My Journey, My Stories

I'm sorry that this post has nothing to do with traveling, since I haven't got the chance to travel, due to my super hectic work.. Anyway, I just want to share how I feel right now.. Have you ever feel that you found the one but it ends up just like the other love stories you have ever in to, and it felt so painful. Every time you try to move on, it makes you even think about him more, like "what he would do if" kinda stuff. Or feeling that your best isn't enough for him. A friend of mine once said "It's useless to do your best if the other person is too blind to appreciate it" , maybe it's true, but still, sometimes is just hard to accept.. If only he knew.....

Amsterdam.. Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands. Amsterdam is more than just the famous red light district, DamRak, Leidseplein, or other famous museums.. To be honest Amsterdam has never been my favorite city of the Netherlands, because it's always over crowded with tourist, and for some reason people are always in a rush here... But this time, I got the chance to visit the south part of Amsterdam, where there's still nature beauty and places that would not think that you can find in Amsterdam. This time I'm gonna write about the other part of Amsterdam, the part that could make me smile, and found my peace. It's called Amstedamse Bos, or "Amsterdam Forrest" in english, it's basically 1,000 hectares forest in Amsterdam & Amstelveen. You can do lots of things here, a little picnic, swimming (I think, I didn't try that one), sailing, and I also saw some rowing competition while I was there. It was a nice escape if you're bored w...

On the last post I said that I was going to Netherlands for crazy 2 weeks short short break, this trip is not so touristy like my usual trip. On the first week I traveled around NL to visit friends and family, those who are dear to my heart. I arrived on 05.59 in Schiphol, and took the train directly to Amsterdam Zuid, where my friend lives. I arrived on Sunday, the weather was quite nice, a bit chilly because it was windy. After I dropped my bag, we went to Amsterdam and do the "Rondvaart", I'll tell you about the details on the next post Monday evening, I went to my mammie cendol house, and after dinner we went to see my Opa. Tuesday night, I met up with my cousin who coincidentally on vacation in Netherlands. She lives in Naples (I went there on 2012 :D) Wednesday, I went to see my best friend Dani who used to live in Culemborg (where the witch lives), and then I had dinner with my friend Opa Herman (Bom) in Zaandam Tias & Pandu in Amsterdam ...

As some of you have known, I went back early to Indonesia. I didn't finish my second year of AuPair-ing in Belgium. Because apparently I had to work with a wicked witch, and I got a job offer in the company that used to work for. After a few months, I feel the urge to go back to Europe, even just for vacation (for now), knowing that I just started working a few months ago, my bank account looks really pathetic. But after a few months of thinking and praying, I decided to go to Netherlands for vacation. This post would mostly talk about how to apply Schengen Visa for Indonesian. So, for this one I'm just gonna write it in Bahasa (You can use google translator if you want to know :p) Jadi setelah yang saya jelaskan diatas, kali ini saya apply visa schengen dengan modal nekat, dan tabungan yang ga seberapa. Mitos-mitos bahwa apply visa schengen itu susah, dipatahkan dengan kunjungan ke embassy yang hanya memakan waktu kurang dari 10 menit ketika submit dokumen dan apply visa...

It's all started with my hobby to look for cheap plane tickets, and I found a really cheap deal 70euro return flight from Amsterdam-Budapest and Budapest-Eindhoven. But here's the catch, the flight is early flight (07.20am) on Friday, and our flight back to NL is around 10.00am the next morning. So, with my crazy backpacker mentality we (me and my partner in crime, this time is sisca and michelle) decided to sleep at the airport. We meet up at Schiphol airport around midnight, too bad the boarding area is already close by then so we have to wait until it opens again at 3am. So we decided to go to the 2nd floor and we found a little corner to sleep. Sleeping in Airport It took around 2 hours with the plane from Amsterdam to Budapest. We arrived at 9ish. Don't worry if you don't have a map or anything, you can take a map at the airport, and it's handy if you have your atm card, so you can go to the ATM to take your HUF, it's cheaper than going to money exc...

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...