#894 - Trip to Keukenhof

ENGLISH

Exam week is over, it is time for a little bit of relaxation. So, a group of friends and I had this plan to go to Keukenhof today. Keukenhof is a famous garden in Holland for its beautiful tulips (and other flowers) they have every year. They only open during spring and we thought today was the best time to go.

We caught a 9.24 AM train heading for Amsterdam Centraal (but then got off at Leiden Centraal). The train was so fully packed. We found no empty seat and we ended up standing for the whole trip to Leiden! Crazy! From Leiden, we caught a bus to Keukenhof. Again, there were SO many people who wanted to go to Keukenhof that there was a really long line for the bus. Lucky somehow we managed to get to the front of the line for an upcoming bus, meaning that it would be easier for us to get seats :-D All that we concerned by this time was the potential long line to buy tickets on the ticket booths in Keukenhof. This made sense because today was one of the busiest days Keukenhof has due to the flower parade they had today.

Once we were in Keukenhof, our anxiety was proven to be irrelevant as there was no line in the ticket booths at all (because there were several booths). However, it was true that there were A LOT OF people there. I mean, yeah, A LOT OF people! I think there were more than 10 thousand people visiting Keukenhof today as also indicated by the huge number of cars and coaches that I saw today.

Anyway, Keukenhof was BEAUTIFUL! I mean, there is nothing like it in Indonesia. Along the way there and around the garden we could see a vast flat field planted with flowers in many colors. And they also put flowers with different color separately, making them look very neat and nice! The garden itself was great! It was huge and also neatly arranged! Well, there was not that many activity that we could do there, but enjoying the atmosphere was already really really nice. Even though at some point after walking around for hours we did not really care about the flowers anymore (because we had already seen like tons of them).

Talking about the flower parade, this parade was actually another reason why we picked today. It was said to be the biggest parade in Holland. So, who wouldn't want to see that? We heard it would start at around 3 PM in one of the main road nearby the garden. We went there at almost 3. We were kinda late as "too" many people were already there and basically had taken every single inch of good space to watch the parade. We were still a bit persistent at first, waiting for it patiently. One hour passed, still NO parade!! C'Mon! The weather then turned to be not so good anymore. Tired, we decided to leave the place as we would not have been able to see the parade like clearly anyway. And we can just watch it on Youtube later. So, we ended up leaving the garden without seeing the parade.

To get back to Leiden, we should also catch a bus. There was a line for our bus and we waited there. We missed the first bus available (because it had already been full) and had to wait for the next one. I read that during the weekend they operated like 8 buses per hour. It translated to 1 bus every 7 minutes 30 seconds in average, right? Okay, it was not supposed to be that bad, I thought. So, we waited...

Ten minutes, no bus.

Twenty minutes, still no bus.

Thirty minutes, still no freaking bus.

Forty minutes, finally a bus showed up! Apparently it got stuck in a traffic jam (due to the freaking delayed parade).

So we got to Leiden Station and caught a train back to Delft. That summed up my Saturday story now :-)

::: Keukenhof's Entrance. Yeah, there were this MANY people today.

::: Red flowers.

::: Another flowers.

::: A really cool scenery! Those colors were flowers!

::: A Windmill in Keukenhof.

::: More flowers.

::: Still more flowers!

::: Even more flowers!

BAHASA INDONESIA

Minggu ujian berakhir, artinya waktunya untuk sedikit relaksasi telah tiba. Nah, aku dan segrup teman-teman sudah berencana untuk pergi ke Keukenhof hari ini. Keukenhof adalah taman terkenal di Belanda yang terkenal akan tulip (dan bunga-bunga lainnya) yang mereka tanam setiap tahun. Mereka hanya buka di musim semi saja dan makanya kami berpikir hari ini adalah waktu yang tepat untuk pergi.

Kami naik kereta jam 9.24 pagi tujuan Amsterdam Centraal (tapi turunnya di Leiden Centraal). Eh keretanya penuh banget loh. Kami tidak menemukan tempat duduk kosong sama sekali dan harus berdiri deh sepanjang perjalanan ke Leiden! Gila! Dari Leiden, kami naik bus menuju Keukenhof. Lagi, karena BUANYAKK yang mau pergi ke Keukenhof, antrian untuk busnya panjang banget. Beruntung kami akhirnya berada di depan antrian untuk menunggu bus yang akan datang. Ini kan artinya kami bisa lebih mudah dalam mencari kursi kosong di dalam bus :-D Yang agak kami khawatirkan adalah potensi antrian panjang di loketnya Keukenhof. Ini masuk akal karena hari ini adalah salah satu hari tersibuk di Keukenhof karena mereka ada pawai bunga hari ini.

Begitu tiba di Keukenhof, kekhawatiran kami tidak terbukti karena nggak ada antrian di loketnya sama sekali (soalnya ada beberapa loket sih). Namun, benar bahwa ada BUANYAAKKK banget orang di Keukenhof hari ini. Maksudku, iya, BUANYAAKKK banget orang! Kira-kira 10 ribu orang ada deh di taman itu hari ini, seperti yang juga terlihat dari banyaknya mobil dan bus-bus pariwisata yang aku lihat tadi.

Ngomong2, Keukenhof memang INDAH sekali! Maksudku, nggak ada deh yang kaya gini di Indonesia. Sepanjang jalan kesana dan di sekitar tamannya ada tanah lapang yang luas dan rata yang ditanami berbagai macam bunga dalam berbagai macam warna. Sudah gitu mereka menanam bunga dengan warna berbeda secara terpisah, sehingga bunga-bunga itu kelihatan rapi gitu. Tamannya sendiri juga bagus banget! Sangat luas dan ditata dengan sangat rapi! Yah, nggak banyak aktivitas memang yang bisa dilakukan disana, tapi menikmati atmosfer dan suasana tamannya juga sudah enak banget koq. Walau di satu titik akhirnya kami sudah "muak" sama bunga-bunga lagi (soalnya uda ngeliat buanyak banget bunga).

Ngomongin tentang pawai bunga, pawai ini sebenarnya adalah salah satu alasan mengapa kami memilih hari ini. Katanya ini pawai terbesar di Belanda. Nah, masa nggak tertarik? Kami dengar pawai akan dimulai sekitar jam 3 sore di salah satu jalan utama di dekat Keukenhof. Jam 3an kurang kami kesana. Kami agak terlambat karena sudah "terlalu" banyak oraang yang datang dan pada dasarnya setiap sentimeter tempat yang bagus untuk nonton pawai sudah terambil. Awalnya kami sih masih bersemangat dan teguh, menunggu pawai itu dengan sabar. Satu jam kemudian berlalu, dan masih belum ada tuh pawainya!! Ayolah! Cuaca juga terus berubah agak kurang mengenakkan. Capek, kami memutuskan untuk pulang saja deh, toh juga nggak akan bisa lihat pawainya dengan jelas juga. Dan lagi, kan bisa nontonnya nanti aja di Youtube. Ya udah, akhirnya kami meninggalkan Keukenhof tanpa meliaht pawainya.

Untuk kembali ke Leiden, kami juga harus naik bus. Ada antrian untuk bus itu dan kami mengantri disana. Kami ketinggalan bus pertama (soalnya uda penuh) dan harus menunggu yang selanjutnya. Aku baca bahwa di akhir pekan mereka mengoperasikan delapan bus per jam. Artinya, satu bus rata-rata datang setiap 7 menit 30 detik kan? Oke, nggak papa lah, itu yang kupikir. Jadi, kami menunggu...

Sepuluh menit, bus belum datang.

Dua puluh menit, bus masih belum datang.

Tiga puluh menit, mana ini busnya woi!!

Empat puluh menit, akhirnya satu bus muncul! Ternyata bus itu terjebak kemacetan lalu lintas (gara-gara pawai sial itu).

Begitu sampai di Stasiun Leiden sih kita langsung naik kereta balik ke Delft. Dan disinilah cerita Sabtuku berakhir :-)

#871 - Screwed Day

ENGLISH

Hi all, I just got back from my awesome two-week trip to Italy over the Christmas break last night. As you might expect, I have so many stories to tell and let me catch up a little bit. By the way, this entry is practically just a repost of my note on Facebook I posted like two weeks ago, so maybe some of you have already read it :-)

One of the most interesting thing that happened during the trip was the adventure we had on the very first day. It was literally an adventure as many things went wrong simultaneously. Let me elaborate all of them, trust me, it is so adventurous and exciting! ;-)

FIRST

The first thing that went wrong was the flight. When we checked in at easyJet's desk, there was no indication something would go wrong. It was smooth, we got our boarding-passes with still on time time departure (9.30 AM), gate, etc. But then, because one of my friend had to travel with wheelchair and crutches, we had to report to the service desk first before getting through the security. There, the lady told us that our flight was delayed until 12.50 PM. We said no and that we just checked in and it was said it was on time. She insisted and said the announcement just came to the system so that was why when we checked in, it was still on time. We checked, and yes, it was delayed until 12.50 PM.

At first we thought it was the snow but then we realized something weird as no other flight was canceled for more than 1 hour that day. Finally, at around 1.15 PM, we were allowed to board the plane, an Airbus A319-111 reg code G-EZEB. On board, it was revealed that the reason behind the delay was that earlier that morning, the first officer (copilot) who was supposed to fly the plane got a really bad accident so that the company had to find another guy to fill in his job. Of course it took time.

