Italy 2022: Naples (and why I probably won't visit this city again)

Hi everybody!

After many posts about organizational stuff living in Germany, this time I'll write something more fun-- holiday! The sad truth is, I was supposed to fly home for 4 weeks, I even bought the ticket already. But due to the mandatory 10-days quarantine (when I bought the ticket, it was only 3 days), I decided to cancel my ticket as it would cost much more to fly home and it would feel like a waste spending half of the time in the hotel. 

So.. I have to use the holiday anyway, and decided to arrange a last-minute trip to Italy! I have been to the north side (Bologna and Milan) and decided to go a bit to the south now. Actually, Naples was not on the list, we only wanted to go to Pompeii and were planning for a day trip from Rome. But after reading other blogs about it, and calculating the time, cost and effort, we decided to change our flight directly from Stuttgart to Naples, and stayed there for 3 nights! 

Preparation to enter Italy during Corona time

Unfortunately in this pandemic time, we have to be very flexible and much more prepared before traveling. Saying "I will buy a ticket for tonight and fly" would be only easier said than done. You have to check which requirements are needed to enter each country you wanted to visit, and not only that, you also have to check it daily to make sure of last-minute changes. In our case, the case of Omicron has rapidly increased over the days and we were a little bit unsure whether we could actually fly. We checked the news every day, but fortunately, the new regulation that was changed was only that everyone has to wear FFP2-mask, also outside!

Documents you need to prepare prior entering to Italy (from Germany, or for countries on List C):

• Corona test. For antigen-test no more than 24 hours before flying time, and for PCR test 48 hours. 
• Covid-19 vaccination pass
• Digital Passenger Locator Form (dLpf)

What to bring: lots of FFP-2 masks!

Day 1: arrival and getting-to-know Napoli

Our flight from Stuttgart was at 11am, as usual during traveling, a couple of hours earlier from the check-in time was always nice. Online checked-in have been done, but we still needed to drop our baggage at the counter. I have the documents ready, but they actually didn't check it through, they only asked whether we had it prepared or not. It was not stressful, and we boarded and landed without any difficulty. 

According to my experience, I calculated that we would need at least half an hour to get our stuff and have our documents checked, and so on. But oh boy, I was wrong. We only needed less than fifteen minutes to get everything. Surprisingly, they didn't check our documents at all. I've thought Italy would be a bit stricter. But it also could be because our flight was from inside the EU. 

How to reach Naples city center from Airport

Surprisingly, the distance between Napoli Airport and the city center was not that far. There are some ways to reach the city center: taxi, bus or rent a car. We took the bus option because of the obvious reason (the cheapest one). After going out from the arrival, we followed the "bus" sign, and they even provided QR-code on the banners where you could buy the ticket directly. It cost 5€ one way, a reasonable price, I would say.

Following the path to the bus stop (it took around 5-7 minutes on foot), there were some taxi drivers offering the "share taxi" service, which would cost you only 6€ to the main station. This was not a bad opinion, and I would recommend this if you have more luggage, or just want to have peace of mind for the possibility of having to stand on the bus. Besides, the price was fixed so there won't be any scamming. (but if you have otherwise experience, please let me know!) 

The "Alibus" bus for the route Airport - Main Station ran every day from 5 to 23 if I'm not wrong. I did not know about the interval, but I think it'll be around every 10 to 15 minutes. We were lucky because the bus was already there when we arrived at the bus stop -- it was full so we have to stand. I am not a big fan of having to stand with a suitcase and a backpack. Luckily, the way to the main station did not take long, around 15 minutes and we reached already. On the way, we could see how different Napoli was to Germany, architecture-wise or the cleanliness. I've been to Bologna and Milan (both on solo trips fyi), and I didn't recall any of those cities being dirty. You could see trashes laying around, old unrenovated houses, abandoned buildings... But well, better not to judge them by their first fifteen minutes look from inside the bus, right? 

Checking-in

The bus dropped us at the main station, and the cleanliness didn't get any better outside of the main station. We didn't stay long around and used google maps to navigate us to our Airbnb. I chose it to be near the main station to avoid the complication with the luggage on the check-in and check-out day, without knowing that the area of the station was the "slum" area of Napoli. Our Airbnb was only five minutes' walk, but oh dear, we've passed so many trashes, and they smelt badly too. 

