#1196 – Finalizing Paris and KLM

ENGLISH

Finalizing Paris

You know, there is pretty good chance that I am going back to Paris for a trip this summer because I have bought tickets to this year’s Roland Garros. And one thing I learnt from last year’s experience of preparing for the same trip is that it is better to arrange things regarding the trip in advance, way way in advance. Last year, except the Roland Garros tickets, I was arranging everything around one month before the trip. And in my opinion, it was too late; and I had to pay the price for “procrastination” there, lol .

Last year, because I was too “late”, the train ticket price was already soaring high (more than €110 return). As a result, I ended up taking bus to go to/from Paris. The tickets were really cheap though, even the non-promo tickets were still cheaper than promo tickets for train. But of course it came with a price, which was less convenience and comfort.

Therefore, this year, I decided to book the train tickets since the earliest days they go on sale. For Thalys, they start selling tickets about four months prior to departure. And four months prior to my trip to Paris was last weekend. So, I already looked for the return train tickets earlier this week. I successfully got the cheapest promo return tickets for the date and time-schedule I wanted. Yesss!!

I also decided to book the hostel as well. It turned out there would be no significant difference if I booked now or later. But because I was already finalizing my train tickets so I thought it would be more convenient for me if I just booked the hostel as well so I wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.

KLM’s Decision

Speaking of travelling, a few weeks ago I got a newsletter from KLM stating that they will start charging their passengers with baggage fee if the passengers want to check-in luggage on European flights. There are a few exceptions though, one of them is for all tiers of the Flying Blue members (KLM’s frequent flyer programme) which for whom it will still be free of charge.

Well, I am a Flying Blue member, so this new policy will not affect me. However, I still find this news quite strange. I mean, for me, one reason I choose to fly with a full-service airline would be the convenience, and that includes the inclusive luggage allowance. Wouldn’t scrapping this feature off make your airline any less different than flying with a low cost airline? Yeah, I know this might have something to do with the crisis so airlines should also try to find a way to generate more income. But really? By scrapping this feature off? Hmmm…

BAHASA INDONESIA

Memfinalisasi Paris

Pada tahu kan, kemungkinan besar aku akan kembali ke Paris untuk sebuah acara jalan-jalan musim panas ini karena aku sudah membeli tiket Roland Garros tahun ini. Dan satu hal yang aku pelajari dari pengalaman tahun lalu dimana aku mempersiapkan diri untuk perjalanan yang sama adalah sebaiknya aku mulai mempersiapkan perjalanan ini di depan, jauh jauh di depan. Tahun lalu, kecuali tiket Roland Garros, aku baru mulai mempersiapkan semuanya sekitar satu bulan sebelum perjalanan. Dan menurut pendapatku sih, ini terlambat ya; dan aku harus membayar harga atas “penunda-nundaan” itu, lol .

Tahun lalu, karena terlalu “terlambat”, harga tiket keretanya sudah terlanjur mahal (lebih dari €110 pp). Nah, jadilah aku akhirnya memutuskan untuk naik bus untuk pergi ke/dari Parisnya. Harga tiketnya memang murah sih, malah harga tiketnya yang nggak promo masih lebih murah daripada tiket kereta yang promo. Tapi tentu saja ada harga ada rupa ya, dalam hal ini, kenyamanannya ya agak kurang gitu.

Oleh karenanya, tahun ini, aku memutuskan untuk memesan tiket kereta semenjak hari-hari pertama tiket kereta mulai dijual. Untuk Thalys, tiket mulai dijual sekitar empat bulan sebelum keberangkatan. Nah, empat bulan sebelum perjalananku ke Paris itu akhir pekan yang lalu. Nah, jadilah aku mulai mencari tiket pp awal minggu ini. Dan aku dengan sukses mendapatkan tiket pp promo paling murah dengan tanggal dan jam keberangkatan yang aku inginkan. Yesss!!

Aku juga memutuskan untuk sekalian memesan hostel deh. Ternyata nggak ada perbedaan yang signifikan sih antara memesan sekarang atau nanti. Tapi karena aku sudah memesan tiket kereta, ya aku pikir sekalian aja hostelnya aku pesan jadinya aku sudah nggak harus memikirkan persiapan perjalanan ini nanti-nantinya.

Keputusannya KLM

Ngomongin tentang jalan-jalan, beberapa minggu yang lalu aku mendapat newsletter dari KLM yang mana intinya adalah mereka akan mulai mengenakan biaya tambahan bagasi jika penumpang mereka di penerbangan dalam Eropa ingin memasukkan bagasi. Ada beberapa pengecualian sih, salah satunya bagi semua anggota Flying Blue (program frequent flyer-nya KLM) di semua level; dimana bagi mereka, bagasi masih tetap gratis.

Yah, aku sudah menjadi anggota Flying Blue sehingga aturan baru ini nggak akan berefek bagiku. Hanya saja, menurutku berita ini agak aneh deh. Maksudku, untukku ya, satu alasan aku memilih untuk terbang dengan maskapai full-service adalah kenyamanannya, yang mana dalam hal ini termasuk layanan bagasi yang termasuk harga tiket. Nah, kalau layanan ini dihapus begitu aja, terus semakin nggak ada bedanya dong dengan terbang bersama maskapai low cost? Ya, aku tahu sih, mungkin ini ada hubungannya dengan krisis jadi maskapai penerbangan juga harus mencari cara untuk mendapatkan pendapatan ekstra. Tapi beneran nih? Harus dengan menghapus layanan ini? Hmmm…

#1185 – Back to Roland Garros

ENGLISH

So, yesterday, tickets for the second grandslam tournament of the year, the 2013 Roland Garros (or the French Open), were sold to general public. And yesterday, somehow, I decided to buy the weekend pass for the tournament. And here is the story of how I ended up buying the ticket .

***

Actually, at first I was kinda hesitated to go to the French Open this year for some reasons. One of them would be that most of my most favorite players are not known to fare as well on clay; so I was thinking about only going to Wimbledon this year. But of course the option was still open for me as the tickets were still not sold for general public yet.

Two days ago, I read on Facebook that the ticket sales for general public would be opened in the morning the day after. It was kinda annoying because they did not specify the exact time. I mean, 5:00 is morning, 7:00 is morning, 9:00 is morning, 11:30 is morning!! Of people were complaining about it but there was no response. But you know, I have had the experience last year. Last year, they started the sales at 7:00. So, based on this knowledge, I also assumed it would be somewhere around this time as well; but plus minus, say, one hour. So I planned to be ready by 6:00, huahaha .

Unlike last year, I don’t think I will have the flexibility this year regarding the time. So, I am going if and only if I get the weekend pass (that I did not get last year because I was too late; and so I went during the weekdays of the first week). So that was what I set for myself. Despite all the reasons, I said I would go if I got the weekend pass.

So, yesterday, I set my alarm at 6:00 but then I got up at 5:00, muahaha . Apparently I was excited, I think. A few minutes after 7:00, they opened the sales. But apparently they opened the French version of the site first before the English version. So I was kinda late in the sense that some other people had already got into the website earlier (through the French link) and I had to wait for one hour . Damn, I should have opened the French version instead. Should have thought about this!

But about forty minutes later, I got my turn. Luckily, they still had the weekend pass for Court Philippe Chatrier!!  Well, only category 2 and 3 seats that were still available at that time though, but because category 1 seat would cost €60 more expensive than category 2, so I was not really complaining! Huahaha . So I finalized my order and bought the ticket!

Yay, so off the Paris (again) I go! It will be on the weekend so it will be during the fourth round of the tournament. It is going to be exciting!

p.s: but then, I just realized that I would have an important monthly meeting on Friday afternoon. So I guess I would have to take one of the last trains to Paris that day, hahaha .

BAHASA INDONESIA

Jadi, kemarin, tiket untuk turnamen grandslam kedua tahun ini, Roland Garros 2013 (alias French Open), dijual untuk umum. Dan kemarin ini, pada akhirnya aku memutuskan untuk membeli pas akhir pekan untuk turnamen ini. Dan inilah cerita bagaimana aku sampai pada keputusan untuk membeli tiket tersebut .

***

Sebenarnya, awalnya aku agak ragu untuk pergi ke French Open tahun ini karena beberapa alasan. Salah satunya adalah karena kebanyakan pemain favoritku kan bukanlah pemain yang mendominasi di tanah liat; jadi aku berpikir untuk hanya pergi ke Wimbledon aja tahun ini. Tapi tentu saja pilihan ini masih terbuka karena waktu itu kan tiketnya masih belum dijual untuk umum.

Dua hari yang lalu, aku baca di Facebook bahwa penjualan tiket untuk umum akan dibuka di pagi hari besoknya. Agak nyebelin kan soalnya waktu tepatnya tidak disebutkan. Maksudku, jam 5 kan juga pagi, jam 7 juga pagi, jam 9 pagi juga, jam 11:30 pun juga masih pagi (dalam bahasa Inggris)!! Tentu saja orang-orang pada komplain dong tapi nggak ada jawaban.Tapi tahu lah, aku ada pengalaman dari tahun lalu. Tahun lalu, penjualan tiket dibuka mulai jam 7 pagi. Nah, berdasarkan pengalaman ini, aku asumsikan juga tahun ini mirip-mirip lah ya; dengan plus minus satu jam. Jadilah aku berencana untuk harus sudah siap jam 6 pagi, huahaha .

Hanya saja, tidak seperti tahun lalu, aku rasa aku tidak memiliki fleksibilitas tahun ini dalam hal waktu. Jadi, aku hanya akan pergi jika dan hanya jika aku mendapatkan pas akhir pekan (tahun lalu aku nggak mendapatkannya karena terlambat; dan jadilah aku pergi di hari biasa di minggu pertama). Dan inilah keputusanku waktu itu. Walaupun dengan semua alasan tersebut, aku akan tetap pergi kalau aku mendapatkan pas akhir pekan.

Nah, jadilah kemarin aku memasang alarm jam 6 pagi tapi aku malah sudah bangun dari jam 5, muahaha . Ternyata aku cukup bersemangat juga ya sepertinya. Beberapa menit lewat jam 7, penjualannya mulai dibuka. Tapi ternyata mereka membuka yang laman berversi bahasa Prancis dulu sebelum yang bahasa Inggris. Jadilah aku agak terlambat dalam artian banyak orang yang sudah masuk ke website-nya dulu (melalui yang bahasa Prancis) dan aku jadi harus menunggu satu jam . Sial, seharusnya aku membuka yang versi bahasa Prancis ya. Kok bisa-bisanya nggak kepikiran sih!

Tapi sekitar empat puluh menit kemudian, aku mendapatkan giliranku. Untungnya, pas akhir pekan untuk Lapangan Philippe Chatrier masih ada!!  Ya, yang tersisa hanya kursi di kategori 2 dan 3 aja sih waktu itu, tapi karena tiket untuk kursi kategori 1 berharga €60 lebih mahal daripada yang kategori 2, ya aku nggak komplain deh! Huahaha . Jadilah aku merampungkan pemesananku dan membeli tiketnya!

Yak, akan kembalilah aku ke Paris (lagi)! Perjalanan ini akan diadakan di akhir pekan jadi pas turnamennya berada di babak keempat gitu. Bakalan seru nih!

p.s: tapi kemudian, aku baru ingat bahwa aku harus menghadiri meeting penting di hari Jumat sore. Ah, sepertinya aku bakal harus naik salah satu kereta termalam nih buat ke Parisnya hari Jumat itu, hahaha .

#1182 – 2012 Year-End Trip (Part VI)

ENGLISH

Previously on 2012 Year-End Trip: Zilko and his brother went on a 12-day trip to four countries in Europe. Now they were already in the last city stop before Zilko had to go back to the Netherlands: Barcelona.

