London - Scotland trip

It was really a surprise trip to me. I thought that 2007 would be a year without so many traveling activities. I managed to go to Provence-Cote d'Azur-Monaco last May. But after that (even during summer!) I felt that my traveling activities were buried somewhere beneath my working activities. I have admitted myself already that my other big trip this year would only be my going home trip for the year end holiday. But it turned out that I had a chance to go to UK (again!).

I went to London because of a three-day conference last week and I was really happy to be able to stay in West End area where the conference took place. I think I like London more after this trip :-P. The hotel where I stayed was in the Strand area, close to Covent Garden (Covent Garden market was totally cool), Charing Cross, Leicester Square (well I mentioned the three closest Underground stations from my hotel :-P) and Trafalgar Square.




When I knew that I was going to stay in West End area which is surrounded by theaters, I could not resist the temptation to watch one of the performance there and I was so excited when I found that I would be able to see Phantom of the Opera. I booked a seat for Phantom of the Opera in Her Majesty's theater in Haymarket when I was still in Dusseldorf :-P POTO was kind of an obsession for me. I really like its songs for quite a long time. There was some melancholic reason behind it (a ha :-P), my ex-boyfriend gave me Think of Me lyrics when we decided to separate (the lyrics is sooo touching). And actually it was my first introduction with POTO's songs. I like that song so much and I wanted to know more songs from the performance and I ended up liking most of them. So watching POTO is the highlight of my London tour this time. It was just amazing. I love their performance (the songs) and the stage decoration. It left me speechless :-P I just really really like it. No wonder the show is still running after 21 years!! I just wondering how it was when Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford played it for the first time.

After four days and three nights in London (gosh I think I miss walking through the Trafalgar Square from my hotel to the conference venue every day in those three days....it just felt so cool :-P), I flew to Edinburgh for my Scotland trip. I arrived almost midnight because of the flight delay. I was lucky that I booked a hostel close to the airport bus stop, so I do not have to put a lot of effort after quite a long day. I was so impressed with the night view of Edinburgh even when I was on the way from the airport to its city center. Indeed Edinburgh is so beautiful with its old buildings and its castle. I joined a free walking tour for three hours at 11 pm in the next day and it was worth it. Now I know more about it's unique culture and history.





Later in the evening, I met Vivi and we stayed in a very nice B&B that night. Early in the morning (around 7:30am...) we left the B&B already to join a Highland tour. We went to Trossachs National Park, visiting Loch Lomond and other Lochs (I do not remember their names :-P) , Inveraray (a nice small town, famous with its jail, later a friend of mine told me that Inveraray actually is pretty close to Oban, the ferry port for several interesting islands in Scotland), Killin (a scenic village). We also dropped by to Kilchurn castle (to take a pic) , Doune castle ( I managed to buy nice postcards and souvenir there), and Hamish (a cute highland cow :-P). It was an interesting trip, especially because I experienced my first snow this winter during the trip on the highland (and yes it's freezing). Greg, our guide tour is a good entertainer, he talked a lot about Scotland (about how they hate English people hehe....it's funny to hear it from them), about the clans conflicts (now I know that MacDougall does not get along with Campbell), about Scotland's dark history (I heard it before from my walking tour in Edinburgh). I think Scotland is beautiful and Scots have a unique culture and character (and also accent hehe, it's bit difficult to understand their English sometimes).




After the tour, we went to Dundee where Vivi lives now. I took a train to return back to London the next morning. It took around 6 hrs from Dundee to London, but it's nice to be able to catch a glimpse of UK from almost its North to South.
All in all....I am happy finally I made it to Scotland (yeeeee!), also to be able to visit London again for the second time. I was completely exhausted this week and now I have to prepare for my going home trip but it was a nice feeling to be able 'on the road' again.



Singapore, Indonesia, my next destinations...I am coming :-P

Music and Lyrics

Another movie review...
I just watched this movie several minutes ago :-P The story is simple, but I like the soundtrack, especially 'Way back into love'. You can find the video here and here is the lyrics:

Way Back into Love (Hugh Grant and Haley Bennett)

I've been living with a shadow overhead,
I've been sleeping with a cloud above my bed,
I've been lonely for so long,
Trapped in the past,
I just can't seem to move on!

I've been hiding all my hopes and dreams away,
Just in case I ever need them again someday,
I've been setting aside time,
To clear a little space in the corners of my mind!

All I want to do is find a way back into love.
I can't make it true without a way back into love.
Oooooh.

I've been watching but the stars refuse to shine,
I've been searching but i just don't see the signs,
I know that it's out there,
There's got to be something for my soul somewhere!

I've been looking for someone to shed some light,
Not somebody just to get me through the night,
I could use some direction,
And I'm open to your suggestions.

All I want to do is find a way back into love.
I can't make it through without a way back into love.
And if I open my heart again,
I guess I'm hoping you'll be there for me in the end!
Oooooooh, Ooooooh, Ooooooh.

