Odisseus’ Mom

Assalamu’alaikum wr. wb.

Dear Ody,

Your father has told you our story in Berlin. I am sorry that we didn’t have the opportunity to call you from Berlin. I believe that you are doing just fine there in Jakarta. As you already know that we left Berlin very early in the Saturday, 25th February morning. The receptionist of our hotel gave us the fastest public transportation option to reach Tegel International Airport, Berlin.

From the hotel we walked down the Anhalter Strasse to reach S-Bahn underground station. There were very few people waiting for the train that morning. We had to go to the Unter den Linden station, and then changed with the TXL bus there. While waiting for our train, your father and me had a few moments to take the picture. Here we are….

We arrived at Unter den Linden at 6 am in the morning, there was nobody at the bus stop. After we noticed a little further, we realized that the bus stop was being closed, that’s why there was nobody there. We decided to ask anybody we could met that morning. Across the street–just in front of the famous and huge Russian embassy in Unter den Linden–we saw a bus was waiting at the bus stop for the opposite direction. We cross the street and ask the driver, where should we wait for the bus which going to take us to the airport. The driver explained that we had to walk to the halte before that halte, just on the same side. We followed the direction, and after the Russian embassy we found a bus stop. We waited about 8 minutes there while enjoying the morning and Brandenburger Tor in front of us with its lights. When the bus finally arrived, the driver said that we waited at the wrond side of the street, therefore we had to cross the street again and wait a the next bus stop. Luckily, that old driver allow us ride freely the bus until we reach the right bus stop.

The timetable at the bus stop showed that in 6 minutes, the TXL bus will arrived, jus exactly what the receptionist in our hotel said in the timetable he gave us. We thank God for being helped by such kind person to reach the bus stop, otherwise we could have missed the bus and being late for check in at the airport.

Dear my soleh boy Ody, we always pray that you are going to be a good, smart, healthy, and soleh boy. We really miss you here, we will try somehow to bring you also to Europe on your father’s next visit. Hopefully, Allah SWT the Almighty bless our family, give us strength, health, and also “rezeki” to be able to re-unite again a moment here in Europe before I finally going home to Indonesia.

Our kisses, hugs, and prays will always be with you honey.

Wassalamu’alaikum wr. wb.    

Dear My Son,

There are some reasons why we choose our unexpected tour to Berlin: First, this city has a significant relation in the world history today, especially World War I , World War II , and Cold War. Second, this city was the land of the most respectable thinker and philosopher in our lifetime: Albert Einstein and Karl Marx. 
 

On the Friday morning we had a walking tour around the City East-side, mostly on the Unter den Linden. The Pariser Platz  was the first site to be seen. On this site locates one of the Berlin landmarks, the Brandenburger Tor, as a symbol of the division and reunification of the city of Berlin. Situated on the former border between the East and the West Berlin, it provides the most moving reminder of the city’s recent history.

The second was the memorial of the Murdered Jews of Europe. At the first time we saw this place, we taught that It was not an important site because there was no title or name, it was just hundreds or thousands small and big building blocks. When we tried to enter the site, the blocks that was shown short from outside was became taller than us as we tried to enter it more inside. Probably by watching Schilindler List and The Pianist  would give us a better understanding about this site. Another memorial of Jewish holocaust is the Jewish Museum closed to Check Point Charlie. 

The third was the Humboldt University, where Marx studied and Einstein taught. This University was built between 1748-1766. Actually, this site still used as the place to study. Some activities were held in front of the University. Some books such as Marx-Engels and Einsteins’ old books were offered.

We moved to the site that related to the real situation of the Berlin’s war as the last: Checkpoint Charlie. It was location where the Stasi and CIA spied on each other from and escape attempts were made both successful and failed. Fortunately we could have a picture in this site with the two nice guys who use one flag each. 

From the Checkpoint Charlie, we decided going back to the hotel for praying and relaxing before having the City Tour on the night in the City West: Kurfurstendam Avenue.

