EURO TRIP PART I : THE DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL

introduction

This is the best thing that happens to me. Going to Germany to finished my thesis  and having my lecturer, Mr. Sule paid for both my accommodation and my transport is unbelievable. This is happened because I helped a German guy before to work on his thesis. If you haven’t read that, visit this link :  http://jaketoren123.blogspot.com/2017/10/adventure-to-collect-sinabungs-eruption.html .

This is started when Mr.Sule announced that he want to work on new thesis topic, about volcanic modeling. And sure he need student to work on that. It was a week that he broadcasted over and over again because everyone seemed has their own topic, including me. I was going to take magnetic susceptibility as my thesis topic. Until the last day, no one took Mr. Sule’s topic. And then Rybob convinced me to take this topic, he ensured me that if I good, I will go to Germany. And it happens now!

February 15^th 2018

            It was during midnight, I came to my home in Ciputat from Bandung after 6 hours of traffic jam. I looked at my luggage, my mom already put my belonging there including: 4 pcs of batik, 2 pcs of jeans, a parka jacket, and my medicines. But I think it wasn’t enough. So i put dried-fried meat and 6 pcs of Indomie (yeah, it’s not Andre if he doesn’t eat Indomie ). Only that’s all that fit in my luggage  since it small, only 30x30x40 cm³.

            I fell asleep. And surely took a bath then. It was nice knowing all that I need is there. We went to soekarno-Hatta International airport (Soetta) at nine o’clock while the flight was at 14:45 , to avoid any traffic jam. Well, who knows, it was raining so hard that Soetta finally flooded thus, it produced traffic jam.. luckily, I got there at eleven o’clock. Meanwhile i ask agi to come to see me, she departed at ten o’clock. Sadly, her distance to Soetta is bigger than mine. I had to wait for her, my mom said immigration checking could be long because the cue was long. But if I enter immigration checking yet I wouldn’t see agi. The boarding was at 14:10,it is already 12:50 and i hadn’t see agi that time. She said  if she later than 13:10, I may enter the immigration. And yes she was late, but at last we met for like 60 seconds. I said goodbye to mom and agi, then peacefully entered immigration.

            In the boarding room, I saw a lot of elders. It seemed like they were going to Mecca. Finally, I sat on my seat in Oman air. It would fly for 8 hours. The flight attendants mostly Caucasians who wear... that was my first experience in international flight, there is monitor where we can watch Hollywood blockbusters, so mostly I spent my time watching Batman Begin, Geo storm, and I forget one movie... we were served meals two times. First meal was fish fillet with rice, bread, unsalted butter, orange syrups and salad (?). Second meal was pasta, bread, unsalted butter, yoghurt, bread, and a cake. They regularly gave us juice like tomato, orange, and apple and sometime tea, coffee, and soda.

muscat airport

 We landed at Muscat at 19.00, nothing to do here, but at least i met two indonesian. They are mother and son. Arief is his name. What a coincidence, he studied in same college as me. So, we were trapped in Muscat Airport, without wifi. What were we gonna do back then if there was no wifi, the boarding is at 1.45. Actually there was one but we don’t know how to use it. Then Arief came with an idea. He bought something from Subway ( food store ) and ask for wifi. Yes, the waiter gave him the wifi but without letting him know the password. So the waiter typed it himself, what a genius. So I ask to a random India guy ( there were plenty of them...) how to use “Muscat Airport Wifi”. He said “just ask the information center. After i went to information center, I got it why he didn’t tell me anyway instead told me to go to information center. IT IS COMPLICATED.

1.      You have to connect to the wifi, then go to browsing

2.      Next you go to a certain address, there you will get a menu

3.      Choose use password

4.      Scan your passport to a nearby scanner, it will prompt you a password

5.      Get back to your phone and enter the password

6.      Enjoy

After hours of surfing, i got bored and sleepy, i slept on the floor when so many people did the same.

February 16^th 2018

            Next, I entered boarding room, it filled with Germans, some of them are Asian. It is very crowded here, yet very quiet. Then i went inside the plane. I remember nothing much from that flight, only i sat next to German and Canada guy. The German guy got his leg broken on the trip in India, he speaks funny, maybe English is not his second language. The Canada guy is friendly and joking around. But later on that, all I did was sleeping.