There are moments when I don't know if it's real
Or if anybody feels the way I feel
I need inspiration
Not just another negotiation

All I want to do is find a way back into love,
I can't make it through without a way back into love,
And if I open my heart to you,
I'm hoping you'll show me what to do,
And if you help me to start again,
You know that I'll be there for you in the end!
Oooooooh. Oooooooh. Ooooooooh. Oooooooh. Ooooooh Ooooooooh. Ooooooooh.

Nice lyrics, right :-P There are several scenes from the movie that made me laugh, especially the Pop! videoclip. It was soooo 80's (but I like the song) and I could not imagine Hugh Grant did it :-P
To sum up, it is an entertaining movie...

Marie Antoinette

I knew that movie for quite sometime, at least I knew that Kirsten Dunst played the role as Marie Antoinette and I knew a bit about Marie Antoinette, that she's been killed by guillotine in French revolution. But this movie gave me something more about her.

At first I was also surprised with its opening, I mean, I do not expect a movie which portrayed 18th century setting has kind of 'funky' opening song. It reminds me of Clueless, the series :-P
But it was okay, I am more interested with the story itself. In the end, I was surprised about the story of Marie Antoinette. I ended up wiki-ed (I think we should add this new verb as we do it for 'google-ed") the stories of French monarch and French revolution for the rest of the evening (or night :-P). Interesting...how could you inspired by a movie!

Another trip is coming..

Yee, I am happy that I got my UK visa two weeks ago and got the confirmation to join a conference in London last week. I plan to join that conference for a long time, initially to join a workshop with the same provider last September but since I could not get the visa on time (it takes ca. 10 days to process it) I could not make it. This time it was such an experience to apply the visa and to register for the conference (long story..), so I am quite happy so far...

The conference will be from 4th to 6th of Dec and I plan to take a day off on Friday to fly to...Scotland :-P I will meet Vivi who has recently moved to Dundee... Scotland is one of my wish list destination, so I am really excited for this trip, though it will be only for two days. I have to go back to London on Sunday. So many places to visit so little time, always the same story. Another problem is...I just got another news that a new boss of mine who is based in Austin, Texas will visit us in Dusseldorf at the same time when I will be away... There is a new reorganization in our group so it is quite important to meet her.. so...let's see...I hope at least, we can meet on Monday the 3rd of Dec before I leave...I keep my fingers crossed...I do not want to ruin my plan :-(

Yesterday I went to Eindhoven to buy several things for my going home trip, I just spent around two hours there and went back to Dusseldorf in a rush. I planned to visit the Weihnachtsmarkt in Dusseldorf, but when I reached Hauptbahnhof I decided to go back home instead..especially because I still could buy Reibekuechen in a stall in front of Hauptbahnhof :-P
I think I will do it this week on working days.

I went to Duisburg last weekend. There was a special consular service from Indonesian Consulate in Frankfurt. I was so glad that I knew about the service on time, so I do not have to go to Frankfurt or Berlin to register myself in Indonesian Embassy..huuuih. I did not waste my chance to walk around Duisburg. Surprisingly it has a beautiful Rathaus :-P I met some of my VT friends here before, but it was in the evening and we only walked around the cafes in Innenhafen area. It was a quite nice area.






Uuugh I am so looking forward to having my trip to London and Edinburgh...:-)

Autumn feeling

Yeah it's almost the end of autumn now...but I am feeling more like winter already...it's around 5 degree in the morning now....just wondering how it will be in the winter...:-(
Everything seems running fast and faster, I was really busy recently as we prepare for the new release of our software. Also with german course for twice a week. But that's nice....it's getting closer to my going home in end of December....it's already less than 2 months to go now :-) I plan to stop by in Singapore, meet my mom and dad there, and spend three days exploring Singapore. I will spend one and half week in Malang then I will visit some friends in Jakarta and stay there for more or less one week. Hope everything goes as it plans..

My VT friend, Win, had an idea to have a fall foliage trip to the valleys along the Rhine river and we did it last weekend. I passed those areas twice by train, when I visited Trier several years ago and Heidelberg last August and I really admire it. It is so beautiful region with the Rhine and the valleys in both sides of the river, plus several castles on it. We expected several friends to join us, but unfortunately only the two of us finally made it. The weather was not in our side that day, it was cold (around 7 degrees even in the afternoon) and it was raining lightly, so it needs quite a strong courage to still go with the plan.

I met Win in Remagen, a town where he is currently building his new house. I just realized that after Bonn hbf the areas in the direction of Koblenz are already hilly areas. Our first destination was Bad Neuenahr and Ahrweiler. He showed me some nice spa resorts in Bad Neuenahr (it has Dorint and Steigenberger hotels) which is famous as thermal bath, spas and special clinics for the people with long term illness. We visited Ahrweiler, a small town surrounded by city wall. I thought that it is just a small fortress, but in fact it is really an old small town which has beautiful old german houses….really pretty ones. The wall is still complete and it is quite touristic, but more for local tourists. The shops were even open when we were there on Sunday.

Then we visited Maria Laach abbey, a beautiful Roman abbey dated from around 1000 AD. I do not really interested in church with Roman architecture before (because it looks plain) but Maria Laach is a different one, I like the small garden (it's called paradise) before we reach the main gate.

