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Milan + Bergamo Lebaran 2013

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Latepost lagi ya kali ini .... #edisibloggerudahsetahungakngeblog

Kamis 8 Agustus 2013. Hari Lebaran, bangun pagi trus pergi sholat Ied trus buru buru ke stasiun ngejer kereta ke Milan, motif utamanya mau ketemu sama Mbakyu ini ... karena udah empat tahun ga ketemu .... terakhir ketemu dulu Juli 2009 di Surabaya ... plus ketemu anak + suaminya + mama papa tantenya juga yang kebetulan Lebaran di Eropa .... motif lainnya sekalian reuni mini Arsitektur ITB 2004 .... kloter dari Stuttgart 2 orang .... kloter dari Perancis juga 2 orang .... dan semuanya cewe cewe jadinya udah excited banget dari beberapa minggu sebelumnya buat berangkat ke Milan. Sebenernya gw ga suka Milan sih .... dua kunjungan ke Milan sebelumnya ga bikin bener2 terkesan dan pengen balik lagi kesana  (walopun pas Milan Design Week 'seru'nya Milan beda sih ya...) tapi kali ini hepi banget mau ke Milan lagi karena mau ngumpul sama temen2 kuliah. Haha mau cerita ke Milan doang kok panjang banget ya pembukaannya. Yak singkat cerita naik kereta jam 8 pagi dari Stuttgart ... ganti kereta di Zürich dan setelah hampir 7 jam perjalanan akhirnya sampe di Milan.

Nyampe, naro koper, lanjut masak2 .... ga heboh sih soalnya tuan rumahnya yang udah heboh nyiapin semuanya... cuma goreng ayam sama kerupuk aja sama ngangetin makanan... oiya sambil bikin fruit pie... sama bikin bumbu kacang buat siomay juga.... sama bikin petis telor juga.... haha apanya yang gak heboh ya. Intinya malem pertama makan2 dan halal bihalal aja ... ada student2 Indonesia di Milan yang pada dateng juga ... santai santai dan makan sampe eyeliner luntur :))

Jumat, 9 Agustus 2013. Hari kedua kita piknik ke Bergamo.. karena Bergamo deket dari Milan dan katanya bagus. Naik kereta regional ke Bergamo cuma sekitar 40 menit dan harga tiketnya ga mahal. Sampe di Bergamo lanjut naik cable car ke Old Town nya yang lokasinya diatas bukit dan dikelilingin benteng .... Bergamo yang di daerah bawah kota modern biasa aja. Bergamo Old Town cantik banget ... jalan jalan nanjak sempit ala ala daerah Kebon Binatang / Pelesiran Bandung kota tua Eropa banget. Baiknya jalan di Bergamo atau di Italy konsen aja liat ke depan ... karena kalo liat kanan kiri bakal ketemu ....


makanan berbentuk super lezat macam begini yang bikin maca, pengen ganti motto hidup dari "BIAR SENGSARA ASAL SINGSET" menjadi "BIAR GEMBROT ASAL BAHAGIA"


Akhirnya karena laper mata dan kita beli juga beberapa pizza, beberapa sandwich, sama kue2 manis .... trus makannya diatas bukit dengan pemandangan kayak gini .... gw anaknya Bandung banget ya kayaknya liat pemandangan gini ingetnya cuma "wah ini kayak di Lembang ya". Abis makan kita jalan2 lagi di sekitaran Old Town Bergamo.... trus jam 4 sore naik kereta balik lagi ke Milan. Sampe ke Milan liat Duomo bentar... trus ya makan lagi hahaha. Tujuan berikutnya makan Gelato yang ngehits banget di belakang Duomo .... ngantrinya mayan juga 20 menit... gw sih masih kenyang jadinya ga pesen cuma cicip dikit aja. Enak? Enak sih.... tapi buat gw semua Gelato di Italy ya memang enak jadi ga worth it sih kayaknya ngantri2 kalo memang yang lain uenak juga. Abis itu jalan jalan di pusat kota Milan sebentar .... trus lanjut kemana? Makan lagiiiiii ..