Well, the accident that happened to that first officer apparently caused all these things to happen.

SECOND

We landed at around 3.30 PM at Milan Malpensa International Airport. Our next destination was Milan Central Station as we needed to go to Pisa that day. To get there, we chose to catch a bus as the bus-ticket seller said that it would only take around 45 minutes to get to the station. But then, in reality, it took NINETY minutes, freaking NINETY minutes, to finally arrive at the station!! We arrived there at around 5.45 PM, leaving us with only TWO train options to get to Pisa.

THIRD

Both options were not direct trip. We had to transit one time in both trips, and of course we picked the earlier one (and because the earlier one was some 4 or 5 euro cheaper). The first train was scheduled to depart at 7.05 PM and the transit was in a town called Genova. It was scheduled to arrive at 8.46 PM, and our connecting train would depart at 8.56 PM, which meant that we only had like 10 minutes to transfer.

BUT THEN, because the theme of the day was: "we were screwed", another thing went wrong. Our train departed at 7.30 PM from Milan, some 25 minutes behind schedule!! We only had like 10 minutes between trains and now we were suddenly 25 minutes behind schedule?? NIGHTMARE!!! Our only hope was that our connecting train would also be late for some 20 or 30 minutes. But then, because of that theme, it was not the case. When we arrived at Genova Station at around 9.15 PM, our connecting train had already gone. GONE!!! We were officially stranded in Genova, and it was not even a big town!! We looked at the train schedule and saw that the next train to Pisa would leave at 10.45 PM from Genova. Okay, this was our only feasible option, we had to wait for like 1.5 hours in Geneva Station.

The train arrived and we arrived at 12.50 AM in Pisa. "Yeah, finally we are in Pisa", that's what we thought at that point, not knowing that the day loved us so much that two other unfortunate things were still waiting for us.

FOURTH

We were in Pisa Station at around 1 AM and to get out, we had to climb down the stairs to cross the platforms and then climb another stairs up. If you read carefully, one of my friend was travelling with a wheel-chair, so this was a problem. Actually, there was an elevator for handicapped people, but there was a stupid regulation stating that the elevator could only be used for public between 6 AM and 10 PM AND that noone from Trenitalia was in charge that night (if there was one, we could have asked him to activate the elevator just that time to help my friend). We tried to look for different solution(s), but none was there. There was this ramp to cross the rail but it would only bring us one platform closer but not to the exit gate. So, it seemed that we had no other option than for my friend to climb down the stairs using her ass and we carried all the luggages.

FIFTH

About one hour after we arrived at Pisa Station, we finally made it to the gate. Another problem occured. We had to find a taxi. The only available taxi at that time was the small one, so we called our hostel to call us a bigger one. Some fifteen minutes later, a bigger taxi showed up, but he did not seem to have the intention to slow down looking for passengers waiting for him. He just came there, drove around the roundabout and just fleed. F**k!! We waived but because (I think) he did not really care, he did not see us. So we called the hostel again and asked the guy to call another cab. Some fifteen minutes more, finally the cab arrived and now finally he saw us!! We left the station at around 2.15 AM and arrived at the hostel at about 2.30 AM!!



Well, that was pretty much the end of that day. We left Delft at around 6.30 AM and arrived at our hostel in Pisa at 2.30 AM the next day!! It was kinda amazing that all these things (starting with an unfortunate fate for a first officer to a sucky cab-driver) could happen in the same day, in the trip of a specific group of people. Eventhough they all undeniably sucked, but the whole trip was a real adventure and it was super exciting!! Waaaay more interesting than just smooth and all-things-were-fine trip as this trip will always be remembered!!


Anyway, our hostel was only like 100 meter from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, so I could take a peek of the tower and the park (with the Baptistry) that night. And yes, it was really beautiful!! I remember feeling that all the things we had been going though that day worthed it!! (beside, the hostel was really good though :-D)

::: easyJet's Airbus A319-111 reg code G-EZEB which brought us to Milan Malpensa Airport from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport as EZ 2724.

::: the train that took us to Genova Station from Milan Station which were late for 25 minutes.

::: one view at Genova Station.

::: Pisa Station. If you are curious enough, you can actually see the clock there pointing 1.50 AM!!

::: The Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Baptistry. Beautiful!

BAHASA INDONESIA

Halo semua, aku baru saja balik dari liburanku yang hebat selama dua minggu di Italia nih semalam. Seperti yang mungkin bisa ditebak, ada banyak cerita untuk dibagikan dan izinkan aku memulai menuangkannya sedikit. By the way, di posting ini sebenarnya aku hanya mem-posting ulang note-ku di Facebook yang kutulis sekitar dua minggu yang lalu sih, jadi mungkin sebagian sudah pada baca :-)

Satu hal yang paling menarik yang terjadi selama liburanku adalah petualangan yang terjadi di hari pertama. Hari itu benar-benar sebuah petualangan karena banyak hal yang kacau secara bersamaan. Aku akan menguraikannya sekarang, dan percaya deh, cerita ini sangat seru dan mengasyikkan! ;-)

PERTAMA

Hal pertama yang kacau adalah penerbangan. Ketika kami check-in di konternya easyJet, tidak ada indikasi sesuatu akan berubah menjadi kacau. Semua berjalan lancar, kami mendapat boarding-pass dimana tertera waktu keberangkatan yang tepat waktu (jam 9.30 pagi), gerbang keberangkatan, dll. Namun kemudian, karena salah satu temanku harus bepergian dengan kursi roda, kami harus melapor ke meja servis dulu sebelum berjalan memasuki area keberangkatan. Disana, petugasnya bilang bahwa penerbangan kami ditunda sampai jam 12.50 siang. Kami berkata itu tidak mungkin karena kami baru saja check in dan waktu penerbangannya masih tepat waktu. Ia kemudian bersikukuh bahwa memang pengumumannya baru saja masuk ke sistem dan oleh karenanya pada saat check in, waktunya masih tepat waktu. Kami kemudian mengecek di layar keberangkatan, dan memang, penerbangan ditunda hingga jam 12.50 siang.

Awalnya kami mengira keterlambatan ini disebabkan oleh salju tapi kami kemudian mengamati bahwa hanya penerbangan kami lah yang ditunda lebih dari satu jam hari itu. Akhirnya sekitar jam 1.15 siang, kami dipersilakan naik ke pesawat, sebuah Airbus A319-111 kode registrasi G-EZEB. Di pesawat, akhirnya dibeberkan alasan di balik keterlambatan ini bahwa pada pagi harinya, kopilot yang seharusnya menerbangkan pesawatnya kecelakaan parah dan easyJet harus mencari kopilot pengganti untuknya. Tentu ini memakan waktu.

Yah, kecelakaan yang terjadi ke kopilot itu ternyata adalah awal dari semua hal yang terjadi pada kami hari itu.

KEDUA

Kami mendarat sekitar jam 3.30 sore di Bandar Udara Internasional Milan Malpensa. Tujuan kami selanjutnya adalah Stasiun Kereta Api Milan Sentral karena kami harus pergi ke Pisa di hari itu. Untuk pergi kesana, kami memutuskan untuk naik bus karena penjual tiketnya menginformasikan bahwa perjalanan dengan bus menuju stasiun akan memakan waktu sekitar 45 menit. Tapi kemudian, pada kenyataannya, waktu yang dibutuhkan adalah SEMBILAN PULUH menit, SEMBILAN PULUH menit saudara-saudara, untuk sampai di stasiun!! Kami tiba disana sekitar jam 5.45 sore, menyisakan hanya DUA pilihan kereta tujuan Pisa.

KETIGA

Kedua pilihan kereta itu bukanlah perjalanan kereta yang langsung, kami harus melakukan satu kali transit di keduanya, dan tentu saja kami memilih perjalanan yang pertama (dan juga karena perjalanan yang pertama lebih murah sekitar 4 atau 5 euro sih). Kereta pertama ini dijadwalkkan berangkat jam 7.05 malam dan transitnya adalah di sebuah kota kecil bernama Genova. Kereta dijadwalkan tiba di Genova jam 8.46 malam, dan kereta lanjutan akan berangkat jam 8.56 malam, yang artinya kami memiliki waktu 10 menit untuk pindah kereta.

NAMUN KEMUDIAN, karena tema hari itu adalah: "kami sial", hal lain berubah menjadi kacau. Kereta kami baru berangkat jam 7.30 malam dari Milan, yang artinya terlambat sekitar 25 menit!! Waktu transit kami hanyalah 10 menit dan sekarang kami sudah telat 25 menit?? MIMPI BURUK!!! Satu-satunya harapan adalah kereta lanjutan kami juga akan terlambat 20 atau 30an menit. Tapi kemudian, karena tema tersebut di atas, itu bukanlah hal yang terjadi. Kami tiba di Stasiun Genova jam 9.15 malam, dan kereta lanjutannya sudah berangkat. Kami ketinggalan kereta!! Resmilah kami terdampar di kota Genova, yang bukanlah kota besar. Kami kemudian melihat jadwal kereta dan kereta selanjutnya tujuan Pisa akan berangkat jam 10.45 malam dari Genova. Oke, hanya inilah pilihan memungkinkan bagi kami, kami harus menunggu selama 1,5 jam di Stasiun Genova.

