A trip to the land of gods: Greece (Athens, Delphi)

This is a log of my trip to Greece with my senior, Ferry (again).

We left Trento by train to Milano on Friday, 19th September 2008. In Milano I bought several hamburgers at the McDonalds just in front of the train station which cost for only €0.50 each Of course hamburgers aren’t good for health, but they did a good job in stuffing my stomach Then we took a bus heading towards the Malpensa airport. We slept at the airport since our flight to Athens was on the next day early in the morning.

So on Saturday, 20th September 2008, the plane took off in the morning to Athens. We used the Easyjet airline since it was one of the cheapest flights available. After our arrival in Athens, we took a bus to the Syntagma square, then went to the hostel that we had booked to check in. Unfortunately we arrived at the hostel too early, so we had a lunch at a small traditional fast food restaurant nearby.

Athens – arrivals’ exit point

Then we visited many famous spots with the guidance of the free city map, wikipedia, and wikitravel as usual. I can’t remember all the details, but I’ll try to write the major outline.

First we visited the temple of Olympian Zeus. The good thing about archaeological sites in Athens was that they were free for students enrolled at a university within the European Union. The problem was that I lost my Univ. of Trento’s student card But fortunately I brought the Univ. of Bonn student card so I could enter the sites for free.

Athens – Temple of Olympian Zeus

Then we headed to the Acropolis. At the foot of the Acropolis we visited the theatre of Dionysus, and not far from it there’s the theatre of Herodes Atticus.

Athens – Theatre of Dionysus

Athens – Theatre of Herodes Atticus

Then we went further up and found the gate to the Acropolis, the Propylaea. Advancing forward passed the Propylaea we found the famous Parthenon. And near the Parthenon there was the Erechtheion.

Athens – Propylaea

Athens – the famous Parthenon

Athens – Erechtheion

Then we visited the Areopagus hill where it’s said that the Apostle Paul delivered the famous speech written in the Christian Bible and associated with the spread of Christianity into Greece.

Athens – Areopagus hill

There were so many archaeological spots we visited that day. In the evening we had dinner and walked around the city center. Then we went back to the hostel. I made the stupidest mistake that night: sleeping without any blanket. In the next morning when I woke up, I was really sick! I caught the influenza, which was really terrible. But I still tried to enjoy the following days as much as possible.

The next day, Sunday, 21st September 2008, we went to Sounion by bus to see the temple of Poseidon.

Sounion – Temple of Poseidon

We walked about 3 km or so to the bus stop and headed back to Athens. We had our lunch at the city center, then went up to one of the hills (there should be a funicular but we couldn’t find it, so we walked). Then we spent the rest of the day strolling at the city center.

On Monday, 22nd September 2008, early in the morning we took a bus to Delphi. The main thing to see there was the temple of Apollo.

Delphi – Temple of Apollo

Going further up the hill, we found the theatre of Delphi, and on top there was the stadium.

Delphi – Theatre

Delphi – Stadium

Then we went down the hill towards the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia. There we found the Tholos.

Delphi – Tholos

After visiting the main sites, we took a bus back to Athens, had our dinner, and went to bed.

Tuesday, 23rd September 2008 was our last day in Athens, so we did most of the shopping and also visited some unvisited spots at the city center. Then we went to the airport and took another Easyjet plane back to Milano.

Athens – posing with the guardian near the Syntagma square

This trip was pretty interesting. Nevertheless, my influenza made it a bit difficult to enjoy.

Reunion with FlipFlop’s drummer

On Thursday, 11th September 2008, I took a night train to Frankfurt and arrived on Friday, 12th September early in the morning. It was a reunion time with my old comrade: Dheni. We used to live in the same boarding house in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, formed an amateur band called FlipFlop where he played the role of a drummer and I played the role of a keyboardist. We also went to the same university: Gadjah Mada University, but different major (he took the chemical engineering major whereas I took computer science).

He came to Göttingen, Germany, to attend a training (for about a week) assigned by the company where he’s working at, Indocement. Friday, 12th September 2008 was his return day to Indonesia, and we managed a small reunion in Frankfurt, since the plane took off around 10 p.m. or so.

