life is much more simple when you're young

Going home after two years (29 months to be exact) was of course a big change. However, I was so looking forward to it; meeting my parents again, returning to the house where I spent most of life, and basically, going back to where I started.

Unfortunately, going back meant also leaving the world I had been living for the past 2 years. All the people, the places, the adventures; are now mere memories.

It was sad to leave them, but I believe it will not be forever. Maarten, Marijke, Linda, Cindy, and Daniel went to the Schiphol airport to bade me farewell. Linda even gave me a Dora balloon as a symbol that there would be more great adventures to come.

And I, after that long 14 hours trip, had finally returned to my eternal summer-land.

between the clouds

yum yum yum

transit at changi airport

singapore-jakarta

pakde par dan bude harti yang datang dari semarang
untuk ikut menjemput :)
matur nuwun!

I once told myself that if I was home sick, I ought to go to Hortus Botanicus and breathed the tropical air.

Less than a week before my departure to the land of eternal summer, I visited the university’s botanical garden. Neither because I was homesick nor in desperate need of humidity, but I just wanted to have a last visit to a place where I once found it home.

I went there also because I wanted to take photos of the leafless trees :p

This set of photos however, only contains those from mostly inside the greenhouse. Photos of the leafless trees can be found here.

Here are some greens from the greenhouse :)

PS: When I was walking in the garden, I started to smell something really strange. It smelled like a new electronic device, fresh from the shop, or like a video tape smell (which I really like). The smell actually came from an odd-looking plant like this..

The winter was coming an end and so was my stay in the Netherlands. I had to leave my leafless trees heaven perhaps for a pretty long time. Moreover, I had never been to Hortus Botanicus during the winter to take photos of the trees.

I seemed that I have no more excuses to miss the opportunity. So despite the cloudy cold windy day, I insisted to visit the Hortus Botanicus for the leafless trees. I must say I was having a pretty difficult time in taking photos; as the day was getting colder as in the afternoon and I felt my hand froze after several hours.

But I was happy to be able to take lots of leafless trees photos. I even took photo of "the demon".

Some of my favourites:

Few days later, it was sunny and hot (20 degrees celcius), so I decided to go there once more for some more leafless trees photos, but with the clear blue sky background.

To celebrate our successful struggle in graduating from Media Technology, Matt and I arranged a party on Saturday evening, a day after our ceremony.

A happy ending to my two years' dream. 

21.03.2011

20.03.2011 

No, it is not about the movie in which Colin Farrell received Golden Globe in 2008.

Bruges (or Brugge in Dutch) was the second city we visited in Belgium. Maarten told me that there was no particular interesting spot to visit, but the beauty of the whole city itself that was worth visiting.

And he was right.

Bruges was one of those typical small European cities that were filled with old houses, churches, and cobblestone roads. However, it was also like Volendam; those who went there were tourists. And loads of them. We went there on a sunny Sunday, so the number of tourists was even magnified. It felt like going to Amsterdam in the summer. Minus the smell of the joints.

In my opinion, Bruges was really similar to a mix of Dordrecht and Maastricht. It was filled with old red bricks houses and canals through the heart of the city, with several tall Catholic churches.

in bruges

All we did in Bruges was basically just a city tour, walking from one tourist site to another, like: Onze Lieve Vrouwenkerk (Church of Our Lady), Princely Beguinage Ten Wijngaarde, and walking through the famous canals of Bruges.  

the canal and the leafless trees

And of course we went to the tower of Belfry (Dutch: Belfort), the 83-meter-high tower which allowed you to see the entire city from the top. We climbed the tower's 366 steps, and had a half panoramic view from the top. It was half panoramic because the tower was under restoration.

belfort tower

view from the top

On the way to the top of the tower there were some stops, and one of them was a small room showing how the musical bells worked. I was always curious how they did this, having lived close to the Leiden's stadhuis (town hall) for almost 2 years.

Basically they worked like the draaiorgel (barrel organ), yet unlike draaiorgel which used one continuous fax-paper-like plates, the tower bells used one huge piece of plates transformed into the shape of a circle.

After climbing the tower, we felt like we had accomplished our mission. Yet the day was still sunny and bright so we decided to go for a little more stroll in the city. We went to the stadhuis and burg, but we didn't go in. We merely took photos from outside like the tourist majority did.

