Heading straight to Poland because the next destination was the Concentration Camp in Auschwitz, one of the most historical places in 20^th century.  We were Poland only for one night and that was only to see Auschwitz, Salt Mines in Wieliczka and then Krakow old town.  

I know it’s a quickie tour. Again, it is how it goes when you use travel agency. 

So, we visited Auschwitz I , the original Concentration Camp.  We only visited Auschwitz I because there are many camps.   

I won’t put too many pictures of it and I won’t say much either because I think it’s still a very sensitive topic. The creepy to be honest; it’s crazy to see the real gas chamber, the clothes, the hair brushes and all other belongings, as well as the pictures of some of the victim there.  It’s just crazy, it’s insane and heart-breaking.  But it was amazing that I could be there, I mean, I studied Germanistik in university and of course the WW II is one of the heaviest subject.  Those books, journals, and all other kind of literature that I had read meant so much more now.

Also it’s strongly suggested that you don’t do any kind of weird stuff in the camp, like, no crazy photo shoot, which means no handstand, no yelling, no laughing your ass off (there’s nothing to be laughed about anyways). Respect. 

After our visitation at Auschwitz I, we went straight to Salt Mines in Wieliczka.  Honestly, regardless the fact that it is an important place and it has been there since medieval time, I was not very excited.  I don’t know, I think the weather just got into me.  It is indoor, obviously it’s not cold, but I just didn’t like the place and our guide was not friendly at all.  I couldn’t wait for our Salt Mines trip to be over and go back to our tour bus. 

anyways, a little bit about Salt Mines:

It was not the most interesting day, so I’m just gonna cut it short, because even writing this, I bore the shit out of myself.  So, we went to dinner in Krakow and after that I went to the Christmas market there, which was super nice with all the lights and everything.  Maybe that’s the highlight of my short visitation to Poland.  I’m sure Krakow is a nice city, it’s just too bad I didn’t have the chance to explore.  

Next day, next stop! We moved from Krakow to Banska Bystrica in Slovakia.  I know right, why not Bratislava instead? Well, I guess it’s more beneficial route wise to have a short stop in Banska Bystrika.  

The old town area was surprisingly pretty quiet, it’s not even Sunday. Oh well, it's a small city with less than 100k people and we were just there to have lunch anyways before went to Budapest.  Yay Budapest! But before we get there, here some pictures from old town of Banska Bystrica. Well, I got some nice picture there, so it wasn’t that bad.

Now Budapest! We arrived in the evening, so we went to the hotel straight away before we had our city tour the next day.  I was really excited to see Budapest, I have heard a lot of people telling me how much they love the city, except one guy who told me that Budapest was the cheaper version of P****e.  I guess, you can’t just take anybody’s opinion about certain places until you see and experience it for yourself, because we all have different preferences, right?

I love Budapest, I love it. I wish I could stay longer, but Budapest is definitely one of those cities that I would revisit in the future. Yes, I love it that much.  It is a beautiful city even in the Winter, it’s almost the same feeling as when I went to Istanbul the first time in winter; I needed to go back in other season, which I did the same year in the summer and I still want to go back to Istanbul.

Budapest gets its name from the merging of two cities on opposite shores of the Danube, Buda (probably from a word originally meaning "water") + Pest, a Hungarian word meaning "furnace, oven, cove,".  Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the Danube river with the unification of Buda and Óbuda on the west bank, with Pest on the east bank on November 17, 1873.

Anyways, we did the city tour in the morning; we went to Heroes Square the most important square of the city, and then drive around the city to see some other important buildings, such as Royal Palace and Parliament House.  Then we went to Fisherman Bastion to take pictures.  Yeah, this trip is all about photos, but Fisherman Bastion got me in awe and there a bunch of people who actually have professional photo shoot there.  The place is really pretty, especially with St. Matthias Church in the center of it.  One good thing about this travel agency was, our tour guide gave us plenty of time like 2 hours and that’s enough time to get at least 10 decent photos.  But, I still prefer organizing my own vacation, I only use agency because I went with my lovely and generous mother.

