Jogjakarta day 1

February 19^th 2015...

 ...in the midday I rushed from my home with my motorcycle carrying 4 train tickets to Jogjakarta (tickets for depart and return). I got into her boarding house and buzzed in with a big cup of ice cream. 

“Happy birthday!”, I said, giving the tickets and ice cream to her.

Around 5 p.m. we were at Kiara Condong train station, I was disappointed. There were many people sitting here and there on the floor with their luggage. I hardly could walk.

That was the fourth time I was at the train station—after Gambir, Station Hall, and one of the train stations in Central Java—yet, this was the worst so far.

The picture of ours, waiting for the train

We were to depart around 7 p.m. and the worst part about the station is that I did not hear any information of our train either because of the noises or they did not inform it. I, then, asked the information center. He said, “the train has arrived ten minutes ago, and it will depart in five minutes”

I wanted to say, “thanks to your crews who told us about it”, but I decided to keep silent.

We rushed to get into the station, had our tickets and ID checked, and then got into the train.

It was the second time I was in a train, and I was disappointed. We were placed in a seat front of two men. A middle-aged man and a young man—supposedly a boy—but they did not know each other. The worst part was that the distance between the seats was to near so that when I sat, my knees came into contact with the old man’s. I realized that that just the way economy-class train was. 

(My first experience in a train was in the business class, that is why I was shock when I was in the economy one)

I had to bend my knees in an uncomfortable way for 9 hours!

The steady tick of the clock accompanied me in the whole evening. I saw her sleeping and thought, ‘that is the perk of having short feet, heck!’

I glanced at my watch and saw it pointing at 1 a.m. and I just closed my eyes without being able to sleep.

“Wake up. It’s 4 o’clock. We are about to arrive”, she woke me up. I did not know whether I was sleeping or not, but time seemed to move so fast. I got off the train, taking my luggage—and some of hers.

At 04.30 a.m. we were at Lempuyangan train station and then went to a mosque.

Around 5 o’clock, we continued our travelling trip by a taxi to find a place to stay for 4 days.

Fortunately, we could borrow a motorcycle from a student in Gajah Mada University so that we could go anywhere we wanted. We start our trip at 1 p.m. at Taman Sari, a place where the royal family of keraton used to take a rest.

These are the pictures where the princes used to take a bath, but the water were drain when we were there.

We continued to get in the some other historical (abandoned) buildings and mosque in Taman Sari.

 

 In the evening, we went to the Alun-Alun (town square). There are two big Beringin trees there. The legend says that only a person with a kind heart who can walk through the gap of the two trees blindfoldedly from a flag pole (around 30 meters from the trees).

“That must be easy. Look.”, I said, pointing at the gap of the trees, “the gap is so wide. Anyone can walk there”. Then, I was blindfolded and walked to the gap. 

  I was quite sure that I walked in a straight line, but she stopped me and undid my blindfold. With a smile, she said, “you walked way too far.” When I looked to my right side, I found that I was walking so far to the side.

We were having dinner there while enjoying a festival. I did not know what festival that was, but it was like a light festival where people were riding a lighted cars (the car goes without engine, it is with pedals, like cycling)

After visiting and taking some pictures at the monument, and went sleep.