We wanted to end our day in Brugge by having a nice Belgian dinner, however it was not possible because the restaurant that we went to (called 't Schrijvertje, due to its location at the Guido Gezelleplein -- Guido Gezelle was a famous writer from Bruges) only started cooking their dinner at 6, while we needed to leave the city by 7.

So we had a dinner at an awful fast food restaurant at Brussel Zuid station instead. Again, we took "our" two-wagon train back to Noisepants at 22.26, the last train to that small deserted station.

Anyway, we went to some nice shops in Brugge. We ended up buying some tea (I bought the poets’ tea) and a box of chocolates for ourselves :p

In Bruges, I took photos of a whole lot of leafless trees. They were really nice, although some of them are similar to those in the Netherlands. But still, I was really happy taking photos of those trees.

19.03.2011 

I must admit that it was such a shame of me that, having lived in the Netherlands for more than two years, I had never visited Belgium. Well I actually went to Belgium twice before, but they were merely for festivals; the TW classic and Dour. So I felt rather obligated to go to the Dutch neighbour before returning to Jakarta. After a long and intensive thought, Maarten and I decided to go only to Brussels and Bruges for 3 days. 

We arrived pretty early at Leiden central station and took the intercity train from Den Haag Hollands Spoor. We arrived at Brussels Zuid by mid-day and we went to the hotel first to put our bags. We decided to stay at a hotel outskirts of Brussels because it was even cheaper than staying in a hostel in Brussels. 

As we were waiting for our train, Maarten told me that Belgium has really funny city names. For example, the hotel we stayed in was located in a small town called Ruisbroek, or literally translated (Dutch) as "Noisepants". To go to Ruisbroek, we had to take the train in the direction to 's Gravenbrakel (littrans. Count Vomit).

key card with allows us to make 10 trips brussels-outskirts and return

Anyway, our first destination in Brussels was the Museum of Musical Instruments (MIM). Maarten had gone there with his father few months before and they really enjoyed it. 

museum of musical instruments (MIM)

We spent quite a long time walking around the first floor, which was filled with traditional instruments. There were various accordions, drums, bagpipes, ocarinas, sitar, and even gamelan.

drum

ocarina

The second department we visited was filled mostly with guitars and pianos. The next department was also filled with pianos. 

piano strings

Then we went to level -1, where they had a collection of modern musical instruments, from moog keyboards to theremin to a temporary exhibition by a Dutch artist (which unfortunately I failed to remember his name) who made an acoustic instrument that created sounds from frosting water and melting ice, with sheets of paper as speakers! (woot)

korg synthesizers

the awesome "water-based" instrument

My other favourite instrument was the Componium, which at that time might just looked like an improvised and more developed draaiorgel, but for me it was the ancestor of fruity loops.

componium

After 2 hours at MIM, we walked to the Belgian Comic Strip Museum (or sometimes also known as CBBD -- Centre Belgee de la Bande Dessinée).

On our way there I was fascinated by the Brussels facade. They were more like French buildings (grand, exquisite, classy) instead of Dutch (small, humble, but still sweet). We passed the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula that looked like the posh Cathedral of Notre Dame. The white church looked even nicer when the dusk fell as the setting sun gave a crimson shade to the church wall. 

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula 

We arrived at the comic strip museum 2 hours before closing time so we couldn't really see everything in our relaxed (read: slow) pace. But still it was a really nice visit.

The showroom contained various sketches of famous Belgian comic strips from Spirou to Cedric to Marsupilami to Cubitus. The second floor had a section (among several others) focusing on Tintin (or Kuifje in Dutch).

Capt. Haddock and Tintin

There were also special sections on Smurf, Lucky Luke, Spirou, and Gaston. Yes, Gaston! I am a big fan of Gaston and I was so excited to see that lazy-ass lucky bastard character :p

smurf

lucky luke

me at the office of gaston la gaffe

Unfortunately, we didn't really have much time. And for slow people like Maarten and I, having merely two hours to finish a museum was both a difficult task and big annoyance. But I think we managed to see the whole museum, although not as intense as we wanted to.

