#1220 – Koninginnenacht 2013

ENGLISH

As I said on Monday, this weekend was a long weekend because of the Koninginnedag, or the Queen’s Day, on Tuesday. So how did I spend my long weekend?

Well, as I said in that post as well, I did nothing too special on Saturday or Sunday as I was just relaxing and took a much-needed rest, hahaha. On Monday, I decided to go to Den Haag for the Koninginnenacht, or the Queen’s Night. So, the evening before the Queen’s Day is celebrated as well with some festivals and (free) music concerts in several Dutch cities. Even though it is “free”, the bands that are performing are well-known bands, mostly Dutch but also some foreign bands as well. Then, during the Queen’s Day, these people flock Amsterdam to continue to party all day long in the entire city. Even after having lived here for almost three years, I have never been to a Koninginnenacht before so it was really exciting for me as well.

Anyway, so I went to Den Haag at 18:00. I met my friend there and we decided to have dinner at a restaurant in the city center. It was a really nice and comfortable restaurant btw; quite pricey, sure, but it was still okay for a Dutch standard. For dinner, I decided to have a beef sate. Well, even though it was “sate”, it was not really Indonesian, I knew and already expected that. It was more of a Western (Dutch) interpretation of Indonesian sate, which in the end resulted in a fusion-like menu: imagine a beef steak (served skewered with large chunks of meat) with the salad, french fries, and everything, but with the famous sate’s peanut sauce with shrimp cracker, fried onion, and serundeng. It was actually very nice! Not authentic Indonesian, but nice (well, it was not an Indonesian restaurant anyway (it was a Dutch restaurant actually) so authenticity was definitely off the table).

We left the restaurant at around 21:00 and we joined other friends at the Kerkplein to watch a Swiss/German band performing on a stage there, Boy. Honestly I had never heard of them before but they were actually really good. Two other friends were supposed to join us but communication was a bit difficult (there were so many people that the signal tower became overloaded or something like that so sms/call took longer) and there were so many people. In the end we ended up not meeting them though, hmmm. Anyway, at around 22:30, we moved to another stage (in total there were seven open stages in Den Haag) to watch a famous (though, again, I had never heard of them ) Dutch rock band, Kensington. They were also really good!

I stayed there until the scheduled festival was over, which was around 1:00. Then, feeling really tired, I decided to go back home with an extra train NS ran for Koninginnenacht/Koninginnedag.

Impression

Overall, it was a very fun evening, especially with all the music. One thing though, it was much colder than I anticipated! It was like 4ºC and I was only wearing a shirt, a sweater, and my summer jacket, huahaha . Moving your body or standing between the crowd definitely helped. But when we were walking from one stage to the other, along the way some people had to pee so we had to wait, which meant we didn’t move that much. And at this time we felt the breeze and the cold even worse, obviously, hahaha… .

A Dutch interpretation of an Indonesian sate. Very interesting…

Check sound at the Kerkplein stage

The Boy band performing

Crowded Den Haag during Koninginnenacht

During Kensington’s Performance

How it looked after the concert ended, hahaha

BAHASA INDONESIA

Seperti yang aku bilang Senin ini, akhir pekan ini adalah long weekend karena Koninginnedag, alias Hari Ratu, di hari Selasa. Nah, bagaimanakah aku menghabiskan long weekend ini?

Ya, seperti yang kubilang di posting itu juga, aku nggak melakukan apapun yang terlalu spesial di hari Sabtu atau Minggu sih dan aku hanya santai-santai dan beristirahat aja gitu, hahaha. Di hari Senin, aku memutuskan untuk pergi ke Den Haag untuk Koninginnenacht, atau Malam Ratu. Jadi, satu malam sebelum Hari Ratu itu dirayakan dengan beberapa festival dan konser musik (gratis loh) di beberapa kota di Belanda. Eh, walaupun “gratis”, band-band yang main adalah band-band yang terkenal loh, kebanyakan band Belanda sih tetapi ada juga beberapa band dari luar negeri. Lalu, di Hari Ratunya, orang-orang ini kemudian pergi semua ke Amsterdam untuk melanjutkan party seharian di seluruh penjuru kota ini. Walau sudah disini selama hampir tiga tahun, aku kan belum pernah ke Koninginnenacht sebelumnya makanya ini menarik juga bagiku.

Nah, jadi, aku pergi ke Den Haag sekitar jam 18:00. Aku bertemu temanku disana dan kami memutuskan untuk makan malam di sebuah restoran yang oke di pusat kota. Restorannya enak dan pewe banget loh btw; agak mahal sih, tentu saja, tapi masih oke kok menurut standar di Belanda. Untuk makan malam, aku memutuskan untuk memesan sate daging sapi. Eh, walaupun namanya “sate”, masakan ini nggak terlalu Indonesia loh, dan aku sudah tahu dan menjangka itu. Masakan ini tuh lebih seperti interpretasi Barat (Belanda) atas satenya Indonesia gitu deh, yang mana hasil akhirnya adalah sebuah menu fusion seperti: bayangkan sebuah steak daging sapi (yang disajikan ditusuk lidi, tetapi potongan dagingnya besar-besar) lengkap dengan salad-nya, french fries, dll, tetapi sausnya adalah saus kacang sate dan disajikan dengan kerupuk udang, bawang goreng, dan serundeng. Huahaha . Dan rasanya lumayan juga lho! Ya jelas nggak autentik Indonesia lah ya, tapi oke juga kok (yah, restoran ini juga bukan restoran Indonesia sih (restoran masakan Belanda sebenarnya) jadi keautentikan jelas bukanlah sesuatu yang bisa dicari di restoran ini lah ya).

Kami meninggalkan restoran ini sekitar jam 21:00 dan bergabung dengan beberapa teman lain di Kerkplein untuk menonton sebuah band asal Swiss/Jerman yang main di sebuah panggung disana, Boy. Jujur nih aku belum pernah mendengar band ini sebelumnya tetapi mereka bagus juga loh. Dua teman lain seharusnya bergabung dengan kami tetapi ada masalah komunikasi (jadi saking banyaknya orang disana, menara sinyalnya jadi agak overload atau gimana gitu sehingga pesan sms/telepon jadi agak lama) dan ada banyak banget orang. Akhirnya kami nggak bertemu dengan mereka, hmmm. Anyway, sekitar jam 22:30, kami pindah ke sebuah panggung lain (totalnya ada tujuh panggung di Den Haag) untuk menonton sebuah band yang terkenal juga (yang mana, lagi, aku belum pernah dengar sebelumnya sih ) asal Belanda ber-genre rock, Kensington. Mereka bagus juga loh!

Aku tinggal disana sampai jadwal festivalnya selesai, yang mana sekitar jam 1:00. Lalu, karena merasa lelah, aku memutuskan untuk pulang ke rumah dengan menaiki kereta ekstra yang disediakan NS untuk Koninginnenacht/Koninginnedag.

Impresi

Secara keseluruhan, malam itu adalah malam yang mengasyikkan, terutama karena musiknya ya. Satu hal sih, suhu udaranya lebih dingin daripada yang aku kira dong! Suhunya sekitar 4ºC sementara aku hanya mengenakan sebuah kemeja, sweater, dan jaket musim panasku gitu deh, huahaha . Itu salah kostum banget!! Oke, menggerakkan badan dan berdiri di antara kerumunan orang banyak memang lumayan membantu sih. Namun, ketika berjalan dari satu panggung ke panggung lain, beberapa teman ada yang kadang harus pipis sehingga harus menunggu, yang mana artinya kita nggak terlalu menggerakkan badan kan. Nah, pada saat inilah angin dinginnya terasa banget, tentu saja, hahaha… .

#1205 – Saturday Story

ENGLISH

Okay, day two into this ultra long weekend which happens to be in the end of March, so it should also be like a spring break in a way. Speaking of spring, how has the weather been in the Netherlands? Well, yesterday, it was like this:

Yes, it was snowing, again

Yes . It was snowing again!!  Damnit!!

Sweat Jacket

Anyway, let’s move one to something else. The past a few months, I have been wanting to buy a new sweat jacket with hoodie. I mean, the Adidas one that I bought two and a half years ago in Roermond is still good though and I still wear it often (to exercise and play tennis). But that is the only one that I have. And I thought it would be nice if I had another one.

