Our First Holiday Trip: Alkmaar

This is it! Thomas and Dita finally went for holidays together. No moms, no dads. I was kinda depressed the last few weeks, imagining that I might have no summer holidays in Indonesia this year, which is for me, kinda no holidays for the rest of the year. I asked Thomas to spend some time with me, just for us. Not at home.

I know our financial situation is actually not that good to afford long holidays in a good hotel including transport and foods etc. So, Thomas kindly asked his uncle who lives in Alkmaar (NL) whether we may stay over for a few days in his house. And he said YES! So, this is a start of our journey :)

We caught up on our train on Thursday, March 17th at 7:50 in Lindern. Change trains in Herzogenrath, Heerlen and Utrecht. We arrived there around 12. Thomas was in Alkmaar 10 years ago. And Alkmaar has been changed within these years. However, Thomas finally found the way to Jürgen's house. So, his house was so neat and pretty and clean. I love it. We looked around the house and put our stuff in the guest room, which was quite small with the double bed, but I totally love it. Somehow. Nice, colorful (eventhough lil bit pink dominant) room and bed sheet. Thomas said, the house hasn't change so much after more than 10 years. I was really hungry, so we went to Alkmaar city center. I haven't been in Holland for 4 years, was quite shocked seeing the prices in front of the restaurants (I forgot to bring cash with me! Stupid me. Haha). Anyway, we decided to eat in a Greek restaurant. I think it was delicious (or I was too hungry ;)). Then we walked around the city center. Thomas showed me some places he knew from the past. Jürgen wrote us a letter that he would be back at around 17:30. So, we actually wanted to sit in a small cafe, enjoying tea and dutch dessert. But suddenly Thomas got stomachache. So we decided to run away back home. After a few time arriving at the house, Simone (Jürgen's girlfriend) came home. Around 17:30 Jürgen arrived home as well, but he still needed to go to see his therapist first. So, Thomas and I took a small walk to a small supermarket behind the house that also hasn't changed after 10 years.

on the way to the supermarket

Jürgen was back and he brought us to the beach (Egmond aan Zee). He actually wanted to eat in a restaurant right on the beach, but full. So we went somewhere there on foot. Restaurant De Oude Clipper. I love the place. They have ship inside the restaurant as the bar, surrounding with water with some gold fish in it. Nice fine dining restaurant. I ordered fish platte and dame blanche as dessert. Yummy! Then we went back home.

We finally went to the beaaaaccchhh!!! We love see! 

On the next day (Friday, March 18th), Thomas and I stayed in bed longer after waking up so early on Thursday. And I was basically K.O after those days (I worked the whole day on Monday, travelled directly afterward to Aachen for the DAGA, so yes, I was at DAGA for the whole Tuesday and Wednesday, and still went to the band practice on Wed night). Jürgen came back after half-day work and took us to Zuiderzeemuseum. It was unfortunatelly closed. So we went further to Batavia Stad. It was like in Wertheim, factory outlet heaven with a Batavia ship on the other side. We decided for a tour on the ship. The tour was just for four of us (Thomas, his uncle, his uncle's girlfriend, and me) guided by a middle age dutch man who speaks also german. So he explained everything in german (as Simone understands german quite well). Batavia Ship is a ship that used to bring the Dutches from Amsterdam to Jakarta and spices and indonesian slaves or women from Jakarta to Amsterdam. The ship was remade and had not the original size. Though, it was still impressive and to operate such a ship, you need LOTS of physics and mathematics. Sounds like fun. But no, I don't want to travel with that ship to Jakarta. No thanks. Hahah. So, we continued our journey to Enkhuizen find something to eat (I was starving). And yeah again, we went for fine-dining there in De Drie Haringhe. Note: we didn't pay a cent. The food was soooo delicious. I love my roast beef appetizer with truffle mayo and breast duck for the main course. So well cooked!

on the Batavia Ship

Eckhuis

Jürgen challenged me to cook some indonesian food for dinner. I took the challenge and cooked opor ayam with tofu and eggs as well. With no instant spices. Yeah, I was good. LOL. So yeah, we went shopping for the dinner in Alkmaar city center on Saturday. We went first to a toko. And I felt like in heaven!! Indonesian food everywhere!! But I knew what I want: Spekoek! (Ind: Kue Lapis or Lapis Legit).Thomas made Bakwan Jagung(proud girlfriend lah!)and Jürgen was responsible for the appetizer (Thai soup). The opor was at last successful, after worrying because the opor tasted so plain at first.