Keretanya akhirnya tiba dan akhir kata kami tiba di Pisa sekitar jam 12.50 subuh. "Yeah, akhirnya kami tiba di Pisa", itulah pikiran kami pada saat itu, tanpa menyadari bahwa hari itu sangat mencintai kami sampai dua kejadian tak mengenakkan masih menunggu kami.

KEEMPAT

Kami tiba di Stasiun Pisa sekitar jam 1 subuh dan untuk keluar, kami harus menuruni tangga (untuk menyeberangi jalur kereta) kemudian naik tangga lain di pintu keluar. Kalau pada membaca dengan cermat, salah satu temanku bepergian dengan kursi roda, dan ini adalah satu masalah. Sebenarnya, ada lift untuk turun ke penyeberangan itu, hanya saja ada aturan tolol dimana lift hanya beroperasi antara jam 6 pagi hinggal jam 10 malam DAN tidak ada seorang petugaspun dari Trenitalia yang bertugas malam itu (kalau ada, kan kami bisa tuh memintanya mengaktifkan lift hanya sekali itu saja untuk membantu temanku). Kami mencoba mencari solusi lain, tapi nggak ketemu. Ada sih penyeberangan biasa antara jalur, tetapi penyeberangan itu tidak berlanjut sampai ke pintu keluar. Ya udah, nggak ada pilihan lain selain melakukan cara paling sederhana: temanku harus menuruni tangga itu satu per satu sambil duduk di lantai dan kami membawa semua barang bawaan.

KELIMA

Sekitar sejam setelah tiba di Stasiun Pisa, kami akhirnya berhasil mencapai pintu keluar. Masalah lain muncul. Satu-satunya taksi yang sudah siap di stasiun itu hanyalah yang taksi berukuran kecil, maka kami menelepon hostel kami untuk meminta taksi yang lebih besar. Sekitar lima belas menit kemudian, satu taksi yang lebih besar datang, tapi sopirnya seperti tidak ada niat untuk mencari penumpang yang sedang menunggunya. Ia cuma datang kesana, menyetir mengelilingi bundaran di depan stasiun, dan langsung pergi begitu saja. Si***n!! Kami tentu melambaikan tangan tapi (sepertinya) ia tidak begitu peduli, dan ia tidak melihat kami. Kemudian kami menelepon hostel kami lagi dan meminta orangnya menelepon taksi lagi. Sekitar 15 menit kemudian, akhirnya taksinya tiba dan akhirnya ia melihat kami!! Kami meninggalkan stasiun sekitar jam 2.15 subuh dan tiba di hostel jam 2.30 subuh!!



Yah, kira-kira itulah akhir hari itu. Kami meninggalkan Delft sekitar jam 6.30 pagi dan tiba di hostel kami di Pisa sekitar jam 2.30 subuh keesokan harinya!! Agak menakjubkan juga bagaimana semua hal ini (dimulai dengan nasib malang kopilot hingga sopir taksi menyebalkan) bisa terjadi di hari yang sama, di perjalanan sebuah grup. Walaupun semua hal ini sangat menyebalkan, tapi keseluruhan perjalanannya benar-benar sebuah petualangan dan sangat mengasyikkan loh!! Jauuuh lebih menarik daripada perjalanan yang lancar dan semua-hal-baik-baik-saja karena perjalanan ini justru akan lebih terkenang!!


Ngomong2, hostel kami berada hanya sekitar 100 meter dari Menara Pisa, jadi aku bisa mengintip menaranya dan tamannya (dengan katedralnya) di malam hari. Dan ya, Menara Pisa memang sangat indah!! Aku ingat merasa bahwa semua hal yang telah kami lalui hari itu setimpal dengan keindahannya!! (di samping fakta bahwa hostelnya bagus sih :-D)

#866 - Portugal Trip (Part 3)

ENGLISH

Well, I just realized that apparently the trilogy about my trip to Portugal has kinda been postponed for a while now. Well, before it is being way out of date and while I have the time now, I am going to finish the trilogy with this entry :-)

Actually all of what I did and visited in Portugal have kinda been shared in both previous entries. What I want to share in this entry is about my experience in Portugal. Well, what I will write here is just based on what I experienced and I have no mean to be rude or judgmental towards all who are mentioned in this entry :-)

Language Barrier

I bet you are not surprised with this. Portuguese people spoke Portuguese as their native language, and only small percentage of them spoke English. Well, they did understand English to some extent, but not that advance enough to be able to communicate with me with no problem. This kind of thing happened several times during my stay there:

Setting : in a restaurant and I was looking at a menu book which was only in Portuguese and I did not understand a single thing written there and I decided to call the waiter to ask something.
Me : "Hi, can you please explain to me what is this?" *pointing at one menu*
Waiter : *explaining things in Portuguese and I did not understand what he said*
Me : "Umm, I am sorry but I do not speak Portuguese. Do you speak English?"
Waiter: "No" *then he continued explaining things in Portuguese slowly hoping that I would understand in which of course I still did not understand*

I ended up picking a random menu from the book and thanks God it was good! :-)

This incident also happened once: My friend and I went into a crowded restaurant ('crowded' is a good sign for a restaurant, right?). We walked in and a maître d’ greeted us in Portuguese. We then said we would like to get a table and so on. We got in, and another maître d’ asked us something in Portuguese, and we said we wanted a table. He asked us something in Portuguese, again, making us to realize that we did not really answer his question. We asked him if he spoke English, and apparently he could not. He then called another waiter there, who also had a limited English proficiency, to communicate with us and we by then understood that we had to make a reservation first as that day there was a big group already reserved that whole restaurant.

Another thing also happened. We were looking for Oceanorium (we got lost because there was no clear sign pointing where the Oceanorium was, damnit!) and we decided to ask direction to a lady. Well, she understood what we were asking but she could not explain the direction in English. So what she did was she mimicked the direction using her hands.


Well, all these incidents taught me that we can not take language for granted. We can not expect everyone to speak English, and even I think it is going to be better and more respectful if we learn some phrases in local language before going to a country.

Portuguese People

My general impression about Portuguese is that they are really nice and helpful! But based on my experience, there were two steps before I could feel that friendliness. In fact, the first impression I got was the exact opposite: they were annoying. These are several incidents that happened:

Annoying #1

During the second day in Portugal, I had an incident: I stepped on dog poo and I did not realize it until I was sitting in a boat tour and crapped my jeans with that poo. (yea, it sucked to hell). I then decided to get my jeans laundered in my hostel.

The next morning, I went to the reception and met a lady there (it was the first time I met her) and I told her about my intention to get my jeans laundered (of course I was willing to pay a reasonable price for that). At first she was really not helpful by responding: "You want me to wash your jeans?" in a not-so friendly tone. Now having felt the not so nice tension, I backed down and basically said "never mind" to her. I then walked back to my room. But then, about 10 minutes later when I was about to leave the hostel to explore the city, she "changed". She said that she could wash my jeans and I had to pay 1.5 euro for that. I thought it was a reasonable price and I said okay. I went back to my room, took my jeans, and gave it to her. She even joked that my jeans was heavy. From here on, suddenly the evil-not-so-friendly image was gone from her!! She became a really nice and friendly woman right after that!! She even expressed how she loved Portugal's weather as it was sunny all week long in a cheerful and funny way!!

Annoying #2

One day I had no idea how to get to Cristo-Rei, so I thought it would be wise to ask some help from the locals. There was one information booth nearby and I decided to get there. Then this sort of conversation happened:

Me : "Hi, do you know how to get to Cristo Rei?"
Guy in the information booth (GIIB): "No"
*well, at this point, I remember thinking that this guy was so rude as he blatantly said "no" with no "sorry" nor sympathetic voice nor what, but then some seconds later, he continued*
GIIB : "But maybe you can go to the information booth in the city center. You can get there by catching bus number #"


I think there were several other incidents but I can not recall them now (damn, this is what we get if we postpone to write things for too long: we forget some details!).

Food

Well, to me, the food in Portugal is not bad, in fact, I enjoyed some of the delicacies!!

I did a little survey and one website suggested that I should try Tripas à moda do Porto in Porto. I wrote something about it in the first part of this trilogy. So, if you are interested enough, just browse it! :-)

Then, a friend told me that I must try "bacalhau". He said it was something like a salted fish cooked in Portuguese style. Well, "bacalhau" sounded exotic and I was really interested in it. Of course, in Portugal, I ate "bacalhau". Apparently, "bacalhau" is a name of a fish and so it can be cooked in several different ways. And I enjoyed some of the bacalhau menus, especially the fried one! hahaha. There was one bacalhau menu I had in Belem where it was cooked in a way such that it looked like a fried rice!! Being curious, my friend asked one of the restaurant what bacalhau was. Then, he said it was a Portuguese word for: "COD"!! My friend, who was from Canada, just said that bacalhau officially lost its exoticity, hahaha....

There was also another exotic food in Portugal: octopus!! Yes, octopus, not cuttlefish or squid! Well, (lucky enough, I guess) I did not eat its head, but its tentacles. It tasted kinda weird, because the tentacles were thick and fat enough so you could taste its chewiness and what was in that tentacles!