He arrived in Frankfurt about an hour after my arrival with 2 other training attendants, Mr. Son and Mr. Kim, from South Korea. A funny event happened. Since Dheni was working as an engineer, I thought they were also working as engineers. So I asked Mr. Son whether he was working as an engineer. Then he smiled and gave me his name card, and whoaaaaa…… it’s written there: Deputy General Manager of Tong Yang Cement Corp. Mr. Kim then gave me his name card as well. His position was Assistant Manager. Gossshhhhh…… How could Dheni attend a training with these big guys?????

So we had a lunch together at the McDonalds and walked around the city center.

Frankfurt – with Dheni in front of Frankfurt’s hauptbahnhof

Frankfurt – at the main square (Mr. Kim, Mr. Son, Dheni, me)

Mr. Kim and Mr. Son left earlier to the airport to catch their flight back to Seoul. I and Dheni had a long chat at the train station and had our dinner together once again at the McDonalds . Then we went to the airport.

It was a nice reunion to me. Hope our friendship will last for years to come….

Trentino summer trip 2008: Molveno

On Sunday, 31st August 2008, I, Galiya, Mu, Rakib, and another Bangladesh guy whose name I forgot Adnan had a trip to Molveno. Alexis was planning to join as well, but he missed the train that we took (in fact, we saw him running chasing the train but failed to catch).

We went up the hill using the cable cars and took a walk around. Just to refresh our brains

Molveno – the cable car view

After getting back down, we had a pizza lunch and continued walking down to the lake.

Molveno – Galiya, Mu, dunno Adnan, Rakib

We rented 2 water bikes: I and Mu using one, Galiya, Rakib and his friend using another one. We cycled for about 1 hour, then returned back to Trento.

Molveno – Galiya, Rakib and his friend Adnan posing on the water bike

Molveno – me posing on the water bike

Summer 2008 trip III: Zürich-Luzern-Lugano-Como

This is another very late log of my summer trip (it’s already snowing outside ) to Zürich, Luzern, Lugano, and Como with my senior, Ferry. Now I realize that making logs aren’t as simple as I thought, especially when level of details are concerned. Well, I guess I’ll just write quite simple logs onwards (without considering timeline details very much).

We left Trento on Saturday, 16th August 2008, to Zürich by train. The main train we used for this first trip was the Cisalpino from Milano to Zürich, a cool train that can be tilted when turning left or right. My first experience riding a tilting traing After arriving at Zürich’s main train station (it was late at night already), we headed directly to the hostel that we had booked and slept.

On Sunday, 17th August 2008, we walked around to see Zürich’s famous spots (mainly around the city center), and also the botanical and Chinese garden. Well, actually not really walking around since there’s a cool free bicycle rental place, so we traveled around mostly by riding bicycles (one bicycle each).

Zürich – free ride in Zürich

Zürich

Zürich – Grossmünster church at the background

Our trip rule was still the same as the previous ones: visit famous spots according to the free city map (which we could get for free at the train station), Wikipedia, and Wikitravel. And since we were riding bicycles, we could manage to visit the spots even faster. The monumental event during our trip to Zürich was the lunch. We had a lunch in a restaurant to taste the Swiss traditional dish: the Fondue. What made it special was that it was the most expensive dish I’ve eaten…. €17!!! Well, I’m only a student who rely on the generous European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus scholarship for living (at least for the time being). €17 for a meal is pretty expensive But anyway, trying the Fondue was a nice experience

Zürich – the expensive-but-nice Fondue

Guess what? It was 17th August 2008…. Indonesia’s 63rd anniversary (independence day). Sorry but we just couldn’t really express our nationalism by gathering with other Indonesians. But we met 2 Indonesians as well that day. In the evening we decided to visit Luzern the next day.

On Monday, 18th August 2008, we took a morning train to Luzern. We took the free city map as usual and visited the major spots, including the Kapellbrücke and the lion monument, and the old city wall. Since I hadn’t been using a watch for several years and we were in Switzerland, I bought a Swatch watch here.

