Italian stories (1) :: Roma

Italia, I've been captivated by this territory for so long.

Last year I managed to visit Bologna and Venezia for the first time, it was beautiful places but at the same time very touristic.
I guess I felt the same when I was visiting Roma, which I could say probably the most touristic places in the whole Europe (or come second after Paris).

In general, I already fell in love with Italy, for several reasons.
Italian people are very warm (in my opinion) compare to north European of course (and I was staying in Denmark for a long time, so my definition of 'warm people' probably has a huge bias).

I remember the first time I visit Italy in 2010, I was arrived in Bologna airport.
At that moment, something went wrong with my cell phone so my SIM card was blocked!
I could not contacted my friend with my cell phone, so I tried to change my money with coins.

Unluckily, not every Italian understands English! Yes, it was really an effort just to exchange paper money for coins from people. I was a bit panic and even asking the information center was not very helpful.
In the end, I managed to get coins to make a call with public phone (with only Italian instruction) because these young Italians couples who understood English and even gave me 50 cents, for free. Sweet.

Anyway, so this is my second visit to Italy, but my first visit to Rome. And it was July, high season for the tourist. I was traveling alone and most of the times I felt I was trapped between these English-speaking tourists from the States, or UK.

Strange, I didn't feel like traveling in Italy at all.
People around me speak with obnoxious American/Bristish accents.
Hmmmm.... So that's the story how I developed resistance towards US/Brit accents (or the people, because then I could hear their pointless conversations accidentally).

Back to the reason why I love Italia, not just the people. But also the foods. I love pasta and pasta sauce and gellato and tiramisu (I love all the Italian desserts besides Tiramisu).

And the weather! It was a bit too hot even for a tropical girl like me, in the mid of July. I wish I could revisit Rome later during autumn or spring to experience more convenient weather.

Rome is on my top wish of travel lists, since I love the story of Roman history when I was young. When I was a kid, I was basically raised by comic books and one of them was Asterix.

I learned that Roman history conquered many places in Europe in the past, and Giulius Cesare as one of the big famous (or infamous) conquerors during that golden period of Roman emporium.

il Colosseo Amphiteatre :: built in ca. 70-80 AD

To actually visit this historical places where Colloseum, tombs, statues, ruins from hundreds, even thousands years ago felt like a dream come true for me!
It was half unreal, and half realisation from a pilgrim like me :)

It was too short to visit for 4 days actually, I actually missed Museo di Vaticano (because I didn't want to wasted time queue for 5-7 hours to get inside the Sistine Chapel- and will spend only couple of seconds only to see the ceiling painted by Michaelangelo Buonarotti.)

Not that I don't like works of art from this Italian maestro, but simply in the name of anti-hegemony I refused to give more money to Vatican.
All my Italian friends have warned me that Vatican has loads of money but still steal from tourists, in the name of religion or historical arts.
Shame.

BUT, I could say that I was happy enough to be around the city and surrounding areas, even though I missed the museum.
It was trully historical places all over the cities.

My host, an Italian man originally from Bari but has worked in Roma for years, told me that recently the government has stopped to dig a place to work on a new metro line.
Just because everytime they dig they found a new archeological sites. Just as awesome as that.

My tips how to get around Roma is,
1. Bring a bottle for water (water could be get freely from the fountains almost everywhere).
2. Be careful of your belongings, especially when taking the public transport (metro). There are many pickpockets, don't look too 'flashy'.
3. Speak a bit of Italians (with the right accent!) it's so annoying when American tourist saying 'Grazie' and pronounce the 'z' wrongly !
4. It's so easily to get lost in this city, even with the map in your hands. Don't be shy to ask people. And if a guy asked you out for a coffee instead of giving the right direction, just lie to him and say you already have Italian boyfriend at home :-)
5. For those who wanna buy souvenirs, find a place a bit further from touristic places. Magnetic fridge should be cost 1 Eur if you find a right place.

My Bergen experience (part 1)

My time in Bergen has been amazing since my first day here.
Walaupun cuacanya dingin pas kemaren nyampe airport, tapi overall it's been fantastic experience so far.

Ini pertama kalinya gw nyampe di Norwegia, negara lain di Skandinavia selain Denmark.
Di sini gw tinggal di rumah orang tuanya MB, dia salahsatu besfren gw selama di Kopenhagen. Dia asli Norway dan orangtua nya baek banget. Mereka masih percaya Tuhan (gak atheis seperti kebanyakan orang Eropa) dan pas acara makan masih doa bareng.

