Sunday, July 31, 2011
I'm actually not planning to write today but there are many things that swirled into my head this weekend. Yesterday in french class, we talked about how foreigners perceived the french and that got me thinking of how foreigners perceived Indonesians and then it led me to think what makes an Indonesian and if I am an Indonesian or why do I keep on emphasizing on the fact that I am an Indonesian when perhaps I'm not so Indonesian anymore. Then today, I finally had a small talk with Chloe. She and Maxime have been spending some time here. Jenny was asking them to speak french to me. I actually just woke up from my nap so the brain was not receptive to listening and speaking french. As usual, I deflected and started answering in english. Chloe was surprisingly open about her life. At one point, I was telling her something like this, I hope you didn't do X because of Y, because that would be so stupid. I was thinking that it was actually really really rude. That got me thinking further that I really really have to stop doing all this saying things without filtering them. It's not amusing anymore, it's just plain annoying and hurtful sometime. So talking to Chloe, who's 10 years younger than me made me think about more stuff, about how I feel so like an adult. I wish I can talk longer to her because she seemed interested in talking to me too but Jenny was around and I have a feeling that Jenny may not like her being so open to me. I don't know, just a feeling. Anyway, with that many topics going around in my head, there are many things to talk about, no? Let's try.Do I want to pose that question of what foreigners think of Indonesian? I think that there will be a lot of negative answers which I will respond with, but Indonesian are very nice! Are we? Are we very nice? I do think Indonesian are very nice. I have to admit, I'm not a very nice Indonesian though. I think they are very patient. They are easy going which some may take it as being lazy and ignorant about the proper ways of doing thing. For me going back home is always important because it's going back to the Indonesian roots. Things like speaking Indonesian. It's getting harder for me to say full sentences in Indonesian without breaking in English. On the few trips home, I even had moments when I pointed something to mom and asked how to say that in Indonesian. I knew how to say it in English but I actually forgot how to say it in Indonesian :( It's very important for me to be able to speak Indonesian well and even when I do speak it, I realize I don't really speak it the way my friends speak it. I try my best though. Why going home is very important for me is also because you go back to your place or position in a family and it puts a different perspective about your life. Being here alone it's all about me and surviving but when you are back in the family, it's about how you are part of an entity or a group. Meeting my aunts, uncles, and cousins and seeing their lives is important in a way of telling me how my life could be when God is kind enough to give me a family of my own. That's another thing I think Indonesians are, that they move in a group. I don't think Indonesians are very individualistic, it's always about their place in a group or a community and actions are made with regards of the group. There are just things about Indonesia and how things go about there that can teach you a lot, at least if you are an Indonesian. Everytime I'm there, I always feel that I am at least being taught to slow down, relax, take it easy, and have more patience. Things will not run the way you want it, in an efficiency and standard that Singapore has, but it's all good, people there have put up with it and they're happy in life, perhaps they are even happier than the average Singaporean though they have less, so be happy, be thankful. Being thankful is also another thing that going back to Indonesia teaches me. I do feel I am not thankful enough in life.
So anyways, there have been a few people who told me that I'm westernized simply because I could be very direct in saying my opinion. As mentioned above, my conversation with Chloe did make me feel like I have to tone it down a bit and also perhaps use the F word less. Actually I do not know if being direct is a western thing. If my characters do change in a way that people think of it as being westernized, I think it's not because of the western influence, it's more because I've been in Singapore for a long time and all the experience of just trying to survive on my own. Things become like a problem - solution kinda thing. You have a problem, you face it and find a solution to it and often time it involves saying how you feel or say it as it is to the people who contribute to the problem or who can help you with it. So that's just how I feel. Another thing, I wrote about how Indonesians move in a group. I see that in the Indonesian "friends" back in NUS days. I put friends in "" because I don't think we are actually good friends if we don't stay in touch now. Maybe it's just me. Anyway back in NUS, we did things together and in a group and now that I see it, I feel it suppressed certain interesting and unique qualities of my friends. Now that many of us have kinda made it in the real world on our own and be the wonderful individual that we are outside that group, some of them are great. Like who knows that Oshie actually can tweet about someone being a dick. Back in NUS days, he's like the calm innocent kind but he's pretty spunky and witty and I love this fact :) and I don't know if it's a sign of being westernized, but people with their opinions and uniqueness interest me more than people who don't have any opinions or who are more comfortable being with the crowd or following them.
On that note, it kinda relates to the conversation I had with Chloe today. Apparently the girl quit her psychology studies and turn to movie making. I was stunned that Jenny was okay with that. She said she was failing as she wasn't making any effort at all and she decided to change course. I asked her how long movie making school will take. She said 5 years and I almost fell to the floor. She talked about spending her first year in the hostel and then feeling lonely because she didn't make any friends. She talked about how her friends are just as relaxed in life like her and she even used the word 'hippie' on them, basically to signify that they just bum around. I seriously didn't expect this from a western culture. I thought parents are ready to kick them out when they're 18 or something. But she is European instead of American. I was stunned to hear this girl who just doesn't seem to be quite mature yet. I expected more from her considering her family history. I was thinking that I was more mature than her when I was her age. I told her that I moved to Singapore when I was 18. She was telling me how her friends are the real french kind who like France and don't even think about leaving it. Even when asked why she didn't try to study in Paris, she said why? since the weather in Montpellier is great. That got me thinking if having lived in such a beautiful place does make someone to not want to explore the world more and it's all the people who are living in a developing country and are experiencing a lot of hardship who are eager to see the most of the world. Anyways, hearing her, I was thinking if I had been too hard on her. I mean Jenny who's pretty strict could accept her and be patient with her though she did say that by 21, she better gets her act together because that's the deadline before she gets cut off. I wonder why I was so taken by her and felt a tiny bit of disappointment hearing her. I was thinking if it's because of my strict parents. My dad was disappointed when my cousin wanted to quit orientation before it even started. It just seemed that quitting is not something which is tolerated by my dad. However, after all that have happened to my family, extended family I mean since there are only 4 of us in my core family, I do think that my parents have become perhaps more lenient, tolerant, and acceptant on certain things. I mean we have cousins not being able to move up in their classes, cousin who decided to stop studying or working, and teen pregnancy. My aunts and uncles are living with that and so again patience is something which perhaps grows as our parents grow older. So perhaps my parents are not strict anymore as well with our lives. It seems the consensus among my parents, aunts, and uncles are as long as the kids are happy and healthy, it's all good :) They are so nice, I don't know if they're doing us good with this. As for me, it seems that I'm so gonna be a tiger mom :P Anyway, another thought came to me. Talking to a girl 10 years younger than me, I felt so much older than her and I wonder what a person 10 years older than me can tell me about life. If they are feeling I'm not mature as well, if I still have a lot of growing up to do. Hmm, it's been a long writing there without much deep substance I fear so I guess I will just stop this rambling now. Hope we all will have a great week ahead :)
:) eKa @ 9:41:00 PM • 0 comments
Monday, July 25, 2011
I feel very very sleepy right now :( I don't think I really slept last night. Don't ask me why, it's common for my Sunday nights to be like that. Hence I often get cranky on Monday. I wasn't cranky though today. Today I had some time for myself which I spent with watching Larry Crowne, eating a comforting Indonesian nasi goreng, doing something which I didn't expect to be doing at this soon, and getting my eyes tested. The nasi goreng special was such a comfort food that it made me forget about my fear and nervousness for awhile. My eyes test seemed to show that my degrees went down. I wonder how that is possible and I wonder if I did the test correctly. Maybe I was too tired that I wasn't sure what I saw or said anymore. The other thing I did which I obviously didn't want to elaborate here kinda made me sad and brought me more questions about my life. YeeMaggio was really comforting, telling me that she also felt how I felt and I'm not alone in my despair. I'm just gonna close that at that.Let's talk about Larry Crowne. I actually like this movie a lot. There's a survey in America that showed most of the audience for this movie was above 50 years old. I was telling Ms.J, why am I drawn to this movie? I'm not old! She herself likes the movie too. Even stranger, I actually find Tom Hanks to be quite attractive in this movie. I feel like smacking my head to stop all this stupidity, I cannot be drawn to guys who are so much older. Surely there are guys not so far from my age group who could be interesting, no? Anyway Ms.J was right, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are just so good that when you put them together, they will just be great. Julia Roberts really has a deadly smile. I was thinking about this movie. I was thinking how frightening it is to be in their age and finding that their whole world collapse. Tom Hanks' character lost the job he had had for many years and ended up losing his house as well. He had to reinvent himself and start something new, taking classes with people who are young enough to be his kids. Julia Roberts' character had a job which was losing its meaning to her and was going through a divorce. I just found that to be frightening. I have my life crisis at this age of mine nearing the end of my 20s and going to be 30 soon, however as much as it gets really suffocating thinking about my life, I do have to say that worse come to worst, I can just pack up my life and go to the comfort of my parents. I know some people will criticize me for saying that but that is true. As much as I often feel so alone, I have my mom who will embrace me with open arms. Now when I think about having a major life changes and problems at the ages of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts character, for me that's just scary. It's the age where they should have had all the answers, where life supposes to be all figured out and yet it's not and as shown in the movie, they're pretty alone in that rocky stage of their life. It's really really scary for me. I wonder when I reach that age and I am in that situation, if all the years that I will have had will give me the wisdom and strength to march on like Larry Crowne. Well there you go, the thoughts that came to my head after thinking more about the movie.
