(16.15) Rotterdam – Amsterdam Centraal Station

So here I am, sitting on the train surrounded by many Surinamese who just visited the Rotterdam Summer Festival. Now I’m going back to Amsterdam to meet my friends, Cecil & Thomas. We met before in Amsterdam but they couldn’t find cheap ticket for 1 day journey by train but I have one (thanks again!), so I went to Den Haag, Delft, and Rotterdam by myself and will spend a super hot night with them again. So exciting!

Solo journey always be a moment of truth for me. It makes me thinking about anything, about the journey which I always get lost and do something stupid (ha!), how to get more money to go traveling, how I miss my family but I should chase my dreams before I can go home, about my best friends who will do iftar (eating dinner after fasting on Ramadan) together in Indonesia and Rende but I’ll always do it alone during this Ramadan, and about someone who has been playing on my mind since I don’t know when..

For me, sometimes this journey is bored. I can’t talk with anybody, yes I can, but it just accidentally when I meet someone who interested to start conversation with me. And the most important part that I missed while I do this kind of journey is I don’t have someone to take my pictures. So it’s either I should take it with timer (and it’s kinda difficult because I don’t have tripod) or ask someone to get my picture.

My friends always say, “It’s your chance to get acquainted with handsome men!”
Yeah, but I always ask an old woman or man to do it.
Ohya and the last thing is: I will get lost a lot! I can’t read a map.
I always rotate the map to see it, but it never works. I always get lost anywhere.

Just like today in Rotterdam, I ran so I could see the festival. I didn’t ask anyone because I thought the festival would be on the road in front of the station, so I just followed people who walked quickly to somewhere I don’t know. Aaaand, voila, nothing on the street, just cars. So I walked a little bit and jumped to the bus and asked to a woman who worked on the bus,
“excuse me, do you know where is the summer festival?”
“Oh, it’s across the station..” “Ow, so I shouldn’t take this bus?”
“Hahaha.. no, you can walk through the tunnel on station and find the festival, it just started..”
I was just blinking my eyes and really wanted to jump from the bus because my time was tight, but the bus already moved.
“Hey don’t worry, we’ll come back to the station after a couple of minutes..”
Yes, 15 minutes! And I was alone on that bus, all people go to another part of city to see the festival.
Oh why??

And I will never separated with stupid things.
I was so thirsty when I was in Den Haag. My bottle was empty and I couldn’t find any free water (!!!), so I tried to find it in Delft, but still nothing. So I decided to go to supermarket. The mineral water there is 1,5 euro for 150 ml. Yahhh, so expensive! Then I found a carton of juice, 1,5 L with only 0,6 euro. Wihiii!
So I bought it and would pour it to my bottle. Oh gosh I was so thirsty, I really wanted to drink it directly from the carton (I wasn’t fasting yesterday, by the way), I tried to open the carton but it locked. Ahh!! I wanted to force the lock so it can be opened but if it broke it would be difficult for me to bring it. Then I decided to find someone who were smart enough to open this bottle. And there was a mother with her kid just bought something from saturday market, “Hallo Mrs, could you please open it for me?”
She looked at me, and, “ah, yes.. it’s easy..”
And then she laughed with the seller because of my stupidity. Oh why…

By the waaaay, single journey is also fun..
I have time for myself only to do anything. To just wander around or do nothing to enjoy the time.
When I was in senior high school I had a routine every saturday after school to go to Naga (the little but very crowded supermarket in my town, because its prices always cheap) just to see the price of the foods or buy a dark chocolate (I always love dark chocolate more than any other chocolates!) or going to the little mall of Pondok Gede to see the clothes or books, but as always I never bought any of those.

When I was working in biscuit company, I almost never had time for myself. I worked from monday to friday, from morning and arrived at home so late. And sometimes I went to other cities on weekend to organize my events. It was really nice of course because I loved my job. So what I could do was enjoying myself-time on the plane or taxi or bus, on every quite big and comfortable transportation, to think, to talk with myself, to make some plans..

Like now, I’m thinking about a lot of things, and one of them is about someone, about this awkward feeling, which I don’t want to feel it but too bad I can’t resist.
Well I don’t know what will happen next. I mean, it’s easier for me to make plans about my future related with education, travel, or work, but not with relationship. It just so sudden, unpredictable, and needs a lot of things to think about.

Okay, so I will be in Amsterdam in 2 minutes. Better to prepare myself and continue this ‘deep thought’ on another train.
Ciao!