Kita makan malem di daerah Navigli (tapi bukan Grande Navigli) ... tapi versi yang lebih kecilnya .... lupa namanya apa. Kalo udah sampe Italy memang wajib yaa Apperitivo .... alias "happy hour" .... alias "all I can eat" hahaha. Jadi sistemnya pesen minuman yang harganya sekitar 7-10 € .... trus udah deh silahkan makan sepuasnya. Tapi kalo haus ya harus pesen minuman lagi dan keluar sekian Euro lagi. Jadi gw sarankan pesen minuman yang seger aja biar ga haus. Kalo minumannya harganya murah, biasanya makanan2 yang ada di buffet juga makanan2 yang sederhana aja ya banyakn pilihan juga. Di foto diatas ini, kita bayar 10€ per orang .... dan makanan yang difoto itu baru sepertiga dari buffet lho. Di posting ini ada cerita pertama kali nya gw apperitivo di Turin sampe ga ngerti lagi kenyangnya haha maklum dari Jerman biasa dikasih Brezel pake Butter doang dikasih buffet Italy langsung hilang arah hidup hahaha.




Sabtu, 10 Agustus 2013. Hari terakhir sebelum besoknya pulang. Pagi pagi kita pisah jadi dua kloter ... rombongan dari Jakarta jalan2 cari oleh2 .... sementara yang cewe2 explore daerah Via Tortona mencari toko MamaMilano dimana disana menjual tas KW Celine hahaha. Sampah sekali yaa badannya di Eropa otaknya di Mangga Dua. Tapi tokonya ternyata tutup ... maklum lagi musim panas biasanya ada toko/cafe kecil yang pada tutup karena yang punya pergi liburan. Akhirnya balik lagi ke sekitaran Duomo dan ke toko Tiger beli pernak pernik ga penting yang murah meriah dan lucu ... lucu lho macem Ikea dikawin silang sama Muji. Siangnya kita ga makan gragas melainkan makan cantik .... kita ke Department Store La Rinascente disampingnya Duomo .... di lantai paling atasnya ada teras yang isinya beberapa restoran .... kita duduk di Obika Mozarella Bar trus pemandangannya Duomo, hepi deh. Makanannya memang agak mahal ya karena fancy restaurant gitu ....  gw pesen Chicken Salad sama Ice Tea dan totalnya termasuk tax 19€ an ... tapi worth it sih soalnya kan ga tiap hari juga .... dan makanannya juga enak. Abis makan jalan2 bentar ... ga sengaja bikin kartu kredit agak lecet karena digesek di Sephora .... beli Naked Palette 2 nya Urban Decay ..... dengan alasan di Jerman ga ada Sephora (beneran loh :)) ...abis itu kita goler2 (bahasa bule nya piknik ya) di Parco Sempione .... ga ngerti lagi capeknya karena kepanasan sama udara 38 derajat ...



Selesai goler2 di Parco Sempione kita ke Grande Navigli buat makan Apperitivo lagi .... 3 hari di Milan perut udah busung kedepan ngalahin Ibu2 yang hamil muda. Hari itu enak banget suasananya pas matahari udah mau turun .... udah ga panas lagi ... langitnya cerah, dan karena itu malem minggu jadi rame orang2 pada hang out. Abis makan kita tepar lanjut ngobrol2 di apartemen .... trus besoknya hari Minggu jam 11 siang balik lagi ke Stuttgart tapi ga lupa di stasiun sempet beli dua scoop Gelato lagi hehe. Bye bye Milan, it was really nice this time, see you when I see you again.

 ps : not all of the photos are mine, some are my friends pics :)

paris 6th edition

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It's the second last day of July and the summer heat is finally in town, the real heat that makes you sweat though u're standing still under the shadow with cold drinks. I was in Paris for a real quick getaway, met my fave cousin and of course my best friend there - was in Disneyland for the first time in my life.... and guess what, I'm not impressed at all.... I wasn't amused to saw that candy-color-castle oder that little tropical jungle with fake waterfall.... or even 4 meters high Buzz Lightyear Statue.... seems like my age and my educational background really ruined my childhood fantasy, meh. One more essay to write and one internship place in an architecture firm to hunt (this one is not easy, baby) - and then I'm ready for Autumn break :)

pink salzburg

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cutie pink train

im back from München, a quick weekend trip really makes me happy ...... Allah thank you for sending me so many good friends in various places in this world. I'm contended. My financial condition haven't fully recovered yet from the last Spain trip ..... I supposed to buy a mattress this month (sleeping in an airbed really kills my back slowly) ...... but why I feel like buying new pretty blouse every now and then? hehehehe.
more photos here.