Walking around the sea area of Napoli

One of the reasons I was so excited about this city was the possibility of seeing the sea. Coming from Makassar with its sea, I feel the need of seeing the sea and feel the wind and the fishy smell xD. I have already prepared some lists of places I would like to see, and two of them happened to be near the sea: Castle dell Ovo and Castle Nuovo. Since we'd like to walk first, our first destination was Castle Nuovo, around 35 minutes on foot. We chose to go there along the coast. The way was not as beautiful as I thought it'd be, but I was satisfied with the opportunity to enjoy the breeze. And it was obvious that we didn't walk in the tourist area because we saw very few people. 

the seeeeeeaaaaaa!!!

random building accross the sea

We arrived in the hafen, but it seemed that nothing was going on, except for some cruise ships we saw and they were huge. I've never seen one so close, to be honest. I managed to take a picture near it (plus th sea). Funny story, I walked past the yellow line and police came to us, saying something in Italian, but as we told him we didn't speak the language, he just made an "x" sign with his arms and pointed at the line. I then walked out, but he nicely pointed out in the area where I stood in the pic and said, "here okay". 

After spending some minutes in the area, we continued to walk to the castle. 

Castle Nuovo

If you walked along the sea, you could not miss the castle. It was big, it looked badass. It seemed that it was used as a fort back then, not the castle where the princess and prince lived. We were there on a Sunday, which meant the castle was closed. Well, I was not planning to go inside too. But I did take pictures around before we headed out to find for lunch. 

Toledo area

So, if you are in castle Nuovo already, it didn't take long by foot to reach Napoli's famous street. Toledo metro was said to be the "most beautiful metro in Europe", at least that what was our Airbnb host said (and I've read it somewhere too). But that was not our first destination. After walking for quite some time, we were hungry. As usual, I've made a list of restaurants I would love to visit, and the first one, only 2 minutes from Castle Nuovo, was unfortunately too full, and we were just too hungry to wait for more than half-hour. On the quest to find a restaurant, we entered the Galleria Umberto, and they were beautiful. It reminded me of the one in Milan -- well, a tad less beauty than that. 

Galleria Umberto

We exited the main street of Toledo, and now we could see that we were already at one of the main tourist attractions. I personally did not expect this as Italy's cases of Corona was rising. We escaped the main street and went to the smaller street inside and decided to eat at the first restaurant (or well, second) we saw. It was probably a tourist trap, but the food was decent. One thing you needed to have in mind regarding dining, that in Italy, you normally didn't have to tip if in the bill you see something like "servizio" which would cost 2€ to 3€ per person. Or, some restaurant already set their fixed percentage for tipping. This was done because from what I've read, they didn't tip that much (or not at all) in Italy. Please correct me if I'm wrong :) 

first food in Napoli!

After finishing our food, I was still feeling hungry. Well, I need my dessert! There was a cafe nearby that was on my list, and it was supposed to be a good one judging by the long line in front of the cafe. I was hesitant to go in first because it was getting colder, but Tom has convinced me to stay. Apparently, the line was staying longer because most people did take away. We didn't even more than five minutes to be seated, and the cafe was beautiful. It was pricey for a cafe, but it all paid off. I wanted to eat all and ended up ordering a plate consisting of small desserts.

 

left: the delicious dessert we have // right: toledo street, occupied with people

I was exhausted after dessert, and as it was getting darker and colder, we decided to hit back to our Airbnb before going out again for dinner. This time, as suggested by our host, we decided to take the metro from Toledo. It took us a while to find the entrance of the metro. We didn't know yet if there was an app where you could buy the metro, so we decided to buy a one-time ticket. The machine was broken so we had no choice to buy it through a counter. It wasn't complicated, I just simply say "two one-way" and the cashier gave me two paper tickets with MasterCard symbols. For one way it costs 1.60€, a fair price. 