A thought came to my tired and sleepy head just now. It's of taking a conversational Italian class. I just saw the class listing and there's one on Friday evenings and I was thinking I could actually do that. However now, I realize that would be a lot of extra expenses. Hmm ... non so ... forse perché il francese è troppo difficile per me adesso and sono diventata molto pigra così vorrei smettere studiare il francese. E anche perché dimentico tanto le parole italiane e la grammatica :( devo usare un dizionario per scrivere queste righe :( Sono molto stanca adesso. Allora fermo qui. Buonanotte tutti!
:) eKa @ 9:50:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, July 23, 2011
I'm so late perhaps but I've finally watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and how I love it so much. I think it's the best Potter movie of the lot and I'm planning to watch it again. Before I go on to describe how awesome it was, let me just comment on the IMAX theatre first. So I watched this with YeeMaggio at the only IMAX theatre (currently) in Singapore. During the trailer it occured to us how big the screen is and there was a trailer for Under The Sea and the big screen felt like it's really in your face and the 3D was totally awesome. I was wondering how on earth I was going to survive an adrenaline pumping Harry Potter movie which runs for 2 hours under this circumstance but the fact is Under The Sea was really made for 3D and IMAX, Harry Potter was not. So watching it in 3D in an IMAX theatre was like the same as watching it in another cinema. The good point was perhaps the cinema is new so it felt clean and nice and the screen was big but honestly I didn't notice it much anymore during the movie.Now about the movie. I have to repeat that it's AWESOME!!! The best Harry Potter movie of all and I'm happy how nice it turned out. As a fan of the books, just like many people who may have their complains about things being left out, I also have a bit of disappointment on some things but overall I think it was nicely done. I'm gonna use numbers for my thoughts.
1. The character I love the most is Professor Snape. I love him dearly and from the first book, I never waiver in believing he was good. Seeing him for the first time on the screen was enough to make me feel bitter sweet because this being the last movie, we're not gonna see Professor Snape anymore. I always felt that his screen time was too little in all the movies. Even on this one, his lines when he was alive weren't much. His dying scene was sad and touching for me (I had some tears) not because it was amazingly good but because knowing his story, it was really really sad. I was glad he had more screen time when Harry looked into his thoughts in the pensieve and I think they did Professor Snape's justice. It felt good to see his vulnerable side after all this time him appearing pretty heartless and emotionless. You could really see how much love he had for Lily Potter and how tormented he was for what happened to her. So I'm pretty satisfied with his storyline :)
2. Neville Longbottom. I remembered reading the last book and thinking I hope they don't just dismiss this boy and push him to the side. Just like for Professor Snape, I think they did him good. By the way, who would have known out of all of them, Neville would grow up to be the hottest of them all. I love how strong Neville has become in this movie and they did make him look so cool when he slayed Nagini. It felt really good to see Neville in the spotlight and be all natural and sincere about it. You can't help feeling proud of him :)
3. I gotta talk about Draco a bit. Draco is one character who I always look forward to see in all the films. I never really hate Draco. Starting from Half Blood Prince, I was already sympathetic for Draco. The fact that he's so tormented means he had some heart though perhaps some people may argue that he's just a coward. I actually like seeing him being tormented :P
4. Ron and Hermione's kiss. Oh my God!!! I thought it was bad. I mean come on, these are 2 people who we know like each other so much for the longest time and even in the book we all gasped and grinned in joy when they kissed but in the movie I think it was a disappointment! The angle that they chose most of the time was with Ron's face covering Hermione's. The kiss wasn't obvious. I wonder if after all the takes, they couldn't find any good one :( It was just a big let down for me.
5. Ginny and Harry's kiss on the other hand was good. It was short but it became very sweet when she said, "I know" and Harry dashed off. I'm not one who love the idea of them being together but with that scene I gave them my blessing :P
6. The battles of Hogwarts was epic. I thought it was cool. I think there are more magic shown here than in all the previous movies but of course I had my disappointment. I would have loved to see an actual battle scenes that show people like Fred, Lupin, and Tonks died :( I also expected a more epic duel between Molly Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange. Overall though, I think it was awesome. Scenes like between the giants and the army from the wall was good. Seriously when Prof. McGonagall was conjuring the spell to wake the soldiers from the wall, my mind went to the churches I visited in Europe and thought how awesome it was if all those statues can come to life as well :P
7. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. I just want to say I love them all. I actually love Harry the least, even in the movies and in the book, but you really cannot help loving them all after all these years. After all they've gone through together and after all the fun we had reading them. Geez, I'm feeling sentimental now. I just want to hug all of them, all the kids that have grown over the years and turned amazing :) I'm not loving the 19 years later scenes though. With them playing an older version of themselves, it just didn't feel realistic. I would have been satisfied if they just chose actual adult actors to play their older versions.
8. Lord Voldemort. In french class some weeks ago, Mr. C brought to our attention the fact that if you read that name in french, vol de mort, it means the flight of death. One of the many smart things that J.K. Rowling put in her books. I thought Ralph Fiennes was really really good playing him. You can feel the seriousness and a bit of fear hearing him telling Hogwarts and Harry Potter to surrender. The half whisper voice that he had was rather terrifying. He's so good being bad that I was really glad when he finally died. That's how good of an actor he is :)
9. To summarize on how good this movie is. Take note that I cannot comment if it's confusing for non readers. I think the story line is great, the pace was quick. You feel like it's one adventure after another. The special effects were great. It is pretty dark, I have to admit that some of the scenes were a bit scary. Many of the scenes were so touching that I had a tear or two. So I had tears not because it's the end but because the scenes were really nicely done and the actors were great that you couldn't help feeling touched. For example when Voldemort tell Hogwarts to turn Harry over and one of the Slytherin pointed to him and one by one people stood up to protect him, you can't help feeling touched. Seeing all of them standing up to fight knowing that they're most probably not going to survive this made me a bit teary and I didn't expect that :) Writing all that, I really cannot wait to watch this movie again. Maybe in 2-3 weeks from now :P
I can go on and on about how nice this movie is but I will stop now :) So how's life? Life is uneventful. Err ... well something did happen this week. I'm scared and nervous about it. I really didn't see this coming but it's here now and as much as I am scared about it, I can only walk forward. I need to repeat the mantra over and over, If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. As usual my mind is going all over the place, plotting all the what ifs when it's too premature to do all that. This causes me to be all jittery. I really need to just breathe and take it one step at a time.
On other news. I think I finally had a break through with Mr. C. I need to start of with how this morning started. I met Mr. N as I was entering the building and we started talking. He asked me how's class been going. I said it was difficult. He said it couldn't have been difficult for an intelligent girl like me :D I have to write this down simply because everyone has a narcissistic side and it's always good to be complimented :P I told him the teacher is Mr. C and so it's difficult. He funnily agreed with me, saying, aaah C ... yeah it's difficult :D It made me laugh. When I told this to Mr. C, he was laughing as well. I'm relieved that he could laugh about it :D So anyway the break through happened when I submittted my homework to him. I thought everyone was going to do it, hence I actually made an effort to do mine. Little did I know, noone did it. In fact not many people came today :( So anyway, I submitted mine through email simply because I just didn't want to have a discussion about it if I hand it to him in person. However Mr. C is so hardworking. I guess it is right about people who expect a lot from others, they expect more from themselves. I wrote 3 paragraphs and Mr C's reviews on that went to 3 pages. He said he appreciated my work so much so he had to do me justice and give me proper comments. I could only scream, aaaahhhh!!! when I saw that. I knew he's gonna butcher my writing because even I know it was bad. The arguments were weak and the writing style was not sophisticated at all. Instead of feeling sad however reading his lengthy and detailed comments, I couldn't help feeling a lot of appreciation towards him (it took him 2 hours to write his comments) and I actually felt bad that I subjected him to read such poor writing. One can only imagine his exasperation when one of his comments came with 3 exclamation marks :( Things that he said include how I repeat myself many times. Well even in english I do that, how many 'awesome' in this post alone. He also asked me to combine my sentences and make them more compact and efficient. Errr ... yeah that's hard. Anyways, I do feel better after telling him that he's stressing me out and he's the most difficult teacher I had :) It's good that he knows I sucks. I guess things are better when we know how we perceive each other :D At the very least I think now he knows my name :D I feel a bit better but still his class is nerve wrecking and I still don't know how to survive it. Maybe things will get better. Okay, I gotta stop now. You guys take care 'aight!