***

Day 11 (Saturday, 5 January 2013)

I decided to try a Spanish breakfast today. And so I had a Spanish omelette. It was very nice btw, and it was not like any other omelette I had ever tried. Very unique!!

Anyway, our first destination of the day was the landmark of Barcelona: Sagrada Familia. We took Metro to get there. Along the way, my brother realized that he just had lost his three-day public transport pass (so the day before we decided to buy three-day pass as we would stay in Barcelona for around three days). And so he had to buy another one, but obviously a two-day pass this time.

We arrived at Sagrada Familia and then joined the queue to get inside the church. The queue didn’t take that long; I think it was around 30 minutes or so until we finally got into the church area.

Sagrada Familia was, indeed, very majestic. It was really beautiful! Well, it still could not compete with the grandeur-ness and luxury of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, obviously. But putting St. Peter’s Basilica aside, Sagrada Familia was, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been to. The design was so unique. Well, the designer of the church was the same guy as the one who designed Parc Güell; so that explained the resemblance of the two, design-wise.

After spending about one hour in Sagrada Familia, we left the church and headed to Camp Nou. My brother already bought a ticket to watch a Barca game (Barca vs Espana) the next day; and he needed to exchange the proof of purchase with the ticket. As for me, well, I found the €130 ticket price a bit too steep for myself who was not a fans of football (I don’t remember exactly the price, but it was somewhere around this number I believe), lol . So I did not buy one. The money would be better spent on a grandslam tournament for me, lol . Anyway, long story short, we arrived in Camp Nou, my brother got his ticket, and then we took a rest in Starbucks, hahaha .

Our next destination was the area of Montjuïc, a hill in Barcelona. I was particulary excited to go to this area because I still remembered vividly six years prior watching one episode of The Amazing Race season 10 which leg took place in Barcelona and the pitstop was in the Palau Nacional de Montjuïc. It was the elimination leg of the top four (so the penultimate leg of the season); and Lyn & Karlyn made a history that day to become the first all-female team to make it to the last three. Dustin & Kandice got eliminated here.

I still remember that I found Palau Nacional de Montjuïc so beautiful when watching the episode; and hoped that one day I would get the chance to be there. And there I was, a little bit over six years later, I was there! Yeah, it was kinda surreal…

Anyway, after going around Montjuïc, we decided to go back downtown (literally) with a funicular which was free because we had the public transportation pass. We got back to the city center and walked to the old town of Barcelona which was so Gothic. We could not enter the cathedral because it was already closed btw. We took some random buses as all in our itinerary for the day had been done; and to rest our legs after all the walking we did today.

After awhile, we got back in Plaza de Catalunya at around 19:00. We walked along the Passeig de Garcia to go to Casa Mila to take a picture of Casa Mila, hahaha . Btw, it was so crowded this evening. Apparently it was the last day of the King’s festival or something like that (we asked but noone seemed to be able to explain it clearly) so people celebrated it. We had dinner at a nice restaurant which waitress was so hot near Plaza de Catalunya before going back to our hotel.

Day 12 (Sunday, 6 January 2013)

It was a little bit difficult to find a place for breakfast this morning, somehow, I don’t know why. But finally we found one nice cafetaria near Plaza de Catalunya where we could have breakfast.

I proposed to go to Tibidabo today. To get there, we had to take a bus to the departure place of the tram to get to the departure place of the funicular which would bring us to the top of Tibidabo. So we got to the tram departure place. However, two officers told us that the tram did not operate that day (apparently it had something to do with the King’s festival or something like that); but there was a public bus which could also take us to the departure place of the funicular. However, today, the funicular also did not operate so to get to Tibidabo we had to literally walk .

Well, of course we did not want to walk; and there was no other option than skipping Tibidabo. Our plan was to go back to Barceloneta. So we took a bus which should take us there. However, we took the wrong bus and went to the opposite direction instead, lol . We rode the bus until its end destination and waited until the bus returned to the opposite direction, which would be the right direction for us, lol . Ironically, our destination, Barceloneta, would be the other end of the bus line. So we literally went along the complete route of the bus! Hahaha But it was okay though, as we could use it to kill time anyway.

We arrived at Barceloneta and walked around the beach again. It was sunny but the temperature was so nice (18ºC) today so it was not too blazing hot. But still, overall, kinda weird for a winter day, no? Hahaha . After walking around the area, we decided to have lunch at a Doner. The doner was really delicious btw. Then, we went back to our hotel.

I chose to take a rest while my brother went to Camp Nou to watch his football match. But about thirty minutes after he left, he texted me that he forgot to bring his camera!! Hahaha . So he went all the way back to the hotel to take the camera. As for me, I decided to go somewhere randomly in the evening. I took the tram to the Diagonal street and went to a shopping mall which atmosphere was kinda dead because there were just very few visitors. I went back to Plaza de Catalunya afterwards and had dinner at a KFC there. Btw, the KFC tasted a little bit differently though, hmmm. I found it a little bit less crunchy and so less delicious, somehow.

Day 13 (Monday, 7 January 2013)

Today, I was going back to the Netherlands while my brother continued his trip to Vienna, Austria. We took the train (after finding out the day before that, again, train was a cheaper option to go to the airport than shuttle bus, hahaha ) to the airport. We arrived at Terminal 2 and took the shuttle bus to go to Terminal 1 where my brother’s flight to Vienna would depart from (his flight was scheduled to depart two hours earlier than mine).

After he checked-in, we had breakfast at a cafetaria in Terminal 1. Then, at 11:00 we parted away as my brother went through the security check to go to his gate and I went back to Terminal 2 to check in for my flight.

In my booking confirmation, it was said the check-in desk in Barcelona would be opened since 2 hour 40 minutes prior to departure. Well, my flight was scheduled to depart at 14:15 so I thought it should be open by 11:35. But then, the desks were opened just at 12:15 . But well, because I was the first one queuing for it, I was also among the first to get the boarding pass, hahaha.

As I said, my flight was delayed for about an hour. Apparently the cause of this was airplane rotation where the previous flight to Barcelona had to wait for about an hour to get a plane ready, or something like that. But in the end, I boarded my plane back to the Netherlands: A Transavia’s Boeing 737-8K2 reg code PH-HSB flight number HV 6062 at around 14:50.

Transavia’s HV 6062 route map from Barcelona to Rotterdam

Anyway, so, my flight took off from runway 07R of Barcelona El-Prat Airport. About two hours later, it landed at runway 24 of Rotterdam The Hague Airport. After taking my luggage, I took the bus to the city center where I transited to take another bus to get back to my apartment in Delft.

And here, my 2012 year-end trip officially ended.

THE END.

Spanish Omelette for breakfast

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia’s Back Entrance

Queuing at Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

A window in Sagrada Familia

The ceiling of Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

The two towers, by the Plaza d’Espanya

Palau Nacional de Montjuic

Yes, we could take escalator to go up the hill

Palau Nacional de Montjuic

The pitstop of leg 11 of The Amazing Race 10 was these stairs. Dustin & Kandice got eliminated here

Barcelona as seen from Montjuic

Gothic Barcelona Old Town

Cathedral in Barcelona

Casa Mila

Nice grilled veal for dinner

It was indeed a hot winter, at 18ºC.

It was hot

Barceloneta

Barceloneta Beach

Aqbar Tower, a cucumber-like building in Barcelona

A Transavia’s Boeing 737-8K2 landing at runway 07L of Barcelona Airport. She would fly back to Rotterdam as HV 6062

First row seating!!

This was how Dutch weather greeted me as we were approaching Rotterdam Airport.

Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Rotterdam

BAHASA INDONESIA

Sebelumnya dalam 2012 Year-End Trip: Zilko dan adiknya bepergian selama 12 hari ke empat negara di Eropa. Kini mereka telah berada di kota perhentian terakhir sebelum Zilko harus kembali ke Belanda: Barcelona.

***

Hari 11 (Sabtu, 5 Januari 2013)

Aku memutuskan untuk mencoba sarapan ala Spanyol hari ini. Dan jadilah aku mencoba omelet ala Spanyol. Enak loh btw, dan rasanya tidak seperti omelet-omelet lain yang pernah aku makan sebelumnya. Sungguh unik!!

Anyway, tujuan pertama kami hari ini adalah landmark dari Barcelona: Sagrada Familia. Kami naik Metro untuk pergi kesana. Di jalan, adikku baru menyadari bahwa pass transportasi umum tiga harinya hilang (jadi sehari sebelumnya kami memutuskan untuk membeli pass tiga hari karena toh kami akan tinggal di Barcelona selama sekitar tiga hari). Jadilah ia harus beli yang baru deh, tentu saja kami memilih yang dua hari ya kali ini.

Kami tiba di Sagrada Familia dan kemudian bergabung di antrian untuk masuk gerejanya. Ngantrinya nggak terlalu lama kok; kalau nggak salah sih hanya sekitar 30an menit saja sampai kami akhirnya masuk ke area gerejanya.

Sagrada Familia tuh ternyata memang beneran keren banget loh. Indah banget! Yah, tentu saja masih tidak bisa dibandingkan dengan keagungan dan kemewahannya Basilika Santo Petrus di Kota Vatikan ya. Tapi kalau kita tidak memperhitungkan Basilika Santo Petrus, Sagrada Familia jelas merupakan salah satu gereja terindah yang pernah kumasuki. Disainnya unik sekali. Yah, perancang gerejanya sama seperti perancangnya Parc Güell sih; makanya kita bisa melihat kemiripan dari keduanya, dalam hal disain.

Setelah menghabiskan waktu sekitar satu jam di Sagrada Familia, kami meninggalkan gerejanya dan menuju Camp Nou. Jadi ceritanya adikku sudah membeli tiket nonton pertandingannya Barca (Barca vs Espana) untuk keesokan harinya; dan ia harus menukarkan bukti pembayaran dengan tiketnya. Untuk aku sih, tiket seharga €130 itu jelas kemahalan lah ya bagi aku yang nggak nge-fans sama sepakbola (Aku nggak ingat harga persisnya berapa sih, cuma ya harganya sekitar seginian deh), hahaha . Jadilah aku nggak beli. Sayang duitnya dong, mending ditabung buat nonton turnamen grandslam dah kalau aku, huahaha . Anyway, singkat cerita, tibalah kami di Camp Nou, adikku mendapatkan tiketnya, dan kemudian kami istirahat deh di Starbucks, hahaha .

Tujuan kami selanjutnya adalah area Montjuïc, sebuah bukit di Barcelona. Aku ingin banget pergi ke tempat ini karena aku masih ingat dengan jelas enam tahun yang lalu aku menonton satu episodenya The Amazing Race musim 10 yang mana leg-nya diadakan di Barcelona dan pitstop-nya berada di Palau Nacional de Montjuïc. Ini adalah babak eliminasi dari empat besar (jadi leg kedua sebelum terakhir); dan Lyn & Karlyn membuat sejarah dengan menjadi tim semua wanita pertama yang masuk ke tiga besar. Dustin  Kandice tereliminasi disini.

Aku masih ingat bahwa waktu menonton itu, aku merasa Palau Nacional de Montjuïc itu sangatlah indah; dan berharap suatu hari aku akan berkesempatan pergi kesana. Dan disanalah aku, enam tahun lebih sedikit kemudian, aku beneran berada disana! Ya, ini adalah sebuah perasaan yang sureal…

Anyway, setelah berkeliling Montjuïc, kami memutuskan untuk turun dengan naik funicular yang gratis karena kami memiliki pass transportasi umum itu. Kami kembali ke pusat kota dan berjalan ke kota tuanya Barcelona yang nuansanya sangatlah Gotik. Kami tidak bisa masuk katedralnya sayangnya karena sudah tutup. Jadilah kami naik bus secara acak soalnya semua tujuan di itinerary kami sudah dikunjungi; dan sekalian buat mengistirahatkan kaki setelah banyak berjalan.

