The Dolomites (or Dolomiti in Italian) hold a special place in my heart. This vast mountainous region of northern Italy has been my go-to place to satisfy my nature craving. Truly, there is no other place in Western Europe like it. The Dolomites, despite being located next to the Alps, are uniquely different and are well-known for their rocky and limestone formations and mind-blowing jagged mountains. There are hundreds of well-marked hiking trails, climbing routes, and via Feratta’s around theRead more
Our first trip to Scotland was completely ad-hoc. Although we had the return train tickets and car rental booked, we didn’t have a clue where exactly we were heading to and where we were going to stay until a day before we were about to leave for the trip! We only knew one thing: we wanted to conquer the highest mountain in the UK: Ben Nevis. That’s all! Other than that, we were not prepared. To make the matter evenRead more
About two weeks ago, my friends and I organised a concert dedicated to those affected by the Wasior, Mentawai, and Merapi disasters. The concert, Angklung Charity Concert: “Bamboo in Harmony”, was first initiated by teh Desiree, who was a member of an angklung group years ago, and was led by our lovely conductor, teh Ida Soesanti.
I promised myself that I wouldn’t travel anywhere this year as I had to save money, but I just couldn’t resist it!!! It really was so hard not to travel when there were so many opened doors (cheap transports, free time, beautiful places, etc etc). So, a few weeks ago — during Easter holiday — my 4 friends and I went for yet-another-road-trip. I went for a road trip last year to Luxembourg, Strasbourg (north of France), and Heidelberg (Germany)Read more
I have lived here for more than 1.5 years and have traveled within the country for many times. These are just some of the places I'd recommend you to go to and some tips of what you should do when you are here 🙂 . Hope it's useful. Keukenhof, Lisse, and its surrounding In my honest opinion, the best time to visit the Netherlands is in the month of April or May. This is the time when flowers blossomed andRead more
* This post is quite outdated, actually. It happened in the mid of December 09. I should have written it a long time ago, but I didn’t have much time as I was having vacation with my family back in Saudi Arabia 🙂 . It was on Friday, 18 December 2009. I felt so relief that it was my last day of university before the winter break. I was so busy that day, preparing for the end-of-year gathering with myRead more
So, the decision is final. The Swiss people don't want the minarets anymore. It was shocking, concerning that there are only a total of 4 minarets in the country. I wonder why do they even care about such thing? Why and how did this issue come out and be voted in the first place? I mean, it's only a minaret, for God sake! I saw the interview on Al Jazeera about this and the reasons that the government provided onRead more
When I went to an Indonesian mosque in Den Haag to break my fast, I was left with astonishment. I was told to sit in a room designated for children and youngsters — there were perhaps 30 pupils or even more crammed into a small room! Few minutes before we broke our fast, suddenly a guy (whom I knew) led us to recite salawat and a number of short surahs from the Qur’an. I saw from little children to youngRead more
Resuming to the university life after 2 months of great holidays has been so hard. Yes, it's been almost a month since the semester had started, but the so called "holiday mode" has been the cause of my laziness and unmotivated attitude for the past weeks. I dream for another travels — though I've traveled to 9 countries during the last holiday, it never felt enough. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the opportunities but the problem is that…Read more
Time passes by so quickly and I can’t believe that I’ve lived in this country for 7 months. That means, I’ll go back home in 2 more months and I can’t wait for it! Despite the homesickness, I’ve been living my life to the max. And sometimes I’m worried that I probably have too much fun. But I never regret it; because I’ve learnt and experienced so many things on the way. I feel great about living here. It providesRead more
I actually don’t really know this country that much. After all, I’ve only lived here for less than 4 months. And I haven’t been able to travel around the Netherlands (yes, I still haven’t been to Amsterdam. Who cares, seriously. LOL). I’ve only seen fake windmills not inside the country, but in Belgium. I haven’t seen any tulips around — either because I was too ignorant and didn’t pay attention to detail or because it’s just not here! But allRead more
Can’t believe that it’s November already! November reminds me of exam weeks that we used to have at UQ. The month of farewells, where all my graduating friends were leaving for good. The month when I used to welcome summer season with not-so-wide arms. The month when I used to be so impatient to start my long 3 months break away from Australia. The month of family reunion. And finally, the Hajj! My dad starts to get crazily busy. NoRead more
Travelling around Belgium was my first trip out of the Netherlands ever since I arrived in this flat country 2 months ago. It felt weird to do this trip because I myself have not even visited Amsterdam! Hahaha. I actually planned to travel around the Netherlands during my one week break, but when my friends asked me to join the trip, I could not resist but to say YES!
It feels weird to live alone. It does. If I have a choice between living alone and living with somebody else, I would have chosen to live with somebody else. But I don’t have any choices, unfortunately. Don’t get me wrong, I am so grateful that I got this place. I live in a so-called Spacebox, located on campus and within few minutes reach to the city centre and train station. What more do I want? Some of my friendsRead more
I left Jeddah for Amsterdam in the morning of 21 Aug, transited at Jordan’s Queen Alia International Airport for 3 hours, and finally arrived at Schiphol Airport at 4 pm. Alhamdulillah, the trip went so smoothly, apart from the fact that I didn’t have enough sleep. I only had 2 hours of sleep before I departed and not to mention that sleeping on the plane was much worst than sleeping on the floor… But other than that, it was ok.Read more