We took bus M 29 to the City West on 08.00 pm. Jakarta or Paris has a crowded city than Berlin, especially in the night. We decided to walk and having some pictures along the Kurfurstendam and Europecenter Avenue. Those avenue probably could be one of the “Berlin’s Champs de Elyeese of Paris” because it seems that those places were full of boutiques or other business buildings. After some sightseeing, we searched for dinner, we decided to have it in KFC in the left side of Europecenter Avenue. The time when we finished the dinner was around 22.00 pm and it was the time to go back to the hotel for preparation to leave for Amsterdam on Saturday morning 08.00 am. In addition, we took one last picture before the bus was coming. 

Berlin, 25^th of February 2006

Written by Odisseus’ Dad and Mom

Dear My Son,

Our
Berlin tour based on the unexpected tour, because of some unexpected constraints. First, your father should be in Indonesia on 23^rd (Thursday in Indonesia), on the contrary, the ticket which was bought in a hurry condition shows the date on 23^rd as my return date, it means I wouldl be in Jakarta on Friday (24^th), and  wouldn’t have a chance to be in office. Then on my second day in The Hague, I have decided to change the date to the 20^th or 21^st, unfortunately it was full booked, then I changed my mind that if I could not come earlier, I should extend at least 2 days in The Hague: 25^th or 27^th. Again, it was full booked, then I got 26^th available. The problem was, I would be in Jakarta on Monday Afternoon and I lost the chance to teach in Model Class (09.00) and International. Economic Class (14.00). Then I called, emailed, and YMed some colleagues for the information of my delay condition.

Second, your mother condition after the Paris tour was still on her cough, flu, and fever. Fortunately, on the Thursday noon she became better. Even though we planned the Berlin tour in Paris, we still assumed it was just an additional or not in the priority list. When we tried to search the ticket in the internet, most of the transportation (plane, bus, and train) were fully booked or could not be available to be ordered in a very short time. Then we did the unexpected way for the unexpected tour: “nekat”, means just went straight to the airport and hopefully got a chance to go on that day (Thursday afternoon).

Third. With the “nekat way” we got the ticket to Berlin on Thursday Afternoon (17.00), but another problem came: your mother did not bring her passport, only counted on her ID card (Resident Permit) and It could not be used for a ticket application. Then She should went back to The Hague for her passport and back to Schipool at least in 45 minutes and in fact, She could not make it.

After your mother came back, the Air Berlin was already in the air for about 15 minutes. The only thing we could do was expecting a good fortune, then we tried to search another flight and fortunately we got Transavia on 19.40. We had a special story in the Schiphol airport at the baggage check in counter. As information, your mother brought the bread and the bread’s knife in the bag, but she did not know exactly its position in the bag. After the bag was scanned for three times, the officer (women) asked us to open the bag and tried to search for something mass. We didn’t understand what she meant by “something mass”, and let her kept looking. After she found it, she was smile and would give us back that thing. After considering the problem for the next journey, we decided to drop off the bread knife and say goodbye for good.

We arrived at Berlin on 20.45 at the Tegel Intrenational Airport. After arriving in Berlin we still had to ask for hotel that closest to the airport. After asking 3 times we got the information from the BVG officer about the transportation we need to reach our hotel in Postdamer Platz, we should use bus twice. First, we used bus no 109 to reach Adenauerplatz and then change to the M29 bus to Anhalter Bahnhof. Finally, we arrived at the hotel around 22.00 pm. We decided not to have a city tour that night, because after seeing the condition from the bus that Berlin is a relatively quite city, most people’s activity not in the night. It was contrast with the Paris in the night.

What we did was trying to figure out the unplanned tour since we did not have any information about this city but only in the history book when we were in high school, that this city contains many memorial things that shape our lifetime today.

Berlin, 24^th of February 2006

Written by Odisseus’ Dad and Mom
 

Dear Ody,

As I told you that your mother still with her flu plus cough and fever  until the third day from Paris. Fortunately your father could be easily recovered. Probably our Berlin Tour will be suspended. However, the supply condition in the refrigerator was almost empty and we had to go to supermarket or open market to fill it with the cold and windy condition. And we decided to go to the Pasar Kaget (Hobbemaplein, The Hague) and China Town (Centrum) to buy the food supply.

