyewitnes Travel book) because of its atronomy clock. Prague is a cute city, and the architecture was so intense. They payed that much attention to the buildings and under the right light you can really see how magnificent it was. Some buildings have golds on top of them and i'm pretty sure it's real gold.

The city was tippical European city, with 3 to 4 stories building stand next to each other with little windows in the narrow street. And the street was of course full of tourists. We tried one of czech steet food which name I forgot. It's bread that has bis hole in it, and you can choose your own topping. We chose Nutela.

I boght some stuffs in the souvenir shop that are very cheap, and then walked accross the famous Charles Bridge. This is the kind of moment that's overwhelming for me. I've always wanted to see Prague and always wanted to see Charles Bridge. And to have it right under my feet was just unbelievable.

We crossed from the old town to the Little Quarter area. There're 4 towers lining from the Little Quarter area to the Old Town area and each tower has one person that will play a horn every hour. The interesting thing was, it started from the first tower in the Little Quarter side, continue to the Charles Bridge Tower Little Quarter side, then to Charles Bridge Tower Old Town side and ended at the Astronomy tower in the Old Town side (i'll draw a map later, I know the explanation is too random)

A little rest at the Kampa Island and went to see the Dancing Square then we're planning to see Kir-something fountain. Again, we're lost. So we decided to call it a day and just go home to repack our bags and take some rest. (it's very hot here I thinik we could be sick from the heat.)

#26. Berlin - Prague

2011-05-10T01:13:00.002+07:00

We got a chance to see more of Berlin, in the morning we decided to go to the East-Side Gallery. This the longest remining of the one that used to be the Berlin Wall. It's located in front of the Ostbanhof. We walked through the wall, this is now a wall with lots of graffity on it (but not he messy ones, the good ones) some of the art was okay, some silly and some are really great. One thing missing was Oom Adolf himself, I think it was forbidden even to say his name on the wall.

At the end of the wall, there was one of the Checkpoint Charlie we were looking for yesterday so we hurried to go inside and asked the lady behind the counter to stamp our passport. She saw our passport and sudenlly "oh, orang Indonesia, yah jangan di passportnya, nanti dapet masalah di imigrasi." turned out she's an Indonesian that lives in Berlin since 2003. She came from Medan. I think she was very happy to see us and able to speak her mother language. She gave us a nice discount for a postcard with the whole checkpoint charlie stamps on it. Yeaayyy!

As usual, we had to run for our train. I haven't found a postbox for my postcards and we're seriously running out of time. The backpacks started to get heavier and lucky me, on the way to the Haufbanhof I found a postbox. So I was able to send my postcards from here. Catched our train to Prague just in time. Bye Berlin.

PRAGUE:

Mia was kinda sick because the extreme change of wheather. We're arrived at Prague and had nooooo idea where we were. Berlin was easier for me because Germany has the same roots as Dutch for its writting, but Czech's root was Russian so yeah, the kind of language my dad will say 'nggak bunyi bahasanya'. Oh, one other thing people barely speak English here, so we did what every lost tourist did: body language. Even to explain 'airport' I had to made a gesture of a plane landing with my hands.

After being lost for almost two hours, we finally found our hostel. It's far away from the city on the bad side, but on the bright side IT'S A HOTEL. a private twin room with private bathroom. Breakfast included. And only €15 each for two nights. Great huh?! Mia took this luxury to rest her sick body.

Czech was cheap compare to other countries that use Kroner. It's seriously cheap. I change my €70 and got more than 1300 czech kroner. And I could really buy a lot of stuff with that. Due to its cheapness (is that even a word?) we went grocery shopping again. This time we couldn't cook but we could buy a lot of breads, milk, yoghurt and fruits. I even got myself two mini tiramisus.

#25. Copenhagen - Berlin

2011-05-09T19:44:00.003+07:00

Our bus deperted on 6.30 and that meant we had to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning (snooze half an hour and really wake up at 5). We had to walk about 10 minutes to the bus stop and queue at McD for our morning coffee. While we were waiting for the bus a bunch of kids also queue with us, turned out it's some kind of "early summer camp" from America and some from Denmark. They're heading to Berlin too and the bus was too full some of us had to be moved to another bus. Lucky us, we're transfered to the executive bus that compleeted with electricity plugs, spacier seats, leather seats, parket floor, well you get the idea.