So, while I had nothing else planned to do, I decided to go to Den Haag this afternoon to look for one. Long story short, I bought a new Nike one for €49.99. It was not as cheap as that one in Roermond (it was €13 there), but Roermond was a factory outlet so it was different; beside, that one in Roermond was an older product and was already on sale.

Another Injury

Probably this month hasn’t been my best month injury-wise. Two days ago while preparing to cook this meal:

Mixed veggies (endives, beansprout, onion, and carrot) and pork

I cut my middle finger while cutting the endive. I think it was quite bad in the sense that I cut it quite deep. But it was okay, after some time, the blood clotted and sealed the cut. So I thought it was fine.

However, today, while doing light exercise in the evening, somehow, in the middle of my exercise my hand looked like this:

Another injury this month

Huahaha . Unbeknownst to me, somehow the cut reopened itself. I don’t know, I guess it had something to do with the cold weather (it was around 0 ºC while I was outside) so that the cut was reopened. I immediately headed back home (by cutting off my original planned route) while on the way washing the wound several times with my mineral water.

Now it is fine though, and I decided to seal it with band-aid to prevent it from reopening again and to accelerate the healing process.

My new Nike sweat jacket

BAHASA INDONESIA

Oke, sudah memasuki hari kedua nih di ultra long weekend kali ini yang berlangsung di akhir Maret, jadi liburan ini mestinya bisa dipandang seperti liburan musim semi kan ya. Ngomongin musim semi, bagaimanakah cuaca di Belanda akhir-akhir ini? Ya, kemarin, cuacanya kayak gini:

Ya, bersalju lagi dong

Ya . Bersalju lagi dong!!  Sial!!

Sweat Jacket

Anyway, mari membicarakan hal lainnya. Beberapa bulan belakangan ini, aku merasa ingin untuk membeli sweat jacket (apa sih bahasa Indonesianya?) baru. Ya, punyaku yang Adidas yang aku beli dua setengah tahun lalu di Roermond juga masih bagus sih sebenarnya dan masih sering aku pakai juga (untuk berolahraga atau main tenis). Tapi aku punyanya ya satu itu aja. Dan aku pikir kayaknya oke juga ya kalau aku punya satu lagi jadi bisa dibuat ganti-ganti gitu.

Nah, mumpung aku juga nggak ada kerjaan lain, aku memutuskan untuk pergi ke Den Haag siang tadi untuk mencari satu. Singkat cerita, aku mendapatkan satu yang bermerk Nike seharga €49.99. Ya nggak semurah seperti yang di Roermond sih (waktu itu harganya €13 saja), tapi Roermond kan factory outlet gitu jadi beda lah ya; di samping itu, waktu itu yang di Roermond juga sudah barang lama dan lagi di-sale deh.

Cedera Lain

Mungkin bulan ini adalah bulan yang kurang baik untukku dalam hal percederaan. Dua hari lalu, ketika sedang bersiap-siap untuk memasak masakan ini:

Sayur campur-campur (sawi, tauge, bawang bombay, dan wortel) dan daging babi

Aku nggak sengaja melukai jari tengahku ketika sedang memotong sawinya. Aku rasa sih agak lumayan dalam juga lukanya. Tapi nggak papa sih, setelah beberapa waktu, darahnya membeku dan lukanya juga mulai menutup. Jadi aku kira sudah beres lah ya.

Namun, hari ini, ketika sedang berolahraga ringan malam tadi, entah kenapa di tengah jalan tiba-tiba tanganku terlihat seperti ini:

Cedera lagi bulan ini

Huahaha . Tanpa aku ketahui, entah bagaimana lukanya terbuka lagi. Nggak tahu deh, aku duga mungkin penyebabnya adalah udara dingin (tadi sekitar 0 ºC gitu ketika aku di luar) jadi lukanya bisa terbuka. Aku langsung pulang deh begitu melihat ini (dengan langsung memotong rute rencanaku) dan di jalan aku cuci lukanya beberapa kali dengan air mineral yang kubawa.

Sekarang sudah nggak papa sih, dan akhirnya aku putuskan untuk aku balut dengan plester (band aid) untuk mencegah lukanya terbuka kembali dan sekaligus mempercepat proses penyembuhannya.

#1166 – Early Week Story

ENGLISH

So many topics to write down yet so little time to do so, so I will just write the key points on this post. We will see though whether I can be as concise as I would like or not, hahaha

Picking up my brother

I told you earlier this month that my brother is visiting me in Europe for Christmas break this year. And so, he arrived in Europe on Monday morning. He caught a Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur (so he had to go from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur first) to Amsterdam, the MH 16 flight on a Boeing 777-200ER flight.

This flight was scheduled to arrive at Schiphol at 6:35. Yes, so early!! As a good brother, of course I was going to pick him up. He already told me the day before that his flight was somehow delayed as he boarded the plane a little bit (about 40 minutes) late. To get to Schiphol, I decided to take the 6:05 Intercity from Delft (I got up at 3:45 that morning. I don’t know, it is a bit weird though that I always get up too soon when I try to get to bed a bit earlier, like this time) and I arrived at Schiphol at around 6:45. There, I found out that his flight was indeed late and would land at, approximately, 7:45!!

Well, in a way, it was also my fault though as when I left my apartment, his flight was still above Romania. How did I know? Well, I used the online flight radar (http://www.flightradar24.com/) and at that time, it was like this:

Flight MH 16 on December 24th, 2012

So, yeah…

I was thinking of going to the Panorama Terrace. However, at that time, it was still closed because it was still too early (during winter, it was opened at 9 AM). And so I just waited there in front of the arrival gate, hahaha. Long story short, at 7:41 AM, his flight landed and at 8:10 AM, he finally got off the arrival area.

Zaanse Schans and Amsterdam

After checking in at his hotel, our first destination was the Zaanse Schans. Zaanse Schans is a place north to Amsterdam where we can see some old-fashioned windmills. Yes, it is a little bit like Kinderdijk, which I already visited some months ago, but the windmills are a little bit different. And I had never been to Zaanse Schans before, so why not?

We took a public bus ride to get there. Long story short, we arrived in Zaanse Schans. Zaanse Schans was a very nice place. Yes, so Dutch, right? I liked it a little bit more than Kinderdijk: even though in Kinderdijk there were more windmills but in a way, Zaanse Schans offered a little bit more as there was a (very tiny) cheese-making exhibition near there. So it wasn’t only about the windmills, though the windmills were definitely the main attraction.

Anyway, after spending about 40 minutes there, we decided to go back to Amsterdam. And so we spent the rest of the day exploring Amsterdam, mostly on foot, huahaha . We had lunch and dinner there, and went back to his hotel at around 19:00.

Pempek and Stuffs

I went back to my apartment that evening bringing a lot of stuffs for me that my brother brought from Indonesia. One of those stuffs was: pempek!! Yay!! Finally I could eat pempek after all this time in Europe!! Hahahaha Well, I mean, actually it wouldn’t be that impossible to find someone who sells pempek here in the Netherlands (there are a lot of Indonesian living here anyway), but so far I haven’t got the urge to look for it myself.

He brought a lot of other stuffs as well, like fried chicken from Tojoyo (one of my favorite restaurants in Yogyakarta), my grandma’s nasi goreng (fried rice) sauce, sausage from Bali, etc. Nice!!

Den Haag and Scheveningen

Today, we went to Den Haag and Scheveningen. Well, because today is the first Christmas Day (December 25th), most shops were closed the whole day. So Den Haag was kinda dull. Later in the afternoon, we decided to go to Scheveningen. Surprisingly, Scheveningen was much more alive than the Den Haag city center!! There were a lot of people there (enjoying their off day with their family or loved ones or friends, mostly)! And it was so windy!!

Later on that night, we had dinner at my apartment in Delft. Now, he is already back in his hotel in Amsterdam. I am writing this post and after this I will have to pack for my year end trip which will start tomorrow!! hahaha

The flight arrivals list in Schiphol. The MH 16 flight was delayed for 1 hour!

People waiting in front of the Arrival Gate. Some even made some banners!!

Zaanse Schans

One of the windmills in Zaanse Schans

Uruguaian lunch in Amsterdam

Madame Tussaud in Amsterdam

Chinese dinner in Amsterdam

The stuffs for me

Ayam goreng Tojoyo (Tojoyo fried chicken)

First pempek in more than 2.5 years!