Now I can’t help myself whenever I see doors or something to lean on, I just have this urge to kick up to do hollowback against the wall and being upside down feels really good. 

Oh! I almost forgot, we did get on a cruise to see the city from Danube River, the cruise was nice, but I prefer walking tour still, hehe. After that we went to this shopping street I don't know the name, damn! But there's some Christmas market right in the middle with bunch of stores.  Nice place, really.

That was a bit of my short visitation in Budapest.  I will go back for sure.  Next stop is Vienna!

Back in Europe again!! That’s right! After almost 4 years, I finally set my foot again in Western Hemisphere! Yes, it’s also one of my 2018 resolutions :D

The day my after my graduation day, I flew back home to Jakarta then to Munich in the evening.  Crazy huh? I know. And it’s winter, Europe in winter, lol.  The truth is, I kinda pushed for this trip to happen, because it’s the only time frame that I had to travel, so I didn’t really care so much about the weather nor the season; this trip must happen before 2019!  You know, I’m not a fan of winter, although I can cope with cold weather better than my fellow tropical friends.  It’s not solely about the weather, but the day is shorter during winter and how can I take good pictures if it’s dark? I need natural lighting, I need the Sun.

Anyways, I’m still super grateful to be able to visit Europe again.  It’s Eastern Europe this time and yes, I went with my mother again using travel agent.  So, it began in Munich, my favorite city in Europe, and then we traveled to Czech Republic, then Poland to Slovakia to Hungary to Austria then back to Munich again.  I’ve been to Munich before and this is also my 3^rd time in Germany; Yes, I love Germany, I don’t care what you think about the country, but I love it.  Not going to elaborate about my time in Munich, I was just really excited to be back at Allianz Arena and BMW World, but nothing special about it, lol.

Munich was just a short stop because we went to Český Krumlov in Czech Republic the next day. I honestly never heard about this city before, but it turns out to be a quite beautiful city.  It was a little bit snowy, but it’s a sunny day.

Then we go to Prague in the afternoon; we had short visit to Kutna Hora.  Just like Český Krumlov, I’ve never heard about this city either.  But, we went to Sedlec Ossuary, which is a Bone Church.  It’s a small Roman Catholic Chapel, which was decorated with 40,000 humans’ skeletons! Just as you walked into the church the huge bones chandelier welcomes you warmly (or coldly?).  In my opinion, this church is amazing; it’s very unique and not creepy at all! Sedlec Ossuary is actually the 2^nd most visited church in Czech Republic after St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.  It’s only 1 hour by train from Prague and the station is only 10 minutes walking distance.  So, if you have the time, I suggest paying a visit to those bones. :D

After a bony morning in the suburb of Kutna Hora, we headed to Prague for a city tour. Yay!  Unfortunately, like I said, the days in winter are shorter.  We arrived around 3:30 p.m. which is just 30 minutes before the sun set, plus it began to rain.  It’s cold, it’s rainy and windy, it’s dark.  Sigh.

I really looked forward to this.  I’d wanted to see Prague for years, but oh well, not everything goes as planned.  That just means, I have to go back to Prague again in the future and not in winter.

That beautiful Charles Bridge, I’ve always seen on TV or Instagram, I couldn’t see anything, it was dark, cold and rainy.  All I could think of was how long should we endure this, how far the restaurant is, not because I was hungry, I needed some shelter.  It’s probably the worst day of my entire trip, but even the worst day was actually not that bad.  I did see a church full of bones, which was pretty cool.  So, in every unpleasant situation, just try to look for the bright side, it will make your day not so bad.  Gratitude is key.  ;)

On the next day, we passed by Brno before we left Czech Republic and moved to Poland.  We just ate lunch and wandered in the city center, which was pretty cool.  I saw opportunity to do hollowback against the wall, it felt really good being upside down, even though my hands were cold, I didn’t wear my gloves, umm, I wore leather pants which restricted my mobility, but hey, it was worth it! Haha.