Alkmaar city center

On Sunday, Jürgen invited us to watch Cirque du Soleil Amaluna in Amsterdam. I was surprised and told Thomas about the price of the tickets we got from his uncle. Amaluna was super cool. Lots of Chinese people doing the acrobatics. Amazing show. Then we splitted. Thomas and I continued our trip to Leiden to meet Jenov and Christoph there. It was so nice of them to show us Leiden. Leiden is nice, very dutch (you know, windmills, grachtfahrten, bridges and even sold cathedral...). They have also a small burg, where you can see Leiden from above and the oldest university in the Netherlands. Then we ended in an italian restaurant V.I.P (Very Italian Pizza). They had a very delish salmon pizza and tartufo! Jenov ordered Ravioli with truffle sauce, it was delicious!

Amaluna, Amsterdam

Double date in Leiden

 Monday is the day to go back. I was kinda sad. The trip was so nice and that day we couldn't meet Jürgen before our departure. We had said goodbye to him the night before. Nevertheless, we met Simone, said goodbye to her. We went first to the supermarket, bought something for home, headed to Linnich again and can't wait for the next trip :)

Bye Alkmaar! Til next time :)

Family Reunion

Mom and Pop were here for 18 days. They arrived Frankfurt at the day my brother wrote his last exam and I couldn't concentrate anymore for my last exam. So I just hope that I could pass this exam. Otherwise, chaos! :(

So. After I wrote my exam, I headed directly to Darmstadt. I stayed over at Eca's place for the last time. Eca is going back to Indonesia for good :( My best friend since 9 years (and still counting!) has passed her bachelor of chemical engineering defence and decided to go back to Indonesia, supporting her parents' business. We actually had planed a farewell trip to Dresden, but my parents came. So we changed the plan and Eca stay with us for 2 nights in Stuttgart, which was nice as well.

This trip had a theme: automobile-museum tour. We started directly after we put our belongings in Stuttgart to the Porsche Museum. The next day we went to Mercedes Museum. The day after that we headed to Zuerich and said goodbye to Eca :'(

The trip continued. 3 nights in Zuerich, 3 nights in Vienna, 2 nights in Salzburg and 2 nights in Munich. And then back to Wuerzburg for 2 nights before my parents and my brother fly back to Jakarta.

Highlights of the trip:

• Zuerich: WOW- scenery along alpen tour with the Bernina Express. We had difficulty taking pictures. The price we paid for this trip alone, worth it. (well, without Eurail it was more than 100 euro p.P pro direction).
• Vienna : Mozart concert in the grand hall of Musikverein. I love the atmosphare. I love the solists! I love the music and the dresses they wore. And the best part was our seats were extended from C class to the B or A class without costing us an extra cent! We sat on the balcony in a classical hall furnished with gold, just like you saw it in film :) We went to concerts every night. There was a children choral festival on the other night, but dominated by chinese groups. The first group was an awesome acapella group from Sweden or somewhere else. All girls and all blond! The last group was also cool,from Beijing I guess. One of the MCs was all over his head MC-ing. Best schnitzel ever I would recommend at Gasthaus Placutta near the Staatsoper. Recommended museum: Mozarthaus. If you are not familiar with Mozart's history, you'll learn a lot there. Definitely.
• Salzburg : tour Sound of Music!! Actually I expected that we could visit more places than that. Weather was horrible. But the scenery was beautiful! Wolfgangsee and Mondsee were incredible. The tour guide was quite funny. But if you sit next to your brother, who started to watch "The Sound of Music" on Youtube without earphones as the trip had just begun, that can be really really annoying.

Wien at night

Prater at night

In Munich, we visited the BMW-Museum. Mmm. No, actually my dad and my brother. I asked my mom to see the Olympiapark next to the museum. But it started to rain, so we went to Sealife inside the park. Haha. Sea World in Ancol is much better :) Anyway, we two had took a small "train" for a fifteen-minute tour through the olympiapark before it started to rain.

At last, we went to Frankfurt and met Thomas there. Yes, I introduced Thomas to my family :) We ate in the biggest McDonalds in Europe (said Thomas to his fam). Mom, Pop, and Galih flew back to Indonesia and I stay here, enjoying  my 4 weeks in Linnich/ Juelich with Thomas and my band and Thomas' fam and friends in Juelich.