:) eKa @ 10:19:00 PM • 0 comments
Sunday, July 17, 2011
I'm usually asleep at this hour but I'm not. I woke up pretty late today after sleeping quite early last night for a Saturday night. Had a bad night or perhaps day yesterday. French class was as usual as it has been since we got Mr. C, it made me feel downhearted. For the records, it's not his fault, it's just je pense que je ne suis pas assez bonne for lui. Anyways, I had a bad neck pain yesterday morning but I managed to make it home. Weird incident in the bus back. There was this crazy chinese man rambling in chinese. I didn't understand what he was saying of course but he sounded angry. I think the bus driver asked him to get off but I think he scolded the bus driver back. It sounded pretty scary and my mind just went to the Hongkong tourists who were taken hostage in Manila, so I got off at the next bus stop. I was kinda worried for the safety of the bus driver and the other passengers but there's no news on TV about anything bad, so I think they're doing okay. Anyway, as I was reaching home, I felt worse. I felt nausea a bit. I couldn't even finish my lunch. I took my nap but when I woke up I wasn't feeling better. My temperature was rising. After some panadol it just seemed to subside awhile before rising again :( So I took more panadol, slept early and prayed. Woke up a few times at night and I recalled it was at 3.11 am something that my body seemed to be doing okay, the temperature was okay. It was like it has calmed down. I wasn't feeling totally well when I finally got out of bed today but so far my temperature hasn't gone up yet. So thank God. The neck pain is still killing me though :'( I know it sounds like I'm such a whiny baby but seriously it sucks being alone when you are sick really bad and become so weak that you wonder if you're gonna collapse or anything :'( As usual I became very emotional about it. Luckily since I was no longer feverish, I didn't reach the emotional state of having to bawl and sob like mad.So anyway, since I decided not to have a nap today, I've been spending the afternoon keeping up with the tv series which I missed during my holiday. I wanted to watch Larry Crowne today but I decided to do the right thing and stay in, but I do need to get out soon to get something proper to eat. Since the last time I wrote, there's nothing much to write. Perhaps that's the reason why I hadn't written. I did watch Transformers: Dark of the Moon. It was your usual bang bang boom kind. I think I was more amused with the witty lines that Shia's character had, especially with his parents. When the rest of the world are rushing to the cinema for Harry Potter, I will only be going to watch it next week. Gonna watch it in imax. I'm really looking forward for it. I booked for the tickets last Sunday and it was filling fast. This is definitely the first movie that I ever had to book 2 weeks in advanced. I seriously thought it was crazy.
Nothing much else to say about my life or anything that I can say here. I've been feeling a bit restless again with life and something happened that made me feel if it was a sign. I'm too tired to think about it now but I kinda need to make a decision soon. Yeah, I really don't want to talk about it now. I also don't want to talk about the people who pissed me off. So since I have nothing to say, I'm gonna stop now. I hope all of you are in good health. Take care!
:) eKa @ 2:54:00 PM • 0 comments
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Last post about the trip peeps, more than 1 month since I actually came back from my trip. I feel kinda sad because there's a finality that comes with writing this last post, like it's really over. But it's been over since long ago. I guess I was just in denial and kinda tried to extend those memories and the warm and fuzzy feeling and that feeling of being so thankful and blessed for being alive just because I saw something breathtaking. Anyway, let's start with this last post.I took KLM for my flight back to Singapore. KLM doesn't have any direct flight from Italy to Singapore. I had the option of having a stopover in Paris or Amsterdam and I chose Amsterdam. I chose quite a long stopover because I wanted to visit the Keukenhof garden. I could have chosen the earliest flight out of Rome but I didn't, thinking I would have enough time. My flight was supposed to arrive in Amsterdam at 1.05 pm and the flight to Singapore was at 9 pm. It seemed like I would have enough time but as the day approached, I did have my worry about it. I was thinking what if it took a long time from landing to actually getting out of the airport and I was wondering if there'll be an immigration check. I remembered asking Copper about it and we both kinda thought that there shouldn't be any immigration check because flight between EU countries should just be treated as a domestic flight. We were right :)
I knew I had to get out of the airport but stupid me, for some reason as I walked towards the exit, it didn't occur to me to really get out until I really exit the airport. When I asked where the bus terminal is, I was told to get out of the aiport *duh!* Well, I'd never really got out of the airport without having to go through immigration check or wait for my luggage, so this very liberating way of exiting an airport felt a bit unusual and unnatural for me that I was feeling unsure :P Anyway, if you go to Keukenhof's website, one of the suggested way to go there is by going to Schiphol airport and take the shuttle bus from there. From the web you can book the ticket to enter the garden that includes the return shuttle bus tickets, at 21€. I did just that and it was so easy to find the bus terminal. It's just outside the airport. I had no difficulty finding the bus. They ran every 15 minutes or so and when I reached there, the bus just arrived and so I didn't waste any time at all :) It took around 35 minutes or so to reach Keukenhof and seeing The Netherland's open landscape was pretty interesting. Oh yeah, I just remembered something. One of the plane's runway in Schiphol was actually an overhead runway with quite a busy road underneath it. It was actually kinda freaky for me. It was so unusual but I guess they're used to it, so it was nothing strange for the people there. Well it was a first time for me :P
Back to Keukenhof, I arrived easily. I've kinda been in The Netherlands before. On my Italian trip 2 years ago, I also had a stopover in Schiphol and one thing that I realized there was they everyone speaks English fluently. So I wasn't so nervous about not being able to speak Dutch :) So anyway there I was. The stupid me didn't even think of getting a map. I just started to walk, following the paths and the flowers. It's very cold there. It was strange coming from Italy which was a bit hot. I didn't expect it to be that cold because I was in Paris 2 weeks before and it wasn't that cold but I guess it happened to be a rather cloudy day in The Netherlands that day and the garden has a lot of trees, so it was colder than usual. I kinda couldn't take the cold much. I think I was a bit under dressed. So I went indoor every chance I got. There was an flower arrangement exhibition which was awesome. The lady doing the demonstration was doing it in English and Dutch. I didn't really watch her demonstration. All the flower arrangements there were really beautiful. There were flowers I hadn't seen before. Then there was also a lily exhibition which was so interesting for me because when you walked in, the area smelled amazing!!! I didn't know that lily could smell that nice which was stupid of me since they use lilies to make parfume. It was quite a big area filled with all kind of lilies, very big lilies, so the whole air was filled with their sweet smell. I kinda didn't want to leave because the smell was really comforting and it relaxed me. I had a hot chocolate drink here. The girl serving me was pretty sweet. I wanted to use up all my coins but I didn't have enough coins to pay for the drink :( So when she gave me coins as the chance, she was telling me sympathetically that now I had more coins. We laughed about it :P
I tried my best to explore the garden. There was a small zoo with a pony like horses but I don't think they were ponies or horses. I saw pigs, sheeps. There was a bird show. There were some fountains and ponds. There were many ducks and swans in the ponds and fountains. I kinda expected to meet some Indonesians there and I was just waiting to hear some Indonesians which I eventually did. There were 3 of them and I asked if they could take my picture. One of them kindly helped me. He was friendly, while the other 2 weren't so. On another occassion, I asked some Italians to help me take my picture. A realization came to me that I could actually ask people in 4 languages now and I should make use of that. Anyway, since it was cold, I have to admit, it was hard for me to keep on exploring the garden. When I wanted to leave, I saw there's a map of the garden and there's a windmill there. However I didn't want to risk going there because I didn't know how far it was and I am prone to get lost and missing my flight back to Singapore would have been catastrophic. A pity but perhaps this is a call to come to Keukenhof again one day :) So tulips being the attraction of the garden, here's a picture of some red tulips.
I guess I was really missing Italy and I still do now. Out of the 3 countries which I visited in this trip, Italy is still first on the list. I guess first love really never dies? Then it's Spain and then it's France. I don't know why France didn't really capture my heart much. I guess I just love the warm Southern Europe more :P I also think I can eat better and have less problem choosing what to eat in Italy and Spain. Another thing about France, despite of Paris being a typical big city with a lot of hustle and bustle, I actually love this city the most out of all the places I saw in France. This is despite of the more charming life in Provence. Still, overall, I just didn't feel connected with France the way I do with Italy. Maybe if I can speak french better then I'll feel differently but I don't know it I will ever be.
Anyway, I kinda finished sorting out the pictures. I have even added a set in Flickr with pictures I took from the road. My next project is actually going through the pictures again and picking out the ones which aren't featured in any of the set and turn them into black and white. I think they're gonna be awesome :) There are lots of them though :( I also need to photomerge some of the pictures which I planned to photomerge. Still so many things to do I guess. So still a few memories to relive and to make me smile. It's late, so I better stop now. Buonanotte tutti!
:) eKa @ 10:44:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, July 02, 2011
Our last day in Italy was spent visiting Capri. I was really looking forward to see La Grotta Azzura. The prospect of that did make me feel rather excited as we made our long journey from Rome to Napoli again. Well a cornetto with marmellata also helped me feel better about having to start our day so early :P So in Napoli, we took a ferry from Molo Beverello to Capri. Here's a picture from Molo Beverello, it looks pretty, doesn't it?