And last but not least, I had several photo takings, first with Tintin's rocket (inside the museum) and second with a gigantic Gaston statue (hooraaaaayy!!!).

with asterix

with tintin's rocket to the moon

maarten and me with gaston 

We finished our day by having a nice gezellig dinner near the Brussels central station and a tasty-smelling waffle at the station  :)

dinner! yum yum yum

Anyway, we almost we missed our train to Ruisbroek that night due to the 'invisibility' of the train that only consisted two wagons. The railway track at Brussels central was not really straight, and despite that we had waited for 15 minutes at the right platform, the train didn't stop in front of us because it was terribly short. We were suspicious when we heard the whistle from the train conductor, and we ran as fast as we could to the other side of the platform, gasping our breath until we finally were on board.

Oh I forgot to tell that when we arrived at Brussels Central, there were lots of awesome leafless trees!

Had been wanting to go to Maori exhibition at museum Volkenkunde for ages, I was lucky to be able to go there with Sonja, fellow Media Tech alumni with New Zealand descent.

Sonja gave a thorough guide on the Maori artefacts exhibited in the museum. When we arrived at Volkenkunde there were dozens of schoolchildren running around, but luckily they were almost at the end of their excursion.

Before we started our walk through the museum, we watched a short video of making the waka, the traditional Maori canoe specially made for the museum. The boat was completely built in New Zealand, then shipped to the Netherlands in several parts, and assembled in Leiden. The canoe was run through the canals of Leiden at the exhibition opening in October.

The beginning of the exhibition was a set of screens, projecting a video of contemporary Maori song “Tangaroa (God of the Sea)” by Tiki Taane.

We then went to see some main artefacts and short histories of Maori in New Zealand. Maori people originated from Polynesia, a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Around 13th century, some brave Polynesian seamen arrived to settle on the empty land. Despite the severe winter, those people stayed there as human pioneers. Few hundreds years later there was a mass migration by the Polynesians, invading the land from different corners.

Dutch sailors actually arrived on the 17th century, but didn't really set their foot on the southern land. Why? The information on the wall of the museum claimed that the natives were too savage that the Dutch did not dare to set foot there. However, the New Zealanders' point of view was different. Dutch seamen (as usual, at that time) attacked first. They always fired first, and if there were no resistance, they came ashore. In the other hand, the Maori, being attacked by strangers, struck back. So their action was merely self-defence.

Back to the museum, we then went to a part where the museum reconstructed the traditional meeting house, which interior was filled carvings. Inside, there were also several small screens playing scenes from " Whale Rider", a 2002 movie adapted from a book with the same title written by Witi Ihimaera. There were also several screens which told Maori traditional stories.

whale rider

The next room we visited was upstairs, and there was a piece of installation by contemporary artist Lisa Reihana. A traditional statue wearing a headphone was placed inside a glass box. Then there were three telephone receivers with which we could hear 3 different sounds about New Zealand.

In the same room there were various household artefacts decorated with Maori carvings.

There was also a small section where children can make paper weavings, as weavings were also common in Maori culture. Sonja taught me how to make a simple weaving :)

Unfortunately we were running out of time and by the time we were about to go to the next room there were already museum officials asking us to leave as the museum was closing down.

Before going home, we both had a photo with the waka :)

“Bliff” is an olfactory board game in which players’ olfaction (sense of smell) is the only sense required for them to advance through the game. Players are given various challenges regarding their sense of smell, and their ability to answer these challenges will be rewarded with certain number of moves.

The design of the board game was inspired by existing traditional board games such as Chinese Checkers and Ludo, based on the facts that these games are already familiar to people in general and its simplicity enables players to play the game without learning many rules. This consideration was also taken because olfactory games are practically new and unfamiliar (thus it requires player’s adaptation), so other game elements should be simple and easy to play.

--

Bliff is developed as a part of my graduation project/research entitled: “Bliff: Exploring Olfaction Autonomy in Olfactory Board Games” for the MSc Media Technology programme at Leiden University. The project was supervised by Edwin van der Heide and Maki Ueda.

--

MAKING BLIFF

To make a game, there are several elements I had to make. However, since neither my paper nor the physical product of the game is copyrighted, I limit the description of game elements on the making of the scents only.

The scents in this game are used as pawns, and they are contained in small bottles I bought at a drogist (drug store) in Den Haag. In total, I needed at least 18 different scents to be contained in 39 bottles. Since extracting ingredients to get all those different scents could take really a lot of time (which I didn’t have, unfortunately), I bought some of the ready-made scents essentials oils (most of these I bought at Dille and Kamille) and food essences (available at most supermarkets). Those which were not yet available in liquid forms (or too expensive to buy one) I extracted the scents of the ingredients using alcohol. 

essential oils

I went to media tech classmate Ali’s place to extract these ingredients because he has an electric stove at his apartment (as alcohol would be a terrible combination with gas stove), and helped by Maarten, we made several “perfumes”.