To go to Berlin from Copenhagen required a ferry ride. Mia and I were so excited for this ride because the sun shone brightly and the sky looked really great for a cup of coffee on the deck. We were wrong. We still got the trace of Scandinavian wind and that was cold. So we went inside in a packed ferry for 2 hours until we're back on EU.

Berlin was a quite confusing city when it's you're first time. And a lot of Germans don't really speak English so I was a bit worry to ask for direction. But one lovely lady came to us when we're looking lost in front of the s-bahn station and offered us some help. Nice first impression to the city. We found our hostel and after a little too friendly chat with the hostel owner, he decided that he liked us and will put us in a more private room with private bathroom in it (original booking was 10 beds mixed dorm, and what we got 5 beds female only dorm with ensuite bathroom) without a penny added to our bills. Bless you New Zealand guy!

The original plan in Berlin was the Berlin Gate. Mia was hungry so we went grocery shopping and we made our own meals back in the hostel. Sayur asem for mia, potato soup and beef stroganoff for me. Then the berlin wall. If I have to give a review about the city I think it's a city full of power judged by the building. I've seen some building characteristics in some countries, London was rich and gentle, Paris was feminine, Amsterdam was humble and threatened, and Berlin was powerful. I remember Marco--the hostel manager in Copenhagen-- told us to pay attention to the building. He said "when you're in the gate, look! See the difference of the eastern part and the western part, you'll see the remaining fact that the city used to be seperated by a huge wall'" and he was right!

I got the shiver when I walked through the Berlin gate. Firt becausee usually I only saw it on NGC second world war series. secondly, I saw the postcards in the nearby souvenir shops and it was scary. Years ago people could get killed just trespassing the gate and now tourist from all over the world walk under it and take pictures with huge smiles on their faces.

Looked out for checkpoint charlie but didn't find it, the day's gotten dark so we went home. Hope to see more of Berlin tomorrow.

#24. Copenhagen

2011-05-08T19:20:00.002+07:00

Our hostel was the 180 degrees the opposite of the one in Stockholm! The reception was very friendly and the place was huge. Well, that huge that they could fit in 32 people in one room, but surprisingly we still got our privacies. The only bad thing bas the shower that was dirty, but other than that everything was okay (well, the sheet was a bit dirty too, but I brought my kain bali so I had no problem at all)

Everyone we asked that's been to Copenhagen said that the city is beautiful, and I didn't know if it was just a wrong timing or maybe because we're just ashtonished by Stockholm we thought the city was just okay. We're overexpected it. One thing for sure, it's the most expensive city we've visited (and later we talked to the hotel manager he admitted that too. Denmark was the most expensive within the Scandinavia).

We explored the city by foot only. First stop was Danish Design Center. I has collection of Danish designs and I was very happy to see them. Almost 80% of the designs exhibited there were familiar for me. It's what Scandinavian design is all about: simple, to the point, functional, fun.

After that we're hungry and we saw KFC! KFC is barang langka in Europe, and after we went through some days without real hot meals we're kinda craving for it. Buuuutttt forget about that. It's too pricey for chickens!! I'm talking about (i'll convert it in US Dollar) $15 just for A chicken and another extra $5 for french fries. So we went to burger king instead for a $4 chicken burger.

Walked through Strøget, the famous shopping street in Copenhagen just to found out they're closed on Sunday. Thank god the souvenir shop was open although I have to admit the stuff aren't as cute as the stiff from Stockholm, but I bought some stuffs for my mom of course, she's collecting fridge magnets. At the end of Strøget was another famous port called Nyhavn (later that we knew from our hostel manager, Marco that it means 'new port') and this place is the kind of houses on the side of canal with cute little windows and bright collered wall that i'm sure will look great in sunset. Since our timing was wrong, the sun shone right above our heads and we saw very little beauty of Nyhavn.

Iie ngebekelin a lot of rice for us, so finally we decided to cook! We bought saussages (hopely halal, since we picked it up at the chicken section) and frozen vegetables. Believe me, even that saved us some money for food that still cost a lot just for a simple meal. Rice tasted great after a while, we're pure Indonesian. We need rice to live and survive.