Luzern – Kapellbrücke as the background

Luzern – the lion monument

During the visit to the old city wall we found several clock towers and went to the top for each one of them (around 3 or so). It was so tiring and during our way back to the city center we found weird-looking bulls or buffaloes (I can’t really distinguish them ).

Luzern – weird-looking bull (or buffalo?)

After feeling enough with Luzern, we took a train back to Zürich, shopping for a while, then headed to Lugano with another Cisalpino train We arrived in Lugano at night and went directly to the backpackers’ hostel.

On Tuesday, 19th August 2008, we went downtown and strolled at the bank of Lake Lugano. It’s a bit funny that the train station is located on a hill above the city center.

Lugano – on the way to the city center

Lugano – Lake Lugano

Then we went to Melide by train to visit the Swissminiatur. It’s quite fun seeing the miniature of major spots in various cities around Switzerland. We had lunch there as well.

Melide – Swissminiatur

In the afternoon we went to Como by train, went to the city center, and went up the hill using the funicular. Didn’t do much up there.

Como – a view from the hill

Then we walked around Lake Como before finally departed back to Trento in the evening.

Como – Lake Como

It was another nice trip for me.

Snow covered the land of Trento….

I thought it’s still autumn, but surprisingly when I woke up this morning, the snow already covered the land of Trento (at least Povo ). The land was dry yesterday during my visit to the Christmas market in Piazza Fiera. It means winter has arrived. Need to prepare my clothing well.

Trento – Christmas market (yesterday)

Trento – Via Borino 63 (this morning)

We can also see the different view of the IRST building (the place where my courses taken place) this morning compared to the one in October.

Trento – IRST building (in October)

Trento – IRST building (this morning)

About the EuMI contract that I have signed….

This post is my view about the EuMI (European Master in Informatics) contract that I have signed more than a year ago. Lately I’ve heard many issues about the possibilities for EuMI students to change their mobilities regarding their theses periods. And I’ve been also asked whether I’ll consider changing my mobility for my thesis (i.e. not at the university where it’s written on the contract). Below is the contract of the EuMI programme that I signed about a year ago:

EuMI contract – first page

EuMI contract – second page

On the second page of my contract I can clearly see my very own signature dated on 14th June 2007 that confirmed my approval of agreement of the conditions written on both pages. And it’s clearly stated as well my assigned mobility, specialization, and amount of scholarship. According to my point of view, violating any of those conditions is the same like violating myself, since I signed it without any external force (i.e. my own will). So my answer is: I will try my very best to fulfil what I’ve approved, or in some sense it’s more like to fulfil what I’ve “promised”.

I like Trento very much, and it would be nice to do a master thesis here. I’ve also found a good professor who has the capacity in supervising my thesis in a topic that I’m interested in. But then the contract makes me think twice. Sure following what is delightful for my current condition may make me satisfied, but fulfilling what I’ve approved (or promised) may give me far better benefits to my own self in the long run. It may teach me something about persistence, steadfastness, and consistency, which will avoid me from violating myself in the future of bigger events. I’m thinking about completing the small things good, building pillars for undertaking greater responsibilities. Finally I’m not seeing this matter as a question, but a lesson to learn. And it’s pretty fun to learn many things apart from learning (or more precisely studying) formal courses at the university. This is a lifetime learning process, and I’ll do my best to learn well. I know the climb may be steep, and I may not be quite a strong guy to face lifetime trials. But I’m sure I’ll learn a lot

But at the end, everyone has the freedom to choose. We’re supposed to live in a free world of free choices. If other EuMI students think differently, it’s their right to do so. And I have the right to think my very own way too

I hope I’ll become wiser as I get older….

The time seems moving so fast (if not too fast). It’s been another 1 year, and I’m getting older…. I’m 24 now which means I’ll be a quarter of century next year. But it means I’m excited in doing things when I feel the time goes by so fast, which is a good sign. I hope I’ll be doing exciting things as well in the next 1 year.

Last night my Indonesian friends came to my flat and surprised me (since I didn’t know that they would come) with a birthday song. They brought pizzas and we had a meal together. They gave me 2 presents, a cute turtle doll and a mug which is treated as a passport of Indonesian Trento students (they told me this way ) which will be used for reunion purposes.