Well, I think that is pretty much what I want to share in this blog about my trip to Portugal. Hopefully all of you enjoy this, and future me (a note to myself), do not forget this: never postpone at least writing a draft about a trip or you will forget more details as time goes by!! :-)


::: Tripas à moda do Porto

::: Pasteis de Belem.


BAHASA INDONESIA

Yah, baru saja aku sadar bahwa ternyata trilogi tentang perjalananku ke Portugal sudah agak tertunda beberapa waktu nih. Hmm, sebelum menjadi terlalu basi dan sementara lagi ada waktu sekarang, aku akan menyelesaikannya melalui posting ini :-)

Sebenarnya, semua hal yang aku lakukan dan kunjungi di Portugal telah aku tulis di kedua posting sebelum ini. Yang ingin aku tulis disini lebih ke pengalamanku di Portugal. Yah, sebelum aku memulai menulis, aku ingin berkata dahulu bahwa aku tidak ada maksud sama sekali menyindir apalagi mengejek pihak yang disebut di posting ini ya :-)

Kendala Berbahasa

Aku yakin pasti pada nggak kaget dengan hal ini. Orang Portugal itu berbahasa Portugis sebagai bahasa ibu mereka, dan hanya sedikit yang berbahasa Inggris dengan lancar. Yah, mereka mengerti bahasa Inggris koq sampai tingkat tertentu, hanya saja tidak semahir itu untuk dapat berkomunikasi dengan lancar. Hal-hal seperti ini terjadi beberapa kali ketika aku disana:

Setting : di sebuah restoran dan aku sedang melihat sebuah buku menu yang ditulis hanya dalam bahasa Portugis dan aku nggak ngerti satu hal pun yang tertulis disana sehingga aku memutuskan untuk bertanya pada pelayan.
Aku : "Hi, can you please explain to me what is this?" *menunjuk satu menu*
Pelayan : *menjelaskan dalam bahasa Portugis dan tentu saja aku nggak ngerti apa yang ia bicarakan*
Aku : "Umm, I am sorry but I do not speak Portuguese. Do you speak English?"
Pelayan: "No" *kemudian ia kembali menjelaskan dengan bahasa Portugis dengan pelan-pelan sambil berharap aku akan mengerti dan tentu saja aku masih nggak ngerti maksudnya apa*

Akhirnya aku milih menu secara acak dari buku dan untungnya menunya enak! :-)

Insiden ini juga terjadi sekali: Aku dan temanku masuk ke sebuah restoran yang rame ('rame' itu pertanda bagus bagi sebuah restoran kan?). Kamu masuk dan pelayannya menyambut kami dengan bahasa Portugis. Kami berkata kami ingin mendapat meja dan seterusnya. Kami masuk, dan seorang pelayan lain datang dan bertanya dalam bahasa Portugis, dan kami bertanya kami ingin duduk. Dia kemudian bertanya lagi, dalam bahasa Portugis, dan akhirnya kami sadar kalau kami tidak memberikan jawaban yang tepat. Kami bertanya apakah ia bisa berbahasa Inggris dan ternyata tidak. Dia kemudian memanggil pelayan lain, yang juga berbahasa Inggris dengan terbata-bata, untuk berkomunikasi dengan kami dan akhirnya kami baru tahu kalau kami harus pesan tempat dulu karena di hari itu lagi ada grup besar yang sudah memesan tempat di seluruh restoran.

Hal lain juga terjadi. Kami mencari Oceanorium (kami kesasar karena nggak ada petunjuk yang jelas sih yang nunjukin lokasi Oceanorium, sial!) dan memutuskan untuk bertanya ke seorang wanita. Yah, ia sih mengerti apa yang kami tanyakan tapi masalahnya ia tidak bisa menjelaskan dengan bahasa Inggris. Oleh karenanya ia menggunakan tangannya untuk menunjukkan arah.


Yah, semua insiden itu mengajarkan aku bahwa kita tidak bisa menyepelekan masalah bahasa. Kita tidak bisa mengharapkan semua orang untuk dapat berbahasa Inggris, dan aku rasa bahkan akan lebih baik dan lebih menghormati apabila kita juga belajar beberapa frasa dalam bahasa lokal sebelum pergi ke suatu negara.

Orang Portugis

Impresi umumku tentang orang Portugis adalah mereka sangat baik dan ramah! Tapi menurut pengalamanku sih, untuk mencapai level itu, ada dua langkah terlebih dahulu. Malah, impresi awal yang kudapat sangatlah berlawanan: mereka menyebalkan. Ini adalah beberapa insiden yang terjadi:

Menyebalkan #1

Di hari kedua di Portugal, aku mengalami sebuah insiden: aku menginjak kotoran anjing dan aku nggak sadar sampai aku duduk di kapal di tur kapal dan mengotori celana jins-ku dengan kotoran itu. (ember, menyebalkan sekali kan). Aku kemudian memutuskan untuk mencuci celana jinsku melalui jasa laundry di hostel.

Keesokan paginya, aku pergi ke resepsi hotstel dan bertemu seorang wanita disana (ini adalah kali pertama aku bertemu dengannya) dan aku mengutarakan niatku untuk mencuci celana jinsku disitu (tentu saja aku berniat membayar harga yang masuk akal untuk itu). Awalnya, ia sangat tidak membantu dengan merespon: "Kamu ingin saya mencuci celanamu?" dengan nada yang nggak terlalu ramah. Ya karena aku merasa koq ada sedikit ketegangan, ya sudah aku mundur saja dan berkata kira-kira "lupakanlah kalau gitu". Aku kemudian balik ke kamar. Kemudian, sekitar 10 menit kemudian ketika aku akan meninggalkan hostel untuk jalan ke kota, dia "berubah". Ia berkata ia bersedia mencuci celana jinsku dan aku harus membayar 1,5 euro untuknya. Aku merasa harga itu masuk akal dan aku berkata oke. Aku balik ke kamar, mengambil celana jinsku, dan memberikannya padanya. Ia bahkan kemudian bercanda dengan berkata celana jinsku berat. Setelahnya, kesan jahat-dan-nggak-ramahnya hilang sama sekali darinya!! Ia menjadi sangat baik dan ramah setelahnya!! Dia bahkan menceritakan kecintaannya pada cuaca Portugal yang cerah sepanjang minggu dengan cara yang sangat lucu dan riang!!

Menyebalkan #2

Di satu hari aku nggak tahu bagaimana caranya untuk pergi ke Cristo-Rei, jadi aku rasa adalah bijaksana untukku bertanya kepada beberapa orang lokal. Ada sebuah pusat informasi di dekat lokasiku waktu itu dan aku memutuskan untuk menuju tempat itu. Kemudian, percakapan kaya gini terjadi:

Aku : "Halo, apakah Bapak tahu bagaimana cara pergi ke Cristo Rei?"
Bapak-bapak di pusat informasi (BBPI): "Enggak"
*di titik ini, aku sangat ingat berpikir bahwa orang ini nggak ramah amat sih koq cuma gitu aja ngomong "enggak"-nya dengan tanpa kata "maaf" atau kata lain yang lebih simpatik kek, atau solusi kek, tapi kemudian beberapa detik kemudian ia melanjutkan omongannya*
BBPI : "Tapi mungkin kamu bisa pergi ke pusar informasi di pusat kota. Kamu bisa kesana dengan naik bus nomer #"


Aku rasa ada beberapa insiden lain tapi aku nggak bisa ingat nih (sial, inilah yang kita dapat kalau kelamaan menunda menulis: melupakan beberapa detail!).

Makanan

Untukku, makanan di Portugal lumayan tuh, malah, aku suka beberapa menunya!!

Aku melakukan survey kecil dan satu website menyarankanku untuk mencoba Tripas à moda do Porto di Porto. Aku menulis sesuatu tentang ini di bagian pertama trilogi ini. Jadi, kalau mau tahu, buka aja link di atas! :-)

Trus, seorang teman memberitahuku bahwa aku harus mencoba "bacalhau". Kayanya sih "bacalhau" ini semacam ikan asin yang dimasak alah Portuhis. Nah, "bacalhau" terdengar eksotis kan? Makanya aku tertarik. Dan tentu saja, di Portugal, aku makan "bacalhau" dong. Ternyata "bacalhau" itu adalah nama sejenis ikan yang bisa dimasak dalam beberapa cara. Aku suka beberapa menu bacalhau ini, terutama yang digoreng! hahaha. Ada satu menu bacalhau yang aku makan di Belem yang dimasak sedemikian rupa sehingga mirip nasi goreng loh!! Penasaran, temanku bertanya ke salah satu restoran sebenarnya apa sih bacalhau itu. Kemudian, pelayannya berkata bahwa "bacalhau" adalah kata Portugis untuk ikan: "KOD"!! Temanku, yang orang Kanada, langsung bilang kalau keeksotisan bacalhau langsung hilang seketika, hahaha....

Ada juga menu eksotis lain di Portugal: gurita!! Ya, gurita loh, bukan sotong atau cumi-cumi!! Yah, (untungnya, mungkin) aku nggak makan kepalanya, tapi makan tentakelnya. Rasanya rada aneh gimanaa gitu, soalnya tentakelnya kan tebal jadi bener-bener deh terasa kekenyalan dan ketebalan dagingnya itu!