Scheveningen beach

Another view of Scheveningen

BAHASA INDONESIA

Ada banyak sekali topik yang ingin kutulis tetapi hanya ada sedikit sekali waktu untuk itu. Jadi kayaknya aku akan menulis yang inti-intinya saja deh di posting ini. Kita lihat saja apakah aku bisa seringkas yang kuinginkan atau tidak, hahaha

Menjemput adikku

Seperti yang kubilang awal bulan ini, adikku akan berkunjung ke Eropa dalam rangka liburan Natal tahun ini. Dan jadilah ia tiba di Eropa di hari Senin pagi kemarin. Ia naik penerbangannya Malaysia Airlines dari Kuala Lumpur (jadi sebelumnya ia harus terbang dari Jakarta ke Kuala Lumpur dulu) ke Amsterdam, dengan penerbangan MH 16 di pesawat Boeing 777-200ER.

Penerbangan ini dijadwalkan tiba di Schiphol jam 6:35 Iya, pagi banget!! Sebagai saudara yang baik, tentu saja aku akan menjemputnya dong. Ia sudah memberi-tahuku sih di waktu keberangkatannya itu bahwa penerbangannya agak terlambat karena boarding-nya agak (sekitar 40 menit) terlambat. Nah, untuk ke Schiphol, aku memutuskan untuk naik Intercity jam 6:05 dari Delft (aku bangun jam 3:45 pagi itu. Entah kenapa ya, aneh deh, aku selalu bangun terlalu awal ketika aku mencoba untuk tidur lebih awal, seperti waktu ini) dan tiba di Schiphol sekitar jam 6:45. Disana, aku mendapatkan informasi bahwa penerbangannya beneran terlambat dong, dan baru akan mendarat, diperkirakan, jam 7:45!! 

Yah, di satu sisi, salahku juga sih soalnya ketika aku berangkat dari apartemenku, pesawatnya kan masih di atasnya Romania. Eh, kok aku tahu? Yah, aku menggunakan radar penerbangan online dong (http://www.flightradar24.com/) dan waktu itu, kayak gini deh:

Penerbangan MH 16 tanggal 24 December, 2012

Ya gitu deh…

Awalnya aku berencana untuk jalan-jalan di Panorama Terrace. Namun, waktu itu terasnya masih ditutup karena masih terlalu pagi (di musim dingin, baru dibuka jam 9 pagi). Dan jadilah aku menunggu gitu di depan gerbang kedatangannya, hahaha. Singkat cerita, jam 7:41 pagi pesawatnya mendarat dan jam 8:10 pagi, ia akhirnya keluar dari area kedatangannya itu.

Zaanse Schans dan Amsterdam

Setelah ia check-in di hotelnya, tujuan pertama kami adalah Zaanse Schans. Zaanse Schans adalah sebuah tempat di utaranya Amsterdam dimana disana terdapat beberapa kincir angin kuno. Nah, Belanda banget kan?? Iya sih, memang agak mirip-mirip Kinderdijk gitu, yang pernah kukunjungi beberapa bulan yang lalu juga, tapi kincir anginnya kan agak berbeda. Dan toh aku belum pernah ke Zaanse Schans juga, jadi kenapa tidak?

Kami naik bus umum untuk kesana. Singkat cerita, tibalah kami di Zaanse Schans. Zaanse Schans keren loh. Aku menyukainya sedikit lebih daripada Kinderdijk deh: walaupun di Kinderdijk ada lebih banyak kincir angin tetapi, di satu sisi, Zaanse Schans menawarkan lebih juga karena ada pameran pembuatan keju (kecil) gitu disana. Jadi nggak cuma kincir angin aja gitu, walaupun tentu saja atraksi utamanya ya kincir anginnya itu ya.

Anyway, setelah menghabiskan waktu selama sekitar 40 menit disana, kami memutuskan untuk kembali ke Amsterdam. Sisa hari itu kami habiskan di Amsterdam deh, dan kebanyakan jalan kaki loh, huahaha . Kami makan siang dan malam disana, dan kembali ke hotelnya adikku sekitar jam 19:00.

Pempek dan Barang-barang

Aku kembali ke apartemenku malam ini dengan membawa banyak barang yang dibawakan adikku dari Indonesia. Salah satu dari barang-barang itu adalah: pempek!! Yay!! Akhirnya aku bisa makan pempek juga setelah selama ini di Eropa!! Hahahaha Eh, maksudku sebenarnya bukannya nggak mungkin gitu ya mencari seseorang yang jualan pempek di Belanda (kan ada banyak orang Indonesia disini juga), tapi sejauh ini kan aku masih belum ngidam-ngidam amat sampai harus mencari-cari sendiri gitu.

Ia juga membawakanku barang-barang lain juga, kayak ayam gorengnya Tojoyo (satu restoran favoritku di Yogyakarta), bumbu nasi goreng omaku, sosis dari Bali, dll. Yeah!!  :D

Den Haag dan Scheveningen

Hari ini, kami pergi ke Den Haag dan Scheveningen. Yah, karena hari ini adalah hari Natal pertama (25 Desember), kebanyakan tutup deh sepanjang hari. Jadi ya Den Haag agak membosankan gitu. Siangnya, kami memutuskan untuk pergi ke Scheveningen. Yang mengejutkan, ternyata Scheveningen malah lebih hidup loh daripada pusat kotanya Den Haag!! Ada banyak banget orang (yang lagi menikmati liburan dengan keluarga atau teman, kebanyakan) disana! Dan berangin banget dah cuacanya!!

Malamnya, kami makan malam di apartemenku di Delft. Sekarang, dia sudah kembali ke hotelnya di Amsterdam. Aku menulis posting ini dan setelah ini aku harus sibuk packing untuk acara jalan-jalan akhir tahunku yang dimulai besok nih!! hahaha

#1152 – Southern France and Austria Trip (Part VI)

ENGLISH

Previously on Southern France and Austria Trip: Zilko went on a trip to southern France and Austria with his parents who were visiting him this October. After spending five nights in France and five nights in Austria, they were now in the city of Innsbruck, their last stop of this trip.

***

Day 11 (Monday, 29 October 2012)

As usual, we started the day with checking the weather forecast. And for today, the forecasted temperature was –11ºC in the afternoon . Yes, freaking MINUS ELEVEN degree!! And it was supposed to be “fall”??

Anyway, so, we left our hotel at around 9:00, obviously after buying the very useful (and recommended) Innsbruck Card from our hotel’s reception. Our first destination was the Swarovski Kristallwelten in Wattens, near Innsbruck.

It was nice that the shuttle bus to get there also had a stop not so far away from our centrally-located hotel, so we did not have to go far to the train station to catch the bus. At around 9:04, the shuttle bus arrived at the bus stop and our 30 minute trip to Swarovski Kristallwelten started. It was also snowing all night long in Innsbruck btw, and the view along the journey to Wattens was SO STUNNING!! It just snowed so the snow wasn’t all cleared up yet, so beautiful!

At around 9:35, we arrived at Swarovski Kristallwelten. Again, this was not my first visit to this wonderful place; but this time, because it just snowed, the garden looked different and more “winteresque”. The museum was still pretty much the same as my previous visit btw, including almost all of their collections, as far as I remembered though. After spending about two hours there, we went back to Innsbruck catching the 11:30 shuttle bus.

We decided to have lunch in the Altstadt, and we picked an Italian pizzeria. I insisted to order a calzone because apparently my parents didn’t try one when they were in Italy. The calzone was a bit watery (as far as I recalled, it shouldn’t be that watery though, at least based on the one I tried while I was in Italy a couple of years ago); but it was still so good!

After lunch, we went to our next destination which was the Nordkette, one of the peak of the Alps to the north of Innsbruck. To get to the top, of course we chose the Nordkettenbahn (well, the other option was: hiking, huahaha ), which consisted of three legs: the Hungerburgbahn (funicular ride to Hungerburg), the Seegrubenbahn (cable car to Seegrube, the longest leg of the three), and the Hafelekarbahn (cable car to Hafelekar, this was the top stop). And with our Innsbruck Card, it was for free (for 1 way up and 1 way down)!

The view along the Nordkettenbahn was breathtaking! Because it just snowed, all the trees were covered with snow; and it was just amazing! I mean, I liked this view much more than the view of the same place when I previously visited it in the summer. It was just that it was very misty at the top of the mountain so the visibility was quite low. And at the top, it was, literally, freezing!! I mean, you know, I did not bring my winter equipments and stuffs with me so I had pretty much minimalist protection against the cold (like I did not wear any gloves or winter hat); so it was very cold for me! I think it was –15ºC at the hottest . But still, it was amazing. We reached Hafelekar (of course), but decided not to be outside for too long.

