The Beautiful Aldstaat and... Chocolate?!

Extra weekend is always fun!

So this time, it's Belgium time...
be welcome
be .brussels

Booked the ticket a week before and have no itinerary...
Yes, saking galaunya :))

Anyway got in Brussels a little bit morning, so I have to strolling around the old town before the check-in time. Had booked Le Coup de Coeur Apartment Tête d'Or from booking.com as usual. I kinda like its looks because it's simple and... it just 1 minute walking to Grote Markt. Memutuskan untuk book tempat yang private because I'll spend more than 1 night here.

At 12 I went to their "receptionist" asking for my keys just to find out that the apartment won't be ready until 1.
Anyway is it just me or people in here is not very friendly? Berasa agak2 dicuekin sama mba-mba nya padahal yah dia-nya yang nggak ontime, pas agak komplain kenapa belum siap apt-nya, jawabnya santai bangetttt... *kemudian kesel.

I actually kinda tired having walking around the old town for couple hours, so then I decided to see the Manekin Piss first because it just a few minutes walks. It was a small manekin anyway... and there were A LOT of people taking pictures of that tiny manekin, and... this is unpredictable, the manekin was wearing an army uniform. Too bad I didn't take the picture of it because at the afternoon it changed its outfit into Changshan. I really wish I can took the picture of it without any outfit :))

Then after spending time around at Jardin du Mont des Arts Garden and at the Old England (slash Musical Museum Instruments), hey it's 1 already.
So I searched the apartment and got stranded in a front of Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate, then I thought "oh mine is probably in 2nd floor".
So I just take a step into the 2nd floor before a girl yelled asked me for a ticket. So yeah, I got stray... just so I wouldn't feel shame... I bought the €14 ticket, luckily the chocolate samples which was a praline and the creamy hot chocolate was delicious.
So it happens the apartment is exactly next to the museum, 3rd floor, exhausting, but a comfy one.

Then story about fries.
Yes, fries, €3.2 fries.
I never notice that Belgian Fries are famous and... famous.
That noon I decided to have it for lunch, so I went to this Fritland which seems to be one of the famous Belgian fries seller according to Trip Advisor, and here goes the chat:
Me (M): *after waiting in queu* One French Fries please.
Mas-mas ganteng (G): No, we don't have French Fries here.
M: *melongo, jeda beberapa detik* No French Fries?????
G: No, we don't sell French Fries here *sambil senyum2*
M: *mulai kesel karena liat tumpukan kentang goreng di belakang mas-mas ganteng*
G: *mungkin karena saya kelamaan melongo akhirnya... * It's Belgium, not France.
M: *after a long pause... ahhhh... Belgium Fries, yes, one please.
G: *akhirnya ngambilin kentang goreng.

So you won't find any French Fries in Belgium, but I don't know what McDonalds there called it. This is my cone of Belgian Fries with samurai sauce (they said it's the spicy one, but then as usual nothing really spicy here).

This is my cone of Belgian Fries with samurai sauce, they said it's the spicy one, but then as usual, nothing really spicy here, (snap for the blur pic!) 

In Brussel, I took my first Oyster.
I never wanna taste this things.............
But a friend took us to this Chez Léon and he said this is one of the best in town.
So then I ordered about EUR18 Provençale. This one is with butter, tomatoes, garlic and cheese. The most make sense collaboration for me. If this I cannot managed to swallow this things, at least I still have the taste of tomatoes and cheese....
My friend ordered Gratin, it's with butter, nutmeg, and cheese.
Too cut the long story short, I finished it all by myself... I even took 2 of my friend's Gratin. I just need a lot of lemons.

So the first day me and a friend spending the whole day at Aldstaat. The next day we decided to have one-day trip to Bruges (after debating a whole night whether to choose Antwerp, Ghent or... we even considered for Luxembourg).

Approximately an hour away with train from Brussels, when we step up at the old town, we knew that we chose the right town.
It's a canal town (what a my-term *eyes rolled). It's like we ended up at a fairy tale city. We didn't entered any museums, but we did try the boat trips (it's a must!).
It's a romantic old town even there were a lot of tourists, we still be able to enjoy our whole-day-walking (literally walking the whole day).
Even you aren't a selfie/wefie-holic, you will take a lot of pictures in here.

Strolling around really made us hungry (we just stopped by to eat some fries during the day), so when the day started to get dark, we decided to have a hot chocolate at, well actually I already set my eyes in this place the minute I saw it.

