Visitors of the Parental Kind

The luggage arrived on Wednesday and guests arrived on Thursday. Mum and Bob popped across for four days of fun times in Fulda. And oh, it was fun :D

We met them in the big city (Frankfurt) for a day of big city life. We posed as an indie band in front of the Opera house. We went up a really high tower, which Mum hated, but we were impressed by. Bon views indeed. We found out that (almost) all restaurants in Old Sachsenhausen are seemingly shut at lunchtime, except one, which was well hidden through a garden and a long dark corridor. Quite a cute place, a bit smokey and mine and Mum’s drink of choice tasted like flat, gone off cider. Bob and Ragsy were very smug with their Binding beers. We were a bit tired after all the excitement so headed to the Zug back to Fuldatown. Ragsy whipped up a storm (and some very tasty food) in the kitchen and we all went to bed happy.

Day 2 was Fulda day and, despite the fact that it was the 23rd March, it was SNOWING. Snow everywhere. I thought we had done ingeniously well at timing our trip to Indonesia so we would miss all the soggy white stuff back in Deutschland, so imagine my dismay on waking up, the day before my birthday, and seeing everything covered in snow. Actually, I didn’t mind that much. It made Fulda look very pretty. Just look at the Dom – picture-postcard-stylee. We paid our respects to Bonifatius, the first Brit in Fulda, we trudged up the sludgy hill to Frauenberg to see another Catholic church and Fulda looking very wintry. Too much cold and white stuff so a cheeky coffee and cake at Café Palais before heading onwards to the Schlossgarten to continue our tour. In the afternoon we popped into Wiesenmühle for some of Fulda’s finest beer and then we watched the first half (as much as we could bear) of the quite atrocious Marie Antoinette. I think Bob was verging on suicidal when Mum finally suggested we stop the film…

Day 3 was MY BIRTHDAY! Mum and Bob came round bright and early for a breakfast present opening sesh (just like the old days). Lots of lovely cards and presents (thanks everyone!!!) and chocolate. Mmm. Then, the real excitement began. We headed to Europcar and took ourselves a VW Golf and headed to Marburg. What a pretty town. On a very steep hill but not a problem, cos Marburg has public lifts to take people from the bottom of the town to the top. How cool! We walked around, saw St Elisabeth’s big church (she was Hungarian and helped the poor and the sick. Saintly), me and Ragsy bought a very tasteful teapot (to brew our Indonesian tea in), we had a very quaint lunch and then, as the town clock struck 2pm, we stood in front of it and thought “24 years ago to this very hour, the world was made a better place!” Naturally, everyone was rejoicing. The very tuneful serenade from Mum, Bob and Ragil went down very well (with me, others seemed a little confused as to why they had chosen this time and this location to launch into song) and I was photographed in front of the clock to prove we got the time right :D Then we walked up a really really steep hill to the castle. A nice view. Mum was scared again, but we managed to capture her smiling (she is standing several metres from the edge), and look at the wonky church tower behind Ragil. Chesterfield eat your heart out. We returned from Marburg in one piece (good job Bob) and headed to Osteria del Mercato for some posh nosh. A very good birthday indeed.

Day 4 was the last. We went for a relaxing walk around Fulda lake and the sun almost came out. We also saw a swan, aw, go on…
Then the parentals left.
There was definitely a hole.
My thesis is trying valiantly to fill it.

Photos

I started putting photos on photologgery but Ragil made the valid point that it makes little sense to have the photos of Indonesia in one place and the description in another so I am now endeavouring to put the photos in with the original posts. There is going to be some slight mismatching and terrible formatting due to the ridiculous amount of photos to go with each post but at least there will be some logic to the proceedings. Photologgery will be reserved for the very best pics.
So, to enjoy the photos, just scroll down (or go to my facebook or studivz page).

Back to life, back to reality

So, we are back. Friday and Saturday were horrible days, made more horrible by the seven hours we gained travelling through the time zones. Gulf Air, who had served us so well on the outward journey, let us down big time on the return. First they cancelled our flight, meaning we had to fly with Etihad (who were actually far better) and fly via Abu Dhabi and Bahrain instead of via Muscat. In Abu Dhabi we boarded a Gulf Air plane heading to Bahrain. We sat on the plane, surrounded by coughing and spluttering people, feeling the air filling with bugs and infections, we were sat on the plane in the airport for so long that we got a full meal. After an hour the passengers travelling to Frankfurt, London and Paris were told to get off the plane. In a very last minute kind of way, we were given new tickets for a British Airways flight to London and ushered onto the very comfortable BA plane. On arrival in Heathrow we were subjected to ridiculously over the top security procedures - over the top for normal security procedures but for passengers getting onto connecting flights who have already been through security at the first airport it was just plain unnecessary. When we finally arrived in Frankfurt, 26 hours after we had left Jakarta airport, we discovered that our luggage had not made the journey with us. God knows where our stuff is. Looking on the bright side, it meant we didn't have to carry the 60 kilo on the two trains back to Fulda. But actually, it just means we don't have our clothes, our phone chargers, our toiletries, our shoes, or any of the presents that we bought. As the airport staff in Abu Dhabi appeared to not have a clue what they were doing, I would not be surprised if our bags are still tagged with the original tags sending them to Bahrain and Frankfurt, I would not be surprised if our luggage is taking the route we would have taken had we stayed on the broken plane to Bahrain. Hopefully when they arrive at Frankfurt someone will put two and two together and match the luggage with our missing baggage file from British Airways. Hopefully they will arrive in Frankfurt. We shall see.

