My Time Capsule: June 2012

28.6.12

Travel Updates: Alaska




I’m on Alaska cruise right now! The weather has been unfriendly these couple days, rainy and very windy. It’s summer here but I’m wearing 4 layers of clothes and still I catch a flu, boo hoo.

It’s in the middle of nowhere, there’s no network for my mobile phone and the internet connection is super slow. With $ 0.75 per minute, I think it’s ridiculously expensive. Please bear with me; I’ll reply all the comments when I get a decent internet connection. Until then I’ll try to enjoy this bumpy ride. Please follow my FB page for a status updates. Cheers!

21.6.12

Czech Republic: the Medieval City of Prague

Czech Republic, September 2011

I've just arrived in Prague and was walking to the restaurant when I heard people fighting. I was about to turn my head to see what happened when I heard  a very loud voice of metal thing crashed behind my body. I jumped in shock to find out a big metal signboard lying just 30 cm from my feet.
Apparently a homeless man was furious because he didn't get money from the shop owner, he threw the signboard and almost hit me. Wow ! Such a  warm welcome.
I've heard that Prague is not the safest city but I didn't expect to prove it within 5 minutes after I arrived.

Welcome to Prague



Love lock

I was walking along the Mala Strana, near the Lennon Wall and I saw a lot of small locks on the gate over the canal. Legend has it that when you find your true love you carve your names on a lock and lock it onto the gate. You then throw the key in to the canal to seal your love.....something like that :)
I've seen another love lock tree during my visit to Russia. You can also find it in other cities around the world like Rome, Taipei, Seoul, Paris, etc...


the narrowest street

My local guide showed me the narrowest street in Prague which is in Little Quarter area. I found it interesting because it's so narrow that they put a traffic light there to avoid people colliding. The stairs are steep and goes from U Luzickeho seminare street to the Certovka restaurant, offering nice view of Charles Bridge.


Charles Bridge


St John statue in Charles bridge

astronomical clock
Astronomical clock is one of the icon of Prague, which was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working.
The clock is mounted on the southern wall of Old Town City Hall in the Old Town Square. The clock mechanism itself is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures—notably a figure of Death (represented by a skeleton) striking the time; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months

The Old Town Hall Tower, built in 1338, is one of the most striking buildings in Prague. Inside is a staircase and an elevator. For a fee, visitors can climb or ride to the top to experience terrific views over the Old Town Square and the rest of the Old Town.

view from the top of astronomical clock tower


Old Town Square is one of the most touristy place in Prague. I've been told that it's very crowded every single day. There were some traditional food stalls when I was there. I noticed one of the stall were roasting some huge chunks of pork that looked and smelled delicious. The meat tasted like salty smoked ham and was served with bread.
I also tried Trdelnik pastry which is sweet and the texture is flaky like puff pastry.

roast pork

of course I had to taste it :D

Trdelnik pastry

peeping through my Trdelnik pastry

city tram
With a happy tummy, I spent some time wandering the old town before going back to the hotel. I think Prague is really pretty city with so many historic and medieval buildings. Your camera memory card will need a lot of spaces because there are so many beautiful things to capture.

sunset in Prague

night view at Wenceslas Square

Would you like to visit Prague one day ?

14.6.12

Vatican City in My Point of View

Vatican City, March 2012

I woke up at 5 in the morning for my family private mass in St. Peter's Basilica. I was feeling cranky because I've lost my suitcase from the flight between Amsterdam and Rome the day before. Which mean I didn't have clothes, my beauty case & the essentials, phone charger and the most important my camera charger. I know I should have packed them into my cabin bag. I've never thought I would lost my suitcase during such short flight (only 2 hours) and also I took the best airline in Netherlands. I thought they were very reliable but I couldn't be more wrong! It seems that lost luggage happens quite often in this airline.
And it took them 3 days to find and send my luggage back with broken luggage lock and a lot of my stuffs were gone . Booooo :(

Anyway, back to the story about Vatican city, shall we?
I met Tina, my local escort from Jolly International in the bus station around 6.30 and heading to Vatican city. It was very quiet when we arrived, there were only few people. Felt like the whole place was mine :p
I was in awe because the basilica is huge and so beautiful. More than I had in my mind. The architecture, interiors, details and everything was just amazing.


sunrise in Vatican City

quiet morning in St. Peter's Basilica

grand interiors

beautiful altar



The private mass was scheduled at 7.30am and was lead by Father Syl. He's from Poland but he speaks fluent Indonesian. He took us to the chapel beneath St. Peter's Basilica which we had to go through some "Man in Black" security point on the way. This is not open for public, so you must have special arrangement to enter the basement of the basilica. We walked pass Vatican Grotto which is tombs for St. Peter and all the popes who have passed away. It felt like walking through a secret tunnel in Angels & Demons movie :p
It's forbidden to take pictures so this is the only shot I managed to sneak...