Some of the ingredients were successfully extracted, yet some of them not. But at least I had enough scents for my game.

TESTING BLIFF

Since game development is an iterative process, I needed to test my game to see whether it worked or not. Basically the game should be engaging yet does not create olfactory fatigue. I held 11 game sessions with a total of 22 players in the span of 2 weeks. I asked them to play and I observed the game play. I also asked them to fill in questionnaires to know what the players think towards the game.

nisaar fills in the questionnaires

lucine sniffs

maarten sniffs

polly experiences tip-of-the-nose phenomena

“Bliff: Exploring Olfaction Autonomy in Olfactory Board Games” was presented on Friday, 18 February 2011 at Museum de Lakenhal, Leiden alongside Hanna Schraffenberger’s work “On The Liking of Modern Art”.

Thanks Yous!
Edwin van der Heide (for his supervision).
Maki Ueda (for her support and inspiration/reason why I wanted to make a project on olfaction).
Maarten Wesselius (for his support, helping me in smell extraction, and be the first test subject).
Marijke van Gorp (for her support and preventing me from malnutrition :P ).
Hanna Schraffenberger (for arranging the graduation presentation).
Ali Elgin (for lending his electrical stove)
Peers: Maki Ueda, Stelios Giannoulis, and Polly Oskam.
The Players (Maarten W., Marijke, Linda, Carl, Cindy, Daniel, Maarten vd Mark, Alwin, Vincent, Polly, Heike, Nisaar, Stelios, Maarten M., Jan Jaap, Joris vd Bos, Avi,  Ainil, Lucine, Anouk, Rianne, Lieven).

The exhibition for the Media Technology Semester Project was opened on Wednesday, 20 January 2011.

(I already put the explanation about the semester project in my previous blog here, or you can also see the full information on the media technology website here)

The opening started at 16.00, but early in the morning, the makers (i.e. the students who made the projects) and the supervisors (i.e. teachers) had come to the exhibition space for the grading session.

the grading session

The grading session took around 2 hours, where students showed supervisors about their project: mostly about the concept behind it, and how the installation communicates with the audience.

Our project was entitled “Are {you}² –nique?”. As the title implies, the project was about uniqueness, where we (me, Nisaar, and Rene) relate our installation on the concept of religion; how religion is become obsolete and the uniqueness of religious experience.

are {you}2 - nique?

Visitors were asked to step on the white spots, and with some sorts of algorithm, various combinations determine which lights are lit on to the spots.

Visitors were either accepting their uniqueness/non-uniqueness (as a metaphor of accepting their fate) or trying to figure out the mechanism behind it (a metaphor of questioning their belief, which resulted in the obsolescence of religion).

maria under the divine light

A nice feature in our project was the light switches in the middle of the four white spots that could switch on or off by themselves, and this was the metaphor of the “hand of God”. The switches basically switched on or off the lights, and the whole system that control these switches is a symbol of  God’s decision on whether you are unique or not.

the switches, a.k.a. the hands of god

The uniqueness were shown by having the light directly on the spot, so as a visitor stepped on one of the spots, they would find out whether they were unique or not.

Our “neighbour” in the exhibition space was the “Boredom” theme, with a project entitled “Boredom is Change”. They (Marijke, Marilena, and Thanos) built a labyrinth where visitors should find their way to the middle part of the labyrinth, trying to ignore distractions (in the shape of writings on the walls) during the exploration in the labyrinth. Before a visitor (one visitor can only enter the labyrinth at one time) could enter the labyrinth, they should wear a “fancy hat” which could determine their different colours of boredom.

the fancy hat that a visitor should wear,
and the colour of the boredom

The nicest project (imho) was “In Your Face!/The Prejudice Machine”. The group (Klaas-Jan, Friso, Auke) created a system where visitors could vote based on other people’s facial features, depending on various categories. Visitors could also have their pictures taken, to be later put in the system. The results for the votes were really funny. Stelios was voted to be really healthy, and Ali was one of the most voted persons as being a terrorist.

annebeth votes

an example of question: which person is sane?

an example of results: stelios in top 6 (most voted as being) healthy

The exhibition opening was crowded as usual, and there were many Media Technology students came to visit and to have some drinks. Afterwards we (students) had a dinner with teachers at La Bota, a really nice restaurant near the Pieterskerk area in Leiden (which basically only 25 steps away from my place).

maria at the exhibition opening

During the exhibition usually there were a lot of people visiting on the weekends. Maarten’s parents and some of my friends (Linda, Carl, Daniel, Cindy, plus mbak Nuning) came to visit my project :)

On the first Saturday we also had a visit from Annebeth’s children, and they seemed to be having a lot of fun.