After awhile, we went back downtown to Innsbruck. In Innsbruck, we visited the Hofkirche, a church I did not have the chance to visit in my previous trip there (because it was already closed while I was there). It was quite a very interesting Gothic church, with 28 large bronze statues in it. It was already 16:30 when we got off from Hofkirche (we also visited the Volkskunstmuseum next to Hofkirche), and decided to take the sightseeing bus, which was also for free because we had the Innsbruck Card .

We had dinner at around 19:30 near our hotel before calling it a day…

Day 12 (Tuesday, 30 October 2012)

The theme of the day would be going back to the Netherlands. While planning for the trip, we realized that there was no direct flight service from Innsbruck to the Netherlands in the period of our visit. Hence, I got the idea to go to the neighboring country of Switzerland and took a flight from there. My choice went to easyJet which had direct service to Amsterdam from Basel. To get to Basel, we took trains with one transit in Zürich (and we got super-promo tickets for the trains, yay! ). This was pretty much our plan for the day btw:

Our planned route for the day to go from Innsbruck back to the Netherlands (via Zürich and Basel)

So, we took the 9:54 train service departing from Innsbruck to Zürich. Again, the view along the way was very beautiful, because of the snow. It was quite funny that at the village of Buchs, our train changed direction. So if we sat at the same seat, if before Buchs we were moving forward, we would move backward after Buchs.

Anyway, we arrived at Zürich Hauptbahnhof at 13:20. We did not have any time to go out from the station though (let alone to go around the city) because our connecting to Basel, which turned out to be a TGV train, would depart at 13:34. Our double-decker TGV train departed on time, and arrived on time as well 53 minutes later at 14:27 at Basel SBB Station.

Our flight back to Amsterdam was scheduled to depart at 19:20 that evening. This meant we had tons of time to kill in Basel. Yet, based on my experience, there was nothing so interesting worth the effort to go to in Basel, hmm. But first things first, we needed to find a place to eat, and we were in Switzerland where everything was so expensive (even in European standard (in my opinion)). Like I found a restaurant in the train station which offered steak, but it was like CHF 37, or around €30.73 (as of mid-November 2012) . And so we decided to eat at Burger King instead, huahaha .

We left Burger King, which was just across the train station, at 16:00. The shuttle bus to the airport left at around 16:15 from the train station, so the location was already quite convenient. We arrived at the airport at 16:40-ish. From hereon, it was just another standard procedure at the airport. So we were dropping our luggage (we were already checked-in as we were flying with easyJet), going through the security check, waiting at the gate, and so on.

We were finally boarding at around 18:50. Our flight would be on an Airbus A319-111 reg code HB-JZT as EZS 1045. At 19:20, it took off from runway 15 of Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg Airport. At around 20:40, we landed at runway 18R of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

After taking our luggage, we took the InterCity service to Den Haag, where my parents would stay for two nights before moving to Delft. So, after taking my parents safely to their hotel in Den Haag, I went back to Delft. At Den Haag Centraal Station btw, I literally missed my train by 10 seconds! The next train would leave 30 minutes later, so I decided to try my luck by walking to Spui to see if I could take Tram no.1 instead to go to Delft. Luckily, the tram was there when I arrived at Spui, though I had to run (but the driver was kind enough to wait for me ). And here my trip to southern France and Austria officially ended…

THE END.

Snowing in Innsbruck

Snowing in Innsbruck

Swarovski Kristallwelten

In the Crystal Dome in Swarovski Kristallwelten

Dancing Moon and Sun at Swarovski Kristallwelten

A decoration in the Swarovski store

Snow in the Alps

Calzone

Sill River in Innsbruck

The Seegrubenbahn cable car ride to Seegrube

The cable car ride to Seegrube

When you combine mist and snow, this is what you get. And it was freezing btw!

View from the second cable car to Hafelekar. So misty!!

Back to this spot! :D

The Alps and Hafelekar

The Alps and the cloud

View of Nordkette

A machine they used to throw away some snow…

The view from Hafelekar to Seegrube. The mist was gone a bit

How winter looked in Austria. Yes, it was literally freezing!!

The copper statues in Hofkirche

The Alps as seen from Innsbruck

Railjet RJ 364 which brought us to Zürich from Innsbruck

The view on the way to Zürich

Double-decker TGV which brought us to Basel from Zürich

Burger King for lunch (for three people btw) at Basel

An easyJet Switzerland’s Airbus A319-111 reg code HB-JZT which brought us to Amsterdam Schiphol from Basel as EZS 1045.

BAHASA INDONESIA

Sebelumnya dalam Southern France and Austria Trip: Zilko pergi ke Prancis selatan dan Austria dalam rangka menemani orangtuanya yang sedang mengunjunginya di bulan Oktober. Setelah menghabiskan lima malam di Prancis dan lima malam di Austria, kini mereka berada di kota Innsbruck, perhentian terakhir mereka di perjalanan kali ini.

***

Hari 11 (Senin, 29 Oktober 2012)

Seperti biasa, kami memulai hari ini dengan mengecek ramalan cuaca untuk hari ini. Dan untuk hari ini, temperatur udara diramalkan –11ºC loh di siang hari . Ya, MINUS SEBELAS derajat dong!! Yang kayak gini ini “musim gugur” darimananya coba??

Anyway, kami berangkat dari hotel kami sekitar jam 9:00, tentu saja setelah membeli Innsbruck Card yang amat berguna (dan sangat direkomendasikan loh) dari lobby hotel kami. Tujuan pertama kami adalah Swarovski Kristallwelten di Wattens, tidak jauh dari Innsbruck.

Asyik juga bahwa shuttle bus menuju kesana juga memiliki pemberhentian tidak jauh dari hotel kami yang lokasinya memang oke banget, jadi kami nggak perlu berjalan jauh ke stasiun pusat gitu untuk naik busnya. Sekitar jam 9:04, busnya tiba di halte ini dan dimulailah perjalanan selama 30 menit ke Swarovski Kristallwelten. Semalam sebelumnya, cuaca bersalju semalaman di Innsbruck, sehingga pemandangan sepanjang jalan ke Wattens itu KEREN BANGET loh!! Karena baru saja bersalju, jadi saljunya masih belum hilang/mencair gitu deh, jadi masih indah banget!!

Sekitar jam 9:35, tibalah kami di Swarovski Kristallwelten. Lagi-lagi, ini bukanlah kali pertama aku mengunjungi tempat yang keren ini; tapi karena kali ini baru saja bersalju, jadi tamannya terlihat berbeda dan lebih berasa “musim dingin” gitu deh. Museumnya sih kurang lebih masih sama aja ya dibandingkan dengan kunjunganku sebelumnya itu, termasuk koleksi-koleksinya, sejauh yang kuingat sih. Setelah menghabiskan waktu sekitar dua jam disana, kami kembali ke Innsbruck dengan menaiki shuttle bus yang jam 11:30.

Kami memutuskan untuk makan siang di Altstadt, dan kami memilih sebuah restoran pizza (pizzeria) Italia. Aku bersikeras untuk memesan calzone karena ternyata orangtuaku belum mencobanya ketika mereka berada di Italia. Calzone-nya agak sedikit berair sih (sejauh yang kuingat, seharusnya tidak terlalu berair deh, setidaknya berdasarkan yang kucoba di Italia ketika aku kesana dua tahun yang lalu ya); tapi rasanya masih enak kok!

Setelah makan siang, kami pergi ke tujuan kami berikutnya, yaitu Nordkette, salah satu puncak pegunungan Alpen yang berada di utaranya Innsbruck. Untuk naik ke atas, tentu saja kami naik Nordkettenbahn lah ya (pilihan lainnya adalah: jalan kaki dong, huahaha ), yang terdiri dari tiga bagian perjalanan: Hungerburgbahn (funicular ke Hungerburg), Seegrubenbahn (kereta gantung ke Seegrube, ini bagian yang paling panjang nih), dan Hafelekarbahn (kereta gantung ke Hafelekar, yang mana berada di paling atas). Dan dengan Innsbruck Card, naiknya kan gratis ya (untuk 1 kali naik dan 1 kali turun)!

