Random Journey in Brussels – Part 1

A journey without planning. That’s a short clause which describes what I did in Brussels. Ditengah hening nya Gare Du Central saya duduk di depan starbucks sembari mengecas batere kamera & iPhone, menunggu jam departure bus saya untuk kembali ke hamburg.

What a day. Brussels was sooo amazing. It becomes the third rank in my favorite city in Europe after Paris and Hamburg (at least until now). Berangkat jam 10 pagi dari Paris menggunakan flixbus saya sampai di Gare du Nord (North Station) Brussels pukul 14.00.

The worst thing was I could not find any wifi!! So, really no idea what to do and how to contact my friend. Yap saya punya teman yg sedang mengambil master di Leuven. Kita janjian di Gare du Nord pukul 2. But you know right, Gare du Nord is one of the biggest stations in Brussels. It’s so big. Dan sebelum berangkat ke Paris saya & teman saya belum menentukan dimana lokasi detail untuk ketemu, karena saya mengira akan ada wifi at least di mcD atau starbucks, but no wifi at all. A bit panic, I wandered around the stations, to find the metro map. My only idea was to go out to the city and find wifi. Otherwise no idea to find him in such a big station.

But before going out, I was really hungry since I hadn’t eaten lunch at all. I got to save some euro since I lost it so much due to my bus miss-incident in Paris before. I went to Express store and bought an instant waffle (well it’s Belgium anyway), hazelnut snicker and 1 L box juice (for vitamin needs). It cost around 4 euro

After that I went back to in front of information office to find place for eating. Then the magical event happened. Someone suddenly came to me and shouted:

“Kok dengan lo janjian random banget sih. Gw telpon2 line ga masuk. Gw hampir mau ke Gare du Central”

Saya langsung menjerit (volume medium)

“Akbaarrr!!!!” I directly jumped to him and said “OMG, gimana ceritanya lo nemuin gw?? ThankGod. Emg random banget sih tadi. Gw ga jelas bgt harus ngapain dan gimana nemuin lo di stasiun seluas ini. Terus tiba2 lo muncul. Gilaa!! Alhamdulillah. Haha. Gimana ceritanya lo nemuin gw?”

“Mana gw tau. Tadi gw telpon2 line lo ga nyambung2, jadinya gw mutusin mau ke Gare du Central, tapi pas ke bawah keretanya gaada, jadinya ke atas lagi buat liat jadwal. Terus tiba2 ada lo disini.

“Serius laah!!! Haha Random pisan. Tapi Alhamdulillah gw seneng pisan ketemu maneh wkwk”

Well I didnt know what happened. But I believed it was God’s help. Akbar langsung bilang

“Lo ga jelas bgt sih tiba2 ke Brussels. Ko bisa?”

“Gw dari Paris dan miss bus ke Hamburg. Akhirnya random daripada naik bus direct Paris hamburg ntar malem. Mending gw transit ke brussels dulu, jalan2 sehari. Harganya beda 4 euro. Dan jam sampe nya sama. Haha”

In short I told him the story behind a bit miss-bus incident di paris yang sekaligus juga mengantarkan gw ke Brussels.[]

In front of atomium with my friend Akbar

—

Itu tadi part I. Btw ini gw nulisnya realtime di iPhone ya, di starbucks, dan beneran lagi nganggur nunggu bus balik ke Hamburg lol. Dan gw sekarang mau keluar dari Gare du Central dulu buat ngeliat Grand Palace Brussels di malam hari yang katanya benar-benar indah dan megah. Waktu isya juga sudah masuk menandakan harus segera mencari tempat buat sholat. Dunno where it is. But maybe in somewhere in the corner, emergency stairs or something. Lets see. Well see you in the next writing from Brussels

22:10 August 25th 2015
Gare du central, Brussels, Belgium

Tentang Nama

Disini saya ingin menulis sebanyak mungkin rangkaian kata. Cerita, pengalaman, pemikiran, pembelajaran dan semua hal yang mungkin tidak terlalu penting untuk bisa menjadi sebuah tulisan. Salah satunya post ini. Haha.

Kali ini saya ingin berbicara soal nama. Ya literally nama. Muhammad Afif Izzatullah. Itu nama lengkap saya. Tapi uniknya di daerah barat atau beberapa negara mereka memiliki surname atau family name which most of Indonesia people don’t have. For example mine. I don’t have surname. I only have full name. People daerah barat biasanya memanggil secara sopan/formal surname kita atau dalam kasus saya nama belakang saya. So to say Mr. Izzatullah. But for infomal or between friends they usually call with the first name. Yes,in my case is Muhammad.

Many of friends the first time call me Muhammad. Even not the first time. I have already introduced to some of my Europe friends “just call me Afif”. Still, sometimes they don’t remember it the next time we meet, and call me Muhammad. Well I am so happy be called as Muhammad, but just feel it is so heavy-burden. Indeed he is our prophet. So I get more comfortable with the call just Afif.

***

Tentang nama, I personally want that my children (insyaAllah, aamiin) have name a bit more adaptable to both east and west countries. So at least it has the first name as the nick name, so he/she will be easier to introduce name to the other people. I also prefer he has so-called like family name, which maybe, the combination of my name and you. Yes you! lol.

Well just random thought though. It is only about the arrangement of the full name. About the meaning of the name itself, I still have no idea. I prefer there is an islamic meaning but also has a cool pronunciation which most of the people in the world are able to say it without much effort. Lol.

Well once more, it’s totally random midnight thought. I’m still flexible about that though. Guten nacht![]

***

Hamburg, Germany
Midnight 21th August 2015. After playing “mafia” with some of friends here. It was so fun. If you don’t know mafia, you must know werewolf. Yap it’s the same. Maybe it could also be a post in my blog. I wish. Tschuss :)

Here I am

Here I am… trapped in the middle of beautiful melody made by raindrop, in a new land for my life, and new activities to survive. Library is truly a comfortable place to have a rest… contemplate what deeds I just done …