On the third semester (or in my case, fourth), Media Technology students are given task to build/create something based on a given theme. This year the general theme is “Obsolete”.

A simple definition for this word (as defined in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary) is 

“no longer used because something new has been invented”.

The theme was then further expanded to several sub-themes, and my group (me, Nisaar, and Rene) had the sub-theme of “unique”.

Personally, I like the word “unique” and I was very happy for the first time I found out that I got the theme, but unfortunately it was really difficult for us to finally agree in what concept to base our project on and what sort of installation/product we are going to make.

We kept changing our ideas, and I guess in total we had 12 statements and 10 project ideas.. which none of them really made it to the final process.

teamwork :)
(i really like this photo btw)

before the idea changed, we wanted to do something which involved projector..

We changed the idea (for the last time, finally) exactly 10 days before the exhibition opening. It was a brave (and really unlikely) thing to do, but we were stuck with our previous work and so we finally agreed to change EVERYTHING.

we finally decided to make something which involved arduino,

servomotors,

and pressure sensors

But hard work really paid off. We managed to finish the project on time, the installation worked right on the evening before the opening, and actually it worked throughout the whole 2 weeks of the exhibition! :)

I was really happy with the final result of our installation, since our group consisted three non-programmers and we managed to finish the arduino-based installation.

Hoera.

KEY OF LIFE 2010
21-23 October 2010

We almost missed the Key of Life because we thought it would be until Sunday, but it was only until Saturday. So on a lazy Sunday afternoon, we suddenly had to rush to the town hall to buy a ticket. Yes, BUY a ticket. Last year (2009)’s Key of Life was for free, so I thought it would be for free for the year after as well. At least the ticket was not that expensive (7.50 for all activities – including one that would transport you to another venue at the other part of the city)

by Susan Aldworth

The ticket was not sold at the town hall, so we went to Scheltema. As we were there, we took our time by looking at the Brainscapes exhibition. One notable series of work was by Susan Aldworth, who made paintings inspired by the work of the brain. Some paintings are really really nice, there were even some which could “change” as you move yourself from side to side, using the same effect as those changing images in your primary school ruler (the ruler of which you use to make straight lines, not school ruler in the term of the headmaster  :p )

Another impressive work was by Andrew Carnie, entitled “Time Will Tell”. The works were projected images using slide show viewer (I actually didn’t know what this device was called). I personally like the one which looked like tree branches..

by Andrew Carnie

There was also a work by Media Tech alumni Stijn Belle and Sanne Fenema. Their work, called “Het Meest Sexy?” (Which is the Sexiest?) explored which side of a person that they thought was sexy. Visitors could take their own pictures using a camera, and then the application created two pictures, one is both of your left side, and the other both of your right side (mirrored images).

At 9 we went to BplusC/Leidse Volkshuis to see several performance by Art Science students. The most interesting one was by Charlotte, Ben, and Matthijs, where people nude backs appeared on holes of a big tube of fabric, and visitors could make various sounds by touching these backs.

Get in Touch
by Matthijs Munnik, Ben Terwel, and Charlotte 't Hart

The whole event was closed by Bak-Chai, a dance party, game, and theatre piece all blended into one. It was not as interesting as we thought thou, so we went home.

TODAY’S ART
Den Haag, 24-25 September 2010

After missing the previous year’s Today’s Art, I felt highly obligated to attend the 2010 event. However, I was still hangover and tired after going to Discovery the evening before, and I was extremely late coming to Den Haag for the event.

Yet I still considered myself lucky: I didn’t need to pay extra for Olafur Arnalds’s performance :)

So most of the exhibitions were already closed (darn), but I managed to see Olafur Arnalds and Structet (a collaborative performance by Art Science students).

by Daan Brinkmann & Nenad Popov

Olafur Arnalds

Structet

a girl danced through as the smoke was spewed

I met Octa at the event and after few drinks we left the venue.