Anyway, aside from the return journey, the trip was amazing. I wrote about Jakarta, about Yogya and about Bromo. After visiting those places we spent almost two weeks in Bali and it was the best part of the trip by far. The atmosphere was completely relaxed and totally comfortable. No stares from the locals for being the only white person within miles. No hassle from people trying to sell their goods to the gullible tourists. The reason for this is probably the sheer number of non-locals in Bali. Tourism has suffered a lot due to the 2002 bombings, meaning there is less traffic and less people around. The non-locals in Bali are mostly people who have moved to the island, a move I can fully understand. The Indonesian heat is compensated for by the sea breeze, the scenery is extremely diverse and from the beaches, to the rice fields, to the mountains, completely breath-taking. There are temples galore, monkey forests, fantastic restaurants, and so many things to buy at really cheap prices. During our stay in Bali we took a minibreak to Ubud - the cultural capital of the island complete with monkey forest, artists, silver, handicrafts, the spell-binding kacak dance and one very cool jazz cafe. The Kecak dance was completely amazing and an experience that I will never forget. From Ubud we travelled to see a temple balanced on the edge of a mountain, and not so cleverly chose to visit it on the day the remains of the Australian hurricane were passing through. Another unforgetable experience, but for quite different reasons! The temple is on a volcanic mountain that overlooks Lake Batur, again, super picturesque.

I was really sad to leave Bali and have vowed to go back soon. It is one very cool place.

we made it home. our luggage didn't. so so tired.

INDONESIA, Part 2: Something in the water

Well I guess I was speaking too soon when I said my stomach is coping fine with the food. 6 days of serious toilet troubles has left me feeling somewhat weak and tired, but I am soldiering on and now that we are in Bali I am hoping that my digestive system will return to normal.
So, last time I wrote we were still in Jakarta. Well, we have seen a lot and done a lot since then. Our next stop was Yogyakarta - Indonesia's cultural capital and the city where Ragil did his first degree. Our accommodation was a very nice hotel complete with outdoor swimming pool, tropical plants galore and a super relaxed feel (most welcome after stressful Jakarta). We spent 5 days in Yogya and during this time visited Borobudur (massive Buddhist temple), Prambanan (Hindu temple), a Batik museum charting the history of the Sultans of Yogya and Solo, the Sultan's palace and lots of yummy restaurants. Yogya is a student city, a city with a tourist infrastructure and sights but still very few non-Indonesians to be seen, and a city with a very cool transport system - the bejak. Bejaks are tricycles, with the cyclist sitting at the back and a mini carriage balanced on the two wheels at the front. I found travelling by bejak to be super relaxing (for me, not the driver!), peaceful and just thoroughly enjoyable.
From Yogya we took a minibreak to Mount Bromo - a very picturesque volcano in the South of Java. The drive was ridiculously long and we didn't arrive until after dark. We slept for 5 hours and then travelled by jeep across some fairly scary terrain to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise over Bromo. Once we had succeeded in giving ourselves frostbite (it is surprisingly cold that high up at that time in the morning when you are that tired, even in Indonesia) we returned to the jeep and went to the crater of Bromo. The volcano is very much active, and it gifted us with some fairly pungent sulphur gases drifting up from its crater. Apart from the smell is was a very cool experience to stand on the edge of an active volcano...
Now we are in Bali. We arrived last night, were met by Ragil's 2nd sister and her Italian husband (I've met all six siblings now) who drove us to their house and fed us a glorious meal of gnocchi and steak. Mmmmmmmmmm. We are going to be staying in Bali for about 10 days, living in Ragil's 4th sister's house. It is really amazing here, not too hot, a fresh sea breeze, a beach 5 minutes walk away, a gorgeous gorgeous house and one very cute dog. I have to say I am slightly more scared of being attacked by some tropical creature here and we had a close call last night - hearing a ridiculously loud noise that sounded like someone had broken in to the house and was stomping really loudly downstairs. After a few minutes of panic Ragil turned the light on to discover a tiny kitten cowering in the corner of the room - it had been charging at the glass doors, trying to get outside. Sounds can be deceiving! Amazing that a tiny little scared kitten could make us feel such fear! Later on in the night we were awoken again by a kitten meowing, it was also trapped inside the room. I saw the noisy culprits this morning with their mum, I guess they had been sleeping inside at night time and were caught by surprise when we arrived and shut the doors. Apart from fear-inducing kittens I have seen a frog, some turtles, big cockroaches and two huge dead fish on the beach - about 3 times the size of my sandal. Thankfully no snakes or big spiders to speak of yet, lets hope it stays that way.
Okay, that's all for now. The toilet is calling me...