Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Day 8 - Keukenhof

don't let this darkness fool you
all lights turned off can be turned on
...
oh dear, don't be discouraged
Call Your Mom - Noah Kahan

That song, it's to encourage you in whatever darkness you're in, but me and my depressed self see it more like all lights turned on can be turned off *sigh* I had a lot of anxiety before the trip, shits in life, and they were so eager to welcome me back. If there's a light in me that's turned on during the trip, well they're promptly switched off when I landed. People may come back rejuvenated after a vacation, but I was super dark. I couldn't find it in me to be around people :( As I was preparing my journey back, I was fully aware of all the real life shits that I had waiting for me. There was anxiety about having to go back to them, but somehow I mustered myself and put them aside, because there's one last thing to do. Typical of my trips in Europe, I squeezed in Keukenhof. This time I chose to go inside the garden instead of cycling around. So brace yourself now with a post filled with flowers.

It was smooth sailing leaving Bergen. I got to the airport with time to spare. I remember the funeral of Pope Francis was happening - really wished I could have watched it in full. Anyways, no issue as well arriving in Schiphol airport. I proceeded to find the bus to Keukenhof. They changed the bus location again and I did get confused. I made one round walking in circle but then somehow I spotted the sign and another sign and another sign - wow the bus stop now is pretty far. When I got to the bus stop, there's a notice that the ticket for Keukenhof that day was fully sold out so the counter there was closed. I, of course, had booked online. There was a bus waiting and so I got on straightaway. There's a Chinese girl who was asking something to the driver, but she didn't seem to get her answer. I asked her if she needed help. She's Chinese, but been living in Spain, and she didn't speak very good english. It seemed she didn't have the bus ticket, but the bus was moving and so I told her to just sit down. I'm not sure why the staff outside didn't really check her before. I'm also not sure how she's going to get back, but no one did really check the bus ticket booking when I left Keukenhof. It's weird. Anyways, her friend was already there in the garden. We arrived and went to the locker room. Well she went to meet her friend waiting by the entrance to pass her the key to a locker that her friend had already gotten earlier. I was in a pinch though, all the lockers were filled. The ones which weren't didn't have keys on them :( When the Chinese girl came back, she asked if I would like to put my things in their locker, but it's not possible because we would be leaving at different times. I told her it's okay really and to go enjoy her day. I was still stumped though, what to do. It's not like I had a lot of things, but it'd be great if my backpack was less heavy. I tried my luck and went to the space where they store luggages and told the staff if they could take my small things. They said sure, so that was great. They plastered sticker on my pouch and give me the receipt. I was glad that's settled.

Keukenhof was crowded that day, not comfortable crowded. That was the most crowded Keukenhof I've ever been. I'm not sure if it's because it's Saturday afternoon or because it's King's Day. Keukenhof itself didn't have any special thing for King's Day as far as I could see. There were some people dressed up in orange for it. I decided to be really systematic this time around and followed the map closely. First stop was the Oranje Nassau pavillion and then I went to the other pavillions, Willem-Alexander and Beatrix. In crowded Willem-Alexander, I felt like that time in Chelsea Flower Show, but even then I had to admit it's worse in Chelsea Flower Show, because even with the big crowd there's still space to manuever in Keukenhof.

At one point when I was walking around outside I heard an American lady saying something like, it's not like I needed to go now, but we better be walking towards the exit :D Yeah, the crowd was really not pleasing. My mind also went to my first time in Keukenhof, somehow I remember it as being quiet. I also remember being cold that first time because I was kinda under-dressed for that visit and it was kinda a cloudy day. This time around it was actually a great beautiful day with the sun and blue sky. I also made it to the windmill, but I didn't get in because there were way too many people.

With the pavillions done and the windmill seen, I walked around the rest of the garden. Had strawberry ice-cream and spicy chicken sandwich which was not spicy; it was good on account that I was hungry. You know something that I newly discovered? The Keukenhof organ, De Adriaen, it's been there forever, I had pictures of it from my first visit, but it was only this time that I saw its behind and it's really really interesting to see the mechanism and the music book (for lack of a better term) that they feed into the organ.

When I reached the Dandelion fountain, well I pretty much had covered everything. I did look for the tap fountain that I saw back in 2017 but I couldn't find it, I don't know if it's a one-time thing. So then I just walked around and around a bit more.

