Our Tethered Skates by Naadhira Zahari
7 hours ago
[Roadtrip] Where East Meets West - Part 2
January 9, 2015
Where were we?
Ahaa, arrived in Budapest. :) Okay, let's continue!
We didn't walk around Budapest this time, as we planned to do so on our way back home. Budapest is a very nice city to travel in; with its preserved heritage too and I love the Chain Bridge that connect the two parts of Budapest - Buda and Pest. Will talk about it soon. :)
After filling the petrol tank, we drove along Danube river while looking at the beautiful morning scenery and started to head into highways; approximately at 9am Tuesday
I took the shift of driving to Bucharest, Romania. Fuh, I was quite nervous as I felt kind of responsible with the lives of other people too. If you are like me, what I did was; keep calm, and recite Allah's names most of the times okay?
Before I forget, the speed limit here, commonly as follows;
Village - 50km/h
City - 90km/h
Highway - 130km/h
Budapest - Bucharest
approximately 830 km, in 9-10 hours (if drive non stop)
Estimated time of arrival (ETA) - 9pm Tuesday.
We stopped at this RnR, aiming to have proper breakfast with cups of hot drinks (coffee, hot chocolate, or tea). There are a petrol station, a restaurant and a cafe there. So, 2 of us stepped into the cafe while the others went first to the toilets. We didn't order yet as we thought we would order together with the rest. Ouch, unfortunately the cafe didn't accept debit cards and she didn't like us to stay in her cafe. Hmphh.
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| That cafe - building on the left |
Aha, we didn't changed money to Hungarian Forint (HUF) that time. Most of time, we paid for the petrol by debit card (we have in Euro currency). And the rest, we didn't need money to buy any food. Why? Because we brought along 2 full bags of food; name it - nasi goreng, kuewtiaw goreng, cucur, cookies, snacks, hot coffee in flask, bottles of mineral water, bars of chocolates, fruits etc. Yeah, before the trip we had last minute discussion to separate the duty - AJK Makanan, AJK Kereta & Petrol, AJK Kelengkapan and most important one, the treasurer (to keep on track all expenses). Our AJK Makanan took care of all food during the journey on road.
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| Somewhere in Romania. I guess, Arad :) |
Roads connecting countries here are not always highways. Sometime, the highways end somewhere and you need to continue driving along the small towns/villages to get into another highways. And this can prolong the duration of driving; there can be people walking ON the road (as their pavements are covered with thick snow), there can be lots of lorries in front of you. There can also be police cars patrolling around - so, you can not exceed the speed limit. Duh.
By the way, when we passed through customs and passport controls at every borders, we got our passports stamped! Weheeee, that's excited to hear, right? But, no stamps or clear border between Czech and Slovakia, maybe because both were used to combine before as Czechoslovakia :)
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| Border of Hungary - Romania |
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| While waiting for passport control. Ignore the dirty screen; the weather was not that good. |
Vignette for Romania = 5 Euro (for a week) - if I'm not mistaken
If you drive a rented car, make sure you have the car's identity card and the contract/paper of renting. Some countries, they ask for this before selling the vignette or letting you pass the passport control.
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| Cards we need to have - International Driving License, Passport, Debit/credit card, Biomatric card (this is only for us as we stayed in Czech more than 90 days - customs wanted to see this as they wonder why are we still in Europe after 90 days :)) |
I can say I love Romania for its beautiful scenery of nature! There are not much of tall buildings and the countryside looks so peaceful to live in. Driving along the hills, with white mountains and hills along the way, sometimes we can see sheep and horses. Sometimes, we can drive along the road with nothing at the both sides - everything covered with snow (I expect maybe those are wheat field) how can not I fall in love with it :)
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| Countryside of Romania. |
We changed drivers nearly half way; my friend is more skillful to drive when it gets darker. As you know, winter has shorter day and longer night. I guess, my melatonin was secreted a lot when it came to night T_T
The road for the rest of the journey to Bucharest was challenging! The route, I can say; similar to the combination of hilly road from Gerik - Jeli and Simpang Pulai to Cameron Highlands. But, as I say Romania is beautiful with its nature; you can expect beautiful views too even at night! With beautiful sky with the shiny moon and stars, you can see reflections of mountains on the river you drove along.
After making sure that we entered another highway (the A1 highway from Pite?ti), I asked excuse to sleep. When I woke up, we already arrived in Bucharest, at 11pm Tuesday! (total of 14 hours) :D
Stopped by the petrol station again, try to continue to places in Bucharest. It was really cold to walk outside, so, we decided to visit anything interesting only by car. When I recheck on Internet about Bucharest, I learnt to know that there was a snow storm before we arrived! And of course we can see most cars were fully covered with white snow.
