winter break 2010

Well, actually it’s not a winter break, since I’ve graduated and everyday is a break for me. hehe. Anyway, I want to share about my winter vacation 2010. I was traveling with my friend, Nonny, only the two of us, backpacking, using the most cheap EU train ticket, interrail, which cost 159 EUR including 5 days ticket valid for 10 days.  Most people use this ticket only to visit up to 5 country in europe (excluding the country of residence), but we use this ticket to visit up to 8 countries in EU, but only 4 countries that we explored, which are Berlin in Germany, Prague in Czech, Budapest in Hungary, and Paris in France.

Berlin

In Berlin, we visited the bradenburg gate, berliner dom, checkpoint charlie,  berlin cemetery, and some malls. Here are the photos.

Bradenburg Gate

Berliner Dom

Souvenirs at the Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin Cemetery

one of the malls in Berlin

one of the half-destroyed churches in Berlin

After taking a long walk around the city, we met a Turkish  woman community when we’re looking for a mosque to pray. We were  invited to an aqiqah ceremony (I know it because we have the same ceremony in Indonesia). The ceremony is same like in Indonesia, the difference is just the food. They served a plate for each person. The plate consist of kebab, rice, sarma, and some pickels. It is served with ayran (turkish yogurt). I like the main dish, but I don’t like the ayran, because I am not used to drink yogurt while eating.

sarma

And then the desert is baklava and cay (turkish tea). I like the desert, since I’ve  ate baklava for several times when Ramadan.

Baklava

Prague

The most beautiful city I’ve visited in Europe. It has many cathedral and synagogue with beautiful architecture.

Astronomical Clock

one of the buildings around the Prague Castle

Jubilejní Synagoge

left: jewish museum, middle: gate to Jewish Cemetery; right: Jewish Ceremonial Hall

Pasar Malam Indonesia 2010

Pasar Malam Indonesia is the first event that fully held by the Indonesian Ambassador in The Netherlands. Actually this event already held inside the Tong-tong festival, which is a colaboration beween all Asian Ambassador in The Netherlands. But this year, Indonesian Ambassador try to make it sepparate from the Tong-Tong Festival.

The event is held from the 1st of April untill 5th of April 201o. But unfortunately I only come for one day, which is in 3rd of April. And not much that I can see in this event, because I came late. I just watched the Dances from Sulawesi, Andre Hehanusa, and Jaipong Dance performed by dutch ladies.

The fisrt performance that I watched is the Sulawesi Dances which performed by Indonesian girls with Sulawesi’s traditional musical accompaniment. They use various Sulawesi’s Traditional costumes. I tried to capture all of the costumes that they wear.

And this is the traditional music instrument…

The second performance that I watched is from Andre Hehanusa, he is a famous singer from Indonesia.

And at last, the last performance actually rather wierd,, but at least they tried their best to danced jaipong.. so here are the jaipong dancers…

If you want to see the others performance you can watch it in these folowing video…

and the rest of the performance is in youtube. hehe

Alkmaar

I went o Alkmaar at 3rd of April,, it is Saturday but almost all store are closed because it is Easter Long Holiday, so most of the people went abroad to celebrate Easter Holiday.
I went to Alkmaar because my friend that live in Alkmaar invites us to come to his Birthday Party.
Since Alkmaar is quite far away from Deventer, we think we have to see the typical Alkmaar, which is Cheese and Windmill. But unfortunately we do not have time to visit the Kaas Museum because we have to go to DenHaag to watch Pasar Malam Indonesia, since we already have the entry ticket.
So we just went to one of the windmill in Alkmaar, and I can say that windmill that we visited was gorgeous. These are some photos that I took.

German+Austria part2

This part, I will tell you our journey in Bavaria. Bavaria is known with the culture and beautiful Bavarian Alps. In Bavaria first time we arrived in Memmingen Airport, then we took a train to Munchen. In Munchen we went to Munchen Rathaus, BMW museum, and Alianz arena.

Munchen Rathaus

To go to Munchen Rathaus, we just walked a few kilometers from the train station. Then we went to the BMW Museum with S Bahn.

From BMW Museum we take another U Bahn to Alianz Arena. From the station near Alianz Arena, we have to walk for about 2 km to reach the Alianz Arena building. And the worst part is the mist that cover the arena, so we have to wait until dark so the mist will slowly disappeared .

Because it is already dark, so we have to go back to the Hauftbahnhof to catch a train to Nurnberg.

Nurnberg is like an old city full of old buildings.