Setelah beberapa waktu, kami kembali ke Plaza de Catalunya sekitar jam 19:00. Kami berjalan sepanjang Passeig de Garcia untuk pergi ke Casa Mila untuk foto-foto disana, hahaha . Btw, malam ini suasananya rame banget. Ternyata ini adalah hari terakhir festival raja atau apa gitu (kami sudah iseng bertanya tetapi kok tidak ada orang yang bisa menjelaskannya secara jelas ya) jadi dirayain gitu. Kami makan malam di sebuah restoran yang oke yang mana pelayannya cantik banget loh di dekat Plaza de Catalunya sebelum kembali ke hotel.

Hari 12 (Minggu, 6 Januari 2013)

Agak sulit untuk mencari tempat buat sarapan pagi ini, entah kenapa. Tapi untungnya akhirnya kami menemukan sebuah kafe yang oke di dekat Plaza de Catalunya untuk sarapan.

Aku mengusulkan untuk pergi ke Tibidabo hari ini. Untuk kesana, kami harus naik bus untuk pergi ke tempat keberangkatan tram yang akan membawa kami ke tempat keberangkatannya funicular untuk naik ke Tibidabo. Nah, singkat cerita tibalah kami di tempat keberangkatannya tram itu. Disana, ada dua petugas yang memberi-tahu kami bahwa tramnya nggak beroperasi hari itu karena festival raja atau apaan lah itu; tetapi ada layanan bus umum yang bisa membawa kami ke tempat keberangkatannya funicular. Hanya saja, hari ini, funicularnya juga nggak beroperasi jadi untuk ke Tibidabo ya kami harus berjalan kaki deh .

Ya tentu saja kami ogah dong jalan kaki sehingga kami harus mencoret Tibidabo. Rencananya, kami akan kembali ke area Barceloneta aja. Kami naik bus yang seharusnya membawa kami kesana. Namun, kami naik bus yang salah dan kami jadi malah pergi ke arah yang sebaliknya, huahaha . Kami naik bus ini sampai tujuan terakhirnya dan menunggu sampai busnya berputar balik ke arah sebaliknya, yang mana merupakan arah yang benar bagi kami, hahaha . Lucunya, Barceloneta adalah tujuan terakhir dari arah sebaliknya ini. Nah, jadilah kami menaiki bus ini di sepanjang rutenya! Hahaha . Tapi ya nggak apa-apa sih, karena toh kami ada banyak waktu dan ini buat sekalian membuang waktu kan.

Kami tiba di Barceloneta dan berjalan berkeliling pantainya lagi. Cuaca hari ini cerah tetapi temperaturnya oke banget (18ºC) jadi kan nggak panas menyengat gitu. Tapi tetep aja sih rasanya aneh soalnya kan sekarang ini lagi di tengah-tengah musim dingin ya. Hahaha . Setelah berkeliling areanya, kami memutuskan untuk makan siang di sebuah Doner disana. Donernya enak banget lho btw. Lalu, kembalilah kami ke hotel.

Aku memilih untuk beristirahat sementara adikku pergi ke Camp Nou untuk menonton pertandingan bolanya. Tapi sekitar tiga puluh menit kemudian, ia sms aku dan bilang bahwa ia kelupaan kameranya!! Hahaha . Jadilah ia kembali ke hotel untuk mengambil kameranya. Aku sih malamnya memutuskan untuk berkeliling acak aja. Aku naik tram ke arah jalan Diagonal dan pergi ke sebuah mall yang suasananya sepi banget karena nggak ada pengunjungnya. Aku kembali ke Plaza de Catalunya setelahnya dan makan malam di KFC disana. Btw, rasa KFC-nya agak berbeda lho, hmmm. Rasanya kurang kriuk dan kalah enak dibandingkan KFC yang lain gitu, entah kenapa.

Hari 13 (Senin, 7 Januari 2013)

Hari ini, aku kembali ke Belanda sementara adikku melanjutkan perjalanannya ke Vienna, Austria. Kami naik kereta ke bandara (Ya, lagi-lagi kami mendapatkan informasi bahwa kereta itu lebih murah daripada shuttle bus, hahaha ). Kami tiba di Terminal 2 dan kemudian menaiki shuttle bus ke Terminal 1 dimana penerbangannya adikku ke Vienna akan berangkat (penerbangannya dijadwalkan berangkat dua jam sebelum penerbanganku).

Setelah ia check-in, kami sarapan di sebuah kafe di Terminal 1. Lalu, jam 11:00 kami berpisah dengan ia masuk ke area keberangkatan dan aku kembali ke Terminal 2 untuk penerbanganku.

Di konfirmasi pemesananku, disebutkan bahwa konter check-in dibuka 2 jam 40 menit sebelum jadwal keberangkatan. Karena penerbanganku dijadwalkan berangkat jam 14:15, artinya konternya mulai dibuka jam 11:35 kan. Namun, ternyata konternya baru dibuka jam 12:15 dong . Yah, tapi karena aku adalah orang pertama yang ngantri, aku jadi yang pertama mendapatkan boarding pass juga sih, hahaha.

Seperti yang kubilang, penerbanganku terlambat satu jam. Ternyata penyebabnya adalah rotasi pesawat dimana penerbangan sebelumnya yang ke Barcelona harus menunggu selama satu jam untuk sebuah pesawat gitu, atau apa lah semacam itu. Dan akhirnya, aku menaiki pesawatku untuk kembali ke Belanda: Sebuah Boeing 737-8K2nya Transavia dengan kode registrasi PH-HSB dengan nomor penerbangan HV 6062 sekitar jam 14:50.

Rute penerbangan Transavia HV 6062 dari Barcelona ke Rotterdam

Anyway, penerbanganku lepas landas dari landasan pacu 07R Bandara Barcelona El-Prat. Sekitar dua jam kemudian, aku mendarat di landasan pacu 24 Bandara Rotterdam The Hague. Setelah mengambil bagasiku, aku menaiki bus ke pusat kota untuk transit menaiki bus lain untuk kembali ke apartemenku di Delft.

Dan disinilah perjalanan akhir tahun 2012-ku secara resmi berakhir.

SELESAI.

#1181 – 2012 Year-End Trip (Part V)

ENGLISH

Previously on 2012 Year-End Trip: Zilko and his brother went on a 12-day trip to four countries in Europe. Now they were already spending two days in the capital city of Spain, Madrid. They had one more full day before going to Barcelona.

***

Day 9 (Thursday, 3 January 2013)

Our main destination of the day was Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. Yes, the stadium that is owned by Real Madrid. Okay, I was (and am) not really a fan of football, but my brother was. So I decided to accompany him visiting the stadium as I thought it would be interesting to see anyway.

We took the Metro from Puerta del Sol (with one transit) to get to the stadium after having another “Combination” brunch nearby. The trip wasn’t that long. It took us probably around 15 minutes to get there. We got out the Metro station and Estadio Santiago Bernabéu stood before us. It was indeed a very big football stadium. It didn’t look as fancy as I thought btw, but it was huge.

We circled the stadium once from outside before going to the ticket booth to buy admission to the stadium. Apparently we had to pay €19 per person just to enter the stadium. It was kinda steep for me, in my opinion, given that I was not really a big fan of football. If I weren’t with my brother (I was alone), I wouldn’t have bought the ticket, hahaha .

We entered the stadium through one of its four towers at its corners. We were directed to the highest place first, and then the tour literally went downward circling the stadium from thereon. Overall, it was a very nice tour. If you are a fan of football, especially Real Madrid, it is a must go!

So, we started with having a panoramic look of the stadium at one of its higher sections. Then, we visited the trophy room, where all trophy that Real Madrid had won were on display. Then, we entered another room where the details (history, players, managers, achievements, etc) of Real Madrid were explained. After that, we arrived at the mid-section of the stadium which, in my opinion, was the best spot to watch a football match. It was not too high (far) and not too low (close) to the football field. Then we went to the other side of the stadium where the VVIP seats were located. And of course we could sit on those VVIP seats! Huahaha . You know, a little bit of luxury taste.

Then, the tour went even more super awesome from hereon. After the VVIP seating, we got access to the players’ dressing room!! Yes, it was the dressing room where players showered, changed, and basically prepared themselves during the moments before the match. We also got access to the alley where players walked from the dressing room to the field. Yes, that alley! So cool!! Yes, it also meant that we got access to the field! Well, of course we could not run on the field though, because they were, obviously, preserving the grass. But the cool thing was that we got access to the field-side seating where the coach and substitutes players seating were. It was so cool! After that, our last stop was at the conference room.

But there was also another highlight of this visit. I ‘met’ Cristiano Ronaldo. What, you don’t believe me? Well, here is the proof: a picture of me and Cristiano Ronaldo, huahaha

With Cristiano Ronaldo

Okay, here is the truth. So I did not really ‘meet’ Cristiano Ronaldo. So, during the tour, there was a spot where we could take picture in front of a green screen where we could take one picture with any Real Madrid players we wanted. Yes, it was like the green screen they used in making some animation movies. So I chose Cristiano Ronaldo. But after I took the picture, upon realizing that Iker Casillas was also playing for Real Madrid (I honestly didn’t remember that), I was thinking I should have chosen Casillas instead, hahaha .

We left the stadium after about three hours of touring inside. It was not bad. Even the experience was enjoyable for me as a non-fan.

After that, we walked to a shopping centre nearby where we had lunch. The restaurant was so full of local people, so it was a good choice because the price was indeed not expensive, huahaha . The waiters and waitresses did not speak English at all btw, so it was quite an interesting experience, haha. My brother ordered a paella while I ordered cod soup with potatoes or something like that.

To wrap up the day, we went back to the city center later on that day. We had dinner at a fast Chinese food restaurant, which was nice; and just spent the evening at the area around our hotel. We did not stay up late because the next morning we would have to get up early to catch a morning flight to Barcelona.

Day 10 (Friday, 4 January 2013)

We got up at 5:15 today because we had to catch our flight to Barcelona at 10:20 from Madrid-Barajas Airport. So, after checking out (read: just leaving our room key in a mailbox near the exit door), we walked to Sol station to take the airport train (with one transit) to Madrid-Barajas Airport. Apparently, train was much cheaper than the shuttle bus!! We paid €5 for shuttle bus to the city center while we only needed to pay a little over €3 for train, hmm. And the train was also a great option for us because the station was in Terminal 4, and our flight would depart from Terminal 4 as well.

We arrived at Madrid-Barajas Airport at around 7:00. The check-in counter for our flight would be opened just at 8:20 so we decided to have breakfast at McDonald’s first. Long story short, we finished our breakfast, checked-in, and got to our departure gate. At 9:45, we boarded our plane: a Vueling’s Airbus A320-214 reg code EC-KKT with flight number VY 1035. Yes, it would be my second ever domestic flight in Europe, after the easyJet’s flight from Toulouse to Nice I took during my trip to southern France and Austria last October!

Vueling’s VY 1035 route map from Madrid to Barcelona

The flight departed on time. It took off from runway 36R and about fifty minutes later, it landed at runway 25R of Barcelona El Prat Airport in Barcelona. We took our luggage and then walked to the bus stop to take a shuttle bus to the city center. The bus was full but at least it was not overloaded like the shuttle bus in Madrid. So it was good.

We got off at Plaza de Catalunya. We took a Metro from there to Barceloneta, where our hotel was. Btw, it was so HOT today in Barcelona! It was so unexpected as it was in the middle of winter so we thought it would be much cooler than that! Hahaha . Anyway, so we checked-in and after putting our luggage in our room, we left the hotel.

But first, we had lunch first at a restaurant near our hotel which offered an attractive (in term of price) package menu. I chose the tomato spaghetti – beef with rice – coconut mousse combo. The beef and coconut mousse were okay, but the spaghetti was so horrible. I think my spaghetti is even much more delicious than that! Hahaha .