It's always great visiting Keukenhof even with the crowd. Actually it was getting better late in the afternoon as people were starting to leave. I didn't really want to leave because you know ... life, but I must. I thought of how amazing it was being able to be there again. It's still something that's quite unbelievable to me that I've had the chances to go places and visit Keukenhof for a few times now. There's also the realization that this might be the last one. I don't know if I'll ever get there again or anywhere. Okay, let's keep this post positive and beautiful before I go into a rant on the troubles of applying for a visa as an Indonesian. For even more pictures from Keukenhof (the most I have ever uploaded from the garden or of any place), see this. It's actually not all just flowers, the trees and greeneries were great too.

I decided to leave earlier because I wasn't sure about the bus situation and I also remembered that airport security check tend to be long in this part of the world, but it turned out the bus queue was not crowded and I was able to get on the bus which was waiting. The airport security check and immigration line were okay too. The immigration officer in Schiphol who handled me was chatty - okay dude, good thing you and the guy next to you were kinda cute :D My priority in Schiphol was of course getting stroopwafel - gosh how I miss them. The usual, I got three packs for myself and unfortunately I had finished them all :( I also got big bars of Tony's Chocolonely, I've grown to love them very much. Then it's the wait to be boarded. Then the long flight back which was pretty bumpy, but thank God we're all good and arrived safely. I didn't get up once again, even to pee - I'm sure this is not good. The reason why I tried this was because last year the girls who were sitting next to me in the flight from Frankfurt to Singapore also didn't get up once. So in my mind, I thought this could be done. It can be done, but again I don't think this is good to do on a 12-hour plus flight, but on the other hand you don't want to be caught standing or in the lavatory during sudden scary turbulence - so I don't know man. On other note, Airfrance and KLM breakfast meal for economy class now are like sandwich wrap which I don't hate, really. I don't know how long this been going on. Though it's not on the level of McDonald's Egg McMuffin but it's really better than the breakfast of the old days where the eggs looked weird, so I take this anytime. Okay I think I have written all through all these long posts. At the end, I really have to thank God almighty. He really takes me places and my wonder on how we could do all these never ceases.

:) eKa @ 8:40:00 PM • 0 comments

Friday, June 13, 2025

Day 7 - Osterfjord + Mostraumen Strait and Bergen

untungnya hidup terus berjalan
untungnya ku bisa rasa
hal-hal baik yang datangnya belakangan
Untungnya, Hidup Harus Tetap Berjalan - Bernadya

I found that song when randomly I stumbled into this online article on the local newspaper written by a guy reflecting on his time in Jakarta. Something about how the city taught him acceptance and there's a mindset of the people there that he found admirable, things like still being able to be chill when things don't go our way because it is what it is. I myself have felt for many years now when coming back to Jakarta that Indonesia does teach you patience. Coming from Singapore when things work and work in an efficient manner, going to Jakarta you do need to kinda hold your horses a bit. A queue will move slower - sometimes it's not because the people work slower but the steps they take to serve you may include pleasantries that one may not get in Singapore. I notice many of the service staff will end the conversation with is there anything else I can help you with and after that there could be another bye message, my favorite is the one that says something like may you'll always be successful (the English translation is weird). So anyways, the writer of the article mentioned this song that he said reflected his life at the time. I would translate the song title in English as luckily, life still needs to go on. Interestingly, Bernadya also has another song with a title that I would translate as darn, life still needs to go on. Both songs are really nice and while the titles may suggest opposing takes about life needing to go on, they both actually acknowledge that because life needs to go on, you will move on and in the case of luckily, she sings how about luckily then she could experience good things that come later.

The song does kinda resonate with me too, though it wasn't heartbreak that I experienced or perhaps one could call it heartbreak too - afterall a breakdown in friendship could cause you heartbreak right. That song and thinking about how I travelled to many places alone, my mind goes to a major breakdown of friendship that caused me to be a lone wolf. Darn those days was a shock to my system, but starting from that time when I needed to go figure out life on my own, well it led me to doing more things on my own and eventually to travelling everywhere on my own. It couldn't have happened if I hadn't been so alone with no one. So I guess one of the most traumatic time in my life (still don't like to talk about it) changed me so much but that change did bring me to good things. I chose that song to start this post not for some deeper insight, but more because I made a stupid careless mistake on day 7, but thanks be to God, luckily I still experienced good things.