In the next day, from Nurnberg, we were off to Salzburg, the town where “The Sound of Music” take place and the city where Mozart born.

Taken from Mirabel’s Park.  There is a view to Hohensalzburg castle and the Salzburg Rathaus.

This place is in the sound of music movie

Mozart’s House

There is also a hill where you can see Salzburg from above. And on the way downhill there is some unique architectures.

Hohensalzburg and Salzburg Rathaus from above

Unique Arcitecture from downhill path

From Salzburg, we went back to Munchen and stay at Munchen in a Couch Surfing Host, I found it from couchsurfing.org. Our host is a married couple, the man is from Tunisia and the women is from Turkey. Both of them are extremely kind to us. They cooked bavarian food and tunisian food for our dinner.

From left : Dira, me, Nizar (our host), and Rizky

We left from the house early morning in the next day to catch a train to fussen. On our way to fussen, there are great view to see.

From Fussen Bahnhof we take a bus to Neuwanschtein Castle. Neuschwanstein Castle is a famous castle above the mountain. actually there are two castle in that area, the other one is Hohenscwangau Castle. But Neuschwanstein Castle is the most beautiful castle in Bavaria, so that one is more popular than the hohenscwangau.

Hohenscwangau Castle

Neuwanschtein Castle

From fussen, we planned to go to Frankfurt, but unfortunately there is no train to Frankfurt at that time, so we decide to stay at the train station. We stayed at Bamberg train station. Glad near the train station there still a restaurant that open. so we stayed there untill the restaurant is closed. after it is closed we moved to the train station and wait there until the train to northwest is come. And the train come at 4:00 AM. we take the train to koln. In the way to koln, there are some beautiful views like hills and river. The river is Rheine River, that across Switzerland, Germany, and  ends with a branch in NL.

So Koln is the last city that we visit in Germany. from Koln we took a train to venlo, which is in NL. From Venlo we go back to our home, I went back to Deventer, and they went to Delft.

Germany+Austria

This winter holiday I went to Germany and (a little part of)  Austria with Dira and Rizky. My journey start at 21st December 2009 with a train from Deventer to Hamburg. The train is late for about 2 hours because of the heavy snow. It should be at 16.16 but the train come at 18.20. Glad Deventer Station have waiting room that has heater in it, otherwise I will be freezing outside waiting 2 hours for the train. I met my friends in Osnabreuck station, because they’re from Delft and I’m from Deventer.

First night in hamburg we stayed at Titte’s house. And the other day we went to the city centre. There was a  Christmas market and some street performance in front of the Hamburg Rathaus.

Rathaus

Street Performance

From the Rathaus we take a walk to the destroyed church ( I forget the name of the church) because of the world war.

The Destroyed Church. this part should be indoor, since it is destroyed, it became outdoor.

Then we walk to havencity, which is the famous harbour in hamburg.  I couldn’t take a photo at hafencity, because my hands are cold and numb.

Second day,  we’re off to Lubeck. wikipedia said that Lubeck is Unesco World Heritage city. I think it’s because of the famous marzipan chocolate (I didn’t buy one, because I’m afraid my friend won’t like it) and the old city.  When we first enter the old city there is an old gate trying to say “WELCOME” to us.

Lubeck Gate

Overall, the city is not too interesting I think, almost all buildings have same architectural design, so it’s quite boring. But I and Dira found something interesting when we take a little walk inside the housing area.

one of the housing area in Lubeck

one of the house in Lubeck

Our former plan in the next day we want to visit lubeck, hannover, then bremen. But unfortunately the schedule is changed because we are too tired to visit Hannover.  So we just went to Bremen and walking around the city centre then wait for the plane inside the airport. In the city center of Bremen, there is a famous statue named The Musicians of Bremen.

next journey to be continue….

Maastricht

Mastricht is one of tourist city in NL. Famous thing about Maastricht because it have several old buldings that is different from other old buildings in NL. In my opnion, the old buildings in Maastricht is more elegant, compared to the others old buildings in Netherland.

I travel to Maastricht with my Dad from Delft. We start our journey in 7:00 AM early in the morning to catch the train to Eindhoven, then change a train to Maastricht. In Maastricht, first we went to the city center to see the St. Basilica Church, but unfortunately the church was blocked by the cristmas market, so I cannot take the full picture of the Church. After from city centre, we ride a folding bike that my dad borrowed from his friend in Delft to the NL and Belgian border. It’s not too far, maybe about 3 km away from the city center. But it’s an uphill street, so an extra energy is needed to cycle the bike. In the way to belgian border, I saw an interesting building, and I think it’s underground. The name of this old building is Waldeck. and I just figure out that that building is used as a cafe now.