Because the water was rough, we couldn't go to the blue grotto. Aarrrgghhh!!! I was so disappointed :( But what could we do about it :( We started the day at the Piazzetta. We were given time to explore the place. The view was really nice from the small piazza. The guide was telling us, the wind was really strong so it caused the wave to be pretty rough but at the same time it cleared the sky, so we did get a beautiful view and we could see mountains nearby pretty clearly. In the piazzetta, there's a church, Santo Stefano. Its wall is all white. It looked so bright and a bit blinding under the bright sky :P I went in and it was all white inside as well, white wall, white chandeliers. It looked kinda rich. After that, I just hung around in the piazzetta, absorbing the view. Then suddenly there was a newlywed and their family walking towards the piazzetta. I think they just got married and they were releasing some white balloons. I did saw a girl walking by with a bunch of white balloons before that and I wondered what they're for and then I knew :P Some of the white balloons got stucked in the wires, pretty cute. Capri is really pretty. I can imagine that the piazzetta is also pretty too at night.
After that, we headed to Anacapri which is basically at the higher part of the island of Capri. We made a stop to try some limoncello first. Holy God! It was pretty strong. One of the American commented, it's like taking a shot :P At first taste, it actually tasted really nice but once it got into your system, it was really really strong :P We had lunch in Anacapri, it wasn't a good one. We found out that there's a Singaporean couple in our group. So we sat with them during lunch. They were friendly. I couldn't remember their names. The husband is a Singaporean but the wife is a Thai who speaks like a real Singaporean :P After lunch, the guide told us what we could explore in the area. One of it was taking the chairlift up to Monte Solaro. I wasn't keen on doing this because it seriously didn't look safe at all :( But I was thinking there's nothing else we could do there but that. I forget how much we paid but I think it's around 9€ or perhaps 15€. Mau was unfazed about taking that chairlift up and I was freaking out. I don't think I have a fear of height but I do have a fear about getting hurt badly. Hence I don't have trouble about taking a plane but once there's heavy turbulence, I will start praying fervently. So with this chair lift, I was really really scared about falling down to my death. Seriously, it's not so safe, you can open the safety barrier yourself during the ride. Mau seemed to think my fear to be rather amusing. I was not making any move at all when the ride started and Mau was turning back looking at me and telling me to relax and take pictures. She herself was taking pictures all around but I was really really scared. I seriously didn't move at all. On the trip down, I did get a bit relaxed, even though it was scarier because the sky turned rather dark and it got windy but I did take a few pictures and one of it is the picture of the chairlift. So here you go.
In the Termini train station, apparently the track for Leonardo Express to Fiumicino airport was quite far. Now I knew why 2 years ago, I managed to take the wrong exit! Anyway, dragging my luggage, I made it to the train that I wanted to take. It was like a workout, walking really really fast without stopping while dragging your luggage. In the airport, we had to use the machine again to check in and an Italian lady next to me was complaining of how confusing it was. I told her I didn't like it either and she ranted all the way in Italian telling me how she did everything and it still didn't work and one of the staff quickly came to help her. I think it was rather a silly system. The whole point is for the passengers to do check in themselves easily and yet it does get confusing. A staff had to help a big group of chinese tourists. I felt sorry for the girl who had to help all of them one by one. So anyway, I didn't encounter any problem. I went to my gate and I heard someone called me. It was surprising and it was more suprising to find out it's Mau. She got on the wrong train in Rome and so she missed her flight and ended up in the same flight as me. Poor her. She did leave very very early so perhaps she wasn't totally awake yet when she was at the train station. Our flight was actually for Amsterdam. I planned a longer stopover there because I had one last thing to cross off my life list, which I will tell you more in the next post. Mau on the other hand was staying the night there. On the plane, I was seated next to this young Norway girl, maybe around 17. I think she was stunned to find out I'm 29 :P Her english was amazing that I was stunned to hear her. She said it's common for Norwegian to speak english. She was going back from a holiday in Florence and Cinque Terre with some American friends. She looked pretty tired. All and all, I arrived in Schiphol without any problem. I didn't see Mau anymore though when we landed. Anyway, I'll stop now and I'll continue in the next post :)
:) eKa @ 7:37:00 PM • 0 comments
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
So one of the day tour that I took from Rome is a day tour to Pompeii. I first heard about Pompeii 2 years ago when la Gioia asked me if I was going to visit it. It wasn't in my plan 2 years ago. However I did some reading about it (wikipedia is my usual source) and it sounded pretty cool. Part of the things that I wanted to do in Italy this time around is not to do the same things that I did in my previous trip. Well it's logical that I had to explore new things right? My dad was already protesting that I was taking a trip to Europe again and mom was like telling me, didn't you already go to Rome that time around? So something different was really necessary. So this time around in Rome, I chose 2 day trips, one to Pompeii and the other to Capri. We did the Pompeii tour first on Saturday, May 14th.We actually started in Napoli first, to pick up the local guide. We saw a bit of Napoli, not much. It seems like a big city. It didn't seem rich. I saw a few homeless people. The guide, Vittorio, was complaining about the mayor of Napoli. The mayor earned 15,000€ a month and according to our guide the mayor didn't do much. I was pretty stunned hearing the 15,000€ / month salary that I wondered if I heard wrongly but I seemed to hear him correctly. It was a really high salary. The majority of the world population do not make that much in a year. Anyways, Italy was having election for new mayors in the period when I was there. I think spain too actually. Anyways I think the people decided to have a new mayor for Napoli now. This reminded me of the guide in Milan who was saying that they were going to have an election for a new mayor. She said that most likely the incumbent mayor was going to stay, however I think the people chose differently. They voted for a change. All these incumbent mayors were from the prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's party. I think the Italians are getting really tired with his scandals and his party. An American who was in the same tour with me in Milan was asking who's Silvio Berlusconi. I was flabbergasted on how ignorant people can be. I know he's not the only person in this world who doesn't know who Silvio Berlusconi or even cares to know. I just still can't stop shaking my head sometime with this kind of people. This American also said, if he's not a good baseball player then I don't need to know. Well ... okay, what can I say?
I'm digressing. So we went to Pompeii. At this last leg of my journey, I was actually feeling pretty tired that I decided to just follow the guide. He did give us a map and gave us the option to explore Pompeii on our own. However the place was massive, it's hot, and I just didn't want to end up getting lost. We saw a few interesting stuff there, starting with the amphitheatre. The we saw a small vineyard. Obviously it's not the same vineyard as in the ancient time. The plants were planted in the same place just to give an idea to the visitors on what it was like back then. I was pretty moved seeing the plaster casts of victims, especially seeing the kids there. It's so real and to think that there's actual body inside it, it's kinda freaky and very very sad at the same time. You can see the pictures here. From the posture you can see that they didn't really have much time to save themselves and they just died. Very very sad.
Other than that, we also saw an inside of a house. Obviously I have forgotten many details of what the guide told us. I remembered there's these stepping stones in the middle of the road which the guide said were used by the people in the case of heavy rains that the street was pretty flooded. I had Mau take a picture of me in that thousands of years old stepping stones :P However obviously I never post any picture of myself here or even in Facebook :P One of the major attraction was apparently Lupanare or the brothel. There was a jam of many different tour groups in that small street, all waiting to enter the brothel. The guides were negotiating which of their groups should enter first. The Lupanare was actually very small. I think there were 4 paintings on the wall depicting sexual acts. The people of Pompeii seemed to be really liberal in their sexuality. There were obvious signs pointing to the Lupanare. What I mean by obvious is a big penis sculpture on the road or on the wall pointing to the direction of the brothel.
