The first place that we visited was 's-Hertogenbosch, the capital city of the province of North Brabant (Noord Brabant). FYI, this city is commonly called Den Bosch by the Dutch people. Several days before our journey, mbak Nelly went to a shop in the city that sells various souvenirs in a relatively cheap price, even cheaper than the shops in the small city of Volendam. Therefore, motivated by my hillarious economic instinct, I decided to hunt as many souvenirs as possible in the shop. Unfortunately, when we arrived, it was closed until the middle of september without any specific reason. But hey, it wasn't so bad after all. See the picture below?
It is a picture of a Bossche bol. Bossche bols are kind of "Soes" cakes (in Indonesian) that are covered with chocolate. Thanks to Reyhan, we're able to find a store that sells the finest Bossche bols, Jan de Groot banketbakkerij. So, rather than buying souvenirs, each of us bought two Bossche bols... However, the most of us were fasting. So, although the bols looked very delicious... we had to wait until it is dawn before we can taste them... Let me tell you, they looked marvelously yummy!
Next stop: Utrecht. In this fourth most populated city in the Netherlands, we have only one thing in mind.. coming to the book festival. We were lost at the first place, as we went out from the wrong side of the central station. After we asked a guy with yellow uniform (which then answered our question in Dutch [^^]' ), we were able to find the place where the festival was held. The place was very big! I had a very good time, exploring books as I usually did during my childhood. Most books were sold at a relatively low price, so I bought two books: one is about how cool things works (yeah.. just say I'm a geek :p ) and the other is about pirates. The latter is also the first souvenir that I bought at the day. I'm anxious about how my cousins will react when I give them the book. Using the guide and the paper materials in the book, you can create a model of a pirate's ship! I'll be happy to have it for myself if I'm a kid (well.. I still feel like one, actually).
Then, we went to the student city, Delft. Our agenda was clear: Souvenirs, walking around, and meet some friends. Alhamdulillah, we managed to do all of the things. We (well, actually just me) bought some pretty souvenirs at the shops around the centrum. We walked around the Oude Kerk and the Nieuwe Kerk, and we met our friends, the "tampan" guy and his two side-kicks :p. And guess what, on the centrum, there was a half-aged lady who brings pig as her pet! Just as if the pig is a dog, she tied the pig and walked him around. Gee... I would like to take a picture together with the pig, but my reluctance to be touched by any parts of the pig prevented me to do so... It's just so.... eeewwwwwwwhhhh!!!
Last stop of the day was the Hague, where we walked around Binnenhoff and joined an ifthar in the only Indonesian Mosque in the Netherlands: Al Hikmah. All of us have already been on the city, so there's no new things to be seen. However, when we came to the ifthar, we had such a good time! The foods were authentic, so authentic that it really felt like home. Many people were coming as well, regardless of their nationality. I ate various foods, such as fish meatballs, "balado" meat, yellow-spiced fish, kolak, bala-bala, and many others. I really miss my mom's cooking. Hope that in a short time, I'll be able to taste some of these foods again in Indonesia.
After ifthar, we traveled back home. We were exhausted, but excited as well. In the train heading back to Eindhoven, we finally ate our Bossche bols.. They were simply... DELICIOUS. So delicious that mbak Nelly's book also "ate" some bols :P Thanks Amalia, thanks Reyhan, thanks mbak Nelly, for such a nice experience. Looking forward to travel with all of you again! :)
For all of you TU/e students who wants to search journals or papers from home using google and download them using TU/e's account, there is another alternative rather than using the TU/e's VPN. We can ask Janus server, provided by the TU/e bibliotheek, to download the journals and papers and forward them back to us. How to do that?