Pemandangan sepanjang perjalanan dengan Nordkettenbahn itu keren abis lho! Karena baru saja bersalju, jadi pohon-pohonnya itu terselimuti salju gitu deh, keren banget! Maksudku, aku jauh lebih suka pemandangan yang ini daripada pemandangan tempat yang sama ini ketika di musim panas, seperti pada waktu kunjunganku sebelumnya itu. Hanya saja, kali ini cuacanya agak berkabut gitu jadi jarak pandangnya juga agak kurang. Dan di puncak gunungnya, suhu udaranya, dalam artian sebenarnya, membekukan banget lho!! Maksudku, tahu kan, kebetulan pas aku nggak membawa peralatan musim dinginku kali ini jadi ya perlindunganku terhadap udara dingin ya cukup minimalis saja (misalnya, aku nggak memakai sarung tangan atau kupluk musim dingin); jadi ya rasanya dingin banget gitu! Rasanya, di atas itu sepanas-panasnya suhunya –15ºC deh . Eh, tapi tetep ya, view-nya menakjubkan banget. Kami mencapai Hafelekar (tentu saja), tapi akhirnya memutuskan untuk nggak berada di luar lama-lama amat.

Setelah beberapa waktu, kami kembali turun ke Innsbruck. Di Innsbruck, kami mengunjungi Hofkirche, sebuah gereja yang belum sempat aku kunjungi di kunjunganku sebelumnya kesana (waktu itu gerejanya sudah tutup gitu). Gereja ini adalah gereja Gotik yang cukup menarik juga, dengan 28 patung perunggu berukuran besar di dalamnya. Sudah jam 16:30 ketika kami keluar dari Hofkirche (kami juga sempat mampir di Volkskunstmuseum di sebelahnya Hofkirche loh), dan akhirnya memutuskan untuk naik sightseeing bus, yang mana juga gratis dengan Innsbruck Card kami .

Kami makan malam sekitar jam 19:30 di dekat hotel sebelum akhirnya pulang…

Hari 12 (Selasa, 30 Oktober 2012)

Tema hari ini adalah seharian untuk kembali ke Belanda. Nah, ketika merencanakan perjalanan ini, kami baru menyadari bahwa ternyata tidak ada penerbangan langsung dari Innsbruck menuju Belanda di waktu kunjungan kami ini. Makanya aku mendapatkan ide untuk pergi ke negara tetangganya Austria, Swiss, dan naik pesawat dari sana. Pilihanku jatuh kepada easyJet yang memiliki rute langsung dari Basel menuju Amsterdam. Untuk pergi ke Basel, kami naik kereta dengan satu kali transit di Zürich (dan untuk kereta ini kami mendapatkan tiket super-promo loh, lumayan banget, yay! ). Peta dari rencana perjalanan hari ini kurang lebih seperti ini deh:

Rute perjalanan rencana kami untuk hari ini dari Innsbruck untuk kembali ke Belanda (via Zürich dan Basel)

Jadi, kami naik kereta jam 9:54 dari Innsbruck menuju Zürich. Lagi-lagi, pemandangan di perjalanan itu indah banget, karena salju sih. Oh iya, lucunya, di desa Buchs, kereta kami berganti arah loh. Jadi kalau kita tidak berpindah kursi, jika sebelum Buchs kita bergerak maju, kita akan bergerak mundur setelah Buchs.

Anyway, tibalah kami di Zürich Hauptbahnhof pada jam 13:20. Kami tidak memiliki waktu untuk keluar dari stasiun btw (apalagi untuk keliling kota) karena kereta lanjutan kami menuju Basel, yang mana ternyata adalah TGV loh, akan berangkat jam 13:34. Kereta TGV dua-tinggkat kami berangkat tepat waktu, dan tiba tepat waktu juga 53 menit kemudian, pada jam 14:27, di Stasiun Basel SBB.

Penerbangan ke Amsterdam kami baru dijadwalkan berangkat jam 19:20 malam itu. Artinya, kami memiliki banyak waktu untuk dihabiskan di Basel. Namun, berdasarkan pengalamanku, nggak ada yang terlalu menarik di Basel untuk dikunjungi gitu, hmm. Ah, satu-satu dulu deh, pertama-tama, kami mencari tempat buat makan dulu; dan kami sedang berada di Swiss dimana semuanya kan mahal-mahal gitu ya (bahkan untuk standar Eropa (menurutku loh)). Seperti misalnya aku menemukan sebuah restoran di stasiun kereta yang menjual steak kan, tapi harganya CHF 37, atau sekitar €30.73 loh (per pertengahan November 2012) . Dan jadilah kami makan di Burger King saja, huahaha .

Kami meninggalkan Burger King, yang lokasinya hanya berada di sebranya stasiun kereta, jam 16:00. Shuttle bus menuju bandara berangkat sekitar jam 16:15 dari stasiun kereta, jadi lokasinya sudah enak banget gitu. Kami tiba di bandara sekitar jam 16:40an. Dari sini, semuanya ya prosedur standar di bandara sih. Kami memasukkan beberapa barang bawaan kami ke bagasi (kami sudah check-in karena kami terbang dengan easyJet), melewati pengecekan sekuriti, menunggu di gate, dll.

Akhirnya kami boarding sekitar jam 18:50. Penerbangan kami akan ditempuh dengan sebuah pesawat Airbus A319-111 dengan kode registrasi HB-JZT dengan nomor penerbangan EZS 1045. Jam 19:20, penerbangannya lepas landas dari landasan pacu 15 Bandara Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg. Sekitar jam 20:40, kami mendarat di landasan pacu 18R Bandara Amsterdam Schiphol.

Setelah mengambil bagasi kami, kami menaiki kereta InterCity menuju Den Haag, dimana orangtuaku akan menginap selama dua malam sebelum pindah hotel ke Delft. Nah, setelah mengantar orangtuaku dengan aman ke hotelnya mereka di Den Haag, aku kembali ke Delft deh. Btw, di Stasiun Den Haag Centraal, aku ketinggalan keretanya hanya karena terlambat, dalam artian sebenarnya, 10 detik saja loh! Kereta selanjutnya baru berangkat 30 menit kemudian, jadilah aku memutuskan untuk mencoba peruntungan dengan berjalan ke Spui untuk melihat apakah aku bisa menaiki Tram 1 menuju Delft. Untungnya, tramnya berada disana pas ketika aku tiba di Spui, walaupun aku harus lari sih untuk menaikinya (untung banget masinisnya baik jadi mau menungguku ). Dan disinilah perjalananku ke Prancis selatan dan Austria resmi berakhir…

SELESAI.

#1143 – Thursday Story and Graduation, Again

ENGLISH

Thursday Story

My original plan for Thursday was to pick up my parents in Den Haag and help them to move to their next hotel in Delft. I still had some works to do as I could not finish everything on Wednesday. So, my plan was to go back to my office once my parents checked in at their Delft hotel.

But then, we decided to have lunch after checking in at the hotel. My parents wanted to eat something more Southeast-Asian-ish and because all Indonesian restaurants we found were closed, my dad picked a Thai restaurant. The service, however, took really long and we spent like more than good 60 minutes there just for lunch (but the food was good though). It was already quite too late (I mean, I wouldn’t have had a productive day had I decided to get back to work anyway) so I chose to accompany my parents going around Delft instead.

Later that evening, we had dinner at a medieval-themed restaurant in Delft. It was quite a well-known place because it was so unique: the theme was so medieval that there was no electricity (so it was very dark and the lighting came from candles), the building was a typical old castle-like building from the medieval age (there were even chickens walking around in the restaurant) and decorated with medieval-themed decoration (like hanging a net of garlic, etc), and because it was medieval, we did not eat with any apparatus – in other words: we had to eat with our hands (which was quite troublesome for me). It was such a unique experience! The food was just okay though (but the portion was huuge), but what stood out was definitely the experience.

Graduation, Again

The main agenda my parents were having this European trip now was actually to attend my graduation ceremony. Well, you might recall that I actually have had my (individual) graduation ceremony about 2.5 months ago. However, since months before I already told my parents that based on the information in TU Delft’s website, there would be a graduation ceremony for my department on November 2nd. So, they already made some planning revolving around this info. And somehow, while preparing for my thesis defense, I filled a form telling that I would have an individual graduation ceremony instead of joining the collective one.