The last stop was seeing the forum and the open area around it. Pompeii is very interesting. It's massive though, so walking exploring all of it will require a lot of energy and appreciation of the history :P It may not be a place for everyone. Will I visit it again? Well it's not on the top of my list to see in Italy anymore. Just like I think I'll be okay about not visiting the Vatican the next time I'm in Rome. I'm glad though that I have seen Pompeii and walked inside this ancient town :)
We reached Rome quite late that day and we decided to just have dinner at the restaurant next to our hotel. I was tired and it's late and so I was rather annoyed that it took quite a long time for the waiter to come to us. I noticed that there's a weird restaurant system in Rome. I am not sure if I'm right. It just seemed that each of the waiter is assigned a certain section and they only have to deal with that section. So even if a waiter is quite free with not many people in his section, the waiter is still not going to serve the guests in another busier section and the guests are left waiting. So we were left waiting for our waiter who had to deal with other quests. I was very annoyed with it. Eventually he came and we placed our orders. We had to wait again and they seemed to be very slow that Mau decided to go up to our rooms and charged her phone and left me alone. The waiter then finally came bringing our drinks and he asked me where I'm from. I guess he was perhaps wondering who this impatient girl was. As I said I was very tired, pretty annoyed with the long wait and on a mental state like that, I didn't actually welcome the question much. For some reason though or perhaps simply because I didn't welcome the question much, I didn't give him the answer straight away. I said, "indovina", which means guess. That took him by surprise and he said, "indovino?", which means I guess?. It actually took me 1-2 seconds to understand him. That 1-2 seconds was enough to make me question if my Italian was correct :P but I was correct. Jokingly he said, Italian? which of course I'm not. Then he said, Singaporean? This answer made me feel better because if he had said, Phillipines, I think I would have been more annoyed :P His guess made me smile and I told him, I live in Singapore but not a Singaporean. Next he guessed, Malaysian? Which I'm not. Up to this point, I decided to stop him because I was feeling Phillipines was going to be next, so I told him I'm Indonesian. I asked him if he hadn't seen an Indonesian before, if there weren't many Indonesian tourists there. He said it was his first time seeing an Indonesian. It was a nice moment for me, being the first Indonesian one met :) I should have asked him if he knew where Indonesia is. I tried my best to speak Italian but when you're tired it's even more difficult. I wanted to ask for some ice but I did it wrongly that it made him laugh. I asked him how to ask it correctly and I actually wrote down what he said in my phone. I guess this little conversation made him nicer to me and it's good to be treated better :) Our last dinner in Rome was also in the same restaurant and in his section again and he was really nice to me :) These kinds of little connections and interactions are really the memorable ones for me and so I remember them pretty vividly. Well as for now that is, I know I'll forget them someday or perhaps soon so it's good and important for me to write them down :)
:) eKa @ 8:56:00 PM • 0 comments
Sunday, June 26, 2011
The story continues. We're supposed to depart from Milan on May 13th. Mau was stuck in Venice the night before. There was that thought of what if she couldn't make it back in Milan for our 10 am departure but for some reason I wasn't really so worried about it. Maybe I would have gotten worried like half an hour before if I didn't see her. However she was perhaps rather worried that she took the first train out of Venice to Milan. I think the sun hadn't really risen yet when she left Venice but she did make it on time because of that :) She had enough time for a shower and breakfast. The uncle declared to me happily when I went for breakfast, "your friend has arrived". Yeah she did. So all was good. I felt a bit sad saying goodbye to the uncle because he was really nice. Anyway, I didn't spend much time in Milan, but I do have to say that there's something about the city that I like. Being rich, it just has such a good infrastructure and things tend to be cleaner. Milano Centrale train station was great. Milan's metro was also pretty nice. Leaving all that and coming to the chaotic Rome, you just feel a bit let down :PAnyways, I got the fastest train for us to Rome. It's more expensive but it only took 2 hour 59 minutes from Milan to Rome and that's actually really fast. It didn't make any stop and as Mau said it's kinda like a bullet train which I'm sure not really but it was very fast. I spent the time taking pictures from the window. An Italian dad asked us to let go one of our seat so that he could sit with his family and so Mau got to sit with a handsome Italian guy but they didn't talk :( My other entertainment was watching Carlotta, the 3-year old daughter of the family. It's obvious that her dad loves her so much and she's such a daddy girl. She's clingy to her dad. She's very chatty with her dad but when I talked to her she was shy. Too bad I couldn't really get what her dad told her when I asked if she has any brother or sister. Her dad was friendly and her mom as well. They were okay about me taking a picture of Carlotta. Her dad asked if she smiled when she told them that I took her picture. She told them that I took her picture! I was thinking, you're such a tattletale :P Luckily they didn't tell me off or anything.
Arriving in Rome, I kinda still knew my bearing. I found our hotel easily. Getting out of Termini station, things were still familiar for me. The metro was a bit disorienting for me though. I guess because they're doing renovation, so certain entrances and exits were different. The state of Termini metro station was so much worse than when I was there 2 years ago. I really really hope they get the renovation done quickly and it will look amazingly great when it's done. The state it is now is worrying. There were things in the ceiling which I'm not sure what they were, perhaps they were moulds. My first thought seeing them was, biohazard! I was very disappointed with our hotel. It was spacious but wasn't clean and the wi-fi doesn't really work inside our room. So coming from the nice Milan hotel, this place totally brought my mood down :( It's much more expensive as well :( Rome is pretty expensive in terms of hotels :(
Anyways, we put our luggages and we went straight to the Vatican. Mau booked an entry to the Vatican Museum at 3 pm. So I dropped her off and I went to St. Peter's Basilica. The queue was long but I did stay in the queue. Seeing the basilica again was something that I really felt like doing. Between the queue and the taking a lot of pictures, I didn't have time to do my initial plan which was to visit Castel Sant'Angelo. Instead I went to an exhibition about Pope John Paul II's life which was held next to St Peter's Basilica. The exhibition was in conjuction to his beautification. It did give such an insight about Pope John Paul II as a person. Seeing his conviction and faith in God amazed me and it was really admirable. After I finished with that, as I was walking in St Peter's square, an American dad came to me and asked if I could take pictures for him. I asked him what he wanted to see. He said, his family. It made me laugh. Perhaps my question was rather silly as well. But you know how some people would want their pictures to be taken with certain things and you're being told, please make sure this thing and that are in the picture. For him it was about the family and it's great that way :) I think there were a few generations there. I think there were grandma, grandpa, maybe aunts and uncles and of course the kids. He asked me to take 2 pictures. I had to wait for the second one because as they were changing position, one of the boy was taking his time to pose, a little divo :P After I was done, he stunned me by giving his hand first to shake my hand to say thank you, instead of taking his camera. He was genuinely nice that I was taken aback at how kind people can be. It's like a moment of realization as well of why can't you be that kind to other people yourself?
After that, I made my way to Castel Sant'Angelo. I promised that I would meet Mau there when she's done with the Vatican Museum so that we could go to Piazza Navona together since she has booked a Rome walking tour which departs from Piazza Navona. I spent the time waiting for her in Ponte Sant'Angelo. It was a totally Angels & Demons moment for me. You know, I've been in Rome once before this but there are still things that I haven't seen and still haven't seen even after this second trip. She succesfully found her way there. We didn't have a map of Rome, but I did have a print out from google map about the area which I wanted to explore. It really helped. We found Piazza Navona without much difficulty. I left Mau there and off I went to the Pantheon. However there was a mass in the Pantheon when I arrived and so it's not open for tourists and all the tourists were waiting behind the barricades in front of the door. I decided to go back to Piazza Navona and see its fountains and all the artists there. There were many people there for a Friday afternoon. Then I made my way back to the Pantheon. The mass still hadn't finished yet but I decided to wait. After the mass was done, we all went in and I do have to admit that I wasn't in awe as much as I was when I saw these places for the first time. Instead I had a feeling of comfort, a real good feeling for being able to be there again :) After the Pantheon, I made my way to the Trevi Fountain to do the customary coin throwing. Hey, I would really really want to come back to Rome again :) Then off to Piazza di Spagna. There were many people there and I had walked a lot that I didn't feel like scaling the steps to go to Trinità dei Monti. I was also feeling too tired to walk to Piazza del Popolo. I did take picture of the street leading to Piazza del Popolo and over here an Italian guy was like saying hi and hi to me. I was ignoring him but he persisted. So I did stop from taking pictures and look at him and he asked, where are you from. A too freaky question for me that I said sorry and just walked off. Yeah he wasn't that handsome :P but still the whole thing was freaky for me. Anyway the sun was setting, so I decided to go back to the hotel and rest. This is a picture of the sun-kissed Trinità dei Monti as the sun was setting. I love how majestic it look.
I actually wanted to go to Villa Borghese garden. I made my way to Piazza del Popolo first but the drizzle was becoming more like a light rain :( So I just walked straight to Piazza di Spagna and took shelter in Trinità dei Monti. With the rain, the Spanish steps were actually empty of people. It made it nice to walk up without the so many people but it was slippery because of the rain :( I was telling Mau that it would be something to be in the Pantheon during the rain so I actually had a good chance to do that, that Sunday. However the rain really didn't make me feel like I want to walk under it to reach Pantheon. It was chilly as well and I just didn't want to pay 5€ for an umbrella that people were selling. Trinità dei Monti has a special place in my heart. 2 years ago, I found it accidentally and I felt happy seeing it and seeing the view from its ground. On this trip, it gave me shelter from the rain. There was comfort and peace when I was there. I didn't remember how much time I spent there, maybe 1-2 hours. I just sat and started writing in my journal. I hadn't had time to write the days before, so I used the time to write. The rain didn't stop though so after some time I was thinking I should just go back and perhaps take a nap.