Yah, kurang lebih ini deh yang ingin aku bagikan di blog ini tentang perjalananku ke Portugal. Mudah2an pada menikmatinya ya, dan untuk diriku di masa depan (catatan untuk diri sendiri ceritanya), jangan lupa ini: jangan pernah menunda setidaknya menulis draft tentang perjalananmu atau kamu akan lupa banyak detail seiring dengan berjalannya waktu!! :-)

#862 - (Another) Fun Weekend

ENGLISH

Okay, apparently, I have not been as productive (in blogging) as I expected to be on November, kinda weird though.

Anyway, so last weekend, I went to Belgium, again, for the second consecutive weekend. But this time, my friends and I went to a different city: Ghent. Wait, you have never heard of Ghent before?? Well, in that case, you are not alone, me too. Before my friend posted this link from lonelyplanet in Facebook about three weeks ago, I had never heard of Ghent before. The two closest cities in that list to where I live now were Ghent and Valencia. And because Ghent was waaay closer to Delft than Valencia, so suddenly this trip was planned.

So, last Saturday, this plan was executed. We took an international train ride to Antwerpen and took a local train there to get us to Ghent. We learnt from our experience that traveling on Sunday in Europe was a bad idea since many places were closed (I did not write this detail in my last entry. In that Sunday trip to Leuven, a small town in Belgium, most things (like stores, cafes, restaurants) were closed and of course it kinda sucked! It was a small town and everything in it was closed!! What would be the worse combination??). So we decided to go on Saturday :-)

Anyway, so we finally arrived in Ghent after about three hours of train-ride from Delft. Ghent was a much bigger city and it was more "alive" than Leuven (maybe it was because of the fact that I went to Ghent on Saturday while I went to Leuven on Sunday). There were many beautiful and classical buildings (like churches, cathedral, spire) and we could climb up the clock tower.

Aside from the magnificent architecture, I was really in love with one of the local delicacy (and I still remember the name, so that is a thing). It was stoverij. Stoverij was tender meat cooked for three hours in dark beer with a brown gravy. We tried this delicacy at one restaurant in the Historic Centrum (this might explain why it was kinda expensive (well, not "that" expensive tho for Europe standard): 15 euro). But it was daaaaamn goood!!! I encourage you all to try this menu if you visit Ghent! :-)

Anyway, that day we went to Ghent was apparently the day where the sinterklaas parade took place. And my professor said that the sinterklaas (and Zwarte Pit (Pit the Black)) would be in Delft the whole day. I was a little disappointed with this because I would not be in Delft that day and there would be something going on in Delft that day!?!? That sucked!!! (beside, I had not seen sinterklaas probably since I was in elementary school, LOL). Anyway, so that day in Ghent, apparently they celebrated the same tradition as I also met sinterklaas there!!! Yeaaahhh!!! Sure I did not get any present (c'mon, I was not a little boy anymore) but I was still happy! :D

Well, that pretty much summed up my Saturday. We went back to Delft later that evening after missing the 7.24 PM train (and we gotta take the 8.24 train because of that). Lucky this time the train was not "that" full so we got seat quite easily.

On Sunday, I got my first haircut in Europe and it cost me 12 euro. Well, the price was okay. Then, my friends and I had dinner at an Indonesian restaurant in Den Haag. I had soto babat :-)

::: Ghent's Historic Centrum.

::: A really delicious Stoverij with french fries.

::: Sinterklaas Parade in Ghent, really interesting to see!!

::: sinterklaas!!

::: The city of Ghent as seen from the top of Ghent Clock Tower.

::: Ghent Clock Tower.

::: Sint Baafskathedraal, Ghent, Belgium.

::: Sint Baafskathedraal, Ghent, Belgium with lights on.

::: The city of Ghent at night.

::: Soto Babat!!

BAHASA INDONESIA

Hmmm, ternyata, aku tidak seproduktif (dalam hal nge-blog) yang aku bayangkan di bulan November ini, agak aneh nih.

Ngomong2, jadi wiken lalu, aku pergi ke Belgia, lagi, dua minggu berturut-turut. Kali ini, aku dan teman2 pergi ke kota yang lain: Ghent. Eh, belum pernah dengar Ghent sebelumnya?? Tenang aja, Anda nggak sendiri koq, aku juga. Sebelum temanku merujuk tautan dari lonelyplanet ini di Facebook sekitar tiga minggu yang lalu, aku juga belum pernah mendengar Ghent. Dua kota terdekat di daftar kota itu adalah Ghent dan Valencia. Dan karena Ghent itu jauh lebih dekat ke Delft daripada Valencia, direncanakanlah perjalanan wiken lalu ini.

Jadi, Sabtu lalu, rencana ini dijalankan. Kami naik kereta internasional menuju Antwerpen kemudian pindah ke kereta lokal tujuan Ghent. Kami belajar dari pengalaman bahwa jalan-jalan di hari Minggu di Eropa itu adalah ide yang sangat buruk karena buanyak tempat tutup (aku nggak menulis detail ini di posting sebelumnya nih. Hari Minggu itu, dalam rangka perjalanan ke Leuven, sebuah kota kecil di Belgia, banyak tempat (kaya toko-toko, kafe, dan restoran) tutup dan tentu saja ini sangat menyebalkan!! Leuven adalah kota yang kecil dan apa-apa disana tutup!! Coba deh kombinasi apa yang lebih buruk lagi??). Makanya kami memutuskan untuk pergi di hari Sabtu :-)

Ngomong2, akhirnya kami tiba di Ghent setelah perjalanan tiga jam dengan kereta dari Delft. Ghent adalah kota yang lebih besar daripada Leuven dan lebih "hidup" (ini mungkin karena aku pergi ke Ghent di hari Sabtu sementara aku pergi ke Leuven di hari Minggu). Ada banyak gedung-gedung (kaya gereja, katedral, menara, dll) yang sangat indah dan klasik dan kami juga bisa naik ke atas menara jamnya loh.

Di samping arsitektur yang menawan, aku sangat suka sama salah satu masakan lokalnya (dan aku masih ingat namanya, jadi pertanda bagus tuh). Namanya adalah stoverij. Stoverij adalah daging empuk yang dimasak selama tiga jam dengan dark beer dengan kuah daging. Kami mencoba masakan ini di sebuah restoran di Historic Centrum (ini mungkin menjelaskan mengapa harganya agak mahal (ya sebenarnya nggak mahal-mahal amat sih untuk standar Eropa): 15 euro). Tapi memang enaaaaak banget loh!!! Aku sarankan kalau pas berkunjung ke Ghent, harus mencoba menu ini deh! :-)

Ngomong2, hari dimana kami berkunjung ke Ghent itu ternyata adalah hari dimana diadakannya parade sinterklaas (sinterklas). Dan dosenku bilang kalau akan ada parade sinterklas (dan Zwarte Pit (Pit Hitam)) di Delft sepanjang hari. Aku agak kecewa dengan ini karena aku nggak akan berada di Delft hari itu dan pada hari itu ada sesuatu spesial yang berlangsung di Delft!?!? Nyebelin banget!!! (di samping itu, aku kan uda lama nggak liat sinterklas, mungkin sejak SD kali ya, LOL). Ngomong2, di hari itu di Ghent, ternyata mereka juga merayakan tradisi yang sama karena aku bertemu dengan parade sinterklas!!! Yeaaahhh!!! Tentu saja aku nggak dapat hadiah apa-apa (iya lah kan uda bukan anak kecil lagi :D) tapi masih senang tuh! :D

Yah, kurang lebih itulah hari Sabtuku. Kami balik ke Delft malam harinya setelah ketinggalan kereta yang jam 7.24 malam (dan kami harus naik kereta berikutnya yang berangkat jam 8.24 malam). Untungnya kali ini keretanya nggak penuh-penuh amat jadi kami bisa dapat kursi dengan mudah.

Di hari Minggu, aku potong rambut untuk pertama kalinya di Eropa loh dan ongkosnya adalah 12 euro. Harganya ok sih menurutku. Trus, aku dan teman2 makan malam di sebuah restoran Indonesia di Den Haag. Aku makan soto babat :-)

#861 - Fun Weekend

ENGLISH

Okay, it has kinda been awhile since my last update, and it was longer than I expected it to be. Not that I was "that" busy this week (click that link above to get what I meant by "that"), but I was kinda not feeling about writing something up earlier this week, haha. Anyway, also stated in that link, I had a funtastic weekend last week. I'll try to keep everything in a nutshell now:

On Saturday, I joined an excursion held by the international office of TU Delft for international students to the Neeltje-Jans Delta Works in Zeeland. Some sources said it was considered to be the eight wonder of the world, and this even made me more excited to get there. It was really a great deal as we only needed to pay 7.50 euro for the entrance fee and to bring our own lunch (or buy there).

So, there I went last Saturday. It was pretty far away, about 90 minutes bus-ride from Delft. Though it was not sunny that day, but at least it was not raining, so I was really pleased with that. Anyway, there, we watched a (supposedly) 3-D documentary about the project (but up to now, I still do not understand what was so "3-D" about that as to me, it was just an ordinary 2-D movie, LOL). Then, we went around the park. And in the afternoon, we joined a 1 hour boat-tour around the delta. I really think the place was fantastic and marvelous but to me, it is not a touristy place. Yes, engineers (like many of TU Delft's students) will be so interested and happy to go there, but I do not think people will go there for a vacation (at least me). I think that's why it was called "excursion" and not "picnic", LOL. Btw, there were several attractions there, like some slides, a water park, etc but they were all NOT working while we went there, whatta shame!!

