Some Pics (and Moments) to Remember

Every picture has its own story. It could bring us to the past where memories were created. These are some pics with the stories that I want to share to you.

1.

I was in Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels when I saw an odd painting hanging on the wall. It was only painted in black colour (with its gradation if you looked closer). The museum was actually pretty busy that day but there was only one girl sitting in front of the painting. I took my pocket camera and tried to take a pic from behind while she was enjoying the painting. I liked the concept; I did it before several times in other museums. Just when I was about to click the shutter, the girl suddenly looked behind her back – she looked right at me – and I was a bit shocked. I felt embarrassed and nervously left the room. I hope I didn’t look like a creep. ^^"

2.

In our last night in Paris, friends and I went to a night market of Le Village des Artisans d’ Art along The Champs-Élysées avenue which ended in the Arc de Triomphe. They all had creative and cute stuffs but there was something about this quiet and nice stall. Despite the cold winter night, I felt warm when I went inside. I imagined myself sitting there in a corner and read a book. It was effortlessly lovely. 

3. 

I know, this pic is blurry but the story behind this pic is precious for me. It was Friday night, I was sitting in front of my laptop; maybe I was watching some SNSD MVs on YouTube. Once in a while I looked at outside, at the flickering lights of tiny houses 20 floors below my dorm in Wageningen. Then I realised the moon that night looked bigger than usual. Before that, I had witnessed a red moon and I promised my friend Karen that I would tell her when there was a supermoon.

It was almost 10 pm, but I still texted Karen to tell her about the moon. Karen stayed in 13^th floor – seven floors below mine – and the moon was not visible from her place, so she decided to come to my room. We took some pics with the moon as the background but most of them were blurry because the camera needed more light and a tripod to keep it stable. When we saw the blurry results, we couldn’t help but giggling. In the end, we forgot about the moon and we talked about many things instead, including our research project plan while drinking a cup of hot chocolate.

A Friday night. A good friend. A hot chocolate. And a supermoon. It was not something you would experience often.

4. 

It always makes me go “awwww” whenever I saw old couples traveling together. The first pic was taken in Keukenhof. This couple had snack time together. The second pic was in Frogner park in Oslo. The third pic was in Nijmegen. This couple took a break and enjoyed their time on a bench in front of the old building in the centrum. It was lovely, isn’t it? 

5. 

People say that Paris is a romantic city. When I went there, I saw people kissing (passionately) in public and romantic couples were basically everywhere. (Well, maybe it was just me. XD) But, one thing that melted my heart was when I saw these two people dancing together in a park. And you know, the music was live from the street musician a little outside of the park. Sweet!

 

6. 

SNSD – the biggest South Korean girlgroup – was one of the reasons for me to go to Seoul. I innocently thought that SNSD would be everywhere in Seoul: their posters, their songs, their billboards. I was wrong. I didn’t see any of them on my way from the airport to the hostel in Itaewon. When friends and I went to a dinner, I suddenly saw their Casio’s Baby-G advertising board. I was happy only to see it. So I asked one of my friends to take a pic of me hugging the board. Weird, I know hehe…

7.

I went to Rome in a summer and Pantheon was one place that I must visit. At that time I thought even if I couldn’t make it to Parthenon in Athens (I was interested about the Greek gods), at least I could go to Pantheon in Rome. I went inside the building but I was not really impressed. What impressed me was what happened in front of the former Roman temple. There were two guys playing Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D! I liked the song; it was one of my all time favourites. And enjoying the song in front of a Pantheon was a bliss for me.

8. 

Like any ordinary Asian who lived in a tropical country, I always wanted to touch snow. I wanted to experience the snow. When I was a kid, I only saw the snow from movies played during Christmas. It looked so pure, so white, so soft… I didn’t really see snow during my stay in the Netherlands. People said winter in 2013 was the warmest winter there in the recent years. So when I went to Chamonix Mont Blanc in the following month, it was terrific to see snow everywhere. Eventhough the weather was very cold, I took my gloves off only to touch the snow. It was quite an emotional moment for me. *crying in French*

9. 

In a night in an early spring, Karen invited me and other friends to her place. We played card game Ligretto with a nice selection of music playing as the backsongs. I really enjoyed my time with my friends and I thought I couldn’t be happier that night. Well, that was until Karen prepared some foods for our dinner; they all looked delicious. But this chicken macaroni soup was the winner! I knew Karen was a good cook, but I didn’t know if she was that good. Before I knew it, I could feel my eyes were teary a little.

Let me repeat, my eyes were teary because of the warm soup.