Trus nyampe airport Bergen itu kan udah malem tapi karena lagi summer jadinya masih terang aja kaya masi sore di Bandung. Dari Bergen itu rumahnya MB sebenernya masi sekitar 1 jam perjalanan lagi naek mobil.
Di perjalanan dalam mobilnya itu dia cerita ada relasi-nya yang baru aja meninggal karena kecelakaan. A very unexpected event buat dia dan juga keluarga, juga komunitas gerejanya.
Owya penduduk Norway itu kan sedikit yah, juga Bergen populasinya sedikit, terlebih lagi Flesland (tempat MB tinggal).

Dampaknya, mereka jadi bisa dibilang kenal satu sama laen. Setiap kali acara keluar sama MB rasanya ada aja orang yang dia kenal di jalan. Entah kenalannya di rumah sakit, di gerejanya, temen sodaranya, temen orangtuanya, pokonya rasanya pasti aja ketemu orang yang dia kenal.

Karena Bergen itu deket laut, dan Flesland juga, pas hari pertama gw nyampe Norway itu sama dia dibawa ke suatu tempat deket laut. Spot nya selaen bagus juga tenang dan relaxing. Disini juga asik untuk yang suka nature, atau kegiatan outdoor. Dan untungnya kalo kesini pas summer gak terlalu dingin juga untuk kegiatan outdoor sih.
Makanya orang Norwegia itu gw rasa udah tua pun masih fit (seperti orangtua nya MB contohnya) abis mereka itu biasa banget trekking atau kegiatan di alam.
Pas trekking ama mamahnya MB (yang umurnya 70 taun lebih) stamina-nya gak beda jauh ama gw, sama sekali gak ngos-ngosan.
Beda banget sama anak muda di Indo yang masi muda disuru naek tangga dikit langsung ngos-ngosan.... (palagi kalo ngeroko).

daerah sekitar rumahnya MB, banyak boat, soalnya deket laut

Papahnya juga baek banget. Mereka (ortunya MB) sebenernya gak bisa ngobrol pake bahasa Inggris. Dan gw gak bisa bahasa Norwegia (walopun mirip Dansk).
Tapi mereka ngerti Inggris dikit sih. Kadang-kadang MB suka terjemahin.
Sering kejadiannya sih gw ngomong Inggris dan mereka ngomong Norsk tapi kurang lebih kita ngerti artinya apa :-)

Sebenernya, kata orang Norway sih Dansk itu old version of Norsk.
Ada beberapa kata yang penulisannya beda tapi pengucapannya sama/mirip.
Contoh: Tusind tak (Dansk) dan Tussen takk (Norsk).

Kebiasaan di Norwegia (or di Flesland tempat gw tinggal sementara ini) mereka dinner sore sekitar jam 4-5an. Lalu setelah itu malemnya jam 8-9 makan sandwich (mirip smorrebrod-nya Danish) dan sebelum tidur bisa minum teh atau snack, atau kue yang manis-manis. Dan karena summer, jadi siangnya kan panjang, kita bisa tidur malem banget skitar j11-12. Pas gw tidur j12 pun langitnya gak gelap-gelap amat, tapi masih ada sisa matahari terbenam.

view dari depan jendela kamar, udah tengah malem pun masi terang

Hari ini pun cuacanya exceptional bagus (peristiwa jarang buat orang Norway, cuman terjadi max 2 minggu pas summer) karena matahari-nya keluar dan langitnya biru. Bener-bener anget skitar 26-27C sampe sekitar jam 9-10 malem pun masih konsisten bagus cuacanya.

Seperti biasa (=biasa a la Norway) kalo cuaca bagus kaya gini mereka udah siap-siap bikin acara barbeque. Karena udah ngecek weather forecast beberapa hari sebelumnya jadi pas hari ini udah siap semua bahan-bahan untuk barbeque.
Dan yang dateng keluarga besarnya MB, sodara-sodara dia plus istri & anak-anaknya. Menunya pun lengkap; kentang, ayam panggang, salad, jamur, etc. Plus dessertnya cake buah. Ah pokonya luxurious banget deh buat gw (yang sedang traveling, karena biasa makan seadanya), serasa ada acara besar (padahal mah buat mereka cuman acara ngumpul-ngumpul keluarga doang).

MB and her lovely fam!

Kalo ada acara makan-makan gini, sebenernya lumayan banget ngirit budget makan. Standar Norwegia (dan Skandinavia pada umumnya sih) termasuk mahal soalnya untuk makan di luar. Makanya seringnya orang sini masak, selaen ngirit juga bagusnya makanannya lebih sehat sih. Trus juga mempererat rasa kekeluargaan (hihi... ini pendapat gw aja, soalnya di keluarga MB ini emang kerasa banget buat mereka acara makan itu seperti ritual untuk ngumpul dan share cerita).