Trento – the cute turtle and mug passport

For Indonesian students in Trento, thanks a lot for the presents and the surprise…. Grazie mille I’ll do my best to keep the gifts (especially the mug).

At last I hope I’ll become a wiser person as I get older, become a better person each day.

Summer 2008 trip II: Wien-Bratislava-Budapest

This is a log for my second summer trip 2008 with my senior, Ferry Irawan Tantono. Since this log is a bit late, many details may be missing. We departed from Trento’s main train station on Wednesday evening, 6th August 2008 (using a night train), and arrived in Wien the next day. We took a free map of Wien from the information office at the train station and went to the city center. Along the way, we stopped in several famous spots. The first was the Soviet victory monument that’s erected to commemorate the Soviet’s triumph over the Nazi.

Wien – The Soviet victory monument

The second spot was the Karlskirche located near the Karlsplatz. We went inside the church and took the audio guided tour. We went up one of the towers as well to see the surroundings.

Wien – Karlskirche

The third spot was the Opera House (Wiener Staatsoper). Before entering the Opera House, we had our breakfast since we were starved. I took a sausage and french fries. Then we took a guided tour of the Opera House.

Wien – me with the Opera House as a background

Wien – inside the Opera House

Then we passed through several spots which I can’t completely remember. But for sure we walked around the Hofburg palace.

Wien – in front of the Hofburg palace

Then we walked through the Rathausplatz where there was a market, and headed to the parliament building.We took a guided tour inside the parliament.

Wien – in front of the parliament

Wien – inside the parliament (taken during the guided tour)

Then we strolled through the pedestrian area to the Stephansdom (the cathedral). On the way we came accross a piece of sculpture called Pestsäule.

Wien – Rathaus

Wien – Pestsäule

Wien – Stephansdom (gosshh… why do I look so dark???)

We went inside the cathedral and looked around, then we had our lunch not far from the Stephansdom. I took the famous traditional food: Wiener Schnitzel and so did Ferry. Then we headed to Mozarthaus, the house of Mozart in which he spent several years living (the longest among other houses). But we didn’t enter the house at that moment since it was already about to close. We came back to see the inner part of the house later on.

Wien – in front of the Mozarthaus

Then we headed to the hostel that we had booked online, checked in, left our luggages, and went out again. We passed the Haydnhaus which was located not far from the hostel. It was closed, so we only took pictures in front of it. Arrghhhh….. It reminds me of the Sonata C dur by Joseph Haydn which I used to play a lot when I was a teenager. I even had a concert playing this song in Rudolfinum. It reminds me of the good-old-days

Wien – in front of the Haydnhaus

Then we walked around the main street near the hostel, had an ice cream (McDonald’s ice cream), then had a fastfood dinner. As it was already late night, we went back to the hostel and had a rest.

On Friday morning we checked out of the hostel and took a train to Bratislava. The trip took only about 1 hour. We took another free map of Bratislava from the infromation office, and headed straight to the city center. Of course we stopped at several spots to take pictures The first spot was the Grassalkovich palace.

Bratislava – Ferry & me in front of the Grassalkovich palace

The next spot was St. Martin’s cathedral. We went inside the cathedral, went to the tower and visited the underground cemetery.

Bratislava – St. Martin’s cathedral

Then we reached the main square at the old town and had our brunch (?). I forget whether it’s only lunch or breakfast combined altogether.

Bratislava – main square

Then we walked up the hill to the castle. And it was very unfortunate that the castle was under construction so we couldn’t enter. To make things worse, it was raining

Bratislava – the castle

After the rain stopped, we went back to the city center and had an ice cream at a McDonalds just beside the Slovak National Theatre. We didn’t go inside the theatre though.

Bratislava – in front of the Slovak National Museum

Then we asked several people about the location of the Blue Church (Church of St. Elisabeth) which in Wikitravel it was written not to miss. Yes, Wikitravel had been one of our travel guidances. And when we reached the Blue Church, there was a wedding ceremony being held, so we couldn’t go inside.