Toledo's metro station was clean, but I still couldn't portray it as what they claimed to be "the most beautiful metro in Europe". No offense, I might not be looking at the right spot. It was deep underground though and the way down was at least pleasant. 

Dinner

We didn't take that much time to choose our restaurant for dinner. The nearer it was to our accommodation, the better. After searching for google, I found a restaurant only five minutes by foot. It was quite occupied -- the restaurant was not that big but cozy. We decided to share a pizza, and the pizza was delicious. One tip though, don't order salad in Italy. Somehow they never came out correct. 

Day 2: from the castle by the sea to the all-year-round christmas market

A stressful morning

I have to admit, public transportation in Napoli could be a headache. At least I found an app where you could buy the daily ticket, but that app didn't help much with the direction. The plan for the day was to get to Castle dell'Ovo and we were supposed to reach there by bus. To begin with, we started to take the bus in the wrong direction. It took me one bus stop to realise we were heading the opposite way. We took off at the bus stop, and google told us we had to go back to the previous stop to take the next bus. It took us fifteen minutes to walk back, and we had to walk through dirty streets covered with trashes. It was by that time I thought to myself that I would never come back here. We walked to the main station but never succeeded to find the right bus stop. I even tried to ask the ticket officer but I got yelled at instead. In the end, we decided to take the metro and walked for half an hour, which turned out to be the best decision ever, because we got so much more to see. 

A walk from Piazza del Plebiscito to Castle dell Ovo

From Municipio station, we walked through castle Nuovo once more, and even passed by the restaurant we saw yesterday. It was almost empty and I felt like wanting to go and dine there, and although it was almost noon, we haven't visited any place, so we put a hold on that and walked through Piazza del Plebisictio on the way to Castle dell Ovo. The square was huge and amazing. There weren't so many people at the time we reached there (unlike Toledo, which was located in the next street, already full of tourists). After taking some pictures, we continued to walk, and there it was, the sea. Unlike yesterday in the harbor, this time the weather was sunny, and seeing all those palm trees was really calming me. 

 

finally got a taste of the famous sfogliatelle

 

Piazza del Plebisito

 

The walk was pretty nice, and the weather was neither too cold. We decided to sit in a "mini" cafe and ordered two cups of espresso. One thing we noticed here in Italy is that people drank lots of espressos, and somehow they never understood it correctly every time we wanted to order "Latte Macchiato". Anyway, we stayed for some minutes to enjoy the view of the sea -- Mount Vesuvius was almost visible if it weren't for the clouds. The setting of the cafe reminded me of the stands at Losari Beach -- to be honest, it was a nice nostalgic feeling. 

what a view...

Castle dell Ovo

Like Castel Nuovo, the castle itself seemed to be like a fort. We had to cross a bridge to get there, and oh dear, there were so many sellers who tried to sell you keychains and stuff. The entrance was actually free, but we didn't book it in advance and all the slots for that day were already booked out. The other option to enter was through an exhibition, but I was not going to pay 17€ for that one. Instead, we made it outside the castle and set our quest to find a place to eat. We were extremely hungry, and it was already past noon. I saw some restaurants with adequate reviews from google, but since we were afraid those were all tourist traps, we decided to walk back through the bridge.

Castle Nuovo from accross the bridge

boats boats boats!

Quest: Lunch 

Turned out there were a lot more restaurants on the street across Castle dell Ovo and they all looked like tourist traps xD While keep walking and walking, we then had to decide whether to stop by a random restaurant or go back and go to our next place. We saw a cute restaurant just before the castle, but too tired to walk back twenty minutes when all we had for today was one piece of Sfogiatelle. Finally, we stopped by a restaurant that didn't have two thousand of its servers trying to lure people in. 

 

The salad was better than yesterday's dinner but still disappointing. The bruschetta was nice but it took a while until they served us our main food. I ordered fried pizza because I've read some blogs and they recommended to at least try the fried pizza in Napoli. It wasn't bad but didn't surprise me either. I think we were just in the wrong restaurant for fried pizza. But the main thing is that we finally filled our fuel and were ready for the next stop. 