Anyway, our first destination in Barcelona for the day was Parc Güell. To get there, we would take bus no.24 from Plaza de Calatunya, as our hotel’s reception suggested. At first, we got to the wrong bus stop at Plaza de Catalunya as the bus 24 which departed from there was heading for the opposite direction. The driver was kind enough to ask us where we were going and told us we should take the other bus. So we got off and had to find the other bus stop, which location could be anywhere in the plaza. Long story short, we finally found it and managed to get the correct bus 24.

On the way to Parc Güell, a twist happened. So, our bus hit a car!! The rear window of the car was completely shattered, both the bus and the car were dented, but at least none was injured. Because of this, all of the passengers had to get off the bus and waited for the next bus 24, which was just like 5 – 10 minutes behind this one. Wow, what an experience!!

Anyway, so we finally arrived at Parc Güell. Parc Güell was indeed very interesting. The design was so unique and it provided quite a nice view of Barcelona. The best part, however, was that it was free for admission! Yay!  After Parc Güell, we took bus 24 to get back to Plaza de Catalunya. Then, we decided to take another bus to get to the beach part of the city.

We arrived at the beach at around 17:00, so it was already dusk. We walked alongside the beach until we reached the famous Las Ramblas. We had dinner at Las Ramblas where I ordered Arros Negro: a black paella. Btw, it was black because they used squid ink to make it black . It was interesting. After dinner, we continued walking in Las Ramblas; and then we got back to our hotel.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Next on 2012 Year-End Trip:
- Sagrada Familia
- Montjuïc
- More of Barcelona

Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

Panoramic view of Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

Santiago Bernabeu Trophy which Real Madrid won in 2012

Some of the players’ attributes

Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

Shower Room

Jacuzzi Room

Ronaldo’s and Kaka’s spots on the bench for before the match

The alley from the locker room to the field

The seating by the field for substitutes

Heater

Press conference

Cod soup with potatoes

Vueling’s Airbus A320-214 reg code EC-KKT

Aeropuerto de Madrid-Barajas (Terminal 4S)

Looking out the window…

Street in Barcelona

The bus hit a car

Parc Guell

Parc Guell was such a popular place

Barcelona as seen from Parc Guell

Another view of Barcelona as seen from Parc Guell

Catalan Flag

Selfcamming session in Parc Guell, lol

Barceloneta during the dusk

Barceloneta during the dusk

Giant lobster in Barceloneta

Arros Negro: a black paella

Las Ramblas

BAHASA INDONESIA

Sebelumnya dalam 2012 Year-End Trip: Zilko dan adiknya berjalan-jalan selama 12 hari ke empat negara di Eropa. Kini mereka telah menghabiskan dua malam di ibukotanya Spanyol, Madrid. Mereka masih memiliki satu hari lagi disana sebelum melanjutkan perjalanan ke Barcelona.

***

Hari 9 (Kamis, 3 Januari 2013)

Tujuan utama kami hari ini adalah Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. Ya, stadion miliknya klub Real Madrid. Oke, aku bukanlah fans sepakbola ya, tapi adikku nge-fans. Jadilah aku menemaninya mengunjungi stadion ini karena toh kayaknya bakal menarik juga kan.

Kami naik Metro dari Puerta del Sol (dengan satu transit) untuk menuju ke stadionnya setelah makan “Combination” lagi di dekat hotel. Perjalanannya nggak lama ternyata. Kami hanya membutuhkan waktu paling 15an menit untuk kesana. Kami keluar dari stasion Metro-nya dan Estadio Santiago Bernabéu berdiri megah di depan kami. Stadionnya ternyata memang beneran besar banget lho. Penampakannya nggak se-wah bayanganku sih, tapi memang ukurannya raksasa banget.

Kami mengelilingi stadionnya dari luar satu kali dahulu sebelum mengantri di loket tiket untuk masuk ke stadionnya. Ternyata kami harus membayar €19 per orang hanya untuk masuk stadionnya loh. Mahal banget ya, menurutku sih, soalnya aku kan nggak nge-fans amat sama sepakbola gitu. Kalau aku nggak sama adikku (maksudnya kalau lagi sendirian), ogah dah beli tiket segitu buat masuk, hahaha .

Kami memasuki stadionnya melalui salah satu dari empat menara di keempat ujungnya. Kami langsung di arahkan ke tempat tertinggi dulu, dan dari sana turnya turun, dalam artian sebenarnya, mengelilingi stadion. Secara keseluruhan, turnya asyik juga lho. Jadi kalau pada nge-fans sama sepakbola, apalagi Real Madrid, wajib dikunjungi deh!

Jadi, kami memulai dengan mendapatkan pemandangan panorama stadionya dari sudut yang tinggi (di kursi-kursi atas gitu). Lalu, kami mengunjungi ruangan piala, dimana semua piala yang pernah dimenangi Real Madrid dipamerkan. Lalu, kami memasuki ruangan lain dimana detail-detail (sejarah, daftar pemain, manajer, prestasi, dll)-nya Real Madrid dijelaskan. Lalu, kami tiba di bagian tengah stadion yang, menurutku sih, merupakan tempat paling strategis buat nonton bola. Lokasinya nggak terlalu tinggi (jauh) atau terlalu rendah (dekat) ke lapangan bolanya. Lalu, kami berjalan ke sisi lainnya stadion dimana kursi-kursi VVIP berada. Dan tentu saja kita boleh duduk-duduk di kursi-kursi VVIP-nya itu loh. Jadi ngerasain gimana rasanya duduk di lokasi mewah.

Lalu, turnya menjadi semakin keren banget loh dari sini. Setelah dari kursi-kursi VVIP itu, kami mendapatkan akses untuk masuk ke ruang ganti pemainnya!! Iya, ruangan dimana para pemain mandi, ganti baju, dan pada dasarnya mempersiapkan diri di waktu-waktu sebelum pertandingannya. Kami juga lalu berjalan di lorong dimana para pemain berjalan dari ruang ganti ke lapangannya. Ya, lorong itu! Keren dah!! Ini juga berarti kami mendapatkan akses ke lapangannya! Ya, tentu saja kami nggak bisa lari-larian di lapangannya ya, kan ceritanya rumputnya lagi dijaga dan dirawat dengan baik. Tapi yang keren adalah, kami juga mendapatkan akses ke kursi di samping lapangan dimana pelatih dan pemain cadangan duduk. Keren banget dah! Setelah itu, kami mengunjungi ruang konferensi pers-nya.

Tapi ada highlight lain loh dari kunjungan ini. Aku ‘bertemu’ Cristiano Ronaldo loh. Eh, kaga percaya? Kok gitu amat sih? Ya ini deh buktinya: fotoku dengan Cristiano Ronaldo, huahaha

Dengan Cristiano Ronaldo

Oke deh, ini cerita sebenarnya. Jadi ya aku nggak beneran ‘bertemu’ Cristiano Ronaldo-nya sih. Jadi, di turnya itu, ada tempat dimana kita difoto di depan layar hijau dimana kita bisa mengambil satu foto bersama pemain Real Madrid yang mana pun. Iya, layar hijau yang sering dipakai di film-film animasi itu. Nah, aku memilih Cristiano Ronaldo. Tapi setelah foto, aku baru sadar dong bahwa Iker Casillas kan pemain Real Madrid ya (aku beneran nggak ingat dah sebelumnya) *tepok jidat*, dan jadilah aku berpikir bahwa seharusnya aku minta foto bareng Casillas aja ya, hahaha .

Kami meninggalkan stadion setelah kira-kira tiga jam berjalan-jalan di dalamnya. Lumayan banget lah. Bahkan pengalamannya asyik juga lho untuk aku yang bukanlah fans.

Setelah itu, kami berjalan ke pusat perbelanjaan di dekat sana dan makan siang deh. Restorannya penuh dengan orang lokal, jadi ini pilihan yang baik dong soalnya harganya kan nggak mahal, huahaha . Dan pelayan-pelayannya disana pada nggak bisa bahasa Inggris loh, jadi ya menarik juga pengalaman makan disana, haha. Adikku memesan paella dan aku memesan sup ikan kod dengan kentang.

Lalu, kami kembali ke pusat kota. Sisa hari kami habiskan disana. Kami makan malam di fast food restoran Chinese food, yang mana enak juga loh; dan berkeliling di sekitar hotel saja. Kami tidur agak cepat malam ini karena keesokan paginya kami harus bangun pagi untuk naik penerbangan pagi ke Barcelona.

Hari 10 (Jumat, 4 Januari 2013)

Kami bangun jam 5:15 pagi ini karena kami harus mengejar pesawat kami ke Barcelona yang berangkat jam 10:20 dari Bandara Madrid-Barajas. Jadi, setelah check-out (baca: meninggalkan kunci kamar di kotak surat di dekat pintu keluar hotel), kami berjalan ke stasiun Sol dan dari sana naik kereta (dengan satu transit) ke Bandara Madrid-Barajas. Ternyata naik kereta lebih murah daripada naik shuttle bus loh!! Kami membayar €5 untuk shuttle bus ke pusat kota sementara dengan kereta harga tiketnya hanya €3 lebih sedikit, hmm. Dan bagi kami, kereta jugalah pilihan yang oke karena stasiun keretanya berada di Terminal 4, dan penerbangan kami kan berangkat dari Terminal 4 juga.

Kami tiba di Bandara Madrid-Barajas sekitar jam 7:00. Konter check-in kami baru akan dibuka jam 8:20 sehingga jadilah kami memutuskan untuk sarapan dulu di McDonald’s. Singkat cerita, kami selesai sarapan, check-in, dan sampai di gerbang keberangkatan kami. Jam 9:45, kami menaiki pesawat kami: sebuah Airbus A320-214 milik Vueling dengan kode registrasi EC-KKT dengan nomor penerbangan VY 1035. Ya, ini akan menjadi penerbangan domestikku yang kedua di Eropa, setelah penerbangan dengan easyJet dari Toulouse ke Nice yang aku naiki di perjalananku ke Prancis selatan dan Austria Oktober lalu!

Rute penerbangan pesawat Vueling VY 1035 dari Madrid ke Barcelona

Penerbangannya berangkat tepat waktu. Penerbangannya lepas landas dari landasan pacu 36R dan sekitar lima puluh menit kemudian, mendarat di landasan pacu 25R Bandara Barcelona El Prat di Barcelona. Kami mengambil bagasi kami dan kemudian berjalan ke halte bus untuk naik shuttle bus ke pusat kota. Busnya penuh, tapi setidaknya nggak sampai overloaded seperti di Madrid. Jadi ya masih oke lah.

Kami turun di Plaza de Catalunya (iya, Plaza Catalunya yang sama kayak yang di lagu ‘Barcelona’-nya Fariz RM itu ). Dari sana, kami naik Metro menuju Barceloneta, lokasi dimana hotel kami berada. Btw, hari ini tuh PANAS banget dong di Barcelona! Benar-benar nggak disangka soalnya kan lagi di tengah-tengah musim dingin dan jadi bayangan kami ya lebih dingin daripada itu lah! Hahaha . Anyway, kami check-in di hotel dan setelah menaruh barang-barang di kamar, kami berangkat dari hotel.

Tapi pertama-tama, kami makan siang dulu di sebuah restoran di dekat hotel yang mana menu paketnya menarik banget (dalam hal harga). Aku memesan kombo spaghetti tomat – nasi dengan daging – dan mousse kelapa. Daging dan mousse kelapanya enak sih, tapi spaghetti-nya nggak enak banget. Spaghetti masakanku aja jauh lebih enak daripada itu loh! Hahaha .