Saturday night, I went to my friend's place to have a Mexican dinner there while also planning about our year-end trip to Italy. It was a really fun night! And also I had my first ever taste of an: enchiladas! LOL

On Sunday, my friends and I went to a city called Leuven, in Belgium. I took my first ever international train-ride that day, quite exciting, rite?? :-) At first the weather was not that great as it was drizzling a bit when we arrived at Leuven. But some minutes later, it stopped, thanks God! :-) Anyway, Leuven was a really nice small town. I really like one park there (I do not know the name but it was beautiful).

We spent the whole day in Leuven and took the 7.45 PM train back to Delft. O yea, with train, it was a three hour trip from Delft to Leuven as it was pretty far away. On our trip from Mechelen until Antwerpen, we did not get any seat as the train was so damn full. Lucky after that we got some, haha...

Well, that is pretty much my fun weekend last week. I am expecting another funtastic weekend this week as I am going to Belgium again this Saturday, and I am going to Den Haag this Sunday!! hehe :-)

::: Dam as part of the Delta-Works.

::: The boat used in the boat-trip in Neeltje-Jans.

::: Enchilada my friend cooked.

::: One spot in Leuven, Belgium.

::: Grote-Markt in Leuven.

::: Oude-Markt in Leuven.

::: Cool picture of autumn in Leuven.

::: Autumn in Leuven.

::: Grote-Bijgenhof. The site reminded me of some movies about the World Wars.

::: Library in Leuven.

::: A really weird monument about a back-stabbed bug in the square of the library of Leuven.

BAHASA INDONESIA

Oke, agak lama juga ya sejak terakhir kali aku update disini, lebih lama dari sangkaan awalku. Yah, bukannya aku sesibuk "itu" minggu ini (klik link di atas untuk mengetahui apa yang aku maksud dengan "itu"), tapi rasanya rada angin2an untuk nulis aja awal minggu ini, haha. Ngomong2, seperti yang kusebut di link di atas, wikenku minggu lalu sangat asik banget. Aku coba tuliskan secara singkat ya:

Di hari Sabtu, aku mengikuti studi ekskursi yang diadakan kantor internasionalnya TU Delft untuk mahasiswa internasional ke Neeltje-Jans Delta Works di Zeeland. Beberapa sumber menyebutkan tempat ini dibilang sebagai keajaiban kedelapan di dunia, dan ini membuatku makin penasaran aja. Acara ini ok banget loh soalnya kami cuma perlu membayar 7,5 euro sebagai biaya masuk dan membawa makan siang sendiri (atau beli disana).

Jadi, kesanalah aku pergi Sabtu minggu lalu. Tempatnya lumayan jauh juga, sekitar 90 menit naik bus dari Delft. Walau hari itu nggak cerah, tapi setidaknya nggak hujan lah, makanya aku senang karenanya. Trus, disana, kami menonton film dokumenter (yang seharusnya) 3-D tentang proyek itu (tapi sampai sekarang aku masih nggak ngerti film itu "3-D" darimananya sih, soalnya untukku kerasa kaya film 2-D biasa aja, LOL). Trus, kami berkeliling taman di sekitarnya. Siangnya, kami ikutan tur dengan kapal selama sejam mengelilingi delta itu. Aku rasa tempatnya memang hebat dan keren tuh tapi untukku, tempatnya bukan untuk turis deh. Ya, insinyur (kaya kebanyakan mahasiswa TU Delft) tentu akan bersemangat dan senang pergi kesana, tapi aku rasa orang nggak akan kesana untuk liburan (paling nggak untuk aku). Makanya ya disebutnya "studi ekskursi", bukan "piknik", LOL. Btw, sebenarnya ada beberapa atraksi sih kaya luncuran, taman air, dll tapi semuanya NGGAK beroperasi ketika aku disana, nyebelin banget!!

Sabtu malam, aku pergi ke tempat temanku untuk makan malam ala Meksiko disana sambil merencanakan acara akhir tahun ke Italia nanti. Benar2 malam yang asyik! Aku juga memakan untuk pertama kalinya sebuah: enchiladas! LOL

Di hari Minggu, aku dan teman-temanku pergi ke sebuah kota bernama Leuven di Belgia. Untuk pertama kalinya seumur hidup aku naik kereta internasional loh, asik kan?? :-) Pertamanya cuacanya agak nggak berkompromi soalnya gerimis kecil waktu kami tiba di Leuven. Tapi beberapa menit kemudian, untungnya hujannya berhenti, untunglah! :-) Ngomong2, Leuven adalah kota kecil yang sangat indah. Aku benar-benar suka sebuah taman disana (aku nggak tahu namanya tapi indah banget).

Kami menghabiskan waktu seharian di Leuven dan naik kereta jam 7.45 malam balik ke Delft. Oya, dengan kereta, Leuven lumayan jauh loh soalnya perjalanannya sekitar tiga jam tuh. Di perjalanan balik dari Mechelen sampai Antwerpen, kami nggak dapat kursi tuh di kereta soalnya lagi penuh banget. Untungnya setelahnya kami dapat kursi, haha...

Yah, itulah kira-kira ringkasan wiken mengasyikanku minggu lalu. Aku bisa berekspektasi wiken ini juga bakal asik sih soalnya aku akan pergi ke Belgia lagi Sabtu ini dan pergi ke Den Haag hari Minggu ini!! hehe :-)

#859 - Portugal Trip (Part 2)

ENGLISH

Previously on Portugal Trip : Zilko went to Portugal for a one week vacation during the quarter-break. He spent the first three nights in Porto, a city 300 km north to Lisbon.

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal.

There are three places that must be visited, in my opinion, if we go to Lisbon, and two alternatives.

(1) Belem

Belem is a small area nearby Lisbon. In history, this place was the departing point of the voyages the world-wide-known Portuguese explorers during the Discovery Age, i.e Vasco da Gama in the 15th century.

Anyway, reading some webs about tourist destinations in Lisbon, most of all lead us to visit this Belem. Even there was one website claiming that Belem is like the Eiffel Tower of Paris or the Colloseum of Rome. If you go to Lisbon, you have to visit Belem. That's what they said. And, the worst time to visit Belem is Monday (and other national holiday days) as the access to some sites in this place is closed during those days.

There are two sites in this area that are included in the "UNESCO World Heritage Site" list, which are Torre de Belém and Jerónimos Monastery. The first one is a tower in a shape of a small fort with a unique Medieval architecture which was constructed in the 16th century as a lighthouse. To get in there, each person had to pay 5 euro (and no discount for students :-( (I already asked the ticket officer, I don't know whether there really was not any discount or she was just lying). To get to the upper floors of it, we had to use a spiral stone-stairs which was really narrow so that there were always long lines just to use this stairs. The second one is a monastery with a beautiful architecture. Honestly, I don't know that much about the second one as I didn't get in there due to a limited ammount of time.

Beside that, in Belem, there is another tower, which is also a monument to commemorate the well-known Portuguese explorers in the 15/16th century, it is the Padrão dos Descobrimentos. There was a discount for students in this place, and for students, it was 1.5 euro per person (after discount). The height of this monument was 52 meter and there was a balcony where we could see around from up there. There was an elevator to get up there. HOWEVER, unfortunately, at that time the elevator was broken down. And to get up there, I had to climb the stairs with 268 steps on it. Well, having made all the waty to Lisbon, why wouldn't I get up? Plus, it was "only" 268 steps! This last sentence was exactly what I thought at that point when I knew the elevator was out of service, not thinking that (apparently) 268 steps was A LOT!! Btw, if you are wondering how I knew the number of steps up there, it is not because I was so desperate that I counted them, but it was that when I was buying the ticket, the ticket-lady informed me about that I had to climb the stairs and there were 268 steps. Well, it was so exhausting, climbing a 268 steps stairs, haha. Up there, the wind was strong, and I could see the area of Belem and the surrounding (including Ponte 25 de Abril).

Apparently, Belem also has a unique delicacy, which is Pasteis de Belem. This pasteis is like a tart pastry with a really sweet stuffing. The taste was good, but I think I couldn't eat it that much as it was too sweet for me. Maybe because it was so famous so that there was a really long line in a bakery that sold this pasteis.ena saking terkenalnya, ada antrian panjang di salah satu toko yang menjual pasteis ini loh.

(2) Downtown Lisbon

Of course when we go to Lisbon, we have to go around the city itself. Lisbon is a city with a Portuguese-acrhitecture touch (of course), which (probably) because they "keep" the originality a bit too much, it was kinda slummy and dirty in some parts of the city.There are several spots in Lisbon that are interesting, which I personally call as the "Praça Triangle". There are three praça (square) which are really close to each other in the central of Lisbon, which are Praça do Comércio, Praça Don Pedro IV, and Praça da Figueira. More or less, this is the center of tourist activity in Lisbon, as there are many cafes, restaurants, stores, etc there.

There is also one more praça not so far away from those three praças, which is Praça dos Restauradores. Nearby, there are roads which are full of restaurants. If you walk to the north from this praça, you will pass by several branded fashion stores (like LV, Prada, D&G, etc).

