Long Lazy Weekend

I love May!

Why? Because the weather is super and Germany has 3 official holidays which are "accidentally" really match with my schedule! :D I had one May 1st. It was on Tuesday and my lecturer cancelled his class on Monday. So i was free from Friday to Tuesday! (don't have class on Friday until May 3oth). Other holiday was on Thursday, May 17th. The other fabulous long weekend is this week! Today was holiday too.

Not many things i did on those long weekends. Soooo relaxing!

Start my day with having lunch on the backyard, then sit down like almost an hour. Really enjoy my long lazy weekend~! :D

Weekend in Amsterdam (April 21st-23rd, 2012)

If someone ask me 'how was your weekend?', i would say 'it was super!'. This weekend my friend and i visited Amsterdam. We planned our trip in early March, so we could get two-ways train ticket for 38 Euros! Really cheap, wasn't it?

Our trip took around 4-5 hours by train. The hostel is near from the central station, but we did not like the smell in the reception room :( On our first day, we visited Keukenhof Park (or Garden?). It is a famous park which opens every spring. From Amsterdam central station, take train to Schiphol Airport. Then take the shuttle bus number 58, which is free, to Keukenhof. At first we planned to see the Flower Parade, but we missed it :( When we were in a queue a lady gave me her ticket for free! I did not understand why, but waas really grateful of my luck :D

The park itself is super beautiful! No wonder so many people visited this park. The color of the flowers are like a special mixed. For example the pink color. It does not look like the usual pink. It is like that you have to mix a certain amount of white and red to get that color. Really amazing!



On the second day, we took the cruise trip for 8.5 Euros. I checked on website that the price's range is between 7-10 Euros normally. The cruise took about 75 minutes. It is such a nice way to do a tour. They took our pictures before taking the cruise and sold them for 5 Euros. Too expensive for a photo, but i still bought it :p



After that we walked passing through the Leidesplein and Museumplein, then visited Van Gogh Museum. My suggestion is to buy the online ticket. The queue was awfully long! On our way to Van Gogh Museum, we saw some places offering the ticket. I thought that the price was higher than the normal price, yet in the end i found that they were same price (14 Euros). There is extra fee if you want to have the Audio Guide (5 Euros). I did not know much about Vincent Van Gogh, but i would say that i enjoyed visiting there.

On our way home, we had our 'tea time' in so-called-as-coffeshop ;) My friend had the space cake and i enjoyed my choconut cake which was delicious. Then we met someone who recognized me as an Indonesian (finally!). He was adopted by Indonesian woman and last year visited Indonesia. He gave us many practical tips for our stay (don't show your wallet in red district, you can take pictures in blue district, if you want to 'smoke', do that in coffeshop).

In the evening around 9-10PM we planned to see around the famous red district. Yet my friend was dizzy because of the cake and i fell asleep, so we woke up around 12AM. Afraid being not safe, we decided not to visit it :( Schade...

We took early train to go to Bremen and ended by sitting together with an ex-ballerina mother and her daughter. I was glad that we had a nice chat on our way home.

Btw, here i saw many Indonesians here. I also find restaurants serving Indonesian cuisines :D

Bremen: Extended

Hellooo!

I planned to stay in Bremen only until April 2nd, yet i decide to extend for one semester more! yeay! \(^O^)/ So, what am i up to these days? (yes, this will be another quick-update-about-daily-life post)

In February i was busy wondering email from my home-university whether i could extend my stay or not. When they agreed, i did those bureaucratic (whoah.. i used the word checker to type this word :p) things to extend my stay.

In March i did exam, extended my residence permit and traveled to Stockholm! Finally travelling again! I think i'll write about this trip later ;) Then i took German intensive course and met many new Erasmus students for summer semester. I don't know why, but i think it was easier to talk with new people now than the first semester. Maybe that's because i get used to it now :D I also visited Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg with my study buddy. It is such a really cool place to visit! :D

In early of April i thought to travel somewhere in Southern Germany, like Munich, but did not manage to do it :( After intensive course finished, i join the new Erasmus students visiting Hamburg and going to Spring Prom. Nice.. nice.. nice! This week the summer semester begins. Let my college life starts again...

Lovely Paris (Dec 16th-18th 2011)

After our short trip to Barcelona, we flew directly to Paris. Yeaah.. i was really excited, because this city is famous for the beauty.