When we arrived, I was so suprised that the sellers shouting each other to attract the buyers. It reminded me about Pasar Tradisional (Traditional Market)  di Indonesia like Pasar Kaget, Pasar Genjing, Pasar Rebo, or Pasar Monas. However, this market was clean. It seems this market provide food, vegetables, fresh fish, textiles, and other everyday’s need. According to your mother this market available on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday each week and the shops are not permanent building, but temporeraly and just using tent. The price sometimes has got discounted on 4 pm, because they want to attract the buyer for the last try.

Most of the buyers are foreigners such as Turk, Middle East, or even from Africa and Indonesia. After having our food supply we decided to have a coffee conversation in one of the canteen at the market. Fortunately, this coffee shop sold real coffee, I mean coffee like Indonesian coffee where water matter. It was difference with coffee we had in Paris, where coffee means coffee with no water in excess.

Before continuing to the China Town Market, we bought some chocolates at the supermarket near the pasar kaget. In China Town, we went to a Chinese Supermarket, it remained me in Fairfax (Virginia) or Urbana (Illinois) about this typical Asian Market. We could found Indomie, Kecap Bango, Terasi, Teh Botol, and some typical Asian food.

Before finishing our food supply tour, we stopped by in Albert Heijn for additional supply food that could not be found in the Pasar Kaget and Chinese supermarket.

Written by: Odisseus’s Dad.

Dear Ody,

In our third day or last day in Paris , we decided to focus on Louvre, the biggest Art Museum in the World. This Museum was built from King Palace in Paris, Louvre Museum divided into three main chamber which are Denon, Sully, and Richelieu. It collects thousands of sculptures, paintings, and artifacts from all over the world, especially Italy, Egypt, and French. However, this museum sometimes just to be acknowledge as the place of Picture of Monalisa by Leonardo da Vinci. This is very strange according to your father and your mother opinion, that a small painting become very famous and represent the biggest museum in the world.

Monalisa Smile

Most of the booklet about Louvre is related to the Monalisa’s strange smile.  According to us probably that was exaggregated because there are many valuable arts collections in the museums. What we did was trying to discover the Monalisa Smile. We had no art expertise in understanding paintings but after seeing the Monalisa Smile (unfortunately we could not take a picture since it is not allowed, but you could see the painting of any publication about Louvre), our curiosity become higher. There are many paintings in Louvre, but Monalisa (a small painitng compared to many giants’ paintings in Louvre) was the one that everybody want to see in the first floor of Denon chamber Louvre. We discussed about what was the most interesting from the painting or the strange smile. According to our limited knowledge and some citations, this Leonardo Da Vinci painting (an Italian) was himself like a self portrait. Probably it is true or just a gossip but the smile was still strange.

We also discussed that the picture of Monalisa whether as the symbol of women beauty or just a common in the life time of Leonardo. According to us, the picture is not the symbol of women beauty both in the Leonardo time and in our lifetime.

Beauty of Sculptures

Louvre museum has many sculptures collections. However there is no bold sculpture like Monalisa. Most of the sculptures consists of Man, Women, and Children without any dress. The most interesting to us was the why the man sculpture shown his genital, while the women never shown.

You mother has a better opinion that the man’s genital is shown because it is located in outside of the body (the power of man mostly to be shown), while the Women’s genital is located inside of the body (the power of women sometimes hidden). We took some pictures of some interesting sculptures.

The Pharaoh’s Mummy

Actually according to me, the most interesting collection in Louvre is the collection from Egypt . Entering this site was strange and mystics.  The first interesting artifact was Sphinx: a creature with a human head and a lion’s body. The name ’sphinx’ which means ’strangler’ was first given by the Greeks to a fabulous creature which had the head of a woman and the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. The sphinx appears to have started in in the form of a sun god. The Egyptian sphinx is usually a head of a king wearing his headdress and the body of a lion. There are, however, sphinxes with ram heads that are associated with the god Amun.