I emailed the secretary and the faculty’s HR that dealt with graduation ceremony thingy; and they said that even though I would have had my individual graduation ceremony by then, I still could be invited to the collective one as a guest. I wouldn’t receive my diploma (as I would have received it at my individual ceremony) but I would basically be “treated” like other graduates as well, like being addressed by my responsible professor, getting a toga hat, etc. Well, of course I decided to accept the invitation.

So, the collective graduation ceremony was this afternoon; and this was basically the theme of today. I picked my parents at their hotel and then we went to my campus to have a (very) short tour around. We stayed in my office until the time (which was 12:45) and went downstairs to Lecture Room B for the ceremony. Some of my friends were already there, and there were more people than I expected, hahaha .

Anyway, I was assigned to seat number 1 and so I was the first one to be addressed by my professor. And the difference between the graduation ceremony in Indonesia (at least based on my experience) was that here, for every graduate that was addressed, the professor described the graduate’s work and achievement as well as what he/she thought of the student. In my opinion, it was super cool and it felt more personal (from the graduate’s point of view) and added the value of graduating.

At around 14:30, the ceremony ended (there were about 30 graduates or so). Later in the afternoon, we went to IKEA and had our dinner there. At 19:30, I arrived back at home.

The medieval-themed restaurant; it was so medieval and you can see one of the chickens here

Medieval dinner with a lot of kinds of meat

Me being addressed at the collective graduation ceremony

All the graduates and the professors; we were actually looking at a photographer upstairs

Graduated, again :)

Dinner in IKEA, of course I chose the meatballs

BAHASA INDONESIA

Cerita Kamis

Rencana awalku untuk hari Kamis adalah menjemput orangtuaku di Den Haag dan membantu mereka pindahan ke hotel mereka yang selanjutnya di Delft. Aku masih ada beberapa kerjaan yang mesti diselesaikan karena aku tidak bisa menyelesaikan semuanya di hari Rabu lalu. Jadilah rencanaku adalah untuk kembali ke kantor setelah orangtuaku check-in di hotel mereka di Delft.

Namun kemudian, kami memutuskan untuk makan siang setelah check-in hotel. Orangtuaku ingin makan sesuatu yang bernuansa agak-agak ke-Asia-Tenggara-an gitu deh dan karena semua restoran Indonesia yang kami temukan sedang tutup, papaku memilih sebuah restoran Thailand. Servisnya, tapinya, memakan waktu lama sekali dan kami menghabiskan waktu lebih dari 60 menit (yang berharga) disana hanya untuk makan siang saja (tapi makanannya enak sih). Karena sudah agak terlambat (maksudku, toh aku nggak akan bisa bekerja dengan produktif andaikan aku kembali ke kantor), aku memutuskan untuk menemani orangtuaku berkeliling Delft aja deh kemudian.

Malamnya, kami makan siang di sebuah restoran yang bertemakan abad pertengahan di Delft. Tempat ini lumayan terkenal juga lho karena unik sekali: temanya itu abad pertengahan jadinya ya nggak ada listrik (jadinya di dalam restorannya gelap dan penerangannya hanyalah dari lilin), gedungnya memang gedung tua seperti kastil gitu dari abad pertengahan (bahkan ada ayam juga dong yang berkeliaran di restorannya) dan didekorasi dengan dekorasi abad pertengahan (seperti gantungan bawang putih, dsb), dan karena abad-pertengahan, ya artinya nggak ada peralatan makan apa pun deh – atau dengan kata lain: kita hanya bisa memakan dengan menggunakan tangan kita (yang agak merupakan sebuah masalah untukku). Benar-benar sebuah pengalaman yang unik! Rasa makanannya biasa saja sih sebenarnya (tapi porsinya gede banget dong!), dan yang menonjol memang pengalamannya kok.

Wisuda, Lagi

Agenda utama orangtuaku bepergian ke Eropa kali ini sebenarnya adalah untuk menghadiri upacara wisudaku. Yah, mungkin pada ingat bahwa sebenarnya aku sudah mengikuti upacara wisuda (individual)-ku sekitar 2,5 bulan lalu. Namun, semenjak beberapa bulan sebelumnya aku sudah memberi-tahu orangtuaku bahwa akan ada upacara wisuda di fakultasku pada tanggal 2 November. Jadilah mereka sudah membuat perencanaan berdasarkan informasi ini. Dan entah bagaimana, ketika mempersiapkan sidang tesisku, aku mengisi formulir yang mana artinya aku memilih untuk mengikuti upacara wisuda individual dan bukannya upacara wisuda kolektif ini.

Aku kemudian meng-email sekretaris dan HR-nya fakultasku yang mengurus upacara wisuda ini; dan mereka bilang bahwa walaupun aku sudah mengikuti upacara wisuda individualku, aku masih bisa diundang ke upacara wisuda kolektifnya sebagai tamu. Tentu saja aku tidak akan menerima ijazah (kan aku sudah menerima ijazahku di upacara wisuda individual-ku) tetapi pada dasarnya aku akan “diperlakukan” sama seperti wisudawan lainnya, seperti misalnya dipanggil oleh professor penanggung-jawabku, mendapatkan topi toga, dll. Ya, tentu saja aku menerima undangan ini dong ya.

Nah, acara upacara wisudanya diadakan siang tadi; dan pada dasarnya inilah tema hari ini. Aku menjemput orangtuaku di hotel mereka dan langsung pergi ke kampus untuk tur kampus (sedikit). Kami duduk-duduk di kantorku sampai waktunya tiba (jam 12:45) dan kemudian turun ke Ruang Kuliah B untuk mengikuti upacaranya. Beberapa temanku sudah berada disana, dan ternyata ada lebih banyak orang daripada bayanganku deh, hahaha .

Anyway, aku diberi tempat duduk nomor 1 dan jadilah aku yang dipanggil pertama oleh professorku. Perbedaan dengan upacara wisuda di Indonesia (setidaknya berdasarkan pengalamanku) adalah disini, setiap wisudawan yang dipanggil ke depan, sang professor mendeskripsikan materi thesis si wisudawan beserta pencapaian-pencapaiannya, dan juga menceritakan kesannya akan si wisudawan. Menurutku ya, ini sangatlah keren dan jadi terasa lebih personal (dari sudut pandang wisudawan) dan tentu menambah nilai dari lulus itu sendiri.

Sekitar jam 14:30, upacaranya berakhir (ada sekitar 30 wisudawan tadi). Sorenya, kami pergi ke IKEA dan makan malam disana. Jam 19:30, aku balik ke rumah deh.

#1127 – A Present from Me for Myself

ENGLISH

As I mentioned 1.5 months ago, I was giving myself a present in the form of a smartphone because I achieved a target of finding something to do after finishing my Master program, which turned out to be a PhD position. This has been a very lengthy thought and plan for me though, probably starting to form more vividly at around this time, which was eight months ago; and it may even be tracked down to this time, which was almost exactly one year ago, hahaha .

Okay, now I knew I was getting myself a new smartphone. The next question would be: which one? There were tons of smartphone products available. But then because I achieved a second target successfully which was to graduate with Cum Laude accolade, I decided to buy myself the more-advanced (and so, newer) one. After a little surveys I did last month, my choice and decision went to a Samsung Galaxy SIII, huahaha .

In the Netherlands, in my personal opinion (as of course it depends on one’s case and consideration to another), it is much wiser to buy a smartphone via an abonnement (subscription) with an operator company. Why? Well, here is a simple math: if I buy the phone without a subscription, I would pay, let’s say, €X (I am not writing the figure here, intentionally ). If I buy it with a subscription, well, it all depends on the package though, but the one I am taking is that I would have to pay in installment 12x in 1 year plus a down payment (some packages even don’t require down payment). And during this one year, I get free sms, phone call credits, and internet connection; and all of these are already included in that installments. And if I sum all the 12x installments plus the down payment (basically everything that I have to pay in one year with this subscription), I would pay LESS than €X!! It was a no brainer decision for me as I would pay less, in installment, and that’s already including services!! huahaha

So, one day after my graduation, I bought a subscription from one operator in the Netherlands whose offer was interesting. But then, to complete the application process, I had to send them a copy of my residence permit. The problem was, at that time, my new permit was still in process and even though I already knew the process was successful from the official letter from IND, I still did not have the permit with me. I sent them the copy of the letter but it seemed that they only took the copy of the actual residence permit card. Earlier this week, I got my residence permit card. And so I sent to them a copy of it.

