Colmar,Strasbourg, French food, French people

This is to continue my journey in France. better late than never he.
Don't know where to begin since I almost forgot everything. In Colmar and Strasbourg, there are not so much to tell. Museum, churches.

I like now to share a little bit about the food and the people.

Food
when talking about food, I should first mention the food that Mo has bought for our trip. Was always known as food provider for my friend when we traveled. At that time in Amsterdam didnt have the time to do that. Mo bought the food. Imagined that if I traveled with an Indonesian guy, he would not have the initiative to buy foods and drinks. He would let me buy the food and drinks. Most Indonesian men still think that grocery is women's task. So, I was lucky to have him.

Mo bought a strange bread. It was strange to me because it was hard, dark and high with protein. He said that its like a german bread. like failed bread but it was very nice. heheheh. it has almond and raisins in it. just eating one slice made me full. Its maybe german rye bread.

As far as I can remember the food in France was nice (compare to the Dutch food :-)). At least I still can taste the ingredients. The process of ordering the food was fun because Mo translated all the food names in the menu. I felt like a child eating with her loving father.

One time I was very hungry, really wanted to order some meat. Actually I didnt want to order meat since Mo is a vegetarian and if I ordered meat that meant I wouldn't be able to share food. Took the consequency, order the meat. Got two big slices of beef. One slice was ok, the last slice could not finish it. Would have been eat that up if I could eat it with our famous chili sauce, sambal ABC. heheheh. but he forbid me to pour that chili sauce to my steak. He said that it would insult the French people as they are very proud of their food. I didnt know about it hehe my chili sauce were safe in bag. hihi.
( didnt believe him at that time but some days ago I asked a lady who works at a Franch hotel, and she said its true. Hahaha. Sorry to Mo coz I didn't believe him. Don't trust anyone and don't listen to anyone easily hehe)

I wondered if French go on vacation to Indonesia. What would they react if they saw that almost all Indonesian people love to pour sambal, chili sauce on the food hihihi.

There I at typical French food or typical Alsatian food, tarte flambee. It is said tart in English but to me it looked like thin Italian pizza. Only the toppings that were a little bit different. I also found flambee with wine on it.

What I like about France is that in every 10 meters you will find a bakery. I remembered Henny, my colleague whenever I saw a bakery because Henny loves bread so much. The breads and pastries were very tempting.
seeing all those pastries made me hungry.
I at plain croissant. always love plain croissant. Some food tastes better in their original version like croissant, chips, and tompoes.

Tompoes is a Dutch word for vanilla slices cake. In French is it mille feuille. It’s a French classic dessert made with two or three puff pastry laid on top of each other, and in between consisting whipped cream. I am not a sweet person but tompoes is different. The cream is indeed sweat but the layers taste savour. so it neutralizes that sweetness of the cake. Very yummmmmmmmy. uuh just writing it down makes me hungry.

There is only one place in Jakarta that sell that cake, at Le Meridien Hotel. introduced and promoted tompoes to my colleagues. Now every time my office has an event at Le Meridien, had to compete with my colleagues to have that cake heheheh.

Now about the French cheese. Don't like cheese that much but to fulfill my gastronomic desire of course I had to taste it.Mo bought a small piece of the French cheese (in the picture, the white ones). Forgot the type of the cheese but didn't like it. It was stink. Maybe it's just because I was not used to the smell. Its ok. At least I already tried it.

One time we were already late for dinner so we didnt have many choice to eat out. we then ended up in a Libanon restaurant. I didn't know what to expect. Libanese food was ok, its almost the same as Asian food and they had rice, that is important :-). Mo said that I was a chauvinist because can not live without rice for more than one week. Forced him to exchange his rice with my food hahahaha. I am always addicted to rice.

Think its enough sharing about the food. Now about people I met there.
I had not so many chance interacting with the French. Its quite a pity I guess coz it would have been nicer if we can interact with the local.

French people are very good looking. The guys are beautiful with their dark hair and with a little bit dark skin. I think they are beautiful especially coz I dont like blond guy :-). The women are also beautiful. Even I as a woman admire their beauty. Its the form of their face and skin which is perfect. I don't know how God created them. It's beautiful.