The second interesting one was the mummy. A mummy is the body of a person (or an animal) that has been preserved after death. The body may then be so well preserved that we can even tell how the dead person may have looked in life. Your mother could not take picture of the mummy that has been buried probably 3000 years. Fortunately your father still has the cell-phone camera to take the picture of the mummy, one of Pharaohs in the ancient .   

Back to The Hague, Netherlands

Unfortunately our health was in a bad condition on this third day tour, both of us got flu that caused by the rain in Paris and your father and mother reluctant to use umbrella. Actually we still have many plans to do to explore Paris such as Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur, and others. However, we decided to go to the Eurolines station earlier and having conversation in McD near the station in Gallieni. Again, your father lost his voice after having his dinner.

The bus went back to 23.00 pm sharp. In the middle of the way, somewhere in Breda or Eindhoven, the immigration checked passenger passports. We arrived at The Hague at 5.30 am in central station, while the city transportation operates on 06.30, so then we decided to have a walk from the station to the Dorus apartment. Then we are back again in the warmth of our room when we write this story for you may dear.

The Hague, 20 February 2006. Written by Odisseus’s Mom and Dad.

Dear Ody,

This is the second day of your father and your mother in Paris, actually the second day was in Versailles, outside Paris (you can compare to Jakarta and Bogor) and then we came back to Paris on Champ de Elysees Avenue for the Saturday night. What we got in Versailles was the greatness of the French in the past, while in Champ de Elysees was the romanticism of the present.

Tour de Versailles

For going to Versailles we took SNCF train from Montparnasse-Bienvenue Station, it’s a train which going to Versailles-Chantier Station, we bought a regional ticket train which cost 5.30 Euro per person for a return trip. It took about 20 minutes from Montparnasse to reach Versailles actually, but since your mother seemed a little bit forget and unsure about which station we had to drop off, we went a little bit further from our destination. Moreover, from the train condectur we knew that we had to chance the train in a small city near Versailles; luckily we met a French man at the station who was being very kind to us and lead us the platform which there will be another train which can took us back to Versailles .

We only had to wait for 5 minutes on that little and quiet station which according to us was felt like being in the middle of nowhere in French. When we arrived in Versailles-Chantier Station your mother began to remember that it was true that this station was not the station which she arrived at for Chateau de Versailles one month ago. We asked the information office the way to Chateau de Versailles, and she gave us direction that we only had to walk for about 10 minutes straight ahead from the station to reach the Chateau.  It was raining and both of us were walking in the middle of the rain using our little umbrella, but it was nice.

The purpose of our tour that day was focused on exploring the Versailles , one of the symbol of the greatness of French in the past and also became the symbol of the rise and glory of the French Monarchy since one thousands years ago.

Our first exploration was the view of the palace from outside. It was so wide to be seen clearly from the camera screen. What we did was trying to take the picture from four angles: left wing, right wing, left centre, and right centre. So, we had to take pictures four times to capture all the palace’s landscapes.

The chapel of this palace became the first object to be seen. This place consists of two floors: the first for the royal: the king and his family; and the second for the nobles. On the ceiling could be seen some pictures of the myth of Greek and Roman.

The next object was the pictures and sculptures of the Louis era. The eras were the glories of French Monarchy. As we have known from the history, Louis IV known as the greatest king of the Louis Dynasty and Louis XVI (with Marie Antoinette) as the point of the monarchy’s fall. So, your father’s concern was taking the picture of the Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette.

The third object was Napoleon era and his war. As we have known that Napoleon was the Master of the half of Europe once. He became General on his 25^th and became Emperor of French and in 1804 and 1805. Your father took a picture in front of his painting when He was a general and an Emperor of French and Italy. The Napoleon time was also became the glory time for the French, but a disaster for other European countries. His star was fallen on the Waterloo war, when the ally army of England and Prussian (German) defeated him.