Their service was really quick, in my opinion, by the way, as I finally got my new Samsung Galaxy SIII yesterday morning!!  So the phone was delivered to my apartment at 10 AM and I had to pay the down payment at that time as well.

Yeah, now I have a new gadget, a smartphone! After almost four years, finally my old Nokia phone starts to enter its retirement. So I am no longer an old-school anymore, huahaha .

A Flap Case

Anyway, I was thinking about buying a flap case to protect my Samsung SIII. The reason for it, beside obviously to protect my expensive-so-that-I-must-treat-it-with-tender-love phone, was that because I have just downloaded a Tennis Math app. Yes, an app about two things that are so me: tennis and math, huahaha . With this app, now I can use my phone to record the statistics of my performance (and my opponent’s as well) when I am playing a tennis game match, huahaha . Because it means that practically I have to bring my phone to the court, an extra protection is necessary, right?

But then, it turned out that finding a flap case for a Samsung SIII wasn’t as easy as I thought. I went to several (like six or seven) stores in Delft last night but I did not find any . There were a lot for Samsung SII and iPhones, but none for Samsung SIII. And so I decided to go to Den Haag this morning to look for one in stores in Den Haag. Yeah, the third time I went to Den Haag this week . And indeed I found one, yay!! Now I feel much safer, hahaha…

My new Samsung Galaxy SIII

My new smartphone with a flap case

BAHASA INDONESIA

Seperti yang kusebutkan 1,5 bulan yang lalu, aku memberikan diriku sendiri sebuah hadiah dalam bentuk smartphone karena aku mencapai target untuk mendapatkan sesuatu untuk dilakukan setelah program S2-ku selesai, yang mana ternyata adalah sebuah posisi PhD (S3). Ini adalah sebuah ide dan rencana yang sudah lama aku miliki loh, mungkin mulai terbentuk semakin jelas semenjak sekitar waktu ini, yang mana delapan bulan yang lalu; dan bahkan mungkin sudah malah semenjak waktu ini, yang mana hampir tepat satu tahun yang lalu, hahaha .

Oke, kini aku tahu aku akan membeli sebuah smartphone baru untuk diriku. Pertanyaan berikutnya adalah: yang mana? Kan ada banyak sekali produk smartphone yang tersedia di pasar. Nah, karena aku sukses mencapai target kedua yang mana adalah lulus dengan predikat Cum Laude, aku memutuskan untuk membeli model yang paling modern (dan artinya, relatif baru). Setelah melakukan sedikit survey bulan lalu, pilihanku jatuh kepada sebuah Samsung Galaxy SIII, huahaha .

Di Belanda, menurut pendapatku pribadi ya (karena tentu saja toh ini juga tergantung dari kondisi dan pertimbangan masing-masing orang), adalah lebih bijak untuk membeli sebuah smartphone melalui abonemen dengan sebuah perusahaan operator. Kenapa? Ya, gini deh hitung-hitungannya: misalkan kalau aku membeli smartphone-nya tanpa abonemen, aku harus membayar, katakanlah, €X (sengaja nggak nulis sebuah bilangan deh aku ). Kalau aku membeli abonemen, eh ini memang tergantung abonemennya juga sih, tapi yang akhirnya aku ambil ini adalah aku akan membayarnya dengan cara cicilan 12x selama satu tahun plus uang muka (ada beberapa paket yang malah uang mukanya 0 loh). Dan selama setahun ini, aku juga mendapatkan sms gratis, kredit untuk menelepon, dan juga koneksi internet yang mana semuanya sudah termasuk dalam biaya cicilan yang kubayar itu. Nah, kalau aku jumlahkan kesemua 12x cicilan itu plus uang mukanya (pokoknya total yang harus kubayar selama satu tahun dengan abonemen ini), total yang kubayar LEBIH SEDIKIT daripada €X loh!! Jadi ini adalah keputusan yang gampang lah ya buatku karena aku akan membayar lebih murah, udah gitu bisa dicicil pula, dan itu pun sudah termasuk biaya layanannya!! huahaha

Jadi, sehari setelah aku lulus itu, aku membeli sebuah abonemen deh dari sebuah operator di Belanda yang penawarannya menarik. Tapi kemudian, untuk melengkapi proses aplikasinya, aku harus mengirimkan satu kopi residence permit-ku. Nah, masalahnya adalah, waktu itu kan permit-ku yang baru masih sedang diproses dan meskipun aku tahu melalui surat resmi dari IND bahwa prosesnya lancar dan sukses, aku masih belum mendapatkan kartunya itu. Aku mengirimkan kopi suratnya itu tetapi sepertinya mereka hanya menerima kopi kartu residence permit yang beneran deh. Awal minggu ini, aku mendapatkan kartu residence permit-ku itu. Dan jadilah aku kemudian mengirimkan kopinya ke mereka.

Pelayanannya mereka cepet juga loh, menurutku sih, karena akhirnya kemarin pagi aku mendapatkan Samsung Galaxy SIII-ku yang baru!!  Jadi smartphone-nya diantarkan ke apartemenku jam 10 pagi gitu deh dan aku membayar uang mukanya saat itu juga.

Ya, akhirnya aku memiliki gadget baru nih, smartphone! Setelah hampir empat tahun, akhirnya hape Nokiaku yang lama mulai pensiun juga. Jadi nggak ketinggalan zaman lagi dong ya, huahaha .

Sebuah Flap Case

Anyway, aku berpikir untuk membeli sebuah flap case gitu untuk melindungi Samsung SIII-ku. Alasannya, selain jelas untuk melindungi smartphone-ku yang mahal jadi mesti disayang-sayang dong ya, adalah karena aku baru saja mengunduh sebuah app bernama Tennis Math. Ya, sebuah app yang menggabungkan dua hal yang aku banget: tenis dan matematika, wuakakaka . Dengan app ini, sekarang aku bisa menggunakan smartphone-ku untuk merekam statistik penampilanku (dan lawanku) ketika aku bermain pertandingan tenis, huahaha . Nah karena ini artinya si smartphone-nya harus dibawa ke lapangan, proteksi ekstra menjadi amat penting kan?

Tapi kemudian, ternyata mencari sebuah flap case untuk Samsung SIII itu nggak semudah perkiraanku loh. Aku pergi ke beberapa toko (sekitar enam atau tujuh kayaknya) di Delft gitu semalam tetapi nggak ketemu nih . Ada banyak sih tapi untuk Samsung SII dan iPhone, bukan untuk Samsung SIII. Dan jadilah aku memutuskan untuk pergi ke Den Haag pagi tadi. Ya, kali ketiga deh aku ke Den Haag minggu ini . dan akhirnya aku memang menemukan satu, yay!! Sekarang aku jadi merasa lebih aman deh, hahaha…

#1125 – Early Week Tale

ENGLISH

Even though still recovering from the stupid flu I caught last weekend, I was feeling much much better on Monday.

Residence Permit on Monday

I already mentioned a couple of weeks ago that my application for my new residence permit has been successful. However, I still have not gotten the permit card yet and I needed to wait for an invitation letter from IND to pick the card when it was ready. And last Friday, I finally got the invitation letter and I could pick the card at their office in Den Haag! Yay!

So, last Monday I went to Den Haag to pick the card. The office was, apparently, quite far away as it was pretty much in between Den Haag’s centrum and Scheveningen. So I had to take a train from Delft to Den Haag and then transfer to a tram. Btw, 9292.nl (By the way, this is one of the coolest websites ever existing though! Maybe I will write something about it in the future ) suggested that I should get off at Den Haag Holland Spoor (HS) Station and took the tram from there. However, it turned out that the tram I took also passed Den Haag Centraal! Damn, then I should have gotten off at Den Haag Centraal instead because the train ticket price between getting off at HS and Centraal was the same but the tram would have been cheaper by € 0.22 had I started my tram journey from Centraal (huahaha *stingy mode on * ).

Anyway, long story short, the process at the IND office was really quick and there was no problem at all. I got my new residence permit card in just like 10 minutes after I arrived at the building (I had to wait for 3 people in front of me). Yeah, super efficient! I like it!! And now I am relieved that I have finally gotten the new residence permit card .

IKEA Tale on Tuesday

After finishing my work at the office today, I decided to go to IKEA to buy some kitchenware stuffs, like my own knives, plank, strainer, and spatula (all this time I have been borrowing some of my roommates’, and ever since one of my roommates moved out last weekend, it got me thinking that I should buy my own too soon ).