We still had two places in mind: Castel St. Angelo (thanks to a friend's recommendation!) and the Christmas market. Using google maps, we decided to try the funicular to the castle first, and it would take us around 40 minutes, (with the funicular actually only 5 minutes and the rest by walking). There was a direct bus, but we stopped believing our luck with that one in Napoli xD

Castle St. Angelo

The way to the next Funicular was nice -- nice enough to realize that not every part of Napoli was full of trashes. We saw very little trashes lying around, and the neighborhood was pretty neat. It makes me wonder how two parts of the city could be this different. It took us around twenty minutes (with a few photo stops) to reach the funicular and we had to wait for another ten minutes for the next funicular schedule. I've rarely ridden a funicular, only did it in Heidelberg twice (which only lasts less than 90 seconds). It took us a couple of minutes and three stops until we reached the end station and from there, we walked for another fifteen minutes to reach the castle. The castle was located high up in Napoli.

The weather was starting to get darker and colder. I hate cold, but the view might be great from the castle. Unlike other castles, it was actually not possible to be inside this castle. We paid 5€ to walk through (and nobody checked us until the end) and then walked up, just following everyone. The higher we went, the colder it got and the wind got stronger. But the view was worth it, and if it weren't only for the cold, I would love to stay more up there. We spent around one hour there, taking pictures and walking through before going to the next destination (and before I got grumpier due to weather xD).

left: the way to funicular // middle & left: castle st. angelo

the view from up!

On the way to the all-year-round Christmas market

I've read that one must-visit place was the Christmas market that opened for all time of the year and it was what typical from Napoli. It took us around half an hour to reach the metro station and we walked around ten minutes through the smaller street. After exiting the main road and we went to the narrower street, we saw lots of secondhand bookstores. We just did a quick eye-shopping before continuing to walk, since all the books were in Italian. Along the street, there were also lots of souvenirs stands, from handmade necklaces, the famous Neapolitan chili accessories, to posters. Instead of big brands (and streets like Toledo), I prefer these streets. It felt more local. 

The so-called Christmas market was not anything like German's Weihnachtsmarkt, but they had their own uniqueness. It seemed some of the accessories were handmade by the shop owners, but all the stuff were quite the same from one store to another store. In the end, it took us less than ten minutes to finish walking the street. Since I haven't got my daily dose of sugar (xD), we decided to take a small break at the cafe, and the coffee and the cordine I ordered were delicious although a bit too sweet for me (didn't know the name of what I ordered but never saw this kind of coffee-mix anywhere). 

to close the day: gelato!

We walked back to our Airbnb around 20 minutes and were glad that we still managed to buy a gelato (no matter how cold it was outside). We didn't have dinner, but instead buy some small stuff from a minimarket, as well as lunches for our trip on the next day to Pompeii!

Day 3: Pompeii & the worst dinner

Pompeii: will be on a special post since it was the highlight of this Napoli trip!

After coming back from Pompeii, we decided to take one hour of rest before heading up for dinner. Since we walked so much, we didn't want to go somewhere that far. I found a restaurant with a good review on google and decided maybe on our last night we should've had something good. 

The restaurant itself was okay decorated, if you asked me, they just had so many displays of newspapers' articles about them. Unfortunately, they did not have anything specific for vegetarians. I ordered seafood pasta, but unfortunately, it tasted like regret. Not our best restaurant, but at least we didn't put extra effort to go there.

Day 4: Bye Napoli!

Our itinerary for the 4th day was pretty flexible because we didn't want to stress ourselves since we had to travel to Rome. Theoretically, we could have stayed half-day in Napoli, but we thought we already saw everything we wanted to see, and for me, it was enough. We took the train shortly before 11am but went to the train station one hour before (despite staying only five minutes from the main station) to avoid any last-minute trouble. 

last breakfast in Napoli!

What we noticed from our experience that unlike in Germany where you might or might not get checked in the train, in Italy you have to scan your tickets (and your corona vaccination qr-code) before going to the platforms. And what's even "funnier" for me, the platforms of the trains were to be shown only shortly before the departure time, and you could only go to the platforms area at least 40 minutes before your train, resulting in lots of people waiting outside of the platforms. 