For day 7, I had booked a ferry ticket that would get me cruising Hardangerfjord and then spend a few hours in Rosendal before taking the same ferry back to Bergen in the afternoon. I was looking forward to it. I have figured out where the ferry terminal was and I thought there's not need to rush, we could make it on time. This is where my bad trait became my downfall - somehow I have become this person who gives very little margin of time when we need to get somewhere. Unlike my mom and cousin who like to come early to places like the airport and wait there, I do not. I arrived at the terminal around 10 minutes before departure and the ferry terminal was empty. There's a listing of departures on the screen and I found my ferry on the list, but there's no information on which platform. I went out and saw no boat and I was so confused and started to freak out and there's no one to ask. I didn't know what to do. Then I saw that there's a boat coming but it's on the other side of the wharf and I thought that's the boat and I started running there and somehow then there's a guy running near me. We both were supposed to take the same ferry to Rosendal. We asked another guy if this was the boat, the guy said no, the Rosendal boat was one the other side, the side I was earlier on but quite at the end of the terminal, a part which I didn't explore. The guy also pointed out that the boat was leaving now and we saw it leave. My heart sank. The guy, a long-haired dude (which I'm so indebted to) told us, I could change your ticket to tomorrow or if you would like to change to the Mostraumen straits cruise which was leaving at 10 AM, he could also do so. I have read about the Mostraumen cruise and thought it was less interesting than the trip to Rosendal hence I didn't choose it, but I would have taken the Mostraumen cruise anyway due to this mistake of mine and this guy offering to help us change my ticket due to our own mistake was really heaven sent. He could have just let us know of this other ferry ride and get us to buy new ticket, but he offered to change our ticket so that our day was not wasted (his word) just like that - I don't know what kind of access he has to do this, perhaps admin access, blessed be admin access :) I took his offer without hesitation, I don't know if the other guy did the same. The Mostraumen cruise cost 12 NOK more. I tried to pay but the guy said you would get a email about this, just pay when that email came. He did his thing and sort me out and I got new ticket for Mostraumen. Being someone who doesn't get over failure easily, this weighed a lot on me. I checked my earlier confirmation for Rosendal and it did say arrive 20 minutes before departure, so that was my mistake right there. Sometimes when I want something and it doesn't happen, I like to say to myself God said no, but this time around it's not God who said no, it's me and my dumb self. This mistake was all mine, I did this to myself, but the good Lord, He really helped me out in the form of the long-haired dude. After I confirmed the point of departure, I went off to walk around.

With time to spend before 10 AM, I walked around the Bryggen area. It's a UNESCO heritage site so the buildings there need to preserved in the old ways. It was still early, so many of the shops were not open yet and were not crowded with people.

Determined to not be late this time around, I made it to the boat early. The boat was not as big as the one for the Nærøyfjord cruise, but the inside was similarly nice. This time around I also spent all the time outside. Because it's not as big of a boat, the outside area was also smaller, but I found a place and pretty much just stood there the whole time. It was kinda nice to see another side of Bergen as the boat was leaving it.

The boat moved faster than the Nærøyfjord boat especially when leaving Bergen. It only moved slower when it's near places where there's a village. I guess for safety reason just in case the people there were also going out in their small boat. Now that I googled it, this cruise went through Osterfjord and then the Mostraumen strait - obviously I don't know where one starts or ends. It was really windy standing outside. At some point, I actually put on a beanie and glove. That being said, I also like this cruise. Through these 2 fjord cruises, I found that I really love cruising a fjord :)

For more pictures from the Mostraumen cruise, go here. The whole cruise took around three and a half hours and we're back in Bergen. I walked around a bit, here and there aimlessly. I went back to the Bryggen area and also explored other streets.

