One of my bucket lists had checked: traveling to cities in Europe! I finally had the chance to visit my dream destinations. It was Christmas and New Year holiday, and I definitely didn't have any class since 22 December 2017. Actually, I had planned this trip since one month before because I was pretty sure that the accommodations, plane and train tickets would be very expensive if I bought them in December.

This journey was absolutely the most ambitious and challenging trip I've ever done, because only in 13 days, I went to 8 different cities in several countries in Europe! At first I needed to convince myself that I could do it because 8 cities were many and I couldn't imagine how I managed my energy to move to every cities back then. So this is the cities of my Euro trip:

Málaga - Köln - Brussels - Antwerpen - Amsterdam - Berlin - Prague - Dresden

Note: I only spent several hours in Köln and Dresden, mostly when I needed to wait for my train and bus to different cities, but I had the time to explore the main interests in both cities.

Málaga
I went to Malaga because my flight was from this city, and my flight was on the next morning. It only took 3 hours by bus from Jaén, short transit in Granada, then Málaga.

Before I went to the airport, I decided to spend some times here, strolling around the city to see some interesting spots. As you can see at the headline photo, it's Catedral de la Encarnación de Málaga. It was closed in the evening so I was only able to see the big cathedral from the outside.


The design of Puerto de Málaga is so modern. You can see the "long bones-shaped canopy" (maybe we can say it so? Hahaha) along the pedestrian walk right next to the sea.



I arrived at Teatro Romano de La Alcazaba exactly on the closing time. I was only able to enter the theater for a few minutes, then I enjoyed the rest of the view from the outside. Kinda disappointed, I decided to sit in front of the theater, just looking around it. Then, there was a man coming to the theater and he started to play an accordion. I really liked what he played and stayed for a bit before I continued my journey. It was such a serene evening...

After that I walked back to the train station because I left my backpack there on a paid locker. It was only 3 euro for the small locker per 24 hours. From the train station, I took one trip train to the Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport.

Since my flight was at 7 am on the next day and I couldn't spend extra money only for hostel (also taxi to go to the airport), it's way better to sleep in the airport. Thankfully in Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport, it's kinda easy to find spots to sleep. In terminal 2 and terminal 3, you can find bench or windowsill (to see the runway) that can be utilized. I was on the windowsill first, but since I needed to charge my phone, I moved to a long bench that was close to a power socket.

Köln
I was so thrilled when I finally arrived at Köln! Germany is one of my dream countries to visit. It was so cloudy and so cold there, but it didn't matter; hey, I was in Germany!

Köln Am Dom (Köln Cathedral) is literally next to Köln Central Station, so it's so easy to reach the cathedral. My first impression? It is so huuuuugeee!! I even can compare it with Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. I did enter the cathedral, and it was so beautiful.

After that I walked passing the famous Hohenzollern Bridge. As you can see on the photos, there were immeasurable locks across the bridge where people put the lock with their names and their loved ones on it. This bridge is also a nice spot to see the large Rhine River.

Unfortunately, I was in Köln only for several hours before I went to Brussels by train. So far, Köln was an interesting city, especially it was Christmas and there were plenty of Chirstmas markets I found around the cathedral. I didn't know it was such a bad timing or not, but I was there only in the morning until the afternoon (meanwhile the market opened at night), so I couldn't visit any of the market.





Brussels
Bonjour, Bruxelles!

Here I was, in the second city of my list. It only took 2 hours by train from Köln Central Station to Bruxelles-Midi Station. I stayed one night in this city, so (hopefully) I had enough time to explore this city!

I was in Brussels when it was Christmas eve. At first I almost didn't go to the city center because I was a little bit afraid of the surroundings around my hostel. It's kinda hard to explain but for the first time, I felt not really safe to go out at night. But then a roommate from my hostel told me that it's safe to go alone. I doubt it at first, but I thought again, I only had one night in Brussels. So, I decided to leave the hostel to see the city center.

You know what? I made the right call.