But anyway, despite all the cons of Napoli, we did enjoy our time there. As I said in the beginning, I did not see myself visiting this city anytime soon, unless I wanted to visit the Island or go to Pompeii again! 

What to eat/drink in Napoli (based on the foodie me xD)

• Sfogiatelle (you can find them almost everywhere)
• Fried Pizza
• Lots of seafood pasta (if you could find a good restaurant)
• Cannoli
• Lots of espressos
• Neapolitan Pizza (sadly we didn't try this)
• Baba

My recommendation on where to eat:

• Cafe Gambrinus (https://grancaffegambrinus.com/en/)
• Offered plenty of desserts, drinks, as well as food. It is a little bit more expensive for Napoli but worth it!!
• Ristorante Tipicio Napoletano - I Sapori di Parthenope (https://www.isaporidiparthenope.it/)
• We love their pizza but don't order salad here xD

Thanks for reading my story!

Life in Seoul - A Brief Summary of My Spring 2015

So hello!! This was my final essay/report for Global Korean Scholarship as a final task before going home ^^  This essay was written on June 5th, 2015. I added some pictures to make it more "alive"

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To be in Korea has been my dream since I was in senior high school. The 17 years old me wanted to see how things were in Korea, since I was a fan of Korea drama. The older me, last year, wanted more that to be in Korea after seeing an opportunity offered by my home university. Study in Korea. Yes, why only to be and not to live? Korea is one of developed country that has been growing rapidly, compare to my home country. My home country even got the independence first, but Korea could grow more. What was the secret of the people? How could be Korea become one of the leading country in technology? As a student in information technology, this has been one of my reason why I should apply to study.

But to achieve this dream was not easy. I applied last semester too, I managed to be a nominee from my home university, but the destination university said another thing. But was it only because one of rejection that I have to say goodbye to my dream? If we want to try, nothing is impossible. It is better to fail, than not trying and the regret it later. So I applied once again, and finally got accepted this time. With the limited financial, my parents tried to send me, and I also applied for the scholarship, hoping that if I got accepted it would help my parents. And a few weeks before my departure, I got an email from the contact person from Chung-Ang University. I got accepted to receive the Global Korean Scholarship.

And now it is almost the end, I am finishing the life of one of my dream.

Living in Korea has been one of the most memorable thing of my life. It was not the first time I lived far away from home, but it was the first time I lived alone, by alone I mean completely alone, no host family, no familiar things, no familiar language, no adult to relied to, I need to survive by myself. I was an exchange student 5 years ago in Germany, but I had host family who I could always ask and rely to. This time was different.

One funny thing upon my departure was my thought about the weather. Since I never traveled to any country in Asia beside ASEAN’s country, I thought the weather would be slightly the same, except in Korea it might be a little bit colder. So, the plain me didn’t bring a thick coat, only a normal one. And then, after arriving in dormitory for the first time, I checked the weather, and thought, “What? Minus 2 degree?” and regretting my decision not to bring any winter clothes.

Weather was the first thing to struggle. It was really cold for me, I don’t like cold, I can’t stand cold. Even when I sleep, I need to use socks so I don’t feel cold. I thought I brought a pair of thick gloves, but somehow I only found one glove on my suitcase. But the funny thing was, the way Korean dressed wasn’t like it was winter. The first week at University, I noticed many girls wore short skirt and pants. Well, they also wore some stockings, but was it enough? I even wore long-john and boots and it was not even enough for me. That was my first culture shock.

The second was language. I thought in Seoul would be easy to live for someone who didn’t know how to speak Korean, but it wasn’t. Well, maybe if I live near the tourist area it would be easy, but near my campus, it was difficult to find a restaurant where the waiter could speak good English. On the very first day, I and some friends went to a restaurant nearby and it took us almost half an hour just to figure out what to eat, because the menu had no English alphabet nor pictures.. I learned how to read hangeul before, but it took me more than five minutes just to figure out “Ramyun”.

First menu!

Manage to order something, yeay!