Bratislava – in front of the Blue Church

Then we headed to Michael’s Gate tower, but we arrived exactly at the closing time. So no tower climbing. And there was a small weird cannon sitting in front if the tower gate which I thought looked cool

Bratislava – me & the weird cannon

Then we continued strolling at the city center and found this cool statue.

Bratislava – “don’t steal my hat……!!!!!”

Our last visited spot in Bratislava was Slavin memorial which was located on a hill not far from the main train station. The problem was that there was no sign where it’s located. So we asked several people (I used my limited Czech since none of them couls speak English), and finally made it to the spot.

Bratislava – Slavin memorial

Then we went back to the train station and headed to Budapest. From the train station we went straight to the hostel which we had booked online as well, cheked in, left our luggages, and went out for a dinner. We had our dinner at the Burger King (it was late at night and Burger King was the only open restaurant nearby the hostel). We went back to the hostel and had a rest. Day 2 was over.

We started day 3 (Saturday) by having a breakfast in McDonalds nearby the hostel, and continued our trip by visiting St. Stephen’s Basilica. We went inside the basilica and also climbed the tower.

Budapest – in front of St. Stephen’s basilica

Then we walked towards the Hungarian State Opera House. We didn’t go inside, just took pictures.

Budapest – the Hungarian State Opera House

Then we took the metro to the Heroes’ square.

Budapest – Heroes’ square

Not far from the Heroes’ square there was the Vajdahunyad Vára, a castle surrounded by a lake. We went there.

Budapest – at Vajdahunyad Vára’s gate

We had our lunch in a restaurant suggested by someone we asked on the way, then headed to the Citadel on a hill. There we also saw the underground World War 2 museum.

Budapest – in front of the statue of liberty inside the Citadel

When we went back down it was already dark. We went to the Széchenyi Chain Bridge and took several pictures. Then we went back to the hostel. We had another dinner at Burger King.

Budapest – me with Széchenyi Chain Bridge & the castle as the background

I remember in our room at the hostel there was a German guy traveling all the way to Budapest from Germany cycling. I forget the city where he started his cycling trip.

We started day 4 (Sunday) by having another breakfast at the McDonalds (?) and continued our trip by visiting the parliament building. We took a guided tour and found out that this parliament building is among the biggest in the world (the 3rd biggest or so). Unfortunately the battery of my digital camera ran out of energy during the tour guide (I forgot to charge it the night before), so I used Raymond’s camera for the entire day 4 trip.

Budapest – in front of the parliament building

Budapest – at the bank of Danube river with the parliament building as the background

Then we went through the Széchenyi Chain Bridge once again and took the Castle Hill Funicular to reach the Buda Castle. There we strolled and bought some traditional snacks.

Budapest – Buda Castle

Then we went down the hill and had our lunch at another cheap restarant that we found the information from the internet. Then we headed to the Great Synagogue which is the biggest synagogue in Europe. We entered the synagogue with a guided tour and visited the museum as well, but due to the limited time slot, we didn’t finish the tour guide and went to the train station to catch a train back to Wien.

Budapest – in front of the Great Synagogue

After reaching Wien, we headed directly to the hostel that we had booked (not the same hostel as the one we used to stay on day 1). I was surprised to meet the HongKong guy I met during my first summer trip to München. We stayed in a 6-bedded room with Australian, Taiwanese, and Korean guys. The Korean guy asked where I came from, and I answered from Indonesia. Then he asked me if Indonesia is located somewhere in Bali…… whoaaa…… This is also a message to my fellow Indonesians: be careful in treating Bali! In some cases it’s even more famous than Indonesia!!!!!

We started day 5 (Monday) by having breakfast at the hostel and continued our trip by visiting the Schloss Schönbrunn. We followed a guided tour inside the castle and walked around the huge park. We also had fun finiding a way out in a maze garden and labyrinth.

Wien – Schloss Schönbrunn

Wien – Gloriette at Schönbrunn

Then went back to the city center and visit the Mozarthaus. This time we went inside and explored the 3-floor building using the audio guide.

After that we went back to the train station and departed back to Trento. It’s quite an exhausting trip, but the great experience made it worth the while.