Lastly, I really like Czech Republic, I would definitely come back one day, not in winter :p

Haiiiii! I’m back! It’s been a while, I know.  Well, a lot of things have happened since my last post, but let’s just get to the main one.  So, I decided to quit my corporate job in early August due to some dispute with my Boss.  I actually tried to change job since June, but after I quitted, I just realized that I am not cut out for that kind of job, so it doesn’t matter who I work for, if I don’t believe in what they believe, I will never be able to give my all for the job and it will leave me feeling unsatisfied, unhappy and depressed.  Thus, I made up my mind to take this path; I had always wanted to take since early 2018.  

If you have been following me on Instagram for at least one year, you probably know that I have been in love with Yoga since my first class.  I even include 200hr YTT as one of my 2018 objectives.  At first, I wanted to take yoga teacher training just to fix my alignment and technique, not necessarily to be a yoga teacher. But, I do always have this sort of feelings to help people in term of physical activities.  It bothers me when someone does some workout without proper technique, not only that it’s bad alignment, they are not getting much of it and it can lead to serious injuries overtime.  We do sports; we train to be fit and healthy, right?  So yeah, it’s something that I hold dear to my heart.  I postponed the YTT for months and months due to my job, but I always had it in my mind, I always looked for the yoga school.  So then, when I quitted my job, I took it as a sign, that I really have to chase this.

For the YTT, I chose Bali because this magical island is worldwide famous not only as a tourist destination, but also for yoga.  The spirituality of the Balinese really makes Bali stand out for yoga, maybe that’s also the reason why world famous yoga instructors hold workshops in Bali throughout the year.  My YTT has to be in Bali!  

Then I found this good yoga school, Joga Yoga Training, which was one of the most affordable teacher training school, but has really great program and always has international guest yoga teacher who has super human talent.  I was really excited; I really couldn’t wait to fly to Bali to do the training.  I practiced like crazy 2 months in prior.  Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit there, but yeah, I really worked on my strength and flexibility because I’m worried I’d be the weakest in class.  I couldn’t do headstand off the wall then.  Flexibility is always my strong point, but not with strength, I have to really really work on it and I’m a bit lazy when it comes to core exercise. :p

Damn! My Base is incredibly strong!

I’m rambling.  Anyways, arrived in Bali, felt anxious, felt like I made a mistake and should have done the YTT in Jakarta instead, surprisingly, everybody felt the same! That makes me feel a bit better, but after the first vinyasa yoga practice, I knew this was the right decision, I was meant to be there.  I was the only Indonesian trainee in the class and everybody came from literally all over the world; from Australia, the US, Egypt, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Ireland, Lebanon etc.  It’s a dream!! It’s one of the reasons why I chose Bali, I know I would meet amazing like-minded people; we’re different, but we all share one thing in common. :)

Don't we look happy? :D

Yoga Anatomy Class: Fascinating!

So, we spent 25 days together, full of excitement and sweat. We learned the yoga philosophy which was really hard for me to digest at first hahahahahah.  Also, anatomy, from bones to muscles to fascia lines to all 12 bodily systems. Damn! Who would’ve thought Yoga can be that awesome! I’ve learned so much during the YTT and continue to learn more and more after.  I will leave a link of my yoga school here.  So, if you’re curious, you probably think of taking 200hr of YTT, I definitely recommend this school.

Love these guys so much <3

Three different Asians lol

This YTT is by far my most valuable experience.  Finally, there’s one thing I have done right in my 28 years old life.  I know I don’t really go into details here about my experience, my writing skill gets worse, not sure why.  Well, let the pictures do the talking or you can go to my Instagram page and find the 200hr YTT highlight and scroll down the page to know more about my yoga journey.

Stick those tongues out!

Also about this bIog, I will gradually change it.  It will not about me wearing leather and traveling anymore.  I honestly have had enough that people see me as a piece of meat who wear leather.  I still like leather fashion, don’t get me wrong but I’m also a human with some abilities and I want people to see me based on what I’m able to do, not just what I put on my body.