Banska Bystrica Historic Town in Slovakia

On the way from Budapest to Krakow, we went through Slovakia. We stopped by a beautiful city call Banska Bystrica as the most important historical, cultural and economic centre of the central Slovakia. The earliest history of Banská Bystrica was connected with the exploitation of its abundant deposits of copper. We walked to the downtown, it's free time around two and a half hours including lunch.

Nobody told us about the history and the beautiful building at downtown, so we just took many pictures surrounding by beautiful buildings. The weather was nice, quite mild and the town was not too crowded, it's perfect to enjoy it. It lies in the the middle of Europe on the banks of the river Hron surrounded by breathtaking scenary of Low Tatras, Kremnické Vrchy and Slovenské Rudohorie mountains.

The slender Hodinová veža tower (The Clock Tower) built in 1552 was dominated and became the central attraction at the main square. In front of the tower was The Plague column of the Virgin Mary. While City Barbican (Banská Bystrica Town Castle) located next to the tower was once formed by several ancient buildings in the central Slovakian metropolis Banská Bystrica. Its task was to protect the income proceedings of copper and silver mining for the royal treasury.

Across City Barbican was St. Francis Xavier Cathedral Built in 1715 on the site of the chapel of St. John the Baptist and on the house called Oberhaus. The church with one nave is the copy of the church " Il Gesù" in Rome. It is a Baroque building, later transformed into the classical style. The dominant twin-towers were built during the renovations in 1844. The church's interior from the first half of the 19th century consist of the Empire main altar, the side altars and the pulpit.

Continue walking we could find the historic Radnica (townhall) of Banská Bystrica then we could find Thurzos house, the social science exposition of the Museum of Central Slovakia. It is formed from two Gothic houses completed with some Renaissance elements. As we didn't notice it at that time, we didn't visit the museum. Many cafes were available along the streets for people to take a rest while they still could enjoy the scenery.

Strolling the lower part of Námestie SNP, the natural center of the city, we found an art fountain and a black Obelisk in Slovak National Uprising Square as the memorial to honor the Soviet soldiers killed during the liberation of the city in 1945.

We stopped by to buy ice cream, before continue exploring the street. So many beautiful small shops selling souvenirs, clothes, handy-craft etc. My friends liked to buy clothes, we spent some minutes in a big shop selling clothes and shoes. I preferred to find souvenirs, many unique souvenirs we could find here, most of them made from woods. Most of the shops didn't accept card, but they didn't mind accepting Euro.

Decided to have lunch at Pizza restaurant, we could get extra bonus using the toilet, it's very clean and auto sensor implemented for the lighting. While waiting for the pizza, it's raining very hard, lucky that we had taken many pictures and got a chance to explore the city. We had to move our chairs to avoid getting wet, the pizza was very delicious & crispy. After finishing lunch, God was kind enough, the rain stopped so we could go back to our bus.

Our bus parked near to The Museum of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP). An architecturally unusual building built in 1969, located in the middle of a park that includes an open-air museum of heavy military equipment. It's quite satisfying visited the nice town on the long way to reach Krakow by bus.

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Famous Mirabell Garden Salzburg, Austria

I really want to visit Salzburg as I saw its beautiful scenery in my favourite musical movie “The Sound of Music”. During my East Europe tour, we visited Salzburg, one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps, just for half day.

We arrived at noon after lunch time, Mirabell Garden was the only place that’s scheduled to be visited in the tour itinerary. A bus tour with “The Sound of Music” branding was parked on the parking lot, we took some pictures while waiting for our friends stopped by at the toilet. Entering the garden, we welcome by a woman statue fountain in the middle of an circle pool surrounding by flowers. The Mirabell Gardens were opened to the public by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1854, it becomes a horticultural masterpiece and popular backdrop for photographers.

The next part of the garden was larger, it’s the main garden decorated with beautiful flowers, statues, also a big fountain. As my friends were busy pose and taking many pictures, I had to make myself available for others helping them taking pictures so they could take my picture in return. Otherwise I would only had the scenery without me for documentation. Lucky after quite a long time, they remembered me :-), asked me to go to the middle of the garden to take some pictures behind the flowers with the Mirabell palace as the background. The Baroque masterpiece of Schloss Mirabell Palace was initially built as "Schloß Altenau" under the reign of Prince Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau in 1606. It was a present for his concubine Salome Alt and most famous for its splendid garden.