The forth object was a hall (it was like a museum) full of pictures and statues of the French’s war for about hundreds or thousands years. I discussed this with your mother: why does the greatness of each country should equal to the numbers of wars they should faces? The history told us that this world was shaped by number of small and big wars. We did not have any idea, one of the possibility was probably this world based on what Darwin said as “the natural selection and the struggle for life”. Actually before entering this object we have to pass through Hall of Mirrors that became the place of the Peace Treaty of First World War. I also remembered that before we entered this palace, we had a photograph in front of La Ville hotel at Versailles ; this is the place where the First World War Leaders stayed during the Treaty of First World War.  In front of the hotel, was written the French Revolution’s famous slogan: Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite or Liberation, Egalitarian, and Brotherhood.

The fifth object was the nice and great garden of the palace which consists of two pools, statues, and small gardens. The view from the palace to the pool and garden reminded me of the view from Lincoln Memorial to the pool and garden in front of the building in Washington D.C (you could also see the place on Forrest Gump film that was shown on the part of Anti-Vietnam War demonstration in D.C Area around 1960s).

Sightseeing at: Notre Dame-Bastille-Champ de Elysees-Arc de Triomphe

After having Versailles tour, we went back to Paris using different train from different station. This time we went back from Versailles-Rive Gauche Station which locates near the Chateau. We took SNCF train to reach Notre-Dame. It took around 40 minutes to reach Notre-Dame St Michel station. We arrived and took a way out which leads to Notre Dame Basilica. People were very crowded there, taking pictures, entering the Dame, enjoying the afternoon, and so on. We took some pictures there and then continued our trip to Bastille by walking along the Seine River side. We’d like to notice how the Seine River divided Paris into two parts, and the in the middle of Seine there is a small land where Notre-Dame locates on one of the river side.  

Perhaps when you are grown up you could read the story or watch the movie of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, this story was based on a true place: a very old church along the Seine River in the middle of Paris. This Church became the place to bless the King in Chair by the Pope or Priests or Kardinal, including Napoleon when he acknowledged himself as an Emperor in 1804.

While continuing our tour to Bastille, we had a late lunch at a halal food shop around St. Antoinette Avenue. We continued our walk to the Bastille, a monument for the French’s People Revolution against French Monarchy. Actually the Bastille prison had already ruined (I don’t know exactly what happened to this historic building), the only left was a Monument in the middle of the road. Then we had the monument picture.

The next was Champ de Elysees Avenue. This place was one of the landmarks of Paris, sometimes we could compare it with the Fifth Avenue in New York . The first picture that I took was in front one of the famous boutiques in that street: Louis Vuitton (LV). I took this picture not because of the LV brand, your father has a specific reason (but the reason will not to be told here my son). We had walking around the street, fortunately those was the Saturday night and it was so crowded. We saw people had queuing for watching movie, entering restaurants along the avenue, taking pictures, and so on.

At the edge of Champ de Elysees Avenue we could see the Arc of Triomphe that was built by Napoleon for the memory of his winning wars. Some pictures were taken from the Elysees view both from and to the Arc of Triomphe. Before finishing our tour that night we had conversation and stories on the George V Café, along the Avenue beside George V Metro Station. Around 8 pm we decided to go back to the hotel. We didn’t want to be lost again in Paris like we already had the night before when we went home very late at 3 am in the morning just because we didn’t know that the latest metro in Paris is on 1 am.

Paris , 19 February 2006. Written by Odisseus’s Mom and Dad. 

Dear Ody,

This is the first day, actually the first night, of your father and your mother tour in Paris. We arrived at Paris 17^th February in the evening. We had a plan for our first night to have only a couple of hours enjoying Paris night air. This city is the symbol of romantics, especially the Eiffel tower. However, our interest not because of the romanticism, but the history of the world in our lifetime that was determined from this city.

The Hague-Brussels (Belgium)- Paris

We took Eurolines bus from The Hague to Paris, on 11.45 am the bus depart from The Hague Centraal Station and arrive at the International bus station Gallieni on 07.23 pm, or taking around 7 hours.  From The Hague we should passed through one city, actually one country, which is Belgium and Brussels as the capital city.

