ENGLISH
Day 0 (Sunday, 17 June 2012)
My flight to Bergen was scheduled to take off at 9.10 PM. Therefore, I planned to arrive at Schiphol at around 7 PM. After checking all the train schedule, it turned out that on a Sunday there were much less train services from Delft to Schiphol 
. I had to either make a transit in Amsterdam Sloterdijk (which meant I had to go north (to Amsterdam) then back south (to Schiphol)) or took the direct Fyra service from Rotterdam Centraal but paid some extra fee (about 40%). I was too stingy at that time and chose the former option, huahaha 
. Unfortunately I missed the connecting train in Sloterdijk and so I had to take the next train, which luckily wasn’t long after that but I had to walk to the other platform which was like 300 meter away (seriously!).
Fast forward, we boarded our plane, a KLM’s Boeing 737-7K2 reg code PH-BGD, on time and at around 9.20 PM we took off from runway 24 of Schiphol Airport. During the flight, I was sitting next to an old Japanese couple. The man was very nice and he did speak English, though not fluently but was at understandable level. His wife didn’t eat her snack and so he gave it to me, and so I was like: “Sure, thanks! 
” . Anyway, you (may) know that four years ago I took a Japanese course in my fifth semester of my undergraduate study. I ended up getting an A from the course with a perfect grade (100) for the final exam 
, which was supposed to mean I was pretty good at it. And so during this encounter I tried to remember all the lessons and stuffs I learned to say something relevant for that moment. And you know what? The only word I could say was “Arigatou“! 
Gyaaa, where did all the materials I learned four years ago go?? huahaha . I guess this is the tricky part of learning a language though: if you don’t practice or use it often, it will fade as time goes by…
Btw, this was our flight’s route from Amsterdam to Bergen as showed on the screen during the flight:
Flight route from Amsterdam (AMS) to Bergen (BGO)
Anyway, we landed at runway 35 of Bergen International Airport at around 10.40 PM. My friend, Dan, was stopped at the security check because the security dog smelled something from his bag. After awhile, he was released and we took our cab (it was already ordered for us) to our hotel. The hotel, where the workshop would be held, was not in the city of Bergen though; it was in the village of Osøyro, some 40 minutes south of Bergen. We had to take this route from Bergen Airport to get to the hotel:
Taxi ride from Bergen Airport to Osøyro
According to Google Map, it was a 28.9 km ride.
As I said about ten days ago, we arrived at the hotel at around midnight and it was still so bright!! hahaha . Anyway, after checking in and putting all our stuffs in our rooms, my professor invited all of us to have a (read: some) drink at the hotel’s garden. And so we did. After about 45 minutes, we went back to our rooms and went to bed…
Day 1 – 3 (Monday – Wednesday, 18 – 20 June 2012)
I will compress the story of these three days as my activities were revolving around the workshop 
The three days of the workshop started at around 9 AM in the morning. It was a full-day workshop so we had presentations right away from the beginning. The workshop was held in the meeting room of the hotel with view (through the big windows) toward the really beautiful fjord. During the presentations, of course they put the window blinds on; as otherwise noone would concentrate on the speech, . My poster presentation was scheduled to be on Day 1, much to my delight as it meant I was done just after Day 1 and so I was off any pressure . My presentation went really well and I could handle all questions that were being asked. Yeah, I think I prepared myself quite well and enough .
On Day 2, the workshop only took half a day as the official thought it would be best for the participants to enjoy themselves with other activities around the hotel like spa, swimming, rowing, or even hiking. There was an organized hiking trip with two routes: one short route (about 2 hour) and one long route (about 6 hour, huahaha ). But of course I decided to take none of them and I chose to go swimming at the hotel’s swimming pool. I borrowed swimming pants from the reception (because I didn’t bring any) and went swimming, finally, after some years (I think the last time I swam was about two years ago when I was in Bali). The hotel had three swimming pools: an indoor one, an outdoor one with warm water (this one was awesome btw, an outdoor swimming pool with view toward the fjord), and a ‘treatment’ pool (basically like a jacuzzi but with several kinds of massaging jets). The treatment pool was my favorite as after using it, it felt as if I had just got a full body massage. So relaxing!!