When I’ve returned to Indonesia, I explored Mirabell garden, I've just found and realized, actually Pegasus fountain is one of the landmark beside the palace. Unfortunately we didn’t go through the Pegasus fountain to run down the hedge arcade along the Grand Parterre what Fräulein Maria and the Trapp children did in the movie. It’s quite very short time to visit the beautiful garden, no time to enjoy the scenery by sitting on the available benches for visitors. We left through the gate which was guarded by sporty man statues at the left and right side formed the gate arch.

Our guide brought us to the other side of the city, the Makartsteg, a bridge over the Salzach River in Salzburg′s city centre. It was named after the 19th century Historicist painter Hans Makart, who was born and raised in Salzburg. It’s raining when we crossed the bridge which was full of various padlocks from couple lovers who’re falling in love. Makart became famous as a painter of the Viennese Historicism, providing artwork for many of the pompous buildings of the Ringstraße. The Makartsteg is open for pedestrians and cyclists only.

Continued walking to the old cities to visit Mozart’s house, we went through many small aisles, the guide didn’t allow us to split as there were many people around, he would find difficulty to find the lost one. Finally we reached the house, it’s not too big, you must pay to see inside the house on the 2nd floor which has become a museum now, none of us was interested in it. The guide was giving us free time to explore the area, so many beautiful shops around it, which sold souvenirs, bags, etc. Some restaurants and attractive café design were also available there, we passed by a restaurant which displayed the big size shrimp, bread to attract people.

I visited some souvenir shops to buy small stuffs such as cute magnetic for mom and myself, also visited chocolate stores which sold Mozart (the genius musician who was born in Salzburg) chocolate for gifts. Actually many souvenirs were cute, unfortunately it’s quite expensive when I calculate in IDR, most of the time I cancelled to buy because of the price. Beside that, it’s quite difficult to bring the easy breakable once, such as house miniature, glasses, decorative plate or crystal, clocks, etc. Most of souvenirs I bought was chocolates and magnetic decoration for fridge 

The local guide brought us to the bus stop area went through the same way, including Makarsteg bridge, as now it’s not raining, we could take some beautiful pictures with the padlocks, the river and beautiful mountains as the background. So many tourist buses were parking on the area where we were waiting for our bus, there were benches for us to sit. The city was ready for tourist visit, they kept maintaining well the tourism places which were existed many years even centuries, also provided and arranged well the infrastructure to progress with the modern world. I also like the weather there, although it’s quite cold and windy, we should wearing jacket at least. If you would like to experience “The Sound of Music”, you should at least spend one whole day in Salzburg. You could join the local tour with has short or long hour trips to trace the movie places.

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Unbelievable Spectacular Hallstatt, Austria

In June 2015 I joined East Europe tour from Jakarta, we’ve visited Hallstatt, the amazing village with its tranquil lake surrounding by traditional houses functioned as hotel, restaurant and shops with mountains. The bus just dropped us, it didn’t park there, we’re given 2 hours 45 minutes to stroll around. Hallstatt is known for its production of salt, dating back to prehistoric times, and gave its name to the Hallstatt culture. Recently UNESCO determined a big part of this region as a World Heritage worth to be preserved.

Going down from the bus, the lake was very attempting. The weather was quite cold for us, around 12 degree Celcius, so we wore jacket or long sleeves sweater with scarf to warm our neck. We sat on the edge of the lake, playing around with the beautiful swans which had a black color highlight around their eyes. Some of them even tried to bite my friend’s shoes.

Actually you could ride a boat to go around the lake, unfortunately we didn’t have enough time. An incident happened to a western tourist who sat next to us. Accidentally he dropped his smartphone to the lake, lucky the lake was crystal clear, so he could get back his smartphone although he had to swim and get wet. It must be very chilly, as the temperature was low and windy. I don’t know whether his phone could back to function well. Poor him…

After sitting around 30 minutes on the lake’s edge, we went to the left side not strolling the lake’s edge to the cathedral. It’s very quiet, but we found many beautiful traditional houses with colorful bright flowers. We posed in the middle of the street to get better scenery for the background. One of my friend was really addicted to photos, she would like us to take many shoots with her various pose in a place. She has a good body shape, she’s beautiful very creative to pose, unfortunately we didn’t have much time if we had to follow her desires all the time.