Anyway, tujuan pertama kami di Barcelona hari ini adalah Parc Güell. Untuk kesana, kami akan naik bus no.24 dari Plaza de Catalunya, seperti yang disarankan resepsionis hotel kami. Awalnya, kami naik tiba di halte bus yang salah loh soalnya bus 24 yang berangkat dari sana tuh mengarah ke arah sebaliknya. Sopirnya baik banget loh dengan bertanya ke kami mengenai tujuan kami; dan ia memberi-tahu bahwa kami harus menaiki bus dengan arah sebaliknya. Jadilah kami langsung turun dan harus mencari halte bus satunya, yang mana lokasinya bisa dimana pun di plaza-nya kan. Singkat cerita, haltenya ketemu dan kami menaiki bus no.24 yang benar.

Dalam perjalanan ke Parc Güell, ada sesuatu yang terjadi. Bus kami menabrak mobil dong!! Kaca belakang mobilnya pecah semua, bus dan mobilnya sama-sama penyok, tetapi setidaknya tidak ada yang terluka. Karena ini, semua penumpang busnya harus turun dan menunggu bus no.24 yang selanjutnya, yang mana berada sekitar 5 – 10 menit di belakang bus yang ini. Wow, pengalaman yang unik ya!!

Anyway, akhirnya tibalah kami di Parc Güell. Parc Güell memang menarik banget lho. Disainnya menarik banget dan dari sana kita mendapatkan pemandangan kota Barcelona yang indah. Yang paling keren sih, menurutku, adalah bahwa masuknya gratis loh! Yay!  *pecinta gratisan*. Setelah dari Parc Güell, kami naik bus 24 untuk kembali ke Plaza de Catalunya. Lalu, kami memutuskan untuk naik bus lain untuk pergi ke bagian pantai dari kotanya.

Kami tiba di pantainya sekitar jam 17:00, jadi sudah senja gitu. Kami berjalan di tepian pantai sampai kami tiba di jalan Las Ramblas yang terkenal itu (kayak Malioboronya Jogja). Kami makan malam di Las Ramblas dimana aku memesan Arros Negro: paella hitam. Btw, warnanya hitam soalnya mereka memakai tinta cumi gitu deh untuk membuatnya menjadi hitam . Menarik juga. Setelah makan malam, kami meneruskan berjalan-jalan di Las Ramblas; dan lalu kembali ke hotel kami.

BERSAMBUNG…

Selanjutnya dalam 2012 Year-End Trip:
- Sagrada Familia
- Montjuïc
- Lebih banyak lagi tentang Barcelona

#1179 – 2012 Year-End Trip (Part IV)

ENGLISH

Previously on 2012 Year-End Trip: Zilko and his brother went on a 12-day trip to four countries in Europe. They already spent six days in Paris and Rome. Now it was time for them to continue to their next destination: Spain.

***

Day 7 (Tuesday, 1 January 2013)

We checked out from our hotel at around 9:50 and walked directly to the train station where we planned to take a bus to the airport. A bus was already ready there but unfortunately all seats had been taken so we had to wait for the next departure, which was at 10:35. It was still 10:00 so we decided to have breakfast at a cafetaria just across the street. I had a nice breakfast that morning. I don’t remember the name but it was lamb.

Long story short, we took our bus, arrived at the airport, checked-in, and walked to the departure gate. There was, however, an unannounced change of gate. So our departure gate was moved from the original gate to another one. Well, okay, there might be an announcement but it was only in Italian so we did not understand anything. So how did we find out? Well, I found it quite weird that it was already around 50 minutes before departure but our original gate was still occupied with the departure of a TAP flight to Lisbon. So I decided to check the screen and there I found the change of gate! Wow, lucky I did so otherwise we wouldn’t know!!

At around 13:00, we boarded our flight: A Vueling’s Airbus A320-214 reg code EC-JSY flight number VY 6135. Ah, I have not mentioned our destination yet. This VY 6135 flight would take us to the capital city of Spain: Madrid. So in a way I felt like a top professional tennis player for flying from Rome to Madrid; because usually in April – May they have to travel from Rome to Madrid (or the other way around, depending on the tournaments’ schedule) for two consecutive Masters (men’s tour) or Premier 5 – Premier Mandatory (women’s tour) level tournaments, huahaha .

Anyway, our flight departed on time, at around 13:15. It took off from runway 25 of Rome-Fiumicino International Airport. This leg of the trip was the longest one, as it took about 2 hours 15 minutes to get to Madrid. So, two hours and 15 minutes later, we landed at runway 33L of Madrid-Barajas International Airport.

Flight VY 6135 route map from Rome to Madrid

After taking our luggage, we walked to the bus stop to catch the shuttle bus to the city center. According to the timetable, there should be a service that day at 16:20. So there we waited for it. But then, even until 16:40, no single bus was coming. Okay, there were some buses but those were the shuttle buses to go to the other terminals of the airport (we were at Terminal 4); but there was no sign about our shuttle bus to Madrid. We were sure it was the correct waiting place because there were also some other people (around 12, I guess) waiting for the bus as well. Finally, at 16:45, the bus came!!

The good thing about the bus was that its service started from Terminal 4. So we boarded an empty bus which was equivalent with guarantee to get seats, hahaha . The bus stopped at Terminal 1 first before continuing to the city center. The journey from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1 was so long though, around 20 minutes with bus! Anyway, when we departed from Terminal 1, the bus was so overloaded. It was crazy!

Long story short, we got off at Cibeles and walked to our hotel in the city center of Madrid. The location of our hotel was really nice though, as it was so close to Plaza St. Anna and the famous Puerta del Sol. After checking in and resting for a little bit, we got out to look for dinner. That evening we just walked around Puerta del Sol and the Sol-Salamanca district. We had dinner at a family-run restaurant; and of course I decided to eat: paella!! We just walked around randomly after dinner, before deciding to go back to the hotel.

Day 8 (Wednesday, 2 January 2013)

After having a “Combination” brunch at a random cafetaria in one of the streets, we started our adventure of the day. By the way, all the destinations we visited today were reached on foot. Based on rough approximation with Google Maps, we walked around 13 km this day, hmmm.

Anyway, so, the first in our agenda was walking back to Cibeles to take more pictures of the place. Then, we went to Plaza Independencia before going to the large Parque del Retiro. Parque del Retiro is a huge city park in the center of Madrid. Well, it was not as huge as the Versailles Garden though, but still, I found it huge for a city park.

Parque del Retiro was actually a very nice park. Well, there was nothing really special, in my opinion, that worth the effort to go all the way to Madrid though. But if you are a citizen of Madrid, then this park is a really good place for refreshment and all kinds of other activities. We went to several parts of the park; and then leaving the park to walk towards the Royal Palace of Madrid which was in the other side of the city center. So of course we did not rush to get there. We passed Museo del Prado and Plaza Mayor along the way.

The Royal Palace of Madrid was full of people. There was a long line of tourists about to get into the Palace’s area. Not feeling like queuing, we decided not to join the line and just took some photos from the outside, huahaha . After awhile, we continued our adventure of the city towards the famous Gran Via. We stopped by at Plaza de España because there was a fair, sort of, going on there. Nothing was particularly interesting for us so we did not stay at the fair for too long.

Gran Via was okay. It was a busy modern street with a lot of different stores along the way. Walking there kinda felt like walking on one of New York’s busy street though (Well, not that I have been to New York. But I imagine it would be something like that, hahaha ). We took a rest for a while at a cafetaria there before going back to our hotel.

Later on that evening, we had dinner at a restaurant nearby Puerta del Sol. We chose a Menu en Mesa for €10.50. With that, we got a chorizo (spicy sausage) as an appetizer, 1/2 portion of short ribs with roasted potato, an ice cream or coffee for dessert, and beer or soft drink or wine as the drink. The dinner was, overall, very very good! It definitely worth the price! But the main winner was, for us, the chimichurri sauce which accompanied our meal! It was the first time ever we tried this sauce and it was so good and unique (and more importantly for me, not spicy, huahaha ). We even asked for an extra one because one small bowl of the sauce was not enough, hahaha .

TO BE CONTINUED…

Next on 2012 Year-End Trip:
- Estadio Santiago Bernabéu
- With Cristiano Ronaldo (huahaha )
- Off to Barcelona

Taking off from runway 25 of Rome-Fiumicino Airport, just behind an AirOne’s Airbus A320

Vueling’s Airbus A320-214 reg code EC-JSY which brought us from Rome to Madrid

Waiting for the shuttle bus to come

Plaza St. Anna

Puerta del Sol

Calamari and Paella for dinner

A portion of “Combination” for brunch

Madrid in the morning

Plaza Independencia

Monumento a Alfonso XII at Parque del Retiro

One of Parque del Retiro’s garden

Giant broccoli!!!

One of the many fountains in Madrid

Bubble man

Almudena Cathedral

Royal Palace of Madrid

Madrid’s bustling street: Gran Via

Nice dinner in Madrid. We loved the chimichurri sauce!

BAHASA INDONESIA

Sebelumnya dalam 2012 Year-End Trip: Zilko dan adiknya pergi jalan-jalan selama 12 hari ke empat negara di Eropa. Mereka telah menghabiskan enam hari di Paris dan Roma. Kini adalah saatnya bagi mereka untuk melanjutkan perjalanan ke tujuan selanjutnya: Spanyol.

***

Hari 7 (Selasa, 1 Januari 2013)

Kami check out dari hotel sekitar jam 9:50 dan berjalan menuju stasiun kereta darimana kami berencana untuk naik bus menuju bandara. Sebenarnya satu bus sudah siap disana tetapi sayangnya semua kursi sudah terbeli sehingga kami harus menunggu keberangkatan berikutnya, yang mana jam 10:35. Masih jam 10:00 sih dan jadilah kami memutuskan untuk sekalian sarapan dulu di sebuah cafetaria di seberang jalan. Makan pagiku lumayan keren lho pagi itu. Aku nggak ingat namanya sih tapi yang jelas dari daging domba gitu.

Singkat cerita, kami menaiki busnya, tiba di bandara, check-in, dan berjalan ke gate keberangkatan. Namun, kemudian ada pemindahan gate keberangkatan yang nggak diberitahukan. Eh, oke deh, mungkin ada pengumuman sih tetapi hanya dalam bahasa Italia jadi kami kan nggak ngerti. Nah, trus bagaimana kami bisa tahu? Ya, aku merasa aneh bahwa sudah tinggal 50 menit sebelum keberangkatan tapi gate kami masih sibuk dengan penerbangannya TAP ke Lisbon. Jadilah aku mengecek layar monitornya dan disanalah aku menyadari bahwa gate-nya dipindah! Wow, untung deh ya aku mengecek karena kalau enggak kan kami nggak tahu!!

Sekitar jam 13:00, kami menaiki pesawat kami: Sebuah Airbus A320-214 milik Vueling dengan kode registrasi EC-JSY dengan nomor penerbangan VY 6135. Ah, aku belum menyebutkan tujuan kami ya. Nah, penerbangan VY 6135 ini akan membawa kami ke ibukota dari Spanyol: Madrid. Nah, sedikit banyak aku jadi merasa kayak pemain tenis profesional top gitu deh karena terbang dari Roma menuju Madrid; karena biasanya di bulan April – Mei mereka harus bepergian dari Roma ke Madrid (atau sebaliknya, tergantung jadwal turnamennya) untuk dua turnamen level Masters (tur putra) atau Premier 5 – Premier Mandatory (tur putri), huahaha .

Anyway, penerbangan kami tepat waktu dan berangkat sekitar jam 13:15. Penerbangannya lepas landas dari landasan pacu 25 Bandara Internasional Roma-Fiumicino. Nah, bagian ini dari perjalanan kami adalah yang paling jauh karena dengan pesawat pun membutuhkan waktu 2 jam 15 menit untuk tiba di Madrid. Dua jam 15 menit kemudian, kami mendarat di landasan pacu 33L Bandara Internasional Madrid-Barajas.