It's called The Old Chocolate House.
The first floor is store selling of course any kind of chocolate (pralines, chocolate milk, chocolate bars) and biscuits, gingerbreads, and marzipan.
The second floor is what they called the tearoom, besides hot chocolate they also have tea, infusion, and coffee. For the menu you can check in here.

I ordered dark-salted hot chocolate with caramel while my friend ordered the classic one. We also ordered assortment of homemade delicacies (it's a lot, it's delicious, it's... we just couldn't eat them all, full-stomach-alert) since I can't order the tiramisu (this guy told us that it contain alcohol so we probably can't consume it, and thank you very much to him for letting us know about it *a-happy-customer-detected).

The next day we still have a little extra time a Brussels, so we bought ticket to see Mini Europe. Sadly it was closed, but we did still have the Atomium.

The rest of day before flight, I spent time in Aldstaat for the ultimate goal in here, chocolate shopping. Wondering from one store to another, Godiva, Neuhaus, Galler, Leonidas, etc.
Yes, I took them all with me back to Warsaw *evilgrin.

Read More

Share Tweet Pin It +1

0 Comments

Hej Hej Stockholm!

This time self-hop-on weekend-getaway:
Sverige.

First thing to notice in here: people don't really care about you.

So please, be free to do anything!

Dilema datang di negara dengan 4 musim itu adalah selalu berfikir akan tampak seperti apa kota ini ketika summer, autumn, winter dan spring.

Kalau penasaran kan berarti harus mengunjungi suatu tempat di semua musim. Even though there's always suggestion about when is the best time to visit (masalah penting).

Well, I have a lot of to tell.

Landed almost midnite at Arlanda (maafkan mba Ai yang jadinya menjemput malam-malam), just need to find like a big information/reception desk, ask for Pendeltåg's ticket to town, it costed me about 105 SEK for one way ticket (because she was asked me whether I want a return ticket, so ask the price if you want to use it back to the airport).
There's not much to do in midnite when you just had a normal working day (read: drama) plus an almost-two-hrs-flight.

There are train from airport to town beside SL commuter trains, the Arlanda Express. I was intend to use this. Quite expensive but it's 20 minutes faster than the Pendeltåg. It's about 280 SEK one way and 540 SEK for return journey. But they give you 45% discount if you booked 3 months earlier, online.

Or by bus called Flygbussarna, I used this to the airport. The cheaper the fare the longer the journey it will, almost an hour, cost 99 SEK for one way, 198 SEK for return journey, and that is the online price. I saw one buy the ticket from the driver and it cost about 105 SEK.
So buy tickets in advance and online because most of them are valid for 3 months!

For daily use of transportation, the SL, buy travel card, I bought mine in Pressbyrån cost 20 SEK, a Sweden-Sevel kinda thing. But it's easy to get it in every metro. Buy 115 SEK credit for one day use. But off course they also have a single 75 or 120 minutes ticket.

March in Stockholm, we still can see what we winter had done to this city.

The lake in the front of the Drotningholm Palace is half frozen but it's not safe to walk on it anymore.

The Drotningholm Palace

Getting in this Palace a little bit remain me of Versailles. Karena khawatir akan capek mengitari taman kerajaan yang tampaknya luas, kita kemudian memutuskan untuk jalan seadanya, toh pohon-pohonnya masih gersang dan karena masih pagi juga jadi memutuskan pula tidak masuk ke istana.

Kalau dari peta sudah kelihatan banget Stockholm itu tampaknya terdiri dari banyak pulau-pulau kecil, so it must be a beautiful city, jadilah diajak ke daerah sekitaran Laduårdslandsviken. Dari sini sudah terlihat Kungliga Slottet (Royal Palace), Riksdag (Parliament House), Stadshuset (City Hall), dan semua-semua yang ada di sekitaran Gamla Stan XD.

Yang harus dikunjungi adalah Skeppsholmbron. I guess it would be wow... tapi ternyata, kita jalan menyeberangi jembatan and voila, there is the crowns. It isn't as shiny as I thought, tapi kalau di foto memang bagusan sih, jadi ini salah satu objek yang fotogenik, ehm both of the crowns are photogenic.

The Gold Crowns on Skeppsholmen Bridge

Then get ready for Gamla Stan, kota tua Stoki, yang setiap sudutnya adalah objek wisata, name it, Kungliga Slottet, Storkyrkan, The Nobel Museum, Riddarholmen, bahkan lorong jalanan seperti Slottsbacken pun masuk dalam daftar. Jalanan di Gamla kecil-kecil, bahkan ada lorong jalanan yang tersempit di Stoki, called Mårten Trotzigs Gränd yang lebarnya cuma 90 cm (ya kalau selebar ini namanya lorong kan :D ). It's worth to strolling around in here, kalau capek tinggal cari tempat makan, kalau lewat jalan yang penuh dengan toko, siap-siaplah tergoda dengan barang-barangnya.