St. Peter's Basilica underground
The mass took about an hour then we went back up to ground level of the basilica. We wanted to climb to the top of St. Peter's Basilica that is called the cupola (dome). There are two options, either take the steps all the way up from the ground level (more than 500 steps) or take the elevator part up to some point and then climb the remaining 300 something steps. We opted the second and we paid €7/pax for the elevator. If you want to climb all the way up, it will cost you €5/pax. You save €2 and get more exercise for your legs :D

The elevator brought us to the top of the church which is the base of the cupola. Through the fence, I looked down on the people inside the church. Very small, looks like ants.
In the beginning of the climb was easy but it was getting harder when we almost reach the top part. The ceiling is tilting inwards due to the curvature of the dome so it wasn't easy to walk straight. We had to stop couple times because we felt dizzy.

peeping down through the fence

the ceiling is tilting inwards


Rome

The 360 degree panoramic view from the top was undoubtedly stunning. It was worth all the pain and jello legs we've got after climbing the stairs. From the top of cupola, we could clearly see that Vatican city is key shaped. I didn't know about that before, did you ?
It's the symbol to represent "Key of Heaven" which was received by Saint Peter from Jesus.

view from the top of St. Peter's Basilica

the key shaped Vatican City

I was on top of that cupola (dome)

Pontifical Swiss Guards of Vatican City

After lunch we made our way to Vatican Museum. It's among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic church throughout the centuries.
This museum is huge, there are 54 galleries, or salas, in total, with the Sistine Chapel,being the very last sala within the museum. The queue at the entrance was quite crazy. I was really glad that Tina has already bought the fast track ticket, so we didn't need to queue.

Vatican Museum

some Roman sculptures

the Egyptian mummy

spiral exit at Vatican Museum

I had a great day in Vatican City that I even forgot about my lost luggage for a while. There were many things to see and to learn in such a small city (or country?). Now I can check one item off my bucket list. And I will put another new item which is "Revisit Vatican City", simply because it has captured my heart :)

7.6.12

Blog Award Backlog



Thanks a bunch to Lexi for giving me this award.
My 1st blog award to celebrate my 10K page views, YAY ! I know 10.000 page views is not a lot but I'm happy! Thanks so much to all of you for stopping by and reading my blog :D
Please don't forget to"like" my FB page and follow me on Twitter: @twitdebbzie

I figured out that there's some rules to do when you received this award.
1. Say 7 random things about yourself
2. Pass this award to 15 bloggers
3. Link back to the blogger who awarded you

Well, actually I'm not really good about describing myself. Most of the time I would say that I'm a simple yet complicated person. That's all, if you want to know more, just find out yourself *act mysterious*
Since I've got this award, I'll try harder. Here's my attempt:

1. I'm a coffeeholic. I'm not sure if that term even exists. I can't live without coffee. I'm a very moody person and without coffee it's even worse. In fact nobody dares to talk to me in the morning before my daily intake of coffee.
I'll bite, believe me :p

2. Every night (or morning?) I go to bed at 4am and wake up after 10 am. My family and friends who know me very well would not disturb me before 10am otherwise they will be in big trouble. What ??? I'm not normal ? according to who?
After moved back from Europe couple years ago, there's been a mismatch between my body clock and Indonesia time zone.

3. I have 1 piercing on my right ear and 5 on the left. Nowadays I hardly wear them though

4. Many people assume I'm younger than my age. Some even think that I'm a high school student. Should I be happy or sad? The truth is I'm as old as a Port Ellen '79 vintage Whisky. Please do the math if you're curious about my age :p

5. I love animals so soooo much that I don't mind giving up shopping to buy food to feed the street dogs and cats everyday. I own 2 Persian cats at home named Leslie & Lucky. I do talk to animal as well. I know, I'm just weird like that.

6. Despite of my great love to animals, I'm NOT a vegetarian. But it's not like I eat cats or dogs though. I only eat chicken, beef, ostrich, pork, crickets, ox testicles, snails, etc...That's quite normal, right ? or not really....

7. I started driving and got my driving licence when I was 14 years old. Psstt.....this is a secret. Please don't tell the police, OK :D

I'd like to nominate this award to:



And a blog post is not complete without any pictures, right ? So here's a shot from my beautiful island, Bali.

my secret beach....peaceful :)

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