Dorm's typical breakfast

I was really fascinated by the technology and how easily people from all age got used to it. The first was the gate at my dormitory. We need some vessel scan or something like that, and my first thought “How this machine thing could even scan it?” Fingerprint or eye scan was really normal, but to scan someone’s vessel was totally a new one for me. And then, T-Money. It was really easy to go to everywhere with only one card: Taxi, Bus, Subway… they all accepted it. I can even use my T-Money card for the vending machine and the printing machine in dorm.

What I really like about Seoul, that it was really easy to go to anywhere. At the very first months, I used to go everywhere by subway since it’s more convenience and easy, but after I knew how to read Hangeul and even spoke a bit Korean, I tried to go by bus, since I could see the streets even though sometimes it took longer. What I don’t like about the subway is the distance we have to walk if we have to change the line. By bus it was easier. But with bus, the driver sometimes drove too fast, so it was difficult to stand. By Taxi is something else, because it is more expensive, and some taxis didn’t want to have foreigner passengers because of the language barrier.

My university life has been upside down. At first I took 6 classes, but then I dropped 2 because of the language barrier and the difficulties, and kept 4. What I noticed in the International class that mixed with Korean was, the Korean student didn’t try to blend in. Maybe in some other class yes, but not in class that I took. Before I dropped the other 2 classes too, somehow we could see the line between the Korean student and the International one. The Professor had tried to make us blend, but it didn’t work. I didn’t know what the real problem was, but I think maybe it is because they are too afraid to talk to us, and vice versa.

Chung-Ang University Festival!

I took 2 German class, since I want to improve my German. I was hesitated at first because I was afraid the class would be in Korean, but I was relieved when I saw the Professor is a German. But the other problem, I was the only foreigner in the class. Everyone is Korean. I thought that I would be alone for the rest of semester, but I was wrong. Well, at the first week no one talked to me (later I found out because some of them were afraid of speaking German since I am a little bit fluent), but later on one by one was trying to talk to me. I couldn’t be happier. I didn’t regret taking the class, because through the class I found Korean friends, and get to know more about Korean culture. I hanged out with some of them, mostly once a week, and improved my Korean. If I had Korean homework, they would be the first one to check it.

Eating out after German class xD

Through them, I mostly knew more about the culture and habit, especially among university students. For example, in the class, every meeting, there would be at least one student who would bring coffee or tea or milk to drink. That something that didn’t happen in Indonesia. And also I know that most of them live a bit far from campus, some even live in Incheon and Yongin, and traveled more than one hour everyday only to go to campus! Most of Korean are really diligent, and willing to learn. And the other thing was, how teacher is one of important job in here. In Indonesia, teacher didn’t receive a large amount of money.

Cherry blossom

One other unforgettable experience was when I got accepted as a global supporter of the very first Royal Court Culture Festival. I took interested about Korean history after I watched a drama, and then decided to take part in this festival. Turns out now I am one of fan of Korean history, especially of Joseon dynasty. I have visited all of the palaces in Seoul, starting from Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokggung, Chenggyeonggung, and Deoksugung. Also Jongmyo Shrine, the National Folk Museum, the National Museum of Korea, and the National Palace Museum. Gyeongbokgung was like my second home, since I went there minimum two times a week during April and the beginning of May. I really like how in Korea the technology is a high-end, but people also promoted their culture proudly. I got a ticket to moonlight tour, and it was one of the best tour I’ve ever attended!

The Very First Royal Court Culture Festival Opening Night!

Team 4! RPF Volunteer!!

Very first meeting

But to live in Korea was not always easy too. At the first two months, before the scholarship money came, I needed to live a little bit frugal. Korea is far far more expensive than Indonesia, one time eating is equal to three to four times eat in city where I live in Indonesia. But all of those café looked so delicious, so it was a struggle to resist them. The second thing was to find something to eat. I am a moslem and couldn’t eat pork, but pork is everywhere in Korea! And even though the food sounded like there is no meat, but some have. For example, Jajangmyun (black bean noodles). I thought it there was no meat in it, but truthfully it was pork. So I need to be patient, even though I really want to eat Jajangmyun.

Almost couldn't resist all these sweet things in life

Sometimes it was hard to tell people why I don’t eat pork and drink alcohol. They sometimes ask me, “But now you are in Korea, right? Nobody will know if you eat pork or drink alcohol.” It is a matter of choice. But I am glad that they respect my choice and still befriend me.