Then I decided to just eat. I chose a nice place by the wharf and had perhaps the nicest meal of the entire trip. It was seafood pappardelle with lobster sauce. I'm not one who takes photo of the thing that I eat so I have no picture of it, but I remember thinking it's beautiful when it arrived and when I was having it, it was so good. It was on the expensive side, but oh well, that day being my last day. After that, I walked around a bit more but I didn't know what else to do so I thought maybe let's end the day and just get a good rest before beginning the journey back the next day. I stopped by a mall nearby the hotel and I thought of getting some snack. Saw that there's a supermarket on the floor below where I was and I was intrigued by the layout. It seemed that there's only one way of getting in and out. The escalators by the exit and entrance only go in one direction. You may not get what I'm saying, but anyway I went to the supermarket. Got some chocolates and then I chose the self check-out machines. This is normal; it's what I've been doing in Singapore. However what's different is that the machine tells you that you may get a random check and in the receipt there's a QR code that you need to scan to open a barrier gate before you could actually exit. So this kinda poses a problem if you go to the supermarket and end up not buying anything. I suppose you can wait for someone to open the gate with their receipt and follow from behind. Overall, this kinda thing is interesting for me and I wonder how other countries who have self check-out machines deal with this. Up to that point, I did not realize the level of trust the supermarkets or stores in Singapore put in their customers with their self check-out machines :D The supermarket staff here are more likely to ask if you have scanned for the plastic bag that you use instead of checking if you have scanned everything that you take.

After that I remembered hey there's like a big pond lake by the hotel, let's check that out before we go back. The pond has a big fountain and all around the pond there were blooming cherry trees and I spent sometime taking their photos. Unlike in Copenhagen, it was a blue sky sunshiney day. I didn't have the energy to explore the whole perimeter though. Google Maps told me there's a number of art museums there.

After that I really decided to end the day, but I still made a stop to get some fried chicken and a chocolate mousse cake before going back to my room - I was afraid I might get hungry later :D For more pictures from Bergen go here. Despite of my self-inflicted major mistake that day, I had a good time in Bergen and I like the city. Well the weather helped, I suppose. It's not common I think to get getting all that sunshine and blue sky that I had. I was thinking that somehow this trip was a bit like last year where I got uncooperating weather in the first leg, but then after the rest was all blue sky and sunshine. Then thinking back to all my other trips, I usually had been lucky with the weather, but these past few years they hadn't been that perfect. Still I'm grateful though. I have to be grateful. God really had his hands on me throughout. That evening I remember thinking I wasn't ready to go back to real life, but I must and we did still have one more thing to do before the journey back so there was that to think of.

PS: I did pay the extra 12 NOK for the Mostraumen cruise. There's no email that came stating I needed to pay actually. I just happened to check the email that showed the change of booking and there's a section that I could click to see the booking detail and then I saw that I still needed to pay 12 NOK, but all this happened when I was already done with the cruise and back in my room. I thought about it and thought about karma and I didn't want the guy who helped me get in trouble if I didn't pay, so I did. You cannot be that bad when God has been kind to you.

:) eKa @ 11:06:00 PM • 0 comments

Saturday, June 07, 2025

Day 6 - A Viking Village, Nærøyfjord, Flåm & Myrdal Train Ride

maybe I have yet to venture out
see the places that I hear about
planes and trains and cars
That You Are - Hozier & Bedouine

Day 6 was the day that I was going to see a fjord. Booked a day trip for this and I wasn't really paying attention to what the whole day would be like, I just knew there would be a fjord cruise and a train ride. The day turned out to be a bit more than that. From Bergen, we first made a small stop in Voss. There's nothing much to do on our short stop, it's basically a stop to get out of the bus a bit. I walked to see the lake in front of us which Google told me is called Vangsvatnet.

After Voss, we're told we're going to go to a Viking village. I totally didn't recall this was part of the trip, so this whole visit was a bit of a surprise to me. The Viking village we're visiting is called Njardarheimr and it's like a recreation of what a Viking village used to look like. We had about 20-minute guided tour led by a staff who's dressed in Viking attire. She was explaining things about the Viking way of life, showing us the Viking boat, the houses, weapons, the chief hall in which there's another older man playing the role of chief, sitting on the main seat watching us as the lady was explaining things to us. This part was the one that kinda mind-boggled me a bit. They try to keep things authentic so things are done like before in Viking times and staff dress like Vikings. It's almost like cosplay and cosplay is something I couldn't really wrap my head around, but then I think they must have fun doing all these and it beats getting stressed and miserable in an office job, so their jobs are most probably better in some way. After the staff's explanation, we're given time to explore on our own. Below are some pictures from the village. The houses contain different things inside them and they even have sheep there.