Now about the people we met. There is one time when Mo asked an old lady about the parking place. She answered his question with cold and flat gesture. not smiling at all. Was very surprised to see that. I wouldn't find that here in Indonesia. Here people will at least smile at you at the end of the conversation even if you are a stranger on street asking about direction.
It is maybe because of the weather. Indonesians and other Asians are more friendly because the sun shines here almost the whole year. The sun brings smile to our faces and eventually it effects our personality.

One time in Ribeauville I had to buy socks somewhere. Mo was not there coz he had to bring something back to the car. So I was left alone. Didn't speak any french at all. Came into a store, the store lady was asking what I was looking for. Asked her first if she speaks english. she said only a little. Said that I was looking for thick socks. Could see that she felt bad and started a little bit panick coz she doesnt have the socks I wanted and she couldn't explain it in english where I could find them. smiled at her, touched her back gently and said it's ok, I'll find them myself. Smile works all the time.

Another time we were late for dinner, we entered in a restaurant that was closed The guy of that restaurant let us know which restaurant that still open even though we were not asking for that. We thanked him and gave him a big smile. On the next day, we were passing through his restaurant. The man saw us and called us. He asked us to come by to his restaurant. We were very surprised that he still remembered us.

Before traveled to the Netherlands, was kind of worry where to live in the Netherlands. talked to a cousin about it. She said, dont worry, your father is always nice to other people so, you would be just fine there, you will have a place to stay and there will be someone who takes good care of you. She was right. I found a comfort place in the Netherlands and friends who took good care of me. What you give out, will come back to you.

ps: the food pictures were taken from the internet

Weekend: 17 April: the more the merrier

Our meeting point this time was at the Erasmus Taalcentrum. Yossie, Intan, Tonny, Ella, Irev, and Yolla were already there. Found out that Ella and Nawi have just bought a car. I am proud of them. Have known Ella since university and I know more or less about their love journey. In fact I had crush on Nawi, the first time I saw him. haha. didnt know that he was Ella's boyfriend. I said hey who is that cute guy hahahaha. Among all husbands of my good friends, Nawi is the best. Nawi can easily mix with us girls and Ella can still hang out with us, that is the most important thing. Thats why I love both of them. In fact Ella and I are going to Semarang for a couple of days in June for a trip with Sahabat Museum. Spannend. :-). Insya Allah.

From the Erasmus Taalcentrum, went to Setiabudi for coffee and dinner. Had a fun talk with them. It was nice to see all of them again. The originally plan of this meeting was only between Tonny and I. Tonny wanted to discuss something serious with me. I was afraid that it would be boring only with Tonny :-). I then asked Ella if she would like to join us. And at the Erasmus Taalcentrum, I met the other girls, Yolla Irev, Yossie, and Intan. So I asked all of them to join us. They all said ok. Perfecto, the more the merrier.

From Setiabudi, Ella and Nawi decided to go home while we continued the girls night out. We then moved to Sabang, to the street food vendor, had some roasted bread. and then we moved to another food vendor, there I had kip pootjes soup hehe soto ceker ayam. it was very nice. yummy yummy
from there, we were supposed to take a cab but our stomach was so full that we decided to just take a walk.

Never realized that Thamrin street was so beautiful at night. we walked for about one kilometer. met some strangers and nice children with bikes. It was my first experience walking at night at Thamrin street. I saw the other part of Jakarta that I've never seen before. The food vendors at night, the hookers, the children with bikes that just gather around the bundaran HI, motor taxis, ladies who work at the dept stores and wait for the bus at 11 pm. My respect to you all ladies.

Cooking with love: weekend in Cibubur 15 July 2007

I went to cibubur to dina’s house for barbeque together with my housemates: iyan, dina, baron, and gagam. The plan was instant. It just came up our mind that it would be nice if we could go out as ‘family’. We went first to a grocery store, hero, to buy chicken, vegetables, salted fish, and what ingredients. We didn’t barbeque since we couldn’t find any charcoal for bbq. The plan was originally was cooking together but it was not true. It’s the housekeepers of dina and I who did the cooking. You can see it on the pictures that the guys were just lying there. Hahahaha I will not trust my housemates again if they say cooking together.