Gadis kembang

The backside of Schloss Schonbrunn

Salzburg from above

The backside of Von Trapp's house and the lake in the sound of music film

Sixteen going on seventeen scene

Mirabell Garden - Do Re Mi scene

Count down for holidays

This is the happiness of university student, ha? Not anymore FH student means more holidays? Hehe, I would enjoy this part! Got an internship in the hospital in Oldenburg at the ENT-Clinics from August 31st until Sept 25th. Yeay! God is great :) Vorher bleibe ich noch bei Thomas 4 Wochen. Boah, ich hab schon ziemlich vorgenommen diese Ferien. Webdesign lernen und Webseite einrichten, Kontakt aufnehmen mit den Amis, wieder auf die Jobsuche (muss diesmal in der Uni sein, oder ähnlich, mindestens so Mathe-Nachhilfe). Ich fliege nicht mit nach Indonesien, weil ich dann ziemlich genau weiß, dass die oben genannten Sachen nicht erledigt werden können, wenn ich zuhause bin. Kann kaum auf meine Eltern warten. Sie kommen am 16. Juli und ich sehe sie dann am 18. Juli, da ich am 17. Juli noch eine Klausur habe. Fahre am 17. Juli nach der Klausur zu Eca. Machen den letzten Urlaub in DE zusammen (auch mit meinen Eltern) :).

Übrigens sind ein paar Fotos von Belgien bei Andys Priesterweihe.

ALAAF!!

Tradisi jerman di daerah Rheinland (Cologne dan sekitarnya) di musim dingin: karnaval yang puncaknya hari senin sebelum Rabu Abu. Di tahun-tahun sebelumnya, gw udah pernah ngepost tentang Karnevalsonntag and Karnevalmontag. Tahun ini gw nonton sesuatu yang agak beda: Nachtzug. Dari namanya karnaval ini adanya malam hari. Jatuhnya hari Jumat setelah Fettdonnerstag.
Ga ada di semua kota/desa. Beruntungnya di salah satu desa di Linnich ada lho ;) Tepatnya di Welz.
Karena kebetulan ga jauh dari rumahnya pacar, jadi lah kita berdua nonton (baca: gw nonton, dia nungguin). Lucu sih, soalnya peserta karnavalnya bling bling, terang-terang pake lampu gitu... Tapi cukup sekali aja kali ya nontonnya, soalnya dingin banget (apalagi malem). Cowo gw ngomel2, soalnya pengen pulang saking dinginnya, tapi 'keperangkap' gara2 jalan pulangnya ditutup. Ups.

Manusia api. Welz, 13.2.2015

Raja lebah. Welz, 13.2.2015

Patung liberty. Welz, 13.2.2015

Combi. Welz, 13.2.2015

Ubur-ubur. Welz, 13.2.2015

Dan seperti tahun lalu, kita ngrayain karnaval bareng hari Minggunya di Jülich :) Thanks to Sonja for the costume. Yeay.

Lounge Pad feat. Sonja ;)

Lounge Pad. Karnevalsonntag Jülich 2015

Back to the fullest!! :)

Klausuren sind vorbei und Protokolle sind (angeblich) angegeben. Wie Metty es schön sagte, ich bin wieder die alte!! :) Das Semester voller Tränen ist endlich mal vorbei und jetzt kann ich meine Beine wieder strecken.

Einen Monat in Floßdorf bei meinem Freund, zwei Kameras, tolles Elvis-Mikrofon, genug Gedöns zu machen, zu lesen, alte Freunde wiederzusehen..... was braucht man denn sonst noch :)

Mit dem Anfang der Ferien hieß das auch für mich: Anfang des neuen Jahresvorsatzes. Vor 2 Jahren habe ich ein schönes Jahresprojekt hieß: Ein Jahr ohne Cola. Dieses Jahr lautet es: 365 Jahre ohne Meckern ;) Der Grund dafür ist einfach. Mein Semester an der Jade Hochschule war echt ein hartes Semester. An sich ist es alles lernbar. Das hatte nur extra Energie und Gedanken und Tränen gekostet. Tom ist derjenige, der mein Meckerei immer wieder mitbekommen musste. Sorry. Und ich hab auch schon gemerkt, dass es mir (psychologisch) nicht gut ging. Bisher habe ich mich an das Projekt erinnert, wenn ich angefangen habe, mich zu beschweren. Das letzte war vorgestern, als ich eine Email von meinem Prof bekam. Da habe ich so gezittert, aus Wut, aber das Gedanken dass ich eigentlich nicht meckern wollte. Aber egal, ich schaffe das mit Sicherheit :) und die gute Nachricht sage ich Euch noch, wenn das offiziell ist. Ich sage euch nur: Gott ist gut ;)

Ah, und wir haben wieder welche aufgenommen. Webseite von Lounge Pad behalte ich im Auge ;)