(3) Cristo-Rei

Cristo-Rei is a Jesus-Christ monument which located accross the Tagus River, more precisely in the district of Almada. This monument is an 82-meter tower with a 28-meter statue of Jesus Christ on top of it. To reach this place, we can catch a ferry to cross the river (from Cais do Sodré) then take bus number 101. According to some sources, this monument was inspired by the Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

We can also climb up (and fortunately, the elevator was working at that time, I was in no mood to climb up anymore :D). To get up there, I paid 4 euro. There was a unique thing in there. The elevator brought us to the upper floor of the tower, but it was not the balcony. After getting out the elevator, we still had to climb several stairs (not that much) and we arrived in a : STORE!! I went around the store and it seemed that there was no other door than the door I came from or stairs to go up. Automatically, I felt deceived!! I paid 4 euro just to get up to a store and I couldn't get up to the balcony where the statue of Christ stood!! Well, apparently, there was a secret door in that sore, in which if we opened it, there was a stairs that would lead us to the balcony where the statue of Christ stood. Lucky I could find it after a little analysis, LOL. Yup, for me it was a secret door as it was not really in a shape of a door and in that "door" there was no handle to open it. To open it, we had to step on a mat for few seconds and that "door" would open. Up there, the wind was strong and the statue of Christ looked really huge (of course)! Up there, we could also see the scenery of Lisbon just accross the Tagus River.

I also think that this Cristo-Rei was one of the best places to see the whole skyline of Lisbon in the banks of Tagus river. This was possible because Almada was located just accross the Tagus river from the center of Lisbon. From this spot, we could get a nice view of Ponte 25 de Abril (it looked like the Golden Gate in San Francisco).


Aside from those three places, there are two more places that I think are also interesting to see in Lisbon:

(1) Castelo de São Jorge

Castelo de São Jorge is a Medieval castle that looked like a fort located on top of a high hill in the center of Lisbon. To get in, we had to pay. For students, it was 3.5 euro per pax. There was a funny incident when I was buying the ticket, but I will keep it for later. To get to the top of the hill, we could take a trem or bus (no. 737) to take us there. But after getting off, we still had to walk uphill for a bit :-)

(2) Parque das Nações

A park that is located in the north-east of Lisbon. It is really close from Oriente railway station. In this park lied Lisbon Oceanarium Lisbon, a sort of Sea World in Indonesia. To get in, each person had to pay 12 euro, but because I had a student card, I only needed yo pay 11 euro (yeah, I saved one euro!). As written above, many tourist destinations in Lisbon are closed on Monday. Well, this Oceanorium opened on Monday, that's why that Monday I went there. It was a cool place, with a big tank filled with many fish. Unfrotunately, there was no that tube-alley which went around the bottom of the tank just like the one in Sea World. The interesting was that there were alive pinguins there!! haha... . While I went there, it was being expanded, so maybe in some times we will get a bigger Oceanorium in Lisbon.

There was also a cablecar in this park. Actually, Torre da Gama, the tallest tower in Lisbon, was located in this park. But because it was (likely, this is just my guess) being renovated, it was closed. This park was also really close to Ponte de Vasco da Gamma, a bridge in Lisbon which was 17.185 km in length!! Up to now, it is the longest bridge in Europe (and waay longer than Suramadu bridge which is "only" 5.438 km in length).


To get around in Lisbon, just like Porto, the best way was to catch public transport. Just like in Porto, to get to a public transport, we could buy a daily pass in the metro station. The different thing was that we got charged by 0.5 euro if we asked for a new card. So, when your card gets expired, do NOT throw it away as you can recharge it (and you save 0.5 euro from that).The price ticket for a daily pass was 3.75 euro for a 24 hour access while a one way ticket (for a metro) cost 0.85 euro. We could use this card to catch all kind of transports in Lisbon, like subway, tram, bus, and also electric tram.

To get around Lisbon AND enjoying the atmosphere, one alternative is by catching a sightseeing bus. There were several companies offering this service. All of them opreated similar buses actually, a double decker bus with open upper deck. Of course the best spot on this bus was on the upper deck. In this bus, they gave us earphone that could be plugged to the seat and we could listen to some explanations of the visited spots. The service was available in eight different languages, and as easily guessed, Indonesian language was not one of them :-D The price varied between companies. And that 25% discount I wrote on the previous entry was only valid in one company. The one I picked offered a package of 15 euro for two days trip (and that was not the company who offered 25%. But that company who gave the discount offered 19 euro ticket for one day. So, even after discount, it was still more expensive, hahaha).

TO BE CONTINUED...


L : Praça da Figueira in Lisbon.
R : A shopping district near Praça do Comércio.


L : Classical Trams in Lisbon.
R : A Gate in Praça do Comércio.


L : Praça Don Pedro IV in Lisbon.
R : District of Alfama.


L : Praça do Comércio as seen from Castelo de São Jorge.
R : Castelo de São Jorge.


L : Castelo de São Jorge
R : A Railway Station with cool architecture.


L : A Roundabout in Lisbon.
R : A church we passed during the sightseeing tour.


L : One park in Belem just accross the Jerónimos Monastery.
R : Park in the heart of Lisbon.


L : Portugal's Flag.
R : A popular relaxing area by the Tagus River.


L : Sightseeing Bus.
R : Funicular (I still think "funicular" is a funny word :-D)


L : Pasteis de Belem.
R : Jerónimos Monastery as seen from top of Padrão dos Descobrimentos.


L : Padrão dos Descobrimentos.
R : A tower in Lisbon which looked ugly in the day :D.


L : Torre de Belem.
R : A guy singing, he had a really great voice!! He COULD sing!!


L : Sea dinosaur made from cans at Lisbon Oceanorium.
R : Tasty Paella.


L : Ponte 25 de Abril as seen from a ferry. Cristo-Rei is also visible.
R : Ponte 25 de Abril. It looked like Golden Gate in San Francisco.


L : Cristo-Rei.
R : Torre de Vasco da Gama and cable car in Parque das Nações.

BAHASA INDONESIA

Sebelumnya dalam Portugal Trip : Zilko pergi ke Portugal dalam rangka jalan-jalan selama seminggu ketika libur kuarter. Ia menginap di Porto, sebuah kota kira2 300 km di sebelah utara Lisbon, selama tiga hari pertama.

Lisbon

Lisbon adalah ibukota dari Portugal.

Ada tiga tempat yang menurutku harus dikunjungi kalau berkunjung ke Lisbon, dan dua alternatif.

(1) Belem

Belem adalah sebuah area kecil di dekat Lisbon. Sejarahnya, dari Belem inilah para penjelajah Portugis ternama memulai perjalanan mereka keliling dunia, misalnya Vasco da Gama di abad ke 15.

Anyway, baca-baca di web tentang destinasi wisata di Lisbon, hampir semua pasti mengarahkan kita untuk mengunjungi Belem ini. Bahkan ada website yang menyatakan bahwa Belem itu ibarat Menara Eiffel-nya Paris atau Colloseum-nya Roma. Kalau berkunjung ke Lisbon, harus pergi ke Belem. Begitu katanya. Nah, waktu terburuk untuk mengunjungi Belem adalah hari Senin (dan beberapa tanggal merah lainnya) karena akses masuk ke beberapa situs di area ini ditutup pada hari-hari itu.

Ada dua bangunan di area ini yang masuk ke dalam daftar "UNESCO World Heritage Site", yaitu Torre de Belém dan Jerónimos Monastery. Yang pertama sebuah menara yang berbentuk seperti benteng dengan arsitektur yang unik yang dibangun di abad ke-16 sebagai mercusuar. Untuk masuk ke menara ini, per orang harus bayar 5 euro (dan tidak ada diskon pelajar :-( (aku sudah tanya ke petugas loketnya tapi katanya tidak ada diskon pelajar, entah beneran nggak ada atau dia malas aja ngasi diskon). Untuk naik ke bagian atas menaranya, kita harus menggunakan tangga batu spiral di dalam benteng yang sangat sempit, alhasil selalu ada antrian panjang untuk naik/turun lewat tangga ini. Yang kedua adalah sebuah biara berarsitektur unik dan indah. Aku nggak gitu banyak tahu tentang lokasi ini karena aku tidak masuk ke dalamnya karena keterbatasan waktu :-)

Selain itu, di Belem ada menara lain, yang juga adalah sebuah monumen untuk memperingati para penjelajah ternama Portugis di abad 15/16-an, yaitu Padrão dos Descobrimentos. Ada diskon untuk pelajar di tempat ini, dan untuk pelajar harga tiketnya (setelah diskon) adalah 1,5 euro per orang. Tinggi monumen ini adalah 52 meter dan ada balkon di atas dimana kita bisa melihat sekeliling dari atas sana. Ada lift koq untuk naik kesana. HANYA SAJA, sialnya, waktu itu lift-nya lagi rusak. Dan untuk naik ke atas, aku harus naik tangga yang jumlah anak tangganya adalah 268 biji. Nggak mau rugi dong, uda jauh-jauh ke Lisbon masa nggak naik?? Lagian, kan "cuma" 268 anak tangga tuh. Kalimat terakhir ini adalah pikiranku ketika tahu lift-nya rusak, dan waktu itu nggak kepikiran kalau 268 anak tangga itu banyak!! Baidewei, kalo penasaran koq aku tahu jumlahnya, jawabannya adalah bukan karena aku kurang kerjaan terus ngitung banyak anak tangganya, tapi waktu beli tiket, petugasnya menginformasikan bahwa aku harus naik tangga dan jumlah anak tangganya 268 biji. Capek banget loh menaiki tangga yang jumlah anak tangganya 268 biji, haha. Di atas, anginnya kenceng, dan aku bisa melihat area Belem dan sekitarnya (termasuk Ponte 25 de Abril).

