My Journey, My Stories

Every once in a year around from 17 November to 5 December is the happiest time for kids all around the Netherlands. Do you know why??? It's Sinterklaas (Sint Nicolaas, Saint Nicholas), you might be questioning why so early, it's not even Christmas yet. Well, Sinterklaas in NL is not Santa Claus (I mean the fat man with a red suit). Let me tell you a little bit about Sinterklaas tradition in NL. Unlike Santa Claus with the magic sleigh and flying reindeer. Sinterklaas sail to NL with a steamboat from Spain (altough originally Sinterklaas came from Turkey). I'm not gonna tell you a lot about the history of Sinterklaas, because you can just read it in wikipedia . I'm just gonna tell you my experience celebrating Sinterklaas day in NL on 2012. Okay back to Sinterklaas tradition, usually around 16-17 November (depends on when the weekend is), Sinterklaas comes to a city in NL on a boat, with zwarte pieten (his helper) who carries bags full of chocolate, kruidnoten, peperno...

"Den Haag.. Den Haag.. de weduwe van Indie ben jij..."   a Dutch-Indo song that always played by my grandmother resound in my head whenever I hear the word "Den Haag". Lots of Indonesian-Dutch family felt unaccepted and moved to Netherlands after Indonesia got their independence, and lived in Den Haag (DH). Den Haag is the seat of government in The Netherlands and the capital city of province of south holland. Funny fact about Den Haag is Den Haag has never traditionally had the city right (stadsrecht), so actually Den Haag is not a city, but only a village (dorp). However since the middle-age it has all the administrative institutions that a city have. A strong bond between Den Haag and Indonesia can be seen at Haags-Historisch Museum (When I went there, they have a special exhibition remembering when the first time Indo-Dutch people set foot in Den Haag). This museum also tells story about the history of den haag, like when and where gebroeders de witt (Johan an...

Delft a city in the province of South-Holland, well known for canals and historical story of Dutch Royal Family (House of Orange-Nassau), a city where Willem van Oranje got killed. Delft is also well-known as student city (Delft University of Technology), and home of the famous Delft Blue Pottery. There are lots of interesting things that you can do in Delft, like visiting museums, boat tour, or just even walking around the city and enjoy the view. I've visited Delft a couple times, the city it self is not so big, so a day trip would be enough to explore Delft. One of the most interesting museum in Delft is Het Prinsenhof . This place used to be a monastery and where Willem van Oranje used to live. This museum tells you story about Willem van Oranje and his role in creating Dutch republic, and you will also see the most important figures of the Netherlands Revolt. This place is also the place where Willem van Oranje got killed. You probably wondering who Willem van Oranje is. Will...

Nope, I didn't mistyped. It's Hoorn, not horn.. Hoorn is a city in the north part of Netherlands. It is located on the IJsselmeer, 35 kilometres north of Amsterdam, and acquired city rights in 1357. The area of the municipality is 52.49 km² (32.62 km² consists of water, mainly the Markermeer), and consists of the following villages and/or districts: Blokker, Hoorn, Zwaag, and parts of Bangert and De Hulk. Yup, here's the town where Jacob Blokker in 1896 open his first Blokker store. Nowadays Blokker has 600 store throughout Netherlands and 220 store in Belgium. Hoorn was an important home base for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and a very prosperous centre of trade, which is another interesting fact. So the boat that came to Indonesia long-long time ago, was started from Hoorn. My visit started from the train station, we walk across the city to reach the city center, it was Sunday, so all stores were closed. The city looks like typical dutch city, with old buildings ...

Huh what? Jakarta? But why? I thought this blog is about eurotrip.. Well in this special edition, I'll write about my hometown, kampung halamanku, my beloved Jakarta. Jakarta or officially known as Special Capital Region of Jakarta (Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta), is the capital and the largest city of Indonesia. Most people questioning why you would go to Jakarta, with its traffic jam and pollution. I have an answer, it's because of the FOOD. Yup, you can go anywhere in Indonesia, but if you want good food you have to go to Jakarta, you can find pretty much anything here, from traditional food to European fancy cuisine. The price also varies, for a full meal per person it cost from Rp 7.000,- (or around 50eurocent) to unlimited (I mean, we also have super expensive fancy restaurant here in Indonesia, I've never went there so I don't know how much it cost). The main reason why I'm in Jakarta this time is to attend my brother's wedding (which was great). When I ...

Day 2 Brussels and Dinant After tired of walking almost 12 hours the other day, we decided to take it a little bit slow. Well, it doesn't mean that we're gonna wake up late, it's a big no no when you only have 2 days to travel. We woke up around 8ish, get some breakfast and catch the 9.30 train to Brussels. I'm not gonna tell a lot about Brussels, because I think I've explained enough on my previous post about Brussels. But I saw something that I haven't seen on my previous visit to Brussels, something special. Yup, I saw the King of Belgium and the royal family. The Cathedral in Brussels was very crowded that day, and there are some people bringing Belgium flag, so we asked the people around, and they said that the King is here. To be honest I didn't know which one is the king (Sorry....) but I managed to take some pictures of some people that might be important 1 2 3 4

Running out of money? Don't have much time to travel? Well that's what happened when I only got 1 week of summer holiday instead of 3 like I got last year, and limited budget. This summer I went to Belgium, visited 4 gorgeous city of Belgium. I've posted some story about Belgium before, so I don't think I need to explain about Belgium anymore in this post. In summer, Belgium railways have a special "Summer Deals" which able you to pay only for 7.50euro per trip to go to everywhere in Belgium. This time I use the opportunity to go to Gent, Bruges (Brugge), Brussels, and Dinant. I only spent 22.50 for ticket in total (Essen-Bruges, Bruges-Dinant, and Dinant-Essen). How about Gent and Brussels? Well to go to Brugge you will pass Gent, so you can just as well stop there and walk around for a little while. Day 1 - Gent & Brugge This time I'm not travelling alone, I have my partner in crime Stephan with me. We took 9am train from Etten-Leur to Gent, and w...