Meals during these three days were also really nice. The breakfast was a typical hotel breakfast (so it was much more substantial than just bread or croissant with cereal as a lot of hostels serve (of course )), the lunch was a buffet lunch, and the dinner was three course meal. Let’s talk about the dinner. On day 1 (Monday), the entrée was a shrimp risotto, the main course was tenderloin pork, and the dessert was crème brûlée. And here is the awesome one: on day 2 (Tuesday), the entrée was LOBSTER with butter sauce, the main course was lamb with cauliflower purée, and the dessert was pie and cinnamon ice cream. 
It was so AMAZING!! Wow, LOBSTER!!
Anyway, the mealtime was, in my opinion, business-like mealtime where a group of people sat together in a round table and chatted (mostly related to work, or the topic of the presentations). This meant that how I ate was also quite important, hahaha .
The workshop ended at around 4 PM on Day 3 (Wednesday). We all checked out from the hotel. Some people went directly to the airport to go back to their places, some went to Bergen to stay for a night. As for us, we went to Bergen. Anyway, there was an emergency situation where Dan, somehow, lost his passport. We suspected it got lost during the security check at Bergen Airport just after we landed (as I mentioned above); but the officer said it was not there. So, in Bergen, we went to the police station first to make a report about this. But later on that evening, Dan got a call from the police that they had located his passport, which turned out to be (indeed) in the airport. But nevertheless, it was so relieving
We had dinner at Bryggen in Bergen that evening. There were, apparently, three local dishes in Norway: whale, reindeer, and bacalhau (cod). I already had a lot of bacalhaus while I was travelling to Portugal so I wasn’t that intrigued. However, I was really intrigued with both the whale and the reindeer. And so Dan and I decided to each order one of them and share the meals, hahaha . The whale steak tasted like beef btw, but with a little bit of sea-water saltiness in it. The reindeer steak was also very good
That night, I went to my hostel in Bergen. It was a hostel with a room shared for 40 people. So, yeah, after staying in a spa resort hotel, I went waaay down to a shared by 40 people hostel room, hahaha . It was only me by the way who stayed because the other decided to go back to Amsterdam the very next morning.
Next on 2012 Norway Trip:
- The amazing Norwegian nature
- The fjords!
- The city of Bergen and its surrounding
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- KLM’s Boeing 737-7K2 reg code PH-BGD was ready to fly to Bergen from Amsterdam as KL 1193
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- My hotel room
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- The view from my hotel room
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- As requested, this was my poster… :)
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- Meeting room in the hotel where the workshop took place
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- Crème brûlée as dessert on Day 1
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- The hotel I stayed at
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- Signages
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- One view of the fjord
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- Two Norwegian rowing boats owned by the hotel
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- A fireplace
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- This was the view from the meeting room…
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- The entrée for the three course dinner on Day 2: Lobster with butter sauce
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- Main course for the three course dinner on Day 2: lamb with cauliflower purée
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- One view of the fjord and the hotel
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- The scenery of the fjord at 10.30 PM
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- A whale steak
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- Raindeer fillet
BAHASA INDONESIA
Hari 0 (Minggu, 17 Juni 2012)
Penerbanganku ke Bergen dijadwalkan lepas landas jam 9.10 malam. Oleh karenanya, aku berencana untuk tiba di Schiphol sekitar jam 7 malam. Setelah melihat jadwal kereta, ternyata di hari Minggu itu pilihan layanan kereta ke Schiphol dari Delft lebih sedikit . Aku harus memilih antara transit di Amsterdam Sloterdijk (yang artinya aku harus pergi ke utara (Amsterdam) trus kembali ke selatan (ke Schiphol)) atau naik layanan Fyra dari Rotterdam Centraal langsung ke Schiphol tetapi aku harus membayar biaya tambahan (sekitar 40%). Karena aku lagi pelit waktu itu, jadilah aku memutuskan memilih yang pertama, huahaha . Sayangnya, aku ketinggalan kereta lanjutan dari Sloterdijk sehingga aku harus menaiki kereta selanjutnya, yang untungnya berangkat nggak terlalu lama setelahnya; hanya saja, aku jadi harus berjalan ke peron lain yang jaraknya itu 300an meter dong (beneran!).