I didn't know that there was a special event at the Grand Palace during Christmas Eve. When I arrived, I heard musics and saw some lights on the buildings. Apparently, bunch of people went to Grand Palace to see the big, beautiful attraction that night: a light-show on every building along with Christmas-themed songs.

It was one of the most memorable moments from my trip in Belgium, because everything looked so magical. I was standing alone there in the middle of crowd, listening and enjoying the view around me.




I was so mesmerized. It was so freaking amazing!! For the first time, I felt the regret of going alone during my trip! This is one thing that you should see with your family, friends, or loved one. I don't celebrate Christmas, but I can understand that Christmas holiday is a special time to gather with your family and friends.

I left for a moment to buy waffle (come on, I was in Belgium, there's no way that you don't try their authentic waffle here!), looked at the Manneken Pis, and went back to the Grand Palace. The light-show ran for a couple of times, and I stayed until it finished.

By the way, Belgium waffle is absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.





The next day: Christmas Day! It was also the last day for me to stay in Brussels until the afternoon. Before I left, I went around the city and I'd say that there was almost no one on the street; except tourists. Of course many people were staying at their houses to celebrate Christmas with their family. I was wandering around Brussels city, looking at some buildings that were so beautiful.

Why only looking around? Well, it's holiday, every stores and public places were closed (except the Brussels Park and few food stores around my hostel, because I went there). I also wasn't able to enter any museum, so I only could see them from the outside.

By the way, the famous comic book character Tintin was "born" here in Brussels! Besides, I could see so many comic book stores and street arts around Brussels. Even there's a comic museum here (but it was closed, so sad!). But overall, all the street arts and comic book stores were very interesting to see!

I want to share a little bit about how I learn Spanish from the beginning until now; the moment I continue my study in Spain. And for sure, the lectures are fully in Spanish. All of my professors and classmates are Spanish native speakers. I can say that it's a very interesting journey to learn Spanish during my stay here, since every one has their own accent and dialect.

So I started to learn Spanish more seriously on February 2017. I already have huge interest in learning Spanish since I was studying in my first university. One day I bought a Spanish book for beginner, and it all began from there.

Actually, I don't learn Spanish only from one source. I used some additional tools which helped me so much during my process to learn Spanish. For instance, I installed some language applications and watched videos on Youtube.

I should remind you that learning new language in such old age (above twenty years old) is not easy. Once I learnt Japanese when I was in high school (because it was one of my subjects in school) for three years, but now all I can do is writing in hiragana and katakana, also reading some of them without recognizing the meaning. I didn't practice Japanese more after I graduated high school. What a loss, right?

At this moment I learn Spanish, to be honest I am still struggling to remember the tenses because they have 14 tenses (7 simple tenses and 7 compound tenses) that have different terms and use based on the time.

Books

I have several books to work on besides the books that I used during my Spanish course. I try to do the exercises everyday so I could understand better.

• Colorín Colorado is the first Spanish book that I bought years ago. It was written full in Spanish because the writer is from Spain. Fun fact: she was the one who translated my documents into Spanish when I proceed my visa application. It was a huge coincidence, because when I got her contact to translate my document, it reminded me about the book I had. When I asked her, she confirmed that she was the writer!
• Spanish Vocabulary also helps me A LOT to learn new vocabularies. The exercises are great, I have to translate from English to Spanish, then I have to write sentences in Spanish, also I have to read many passages that included in every chapter.
• 501 Spanish Verbs is a book that I use to enrich my knowledge of verbs in Spanish because learning verbs are extremely important. In summary, there are 3 main types of verbs in Spanish: -ar, -ir, -er, then depends on what tenses I use, the ending will be changed. I haven't mentioned the regular and irregular verbs, tho.
• Espanol Nivel Basicos helps me to learn tenses, new vocabulary, and to do listening comprehension because it included CD to listen to the narrator speaking in Spanish.
• Spanish Grammar. As it said on the cover, mainly it's about grammar but it also has brief explanation about tenses and verbs.
• Etapas 1. This is the nook that I got from my Spanish course in LBI UI for level A1.1. It has basic lessons for beginner (mainly it contains basic vocabularies), but trust me, it was the "foundation" for me to understand the basic Spanish.
• Aula 3: Book that I bought for my Spanish course in the CEALM, a language institute in my university. This book is for those who are already in the level B1.1.
• Collins Spanish-English Dictionary. This dictionary helps me find some words in Spanish-English and English-Spanish.