Di salah satu jalan di Gamla, Västerlånggatan, kiri kanannya penuh godaan, mulai dari coklat, barang-barang lucu nggak penting tapi lucu tapi mahal, kita bahkan sempat masuk ke Science Fiction Bokhandeln yang isinya juga nggak penting tapi pengen tapi lumayan harganya.
Menemukan toko di Eropa yang isinya penuh dengan manga plus action figure-nya, komik-komik dari negara lain, board games, video games, etc bisa membuat mata berbinar-binar (lalu mulai hiperbola). Lalu berasa kalau mau Totoro nggak perlu ke Jepang, sekarang juga bisa beli (hadeuh!). Untungnya Makkuro kurosuke tidak dijual disni dan saya keluar tanpa membawa kantong belanjaan XD.

Di Gamla yang sering jadi objek foto (malah jadi cover salah satu book guide) adalah bangunan ini:

Schantzska Huset in Stortorget

Terletak di Stortorget, tetanggan dengan Nobel Museum. Di lantai dasar kedua bangunan ini ada kafe, di bangunan berwarna coklat muda kuning ada Chokladkoppen, di bangunan berwarna coklat tua merah ada Kaffekoppen. Keduanya menyediakan menu hot chocolate, which are our favourites, jadi harus dicoba!

Kita memilih Kaffekoppen karena satu dan lain hal (tiba-tiba sok misterius) yang kalau googling kalah terkenal dengan tetangganya, but anyway, menurut mba ai hot choco Kaffekoppen lebih enak dan memang enaakkkkk... (jadi ingat hot chocolate di Bruges).

Jalan kaki dari Gamla Stan tiba-tiba kita sudah menyeberang pulau lagi, buat dikenalkan makan siang enak di daerah Hötorgshallen yang tempatnya, ramai!
Kajsas' Fisk soup (what I like from maritime countries is they are heaven for seafood).


Lalu berlakulah kalimat don't judge the book by it's cover karena penampakan makanannya memang butek tapi percayalah ini enak!
I don't really into mussels (I thought so, but then I ate them when I was in Brussel, so why not try it again in here) tapi akhirnya kita memesan sup edisi lengkap (roti dan salad termasuk), with additional spoonfuls of cooked shrimp, my favourites! Isi sup ini semua yang ada di laut ditambah harissa (semacam chili pasta, tapi buat lidah Asia tentu tidak pedas) dan aioli (semacam mayo). Mungkin karena aioli ini kesan butek itu muncul, so don't mind it, langsung diaduk saja langsung masukan ke mulut, dinyamin kenyang karena porsinya lumayan besar.

Hap hap!
Have you ever heard Stockholm Syndrome? No? Me neither, but apparently it's an interesting story and this building is the witness. Jan-Erik Olsson even wrote it as an autobiography titled that psychological phenomenon thingy.

As I know, and that's why I amazed by this country, Stoki adalah gudangnya barang-barang sederhana tapi tentu saja mahal untuk ukuran saya. IKEA di stoki sih hitungannya murah... tapi disini toko sejenis IKEA buanyak... peer banget... kan jadi lapar mata XD
Segala bantal, kursi, meja, home appliance, semua mau dibawa pulang....
Ke Stoki ini bukannya mengunjungi museum yang banyak banget malah ke mall ^_^!
(lalu salahkan tour guide-nya :p)

Oh ya, Stockholm also famous for its metro  or T-Bana.
Haven't saw all of them but if you have limited time, explore the blue line.

I also fall in love with Stoki's bibilioteket (well every place with a lots of books s interesting and this one with style).

Lalu teman kita mengajak ke Sigtuna, yang ternyata kota tuanya sepi... pada tutup tapi...
My first experience standing on a freezing lake (it's a lake, isn't it?!?!?), Garnsviken.
Yang awalnya takut mencoba, takut tiba es-nya retak, lalu melihat ada yang lagi main ski...
Lalu coba jalan agak jauhan ke tengah, lalu akhirnya berhasil foto-foto norak.