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| Not a good picture of Bucharest. I'm sorry. |
Basic information on Bucharest;- it is the capital and largest city in Romania, located south of the country. The buildings are quite a mixture of old and modern architecture. It is getting more trendy (maybe like Warsaw, Poland). Was known as "little Paris" before (maybe can be seen in the Arch de Triumph it has in one of the roundabouts :) Ahaa, we need to change our time zone here, by adding up an hour. (12am in Bucharest means 11pm in Czech).
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| Another picture of Bucharest :) |
Till next part!
Weee :D
Weee :D
v Khaulah,
150108
[Roadtrip] Where East Meets West - Part 1
January 8, 2015
.
We started our journey quite late which was nearly 12am of Tuesday. Before driving out of the town, we checked our stuffs all over again, especially the car. We made sure we had spare tire, the wipers are functioning, the car temperature is good, the mirrors are adjusted, the lamps are working good. Well, the journey was estimated to be more than 4000km; a very far and long journey!
GPS; another important thing! We realised it was not charging when connected to normal car charger! Ouch, how can we drive without charged GPS. My friend tried to call the owner of the car, but seems he already sleep; it was 12 am though. :p After some time exploring the dashboard, we found another power source; the USB. Alhamdulillah, using the USB for camera, we can charge the GPS! First problem solved!
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| Shake it off T_T |
It was my friend's turn to drive the car. And the destination was to Budapest, Hungary (via Bratislava, Slovakia). It was approximately 480km with the estimated duration of 5 hours 30 minutes. It sounds crazy right? T_T But no worries, we stopped somewhere to rest ourselves and the car itself after hundreds kilometers; just to make sure the car was not overheating.
By the way, to go to Hungary, it was like crossing 2 countries - Slovakia and Hungary.
Just to let you know, we need to buy Vignette (it is like road tax) and is currently used throughout Central Europe. It was not that expensive and easy to buy. Before crossing the border, just stop at any petrol stations to buy. For some countries, you can still buy it within few kilometers after crossing the border :)
Vignette for Slovakia = 10 Euro for 10 days
Vignette for Hungary = 2 975 HUF (~ 9.5 Euro) for 10 days
Like highways in Malaysia, we need to pay the toll every time we use highways. It is different with Vignette. Pay once, then use it within the period of time throughout the country. :)
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| Vignettes - Credit; Google |
Aha, by the way, RnR here don't really have stalls to sell food (not so many). So, don't expect to see people selling fruits - ciku, papayas, guavas all that. But, the best part of stopping by RnR with petrol stations was that most of petrol stations; they provide free WiFi! The toilets are inside the shop; very clean. And you can buy coffee or some hot drinks as there are also cafes in the petrol station's shop.
And they don't ask you to leave if you park there without buying the petrol :)
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| OMV - one of the common petrol stations here :) |
The journey was smooth at this time; except that we are not used to stay in car in cold weather. Aha, I forgot to mention, it was snowing that morning T_T I was so nervous because it could affect the road. But, alhamdulillah, so far everything was still good :)
Make sure to bring some pillows and 'comforters'. So that you will not be frozen in the car and you have 'comfortable' place to sleep. At that time, we tried to divide the four of us into 2 shifts; each with a driver and a co-driver (to make sure the drivers not to be sleepy - by giving food, water and have conversations). So, while one of the shifts take over the car, the other one need to take the opportunity to sleep. That's the reason why we managed to be continuously on road for 2+2 days!
We arrived Budapest nearly 7am.
But, what made this part of the trip interesting was that; we had the opportunity to watch the sunrise! And read al-Mathurat together in the car :)
That's lovely enough for me. Weee.
I'm sorry if Part 1 sounds boring; I guess it was more to technical stuffs; as this was our first long roadtrip. But maybe it can be helpful if you want to travel in Europe by car :)
Heee. Will share more interesting stories soon ;)
v Khaulah,
140108
Laksam in Czech :)
January 6, 2015
Well, so far, I can't see any Malaysian restaurants here (which I guess a lot maybe in UK - I haven't been there ;p). So, every time I'm craving for something that can fill my Malaysian's delicious taste of bud, it is either I will ask someone to make it for me (yeah, I know - muka tak malu, but I'm don't really ask a lot T_T) or I need to do it myself. Sedap tak sedap, belakang kira. What to do, I'm not a good cook.
My second attempt of Laksam.
Here we go!
My biggest challenge was to make the laksam itself T_T. Out of 10 trays, only 5 are properly done & cooked. Ouch, I wasted lots of my rice flour :(
But, no worries, I learnt the trick!
So, let me share with you how I make my laksam. Simple laksam. Maybe more suitable for students like me :) Servings for 4 people.