International Gamelan Festival Amsterdam
9-11 September 2010

On the second week of September, Tropentheater held the second IGFA (International Gamelan Festival Amsterdam), and I was lucky to have the chance to see what I believe, the most impressive gamelan performance I had ever seen.

I went to two performances; the first was “Gamelan Now!” a collaboration of multicultural musicians inspired from Steve Reich, and the second “Gamelan Java”, although perhaps Gamelan Sunda would be more appropriate for the title.

“Gamelan Now!” was absolutely mesmerising. My jaw was dropped almost throughout the entire evening. The collaboration between Indonesian and international musicians created a perfect fusion.

The list of performances for the Gamelan Now!

Ensemble Gending:
Su Llanto (2010)  – Jonas Bisquert
Petruk (2010)      – Gordon Dic-lun Fung
Balungan (2010)   – Matius Shan Boone

Kyai Fatahillah & Ensemble Gending
Gending meets Kyai Fatahillah (2010) - Klaus Juiper, Iwan Gunawan, Jonas Bisquert
Sonata da Camera (1997/2010)               - Klaus Kuiper
Kulu Kulu (1997/2010)                            - Iwan Gunawan

Gong Semara Ratih (dir. Anak Agung Gde Anom Putra)
Sitarasmi (2006/2010) – Ayu Bulantrisna Djelantik

Gamelan Kyai Fatahillah:
Six Marimbas (1974)      - Steve Reich
arranged for gamelan orchestra by Iwan Gunawan (2010)

Gong Semara Ratih
Lapanbelas (2010)          - Evan Ziporyn

Gamelan Kyai Fatahillah
Lalamba (2010)              - Iwan Gunawan

Gong Semara Ratih
Pabuan (2010)               – I Made Arnawa

The list of performances for Gamelan Java

Kecapi suling & tembang Sunda (dir. Euis Komariah)

Gamelan degung (dir. Nano Suratno)
Kalangkang (1986)         – Nano Suratno

Gamelan Sunda (dir. Iwan Gunawan)
Kliningan (traditional/2010)

Topeng Klana Cirebon

Gamelan Degung
Bubat (1976)                 – Nano Suratno

Gamelan Sunda
Reubeudieu (1976)         – Mang Moko (arr. Dody Satya Eka Gustdiman)
Warna (1990)                – Nano Suratno

Jaipongan – Ringkang Mojang
Rekak Ceta Maceuh

SAIL Amsterdam
19-23 August 2010

SAIL Amsterdam is a five-yearly event that has been held since 1980. It is the largest free event in the Netherlands and according to SAIL website it drew 1.5 million visitors in the span of five days in August 2010. Yikes!

And.. I came on the busiest day, on Saturday. The weather was nice and sunny thou, perfect for picture taking. But probably not for walking around the IJ.

a nice sunny day
which was pretty rare during the summer of 2010 in the Netherlands

My first intention was to take some pictures of Dewa Ruci, the Indonesian tall ship which also docked on the IJ during SAIL. Unfortunately I missed their cultural performances in the city – I actually went to the Dam but there were nothing there (but tourists, of course, but not those who particularly want to see the performance). So I walked to the location of SAIL, which took me at least one and a half hour. :|

but at least I saw a nice photo exhibition along the way..

And finding Dewa Ruci was not easy. It was actually had one of the best locations, as guests could see our red-and-white flag wave proudly as the boat took them to the other island (so called Java island, how appropriate). Yet the location was half way of the entire venue and it took me another one hour of walking (well at least the walking include buying a nice orange calypso ice cream..)

I took this photo for ANTARA, and it was actually used by Tempo newspaper as well (hooray!)

The ship (Dewa Ruci) was nicely built, but not as nicely maintained. There were some rusty marks here and there and the also old fading colours of the maps (of locations where the ship was from and where it will go to).

But I think the best thing about the ship was to meet friendly Indonesians. I met tante Eva, who had been living in the Netherlands for years and years, and met some East-Javanese speaking people.

tante Eva

Unfortunately, the smell of sambal terasi was coming from the kitchen below. For most Indonesian this sort of smell might be perceived as a really nice, nostalgic smell, but for foreign visitors it was definitely an unpleasant smell. Some smells can be exotic and pleasant, while some (like terasi) can be exotic and annoying.