            Finally, I arrived at Frankfurt Airport. It was a little bit quiet there, maybe because our flight is the only flight on that Friday. Then I waited the luggage with Arief and his mom. Suddenly, the speakers announced that it was delayed. I can hear the sounds of disappointed Germans there. For me, it is normal. My train would came at 9.52, and that was 20 minutes before 9.52 I got my luggage. So, i rushed to the Hauptbahnhof ( central station ). It was cold there, but not as much as I imagine. Then I asked a several questions to German couple(?) who sat next to me.

‘’ is it necessary to print this ticket?”

“no, you just show it to the guy who asked for tickets and he will scan it”

“there is no reservation on my ticket, how could I find my seat?”

“oh, you need to find the seat without any number. Because, if they have one it is already reserved”

That was my first encounter with ICE (Intercity Express), that train reminded of shinkansen because the shape is similar, it is cheaper yet not really fast as shinkansen. It is very comfy and stable ( yeah, I mean it’s not shaking like you have earthquake ), and again it was really quiet there.

The I arrived at Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof, which will be part of my everyday. Suddenly, I met Jonas Mueller, my old friend. He picked me up and showed many things.

karlsruhe hauptbahnhof

            First, he took me to KIT western campus, which is also will be my everyday. It is not very big here.He showed me my soon to be workplace, Ellen’s room, student room, kitchen, and printing room. I was a little bit disappointed because it is semester break, means that there will be no student in this month, means that it will be quiet. I think I missed Indonesia already.

KIT west

            
Second, since I’m not eating anything except halal food, Jonas took me to kebaphaus where they only sell halal ( in Germany it is helal ) food. I think kebaphaus is the cheapest halal restaurant, it varies from 2.5 euro to 10 euro. He ordered Lahmacun (it is meat+tomato+salat+purple vegetable(?) rolled in kebap ), which will be my favorite food, and i ordered Yufka, it is fries with meat. Jonas paid for me this time.

            Third, he took me to Europlatz, it is like city center of Karlsruhe I guess. There are so many stores there and so crowded. You can get fashion, food, cafe, kebaphaus, optic, office, hochschule, clinic and many more. And there is one fact about Germany. You can only buy cigarette from vending machine. You can use german credit card or cash. It varies from 6 euro to 8 euro. Second fact is there are a lot of smokers in Germany. What shock me the most there are A LOT of female smokers, which is not in Indonesia. Germany is clean country, but not with cigarette waste, they are everywhere. Especially in bus stop, trem stop, and bahnhof.

            Fourth, he took me to buy ticket to KVV buero ( Karlsruher verkehrverbund ), it is near Europlatz. I intended to buy monthly ticket. But actually, the ticket would get expired at the end of the month. I thought it was for 30 days. So I bought four weekly tickets. It cost me 100 euro (~ IDR 1.6 million ) while the monthly one only 75 euro (~IDR 1.2 million ). But we have to look at the bright side. With this tickets, i can travel farther than the monthly, because the area is bigger for weekly. I am amazed with this sistem. Almost every city in germany has this kind transportation network. One ticket for train, trem, and bus as long inside the city. I think indonesia should make it too.

            Fifth, he took me to Karlsruhe Schloss, it is a big-yellow castle with wide garden. It said that the city area was build similar to fan with the Schloss as its center. So you can see it nearly from everywhere. unfortunately we didn’t go inside. I think he wanted to show something better, Karlsruhe main campus is nearby the Schloss. Jonas took me to campus center, library, physics, chemical, machine department and student building (?) and also there are so many Indians there.

schloss

            Last, he took me where i will stay for four weeks, graben-neudorf. Graben means graben in geological term, and neudorf means new village. Although it is village, it is modern enough than i think. But again, it is really quiet here. We met Otto ,the owner. He is a good guy and friendly. He lives 40 minutes from Graben-Neudorf. He give mini tour for me to the kitchen, bath room, dining room, and my room. I met the spanish guy named juan, unfortunately he neither speaks Deutsch or English, only Spanish.

my room

graben-neudorf