Still in France: Ribeauville and Riquewihr. Choleric VS Sanguines type

I continue my story of my Euro trip or France trip or ALSACE trip.

In Gerardmer, Mo and I haven't decided which direction we would take. There were 2 possibilities, go to LES BAINS, place for hot spring ( or hot swimming pool- I actually didn't know exactly what it was) or to COLMAR. We definitely needed something WARM since it was very cold in Gerardmer. But I saw in the map that there is less to see or to do in Les bains. If we go to Colmar, we could visit some interesting places ( Mo said so), Ribeauville, Riquewihr, and to a castle and then go Colmar and Strasbourg.
Mo gave me 2 options, in Les bains we could do this and in Colmar there are this and that. Was a little bit CONFUSED whether I wanted to have a nice hot spring and relaxed ( which we really needed it) or should I reach as many cities as possible in France. I then decided that I wanted to go to Colmar. But then he said we would MISS the nice hot spring and so on and so on. I was again confused and didn't like that situation. He let me decide which direction we should go but when I already made my decision, he CONFRONTED me again with the fact that we would miss the bad thermal.
Didn't know if this was another culture difference or it's just his personality against mine. CHOLERIC VS SANGUINES type :-). When I had the time I will write about these CULTURAL DIFFERENCES. Maybe not much since I've been learning and got in touch with the Dutch culture since I was in college, so, lets say that I am more or less familiar and accepted the DUTCH NORMS. This will make my story less MEANINGFUL or objective actually.

Anyway, we drove further to Ribeauville and Riquewihr. on the road again was making me NERVOUS coz I had to read the map again. urgh :-). I MISSED Dessy everytime I had to read the map. I wish she was there with me :-). Dessy and I studied in Leiden for 6 months. She was good in reading map. She only needed a couple of hours to learn where is the centre of Leiden, our university and our apartment. While it took me 3 days for that hihi

Being a navigator was also new to me. in Indonesia I always fall ASLEEP in the car heheh. It happened many times when I went back to Jakarta from my father's house, I felt asleep in the car. At one time our driver GAVE UP. he said: enough Ban ( my nickname at home), promise me that you would not fall asleep, stay awake or otherwise u should take the back seat and let Tonton ( my nephew) sit next to me *kekekekekek*. You guys must know which task I took hihihihi.

Good, we arrived at Ribeauville with the feeling of RELIEF since it was NOT COLD anymore. The SUN was SHINING, the WEATHER was WARM.
Ribeauville and Riquewihr were amazing. Located between the VINEYARDS and the MOUNTAINS. The houses there are so BEAUTIFUL. Each house has different color. Just see them on the pictures.

RIbeauville and Riquewihr are also known for their vineyards. learned a little bit about wine. Mo told me some INTERESTING stories about wine, champagne, different kind of grapes. In Ribeauville and Riquewihr, WINES ARE NOT NAMED AFTER THE LOCATIONS BUT NAMED AFTER THE DIFFERENT KIND OF GRAPES of which they are made. I only know 2 different types of grapes: PINOT and MUSCAT since Mo bought them hehehe. Could not tell the difference between them. But I think I LIKE PINOT BETTER THAN MUSCAT. Pinot is not so strong as muscat, not so bitter I guess.

It's too bad that we didn't find a wine factory where we could see the wine making process.

In Riquewihr I finally had to buy a new pair of shoes. hihi. VERY GOOD shoes for walking and hiking. in Jakarta I've never put that shoes on but it will be definitely very useful for next trips.

Night at the Museum: 10 April 2007

The excursion was organized by the Sahabat Museum (Friends of Museum) group. went there with irev, yolla, anne, and emier and of course other hundred museum lovers or desperate-single-looking-for-a-cute-guy people.
The museum was originally for Nederlands Handelsmaatschappij. Built in 1930. It now becomes a museum of mandiri bank. It is nice to see how things worked in the past. They even have a huge old accounting book ( from 1900 I guess) for Indonesian land products. Very interesting collection. Many signboards are of course still in Dutch.The ground floor, is for collections of safe deposit box.
What I like most are the old phone, clock, round lamps, bicycle collection, the marble tiles, and the old architecture with stained glass art and very big windows made of teak wood.