Brussels or is a unique city because it has two first languages: Dutch and French. Every text or name of the street will be written with those two languages. The reason was the history of the influence of Dutch and French. The cities that closed to Holland speak in Dutch and the cities that closed to French speak French.

Unfortunately we did not have an opportunity to discover this, one of the member of Benelux (Belgium-Neteherland-Luxemburg) country, since the bus was only stopped for about 15 minutes there. The trip form Brussels to Paris was a little bit late due to some traffic jam in Antwerp and Brussels . The rain kept coming down for several hours, it was made us a little worried about how Paris would be, it’ won’t be interesting to do Paris sightseeing when the rain keeps coming down. We arrived at Paris late about 30 minutes.

When we arrived in Gallieni International Bus Station, we should use Metro to reach our Hotel in La Villette, Avenue Jean Jaures. We used Metro No. 3 from the station to Republique then change to Metro no 5 which took us to Jaures.

Tour de Eiffel

From our hotel after having sholat and a simple and quick dinner we went to Trocadero, the Eiffel Tower and Jardin de Trocadero. We used Metro no. 5 to Republique, then change Metro no. 9 to Trocadero.

Actually your mother was in Eiffel once last month, and she becomes my guide in Paris actually, since this is the first time for me to be here. According to me, the Eiffel will be very nice in the night with the glimpse of lights of Paris city. We took some pictures with the Eiffel as the background, unfortunately the battery of our camera run out, therefore our story could not be visualized.

We tried to walk around Jardin de Trocadero while watching the Eiffel’s laser and lights of Paris City . We discussed about what are the reasons why people use Eiffel as the landmark of Paris or even French, or especially romanticism. The conclusion was we have no idea and we didn’t have to make some arguments or opinions about that: we decided to just enjoy the moments and let everything flows like the time that we have.  

Lost in Paris : From Dusk Till Dawn

Having our Eiffel tour, we continued to the Café’s conversation. After considering some factors, we chose Le Malakoff Café. We discussed many things, but the most important was our plan for the next day. After considering many factors, we decided to go Versailles, Bastilles, and city tour by the next day and having a Louvre tour at the last day. We finished our conversation around 12.00 midnight.

Since we want to enjoy the night air of Paris , we decided to took a walk from the Café along the Kleber Avenue. We just kept walking and talking until without being realized, we reached Arc de Triomphe. Paris is the city with 24 hours life a day. People still walking around the avenue even though it was almost 1 am in the morning, that’s what we also did actually, enjoy the night together. From Arc de Triomphe, we walked along Champ Elysees to find a metro station nearest to it. Actually we did find one, it was George V metro station. From the reception desk at Etap La Villette Hotel we knew that the latest metro will be on 5 am in the morning, that’s why we dare to spoil our time that night. A problem happened later on since we did not try to re-check this information.

From George V station, we took metro number 1 to Bastille because we had to change with metro no 5 there. When we were at Bastille station waiting for metro no 5, suddenly an announcement from the station in French said something we didn’t understand. What we saw then was suddenly people who were gathering at the station waiting for the metro dismissed and took a way out from there. We didn’t know what the announcement about, we tried to ask a couple which seems to be confused just like us, but they also didn’t know what had happened.     

The station was being left by the people, therefore we decided to go out also. In our way out, we met two policemen with one of them holding a German Shepard dog. We tried to ask those guys about what happened. They answered that there won’t be any metro, we had to take the night bus to reach our destination. It seemed it would be easy to catch a night bus to go back to our hotel, so we agreed to wait for the bus or taxi outside.  Actually we had no better choice at that time, we could take a night bus or taxi to our hotel. Outside the station we met some people gathering around the bus stop and tried to check the time schedule for the night bus. We didn’t even know which bus should we took, we depended so much on metro as our main transportation medium, since it is fast, cheap, easy to find, and reach almost all important landmark destination in Paris. We had  a special story that we won’t forget that night.

