München : Octoberfest

Beer or Wine ?

Occasionally (or most of the times), people living in Germany drink beer on special event. But on Octoberfest, it is so legally, established, organized event that you can have beers as much as your capability and get drunk heavily but it would be still okay. I think Homer and his friends would set this place as their playground (for a month). The name is Octoberfest but it started on September until early of October. When I get there, it was almost reached the peak, the last week of Octoberfest. We could see in the street people get dressed in traditional Bavarian's style, and as soon as we arrived at the fest, found some people already got drunk (it was 4pm, quite early to get loaded for me) a litre of beer (it's Octoberfest anyway!) costs 9,60 €.
No wonder it will always be such an occasion for Deutschland !

Contrary to the fact above, I found out very few of Parisiens (or if they really exist then I didn't notice) nor Spanish/ Portuguese people drink beer on special occasion. Instead, they prefer wine as a company for food. Porto also has this strong, sugary wine, uniquely produced in the area, name Port Wine. It was saying that French women could eat much but they still thin because they drink red wine. Don't know much whether it's a fact or just a myth but I do love wine better than beer.



keywords : Munich, München, Octoberfest, German, Bavaria, Europe, Eurotrip, backpacker, backpacking, Port Wine

If we ever missed the train . . .

Yes we've missed the train from Paris to Berlin, and though we were trying to evaluate how this thing could happened (the baggage took longer than we've expected, the metro didn't leave on time, etc) still we tried ... or I tried, to look at the bright side. Despite it cost us additional 15€ to catch our train at Metz, but apparently it was well worth it!

Bukan museum atau lokasi foto pre-wedding, tapi ini stasiun kreta di Metz

This is what Wikipedia saying about Metz (it's definitely out of our plan, so I found out about this later on) "MetzFrench pronunciation: [mɛs]) is a city in the northeast of France, capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. It is located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers."

Kejadian ketinggalan kereta ini emang bener-bener seru, kaya di film, mulai dari H2C (harap harap cemas) karena bagasi yang keluarnya lama, trus lari-lari di bandara Charles de Gaulle buat ngejar metro ke arah Gard du Nord. Dan metro-nya lama pula datengnya! Udah lama pake brenti beberapa kali dulu di beberapa stasiun. Sampe akhirnya dari Gard du Nord diulang lagi kejadian lari-lari ngejar metro ke stasiun Gard du L'Est -secara kreta CNL (CityNightLine) kita brangkatnya dari stasiun Gard du L'Est. Dan pada akhirnya ternyata teteup ketinggalan juga... *hah hah hah*. Cuman untungnya ada mbak-mbak yang baik yang ngasitau 'cobain deh ngejar CNL-nya ke Metz'. Yasud... kita beli tiket TGV ke Metz dan nyampe sana malah nyempet muter-muter dulu plus dinner. (Lagi-lagi kebab). Dan lumayan juga, nyobain TGV... kreta enakeun ala Prancis yang super cepat. Ha ha ha !

Porto, Portugal

So this is the reason why I came to Portugal. The story began when I had my trip to Thailand, then I shared a room in Phuket with a girl from Berlin, her name is Kath. She's been to half or the world (or many places that I've never been) so I asked here, if I wanna go to Europe, which place that she thinks as most beautiful place to visit. And her answer is Porto, in Portugal. And how she was crying when she had to leave this town.
[ I didn't cry when I left Porto, but I made up my mind next time if I had a chance to visit Portugal, I will spend at least a month to discover this beautiful country ]

I'm captivated.

Youth hostel - Pousadas de Juventude
Porto Rua Paulo da Gama, 551
Tel. 226 177 257
e-mail : porto@movijovem.pt

Youth hostel @ Porto : 15 € / person
Day ticket : 5 €
Dinner + Lunch : 8 €

PS. And here also we had a most luxurious dinner ever (during our trip) in a fancy Italian restaurant, with a seaview, dish out 22 € for 2 person. That was also as a reward after a night before we didn't have any cash, didn't succeeded to withdraw a cash, so when we finally made it to get a cash, it was already late at night, both of us terribly starving and tired of walking in a cold and windy weather. Nevertheless, we have survived the worst part of our journey and got things to celebrate. [smirk]



keywords : Porto, Portugal, Youth hostel, Pousadas de Juventude, Europe, Eurotrip, backpacker, backpacking

Lisboa, Portugal

Love this town at the beginning and I got the feel that I could live here forever.

Portuguese people also the nicest ones I have met in my trip :-)
In the train to Lisbon, an old guy was (try to) chat with me in Portuguese, 78% of the conversation I didn't know what he's talking about. And the rest of it, I knew what he's trying to say but didn't know how to reply in his words.
But human kind is uniquely interesting, they know smile is universal language by any means.

Our host in this lovely town name Miguel. He's a charming, handsome, blue-eyes guy with a character like a big brother. You will feel respect to him instantly, and he was taking good care of us.
Like one night, when he couldn't hang out together with us, he arranged his friends to take me&my friend going out to cool places to feel the night life of Lisbon. His friends also adorable as well, I mean, they're really nice to be with, and treat us really well.
Until I got my first jackpot... ehem, I threw up in the corner of the street and spilled out my pizza and salad from my previous dinner. But still they seemed okay about it, and found me a taxi to get home.

What a great night.

Portugal, negeri asal pelaut terkenal Vasco da Gama, menyimpan banyak sejarah yang berhubungan dengan masa kejayaan Portugis di masa lampau.
Banyak kosakata dalam bahasa Indonesia yang berasal dari serapan kata Portugis, seperti misalnya : Igreja, yang artinya Gereja dalam bahasa Indonesia.
Orang Portugis juga ramah, dan suka ngumpul-ngumpul sama teman dan keluarga (mirip orang Indonesia juga lah).

Train Lagos to Lisboa (per person) : 19.85 €
Dinner (KFC) : 3.25 €
Metro ticket : 5 €
keywords : Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal, Belem, Europe, Eurotrip, backpacker, backpacking