At night we hung out at the back yard for coffee when Marco came out for ciggaretes, we ended up talking about Copenhagen and other countries he had visited. He's an old bald man that has a very charming charisma, and it was really great sharing some experiences, he wanted to know how's life in Indonesia, how chaotic it is and he also told us about his experiences of being abroad for years to a lot of countries. One thing i love about our talk, he made me realized how much i love my country and culture (i know i love them but i've never really been thankful about it. now i do.)

#23. Stockholm - Copenhagen

2011-05-07T20:24:00.002+07:00

Checked out early because the hostel has a very strick rule and if we ignore it they will charge us fo 22m SEK so we'd better hurry up and got out. I'll give my review about the hostel later.

We strolled along Drottinggatan the shopping street in Stockholm and came to each and every cute store we could find. I said to Mia that I must buy a new normal shoes because the weather started to get warmer and my boots stink. We went souvenir shopping and I was happy because I could buy my parents quite great souvenirs, I also shopped at H&M for a grand total of 320 SEK (around 32 euro). I'm a shopping bitch today. After I shopped my last big money, turned out I still have 143 SEK left and finally I decided to buy DALA HORSE that i've been wanted since I saw it on IKEA 2001 catalogue. So at this moment i'm left with 4 SEK and that costs nothing, not even a trip to the loo.

We met a huge mass of little labil teenager wearing purple clothing brought banners along with them and they screamed. We were curious so we followed them. Turned out they're Bieber's fans. We came to a conclution that they did whatever it was they're doing so that JB will visit Sweden for a concert. Good luck guys!

Now here comes the hostel review. In every hostel we stayed, they always allowed us to drop our bags and hang around until the time we have to go for our busses even after we checked out. That didn't happen in Stockholm hostel apparently. They strickly told us not to hang in the hostels kitchen or reception because the people who are paying for their rooms tonight might need to use the common room. So yeah zero point for hospitality.

In that consequences, we went to the nearby park, looked for a spot that shown by the sun and we just lay down for two hours until the sun hide behind the building. And as usual, our rescue place was Mc.D (i need to write a special thanks to Mc.D someday) thank god Mia was still rich enough to buy a cup of latte.and yes, at this very moment, we still have 2 hours left to trash ourselves. Wish us luck.

#22. Stockholm

2011-05-06T22:55:00.003+07:00

A seriously beautiful city! I remember that I said Edinburgh was the best i've seen so far, well now I changed my mind. Stockholm is the most beautiful for now (maybe i'll change my mind again). We arrived at 6-ish and tried to get ourselves coffees but we didn't have any Swedish Kroner but thank god there was atm.

We found our hostel, check in and headed straight to the reason why we're here: IKEA. It's quite a challange really. Our hostel receptionist gave us a clue, but once got in the station she mentioned, the other information lady we asked told us to go to another direction, then we had to dropped ourselves in yet another station just to be told to go to another different direction. So finally we tried to do it the traditional way: map. The last time Mia checked Ikea's website the address is Vasagatan 18, and it close to our place, so we went by foot to it.

We were looking for a blue building with huge yellow letters in the middle of the city (quite confused because we knew that Ikea usually located outside the city) and finally, we saw it. IKEA. Vasagatan 18. It's a bus stop. We had to take a shuttle to go to real Ikea. Despite all the great memories of finding ikea, I just need to say this: I was in ikea in Stockholm, Sweden! And it's huge! 3 levels showroom and a basement for storage. We felt like kindergartens going into the zoo. We bought ourselves 2 little (very little) pillow costed 7 SK for our never ending bus ride later.

In the afternoon we went to one of the island in Stockholm called Gamla-Stan. i love Stockholm!!

#21. Oslo

2011-05-05T22:45:00.002+07:00

Because mia hasn't had a good sleep for 2 days, she didn't look very well today so we spent the whole morning and day time at home, packing for tonight and. In the afternoon Iie came home with an enganggril (literally translated one-time grill) a portable grill for a quick picknic that you can throw away once you're done with it. We went to KalvØya, a sea nerby (5 minutes away from home).

The weather was nice, sunny and warm when you're expossed by the sun but super cold when you're under shadow. I dipped my feet in the water and it really felt like dipping your feet in a cold water plus ice block. We grilled our saussages and 3 hours later we went home. But we left a little goodbye present for KalvØya, a burned square on its grass (apparently enganggrill was prohibited in the grassy part, but we didn't read Norsk so)

Leaving for stockholm tonight by swebuss.