From Girona the flight took off at 7:20AM and departed in Beauvais at 09:10AM. Then we took airport bus to Paris for 15EUR. We arrived in Paris around 11AM and planned to joined a walking tour named New Paris Free Tour. Too bad we missed it because we had to be in a very loooong queue buying tickets. Many tourists were confused buying the subway ticket. I wonder they checked about it before they came here. So in the end we decided to see around by ourselves. We saw Arc The Triomphe, Notre Dame and of course the Eiffel Tower. Beautiful!



At night we stayed in Hotel Cheap Beds Paris-Rosny. The hotel is far from the city center. Yet it is comfortable in my opinion. We stayed there only for sleeping though.

On our second day, we spent whole day in Paris Disneyland! Such a great place to remind yourself to the childhood. When i was kid, i always saw those Disney princess films. The castle was really beautiful and the Studio Tram Tour was awesome! :D



The last day we decided to join the walking tour. I think join walking tour is good. So we do not have to look for the main attractions. Unfortunately i did not really statisfy with the tour itself. The tour guide was walk too fast. Well maybe that was because we brought our luggage along (we checked out already). However we managed to see The Louvre, Tuileries Gardens (is it where Nodame fell down into the pond?), The Pont Neuf, etc. We also visited the christmas market! There were so many people and we were left behind :( Because we did not where the tour already were, we decided to go to Paris Eurolines Bus. We took the bus to go back to Bremen.

Although the trip ended a little bit unpleasantly (being left behind from the tour), i thought my trip was really awesome. Paris is really beautiful. No wonder people love this city. Lovely Paris! ♥

Sending Postcard

Yesterday, one of my good friends in senior high school wrote on twitter that she received my postcard! She posted also the picture of the postcard.

The postcard she received

Today my cousin also told me that she received my postcard already. I am so happy! Before i sent one postcard for my brother wishing him a birthday.

The last time i sent postcard is when i was kid submitting a quiz in magazine. lol xD I am surprised knowing many people in Germany still use post service. When i enrolled this exchange student program, i was shocked when the university would send the document via air mail. When will i receive it if you send it via air mail?! The distance is 11,087 kilometers!! That's what i thought. When my flatmate was in London, she sent a postcard too. That made me want to send a postcard. That's why i decided to send one to my brother. After sending it, i felt happy (?), so i decided to send others to my friends, cousin, and my little sister.

It took about 10 days sending those postcards from Bremen to Indonesia. To send it i need international stamp. On Deutschepost web it said i need the 0,75 EUR stamp. Yet i bought in a shop in university only 0,6 EUR for each stamps.

I feel like wanting to send another postcards to my other good friends~ :D

Sneak Preview: Seeing a Movie Earlier than the Others

Last Sunday my study buddy asked me to see Sneak Preview. What is Sneak Preview?



In German cinemas there is a program called as Sneak Preview. There visitors can see movie which will be played in next few weeks. The other interesting fact is that the visitors does not know what movie they will see. It can be English, German, French, etc movies. Before the movie starts, there is an MC who will give quiz with another Sneak Preview tickets as prizes. Interesting, isn't it?

We went to Schauburg cinema to see Sneak Preview. When we bought the ticket, we found out that it would be an English movie. hahaha lucky me! :D The movie we saw was Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In Germany it will be played on February 2nd, 2012 with 'Dame, König, As, Spion' as the title.

Too bad in the end i barely understood how this movie went. Being dozy and having to listen without subtitle (there was subtitle, yet in German. I didn't understand >.<) made me difficult to understand this movie.

However for me seeing Sneak Preview is an interesting experience, because i like seeing movie. This was my first time went to cinema in Germany. Actually the first time i arrived here, i wanted to, but i doubt my German ability. All of movies are dubbed in German, except the Originalfassung (original version) program.

Christmas Tree

Last weekend i looked for new boots. So i went to the city center, yet walked not take tram as usual. I wanted to see the neighborhood. On the way i saw many Christmas Trees thrown away. Poor the trees...



At first i thought that it was such a waste that people cut the tree, used it as decoration for a month, then throwed it away. That tree need to grow up for several months! I thought it is better to use the artificial tree, so people can use it on the following year.

Then i googled about this Christmas tree matter. I found that the trees are planted specially for Christmas. People doesn't cut random pine trees (which i thought before). The artificial tree can not be recycled naturally. The real trees can be recycled as green fertilizer.

Well, seems like the real trees are still better for the environment than the artificial ones. Yet it is still sad seeing those trees thrown away in front of people's houses.