We found the railway up to the mountain which leads to the ancient salt mining. The station was quite near, you could take the panorama funicular to see the mystical area if you ride to the peak. The top was the tunnel mouth to the underground mining which was first dug by hand 3000 years ago. The railway was very steep and long, we took some pictures by jumping and my friend did the headstand (Yoga’s pose) with the path as the background. We had to aware for the traffic as the parking lot just next to it.

One of my friend was starving already, so she stopped at a beautiful restaurant to order pizza and crepes with ice cream, the bonus we could use the restroom/toilet free of charge. The toilet was very clean, and it used movement sensors to turn off/on the light automatically. It’s good to save energy. I bought an ice cream while my other friend bought orange juice. It’s nice to relax in the restaurant surrounding by the beautiful scenery and mild weather.

As time only 30 minutes remaining to return to the bus. We had to hurry, but we kept taking pictures on the way back to the meeting point. A beautiful scenery from a small bridge was attempted us to record the picturesque scenery.

Reaching the meeting point, we saw nobody in the bus, so we went further to the edge of the lake, we still had a chance to take beautiful pictures in front of the fence. Finally we’re the last persons to go into the bus.

In the bus, our friends showed their shopping hunting, beautiful 24K gold plated Austrian crystal ornament with various form such as musical instrument (harp, piano, etc.), angels, animals, etc. It cost around EUR25 for the small one. The shops were available around the picturesque historical market square. We didn’t have time to go there, we spent all hours to take pictures and stop a while for lunch in other direction. Most of our friends walked down the river towards the cathedral.

Time was too short, we should stay overnight there. You should spend your holiday among lovely mountains and lakes. Millions of people have already been photographed against the stunning backdrop, which for many visitors counts as one of the most beautiful motives in Europe.

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Prestigious Harvard University, Boston

In Boston we had a chance to visit the most popular and prestige Harvard University established in 1636. We were dropped by the bus's driver in front of the university gate. My mom took a picture with our handsome guide under the umbrella as it's spatter.

The local guide brought us to The Harvard Bixi is a 17-foot high, 27 ton Chinese marble stele located at Harvard University, west of Widener Library in Harvard Yard. The stele was presented to the university by the Chinese Harvard Alumni for its Tercentenary in September 1936. The meticulous carvings of dragons chasing pearls on the sides and top of the marble tablet are the only traces that indicate the stele’s imperial past. The strength of a nation necessarily depends upon the progress of civilization, which in turn is contingent upon the growth of intellectual knowledge of its people. With this belief, many pioneers have devoted their lives to the promotion of education in all countries

Widener Library, our next stop, is Harvard University's flagship library. Built in the early 1900s by Eleanor Elkins Widener, it was given to Harvard as a memorial to her son, Harry, Class of 1907, an enthusiastic young bibliophile who perished aboard the Titanic. She said that during graduation the students are always taken picture with the stately library as the background. We didn't go inside, just see it from outside, the library was higher than others, so many stairs to reach the library's entrance.

We had a nice talk with Sue, an author from Australia, who joined the same group tour with us. She's very friendly and positive person, my mother told her that she looked like my mother's best friend. My sister's showed the picture of my mother's best friend to her. Sue also helped to take our picture together (my sisters and mom) so we had a complete family picture in front of the popular library.

John Harvard (1607-1638) bronze sculpture in the Harvard Yard guard­ing the Univer­sity Hall offices of the Dean of Harvard College. Harvard is a founder of the school, the timeliness and generosity of his contribu­tion have made him the most honored. Our guide told us if we rub the toe of John Harvard's left shoe for luck, if you would like to study in Harvard, your dream would come true, it becomes as Harvard student tradition to rub his toe on their way to class to hope for luck on the exam. As most of the tourists rub the left shoe, it made the color becomes light brown, different from the whole statue which is dark grey.

After that the guide gave us freedom to go around Harvard areas, actually the area was quite huge unfortunately many places were closed for tourists. Dormitory was also available for students in the complex. The park was quite nice, some colorful chairs that could be used for relax or discussion arranged under the shady trees. As it was autumn, the trees were decorating beautifully the yard with its colorful leaves.