During our time to self-explore we could do things like touch the sword, shield, and also try our hand at archery and axe throwing. Now, I'm shy in doing these kinda thing in a way a young child might be fearful about being asked to sing in front of the class - truth be told maybe I'm not shy, I just haven't gotten over that dread you had when your teacher called you to do something in front of the class as a child - but I saw people were doing archery and I thought why not. In each round, there were 3 people doing it at the same time and we all had 3 arrows to shoot. The staff taught us how to do it and so I tried. The target was big and I missed all three, shooting above the target - I was like what the ... but then I thought why should you be surprised, you see the pictures you take, your aim is bad, many of times your horizon is not even straight. That being said, I like archery a lot and I wished I could do more, but I was really embarrassed and there were other people waiting. Though I failed miserably, I did feel kinda good for trying it out because again I'm shy about this kinda thing, so me putting myself out there was really good, so much so that I decided let's try throwing axe now. For axe throwing, only one person could try at one time. Again the target was big and you had three tries. You needed to collect the axe after each throw. Again, none of my throw landed. After my second try, the staff said try moving forward a bit, well it didn't help. I have to say, as much as I said it's good of me for putting myself out there, there's still embarrassessment on my part for putting myself out there that I tended to rush in doing these that I didn't just stop and put more thoughts into it. I'm not using this as an excuse for my poor performance though, because I may well be still suck even after I put more thought into it. By the way, this was the staff at the axe throwing. See what I mean when I said they're in Viking attire.

For more pictures from the Viking village, go here. After the village, it was a short walk to where we're going to get on the boat for the Nærøyfjord cruise. It wasn't a long wait to get on the boat. The boat was big and inside it was actually pretty fancy, the seating was really nice but most people spent it outside, especially because we had such a good weather. I wanted to get to the top deck but it was full of people so I went to the lower deck which had less people and allowed me to stand comfortably and look ahead. Even before we started the view was pretty great.

Except for the short time I went inside to get some snack, I spent all the time outside. I like the cruise a whole lot. Before the trip, I wondered if I was going to find this boring, but I really love cruising a fjord. Sometimes there's waterfalls (there's always waterfalls), but whatever it was, I just love the view, the high cliffs on the left and right, the stillness of the water that formed a perfect reflection of what's above the surface (see one of the picture below, it's so awesome). The boat ride was very smooth too. It's quite amazing that this boat was electric. Now I have to say, I had a blue sky day, I don't know how I would like it when it's drizzling and dreary and cold, though as mentioned the inside of the boat is nice so perhaps it would still be a great ride.

For more pictures from Nærøyfjord, go here. The boat made one stop before Flåm where it ended and our guide was making sure none of us get off on that stop. I don't know if locals use this boat as their transport. I saw quite a number of tourists with their bags or lugagges. I am amazed at these tourists, these days I'm pretty lazy in dragging my luggage here and there which does limit the places that I could explore and no, the more I travel do not cause me to pack less. In Flåm, we had a few time to spend before taking our train to Myrdal. I just walked around a bit, got ice cream and sat down watching people getting on the boat for the ride back to the other direction.

On the train from Flåm to Myrdal, we got the whole compartment for our group. I managed to get a window seat, but the wrong side :( the other side had nicer view. When one of the person from my group started to stand on my window, I took it that I could also stand on their window on the other side to take photo too. Here's some of the view.

At one point, the train stopped for awhile by Kjosfossen waterfall and we all got out to see it. The guide said during summer, there would be a lady dancing by the waterfall. Sounds weird, but I googled it and saw pictures of it. I have to say, there's something to be admired about these people doing weird things for fun :D

The train stopped at Myrdal where we changed to a different train (more modern) for the ride back to Voss. I like this train ride better because in Myrdal there's still snow covering everything and the landscape was just so different, very beautiful.

Back in Voss, we took the bus back to Bergen. It was a good day, really good. Saw and experienced wonderful things. For more pictures from the Flåm and Myrdal train ride, go here.

:) eKa @ 12:07:00 PM • 0 comments