When I arrived at Termini station, I went to the bookstore and got myself a book. I haven't started reading it though. It felt good that I still remember a few stuff there. I remember that there's a supermarket, bookstore, and such. As I exit the station, the sky actually cleared up! So I put my stuff in the room. Mau was there slacking. I decided to go to the rose garden near Circus Maximus and see La Bocca della Verità. The Rose garden wasn't open yet. So I just explored the area as I tried to find my way. Then a couple of chinese tourists stopped me and asked for direction in Chinese!!! Hello, do I look chinese? I guess they were desperate. I told them I don't speak Chinese in Chinese, which I think stunned them :P They wanted to go to the Colosseum however they didn't know how to say it in English, so the guy had to flipped in his mobile phone to show me the picture. I reckoned they wanted to see the Colosseum and I was right. I could actually give them direction, the correct direction mind you because I actually know where it is exactly. However in between them not being able to speak english much and the girl looking not so happy after being lost, I couldn't give a detail direction. The girl actually walked away when I was trying to tell the guy how to go there. I think the guy felt bad for it. I wasn't too annoyed because I understood the frustration of being lost and of walking too much because you're lost. I just found the whole episode to be funny. In Rome, there happens to be a lot of Philippines and people often thought I'm from the Philippines. It annoyed me greatly!!! So this time around, someone came to me and started speaking in Chinese, I felt really amused :P
Anyway, I managed to find Santa Maria in Cosmedin church in which La Bocca della Verità is in but it was closing and they're not accepting any more visitors. An Asian girl pleaded with the guard to let her and her friends in, but he wasn't having it. I wonder if I could sway him if I pleaded in Italian, but I decided to just let it go. I did manage to take a picture of La Bocca della Verità (go see my flickr set) and I saw the remaining tourists queuing to take pictures with it. Then I made my way to the Colosseum. My initial plan was to get ticket to Palatine Hill and the Colosseum. I really loved Palatine hill the last time I was there. However I was there quite late so I decided to just take pictures around the Colosseum. The sky was blue now. Seeing the pictures, I had some really nice pictures from there. After that, I went back for dinner with Mau. That was my Sunday in Rome. It's a city which I've visited twice now and as much as it can be so chaotic sometime with the so many tourists there, I think I actually love it more now :) Of course I want to come back there again. I threw coins into the Trevi Fountain, so I really hope I'll be there again soon. For pictures of the Vatican, you can go here, and for pictures of Rome, you can go here.
:) eKa @ 3:19:00 PM • 0 comments
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Italy ~ Verona and (the stupidity in) Lake Garda
So our second day in Milan wasn't actually spent in Milan. I wanted to go to Verona and Mau wanted to go to Venice. How did Verona come about? Well I always research about the cities I'm gonna be in and I also look at the day tours that depart from those cities. There are day tours going to Verona and Venice from Milan. Unfortunately they do not go everyday. The tour that is going to Verona is going to Lake Garda too and so I just started reading more about these places, how to go and such. I didn't want to go to Venice because I've been there before. We should explore something new, right? Although I did think if I should spend the morning in Verona and then the afternoon in Venice since Verona is half way between Milan and Venice. In the end, I decided to just go to new places. If I was to finish seeing Verona earlier, I would go to Lake Garda and so that was the plan.Me and Mau bought our tickets at the automatic machines the day before. These machines are so convenient and pretty easy to use; I didn’t know that. We bought return tickets which is a mistake for me actually. I bought return tickets from Milan - Verona - Milan. This is a mistake because the station for Lake Garda, in the town of Desenzano del Garda, was actually between Milan and Verona. So if I were to go back to Milan from Verona, I actually had to go back to Verona from Desenzano and then pass this town again on my way to Milan. For some reasons (so unlike me!!!), I didn't plan things in details, I just wasn't committed or sure if I could make it to Lake Garda so I guess that was me subconsciously buying the return ticket so if I didn't make it and ended up spending the whole day in Verona, I'd have had my return ticket ready. So anyway, Mau's train and mine was actually the same. It's just I got off first. It took around 1 hour 30 minutes from Milan to Verona and close to 3 hours from Milan to Venice. Our train left on time but it got stuck halfway, I don't know what happened, it just stopped for some time that we ended up arriving later than planned and this caused Mau to miss the day tour in Venice that she booked.
In the train, there's this stunningly beautiful Italian girl sitting in front of me. I think she's Italian. Anyway, I thought she was so beautiful that I was thinking that it was rather incredible. Now that I wrote about it, I wonder if my guy friends will think she's beautiful because often times the ladies whom I thought to be pretty are considered so so in their eyes and they often cited girls whom I thought as ordinary to be pretty. Okay, why does this matter? Well, I just want to show you how my brain works, the things I see, the things I remember, and maybe you'll get an idea of how I am like. Anyways, the girl was looking rather sleepy. Well I guess if you are commuting for around 1.5 hours from Milan to Verona for work, it does get tiring (she was looking all formal with a laptop bag). There's also a chinese tourist sitting in front of me, okay I forget where she's from, maybe not chinese. Maybe Korean or Japanese. She got separated from her boyfriend or husband that they were not sitting together. They got off somewhere which I also couldn't remember, perhaps Brescia (Note to self: google Brescia). Moving on, I arrived. Wanted to pee but you had to put some coins to get through the toilet barrier. Italy! I'm speechless sometime. Some of the important infrastructures are not well managed and yet they can put automated barriers for the toilet. Granted, not all toilets are like this. Anyway, I didn't have enough coins. So off I went without shame, asking the first Asian tourist I saw, if I could get some cents. I forgot how much I asked. The girl kindly gave me. I couldn't quite pin point where she's from, perhaps Taiwan. So after I managed to pee, I went to a magazine store asking if I can buy a Verona card, which is stupidity on my part. I knew it's being sold in the Tabaccaio and yet I went into a magazine store. Obviously the lady said, go to the Tabaccaio. So I went there, wanted to buy the 1-day pass but I was told by the lady that there's no 1-day pass anymore, either you take 2-day pass or 3-day pass and off she went lecturing me that the 2-day pass is worth it and so on. I said okay and I took the 2-day pass and it cost 15€. This is a proof that my Italian is better than my Chinese because if the explanation had been in Chinese, I wouldn't have been able to understand as much. Done with that, I got out of the train station and oh dear I started to get lost. As far as I looked, there's nothing like the city center or a piazza outside the train station. By the way, the lady in the Tabaccaio didn't have a map of Verona to give me :( So what I could do but to walk forward? Walking forward led me to the bus terminal. I chose a random stop / shelter and saw that there were many buses going to the Arena. So I thought okay, take the bus. You can take the buses for free with Verona card. I took a bus and it's weird. In Singapore you could count the bus stops and know that you'll get off correctly but it wasn't like this with this Verona bus. When I saw that the bus was stopping near something that looked like a piazza, I got off. I walked towards the fountain and then I saw the Arena *praise the Lord!!!* and so that was my first stop.
The Arena is like the Colosseum but it's so much smaller. I didn't stay much actually because there's nothing much to see. Unlike the Colosseum, there are many seats all around the Arena. I'm not sure if it's always like this or they were preparing for a performance. There were some people working on the stage. I didn't spend much time there. Met a girl from China who asked me to take her picture. She was travelling alone. You know now that I think of it, I've met a few girls who were travelling alone but I haven't met many guys who travelled alone. Girls are really more daring than guys? Moving on, after the Arena, I just walked, kinda following the crowd. Wanted to go to Casa di Giulietta / Juliet's house. However for the life of me, I couldn't find it! I'm that bad with direction. I took a turn somewhere and ended up kinda on the outskirt and I saw the river and the bridge. I didn't cross the bridge though, I just walked along the river. I should have researched more about Verona and have a map! At that time, I still hadn't had a map.
So anyway, took a turn somewhere and saw a church. I checked if it's listed on the Verona card. It was and I went in. It's Chiesa di Sant'Anastasia. It's kinda a nice church. What's interesting was seeing the hunchback who had the holy water basin on its back. I just looked in wikipedia, apparently there are 2 of them, but I only saw one :( After the church, I went to Torre dei Lamberti. I found the lift, so I obviously took the lift while a horde of french teenagers were taking the stairs. I was thinking, I'm too old for that. It's kinda nice to see the Verona from the top. The lift doesn't stop all the way at the top. There are more staircases. I didn't take it because I really didn't want to tire myself out. I tried taking pictures of me by myself and a nice lady offered to take it for me. I like it when people are nice to me :) This is a picture of Verona which I took from the tower :)
There were so many people in the courtyard of the house. A lot of teenagers. A lot of people taking pictures with Juliet's statue with their hands on her boobs :( I feel sorry for the statue. The so many teenagers apparently caused too much annoyance for the people working there that they called a vigile. I'm not really sure how to translate this in English, perhaps the security? In Indonesian, I guess it would be satpam. A lady vigile came and she came blowing her whistle loudly and started screaming at the kids, telling them, Do you think this is your house? You have no respect at all, so noisy until people called me. I actually kinda grinned because I found it funny. It's funny how in a different language, people still can scream and scold in the same manner, the sentence of, do you think this is your house? is something that an Indonesian in that situation will scream as well, as I do think a Singaporean will do as well :D I think I saw people trying to distance themselves from the kids :P
After that, I decided that I was done with Verona and it's time for lunch. Looking at the map now, I feel sorry that I didn't do any research about Verona because I should have gone to the Duomo and Teatro Romano :( Anyways, I went back to Piazza delle Erbe because I saw there were many restaurants there and I settled with Ristorante Alla Torre. I was greeted by the signore, who's the owner and he's very funny. He's like the no bullshit Italian guy. He was chasing away people by saying, no pizza here!!! I think it annoyed him greatly if people asked for pizza. He then mumbled in Italian, if my wife knows about this, lucky she's not in the kitchen today :D He gave me the menu and when he said why don't you try today's special, the pasta ai porcini, I was surely not gonna argue with him and straight away said okay :) He's actually pretty nice, asking me if I have a map and he wanted to give me a more detailed map but I said I didn't need any. He asked me where I'm from and since I spoke Italian, I guess it confused him a bit. He guessed correctly that I came from Milan but I meant as in I came in from Milan that morning, not that I live there. He's originally from Milan but he left and move to Verona many years ago because he likes the smaller city. He asked me if I've been to Venice, I thought it was a rather funny question, us being in Verona. I said I did visit it 2 years ago. He said, oh you travel quite a lot, which I actually don't. He said he liked to travel too. He's been to Singapore which he said was great. He stayed in Singapore for 3 days. He's been to Bali but then he said he's never been to Indonesia. I wanted to tell him, but Bali is in Indonesia! But I had my pasta to focus on at that time, so I let him slide. After I'm done with lunch, he wanted me to explore more of Verona. I said okay not wanting to disappoint him. He obviously loves Verona so much. I excused myself and said good bye and made my way to the train station. To see pictures of Verona, you can go here.
