The Guiness Storehouse, Dublin

I am not a fan of beer. I didnt know that Guiness, one of the famous beer, is originated from Ireland.

Mbak Anty told me that i should have a visit to the GUINESS Storehouse. And i took her suggestion.

After persuading Hery that The Guiness storehouse is kinda museum and he wont find any drunken master , he was agree to come with us.

It was me, Kesi and Adriane (the phillipine coursemate) that very anxious to go to the Guiness Storehouse.

After class, we took the DART to Tara st, walked to Aston Quay and catched the 78A bus. I wanst sure what was going on. But we missed the bus, because the driver said we must catch the bus line up on the front. In fact, his bus was the one that went off first from the Aston Quay. hrrrrrrrr ... i can not help myself to judge that Dubliners are not ready to welcome Asian tourist.Anyway, we finally made it to the bus stop not far from the Guiness Storehouse and took a nice stroll.

We got there almost 1700hr, suppose to be the latest daily tour. Anyway, tour at Guiness storehouse is a self guided tour. Here, we should have ourself very interested and read the brochure or you wont get the essential of visiting this place. I saw a group of people had tour-guide.

Anyway, we finished our self guided tour at the 7th level of the bulding. There is a place named The Gravity Bar where you can see the panoramic of Dublin City from above. We were eligible of a glass of Guiness beer. Since all of us not a fan of beer, then i asked whether we could have soft drink instead. And yes we could ....

We stayed there untill the bar closed.

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Dun Laoghire : my Daily Destination

Most of people works for E/// Ireland resides in this area.
My friend , back on the old days at NSN, stays in this area.
He is know working for E/// Ireland. There was one day when
i took a nice walk during lunch, I met him with his son. He
had just pick his son from school and took him back to his
house, and he still catch up the working hours after lunch.

What a nice life .... :)

Little bit unchallenging perhaps for some people hahahaha ...
Well it is back your personal preference.

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DART : The commuter train of Dublin

I am not sure what DART stands for. DART is the name of the commuter train in Dublin that i used during my stay in Dublin. It took me from Grand Cannal Station to Dun Laoghire station in approx.20 minutes. They sell weekly ticket costs EURO 17.40

If i had to Compare the commuter train between Jakarta-Brisbane-Singapore-Dublin , I choose Singapore MRT as the best.

Jakarta Commuter train is away from reliable apart of the fact that we have to be talented in rugby to get a seat on the train. Brisbane is okey, the train schedule always on time, the station is representative, route sign and the ticketing are good,the train itself not on top of the class but it is descent.

The DART station are very simple in compare to Singapore MRT station. Not much different with Brisbane train station, but DART station mostly smaller. I found very limited train route map placed on each station and none in the train. Quite uncomfortable for visitors, especially a person like me who love to read map. Luckly, there was voice and ticker announcement inside the train that helps alot.

A part of that, DART is standard and expectable :)

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Touch Down on Dublin

Flight LH 4896 to Dublin depart on 9.40 Frankfurt time. I believe it was 16.30 in Jakarta. We feel tired and dizzy at the same time. Combination of having low quality sleep and stiffed mussle after flying from Jakarta - Frankfurt.

We have to go outside the airport to be on the plane. It is time to face the real wheater of EUROPE. It was cold but acceptable. I was only wearing my cardigan. Simply because i saw many people only wore t-shirt some even wore short pant. I forgot, they live here .... My Javanese skin can not bear such cold especially the wind. Lucky me (this is the proove i am javanese), we were only outside not more than 15 minutes :)

The flight took 1.5 hour to reach Dublin. I can see from the sky , the pattern of clouds are different from what we can see when flying in Indonesia. the sky was so clear and the cloud was so thick underneath us. No wonder the tale about kingdom above the sky came from Europe. I dont think Indonesian have many story about kingdom above the sky. Simply because the cloud is pretty much grouping in different place. The king might fall down if there was kingdom above the sky in Indonesia hahahaa ....

When the flight slowly lower the height, it was felt like we go down from the cloud kingdom. Sky - cloud so white - Sea. I've never seen such experience. Feels like we were watching an opera and the curtain was open and there was the sea.

The plane keep lowering down the height and i was wondering ... where is the land ... where is the land. No body tell me that we would landed on the sea ... hahahaha. Everytime i landed in Jakarta airport, the plane was lowering down on the land that we can se the view of Jakarta city. Landing in Dublin is different.

Slowly we saw the land. The land of brave heart and U2 hahaha. And finally we touch down in Dublin. a 22 hours trip from Jakarta to Dublin finally ended. It was 11.30 in Dublin and it was 17.30 in Jakarta.