We tried to read the time table and find all destinations, but there was not even one destination which seems will lead us to Jean Jaures Avenue. So, for the first time we just make a guess and hope a good fortune that the bus will go to our destination. The second time we tried to use English to ask the driver or another passenger. After spending about 10-15 minutes in Bastille bus stop, we decided to take a night bus no N 02 which reach Gare du Nord bus stop, we assume that from Gare du Nord it would be easier to reach Jaures. Unfortunately, we missed our bus stop in Gare du Nord, after we asked the driver about our destination to Jaures, (thank God, he’d be able to speak in English a little) he explained that we had to stop and took a different bus from the opposite direction. We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere in Paris , luckily there was one bus stop at the opposite direction.

We tried to read the time schedule there, and found that the best way to reach Jaures was to take night bus number N 01 and then change with bus N46. The last time we had to change the bus also had a special story, a nice Iranian gentlemen gave us direction to Jaures at last. We had to change bus for 3 times and asked around 6 times to reach our hotel around 03.00 a.m.

Paris, 18 February 2006. Written by Odisseus’s Mom and Dad 

Note: some of the pictures were taken on our third day in Paris

Dear Ody,

If you read the history book (hopefully you can read it on your elementary school in the next five years), you will find that our nation, , was gaining independence from Dutch on August 17^th 1945 through revolution wars. And the most “exciting” conclusion that our independence was gained by using sharpen bamboo (bambu runcing). Those story was so heroic and sometimes beyond my imagination. So, what your father did was trying to read and discuss what the real reasons of our independence were. And my conclusion, there were at least four reasons why Indonesia exists (and gaining independence): First, The Indonesian existence based on the Dutch colonial or occupation. If there were no Dutch occupation there will be no Indonesia. What we knew in the modern history that Indonesia was consisted thousands independence kingdoms before Cornelius De Houtman occupied the Malacca Strait. Second was the Hitler Factor. In the history, Hitler was known as the most cruel and racist war criminal. However, some nations got the opportunity to get the momentum for their independence from the Hitler Factor. Third was the Japan Factor. If  Japan were not telling Indonesian to fight using gun and modern army organization, would be easier to be occupied after the Second World War by the Dutch. So, Bambu Runcing is just part of the myth that should be rethinking to be deleted. The reason was the most capable in doing the military mission against the re-occupation on the 1945-1946 was Sudirman’s army, which was taught Guerrilla War.   Forth , Sukarno and Hatta, who state the independence to the whole world on August 17^th, 1945.

Enough for the history lesson my son. Let’s start by exploring your father’s discovery  from Holland . There are two cities that very important in Holland . First is the Holland Nation Capital in The Hague (this city almost the same with Washington DC area) and  second is Amsterdam, the business centre of Holland (this city almost the same with New York in US).

The Hague

Actually The Hague or Den Haag in Indonesian is nice and quiet city. The bus, tram, and road are integrated. Using bicycle or walking is one of the best choices for traveling in the The Hague . The reason is this city (not only this city, but most of Holland ) has a flat surface, so using bicycle will be very easy. This city was built in the 13^th century (refer to wikipedia), in we could refer to Singosari and Sriwijaya era. Most of my first and second day used for having “tune in” with this city. Your mother asked me to go some sites: Rembrant Night Watch, the Queen Palace , the Queen Office, and the other ‘site’ were supermarket such as Albert Heijn (like “Hero” in Indonesia ) and book shop De Slegte (like Gramedia in Indonesia ).

Unfortunately during my first 3 days the whether condition was rainy and windy. Your father should use something that he did not like: umbrella for covering from the rain. The problem was the rain came with wind and sometimes the umbrella would automatically bended itself.

Amsterdam

There were three purposes why we went to Amsterdam: first was exploring Amsterdam ; second was the Indonesian Exhibitions: The Discovery of the Past in De Nieuwe Kerk, Dam Amsterdam. Third was going to visit some Indonesian fellows.