After that, Win drove me to Deutsche Eck and we walked around the city centre of Koblenz. It was a nice trip, I love the autumn feeling when I saw the brown-red-yellow color of the leaves, and it made me realize my buried passion (recently) to travel and explore new areas again. Now is 'nach dem Urlaub ist vor dem Urlaub' mode on!!

Weekend stories

Things have been pretty settled down now. I got my contract phone and just started my German course (twice a week). So far everything seems okay to me. I am still enjoying Duesseldorf.
I have no special plan this weekend, intentionally I want to make it a relaxing weekend (except for cleaning my apt and doing my laundry :-P). I had 'busy' weekends recently, at least the last two weekends.

Two weeks ago, I went to Aachen to have lunch with Runi at our fave Japanese restaurant there. After that, I stayed overnight at her place in Sittard, helping her packing her stuffs (well, actually that's also because I joined her to send some of my stuffs to Indonesia also) since it was the last weekend for her before she went back to Indonesia for good. The next day, she joined me to Duesseldorf to eat sushi in Kikaku hehehe.... yeah we both loved two things (madly), traveling and Japanese foods :-P

The next weekend, I went to Heidelberg. I really want to go there for sometime and I knew that weekend, there's going to be a firework in Heidelberg, it's called 'castle illumination'. So everything's been planned well, took the ICE train with 50% discount and booked the hotel. And Heidelberg was nice, I like the city. I walked around the old town and visited the castle. Oh and the funiculair was also cool, I rode until Koenigstuhl which is the highest station. Then I checked in to the hotel, had some rest for a while (I took the train at 7am from Duesseldorf) and went to the old town again to have dinner and see the firework. It was a great evening and I walked around 17500 steps that day (uhm yes...I count my steps using pedometer), my best record so far.

Some first posts...

August 18, 2007

After a lazy half day, I went to city center to accompany a colleague from Singapore office walking around Duesseldorf. He just arrived last weekend and I just knew several days ago that he is a Malaysian who works for our branch office in Singapore. We went up to Rhein Tower (which was my first time also). The view was great, thanks God for the nice weather. I never thought that I can get a nice view from that tower :-P. The good thing is that we do not have to climb stairs, just go in the elevator and after several seconds, we reach 172m height in the peak of the tower. The next destination is Medienhafen, where there are three famous buildings of Duesseldorf, designed by famous American architect, Frank Gehry.

We chatted quite a lot, one that surprised me is that as Malaysian, he does not need to get visa to visit Germany and UK (I think also other EU countries) for less than three months period. I know about Singaporeans, but I do not know about Malaysians. Wow…I have to admit that I am jealous, especially after I could not join the workshop in London on 4^th and 5^th of Sept because…yes, you know… I can not get the UK visa before that date. Last week I tried to apply online on the website and after taking some times to fill in the form, I had to arrange the appointment only to find out that the earliest date available is 3^rd of September. So forget the workshop, though I know that Sven, my boss will, again, amaze with all the documents that I need to travel or stay in Europe. Last time when I told him that I need a visa to go to the UK, his reaction was…”what...you need a visa to go to the UK? You just got your residence permit for Germany”…and then I have to explain about Schengen treaty….bla bla bla…

It is not that I regret to be born as Indonesian or something like that. No, I am proud to be Indonesian. I am jealous why they can get such privilege and we can not. Are we that bad compared to them? Or we did not have a good enough diplomatic relations? Or it is related with the Commonwealth status… no idea…

August 17, 2007

Happy Independence Day for my beloved country, Indonesia!!!

Hmm a long weekend for everyone in Indonesia I guess…J

I went to Ikea after work. Helen already reminded me to not spend a lot of money there hehehe…But sorry Helen, it did not work…at all …hehehe. I got everything I want (hmm unless the computer desk that I dream of…still have to think how to carry it…btw) and also several things that I did not plan to buy before….hehe…as usual.

August 15, 2007

Got surprising news from Dimitri this morning about the killing of six people in the area close to Duisburg Hbf. Duisburg is only 30 mins away from where I live. Later, it turned out that all the six people are Italian and connected to one of the clans in southern Italy. See more in http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070815/ap_on_re_eu/germany_shootings.

After work, I had dinner with Liz, Helen, Daniela, and Jennifer. We went out to Mantgold, several minutes by tram from our office. The food was great, I ordered pasta with king prawns….and it’s not bad choice indeed. I really like the pasta…yummy…

August 13, 2007

Today I arrived in Duesseldorf with a different feeling….the feeling that finally I deserve to live here since I just got my working and residence permits. I really want to shout ‘welcome to Duesseldorf’ to myself when I reached Duesseldorf Hbf, although I moved to my apartment in Duesseldorf already :-P It was a long story…four-depressing-month to wait these permits, but when finally I got it, I felt that it was not that terrible after all…

Now I can really start my life here in Duesseldorf, unpacking some of my stuffs which still untouched (in boxes) in my apartment, decorating my apartment to make it more cozy (I have to go to Ikea this weekend) :-P, thinking about which mobile phone contract that I am going to take….that kind of things…. besides, for sure….I feel so relieve….I am so happy today :-)