Singkat cerita, kami menaiki pesawat kami, Boeing 737-7K2 milik KLM dengan kode registrasi PH-BGD, tepat waktu dan sekitar jam 9.20 malam kami lepas landas dari landasan pacu 24 Bandara Schiphol. Di penerbangan ini, aku duduk di sebelahnya sepasang suami istri tua dari Jepang. Sang suami baik banget loh dan dia bisa ngomong bahasa Inggris, walaupun nggak lancar sih tapi masih dalam level bisa dimengerti kok. Istrinya nggak memakan snack-nya dan snack-nya dikasih ke aku dong, dan tentu saja aku terima dengan senang hati, . Anyway, mungkin sudah pada tahu bahwa empat tahun yang lalu aku mengambil kelas bahasa Jepang di semester lima masa kuliah S1-ku. Di kelas itu, aku mendapatkan nilai A dengan nilai sempurna (100) loh di Ujian Akhir Semesternya, , yang artinya aku cukup lumayan juga kan ya. Dan jadilah di kesempatan kali ini aku mencoba mengingat-ngingat pelajaran waktu itu dan apa saja yang sudah aku pelajari yang relevan untuk aku praktekkan saat itu. Dan bagaimana hasilnya? Aku cuma bisa ngomong satu kata aja dong; yaitu ”Arigatou“! Gyaaa, kemanakah semua materi yang kupelajari empat tahun yang lalu itu?? huahaha . Kayaknya memang begini ya kalau belajar bahasa itu: kalau nggak sering-sering dilatih atau digunakan, lama-kelamaan akan hilang deh…
Btw, berikut ini adalah rute penerbanganku dari Amsterdam ke Bergen seperti yang ditunjukkan di layar TV-nya pesawat sepanjang penerbangan itu:
Rute penerbangan dari Amsterdam (AMS) menuju Bergen (BGO)
Anyway, kami mendarat di landasan pacu 35 Bandara Internasional Bergen sekitar jam 10.40 malam. Temanku, Dan, distop di pemeriksaan sekuriti karena anjing sekuritinya mencium sesuatu dari tasnya. Setelah beberapa waktu, akhirnya selesai juga pemeriksaan sekuritinya dan kami naik taksi (yang sudah dipesan buat kami sebelumnya) menuju ke hotel kami. Hotelnya, sekaligus tempat workshop-nya akan diadakan, tidak berada di kota Bergennya tetapi berada di desa Osøyro, sekitar 40an menit deh di selatannya Bergen. Rute kami waktu itu dari Bandara Bergen ke hotel adalah seperti ini:
Rute taksi dari Bandara Bergen menuju Osøyro
Menurut Google Map, jaraknya 28,9 km.
Seperti yang aku bilang sekitar sepuluh hari yang lalu, kami tiba di hotel sekitar tengah malam dan waktu itu suasana masih terang sekali!! hahaha . Setelah check in dan menaruh barang-barang di kamar-kamar kami, profesorku mengajak kami untuk duduk-duduk sambil minum sedikit gitu di taman hotelnya. Jadilah aku ikutan. Setelah sekitar 45an menit, kami kembali ke kamar masing-masing dan tidur…
Hari 1 – 3 (Senin – Rabu, 18 – 20 Juni 2012)
Aku akan memampatkan cerita di tiga hari ini karena toh aktivitasku juga berkisar di sekitaran workshop-nya
Di ketiga hari ini, workshop-nya dimulai sekitar jam 9 pagi. Workshop-nya berlangsung seharian penuh jadi sudah ada presentasi gitu deh semenjak awal. Workshop-nya diadakan di ruang rapat hotelnya dengan pemandangan (yang diliat melalui jendela besar) fjord yang amat indah. Selama presentasi, tentu saja jendelanya ditutup; karena kalau enggak, nggak ada yang akan memperhatikan presentasinya kan, . Presentasi posterku sendiri dijadwalkan di hari pertama (Senin), yang mana jadwal ini aku sukai karena artinya aku sudah ‘beres’ setelah hari pertama dan semua tekanan sudah lepas . Presentasiku berjalan dengan lancar dan aku dapat meng-handle semua pertanyaan yang masuk dengan baik. Ya, rasanya memang aku mempersiapkan diri dengan baik dan cukup .