We were exploring Amsterdam by walking around centrum. After having bus and train. We walked through the Centrum area. Some interesting places such as former City Hall or Former VOC office, Madame Tussaud Museum. Those places were integrated in a square area.

Discovering from the Past. Actually the information about this exhibition was from a colleague in Indonesia (thanks a lot Mbak). This exhibition explore Indonesian artifact from Indonesia and Leiden Museum (in other Place, probably after Paris Tour). It consists of over 300 masterpieces from the National Museum of Indonesia in Jakarta and the National Museum of Ethnology (Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde) in Leiden . On display will be six large sculptures from the Singasari period (13th century), important gold finds and palace treasures from Sulawesi, Lombok and Bali, as well as unique ethnographica from West and East Indonesia, including . Much of the material has never been exhibited before. The recently discovered Wonoboyo gold treasure also receives attention.

The most interesting were the Nandi statue from Singosari era around 13^th century, unfortunately we did not have any acces to the statue photography. The others were Ganeca from Singosari era and Buddha statue that was taken from Borobudur , the largest Buddhist temple in the world around 7-8^th century. 

Visiting Friends in Amsterdam. Actually not in Amsterdam, but in Amstelveen, a small city close to Amsterdam (probably Jakarta and Depok as the comparison). Before reached their place we had a lunch at Leidseplein with the Kebab, one of the halal food made by the Turk person.

We met some colleagues in Amstelveen : Aunti Riva, Uncle Kadek and Cauft. Actually we expected uncle Dhaniel and Dendi, but They did not respond my sms or yahoo messenger. Then we talked about red light , family, study, Ody’s surgery and others typical Indonesian students’ conversation in abroad. 

Assalamu’alaikum wr. wb.

My dear soleh boy Ody, how are you today? I am really believe and hope that you are doing just fine with your daily activities there. Yesterday morning your daddy arrived here in Holland to visit me. I am really happy and just can’t wait the time when he arrived. The flight, like always, arrived at Schiphol Airport at 5 in the morning, but I did not arrive very early to pick him up.  

The earliest bus from Mauristkade bus stop was 6.03 in the morning and by that time it was still very dark outside since in the winter the sun comes up a little bit late. I was quite afraid of going out alone to the bus stop to catch the earliest bus actually. I woke up at 5.10 am and then take a shower, and when I looked at my cellphone after that, I found two missed calls without an id. But I believe it was from your father. I was very glad to know that he already arrived here. And when he called me a few minutes later when I prepared myself and also a beakfast, I was feeling overwhelmed to realise that soon we’ll meet each other again. I like to hear his voice at the phone, it felt like that he had already being very close to me.

I know that your daddy has already told you this story even more detail, but it’s ok if you also hear it from me. I took the tram at 6.17 am, since the bus seemed being very late to come. I just can’t wait any longer. And when I arrived at central station, I had to wait about 20 minutes before the train left for Schiphol. I felt like it took very long time just to go to Schiphol, I never felt like this before. I miss you and your father very much. And unfortunately you don’t have an opportunity to come here with your daddy yet. I hope and pray that someday at summer time you can come here to visit me.

I received an album full of your pictures and it’s all beautiful. You look so much different than the last time when I left you at home. Your face looks cute, funny, and warm. You’re full of expression at those pictures. Your daddy also gives me some videos records about things you’ve done there. For me all these things are priceless. Be a good boy, Ody. I believe Allah SWT will always guides and protects you everywhere you are. I’ll keep my prays for you, your daddy and our little family. Give my regards to everyone at home, especially Eyang. I could not express my gratefulness and ever return their deeds to me and you, I can only send them my sincere pray, hoping that Allah SWt will also guides and protects the, give them health and gratefulness.

Ody, I have to finish my letter now. Be a soleh boy, keep smiling, playing, and enjoying your good times as a child. Love and miss u much, kisses and hugs also….

Wassalamu’alaikum wr. wb.

P.S. I have a picture of me and your daddy with the blooming tulips in our room here. And also your picture, which taken by your daddy at home earlier.