It is time to rest ... (we wish)

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a 22 hours trip to Ireland

I finally checked in on Lufthansa counter at 1700hr and found out that 4 (me, Kesi, Pramana and Hery) of us can not sit close to each other on the flight. That's fine. Its best for me to keep my "funny sleeping face" unaccesable :P

I sit on the middle (bad luck) of the right hand row. The flight number was LH779 using Boeing 747. I wish i could sit on the first class. It was located on the upper deck of the plane. Business class was okey, but economy class where i was sit , definitely a so so seat. The think that i found it was better than my 18 hours flight to America , the seat had a head holder (i dont know the precise name) that kept my head from steady during my sleep :)

We were transiting on Singapore and Frankfurt. Both city definitely apply strict security control in their airport. In Singapore we've been asked why we got the Ireland Visa at Singapore. Helooooo ..... there is no Ireland Embassy in Indonesia. We also had to place our laptop out from our cabin lugage (well every had to) to the x-ray belt. In Frankfurt , it was even worst. We have to put off our shoes and put it on the X-ray belt (most the people had to). And I've got body check by the lady in the airport ... gossshhh.

The Lufthansa's pilot from Singapore to Frankfurt did the touch down very smooth ... wuhuuuu. I've never got a flight with such Touch Down quality. Not from Garuda , even not from Lufthansa flight from Jakarta to Singapore :)

We stop in Frankfurt for 4 hours before heading to Dublin. The airport design is very high tech and the finishing definitely follow the concept of ..... My friends that are engineers complaining about the finishing of the airport. They can see some cable hanging behind the transparant ceiling hahahaha ... engineer vs architect ... different standard :P

I bought 2 post cards and send it to Ake from Frankfurt. Yet we still dindt feel being in europe hahahaha ....

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Flying for Ireland : a dream come true

Its D-2 days for me to fly out to Ireland.
It feels like dreaming that i finally can visit my cousin, mbak anty, in Dublin.

Ireland is not a popular destination for Indonesian people. for me it is more than that ...

Ireland is beyond my reach ... it is too far and the cost to go there is cost my fortune :P

Anyway, i will fly out there because my office send me to attend a training.

Actually we have this training also held in Kista Swedeen. But i try my best to match the schedule for attending the one in Ireland.

I will be there for 2 weeks. Studying and visiting family ... what a cool combination.

I consider myself as a lucky person.

I was very excited 3 months ago, when trying hard to defend my case to be sent for this training. Now, in the middle of Project Hassle, i feel like dreaming.

and within 2 days the dream will come true ...

i will try my best to write "the story of dream come true" in this blog.

Keep checking pls :)

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SOP SUMSUM: Sipirok @ Medan North Sumatera

Another special Food place I went during my visit to Medan was a place that serve Sop SumSum and Daging Bakar. SIPIROK located at Jl. Sinunggal 30 Medan North Sumatera.

Its a small humble restaurant that full with people having lunch when we went there. All of us had no idea how to order and what to order (they also serve foods other than Sop Sumsum). We just sit nicely and look arround first and then we decided to call the waitress.

In Java, the common name to call people is Mbak (sister) for woman and Mas (brother) for man. Here in Medan they won't response with that names. We should call them with KAKAK, similar meaning with mbak and mas. Kakak is refering for both brother (mas) and sister (mbak). You can only yell "KAK ... we want to order !" then they (either man or woman) will come to you.

Do you know what exactly Sumsum is ?
I am not sure whether sumsum is a pure Indonesia word or Javanese word to describe the semi-liquid things that is usualy located in the middle of the bone. Sop SumSum Sipirok is refering to Beef Bone.

As the standard of the serving, they provide us with 3 types of Sambal (chillis paste). One chilli mixed with Teri (anchovy) , second chilli mixed with little tiny shrimp (so tiny that the shrimps are very soft) with Pete (stinky bean but taste heaven hahaha), and the third chilli mixed with some sliced of boiled lamb. It was my first time to eat those chilli paste ... it was delicious and guarantee would bring up your appetite.

The Sop Sumsum (marrow) itself was served with the bone. It was very big that i felt just like ASTERIX eating the BIG roasted PIG ... hahahahaha. You have to forget about the table manner ... or you will end up starving at this restaurant :)

After you clean up the meat on the bone. Then it is time to get the SumSum. You should pour some soup to the whole on top of the bone. Put the straw on the hole ... and you can enjoy the SumSum ..... slrrrrrrrpppppppp ... yummy !

All that i need to warn ... becareful with your C (cholesterol) level :P

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