To be honest, I really like Chung-Ang University. Even though I really hate the hill to the dorm, but now we – exchange students – found a faster way to go to dorm without climbing all the hill. We called it “the lazy way”, “the not so lazy way”, “the very lazy way” etc. The very lazy way was to take bus to the back gate. What I like more about Chung-Ang is the facility that I have never seen before. I have lived at dorm during my high school time. But Blue Mir Hall was really good and nice. And the school festival has been my favourite so far. I really enjoyed those three days, and I wished it could stay longer.

Would I want to stay for another semester? If I could, I would. But sadly I need to graduate next year, so unfortunately I have to go back to reality, and who knows, I might apply for a master program at Chung-Ang!

Certificate given by Mr. Lee

After three months, I already felt like home. Korea (especially Heukseok) has been one of my home, and I will never forget my experience in here. It is really sad to think that soon I’ll leave and readapt again to my routine in Indonesia. Now I’m starting to wonder, what kind of thing I will miss when I return to “home”. Will it cafeteria food at dorm? Or will it be my roommate and my room? Will it be my friends? Will it be the cleanliness? Will it be the internet speed?

I want to thank the Korean government to give me a worthless lifetime experience to support my study in Korea. If only you know how it means for me and my family. Thank you so much, Global Korean Scholarship! I will surely share my experience and my knowledge that I learned during my one semester stay.

Summer 2014 : Hello Luxembourg!

Finally I have found the muse to write again (well for this time).

So I'd like to tell you briefly about my one-day adventure in Luxemburg. The disadvantage of writing it one year after your journey is you almost forget everything. I admit that I am regretting it right now (shame on you, my muse!)

So back to the story.

Luxembourg was not on my list on 2014's summer destination. It's simply because I didn't know what to see in that city, and how to get there. And since with Eurailpass I could only choose up to 4 countries and Luxembourg is a small country, I was afraid it might not worth it (but in the end I didn't go to France so...) Fortunately IIK-Dusseldorf offered a few field trips, and of them was to go to Luxembourg! The other option were Amsterdam and Brussels, but I've been there 5 years ago (didn't want to waste my money to visit the same place (well except later with my future husband :p or my family).

So there was an opportunity to visit Luxembourg without having to find the transportation and where to go. So why not? The price was 45Euro, and I thought it was okay for one day (sadly no lunch included!)

We gathered at Dusseldorf train station at 6. There were only about another 40 students, but none was from my class. I was quite sad that time because I didn't know anyone, but I went with the wish to find new friends. The journey took around 3 hours, and we arrived there at 10. (to be honest I slept almost the whole journey haha).

Hello Luxembourg!

We had the tour guide, I forgot the language of the instructor, but it was probably in English. Of, we were lucky because Luxembourg city had an event that day, it was called "Luxembourg in Summer". When we came they were just starting to prepare the stage, but after our tour the music started. So we were divided into two groups, and here I met new friends and I spent the day with them! Because IIK was a language institution, our language level was quite varied, so most of the time we spoke English.

the preparation hasn't finished...

yeay!

Luxembourg is a rich country, but it is very small. It' has the highest GDP in EU. The tour guide explained most people spoke Luxembourgish, as well French and German. Luxembourg has only about 500 thousand people... well, my hometown has a lot more than that...

So we began our tour, but somehow in the middle of the journey we lost the tour guide (at Notre Dame). (sorry couldn't explain more about the tour hahaha). At the end of our tour we managed to have a group photo.

Then, it was free timeeee! We headed back to the city center, where the music began to play at the stage. And guess what? They gave us free ice cream! And we ate 2 of them (it was summer, so it was normal to has 2 sticks of ice cream, right?) Then we explored a tiny bit of the city, and separated at lunch. I had Doner Kebab because it was Halal (and also affordable). I really wanted to buy some souvenirs but it was expensive T.T After that we were exhausted and decided to stay around the city center. And guess what? The city offered us free wifi ( I wonder when there will be "Jakarta Free Wifi", "Makassar Free Wifi" or "Surabaya Free Wifi" hahaha).