Peta rute penerbangan VY 6135 dari Roma menuju Madrid

Setelah mengambil bagasi, kami berjalan ke halte bus untuk naik shuttle bus ke pusat kota. Menurut jadwalnya, seharusnya ada bus hari itu jam 16:20. Jadilah kami menunggunya. Tapi kemudian, bahkan sampai jam 16:40, nggak ada satu bus pun yang nongol loh. Eh, ada sih beberapa bus tetapi bus-bus itu adalah shuttle bus untuk pergi ke terminal lain di bandara itu (kami berada di Terminal 4); tapi nggak ada tanda-tanda shuttle bus kami menuju Madrid itu. Kami yakin kami menunggu di tempat yang benar karena ada beberapa orang lain (sekitar 12 orang, sepertinya) yang juga sedang menunggu bus itu. Akhirnya, busnya datang jam 16:45!!

Hal yang menyenangkan dari bus ini adalah layanannya dimulai dari Terminal 4. Kami menaiki bus yang masih kosong sehingga artinya kami pasti kebagian kursi, hahaha . Busnya berhenti di Terminal 1 sebelum melanjutkan perjalanan ke pusat kota. Btw, perjalanan dari Terminal 4 ke Terminal 1 itu jauh banget loh, sekitar 20an menit dengan bus! Anyway, ketika kami berangkat dari Terminal 1, busnya sampai overloaded deh. Gila memang!

Singkat cerita, kami turun di Cibeles dan berjalan menuju pusat kota Madrid. Lokasi dari hotel kami enak loh, dekat banget dengan Plaza St. Anna dan Puerta del Sol yang terkenal sekali itu. Setelah check-in dan istirahat sebentar, kami keluar untuk mencari makan malam. Kami memutuskan untuk berjalan di sekitarnya Puerta del Sol dan distrik Sol-Salamanca. Kami makan malam di sebuah restoran yang dijalankan sekeluarga; dan tentu saja aku memutuskan untuk makan: paella!! Setelahnya, kami berkeliling di sekitar situ saja sih sebelum kembali lagi ke hotel.

Hari 8 (Rabu, 2 Januari 2013)

Setelah makan sebuah “Combination” untuk brunch di sebuah cafe di salah satu jalanan di Madrid, kami memulai petualangan kami hari ini. Ngomong-ngomong, semua destinasi yang kami kunjungi hari ini kami lakoni dengan berjalan kaki lho. Menurut aproksimasi kasar dengan Google Maps sih, kami berjalan sejauh sekitar 13 km hari ini, hmmm.

Anyway, jadi, yang pertama dalam agenda kami adalah berjalan balik ke Cibeles untuk foto-foto di depan istananya. Lalu, kami berjalan ke Plaza Independencia sebelum akhirnya pergi ke Parque del Retiro yang besar itu. Parque del Retiro adalah taman kota raksasa di pusat kota Madrid. Yaa, masih nggak sebesar Taman Versailles lah, tapi masih aja lah ya, besar banget untuk ukuran taman kota.

Parque del Retiro adalah taman yang oke lho sebenarnya. Hanya saja, nggak ada yang terlalu spesial sampai-sampai, menurutku pribadi, layak untuk dikunjungi sehingga harus jauh-jauh ke Madrid sih. Tapi kalau kita adalah penduduknya Madrid, maka taman ini adalah tempat yang baik untuk refreshing dan aktivitas-aktivitas lainnya. Kami berjalan ke beberapa bagian tamannya; dan kemudian meninggalkannya untuk menuju ke Royal Palace-nya Madrid yang berada di sisi lain pusat kota. Tentu saja kami tidak merasa perlu buru-buru untuk kesana. Kami melewati Museo del Prado dan Plaza Mayor di sepanjang jalan.

Royal Palace-nya Madrid penuh orang siang itu. Ada satu antrian panjang untuk masuk ke dalam Istananya. Karena lagi malas mengantri, kami memutuskan untuk tidak bergabung dan foto-foto dari luar aja deh, huahaha . Setelah beberapa waktu, kami melanjutkan petualangan kami di kota ini menuju ke Gran Via. Kami mampir sebentar di Plaza de España karena ada semacam pameran yang sedang berlangsung disana. Nggak ada yang terlalu menarik sih disana sehingga kami juga tidak berlama-lama disana.

Gran Via oke juga. Model-modelnya adalah seperti jalan modern yang sibuk dengan banyak toko-toko di sepanjang jalan. Berjalan disana rasanya seperti sedang berjalan di salah satu jalan yang sibuk di New York gitu deh (Eh, aku belum pernah ke New York sih. Tapi aku bayangkan ya kayaknya mirip-mirip gitu deh ya, hahaha *sotoy* ). Kami beristirahat sebentar di sebuah kafe disana sebelum kembali ke hotel.

Malamnya, kami makan malam di sebuah restoran di dekatnya Puerta del Sol. Kami memilih paket Menu en Mesa seharga €10,50. Dengan harga itu, kami mendapat chorizo (sosis ‘pedas’ (nggak pedas-pedas amat sih soalnya aku masih bisa makan, huahaha )) sebagai masakan pembuka, 1/2 porsi short ribs dengan kentang panggang, es krim atau kopi untuk masakan penutup, dan bir atau minuman bersoda atau anggur sebagai minumannya. Makan malamnya, keseluruhan, oke buanget lho! Benar-benar worth it deh harga segitu! Tapi pemenangnya, bagi kami, adalah saus chimichurri yang disajikan menemani makanan kami! Ini adalah kali pertama kami mencoba saus ini dan ternyata uenaak banget dan amat unik (dan yang penting untukku, nggak pedas, huahaha ). Kami bahkan sampai nambah loh soalnya satu mangkok kecil itu kurang, hahaha .

BERSAMBUNG…

Selanjutnya dalam 2012 Year-End Trip:
- Estadio Santiago Bernabéu
- Bersama Cristiano Ronaldo (huahaha )
- Ke Barcelona

#1175 – 2012 Year-End Trip (Part III)

ENGLISH

Previously on 2012 Year-End Trip: Zilko and his brother went on a 12-day trip to four countries in Europe. They spent three days in Paris and now was in the capital city of Italy: Rome.

***

Day 5 (Sunday, 30 December 2012)

Having two full days to spend in Rome, we decided that the first day would be spent at the Vatican City. So, after having breakfast at a cafetaria across Rome Termini station, we took a public bus to go to St. Peter’s Square. Long story short, we arrived there at around 11:00 and saw a lot of people flocking the worldwide-famous square.

The first main goal was obviously to get into the St. Peter’s Basilica. I knew to do that, we had to join a queue first as there would be a security check before they let us in. We did see one line that seemingly was the one we were looking for, but it was VERY long!! So the security check was in the right half-circle of St. Peter’s Square but the line went literally circling the square and the end was near the exit of the basilica at the far left of the area! Crazy!

While we were getting close to the security check, (of course) there were some people who didn’t have the dignity and just wanted to get into the basilica quickly by cutting the line. FYI, we were queuing for literally two hours to get to that point. Obviously some of the people who did queue couldn’t let this happen and reprimanded those people that they needed to get to the end of the line. But then there was this one blonde American woman whom, after being reprimanded about her cutting the line, responded: “Well, I saw many people were doing that as well so whatever…” . Wow, what a bitch!!

Anyway, back to the fun story, while we were wating in line, at one point, people started to gather around (so that the square was literally so full of people) and we heard a guy was giving speech in Italian (so we didn’t understand). Then, the Italian guy in front of us showed us that there was a guy standing in a window of a building near the St. Peter’s Square, and there was a red rug coming out from that window. And then we immediately knew that we were looking at (and listening to): THE POPE!! . This was totally unexpected and unplanned! But this explained why I saw much more people than I expected today there… .

So, after queuing for two hours, we finally got in the basilica. There, instead of going directly into the basilica, we picked the wrong alley and somehow we were in yet another queue ( ) inside the basilica. At first we didn’t know what this queue was for ( lol ) but after some time we realized this queue was to get to the top of to cupola (the dome) of the basilica.

After spending another hour queuing (that we fed up with queuing by the end of that), we finally got in. We chose the elevator – stairs combination to get to the top of the dome (the other option was stairs only). We took the elevator which already saved like 280 steps or something and then continued our way to the top of the dome with another 300 steps, by walking.

I did not pay a visit to the top of the dome during my previous visit to Vatican City in 2010, so it was definitely a new experience for me. The top of the dome offered the classic view of Rome, and specifically the St. Peter’s Square. It was stunning! The stairs to get to the top of the dome was so memorable as well as sometimes we had to lean because the wall was leaning due to the dome’s shape. However, looking back now, it might not be that of a worthy experience given the price (of queuing) that we had to “pay”, lol. I mean, we spent good three hours just queuing that day plus the queue we had to join along the way to get to the top of the dome!!

It was around 15:30 when we finally got back to the main door of St. Peter’s Basilica. And now we entered this very beautiful church. We went around the gigantic basilica and decided to go out quickly to hopefully still have enough time to go to the Vatican Museum. We asked the security guard there but he told us it was already too late to go to the museum as it was already closed for entrance . See, we spent too much time queuing today!!

After awhile we decided to leave St. Peter’s Basilica and explored a bit of more Rome. We went towards Castel Sant’Angelo. After sitting (resting) in front of the castle a little bit, we took a bus to go back to the city centre. We walked to Pantheon and Piazza Navona before having dinner at a nice Italian restaurant I knew. My brother tasted the delicious 500 gram Florentian steak. It was, indeed, very special!

Day 6 (Monday, 31 December 2012)

After spending the day in Vatican City the day before, we allocated today for the other side of Rome: Ancient Rome. So, after breakfast, we took a public bus to get to the Colosseum.

Based on my experience, one of the better things for us to do was to join a local tour arranged for tourists. With this tour, we could skip the queues for the tickets and we got English native-speaker tour guides to explain everything about Colosseum and the Roman Forum just next to it.  And we found one, yeah!!

The tour started about 15 minutes after we joined the group (so they were waiting until a certain amount of people joining the tour). The first tour guide was Stephen who took us around Colosseum and told us stories about the history of this magnificent building. After one hour, the tour ended. We still had time to go around the Colosseum before the second tour, which was optional btw but of course we planned on joining as well as it was included in the price that we paid , started. So we circled the Colosseum once, hahaha.

The second tour was another 45 minutes tour to the Roman Forum at the Palatine Hill. The tour was guided by Jill who told us stories about the life of the Caesars there and about the ruins. At around 13:15, the tour ended at the top of the Palatine Hill.

At this point, guessing the admission to the Vatican Museum would be open until around 15:00 and we missed it the day before, we were thinking that maybe we could make it just in time to the Vatican Museum today. We agreed on this. So, we just had a very brisk tour at the Roman Forum down the Palatine Hill (where the main street in Ancient Rome was once there) and left the area at around 13:30 to catch a bus to Vatican City.

Long story short, we arrived at the Vatican City. Unfortunately, we got off at the opposite site of the city from the Vatican Museum’s entrance. So we had to circle the country (Vatican City is a country ) by walking around. Okay, it was not really a big country but walking around half a small country was still quite far away, hahaha. Along the way, however, we already got some not-so-good indication that we might not make it. We overheard an American tourist saying that the museum was closed for entrance earlier today because it was December 31st. Okay, we were already making our way so we thought at the very least we should get to the entrance and if it was true it was already closed, we should get the information first hand.

And the information was, sigh, true. Admission was closed at 13:30 today due to it being the last day of the year. Damn! We should have stayed longer at the Forum as we would not make it anyway had we been able to get there faster, given we left the Forum at 13:30.

