Austria & Paris

When I landed in Soekarno Hatta airport and heard the Indonesian language being spoken left and right, it felt like music to my ears. You know, the old saying is right... there's no place like home. And 5 weeks is a long time to leave home.


AUSTRIA

What can I say about that country. I just love the nature soooo much. The mountains and the rivers and the lakes. All it just so breathtaking. The beautiful architectures, the wonderful people, all just making me fall in love with the place even more. The only problem I have there is only the language. I speak very very little German. And turns out that people don't speak English very well in the place where I'm staying. So it's a lot of hand sign and body language during the whole stay. Which is quite fun and frustrating in the same time :)

I spent most of my 2 weeks time in a small town by the mountain called Leoben with only about 25000 populations. Foods there are mostly influenced by German food and taste sooo good I'm having a problem in restraining myself. Right now my mouth is watering for those Schnitzels. The picture below is taken from a hill about 20 minutes hiking from the hotel where I'm staying. I was out of shape and my lung felt like it could explode :) The two guys I hike with were not in a better condition also (btw, they're American and Pakistani... we sure made one weird group :). But the view you get from up there... it's definitely worth the pain. Oh ya, and to the rest of the group, we claim that we have conquer a 'mountain' :)


[Leoben, taken from 'mountain']

In the first weekend, I went to Salzburg alone. The three hours train ride passed the Alps Mountain and Salzach River. All the way, it just like those pictures you see in postcards. Whenever I passed the houses, I couldn't stop thinking... those lucky people, they could enjoy this view every day... Salzburg itself is a lot bigger than Leoben. Famous as the place where they shoot the legendary movie "The Sound of Music", birthplace of Mozart and rich with favourite skiing spots, the city earn most of its revenue from tourism. It's quite easy to find people that speak good English. But the TV in the hotel still only had CNN as the only English speaking channel. My favourite spot is definitely the old part of the city. It's just wonderful to walk on those small alleys full with little shops. And than the beautiful architectures, mostly done in Baroque style, are simply beautiful.

[Salzburg downtown]

I also took the tour to the mountain and the lake outside of the city. I was so lucky that the weather was so good (sunshine - 19degC in end of Oct was kind of like miracle there :) that they still have the boat ride on the Wolfgang lake (the last ride of the year). And you know what... those famous line from The Sound of Music... "The hills are aliiiiiveeee.... with the sound of musiiiic", I could definitely imagine Maria running through the hill, throw her arm up and yell that line. Cos I feel the exact same way.

[Lake Wolfgang - River Tour]

The last weekend in Austria, before I flew to Paris, I spent it in Vienna. Or Wien, as the Austrian call it. Too bad the weather was not friendly anymore. It started snowing that weekend when I leave Leoben. And tho Vienna is warmer than Leoben, it was still cloudy and raining pretty much the whole time I was there. I guess because of that I couldn't enjoy Vienna as much as the other two cities. I spent most of my time inside the hop-on-hop-off bus that taking me all around the cities. My fave is definitely the St. Stephen cathedral and the area between the cathedral and the opera house. Oh ya... and I have to evacuate the hotel cos the bulding next to my hotel was on fire. But everything was ok at the end.

PARIS

The city of light... the city of romance. Too bad the reason I'm staying in Paris is not really to enjoy the light and definitely no romance involve. We actually not even staying in the center of Paris, but rather in one of the suburb. About 25 min with direct train from Gare de Lyon. It's a very small area and we're not living in a very nice place. Transportation was expensive and we were busy with the class. So me and my classmate spend most of our weeknights stuck in the hotel bar. One thing that I have to admit tho, the French definitely have good wine, even in the cheap range. I don't know how many bottles our little group manage to drink on those 3 weeks we stayed there. I even earn a new nick name... purple lips :)

I spent all my weekends touring around Paris. It's my second time coming to the city, but because my first visit was such a short trip, I really spend this second time to leisurely browse the city. I spent one of the day in Louvre museum and fell in love with Panini. And I definitely not claiming myself as a cultural person, because looking at Monalisa, I just could not see why all the big huhahh about that painting.

I found my new fave spot in Paris that I didn't even know existed on my first visit. It's highly recommended as a not to missed spot if you visit Paris. It's called Montmartre. A beautiful small area, very french, full off small restaurant and shops, with an open art market, and also home for the beautiful Basilica of the Sacre Coeur. If I could visit Paris again, I wouldn't mind skipping the rest of the other touris attraction and just go to that one place again.

[Basilica of the Sacre Coeur]

JAKARTA

It is polluted. It is packed with non-stop traffic jam. But it is home. Home of satay and rendang and ayam taliwang. Home of cheap shopping. Home where my parents and my sis live. No other place could replace. And it feels so good to be home :)