türkiye, the bridge

turkey has always been one of the places i wanted to visit the most as it is the bridge physically and (supposedly) culturally between europe and asia. but as it has always been the case, when you set your expectation so high, it usually turns out much less than what you've imagined. we visited several cities: istanbul, pamukkale (via denizli), göreme and kaymaklı (in cappadocia), ankara (for just several hours), and safranbolu. though not as traditionally rich as i expected, it has been a wonderful visit, specially because of whom i was traveling with. we saw as much as we could, tried lots of local dish, got addicted to local çay, rest and not rushing when we ought to. and the long bus rides between cities (12 hours be the longest one) was quite bearable. probably the factor that lessen the point of this trip was the weather. if only it wasn't as hot, it would be a much more delightful trip than it already was.

romesick

a counterbalance

roma 29-3-90

il tesoro del giorno. found in a secondhand bookstore. happy as a kid finding her sweet candy.

fiat 500

especially in small towns people drive small cars so they can pass through little alleys easily. this was part of my joy when i walked through cities, spotting old fiat cinque cento in different colors. only in italy!

#75008

8th arrondissement, paris.

viaggiare!

i keep saying to my friends how i miss the days when all i had to think about were what to cook for dinner and where to travel on the weekends.

from top, left to right:
* waiting for our train in Rotterdam, on the way to Amsterdam
* learning Deutsch 101 from a German classmate
* Berlin flughafen (my favorite German word, means airport)
* studying for final exam on the train to Venezia
* planning itinerary in our hostel in Berlin
* a bus passing by in Barcelona
* travel essence! always carry a journal to write
* stranded night in a train station in Terontola
* boarding to Barcelona from Sant'Egidio, airport between Perugia and Assisi

paris, île-de-france.

It's hard to talk about Paris. The word Paris is too synonymous with all the romanticism and cliché comes in one package complete with the Eiffel Tower. Trying to avoid all those attributes I initially hesitated going there, but Paris is Paris, one can't help but having curiosity to at least see by oneself to be able to have a personal judgement.

sleepless in rome

The latest trip. The craziest one so far. Took the earliest train at 4am and returned with another earliest train at 5am the next day. Initially we only planned to go to Napoli, changing train in Rome. But to our surprise, that day was an international museum day and all museums in Rome opened for free on midnight! So we decided to stay the night in Rome. I literally only slept two hours on bed within that 48 hours. We rest and slept everywhereee, on trains, on a table in a 24 hours fast food restaurant (and they threw us out!), in a park, on the floor in the station, in waiting rooms. And guess how many museums we got to enter that night? None. Being extremely exhausted after walking the whole day in Napoli, we arrived at a museum 10 minutes late for the latest entrance and then decided not to continue hopping to the others.

It was crazy and we're dead tired but then aren't things like these what make a trip memorable? And besides, it was nice strolling around Rome at night and I'm sure we passed through a street where they shot this movie.

perugia, umbria.

Been here for more than two weeks and I haven't really wrote anything about it. And I haven't really took much pictures because I wasn't able to. I always feel like every picture taken can't do any justice about how I perceive the city. So most of the time I just walk and walk wander around the city taking picture with only my eyes not cameras.

Here's a few pictures, just to show a glimpse of how the city looks like.
    
left to right:
1st.
my very first impression of the city | the view from above | Piazza IV Novembre (the main centro)
2nd and 3rd.
some of the alleys and street view
4th.
window view from my first days room | view from classrom | one of the many church in town
5th.
from the weekend flea market

connecting flight

One of the best thing about being in an airport I guess is the liberation of being alone. It's like one of the most natural place where people go solo. People might have notice I've been ranting quite a lot about being alone lately. It's not that I don't enjoy being a social person surrounded by friends, not at all. But I think being alone (not lonely) is something you learn by age. On your early twenties there must be times when you become too attached to certain person or certain groups of people and it was depressingly hard when it comes to times when you have to let go. But once you have let go, you'd know how liberating it feels. And I guess I'm glad there is time in my life when I feel content of being with myself, not under supervision of any superior and not being too attached to certain people.

Photos were taken during my nine hours in Doha, Qatar, waiting for my connecting flight to Rome.

aspettando la primavera

in sessanta cinque giorni.

mr. andy

ig roundup #11 and some Path photos. Printed out two sets of my ig photos as a new year calendar to put on my room and my desk at office.

swing kings

Been quite a while I haven't really listen to a solo violin, that night I experienced a very brilliant one from a virtuoso named Miroslav. It could go so intense it felt like someone grabs your arms so tight leaving bruises on your skin, it could go so soft it felt so good almost like someone touches you and whispers to your ear.

Two days before Sigur Rós I went to this MPO Jam-Busters casual formal (which means you have to follow a dress code) concert. I was expecting a rather casual classical performance, it turned out to be a casual but brilliant swing-jazz one, playing tunes like Django Reinhart's, Duke Ellington's, Cab Calloway's , a number from a Slovakian composer and some originals. The venue was amazing, I only realized when I went out after the show that it's actually at the feet of the twin tower. It was one of the shows which I wished was never going to end, I wanted to just stay there absorbed by the music and vaporized, never go back again to all the shits life gives.

ps. Photo taking is totally prohibited but it pretty much looks like this - a photo from last year's event from the internet.

transfixed.

It was as if someone put his hand inside my chest, grabbed my heart and started squeezing it, beat by beat, so hard, telling it to keep on beating and not to die yet. The picture of the hand came so vividly in my mind, blood running all over. It kept on pushing me I could feel great energy flooded my veins. The orgasmic sensation like something so powerful was craving to get out of my body. All of me shivered and transfixed.
 

Sigur Rós - Popplagið

Everyone there at Fort Canning Park knows how ethereal that night was when the sky turned orange at 10.30 pm and how insane the atmosphere was as if Sigur Rós possessed the godly power to control the weather. It was raining cats and dogs just before the show, but not one drop poured during the show until right when they finished their last song. Then it showered like crazy during the encore and stopped right after. It was complete madness.

Words can't never described how epic it was and no electronic media could transmit such a great impact of a show. And I know I would burst into tears now every time I listen to Hoppípolla.

chemex coffee

Some places can make you feel intimidating while some others make you wanna run away quick, but the feeling when i was in this particular place is that feeling of loving being myself. Weird i know. But the space is just about right, i'm liking the furniture, the cactus on each table (!), the music which is nice to have a serious or light conversations, and the rad magazines they provide. I'm actually more of a tea person rather than coffee, but I was so tempted to have coffee that is brewed with a chemex. Was a bit disappointed cause i thought each coffee would come with the chemex which apparently not so. I've been wanting buy a chemex just for the sake of the beauty, not the coffee.

ps. thank you dear friend, for the quality talk :)

long road home

ig roundup #9 and some photos i posted on Path.

Btw, instagram now has a web profile which looks pretty cool, and here's mine.

but i'm always in doubt

ig round up #8. first one is a stack of postcards i sent to berlin, seoul, papua, and jakarta. second is taiwan postcards i received.

and since i didn't post much on instagram this month, i put some pictures i've posted on Path instead:

morning buffet

Breakfast at Ritz Carlton hotel thursday morning after working for more than twenty four hours with office mates. I need to learn how to plate food nicely.

a sunday with frank

Frank Lloyd Wright. The first architect name I knew even before I went to architecture school. We used to have a big sketch of his work, the Fallingwater House which is like the most famous house ever, framed on our livingroom.

Got this book some time ago in a secondhand bookstore.