Anyway, after getting all those stuffs at IKEA which took me like one hour (I was so picky, huahaha ), I was about to go home when I found out that it was raining!  FYI, I was biking to IKEA and I was not really in the mood of biking in the rain, while I was also still recovering from the stupid flu. Knowing the characteristics of typical Dutch weather, however, I knew that the rain wouldn’t last long (more than, say, 1 hour) anyway. But I also didn’t want to stand outside of IKEA waiting for the rain to stop and do nothing.

It was around 5.30 PM and I got an idea. Actually, 25 months ago, when I just arrived in the Netherlands, a friend of mine, Dian, told me that IKEA’s Swedish meatballs was really good. And ever since, I have been wanting to try it. However, somehow, from that moment on either it has been slipping out of my mind or I just wasn’t in the mood of going to IKEA to try it. And so I thought it was a good time to put an end to the 25 months of not-yet-giving-it-a-taste (lol ).

I was planning to buy the smallest portion, and I was thinking about a portion of 5 meatballs or something like that, you know, as a snack (as I was planning to cook dinner myself, as usual). But then, apparently the smallest portion was a portion of 10 meatballs for €3.95!  Okay, I had no other choice; beside, based on the picture, it was only a plate of 10 meatballs with sauce. So it was still okay. But then, apparently, in reality, it also came with french fries!! Well, I think this was one of few cases where the reality was much better than the advertisement on the board, huahaha . Okay, I had to accept the fact that it was no longer a snack, it officially became my dinner for today! huahaha .

Anyway, how was it? Well, it was indeed delicious!! The ones that stood out were the cream sauce and the lingonberry jam (I have never heard of lingonberry jam before, to be honest; apparently it is a Scandinavian jam), which tasted like cranberry jam. I was so surprised to find out that jam could work really well with meat!! I am so going to buy it again in the future, and it is not expensive anyway.

After finishing my dinner, the rain had stopped and the sun was now shining, huahaha . And I biked back home.

Damn it was raining

Delicious IKEA’s Swedish (fried) meatballs

The rain stopped after 30 minutes…

BAHASA INDONESIA

Walau badan ini masih belum pulih benar dari flu semenjak akhir pekan lalu, toh aku sudah merasa jauh lebih baik di hari Senin.

Residence Permit di hari Senin

Seperti yang telah kusebutkan dua mingguan yang lalu, aplikasiku untuk residence permit yang baru telah berhasil. Namun, aku masih belum mendapatkan kartunya dan aku masih harus menunggu undangan dari IND untuk mengambil kartunya kalau kartunya sudah jadi. Dan Jumat lalu, akhirnya aku mendapatkan undangannya dan aku sudah bisa mengambil kartunya di kantornya IND di Den Haag deh! Yay!

Jadilah Senin kemarin aku pergi ke Den Haag untuk mengambil kartunya. Kantornya, ternyata, agak jauh juga soalnya berlokasi kira-kira di antara centrum-nya Den Haag dan Scheveningen gitu. Jadi aku harus naik kereta dari Delft ke Den Haag kemudian transit naik tram. Btw, 9292.nl (Ngomong-ngomong, ini adalah salah satu website paling keren yang pernah ada nih! Kapan-kapan mungkin aku akan menulis tentang ini deh ) menyarankan aku untuk turun di Stasiun Kereta Api Den Haag Holland Spoor (HS) dan kemudian naik tram dari sana. Namun ternyata, tram yang aku naiki pun juga lewat Stasiun Kereta Api Den Haag Centraal dong! Sial, tahu gitu kan aku turunnya di Den Haag Centraal aja soalnya harga tiket kereta antara turun di HS atau Centraal kan sama, tetapi tramnya bakal lebih murah € 0,22 (sekitar Rp 2.724,- per 18 September 2012 jam 8.40 PM waktu Belanda menurut Yahoo Finance) andaikata aku mulai naiknya dari Centraal (huahaha *pelit mode on * ).

Anyway, singkat cerita, proses pengambilan kartunya di IND sangat cepat dan nggak ada masalah. Aku mendapatkan kartu residence permit-ku hanya dalam waktu 10 menit saja semenjak aku tiba di gedungnya (karena aku harus mengantri menunggu 3 orang di depanku). Ya, memang sangat efisien! Aku suka deh!!  Dan sekarang aku lebih tenang deh karena akhirnya aku sudah mendapatkan kartunya .

Kisah di IKEA di hari Selasa

Setelah menyelesaikan pekerjaanku di kantor hari ini, aku memutuskan untuk pergi ke IKEA untuk membeli beberapa peralatan dapur seperti pisau masak, telenan, saringan, dan spatula (apa sih bahasa Indonesianya? ‘Sotil‘ itu bahasa Indonesia bukan sih, atau bahasa Jawa? Hmmm). Jadi selama ini kan aku meminjam miliknya roommate-ku gitu; dan karena salah satu roommate-ku pindahan akhir pekan yang lalu, aku jadi merasa bahwa aku perlu segera membeli peralatan milikku sendiri deh .

Anyway, setelah membeli barang-barang tersebut di IKEA selama satu jam (iya, aku kan pilih-pilih ya, huahaha ), aku hendak pulang ketika aku melihat bahwa ternyata sedang hujan dong!  FYI, aku bersepeda ke IKEA-nya dan aku sedang nggak mood untuk bersepeda sambil berhujan-hujanan, ketika aku juga belum pulih benar dari flu. Namun, mengetahui karakteristik cuaca Belanda, aku tahu bahwa hujannya juga nggak akan lama deh (lebih dari, misalnya, 1 jam gitu). Tapi aku juga nggak mau dong berdiri di depan IKEA menunggu hujan berhenti dan nggak ngapa-ngapain.

Waktu itu sekitar jam 5.30 sore dan aku mendapatkan sebuah ide. Sebenarnya, 25 bulan yang lalu, ketika aku baru tiba di Belanda, salah seorang temanku, Dian, memberi-tahuku bahwa bakso (meatball maksudnya. Btw, mulai dari sini aku sebut meatball aja ya, karena kalau disebut bakso kurang pas gitu karena terkena asosiasi pengertian bakso di Indonesia ) ala Swedianya IKEA itu enak banget. Dan semenjak itu, aku jadi ingin banget mencoba meatball-nya deh. Cuma masalahnya, selama ini, entah kenapa, semenjak saat itu tuh antara kelupaan terus atau aku sedang nggak mood ke IKEA untuk mencobanya. Dan jadilah aku berpikir bahwa saat ini adalah saat yang baik untuk akhirnya mengakhiri masa nggak-nyoba-nyoba-selama-25-bulan (huahaha ).

Aku berencana untuk membeli seporsi yang terkecil, dan di dalam benakku ya seporsi yang isinya 5 meatball, maksudnya sebagai snack saja gitu (karena aku berencana untuk memasak sendiri makan malamku, seperti biasanya). Tapi ternyata seporsi yang terkecil adalah seporsi dengan 10 meatball seharga €3,95 dong!  Oke lah, nggak ada pilihan lain; toh di samping itu, berdasarkan gambarnya kan cuma sepiring berisikan 10 meatball dengan saus. Jadi masih nggak papa lah ya. Tapi kemudian, ternyata, pada kenyataannya, satu porsi itu juga termasuk french fries dong!! Yah, aku rasa ini adalah satu dari sedikit kasus dimana kenyataannya lebih baik daripada yang diiklankan ya, huahaha . Oke deh, aku kemudian pasrah bahwa ini bukan lagi snack, tapi secara resmi sudah menjadi makan malamku hari ini deh! huahaha .

Anyway, bagaimanakah rasanya? Hmm, rasanya memang beneran enak lho!! Yang membuatnya spesial menurutku adalah saus krim dan selai lingonberry-nya (aku belum pernah mendengar nama selai lingonberry sebelumnya loh; ternyata ini adalah semacam selai ala Skandinavia gitu), yang rasanya agak mirip selai cranberry. Aku merasa kaget bahwa ternyata daging bisa cocok juga dimakan dengan selai!! Beneran kapan-kapan aku akan beli lagi deh, kan harganya juga nggak mahal juga.

Setelah selesai makan malam, hujannya sudah berhenti dan matahari bersinar kembali, huahaha . Jadilah aku bersepeda pulang.