We went back at 6, and arrived around 9.

It was one amazing experience, beside I got to know people from another part of the world. That's one of the advantage of going (or signing up) alone.

Another posting of my Summer2014's adventure:

• The Beginning
• Solo Travelling in Milan
• IIK-Düsseldorf
• German Graduation!

Summer 2014 : My Two Weeks at IIK (Institute for International Communication) Düsseldorf

So hello! It's nice to write something again, I realize my muse has been up and down these days, and also I have tons to do..

Finally I decided to write something in English, because some people ask me to. I really want to write in a few languages, but sadly no time.

Okay, I know now it's 2015, but I want to throw myself a bit into the past before I forget about it. So for you who didn't know, fortunately I got a chance to fly back to my second home last year (2014). I actually wanted to go in 2013, but there was visa problem so I had to postpone my adventure. And finally I got my visa in the next year, and decided to stay for a month. Let me tell you a secret, I was allowed to go back to Germany after I had an agreement with my parents to do some German course, because they didn't want me to do only "fun". 

After searching some information about some places/institutions, I finally decided to have a two-week intensive course in IIK-Düsseldorf. IIK stands for Institut für Internationale Kommunikation, or in English, Institut for International Communication (it's not difficult to translate, right?). They actually had really good offer for another long-term courses, but I only have 1 month time and the only program possible for me was the 2-week course.

I already signed up before my departure, but I still need to pay and the best way was to pay it direct. So on my very first day, my host father and I went to IIK, and also asked a few questions. To determine my level, I needed to make a placement test, and I remember I took the placement test with Valentine's computer in Switzerland (thank you for that, Valentine!) I got the result a few days later, and fortunately I got the morning class. I prefer to have morning class (from 9 to 12) because I would finish the class early and could do something else later in the afternoon.

My class began on June 30th and for two weeks. Do you know what the tiring part was? It's the journey from Haltern am See to Düsseldorf. As you see from the map below, the distance was about 80km (said Google Maps), and I need about 1 hour and more to get there. So everyday, for 2 weeks, I felt like student again, waking up between 5-6, had breakfast (I showered the night before), and then went to the train station with my bicycle. I had two options of train, the first one departed at 6.43, but I didn't need to change. The second one departed at 7.07, but I needed to wait for about 20 minutes in Essen. Most of the time I took the early one, and arrived 1 hour earlier hahaha ^^ (typical Asia, so diligent :D) I could also take the train at 7.43, but I would be late for a few minutes because it took around 10 minutes by S-Bahn from Düsseldorf train station to IIK-Düsseldorf. 

long long journey..

option 1

option 2

And the way back to home also needed a bit of struggle, because I needed to leave the class immediately after it finished, if I missed the S-Bahn, I would have to wait 1 hour for the train, and would be late for lunch.

So can you feel my tiring 2 weeks?

But to be honest, I slept most of the time on the train, hahaha. The tiring part was only the train part (I spend around 3 hours/day on the train). Beside that, it was an amazing 2 weeks with IIK-Düsseldorf!

Because our class was only for 2 weeks and the holiday hasn't started yet in some other countries, our class had only a few people. At first I guess we had 9 students, but 2 students got transferred to lower class. So there were 7 of us for a few days, until one student got transferred to the regular class because he would stay for 2 months.

But the smaller the class, the more attention we got from the teacher.  From Monday to Wednesday, our teacher was Sarah, and for Thursday and Friday we had Inna. 

The part I love the most was I got the chance to meet some more friends from different countries. So in our tiny class, we had 2 people from Poland, 2 from China, 1 from USA, and me! We had fun even though we barely knew each other at first, but then we got closer and closer during the days, and decided to have reunion a few years later (maybe 5 more years?) in Bali :D :D :D

One day we had lunch together in Japanese Restaurant :)

JAPANESE AREAAA!

So that's my short story about IIK-Düsseldorf, and if I am given another chance, would love to learn again in that place ^^ 

beloved IIK :D

A Ramadha Guide for Non-Muslim!

our small class!

thanks for reading!