It was not only tasty, it also touched somewhere inside my heart, keeping it warm.

10. 

My friend Mitha adored Louvre Museum and Palace of Versailles. When she knew I would go to Paris, she was very excited – even more than me. We both like traveling and we joined a backpacker community. Before I left Indonesia to the Netherlands, Mitha gave me a t-shirt which released for the community’s fourth anniversary; Backpacker Dunia (world backpacker) was written on it. And she said, “Please wear this t-shirt in front of Louvre Museum. I might not be there, but at least the t-shirt was there.”

I put my winter jacket off to take this pic. I gave the pic to her, and I was happy that I kept my promise.

11. 

When I took a Seine river tour by boat in Paris, I saw some people taking prewedding pics by the river. I thought it was cute. Days later, when I looked through the pics I took from my holiday, I recognise that actually I met these people before. I accidentally had taken the pic when they had a photo session in the middle of the street (literally).

12. 

I traveled alone a lot during my stay in Europe. Most of times I just didn’t care about other tourists/travelers; I didn’t make any effort to know about other people. (I’m not proud of it; it was just my introvert-self speaking). I felt content by myself.

When I went to Reformation Wall in Geneva, I saw two girls trying to take selfies together. I knew it was not easy so I offered my help to take a picture of them both. They looked nice and there was something about them that made me comfortable enough to begin a conversation with them. In the end, one of them took a pic of me. (For once, I didn’t take selfie). We then realised that we had the same destination, St. Pierre Cathedral. We went there together and we actually talked during our way there.

Unfortunately, I didn’t remember their name. What I know was that they were from Latin America (either Paraguay or Uruguay) and they were studying in Spain. In their holiday, they traveled to some countries in Europe including Switzerland. I felt to lucky to meet them because they could read a map; something that I was not good at. They even showed me the way to La Treille. After we finally arrived at St. Pierre Cathedral, we said goodbye to each other.

Before we were really apart, I asked them to take their pic. I told them I would write about them in my blog, and they were okay. Our “friendship” was very short, but I will always remember their kindness.

13.

Portobello Road Market was one of the best places I’ve ever visited in London. The ambience was lovely. It was creative and hip, but you could also back in time with their antiques. There was one stall that took my attention. Charlotte Reed – a local artist – was the owner. She created May The Thoughts Be With You, a collection of nice and inspirational words in books, posters, cards, etc.

For years she had written her own positive thoughts, but never had any courage to publish it. She had been working in an office but she couldn’t work any longer due to Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). That was when she decided to do her way. Since the RSI meant she couldn’t any longer use a computer, she wrote the book by hand. She then lived her dream to spread “joy, positivity, and words of encouragement to others”.

I was touched by what she did. I bought her book and card, and I asked her to sign the book. From her, I started to believe that each of us could make this world slightly better with anything we had and did, no matter small our contribution was.

14.

I took a one day tour to Wicklow by bus during my short visit in Ireland. In front of me, there were a woman with her two children; one of them was a baby. The baby was actually calm during the trip. I took this pic in Glendalough. I think she was a cool mom.

15.

Let me introduce you to Yvonne, a hard Corr from Germany. We met in Sharon Corr’s concert in Zwolle. She sat next to me. We both went there alone by ourselves, so it was not awkward to start the conversation. And when I said she was the true fan of The Corrs, I did mean it. She even showed me The Corrs tattoo in her right hand. She told me she drove a car from her place for two hours to watch this concert. She also followed Sharon practically everywhere in the Netherlands. After Zwolle, she planned to watch the next Sharon’s concert in Rotterdam. Incredible!

16.

I liked to take pics of windows’ pattern. These are my favourites: the first pic was in Barcelona, the second was in Gouda, the third was in Nijmegen, and the last was taken in Utrecht. I know, the one in Barcelona was really something. It was an erotic museum and there was this Marilyn Monroe-like guy who repeatedly showing off the Marilyn Monroe famous pose. XD

17.

The most tiring thing about traveling alone was taking selfies. I did countless of selfies and this pic in Leicester Square London was one of them. This pic looked ordinary to me until I realised the man walking behind me was smiling to my camera, too. Haha!

18.

I stayed at Neptuno Hotel during my holiday in Barcelona. Soon I learned that in my first night there, there would be a live flamenco dance show there. I really enjoyed the performance. The dancers were pretty and they danced beautifully, followed the rhythm of the music. I felt so lucky to experience it. I could just leave the performance to sleep (yeah, sometimes I prefer sleep to anything.); I was glad I didn’t do that. Because I knew for sure, that was the moment I wanted to remember.