In the train station, I got my train tickets. To go to Lake Garda, the nearest town with the train station is Desenzano del Garda. I got a return ticket back to Verona because of my earlier return ticket of Verona - Milan. The stupidity!!! So anyway, it took around 15 minutes or so to reach Desenzano from Verona. However, it's a long long long walk from the train station to reach the lake, where the boats and ferries are. I didn't see a bus and I didn't even know if I was going the right way. I just walked straight ahead. It felt really good to finally see the water! I found the booth where they sell the ferry ticket. It's perhaps because it's not peak period, there weren't actually many people. I got the ticket to Sirmione which is the first stop from Desenzano. It's a return ticket. The frequency of the ferry is not so good, it's not every 15 minutes or so. Again perhaps this is the Singaporean influenced me speaking. I expect more convenience :P So I had to wait for half an hour or so. I walked a bit, took some pictures around the lake. Sat down and get tanned. When I got into the ferry, I think there were only less than 10 of us who boarded the ferry.
Reaching Sirmione, the first thing I did was getting gelato. I enjoyed it while watching swans on the lake. Since I was having gelato, I couldn't take a picture of these 2 swans who were perhaps doing the mating dance and were facing each other that their necks was forming the heart shape! That's my first time seeing that in real life and yet I didn't have a picture of it. It was rather nice seeing the water, ducks, swans, while enjoying my gelato. After I had my gelato, I walked around the lake. There were some kids but noone was swimming, perhaps the water was still too cold. There's actually a castle like building in Sirmione but I didn't enter it. I was making sure that I had enough time to go back to Desenzano. Since the ferry doesn't run every so often, if I missed the ferry, I wouldn't have time to go back to the train station and that exactly what happened to me!!!
So what happened? What happened was upon the time in which I think the ferry was going to Desenzano, I started getting down to the dock. There were so many people that I was so focused into getting into the ferry without asking if it's the right ferry. I want to blame the staff there who didn't check the tickets!!! The irony was, there was this Australian couple (I think they're Australian) who were with me on the ferry in to Sirmione. They were also in the dock at that time. I was behind them. I thought they decided not to take the ferry because they didn't want to squeeze and being the trained "kiasu" person here in Singapore, I managed to squeeze in. As the ferry took off, I saw them in the dock and I actually felt sorry for them that they didn't get into the ferry! I should instead feel sorry for me!!! So in the ferry, the staff started checking the ticket and the staff told me you're on the wrong ferry! I was like, WHAT??!?!? and SHIT and FUCK was going interchangeably in my brain. He told me to come with him to the front steering area. Wow, as I am writing this, I still want to say shit and fuck. Anyway, he talked to his colleague and then told me in English, either I get off at the next stop and paid the difference or just stay on until we finally reach Desenzano. He said my best possible option was to stay in the boat simply because it's the fastest way to go to Desenzano. I weighed my option. What options did I have? One, get off at the next stop and find a way to go to Verona which is surely gonna be problematic because I don't know if there's any bus going there. Two, stay in the boat, and be late upon reaching Desenzano which would mean I wouldn't be able to make it to Verona on time to take my train back to Milan. However, I was pretty sure there'll be trains from Desenzano to Milan. The choice was obvious right. I still found it pretty hard though to just calm down and accept my fate :'( I'm just one of those people, I can not calm down in the face of mistakes and problems :( So I said, alright I'd stay in the boat. It seemed that I didn't have to pay anything because my ticket was for Desenzano - Sirmione - Desenzano without any stop in between. So even if the ferry took the long route from Sirmione to Desenzano, the trip I took was actually valid according to the ticket as long as I didn't get off in any of the stop. Well, it's either that or they just felt sorry for me that they didn't ask me to pay more. So anyway, I was very sad. One of the other crew asked me where I'm from. I replied in Italian that I'm Indonesian but I live in Singapore. Straight away he was like, Singapore - the airport is great!!! Such an amusing comment but I was too bumped out to be amused :( Anyway the crew were entertaining these 2 American girls, so I decided to leave that steering area and tried to find a seat among the many German tourists. I was so sad and pissed and there were so many Germans there and all I could hear was German and I was thinking, I don't want to hear this anymore!!!
At one point, everyone got off. I'm not sure which stop that was that I was kinda left alone in the boat. Well there were like 2-3 people boarding in but the crew who spoke to me in Italian did say, you're staying alone? I replied sadly, yeah, I have to stay, right? :( After the ferry moved again, he came to talk to me. He's actually very nice. I felt so touched that he came to talk to me!!! That's like my first time having an Italian guy coming to talk to me. Now I kinda forget what his first question was, perhaps what I was doing there and such. He asked me if I've been to Venice. Again, I found the question to be amusing but I seriously was too sad to focus on the good part. You know even when he said he liked Asian culture and food, I couldn't really reply much. I could have asked him, e la ragazza asiana? (Asian girl?). Seriously, looking back, I'm such an idiot. I think he's actually quite handsome behind his ray ban glasses and instead of making more small talks, I didn't really ask him much stuff. I didn't even ask him for his name :( I did let out a bit of a scream and said, arrghhh sono molto stupida!!! (I'm very stupid!!!). He said, why? because you got on the wrong ferry? I said yes. He said have patience while gesturing towards the lake, kinda telling me to enjoy the lake. I could only say softly, Si. Then he's off to work again. I think he did make me a bit relaxed. I did take a few pictures of the lake after that. When we were reaching Desenzano, he told me, we're reaching soon. I said finalmente! I kinda dashed off that I didn't try to see him again before I left. At this point, I don't know if you think I am more stupid for missing the ferry or for not talking to him more. Stupid stupid me!
In that train ride, I got an sms from Mau, telling me that she missed her train from Venice. That train was the last train to Milan and so she's stuck there. I guess it was a really bad day for us. As mean as this may sound, that sms actually made me rather happy because that meant I got the room all for myself. When I finally reached Milan and got out of the station, I was actually feeling better. It was late and it was already dark outside, luckily our hotel was near. The uncle at the hotel was there and asked me where my friend was. I told him about Mau being stuck. He asked me, you didn't travel together? He also asked if I've been to Venice. It's the third time someone asking me that. It's very amusing. I guess it's because Venice is very very unique. You do have to try to visit Venice if you're in Italy. I don't think there's another place like Venice in the world. So anyway, got into my room, had pizza for dinner. Had shower. I felt more relaxed. The tv was showing Leonardo diCaprio's The Beach. God, that guy was actually quite lanky in his younger days. He has become so plump now. With all the mistakes that I made, I actually managed to feel happier when I'm in that hotel room alone. The solitary was really what I needed. I will always need my alone time and in all the days of our trip, that day was the only day in which I spent the most time alone and it's good for my soul :P I almost forget, for pictures of Sirmone and Lake Garda, you can go here. So that's the very long story of that day. The next day, we were off to Rome. I'll leave that for the next post.
I should end this long post, but let me just add this bit. Went to watch the Italian movie, Il Vento Fa Il Suo Giro or Le Vent Fait Son Tour in French or The Wind Blows Round in English with YeeMaggio on Monday. The story is about a french family, a goat cheese maker, who decided to move into a small village in Italy. They were greeted with people who welcomed them kindly as well as the people who just didn't like the foreigners. Unfortunately in the end, the hatred won, and it drove the family away. The saddest part of the ending was when one inhabitant of the town, who's mentally challenged, killed himself. He used to lived on the street but the french family actually welcomed him into their house. When they left, they didn't bring him along, so I think he was broken hearted that he killed himself. It's kinda a sad movie. It's weird for me to say this, that I don't get the resentment towards foreigners but at the same time I understand the feeling that you want to keep your community the way it is and not take any outsider in. Anyway the movie was in Italian, French, and Occitan. It was funny for me of how there are conversation in which one person was speaking in Italian and the other person replied in French and for some reason, they understood each other. This has been a really long post. I have to go to sleep. Buonanotte tutti!
