Thursday was a short day at work. Actually I was not at work at all... I went to a workshop with Anjelita about energy efficient houses.
At lunch time we left and went to the ambassadors residence, where we (the embassy) were having a traditional Danish Christmas lunch.
I WAS IN DENMARK LAST THURSDAY!!!
The residence was amazing! Very nice!
And the food was great! Very typical Danish Christmas buffet - there was just no pork. But we even had Roed Aalborg, stuvet hvidkaal, roedkaal, leverpostej, rugbroed, sild e.g. and risalamande at last. Delicious!
After the Christmas lunch Andreas and I went to ITC to meet up with Heidi and shop a bit around. It did not get late though, cause Andreas was going to a hear a Swedish dj later that evening at one of the clubs. And Heidi and I were going to bed early, cause we had to get up again at 3.00 on Friday.
Friday morning our plane was leaving at 6.00. But it was good that we got up quite early, since we had gone to the wrong terminal... But we still had time for an ice cream (frozen yoghurt) at J.Co.
In Yogya we were picked up by the driver from our hostel. He took us around the city and showed us the most important things for our weekend.
We arrived at "Green Garden Bed and Breakfast" (http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/MSA-Green-Garden-B-and-B/Yogyakarta/36397) - the best hostel I have seen so far!!!!!
We even got breakfast on the first day! And they even put up our national flags to honor our visit!
We went to the room, relaxed a bit, used the internet in the room and then we borrowed some bikes from the hostel and took the bike into the city. I haven't been on a bike for half a year now. It was just amazing! As soon as we had figured out how to get around the traffic, we both enjoyed it very much!
The bikes were parked and we could walk along Malioboro Street - the shopping street in Yogya. And of course do some batik shopping, which Yogya is famous for.
Yogya is also known as "The city of batik"!
And a lot of sitting down having something to drink or ice cream - it was hot outside! And hot = exhausting!
At lunch time we left and went to the ambassadors residence, where we (the embassy) were having a traditional Danish Christmas lunch.
I WAS IN DENMARK LAST THURSDAY!!!
The residence was amazing! Very nice!
And the food was great! Very typical Danish Christmas buffet - there was just no pork. But we even had Roed Aalborg, stuvet hvidkaal, roedkaal, leverpostej, rugbroed, sild e.g. and risalamande at last. Delicious!
After the Christmas lunch Andreas and I went to ITC to meet up with Heidi and shop a bit around. It did not get late though, cause Andreas was going to a hear a Swedish dj later that evening at one of the clubs. And Heidi and I were going to bed early, cause we had to get up again at 3.00 on Friday.
Friday morning our plane was leaving at 6.00. But it was good that we got up quite early, since we had gone to the wrong terminal... But we still had time for an ice cream (frozen yoghurt) at J.Co.
In Yogya we were picked up by the driver from our hostel. He took us around the city and showed us the most important things for our weekend.
We arrived at "Green Garden Bed and Breakfast" (http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/MSA-Green-Garden-B-and-B/Yogyakarta/36397) - the best hostel I have seen so far!!!!!
We even got breakfast on the first day! And they even put up our national flags to honor our visit!
We went to the room, relaxed a bit, used the internet in the room and then we borrowed some bikes from the hostel and took the bike into the city. I haven't been on a bike for half a year now. It was just amazing! As soon as we had figured out how to get around the traffic, we both enjoyed it very much!
The bikes were parked and we could walk along Malioboro Street - the shopping street in Yogya. And of course do some batik shopping, which Yogya is famous for.
Yogya is also known as "The city of batik"!
And a lot of sitting down having something to drink or ice cream - it was hot outside! And hot = exhausting!
A bargaining Catharina
After enough of shopping (or what Heidi thought was enough shopping...) we walked to Pasar Ngasem (= Pasar Burung = Bird Market). But we only walked through, since Heidi got afraid of getting the bird flu.
Right behind Pasar Ngasem Taman Sari is seated. Taman Sari is some kind of ruin. And apparently an old water castle.
The water castle itself was not really amazing at all. But the view from up there was great! There are volcanos all the way around Yogya and it is beautiful!
We wanted to take a becak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_rickshaw) back to our bikes, but we only got as far as KAKIKU, a massage place that Robert (the host at the hostel) had told us about. Here we got a 90 minutes massage! Sooo goooood!
Heidi and me in a becakFrom here we walked back to Malioboro Street, looked a bit around and found Bladok (a German restaurant), where we had dinner.
We took the bikes back and I was tired enough to fall asleep while Heidi had only been on the internet for a short while.
Saturday we got up early, had an amazing breakfast again (This is really the best breakfast I have had so far in Indonesia! And so western!) and sat outside waiting for Thomas (the other driver), who was going to take us around for sightseeing that day. We left at 8.30 and went first to Borobudur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur). On the way there were some other smaller temples which we also saw.
Borobudur was amazing, but quite crowded... And again there were a lot of people wanting to take pictures with us!
After Borobudur we had lunch in a small city near by - a very cheap restaurant and the food was actually really good! I have never before had a steak for 6 Danish kroner...
After eating it was time for the MONKEY FOREST "Taman Nasional Gunung Merapi", where we bought rice cake, tofu and tempe to feed the monkeys.
There were no monkeys at all when we arrived. But Thomas called them and they came. And I fed a monkey!!!! :)
After this we went on Lava Tour Kaliadem. This is a city covered with lava from the last erruption of Mount Merapi. And it is amazing.
There is also a bunker - for security reasons - where 16 volunteers died under the last erruption. The bus didn't make it in time to pick them up, so they went into the bunker. Somehow the people getting the idea with a bunker for protection against a volcano haven't really thought about how warm lava is. So the 16 volunteers were steemed inside the bunker with many tons warm lava on top of them...
Walking on top of a city covered with lavaThe next and last spot this day was Prambanan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan). Much less crowded with tourists than Borobudur and much nicer. I can recommend Prambanan to EVERYONE!
We stopped by at Mc Donalds on our way back - very tired. And again this evening I fell asleep while Heidi was on the internet.
But it had been an amazing day - not only everything we had seen, but also everything Thomas had told. He for sure made me realize how much further we are in the western world.
Apparently they still do things here that I don't even dare to write on my blog. Maybe the government would close down my blog, if I did... But yes, we learned a lot!
Sunday we had this wonderful breakfast again and decided to take a becak into the city. We did a bit of shopping again and went to the Kraton (the sultans palace: http://asiaforvisitors.com/indonesia/java/central/yogya/kraton.html). This is by the way the most unimpressive cultural experience in Indonesia so far!
We took another becak to our lunch place that Robert had recommended - Hani's (a Belgian restaurant/bakery). Delicious!
From here we took another becak all the way back to our hostel, packed, relaxed and finally took a taxi to the airport, sitting and waiting in one hall, but this hall were four gates... That makes sense... ?
Back in Jakarta we found ourselves a Borobudur taxi, which brought us back home. Very suitable after a weekend spent at Borobudur!
And that was the weekend in Yogyakarta! And unfortunately the last holiday with my lovely Heidi-lady! :( But it was good!
No comments:
Post a Comment