spain 1 / train in Spain

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I always wanted to make a nice journal about my travel, but always failed. I'm blah when it comes to writing ....... and I always ended up posting more photos than writing practical information. But - let me try once again to make a nice travel journal. okay, humm. it will be cheesy, but i have no option haha :)

map of Andalusia region

tram in Sevilla

San Sebastian's central station

I went on X'mas break to Andalusia, Spain for 12 days. From Germany, it will take you minimum about 1 day to reach south Spain by train. As usual you could always count on Deutsche Bahn (German's Railway Company) in Germany. Clean wagon, complete information, ontime schedule, everything is correct! From Paris, I have to take night train. Actually there is this Euronight train leaving daily from Paris at around 8 pm and reach Madrid at 9 am the next day. Surprise surprise, only 1st class ticket available on this comfortable connection - which is expensive!

So no choice for me, I took a Lunea train from Paris to Irun (first city in Spain reached by this train - located in the France-Spain border) I supposed to arrive in Irun at 7.30 am, but darn SNCF (France's Railway Company) - the train arrived 1 hour late from scheduled time. And another surprise surprise, the train leaving to Madrid from Irun left exactly when I reached Irun. No time to catch the train at all, since I still haven't got the ticket for Irun-Madrid. For this cross country trip, I only could buy the train ticket on the spot. There's only 2 connection daily from border to Madrid, and the next connection is at 4 pm. I was forced wait for 7 hours in the middle of nowhere in Spain, yay or nay? YAY. The officer in the train station informed that San Sebastian is only 20 mins away from Irun, the the city is beautiful. Thanks RENFE (Spain's Railway Company) ...... you gave me opportunity to saw North Atlantic Ocean from San Sebastian.

Around 4 pm I continue my journey to Madrid. Everything was okay until I suddenly have to change train in the middle of nowwhere. The train arrived behind the scheduled time in Madrid, but okay no complain needed since there was snow overall Europe ..... and I was to tired after 35 hours journey. Fortunately it is very easy to find a hotel/hostel near Madrid Puerta Atocha Station. And finally the next day at noon I reached Granada with a direct 4 hours train from Madrid. Sharp 48 hours journey with train that makes me feel ........ young again, ahahahaha.

The train connection for my return journey was more ass-friendly. I spent 25 hours to reach Stuttgart, with no delayed schedule. I took AVE train from Cordoba Central to Barcelona Sants. (Spain's AVE train is exact same with German's ICE train ..... Spain bought the waggon from Siemens) Then from Barcelona Central I took regional train to Cerbère, France. It's near from the France-Spain border. There, I waited for about 3 hours ...... and then took 9 hours Lunea train to Strasburg. It took about 2.5 hours and 3 regional trains from Strasburg to Stuttgart. Actually there's TGV Strasburg-Stuttgart, but they're pricey and often fully booked in holiday season.

Oh my I'm such a train station freak and railway technology freak ..... I really enjoy typing this boring post. Excuse my lame interest ....

French Lunea train: 4-6 beds in 2nd class compartment

un-friendly stormy weather

Otw to Antequera, a bit flood here and there

leaving Barcelona with a bit rainbow


Ah ja, I rented a car when I was in Spain. The price - compare to other Western European countries : affordable and reasonable. I pick up an Opel sedan (as big as Toyota Yaris) in Granada and return it 5 days later in Sevilla for 112 Euro. Gasoline in Spain will cost you 1,03 Euro per litre. Driving in Spain is just okay ...... no serious traffic (except in the city center of course), and it is easy to find a parking spot. The highway are also okay (haha my standard is very low : highway in Indonesia) If you make a budget-group-trip in Spain and would love to see more, renting a car in Andalusia is recommended.

Except when reaching the hotel from train station with heavy backpack in Sevilla and Cordoba, in every city I didn't get in to any single public transportation. Any single historic sites in Sevilla, Granada and Cordoba are reachable on foot. I even walk all the way up to Alhambra in Granada (ngos ngosan juga sih akhirnya, haha) Very cheap than 5,5 Euro daily ticket in Paris, right? hhmmmmm ....... what else? around 10 minutes taxi ride cost around 11 Euro (Upi, I'll always remember that silly-euphoric-sad-rainy night in Cordoba haha..... met up with you really makes my trip perfect)

how to ended a post properly, actually? I'm out of words, bye.