Ah panjang yah... padahal masih banyak yang belum dikunjungi.
Will I go back? Hope so... museums are still waiting and the others and the others...
*finger crossed

Read More

Share Tweet Pin It +1

2 Comments

Pomerania Pt. 1: That Eerie Feeling

My first ride with Pendolino is going to Gdańsk,

kota pelabuhan di Polandia,
tempat menyeberang ke Swedia,
salah satu kota bagian Pomerania
which is in Slavic means by the sea.
(Hey it rhymes XD )

Tujuan utama sebenarnya adalah kota kecil sekitar 50km dari Gdańsk, Sztutowo. There it is... the Stutthof Camp.

Awalnya tertarik dengan tujuan seperti ini, more and less disebabkan kunjungan ke sini.

It takes about 3 hours from Warszawa Centralna to the Gdańsk Główny.

I don't have much time for this short weekend visit, so right after I arrive at Gdańsk at 10.57, next thing is find the bus.

Fortunately, the bus terminal is right behind the station, just 5 minutes walking.

The schedules are normal for summer, probably there'll be less buses in other season. Back on February, the bus was every 2 hours.

Ticket fares

It's a long trip.... To get to the concentration camp you need 13 złoty and make sure to stop at Sztutowo Museum.

Stutthof Museum: The Death Gate, The Command Building,
inside the SS-Guardhouse displaying inmates' shoes that was taken at the moment the came to the camp.

This is one of German Concentration Camp that exist in Poland since September 1939. Most of the inmates were Poles, Russians and Jews.

The camp is huge and I only have about 1 hour to look around. It feels like visiting a regular museum, but after passing the gate that lead to the crematory and gas chamber, somehow, I loose the enthusiasm to take more pictures and to explore the camp, just need to finish this visit a.s.a.p.

Maybe because there were less people who visited the museum that time (it seemed there were less than 15 people and we were scatters in that vast place) or maybe because it's just me seeing how was the infirmary looked like, the bunk bed, how was the building was build not used as it plans to... (too much watch movie about it before get in here).

The Command Building seen from inside the camp, the crematory and gas chamber at the end of the path, on the way to the Stutthof Camp, the debris of the jewish camp, the Monument of Fight and Martyrdom Symbol.

I don't know how many blocks and barracks are there in this camp, but we can see the signs of the block VIII, block VIIIA, block II, block III, block VI, block VII, new camp and jewish camp.

Most of them are now just marked with stack of bricks whether because it was burnt down or purposely were teared down.

There is holocaust stake outside the barbed wire where corpses were burned during midnight at the end 1944 and beginning 1945, of course I just read this from the guidebook.

There are some places that are not part of the museum or not for sightseeing like the new kitchen, the factory, the stake, etc. So when you get in here, imho, my decision for the 5 złoty guidebook is worth to have. 

The entrance to this museum is free, at the administration building, they have a lot of books and dvd's about the camp.

There are films are shown in the ex-headquarter building/the command building, but it was renovated last February so there were no film screening, only cost 3 złoty.

It is possible to request guided tour in English, German and Russian, cost 140 złoty, just visit their website as it has virtual tour too.

KL Stutthof, from the Guidebook

The museum was closed at 3 PM while the next bus would be 16.27 PM.

So the next 1.5 hrs, luckily I met a couple and a mother with her 2 children who has just also visited the museum, we spent the time in a restaurant that we met after 15 minutes walking in that quiet city.

I just need to get back to the city since I still felt that eerie feeling.

Note to myself, won't go to any camp by myself anymore XD

Read More

Share Tweet Pin It +1

2 Comments

Danke Schön

Alasan utama ke Berlin sebenarnya adalah karena saya rindu makanan Indonesia!
Yups, trigger-nya pic di Instagram ini, makanan di restoran Nusantara. Siapa yang tidak ngiler lihat  makanan semacam soto, bakso, mie ayam dkk.

Kebetulan liburan natal di kota itu sepi, seperti Idul Fitri di Indonesia, jalanan kosong, lebih parah toko-toko semua tutup (kecuali mini market di ((((SPBU))))), but hey, all malls/stores/supermarkets/shops in most of European countries are closed in these days like this.
So I took a train to Berlin, it just 5 hours trip with about $68/trip.

Because I traveled with a pretty medium group, I booked rooms at Meininger Hotel. For just spending the night is quite pricey for me but the location is great (paid-off!).

First stop:
Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtnis Kirche
Sebenarnya tuan rumah di Berlin adalah tour guide yang sangat recommended :D
Because he likes history, he can tell you almost everything that you probably never heard. But this Host makes me find the passion to explore the city. Well, Berlin and the city definitely has something that connects them (Yeayyy).

Read More

Share Tweet Pin It +1

4 Comments