Dryxanne’s Confessions

So, few minutes ago, I came over to a colleague’s desk, asking her progress of doing some work that was supposed to be submitted to me. When I left her, I noticed that her wrist watch was showing incorrect time, at least not Jakarta time. It was showing 2.10 PM instead of 7.10 PM like what my wrist watch showed. Immediately I thought, the one country’s time that was more or less 5-6 hours behind Jakarta time, the one country that is most possibly related to my office, is Sweden. In this case, perhaps it’s Stockholm/Kista’s time.

As I walked over to the restroom, I couldn’t help but let my mind wandering to 8 months ago, when I had the unbelievable chance to travel to Sweden. Never would I have thought before that, that I would ever get the chance to visit one of European countries. Without spending a cent of my personal money on the tickets and accommodations. In other words, it was fully business trip.

Hip hip hoorraaayyyy….!!!

Suddenly I thought, I just don’t know when, or how, or in what event, will I ever visit Sweden / Stockholm again. To say that I miss the city would be a bit too much, since I only stayed there for 6.5 days only.

But sometimes I do miss my trip there. I miss the days when I had to figure how to reach the office there, while cursing on my stupidity that I didn’t plan and try to find out clearly which subway to take and to which direction. Luckily I arrived just a few minutes before the conference I was supposed to attend began.

I miss my stupidity (again!) when I forgot that it was Stockholm that means people MUST wait at the bus stop to hop in the bus, not like in Jakarta where you can simply stop the bus anywhere to hop in, or out. I missed the bus, and THEN I also realized that I didn’t know for sure if I was on the right side of the road or right direction of the route either. Luckily, again, I was, and the next bus arrived within 10 mins, which rarely happen in Jakarta too.

And that one of the most interesting places can actually be reached by walking. Within 20 mins. Which burned some calories, and very healthy since the air was so fresh, not so many cars, and the pedestrians had their wide lane for walking, and everytime I crossed the street, cars actually stopped and gave me the way, except on those streets where pedestrians need to obey the crossing lights of course.

And I missed the cold weather too!

I missed the itchy palms, fingers, cheeks. That caused me to use the jacket hood, and wrapped not only my neck but also my cheeks, that people on the street stared at me like I was somekind of freak. Too bad I don’t have the picture with me now, the one where I was like a ninja with shawl covering up my face

I enjoyed all the walking along those few days. I loved all the beautiful sceneries I saw during the boat trip around the archipelagos. I ate all types of fish they provided during the dinner on board the boat, just to try out what they tasted like. I thought to myself, I might never come again, so why bother to limit myself of trying all these cuisines?

I was amazed by how safe it was for me to walk around by myself, clearly showing that I was a tourist, alone, by holding a map on my hands. No one came to bother me, many people I asked for directions were pleased to help me out, an old man even patted me on the back and shook my hand and told me : " You’re so brave, keep going and enjoy your trip here!"

  I loved how warm the stores and cafes were, so different than the cold air outside, that it felt like so welcomed when you walked in. I am still amazed how I could meet a family from Indonesia there, that helped me to take this picture, and in return I took the pic for them too.

I didn’t have any pictures during the hours I spent in the plane, or at the airports. My phone was switched off most of the time, and I could only switch it on for a few minutes at Kuala Lumpur airport, Schiphol Airport (too bad I didn’t take any pic there…), and of course I couldn’t even reach for it while I was running and almost out of breath trying to reach the immigration queue that was 10 m long while my plane was scheduled to take off in less than 20 mins. Luckily, there were 2 old guys from Indonesia that were kind to let me cut their queue so I could get in the plane on time. I didn’t even have the chance to say enough thanks to them…

Ain’t it funny that when you travel in foreign countries, sometimes you find that foreigners are more kind to you, strangers to them, than how people treat you here in your own country?

But what I missed the most when I travelled alone, was a companion, so that I have someone to share all those memories and laughters and smiles and bittersweet experiences that I might never have twice again, ever.