Anyway… Here are some random pictures I took during the event.

Leidens Onzet
October 2010

If Germany has Oktoberfest, then Leiden has 3 October celebration, or more famously called Leidens Onzet or the Leiden’s Relief.

It all started in the year 1574, when the Spanish failed to capture Leiden, despite the city being blockaded for months. After pressures from the rebels and Dutch army, Spanish lifted the siege on 3 October and left the city.

The Dutch king at that time William of Orange awarded the city with the first university in the Netherlands: Leiden University.

Now this historical moment is celebrated every year in Leiden. The city is filled with kermis (fun fairs), beers, and bad Dutch music. However, unlike the Queen’s Day in Amsterdam, the people at Leidens Onzet were waaayy  much nicer. They were drunk, but still in a gezellig way. I remember that on the second evening of the celebration I stumbled upon two half-drunk guys who were so drunk and happy that we ended up talking for an hour. I forgot their names now, but one guy was Indo (half-Indonesian) and the other guy once traveled to Southeast Asia.

The nicest thing about the Leidens Onzet in 2010 was that it was celebrated for four days (from Friday to Monday) because.. The date 3 October was on Sunday and Sunday is a holy day for Christians that the party should not take place on Sunday. This is rather amusing for me, knowing the fact that 27% of the people in the Netherlands are atheists and I think maybe almost 50% of the whole population is no longer religious.

Oh well, people always need some reasons to party longer.

On Saturday (2 October) I joined the taptoe, or the walk around Leiden. I joined the walk from Breestraat (really close to where I lived), then to van der Werff park (van der Werff was the mayor during the Siege of Leiden), Levendaal, and Hooigracht. It was a really nice walk actually, there were marching bands and important people from the town hall wearing red-and-white (the colour of Leiden) in the taptoe as well.

taptoe

Later that evening I met Cindy and we went to Café Roebels, only 20 steps away from my front door. We had a nice chat until a drunk foreigner vomited close to where we sat. We moved to another table first, but then this foreigner was so drunk that he started to bump things. So we decided to go before he vomited again.

cindy

On Sunday (3 October) I asked Maarten to take a photo of me in front of the street called Drie Oktoberstraat. He used to live in that street, but we didn’t take photo there last year because I was ill on the eve of 3 October.

me on drie oktoberstraat

Afterwards we had a stroll along the canal and took a ride on the Ferris wheel.  There were more attractions if you were an adrenaline junkie, but Maarten and I were slow animals who didn’t like the rush. Except when we tried Joris and the Draak at the Efteling perhaps..

maarten and i on the ferris wheel

We also tried some fun fair food: beenham and some candies. I bought this blue-and-white giant lollipop which I couldn’t finish until the week after. We didn’t try the harring and the white bread unfortunately – the traditional food for Leidens Onzet – but eating raw fish didn’t really interest me anyway.

oxalis and the lollipop

That evening we also dropped by at Carl’s place as Carl and Linda made some oliebollen (it was.. or was it? Or was it? – oh I had been watching too many Fry and Laurie’s).

 On Monday the big celebration took place. I stood on the side of Breestraat (the street where the town hall is) and took photographs of the carnival. People dressed in various costumes walk along the streets, some on horses, some other in strange carnival vehicles. Well mostly they walk, although they were also some Mercedes Benz cars just because they had a showroom in Leiden..

In the evening I took some photos of the funfair. I had been wanting to take these sort of pictures for ages, so I was happy I finally did it.

At the fun fair I met mas Happy, who asked me to go to Ferris wheel again. It was a nice view from up there, especially with all those lights from the fun fair.

I planned to end my 3 Oktober celebration with taking pictures of the fireworks. I went to Maarten’s place because now he lives really close to where the fireworks took place. We saw the fireworks from the window of his room and it was really nice. I especially like these little sparkles:

And this too:

After the fireworks ended, I walked back to my place along the Haarlemmerstraat (the shopping street of Leiden). Half way the Haarlemmerstraat, I met Lieven and he said that Media Techies were drinking at de Bonte Koe (a bar near Hooigracht). So he gave me a lift on his bike and we went to de Bonte Koe. The bar however, was extremely full with party goers. We finally went to the next bar, de WW, which was really close to my place.

Everybody was drinking and everybody was dancing all night long. And that was the proper way of celebrating 3 Oktober ;)