Waldeck

Waldeck closer look

Then we continue our journey. We arrived at 13:00, and we just see a little sign that state this is the NL-Belgian Border.

NL-Belgian Border

The way back to the station is lots more easier because the downhill road. On the way back, we visit Hell’s Gate. It’s like a fort protecting the town inside the fort.

The Hell’s Gate Fort

Hell’s Gate

Inside the Hell’s Gate

After satisfied walking around Maastrict we went back to the station then catch the train back home.

DenHaag + Amsterdam

This is the first time I travel outside Deventer. it is a Eidl Fitr Day. So we, Indonesian student in Deventer went to Den Haag to celebrate the day with all Indonesian people from all over NL. We leave from Deventer in 8:00 early in the morning to catch the Eidl Fitr Pray. But unfortunately we arrived in Den Haag at 11:00AM. so the pray it’s already finnished. But that’s ok, because the event not end yet. There’s still a celebration in the Indonesian Embassy. For our culture, celebration means gathering and eating together.

After we finnished eating, we continue our journey to Amsterdam. This is the first time I see a town in Netherland (because Deventer is not a town I think, haha). This is what Amsterdam looks like.

Our Journey ends at 20:00, to catch a train back home.

Delft+Rotterdam

Yesterday, I went to Delft alone to pick up my Laptop. In Delft I saw a leaning church. I don’t know why the church went that way,, maybe because of the construction,, same cause like the leaning tower of pisa in Italy.

After saw this church i went forward, across the canal bridge, then I saw another church (I don’t know exactly if this is a church or a castle), in front of this church/castle there’s a large con-block landscape with lots of pigeon running and chasing each other.

Near the large area there’s a souvenir shop. I came into the shop to see how much does the souvenir cost, and like I thought,, it is expensive. much more expensive than the souvenir shop in Amsterdam. So I think if you want to buy souvenir in Netherlands, you better buy it in Amsterdam Centrum. After finnish walking around in Delft Centrum, I go back to Delft station to meet my college, then we go to DenHaag to pick up my stuff that my Mom give. In DenHaag I don’t go anywhere, just go to the Hotel and pick up my stuff then go back to Delft. Back to Delft, I came to my College Senior House,, then we have some chitchat, and then I went back to the station to go home. Because the train to Deventer is not a direct train, so I have to transit in Rotterdam first. So I went around Rotterdam Centrum to see what Rotterdam Look like. and it is a very very big city like Surabaya maybe.

The centrum is full of people, although it is Sunday. In Deventer there’s only a few people in the Centrum because all shop are closed in Sunday.  There are a lot o shop in there, but most of them are expensive, so I don’t buy anything. Well I did buy something on the train station,, because I’m hungry and there were a promotion of new Kebab Restaurant,, they sell Doner Kebab with chicken meat for only 1,95 Euro. It is so cheap. Because the cheapest Doner Kebab that I know is 3,5 Euro. And here, it’s a lot cheaper. Of course I buy that Doner Kebab. And the taste? It’s DELICIOUS. I want it more,, but maybe next time. Because my stomach already full with only eat one Doner Kebab..

Next time,, if there’s still a promotion on that restaurant,, I will buy that kebab again,,,xixixi

After finnish eating Kebab, my Train to Deventer came,, so I get into the train and sleep…zzzzzzzzz….

I woke up when the train is already arrived in Apeldoorn,, I get off from the train then find a bus to Deventer. On my way finding the bus,, there’s a man asking for one euro to buy food because he’s very hungry he said. so I give him 1 euro. then he ask me for another one euro to buy drink,, then I said : I don’t buy drink too,, so we are the same.. after I said that the man said thankyou then go into the shop and buy some food maybe..

then I found my Bus, and get into the Bus and back to my home sweet home Deventer…

the end

Deventer

Deventer is a small city located in central of Netherlands. Not much to see in here, just centrum, a museum, Red Light District, Wind Mill, and Natural Landscape.

centrum

Museum

Wind Mill

Natural Landscape

Some Part of Deventer Office area

My house is located near the IJssel River which is a branch from Rheine River that Starts in Switzerland and ends with a branch in NorthWest Germany. This is the view in IJssel river when sunset.

dagkaart

with this ticket I can travel around Netherlands in a day only with 12,5 Euro. Normal ticket price could be up to 100 Euro