We went around but we don't know exactly what its building for as there was no name or function tag there. In front of the beautiful west façade Sever Hall we took a picture. The archway admitting entrance into the west facade possesses an acoustical oddity. Whispering directly into the bricks of the archway, while standing very close to one side of the arch, can be heard clearly on the other side of the arch (approximately twelve feet away). It was designed as an academic building with classrooms, lecture halls, rooms for professors, etc., in a style now known as Richardsonian Romanesque though in red brick rather than stone.

On the way back to the gate, we found squirrel in the park. I like the Harvard ambience, it seems nice studying in the comfortable half college town, half cosmopolitan hub. Situated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard is one of more than 50 local institutions serving more than 200,000 students—making the Boston area America’s premier “college town.” Yet with an intellectually stimulating environment that is steeped in tradition, Harvard is unlike anywhere else in the world

Waiting for the bus, we crossed the street to au bon pain café filling our stomach with bakery and hot coffee to warm our body while enjoying the environment surrounding the popular university. If it's not cold, it's nice to sit outside with the clean and fresh weather and beautiful scenery.

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Misty Weather in Genting Highland, Kuala Lumpur

I took a leave in April 2015 to have a small reunion with my elementary school friends, there were 17 of us from different cities (Kediri, Surabaya, Semarang, Jakarta & Singapore) without children. Our destination was Malaysia, we went with the morning flight, so all of us arrived in KLIA2, Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 around lunch time. Our meeting point was food court at 2M level before departing to Genting using rental cars. After lunch we searched for local sim card to avoid roaming fee, most of my friend bought 22 MYR to get free internet for a week. I didn’t buy it, just waiting for the free wifi connection. The new klia2 is quite huge, which could accommodate >200 retail outlets, anyway we didn’t have much time to explore it, just went directly to the exit gate waiting for the rental car to pick us up.

On the way to Genting, we stopped at Shell fuel station to buy some drinks and snacks, also went to the restroom. Arriving in Genting (perched on the peak of Gunung Ulu Kali at 1,800 meters high) for another hour, the place was covered with thick clouds, we could not see any panoramic view, it's common to have a misty weather in this location. The hotel’s front door was very wide, many doors decorating with beautiful lighting to enter. My friend had reserved 8 rooms at First World hotel through internet. There was no long queue, unfortunately we still had to wait for a long time as the room was not ready. I’m quite surprised as it was almost 17:00 o’clock while the normal check out hotel is at 14:00. The lobby was very beautiful, with many beautiful statues, carving and lighting. When I asked about free wifi, they said that I must pay 10 MYR for an hour or 15 MYR for 24 hours. I prefer not to buy it as we’ve just arrived and we’ll check out the next day, and I didn’t feel that I really need it.

After getting the room which was not as good and wide as the lobby, we went for dinner and exploring First World area, it’s a pity that the outdoor theme park was under construction. First World Plaza is a colourful shopping complex with restaurants, entertainment and boutique outlets. Finally after shopping, we decided to visit the only legal land-based gambling casino in Malaysia. We’re not allowed to take picture inside the casino, even we could not bring shopping bag inside, so some of our friends had to go back to the rooms. After going around in the casino, my friend decided to play guessing “small/big card”, others only as supporters. Lucky she could win 500 MYR, so we celebrated it by having dessert, and save the remaining money for durian on the next day.

In the morning we could see a very beautiful scenery from the lift’s window, as if we’re staying on the cloud. We planned to ride cable car called Genting Skyway (3.38 km) as the fastest and longest gondola lift in South East Asia, we had to walk quite a long distance through different hotels such as 5 star Maxims hotel, to reach the station. Lucky it’s indoor and so many escalators to connect one building to another building, so it’s not hot and we didn’t feel it’s far. We passed by some other hotels, such as the The cable car could only load 6-8 persons depend on the weight, but they had many cabins. It’s fun as we could see the trees and paths far below us, we also could see the mountains covering by the clouds. The peak overlooked lush valleys of rainforest stretching towards KL. It’s windy on the first quarter, the weather was mild and nice, after that we felt hot, as there was no wind and the sun was shiny quite strong to our cabin.