There are rumours that this building is full of ghosts ieuuuuw. it was kind of creepy for me. But nothing happened of course. We were their friends :-))

Shirts selling

Very early in Saturday morning, went to Bintaro to help the girlfriend of my house mate selling some clothes, wallets, bags, anything that can be sold.
It was a penetration day to see the market, the competition and the consumers. Dina had to pay 500.000 rupia (45 USD) for one day selling but for unlimited period (only Saturday, for Sunday u have to pay 1.000.000 rupia or 90 USD) . Dina paid the amount not to authorized institution but to - just say - the mafia there. That's just how they run the market there. Maybe the mafia also give some money to the authorized people.
It was a very hot day. It was kind of boring since we didn't have so many buyers.
I just walked around to see what I could buy for myself. I bought 10 music CDs and some nice wrapping papers. :-))

Bandung: one day after arrival

This is intermezzo of my Eurotrip pictures.
One day after I arrived in Indonesia, I went to Bandung with mas ica, yanne, yolla, irev , ncel, ton2, and anita. it was fun to see them all. everybody had stories to tell.
in Bandung we went to the Valley resto. It is located in the top of Bandung city. You can see some part of Bandung area from there and the atmosphere is so romantic. Yolla was about to cry because she went there with us singles and just friends) not with a boyfriend hahaha. Yolla desperately needed a boyfriend. she asked me to bring an Italian guy for her but I didnt meet any Italian guy in Europehehehehe.
Anyway, the food at the Valley resto was great. The panoramic view was very nice. Its just the perfect place for couples. Love is in the air.

Gerardmer: the heart of High Vosges

From Nancy, we drove to Gerardmer. The actual plan was actually to St Die Voges. But St Die was not so nice, we drove right away to Gerardmer. It was getting dark, I was very nervous at that time coz that would make my task harder hehehe.
At first I didn't believe when Mo said that some cars had snow on the top of the roof. As we drove approaching Gerardmer, we had to stop and find a hotel to stay in. forgot why, maybe it was already to dark.
The next morning, walked out the door, stunned, all white. was like a little girl who were in the zoo for the first time. very much excited.
Later on that day, I got the chance to witness those beautiful mountains and jungles. The view was breathtaking. Scenery like that I only saw in films, pictures or posters. I've been blessed. Again like Paul Coelho said in his book the Alchemist, once you decide, the universe conspires to make it happen.
From the hotel, drove to tourist info center to buy a walk map and hostel guidebook. Drove again to the hostel, checked in and then took a walk. We planned to go to a lake but somehow we got lost in the middle of the jungle.

during the walking, I made my first snowman. Mo made the body and I made the head. Well I made the egg head and Mo did the finishing touch. Actually Mo made most part of the snowman hihihi. Below you can see the amazing result of a fruitful cooperation between Indonesia and Dutch hihihi.

It took us a while to get out of that labyrinth. We went back to the hostel. But first buy some hansaplast for my blister. Didn't get the hansaplast I wanted but another product that cost me 10 euro hahaha. I could buy one t-shirt or 12 times lunch in Indonesia with that amount. Its ok at least I had something to laugh at. ( anyone interested in buying that thing, please contact me, I still have 8 pieces :-)).

Brussels and Namur

On the second day in Europe, I went to Brussels to see Irwin. I brought him super hot Indonesian sambal (made by Dian's mom) en he couldn't stop eating rice with the sambal.
I was planning to stay there only for one night coz I also had to meet other people but he asked me to stay one more night as he hasn't spoken Indonesian language for 2 years.
On Saturday, we went to Namur-capital of Wallonia-, one hour with the train. Namur is just beautiful. It has both old part as well as modern part. I love the two rivers, Meuse and Sambre which are lined with the old houses.

Rotterdam en Blijdorp

This time I went to Rotterdam to visit one of families that I knew from the Dutch school in Jakarta. It was nice to see the fam again especially the hyperactive Mieke.In Rotterdam I had a great time with Mieke and my ex e-friend (^_^), Jair, at the zoo in Rotterdam, Het Blijdorp.

CBI friends

Friends from CBI course was fun. Each of them is unique. It is great to know all of them . I hope I can see them again. Maybe for business or only for vacation.Though I prefer the second one :-).