:) eKa @ 10:52:00 PM • 0 comments
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Today marks exactly 1 month since I came back from my trip and yet I haven't finished telling you all the stories or sorted out all the pictures. I guess, bear with me with these outdated stories? This blog is to voice out what I think or want to say and since people are not asking me detailed stories of my trip, I'm just gonna put it here because I want to let it out.In the last post, we ended with the overnight train from Barcelona to Milan. I thought the train was pretty nice. It's not luxurious or anything but it's adequate. I had dinner on the train. I still remember the waitress' name, Tamara Hier. I thought she's quite pretty and very nice and friendly. She speaks very little English and mostly Spanish but she's very nice, very helpful, and friendly. She offered to have Mau's left over paella to be microwaved so that she could have it hot. I thought that's very nice of her. So I booked the room with a bunk bed and a water sink, with that we got a free breakfast. I think if you book the one with the toilet and shower, you'll get free dinner as well as breakfast. Anyway, the water sink was adequate enough for us to wash our face and brush our teeth and there's a common toilet you can use. The dinner and breakfast I had was so so. There weren't many options in the dinner menu. Still, the whole experience was interesting for me :)
Met an Italian lady in the train and I started practising my Italian with her. I have to say that I'm very very bad. I addressed her informally instead of using the formal words and verbs conjugation. The Italian perhaps have a more relaxed rule in this than the French but since she's a much older lady, I think I am still considered as really rude. But she was nice enough to respond back to me and I guess after she got over the fact that this non-Italian girl was trying to speak in Italian to her, she just got used to me. She's from Firenze (Florence), which is a really really nice city, and apparently she goes to Barcelona quite often because her daughter is living there. The daughter has lived there for some time. I thought because the husband is Spanish but the husband is from Sicily :) They have a son, which I couldn't remember if she mentioned to me the age, but anyway the son is very cute with curly hair. I can sense that this grandma loves him so much :) She said the grandson is now speaking 3 languages, italian, spanish, and a bit of english :) Grandma is taking the train all the time because she's too scared of flying. Unfortunately this time around the trip is not so nice for her. I found out from her that there was a strike in France. It was rather weird that when we were having dinner the night before, the train wasn't moving. Tamara didn't know why when Mau asked her. It was still stationary when I went to sleep at around 11 pm something and perhaps it contributed to the fact that we could sleep really well. Either that, or we were just plain tired, or having a bed is really a major factor. Anyway so we're 3 hours later than expected and obviously that threw grandma's plan off the window. She still had to take a train to Firenze. Lucky for me and Mau, when we arrived, we still had time to check in to our hotel and then go for our half day tour of Milan. We supposed to get a 50% refund because of this lateness however I couldn't find out how. I tried my darnest to get the information in the station but there was nothing substantial. I got really really frustrated. Perhaps the nicest thing that happened was that a signore, a staff in the station, praised me for my Italian, which I thought was bad but I think he just appreciated it that I could speak it and in a manner which he could understand and I could understand him. Before I continue on, let me show you this picture.
So arrived in Milan. After some asking around, we found our hotel, Hotel Stazione, which I love dearly!!! The irony of it all, it was the cheapest hotel that I chose and I thought it's not gonna be so good but I was thinking we're just gonna spend 2 nights there so I could rough it up. It turned out to be the best of all!!! It was totally value for money. For a double room, it was less than 100 euro. I don't think it's easy to find good hotels in the big cities in Europe with that price, in a location near the train station. Trust me, I tried, I couldn't find any except for this one. Yeah it's not luxurious and all, but what I love was that it was really clean and surprisingly spacious! The room seemed to be new, all the furnitures seemed new. The wi-fi connection worked great. The place for breakfast was really really small but there weren't many people anyway because the hotel was really small (only 1 floor) so I didn't mind it. There's always space for me to have breakfast. Either way, you can take your breakfast to your room. The kind uncle even brought Mau's coffee to our room. I thought the breakfast was good, love the cornetto!!! The uncle was really really nice. I talked to him in Italian and he's just really nice and tried to make sure you have all that you need. For me, it was definitely the best hotel we stayed in and seriously I was thinking how ironic it was because I was preparing myself for it to be the worst; that honor actually went to the hotel in Rome - another story, another posting. So if you happen to be going to Milan and want a hotel which is not too expensive and near Milano Centrale train station, I'm totally recommending this hotel to you :)
Moving on, I actually book a half day tour of Milan. Why? Simply because I wanted to see Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper. To see The Last Supper, you have to book in advance and really that's the only way to see it. There's no queue at the place because everyone booked for it and everyone must come on their time slots or they just couldn't get in. I didn't want the trouble so I thought let's just book the half day tour, we got to see Milan with a guide and we got to see the Last Supper. You know what, I just checked how to book for the Last Supper and see how crazy it is, for July there's only 1 ticket left, on July 31st. In August, there's a total of 12 tickets left on 3 different dates. September still has some tickets in each of the day of the week. So point to note, book like 3-4 months before your actual visiting date! That is not very convenient, isn't it :P
Anyway, our day tour started with visiting Teatro alla Scala. It's actually pretty small. Well it has been around for more than 300 years so the fact that it's still a functioning theatre and still matters a lot, well ... shows how awesome it is :P When we were there, there's a ballet company practising at the stage. We got to see a bit of their practice. I can imagine that it must be an honor to be performing at La Scala. Next was Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. Saw the luxury goods shops and the first Prada shop as well. An interesting thing to mention, when most of the McDonalds in Europe mostly have their golden arch behind a green background, the one in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II has it behind a black background. That is so that it blends in with the rest of the fancy shops but I think its presence still makes the rest of the high class shops look at it in disdain :P Galleria Vittorio Emanuele is pretty impressive. We did the turn with our heels at the bull on the floor so that our wish could come true :P I couldn't remember what I wished for :( Exiting the galleria, we reached Piazza del Duomo which brought us to Duomo di Milano. I didn't know that this Cathedral was one the biggest church in the world. I think the thing that I would remember the most about this church was Saint Bartholomew's statue. You can see the picture and the rest of the pictures of Milan here. I didn't have many pictures of Milan actually. I only saw Milan from this day tour and didn't explore it more in depth on my own. After the Duomo, we went to see Castello Sforzesco. We didn't go inside though. Before I continue, this is the picture of the Duomo taken from the bus, so the colour is a bit weird.
So how's my life since I last wrote? Life is so so, surviving. Feeling abandoned by some people but not gonna go into it here. Watched a few movies. Last week, I watched 1860, which was an old black and white Italian movie about the war, at the free screening by the Italian Cultural Institute. YeeMaggio kindly accompanied me to it. It got me reading about Giuseppe Garibaldi in Wikipedia and learnt that Nice in France used to belong to Italy and it was actually called Nizza. Giuseppe Garibaldi is an Italian hero who was bornt in Nizza. He was really pissed that the city eventually went to France. Another Italian movie that I watched this week was Signore & Signori (The Birds, the Bees and the Italians) with Carl and the rest. By the way, the Italian season is happening right now until the 21st of June so there's a few Italian related events happening, like the screening of several Italian movies. I'm thinking of watching another one this coming week but I'm not sure if I will eventually do it. Anyway Signore & Signori was another old black and white Italian movie. It was funny. There are 3 different kinda overlapping stories about the Signore and Signori of a town in Italy. They're funny, they're so pretentious and hypocritical. If there's one common thing that threads the different stories, is how they tried to hide certain things that they did. My italian is not so amazing that I still needed the subtitles :(
A more mainstream movie this week was Super 8, which I watched with Oshie. He was having X-Men: First Class and Super 8 back to back. I kinda abstain myself from super heroes movies this time around, exception is only for Transformers. Oshie was saying why?!??! It's the summer. Yeah I know but they just don't excite me anymore. I also think there should be a law banning an actor from appearing in more than one super hero movie. I'm gonna let Chris Evans slide because Fantastic 4 movies weren't really that deep. Back to Super 8, I like it! I thought the kids were great and they are the gems in this movie. The way they spoke was really fast sometime but they were funny, they had the best lines, and they were cute and adorable! Funny lines were like when one of them said, production value!!! or drugs are so bad. They're hilarious. As for the suspense, well the Lost style which was implemented me kinda annoyed me at times. You know there's something bad and big but like in Lost, J.J Abrams decided not to show it to us, instead he teased us with sounds or the rustling of something, very very Lost style. I thought the ending scene was rather sad for me, maybe it didn't matter for other people. I was hoping the boy got to keep the necklace but he didn't so that is sad :( If you're watching it, stay tune for the movie that the kids made during the credit roll. Osh told me that the zombie movie was really made by the kids. It was really funny and cute. They are really talented kids and I'm sure they had lots of fun doing it. For actors like them, I reckon it's harder for them to be acting bad than good :P I hope these kids will be great in the future. Elle Fanning is definitely blooming and showing she's as good as her big sister. Do watch it peeps, it's really good and the kids were really entertaining :D Okay, gotta stop now. Buonanotte tutti!
:) eKa @ 9:58:00 PM • 0 comments
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