We directly decided to have brunch in Shanghai 10 restaurant, a dim sum, noodle and desert eatery. I was very happy as I could get a quite fast free wifi from the restaurant. While waiting for the ordered food, I was busy checking and update my facebook, whatsapp and bbm. Funny things happened when I ordered flower shrimp, it looked big and beautiful in the picture's menu. I'm quite surprised when it came it's not as big as the picture, but it's beautiful. I took picture then busy again updating my picture, suddenly when I want to eat it, only empty plate left :-( I decided to order once more then.

As it's already around 12:00, we had to go back to the hotel for checkout, unless we would get penalty if we were late. The good thing was the check-out kiosk, that’s fast and efficient, you don’t need to queue, because there were many machines for you to drop your room’s card there. It would connect automatically to the receptionist and cleaning service, so they could clean the room for the next guest.

The next destination in Genting was Chin Swee, a beautiful Taoist temple, as it’s built in the most scenic site of Genting Highlands in 18 years. It’s located 4600 feet above sea level, so the weather was quite cold although the sun shone so strong. There were a statue of Qingshui, a Buddhist monk which was popular for his abilities to summon rain and drive away evil spirits. A beautiful red temple was in the middle of the hall where we could see the giant Buddha statue, waterfall and its iconic Pagoda tower. We took many pictures there, sometimes the sun shone so hard, until we could not see clearly to take picture, but suddenly the cloud came.

The temple was built by the founder of Genting (Lim Goh Tong) to venerate Buddhist figure Chin Swee. A construction foundation dug from solid bedrock, modern machinery was eschewed because of the steep terrain. Many beautiful objects for taking pictures with its bright color and blue sky. I love to stay there as the weather was nice and the scenery was amazing, unfortunately we had to go to Kuala Lumpur. Behind the statue is a natural rock in a man-made flowing stream. The rock gives the necessary support to the statue while the stream provides clear cool mineral water throughout the year. This water has been named ‘Dragon Mineral Water’ was said to have healed the sick.

If you like a mild weather, a breathtaking view and serene mountain environment, Genting Highland is a good destination for leisure with family too, as there was indoor theme park, shops and restaurants. It was fun to go together with my childhood friend while we could have the cheer and laughter together.

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Old Fort Niagara, Historic Treasure of North America

Passing by Niagara, the bus dropped some passengers who didn't join tour to Old Fort Niagara. We continued by bus in another 20 minutes to reach the fort. We had to walk around 10 minutes to the gate. We entered the visitor center stopped by to the restroom first, then seeing some introductory exhibits filled with original artifacts, the Fort's original War of 1812 Flag including the 3D map of the areas.

We continued the journey to across the bridge with sharpened black wooden at the end of the bridge. Passing the bridge we could see a unique bastion, made of prism shape mound strengthen by pile of wooden beams on the left and right side. We went through a beautiful gate "The South Redoubt" where they saved some cannons, then continue passing by "The Provision Storehouse", gathered at the greenfield in front of the building and at the corner of "Powder Magazine" building to wait for the attraction.

A funny army man with uniform in 18th century. He brought an old rifle, that you need to fill the gunpowder first before you could shoot. He showed a failed shoot many times with a funny story that made all of us laughing. He's very cute and handsome, we took some pictures with him after the attraction. He's the man who made the tour was not boring. As the area was quite huge, no activity just the quiet green fields with the buildings with its furniture inside.

We explored the left side which facing to the ocean, where there were some cars parking. Continuing exploring the two levels "French Castle" where the soldiers live. It was designed included all the facilities necessary for a garrison - quarters, storerooms, a well, and even a chapel to be impregnable to native attack.

Right after the main door, you're facing to the store room where you still could see some fabric, blanket from fur on the rack, as it was a trading post. A canoe hung upside down under the storeroom's roof. Old Fort Niagara offered a chance to step back in time to an era when great empires struggled for control of North America.

At the right side of French Castle, there we could see the sea freely, it's just right to the coast where the soldiers could see any visitors by ships. There were some monuments to commemorate the founders. As getting late and the visit time was almost ended, we returned to the gate. In the middle of the area, there was a canon with its bullets, where we could take a good picture with the French Castle as the background.

As the walking journey quite long, we were hurry to go back to the gate, went across the bridge, passed through the visitor room to the entrance then continued walking to the bus park area. We've visited the original 18th century buildings, where Native American, French, British and American soldiers lived and worked. Enjoyed the incredible views to learn about life on the Niagara Frontier during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

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