Video

I subscribe to a Youtube channel, the name is Butterfly Spanish. I'd say that I rarely subscribe to any Youtube channel. This one is the exception because it does help me to learn Spanish because she explains about nouns, tenses, verb, and vocabularies very well and very simple.

Applications

Learning language
Who doesn't know Duolingo? This famous application really helped me during my first time learning Spanish, especially to help me introducing to a lot of new vocabularies. Then I also used Memrise; the learning method on this application is kinda unique for me. They also input some videos of native speakers talking some sentences, so you can learn how they spell it.

Online Dictionary

I use spanishdict.com A LOT. Even when I am in class, I frequently use it because I really need to translate the words I never heard of before. I like this one better than Google Translate because they can recognize the words with different meaning based on the context. But I won't deny that Google translate helps me to translate some of larger sentences. I use both of them because sometimes one of them does right, sometimes not.

Listen to Podcasts

To be honest, I didn't do this one that much because I was concentrating more to add new vocabularies and tenses as many as I can into my brain. I kinda regret not to do this often because listening skill is undoubtedly important.

Speak with native speakers

This is actually one of the crucial things to improve your language skills; talking with native speakers. It will help you to practice your speaking and listening skills, also enrich your vocabularies! Well, I can meet native speakers everyday here, but how to handle this issue if you can't meet any Spanish native speakers?

Thanks to technology, you can use an application. I installed Tandem and I could find some native speakers there to talk to, so you can get used to speak/read/listen in Spanish better.

Take a Spanish course

I don't think this part is very crucial for some of you, but for me, this is actually influences my skills significantly, especially my first teacher was from Madrid; she's a native speaker and people from Madrid are known for their clarity on pronunciation. I can tell you that the people from northern Spain and southern Spain (especially Andalucía) have distinctive accent and dialect. You can read  my previous post about how people in Andalucía mostly "eat the letter".

If you are really serious to learn Spanish, I think by taking a course, it will help you to improve your skill (also if you think that learning only by yourself is not enough).

I took a Spanish course in LBI UI Salemba from April to June 2017. That time I took level A1.1, the basic course because I want to learn from the beginning. Remember, this part is not obligatory; you can take it if you really consider that taking a course is going to help you better to learn new language.

Then since my course ended on June, I started to learn Spanish by myself because I already had the basic; I did the exercises everyday from the books and applications. On September, I moved to Spain, I talked more in Spanish, and few days I just stayed in Jaén, I had to take a placement test for my Spanish course. I was extremely nervous because I only spent few times learning Spanish, plus I will have all my class in Spanish. Thankfully, after days talking in Spanish with my flatmates, I got placement in level B1.1. I think I wouldn't have made it if I didn't practice a lot before.

Now I am still in the process of learning Spanish, my class is extremely challenging because you know, language barrier is real and I have to keep up with the progress because my study here is only one year and I have to start working on my thesis this month.

You can learn new language from any devices or tools; now technology is your savior to learn new language; use them wisely and it will give you a lot of advantages. Happy learning!

The live music was so gooood! I couldn't hide my excitement when the band played "Just the Two of Us" and "My Cherie Amour". I sang along, had great time even though I was alone, hahaha. I just had tiring day after strolling around the temples, so this was definitely a delightful night. And of course, SoulBar really had amazing soul! I never find a bar like this in Jakarta or Bandung. Finally I stayed till midnight when the band ended their performance. 

On the next day I came back to enjoy my last night in Bangkok. It was DJ night playing the oldies music. It was so amazing, basically the DJ played my playlists, hahaha. So if you are looking for great bar with nice music, drinks, and ambiance, you gotta pay a visit. It's a small bar but I think it's not a big deal. I am totally gonna come again if I have another chance to go to Bangkok.