Okay, feeling tired, we decided to have lunch at a cafe near Vatican City. We had pizza, bruschetta, and gelato. The food was okay but the service sucked as hell. So I was ordering something when my brother was looking for a table to sit. When he got one, one waitress shooed him away saying that seat was only for the cafe’s customers, which we WERE  . But then, upon knowing we were ordering some menus (other customers mainly just ordered coffee or light snack or something like that at that time), she became very ‘friendly’ and smiled a lot. But well, we knew the smile was fake…

After that, we had a lot of time to spare. So, we decided to walk from Vatican City to our hotel near Termini Station, huahaha . From Google Maps, it was a 4.5 km route, not that far apparently. Then we took a rest for a little bit at the hotel before going out for dinner. We had dinner at Pastarito, again. We ordered spaghetti carbonara, a seafood bucatini, and calzone.

We did not really celebrate New Year’s Eve this night. One reason being we would have to go to the airport the very next day to catch our flight to Madrid, the other being New Year’s Eve is kinda crazy and I don’t really like it, hahaha .

TO BE CONTINUED…

Next on 2012 Year-End Trip:
- Trip to Madrid
- Estadio Santiago Bernabéu
- Off to Barcelona

So many people at the St. Peter’s Square!!

The Pope!!

People seizing the moment of actually seeing the Pope!

A classic view of Vatican City

The city of Rome

Cupola

St. Peter’s Basilica

The famous Pieta inside St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Peter’s Basilica

The dome of St. Peter’s Basilica

The famous Swiss guard

Vatican City

Pantheon

Piazza Navona

Nice dinner in Rome

Colosseum

Colosseum

Colosseum

Panoramic view of Colosseum

Colosseum

The Roman Forum

An ancient temple at the Roman Forum

Roman Forum

Piazza Argentina, Julius Caesar was murdered here

Monument to Vittorio Emanuelle II

Spaghetti carbonara and seafood bucatini

Calzone

BAHASA INDONESIA

Sebelumnya dalam 2012 Year-End Trip: Zilko dan adiknya pergi dalam perjalanan 12 hari ke empat negara di Eropa. Setelah menghabiskan tiga hari di Paris, kini mereka berada di ibukotanya Italia: Roma.

***

Hari 5 (Minggu, 30 Desember 2012)

Karena ada dua hari penuh untuk dihabiskan di Roma, kami memutuskan hari pertama untuk dihabiskan di Kota Vatikan. Jadi, setelah sarapan di sebuah kafe di seberangnya Stasiun Roma Termini, kami naik bus umum menuju Lapangan Santo Petrus. Singkat cerita, kami tiba disana sekitar jam 11:00 dan melihat lapangannya yang terkenal itu dipenuhi oleh banyak sekali orang.

Tujuan pertama kami tentu saja adalah masik ke Basilika Santo Petrus. Aku tahu bahwa untuk itu, kami harus mengantri dulu karena akan ada pemeriksaan sekuriti sebelum masuk. Kami melihat ada satu barisan panjang banget yang sepertinya adalah antrian yang kami cari itu, tapi kok panjang BANGET ya!! Jadi pemeriksaan sekuritinya kan di bagian setengah lingkaran kanannya Lapangan Santo Petrus tuh; tetapi antriannya, dalam artian sebenarnya, mengitari lapangannya dan ujungnya itu berada di dekatnya gerbang keluar basilikanya di ujung kiri lapangannya! Gila!

Nah, selama kami bergerak mendekati area pengecekan sekuritinya dengan mengantri, (tentu saja) ada beberapa orang yang tidak memiliki harga diri dan maunya langsung cepat masuk aja ke basilikanya dengan memotong antrian. FYI, kami mengantri selama sekitar dua jam, dalam artian sebenarnya, loh untuk mencapai titik itu. Tentu saja ada beberapa orang yang juga mengantri yang tidak terima dan menegur beberapa orang yang mau memotong antrian itu agar mereka ke belakang antrian. Dan kemudian ada seorang wanita Amerika berambut blonde yang, setelah ditegur untuk tidak memotong antrian, malah menjawab: “Eh, aku lihat banyak orang kok yang memotong antrian juga jadi whatever lah…” . Gila, what a bitch banget kan!!

Anyway, kembali ke cerita yang menyenangkannya, ketika mengantri, di satu waktu, orang-orang tiba-tiba berkumpul (jadi lapangannya itu penuh orang dalam artian sebenarnya) dan kami mendengar ada bapak-bapak yang memberikan semacam kotbah dalam bahasa Italia (jadi kami nggak ngerti). Lalu, lelaki Italia di depan kami menunjuk ke satu orang yang sedang berdiri di balik sebuah jendela di gedung di dekatnya Lapangan Santo Petrus, dan ada permadani merah yang menjulur keluar dari jendela itu. Dan langsunglah kami sadar bahwa pada saat itu kami sedang melihat (dan mendengarkan ceramahnya): PAUS!! Gyaaaa . Ini benar-benar nggak disangka-sangka dan direncanakan deh!! Pantesan aja ya sehari itu kok rame banget lapangannya… .

Jadi, setelah mengantri selama dua jam, akhirnya kami masuk ke basilikanya juga. Disana, bukannya langsung masuk ke basilikanya, kami malah memilih jalur yang salah dan tiba-tiba kami berada di antrian lain ( ) di dalam basilikanya. Awalnya kami nggak tahu ini antrian buat apaan (huahaha ) tapi kemudian kami menyadari bahwa ini adalah antrian untuk naik ke cupola, alias puncak kubah,-nya Basilika Santo Petrus.

Setelah mengantri selama satu jam lagi (yang mana sampai kami muak ngantri deh setelahnya), akhirnya kami masuk juga. Kami memilih tiket kombinasi lift – tangga untuk naik ke puncak kubahnya (pilihan lainnya adalah naik tangga aja). Kami naik lift yang artinya kami meng-skip sekitar 280an anak tangga dan kemudian melanjutkan perjalanan ke atas kubah dengan 300 anak tangga lagi, dengan jalan kaki.

Aku tidak menaiki puncak kubah di kunjunganku ke Kota Vatikan di tahun 2010, jadi ini adalah pengalaman baru untukku. Puncak kubahnya menawarkan pemandangan klasik Roma, dan terutama Lapangan Santo Petrus. Keren deh! Tangga untuk naik ke atasnya juga unik dan berkesan karena miring-miring gitu mengikuti bentuk kubahnya. Namun, melihat ke belakang sekarang, mungkin pengalamannya ya nggak se-worthy itu sih dengan harga yang harus kita “bayar” (mengantri), lol. Maksudku, kami mengantri selama tiga jam loh hari itu ditambah dengan antrian sepanjang tangga untuk sampai ke puncaknya!!

Jam menunjukkan pukul 15:30 ketika kami akhirnya tiba kembali di pintu utamanya Basilika Santo Petrus. Dan sekarang barulah kami memasuki gereja super indah ini. Kami berkeliling basilika raksasa ini dan memutuskan untuk keluar cepat dengan harapan masih sempat untuk pergi ke Museum Vatikan. Kami bertanya ke pertugas keamanannya tetapi ia bilang bahwa saat itu sudah terlambat karena akses masuk museumnya sudah ditutup . Nah kan, kelamaan ngantri deh sehari itu!!

Setelah beberapa waktu, kami meninggalkan Basilika Santo Petrus dan berkeliling Roma. Kami berjalan ke arah Castel Sant’Angelo. Setelah duduk-duduk (istirahat) di depan kastilnya sebentar, kami naik bus untuk kembali ke pusat kota. Kami berjalan ke Pantheon dan Piazza Navona sebelum akhirnya makan malam di sebuah restoran Italia yang oke banget yang aku tahu. Adikku mencoba steak ala Florence seberat 500 gram yang enak banget. Restorannya memang beneran enak banget loh!

Hari 6 (Senin, 31 Desember 2012)

Setelah menghabiskan satu hari di Kota Vatikan sehari sebelumnya, kami mengalokasikan hari ini untuk mengunjungi sisi lainnya Roma: Roma Kuno. Jadi, setelah sarapan, kami naik bus umum menuju Colosseum.

Berdasarkan pengalamanku, satu alternatif yang oke adalah ikutan tur lokal yang diadakan untuk turis. Dengan tur ini, kita nggak perlu ngantri untuk tiketnya dan kita juga mendapatkan pemandu wisata yang merupakan penutur asli (native speaker) bahasa Inggris untuk menjelaskan semuanya tentang Colosseum dan Roman Forum di sebelahnya. Dan turnya ketemu loh, yeah!!

Turnya dimulai sekitar 15 menit setelah kami bergabung ke grupnya (jadi mereka menunggu sejumlah peserta dulu sebelum turnya dimulai). Pemandu wisata pertama hari itu adalah Stephen yang membawa kami berkeliling Colosseum dan menceritakan sejarah bangunan keren ini. Setelah sejam, turnya berakhir. Kami masih memiliki waktu berkeliling Colosseum sebelum tur kedua dimulai, yang mana bersifat optional tetapi tentu saja kami berencana untuk ikutan dong kan sudah termasuk di harga yang kami bayar . Jadi kami mengelilingi Colosseumnya deh, hahaha.

Tur keduanya adalah tur sepanjang 45 menit ke Roman Forum di Bukit Palatine. Tur ini dipandu oleh Jill yang menceritakan kehidupannya para Caesar disana dan tentang bangunannya. Sekitar jam 13:15, turnya berakhir di puncak Bukit Palatine.

Di waktu ini, menduga bahwa akses masuk ke Museum Vatikan akan masih dibuka sampai jam 15:00 dan karena kami melewatkannya sehari sebelumnya, kami berpikir bahwa mungkin kami masih sempat untuk pergi kesana. Kami setuju akan hal ini. Jadi, kami mengitari Roman Forum di bawahnya Bukit Palatine (dimana jalan utama Roma Kuno berada) dengan cepat dan meninggalkan areanya sekitar jam 13:30 untuk naik bus menuju Kota Vatikan.

Singkat cerita, kami tiba di Kota Vatikan. Sayangnya, kami turun di sisi lain kotanya dari lokasi dimana Museum Vatikan berada. Kami harus berjalan mengelilingi negaranya (Kota Vatikan kan sebuah negara ). Oke, ini bukanlah negara yang besar ya tetapi tetap aja masih jauh jaraknya, hahaha. Di jalan, kami mendapatkan beberapa indikasi kurang menyenangkan. Kami mendengar seorang turis Amerika berkata bahwa akses masuk museumnya tutup awal hari ini karena tanggal 31 Desember. Oke deh, sudah jauh-jauh kesana ya kami pikir setidaknya kami harus tiba di pintu masuknya dan kalau beneran tutup ya kami mesti mendapatkan informasinya langsung lah.

Dan informasi itu ternyata benar loh. Akses masuk ditutup jam 13:30 hari ini karena hari ini adalah hari terakhir dari tahun 2012. Sial! Seharusnya kami tinggal lebih lama di Forumnya karena toh kami nggak akan keburu untuk kesana kan andaikata kami bisa kesana lebih cepat pun, dengan kondisi kami baru sempat meninggalkan Forum jam 13:30.

Oke, karena lelah, kami memutuskan untuk makan siang di sebuah kafe di dekatnya Kota Vatikan. Kami memesan pizza, bruschetta, dan gelato. Masakannya lumayan sih sebenarnya tetapi pelayanannya jelek banget deh. Jadi, aku kan sedang memesan sesuatu sementara adikku mencari meja kosong untuk duduk. Nah, ketika dia menemukan satu, seorang pelayannya malah mengusirnya dan bilang bahwa meja itu hanya untuk customer restorannya, yang mana kan kami CUSTOMER-nya gitu! Tapi kemudian, setelah tahu kami memesan lumayan banyak (customer lain kebanyakan pada memesan kopi atau snack ringan jam segitu), baru deh si pelayan yang sama itu menjadi ‘ramah’ dan senyum-senyum. Ah, tapi kami tahu kalau senyum itu palsu kan…

Setelah itu, kami ada banyak waktu untuk dibuang. Jadi, kami memutuskan untuk berjalan kaki dari Kota Vatikan menuju hotel kami di dekat Stasiun Termini, huahaha . Berdasarkan Google Maps, jaraknya sekitar 4,5 km deh, nggak jauh-jauh amat ternyata. Kami beristirahat sebentar di hotel sebelum makan malam di Pastarito lagi malamnya. Kami memesan spaghetti carbonara, bucatini seafood, dan calzone.

