Amertha Bhavani Goes to Czech Republic, Introduction & Day 1 (Aug 13-14, 2013)
I can say I was very lucky last year to be able to explore Europe. How could that be? After around one and a half month of my Euro Trip, I had another trip to Europe again, eastern side this time. Which country in particular? Of course you guys already know. It’s Czech Republic! In contrary with my Euro Trip that I went to some different countries in 17 days, this time I was in only one country for 27 days. I thought it was gonna be boring with similar views everyday but it was much more fun than I expected! I got a chance to experience lots of cities that tourists rarely visit. Those cities should thank me if they get popular after I post about them later, haha.
So you guys might be wondering what was I doing in Czech Republic for 27 days. Traveling might have become a part of this but the main purpose is cultural mission. Yes, I was doing what I love which is dancing and also promoting Indonesia’s culture throughout the world. How cool is that?!
Okay, I have a side story. In 2012, I got accepted in an audition in my dance company for dancing trip to USA. I had already rehearsed and it was time for visa issuance. Unfortunately, my visa was rejected. Not only once but twice! I was very sad and cried. But then I realized it was God’s plan for me. If I joined that trip, I couldn’t attend admission test for the university where I study now. That test was my only last chance to be accepted. I feel very grateful.
And now I study Accounting in Faculty of Economics University of Indonesia. In my early days, I registered my phone number for traditional dance community at my faculty, it’s called SGB (Seni Gerak Budaya) Tradisional FEUI, but never attended the rehearsals. Then a great opportunity came. Starting my second semester, I was texted by the community that they would be having open audition for their first cultural mission contingent. They were looking for dancers and musicians. I was very excited when I read it and looked for further information. Then it came to the audition day. I was quite nervous but I relieved. One day I was having lunch at the canteen with my friends and suddenly I got a message that said I was accepted! I was happy but not hoping much, I still felt traumatic and disappointed about my last opportunity dancing abroad. Anyway, I attended the rehearsals. I was always happy having the rehearsals thinking what was coming up. Well, there was a problem with the festivals we were going to attend that made us change our destination to Czech Republic.
Everything was finally settled. I couldn’t be more excited that this was really happening!! I just had to wait for the day when I left. But then I thought about the destination. Hmm… okay, I knew this country from Miss Universe when all the contestants introduce themselves. Besides that, I knew nothing. I would visit some cities which I had never heard before besides Czech’s capital and famous city, Prague. That made me anticipate the trip even more. I missed some of the rehearsals because of my Euro trip, I had told them about that in past rehearsals and they still allowed me to join. I came back, catching up everything, and it was time to go! Let the journey begin…
In a nice Wednesday afternoon, we arrived at the airport. Oh, I haven’t mentioned that our contingent name is Amertha Bhavani, derived from Sanskrit language. Amertha means everlasting, while Bhavani means spirit. The group consisted of 25 people. We gathered with our families and friends. One of the officials from our faculty also came. We proudly wore our red and white varsity. At the check-in counter, we arranged our luggage because besides luggage, we also brought big and heavy musical instruments so it was quite hectic. But it was nothing compared to what we had to deal with these things in upcoming days. We met a group who was also wearing similar jackets which we found out later they were from Padjajaran University, Bandung, and like us, they were also going for cultural mission trip to Turkey. We ended up being at the same plane using Turkish Airlines. We had 12-hour flight. I slept for a while then I awoke and couldn’t sleep so I decided to watch a movie. I found an interesting movie based on the title, synopsis, and picture. It’s a Japanese movie called Love for Beginners. I always love Asian romantic or rom-com movies and dramas, especially Korean and Japanese because I feel they are more touching. I easily cry in many movies I watch, even though some people don’t think there’s nothing to be cried for. And you can guess.. I cried watching that movie. I cried so sadly that it required taking lots of tissues. I made some sounds that I realized I was being in a plane so I looked at my surroundings and relieved people were sleeping so I didn’t feel so embarrassed. I slept again then.
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| Group photo before leaving |
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| The girls are ready to go! |
After such a long flight, we arrived at Atatürk Airport, Turkey, and transit for about 2 hours. We split with Padjajaran group there because it was their final destination. So me and the others took a walk around the airport. They have some interesting stores and things to look at. Because of my curiosity, I bought vanilla and chocolate flavored Turkish ice cream. I easily bite regular ice cream, and this one is even easier to bite! The texture is like a clay. The seller was so funny and made jokes with the ice cream.
Interesting things I found in Atatürk Airport:
We continued our flight to Prague for about 2,5 hours. And here we are in Prague! I was too excited but couldn’t scream. I just looked around and breathe more deeply. Pak Guntur from Indonesian embassy approached us. A girl from the festival picked us up. We took pictures first around the airport. The weather was hotter than I expected. We got into the bus and directly heading to Šumperk, a small city in eastern Czech Republic. I was looking the views outside the window at first but the journey was long which is 5 hours and I was sleepy so I slept.
Šumperk is colder than Prague, or maybe because it was getting dark. We stayed at a hostel called Domov Mladeze. We brought our luggage inside. And here comes the tiring part: bringing our luggage upstairs. There is no elevator, only stairs. We were given rooms on the third floor. Great. You can imagine what I mean. Each floor was filled with one country. The rooms could fit from 2 to 3 people. My group agreed that roommates are chosen randomly every time we move to another city. Inside the rooms here, there are beds, desk, table, and a chair. There are shared toilets and bathrooms on each floor. We were told that our schedule for the next day is still free time! So that night, we only had a little brief, unpacked our things, had dinner, took a shower, and rest.
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| First dinner. We had typical dormitory food while staying here. And no spoon! Spoon is only provided when you have soup on your menu. |
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| Not really a good view but I just want to show the environment around the hostel |
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