Rupanya di Belem juga ada satu menu kuliner yang khas, yaitu Pasteis de Belem. Pasteis ini adalah semacam kue khas sana yang rasanya sangat manis di dalamnya. Rasanya lumayan enak sih, cuma kalau makan kebanyakan sepertinya bikin eneg juga. Mungkin karena saking terkenalnya, ada antrian panjang di salah satu toko yang menjual pasteis ini loh.

(2) Downtown Lisbon

Sudah tentu kalau pergi ke Lisbon, ya harus keliling kotanya dong. Lisbon adalah sebuah kota dengan bangunan arsitektur khas Portugis, yang karena (mungkin) saking "dijaga" keasliannya, beberapa bagian kotanya nampak agak kumuh atau kotor. Ada beberapa titik di Lisbon yang menarik untuk dikunjungi, yaitu daerah (yang aku sebut sebagai) "Segitiga Praça". Ada tiga praça (semacam lapangan, atau yang disebut square dalam bahasa Inggris) yang lokasinya berdekatan di tengah kota Lisbon, yaitu Praça do Comércio, Praça Don Pedro IV, dan Praça da Figueira. Kira-kira disinilah pusat aktivitas turis di Lisbon, karena ada banyak toko, kafe, restoran, dsb di area ini.

Ada satu lagi praça di dekat tiga praça di atas, yaitu Praça dos Restauradores. Di dekat sini ada jalanan yang penuh dengan restoran-restoran yang layak dikunjungi. Jika kita berjalan ke arah atas (utara) dari praça ini, kita akan melewati deretan toko-toko barang branded (misalnya LV, Prada, D&G, dll).

(3) Cristo-Rei

Cristo-Rei adalah sebuah monumen Yesus Kristus yang berada di seberang sungai Tagus, tepatnya di kota Almada. Monumen ini berbentuk sebuah menara setinggi 82 meter yang di atasnya ada patung Yesus Kristus setinggi 28 meter. Untuk mencapainya, kita bisa naik kapal ferry menyeberangi sungai (dari Cais do Sodré) kemudian naik bus nomor 101. Menurut beberapa sumber sih monumen ini terinspirasi oleh patung Christ the Redeemer di Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Kita bisa naik ke atas monumen loh (dan untungnya waktu itu lift-nya jalan, ogah banget naik tangga lagi :D). Untuk bisa naik ke atas, kita harus bayar 4 euro. Nah, ada hal unik di dalamnya. Lift mengantar kita sampai lantai di bagian atas menara itu, tetapi nggak sampai balkonnya. Setelah keluar dari lift, kita harus naik tangga (nggak terlalu banyak) dan sampailah kita di sebuah: TOKO!! Aku keliling toko itu dan nampaknya tidak ada pintu lain (selain pintu dari mana aku datang) atau tangga lain untuk naik ke atas. Otomatis aku merasa tertipu!! Uda bayar 4 euro untuk naik masa cuma buat masuk toko doank dan nggak bisa naik sampai balkon tempat patung Yesus-nya?? Nah, ternyata, sebenarnya ada pintu rahasia di dalam toko itu yang jika dibuka, di baliknya ada tangga untuk naik ke balkon tempat patung Yesus berada. Untung aku bisa menemukannya setelah melakukan sedikit analisa :D. Yup, pintu rahasia, karena pintunya nggak berbentuk seperti pintu biasa, dan di "pintu" itu tidak ada gagang untuk membukanya. Cara untuk membukanya adalah kita harus berdiri beberapa saat di keset yang ada di depan "pintu" itu dan "pintu" otomatis terbuka. Di atas, anginnya kencang dan patung Yesusnya nampak besar sekali (iyalah). Dari atas, kita juga bisa melihat pemandangan kota Lisbon yang ada di seberang sungai Tagus.

O ya, Cristo-Rei ini menurutku adalah salah satu tempat yang terbaik untuk melihat keseluruhan pemandangan kota Lisbon yang nampak dari pinggir sungai Tagus. Ini memungkinkan karena Almada, tempat dimana Cristo-Rei berada, terletak tepat di seberang sungai Tagus dari pusat kota Lisbon. Dari lokasi ini juga Ponte 25 de Abril juga terlihat jelas dan bagus (mirip Golden Gate di San Francisco).


Selain tiga tempat di atas, ada dua lagi lokasi yang bisa jadi menarik di Lisbon:

(1) Castelo de São Jorge

Castelo de São Jorge adalah sebuah kastil kuno yang berbentuk seperti benteng yang terletak di atas bukit tertinggi yang ada di tengah kota Lisbon. Untuk masuk, kita harus bayar. Untuk pelajar, harga tiketnya 3,5 euro. Ada kejadian lucu saat membeli tiket ini, tapi karena berhubungan sama masalah bahasa Inggris, aku simpan buat bagian selanjutnya ya. Untuk naik ke atas bukit, kita bisa naik trem atau bus (nomor 737) yang mengantar kita kesana. Tapi, setelah turun dari trem / bus, kita masih harus sedikit mendaki sih :-)

(2) Parque das Nações

Sebuah taman yang terletak di bagian timur laut Lisbon. Letaknya dekat sekali dengan stasiun kereta Oriente. Di taman ini ada Oceanarium Lisbon, semacam Sea World gitu deh kalau di Indonesia. Untuk masuk, seorang harus bayar 12 euro, dan kalau ada kartu pelajar, cukup membayar 11 euro (lumayan ngirit 1 euro). Seperti yang kutulis di atas, sebagian besar destinasi di Lisbon tutup pada hari Senin. Nah, Oceanarium ini buka di hari Senin, makanya waktu hari Senin aku mengunjungi tempat ini. Tempatnya bagus sih, di dalamnya ada tangki besar yang berisi banyak ikan. Sayangnya, nggak ada lorong berbentuk seperti tabung yang mengelilingi dasar tangki seperti di Sea World itu. Yang menarik, di tempat ini ada pinguin hidup loh!! haha.... . Waktu kesana kemarin ini Oceanarium ini sedang diperluas, jadi sepertinya dalam beberapa waktu tempatnya akan semakin besar.

Di taman ini juga ada kereta gantung. Sebenarnya, di taman ini ada Torre de Vasco da Gama, sebuah menara tertinggi di Lisbon. Cuma karena (sepertinya) sedang direnovasi, menara ini ditutup untuk umum. Taman ini juga terletak dekat dengan Ponte de Vasco da Gama, sebuah jembatan di Lisbon yang panjangnya 17,185 km!! Sampai saat ini, jembatan ini adalah jembatan terpanjang di Eropa (dan lebih panjang dari jembatan Suramadu yang panjangnya 5,438 km).


Untuk berpindah tempat di Lisbon, sama seperti Porto, yang paling enak adalah dengan menggunakan transportasi umum. Mirip seperti di Porto, untuk naik angkutan umum, kita bisa membeli daily pass di stasiun kereta. Bedanya, di Lisbon, kita kena charge 0,5 euro kalau kita menggunakan kartu baru. Jadi, kalau jangka waktu pemakaian kartu sudah habis, kartu jangan dibuang karena kartu bisa kita isi ulang (dan kita menghemat 0,5 euro karenanya). Harga tiket daily pass adalah 3,75 euro untuk 24 jam masa penggunaan sementara harga tiket one way (untuk naik subway) adalah 0,85 euro. Kartu ini bisa digunakan di berbagai macam alat transportasi di kota Lisbon, seperti subway, bus, trem, dan electric trem.

Kalau mau keliling kota Lisbon sambil menikmati atmosfer sekeliling kota, satu alternatif adalah dengan naik sightseeing bus. Ada beberapa perusahaan yang menawarkan jasa ini. Semua sih rata-rata menggunakan bus bertipe sama: double decker bus (bus tingkat) yang tingkat atasnya terbuka. Dan tentu saja, spot paling enak di bus ini adalah di atas, hahaha. Dan di bus ini kita dikasi earphone yang bisa dicolokin ke kursi untuk mendengarkan penjelasan tentang tempat-tempat yang dikunjungi. Ada delapan pilihan bahasa untuk fasilitas ini, dan seperti yang bisa ditebak, bahasa Indonesia bukanlah satu diantaranya :-D Harganya bervariasi antara perusahaan. Dan diskon 25% yang aku singgung di posting sebelumnya itu hanya berlaku di salah satu perusahaan saja. Perusahaan yang aku pilih menawarkan paket seharga 15 euro dan ini berlaku dua hari (dan bukan perusahaan yang memberikan diskon 25% itu. Hanya saja, perusahaan yang memberi diskon ini menawarkan paket dengan harga 19 euro untuk tur satu hari. Jadi, setelah diskon 25% pun jatuhnya masih lebih mahal deh, hahaha).

BERSAMBUNG...