Kami nggak merayakan Malam Tahun Baru malam itu. Satu alasannya karena kami harus pergi ke bandara keesokan harinya untuk naik pesawat menuju Madrid, alasan lainnya adalah Malam Tahun Baru kan gila ya dan aku kan nggak terlalu suka itu, hahaha .

BERSAMBUNG…

Selanjutnya dalam 2012 Year-End Trip:
- Perjalanan ke Madrid
- Estadio Santiago Bernabéu
- Ke Barcelona

#1174 – 2012 Year-End Trip (Part II)

ENGLISH

Previously on 2012 Year-End Trip: Zilko and his brother went on a 12-day trip to four countries in Europe. First, they visited Paris. After spending two nights there, they had one more day before continuing their trip to their next destination: Rome.

***

Day 3 (Friday, 28 December 2012)

Our main destination for the day was the Versailles Palace. We took Metro to Gare d’Austerlitz and from there the Vick train to Versailles. Luckily, this time the train didn’t break down so we didn’t have to change train somewhere (while the announcement was in French only) and went directly to Versailles. Those who are confused can read the story of my first visit to Paris in 2011 here.

Entering the palace was also free for me because of my residency in the Netherlands and my young age, huahaha . Anyway, the queues to enter the palace weren’t both as long as my previous visit there in 2011. So it was nice.

After a quick visit to the palace (1.5 hours), we walked to Versailles’ huge and gigantic garden just behind the palace. Btw, I am not exaggerating here as according to Wikipedia, the garden’s area is 800 hectares (which means we can fit four Monacos (country) in it). Oh, before entering the garden, my brother decided to buy a box of eight Laduree macarons for €16.40 (if I am not mistaken about the price). And then I understood why Laduree was so famous, as it was SO good!!

Anyway, so we walked around the garden and we also, somehow, visited some parts of the garden that I did not visit during my last trip there. The one that stood out for me was the Queen’s Hamlet. The buildings there were so unique and fairy-tale-ish; like houses you would expect to see as illustrations accompanying a storybook. So stunning!

It was such a long walk in the garden though. Based on a very rough estimate on Google Earth, I think we walked around 7.5 km in the garden only that day! We left the palace at around 17:30, just in time before it was closed for visitors.

We took the Jill train back to Paris, got off at Gare d’Austerlitz again and took a Metro to Republique where we had dinner at an American steakhouse restaurant, huahaha . The meals there were nice as well btw

Day 4 (Saturday, 29 December 2012)

The theme of the day was to travel from Paris to Rome. The obvious choice of mode of transportation was airplane. Our flight to Rome was scheduled to take off at 14:55 from Paris Orly Airport. So, we checked out at our hotel at around 10:30 and took a Metro to get to the departure point of the OrlyBus to Orly Airport.

Orly is the former main international airport of Paris, as now its function has been replaced by the much larger Charles De Gaulle Airport. Orly still serves some domestic and intra-Europe flights.

We arrived at the airport a bit too early (read: 1.5 hours, muahahaha ). Apparently we allocated a bit too much time for the “worst case scenario” to get to the airport (like missing the bus, etc) as it was also my first time to go to Orly. Plus, the bus was much faster than expected to get there. I read it would take like 45 minutes but it only took 20 minutes. And so, we killed time by having brunch: a very expensive pasta which cost €10.10. The pasta was good actually, but I still found the price a bit too expensive for that.

Long story short, we checked-in and boarded our flight: A Vueling’s Airbus A320-216 reg code EC-KCU with flight number VY 6258. The flight departed on time, at 14:55. It took off from runway 24 of Paris-Orly Airport and landed at runway 34R of Rome-Fiumicino International Airport about two hours later. Yes, it was quite a long flight, this was the route map btw:

Flight VY 6258 route map from Paris to Rome

We took a bus to go to the city centre. Our hotel was nicely located near Rome Termini station. It was very convenient because a lot of Roman public transportation lines passed this main station. Anyway, there was apparently a problem with our original hotel so the owner offered a replacement at another hotel which was pretty much in the same place and with the same price and quality. Well, seeing no other option we took it.

That evening, we had dinner at Pastarito: a nice pasta restaurant-chain that I know in Rome (thanks to my previous visit exactly two years prior ). Yeaah, finally, I could, again, have its super delicious bucatini carbonara!!

We visited Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Step that night after dinner (and of course I threw another coin to the fountain ).

TO BE CONTINUED…

Next on 2012 Year-End Trip:
- Vatican City
- the Ancient Rome
- Off to Spain (Madrid and Barcelona)

Versailles Palace

My favorite room inside the palace

Laduree macarons

Versailles Garden

Versailles Garden

A painting of Marie Antoinette

Details of the Temple of Love at Versailles Garden

Belvedere at the Versailles Garden

The Queen’s Hamlet

The Queen’s Hamlet

Dinner at a steakhouse in Paris

Vueling’s Airbus A320-216 reg code EC-KCU was ready to fly to Rome from Paris

On Board Vueling’s Airbus A320

Flying over the Alps to Rome

Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport in Rome

Finally eating this super delicious bucatini carbonara again!!

Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

A street in Rome at night

Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps from above

BAHASA INDONESIA

Sebelumnya dalam 2012 Year-End Trip: Zilko dan adiknya berjalan-jalan selama 12 hari ke empat negara di Eropa. Pertama-tama, mereka mengunjungi Paris. Setelah menghabiskan dua malam disana, mereka memiliki satu hari lagi disana sebelum melanjutkan perjalanan ke destinasi selanjutnya: Roma.

***

Hari 3 (Jumat, 28 Desember 2012)

Tujuan utama kami hari ini adalah Istana Versailles. Kami menaiki Metro menuju Gare d’Austerlitz dan dari sana naik kereta Vick menuju Versailles. Untungnya, kali ini tidak ada adegan kereta rusak sehingga kami tidak harus berganti kereta entah dimana (sementara pengumumannya hanya dalam bahasa Prancis) dan langsung pergi ke Versailles. Yang bingung bisa sedikit menengok cerita perjalanan pertamaku ke Paris di tahun 2011 disini.

Memasuki istananya juga gratis loh untukku karena aku adalah penduduk Belanda dan usiaku yang masih muda, huahaha . Anyway, antrian masuk ke istananya tidak sepanjang kunjunganku sebelumnya di tahun 2011 itu deh. Asyik dah.

Setelah tur singkat di istananya (1,5 jam), kami berjalan ke tamannya Versailles yang besar nan berukuran raksasa banget di belakang istananya itu. Btw, aku nggak berlebihan loh ini karena menurut Wikipedia, luas tamannya itu 800 hektar (yang mana artinya tamannya muat untuk menampung empat (negara) Monako di dalamnya). Oh iya, sebelum memasuki tamannya, adikku memutuskan untuk membeli satu kotak macarons-nya Laduree seharga €16.40 (kalau nggak salah akan harganya ya). Dan akhirnya aku menyadari deh kenapa Laduree ini terkenal banget, soalnya enak BANGET loh!!

Anyway, kami berjalan mengelilingi tamannya dan kami juga mengunjungi beberapa bagian taman yang belum sempat kukunjungi di kunjunganku sebelumnya kesana. Yang paling keren banget menurutku adalah Queen’s Hamlet. Bangunannya itu unik banget dan bernuansa seperti cerita dongeng gitu; seperti rumah-rumah yang biasa kita lihat sebagai ilustrasi di buku dongeng. Keren bener!

Kami berjalan jauh bener loh di tamannya. Berdasarkan estimasi kasar dengan Google Earth, kayaknya kami berjalan sepanjang sekitar 7,5 km deh di tamannya saja hari itu! Kami meninggalkan istananya sekitar jam 17:30, tepat sebelum areanya ditutup untuk umum.

Kami menaiki kereta Jill untuk kembali ke Paris, turun di Gare d’Austerlitz lagi, dan naik Metro menuju Republique dimana kami makan di sebuah rumah makan steakhouse Amerika, huahaha . Masakannya oke juga lho btw

Hari 4 (Sabtu, 29 Desember 2012)

Tema hari ini adalah bepergian dari Paris menuju Roma. Pilihan alat transportasinya jelas adalah pesawat lah ya. Penerbangan kami ke Roma dijadwalkan lepas landas jam 14:55 dari Bandara Paris Orly. Jadilah kami check-out dari hotel sekitar jam 10:30 dan kemudian naik Metro ke lokasi keberangkatannya OrlyBus untuk menuju Bandara Orly.

Orly dulunya merupakan bandara internasional utamanya Paris, sebelum perannya digantikan oleh Bandara Charles De Gaulle yang lebih besar. Orly kini masih melayani beberapa rute penerbangan domestik dan intra-Eropa.

Kami tiba di bandara agak terlalu awal (maksudnya: 1,5 jam, muahahaha ). Jadi ternyata kami mengalokasikan agak terlalu banyak waktu untuk “skenario terburuk” dalam perjalanan ke bandara (kayak ketinggalan bus, dll) karena ini kan juga kali pertamaku ke Orly. Plus, busnya juga lebih cepat dari jangkaan kami deh. Aku baca-baca, perjalanan busnya menuju Orly memakan waktu sekitar 45 menit tetapi kenyataannya cuma 20 menit saja. Jadilah kami membunuh waktu dengan sekalian makan siang: pasta amat mahal yang harganya €10.10. Sebenarnya pastanya enak sih, tapi tetap aja menurutku harga segitu ya masih kemahalan lah ya.

Singkat cerita, kami check-in dan menaiki pesawat kami: sebuah Airbus A320-216 milik Vueling dengan kode registrasi EC-KCU dengan nomor penerbangan VY 6258. Penerbangannya berangkat tepat waktu, jam 14:55. Ia lepas landas dari landasan pacu 24 Bandara Paris-Orly dan mendarat di landasan pacu 34R Bandara Internasional Rome-Fiumicino sekitar dua jam kemudian. Iya, memang penerbangan yang lumayan panjang, berikut ini peta rutenya btw:

Peta rute penerbangan VY 6258 dari Paris menuju Roma

Kami naik bus untuk pergi ke pusat kota. Hotel kami berlokasi di dekat stasiun Roma Termini. Lokasi ini sangatlah strategis karena banyak sekali alat transportasi umum Roma yang melewati stasiun utama ini. Anyway, ternyata ada masalah dengan hotel yang kami pesan sehingga pemiliknya menawarkan alternatif hotel lain di lokasi yang tidak terlalu jauh dan dengan harga dan kualitas pelayanan yang sama. Ya sudah lah, kami ambil saja tawaran itu.

Malam itu, kami makan malam di Pastarito: sebuah jaringan-restoran pasta amat enak yang aku tahu di Roma (berkat kunjunganku kesana tepat dua tahun sebelumnya :D ). Yeaah, akhirnya, aku bisa menikmati lagi bucatini carbonara-nya yang uenak banget itu!! 

Kami mengunjungi Air Mancur Trevi dan Spanish Step malamnya setelah makan malam (dan tentu saja aku melempat koin lagi ke air mancurnya ).

BERSAMBUNG…

Selanjutnya dalam 2012 Year-End Trip:
- Kota Vatikan
- Roma Kuno
- Pergi ke Spanyol (Madrid dan Barcelona)