Di hari kedua, workshop-nya hanya berlangsung selama setengah hari karena panitianya merasa sebaiknya para peserta bersantai-santai sejenak dengan aktivitas lain seperti spa, berenang, berdayung, atau hiking. Untuk hiking, ada program yang telah diatur panitia dengan dua rute: rute pendek (sekitar 2 jam) dan rute panjang (sekitar 6 jam, huahaha ). Dan tentu saja aku memutuskan untuk tidak ikut hiking-nya dan memilih untuk berenang aja di kolam renangnya hotel. Aku meminjam celana renang dari resepsionis (karena aku nggak membawa celana renang) dan akhirnya berenang deh setelah sekian lama (rasanya terakhir kali aku berenang adalah ketika aku berada di Bali deh). Hotelnya memiliki tiga kolam renang: kolam renang indoor, kolam renang outdoor dengan air hangat (ini keren banget loh, kolam renang outdoor dan pemandangannya ke fjord-nya gitu deh), dan kolam renang ‘treatment’ (pada dasarnya semacam jacuzzi dengan beberapa macam massaging jets). Kolam treatment adalah favoritku karena setelah memakainya, rasanya seperti habis dipijat seluruh badan loh. Sangat relaxing!!
Acara makan selama tiga hari itu juga asyik banget. Sarapan ya tipikal sarapan ala hotel gitu (jadi jauh lebih bervariasi daripada sekedar roti dengan croissant plus sereal seperti yang disajikan kebanyakan hostel (tentu saja )), makan siang adalah makan siang buffet, dan makan malam adalah makan malam three course. Mari kita membicarakan makan malamnya. Di hari pertama (Senin), masakan pembukanya adalah risotto udang, menu utamanya adalah babi tenderloin, dan menu penutupnya adalah crème brûlée. Dan ini yang keren banget: di hari kedua (Selasa), menu pembukanya adalah LOBSTER dengan saus mentega, menu utamanya adalah daging domba dengan purée kol, dan menu penutupnya adalah pie dengan es krim kayu manis. ASYIK banget kan!! LOBSTER gitu!!
Anyway, acara makannya sendiri, menurutku, ya jadi seperti acara makan bisnis gitu deh dimana beberapa orang duduk mengelilingi sebuah meja bundar dan berbincang-bincang (umumnya berkaitan dengan kerjaan, atau topik dari presentasi-presentasinya). Ini artinya bagaimana aku makan juga penting kan, hahaha . Harus jaga image gitu dengan makan secara elegan, huahaha .
Workshop berakhir jam 4 sore di hari 3 (Rabu). Kami check out dari hotel. Beberapa peserta langsung pergi menuju bandara untuk pulang, dan sebagian lagi menginap di Bergen malamnya. Kalau kami sih, kami menginap di Bergen deh malamnya. Anyway, ada situasi darurat dimana Dan, entah bagaimana, kehilangan paspornya. Kami curiga paspornya hilang ketika pemeriksaan sekuriti di Bandara Bergen (yang kusebutkan sebelumnya) itu; tapi petugasnya bilang nggak ada disana. Jadi, begitu tiba di Bergen, kami pergi ke kantor polisi untuk membuat laporan mengenaiknya. Eh malamnya, Dan ditelepon polisi bahwa paspornya sudah mereka temukan dan ternyata (memang) berada di bandara. Lega deh, hehehe
Kami makan malam di Bryggen di Bergen malam ini. Ternyata, ada tiga menu lokal deh di Norwegia: ikan paus, daging rusa kutub, dan bacalhau (ikan cod). Aku sudah makan banyak bacalhau ketika aku pergi ke Portugal jadi ya aku nggak terlalu penasaran akannya. Namun, aku agak penasaran dengan daging ikan paus dan daging rusa kutubnya. Dan jadilah aku aku dan Dan masing-masing memesan satu dan kemudian masakannya dibagi gitu deh, hahaha . Steak ikan pausnya ternyata rasanya mirip seperti daging sapi gitu deh, dengan sedikit rasa asin air laut yang terasa dari serat dagingnya. Daging rusa kutubnya juga enak
Malam itu, aku pergi ke hostelku di Bergen. Ini adalah hostel dengan satu kamar saja yang di kamarnya terdapat 40 kasur untuk 40 orang gitu deh. Jadi, ya, setelah menginap di sebuah spa resort hotel, aku terjun bebas ke hostel dengan kamar sharing untuk 40 orang, hahaha . Btw, hanya aku saja yang tinggal karena yang lainnya memutuskan untuk kembali ke Amsterdam keesokan paginya.
Selanjutnya dalam 2012 Norway Trip:
- Alam Norwegia yang menakjubkan
- Fjords!
- Kota Bergen dan sekitarnya
I was able to sleep eventually, but of course I reported this condition to the caretaker the day after. I think it was because it needed new battery.
. First of all, who didn’t love free trip? Second of all, and the most important one, I think it would be a very good experience for me and also for my CV, hehehe.