***********************************
To make the laksam, I use;-
i) 3 cups of rice flour
- (I used IKEA plastic cup. It doesn't matter what types of cup you use, just make sure you use the same one for the water)
ii) 2 tablespoon of wheat flour (the normal one ;))
iii) 4 cups of warm water
How to make it?
1. Prepare your steamer (pengukus) & heat it.
2. In a bowl, put both rice flour and wheat flour together with warm water.
3. Make sure to stir them so that they mix well.
Meanwhile,
4. Put a small baking tray into the steamer. *you can use anything actually; like a pot cover, a plate*
5. Spread very very very little amount of oil onto the tray. (you can use pandan leaves :D)
6. Pour the laksam mixture into layer (not too thick or too thin)
7. Wait for it to be cooked - about 2-3 minutes
8. Remove the baking tray from the steamer, place it onto a plate. BE CAREFUL, it is really hot.
9. By using spoon and your fingers, fold the laksam. I think it is okay to fold it while it is still hot.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile,
For the laksam's gravy - I use;-
i) 4 boxes of Sardine (total about 500g) - I just take the fish without the tomato sauce :)
ii) 500ml coconut milk (santan)
iii) 1 inch of ginger
iv) 3 onions (I only have Holland onions here)
v) 4 garlic
vi) 1 small spoon of black pepper powder
vii) A few asam keping
viii) Sugar and salt to taste
How to cook the gravy?
1. Blend the sardine, onions, garlic, ginger, santan and black pepper powder.
2. Pour the mixture into a pot, then put some asam keping.
3. Add sugar and salt (depend on people's taste)
4. If the gravy is quite thick, put some water. But if you like thick gravy, just leave it :)
5. Leave it to cook.
Finally, serve it and eat!
I added some salads, cucumber, bunga kantan and sambal to put more taste to it :)
p/s - reference . thank you! :)
p/s/s - I feel awkward to take pictures while cooking. But still, I need to record this for my future reference :)
Till then,
Assalamualaikum.
v Khaulah,
141227
[Roadtrip] Where East Meets West
January 5, 2015
Alhamdulillah :)
Finally, after about a week of travelling by car, we safely arrived home! Yeah, it was a road trip, and literally we were in car most of times. ;) The car itself was like our house; it was the kitchen to prepare food and eat; it was the bedroom to sleep. Not to forget, our favorite pit-stops; the petrol stations T_T
Guess where we went?
It is the place where the east meets the west! :D
You are correct!
Istanbul, Turkey.
It was kind of a sudden plan for the winter break; despite of going by plane with expensive tickets, we tried to look for alternative way to travel. So, here we go; by car.
Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic
Bratislava, Slovakia
Budapest, Hungary
Bucharest, Romania
Sofia, Bulgaria
Istanbul, Turkey.
Overall, the journey was safe and we encountered so many new experiences. Will share about it soon, insyAllah.
Say, [O Muhammad], "Travel through the land and observe how He began creation. Then Allah will produce the final creation. Indeed Allah , over all things, is competent." Al-Ankabut 29;20
Observe and think :)
Assalamualaikum.
v Khaulah,
150105
Segmen Bloglist 2015 By SITI YANG MENAIP
December 29, 2014
Looking for 30 blogs to put in her blog lists in three categories :) There is one list until the end of 2015, another one till May 2015, and the last one till March 2015.
1. Follow this blog :)
2. Create a blog post with the title "Segmen Bloglist 2015 By SITI YANG MENAIP", then attach the banner and back link it to the segment entry. :)
3. Leave the link to at the segment entry
4. Feel free to follow here in Instagram - SITIRORO.
All bloggers will be selected by random.org.
And the segments will end on 30th December 2014 (it will be tomorrow!)
CLICK THE BANNER TO JOIN!
Let's join, guys! Keep supporting the bloggers! :D
v Khaulah,
141229
Looking at the sky is my favourite thing to do. Aimlessly; at the same time, thinking.
Thinking about life. And also 'life' after life.
Like, self reflection.
I did a lot, I guess, basically in 2014. I hope I've changed to a better person with better personalities, after all the things happened in this year.
2014.
A tough year.
Full of tears, but still there is always happiness somewhere in between.
Well, Allah has said so in Quran, in surah Ash-Sharh (94), verse 5 and 6.
So, let me share my collections of sky in 2014 :)
Thinking about life. And also 'life' after life.
Like, self reflection.
I did a lot, I guess, basically in 2014. I hope I've changed to a better person with better personalities, after all the things happened in this year.
2014.
A tough year.
Full of tears, but still there is always happiness somewhere in between.
Well, Allah has said so in Quran, in surah Ash-Sharh (94), verse 5 and 6.
For indeed, with hardship [will be] ease.
Indeed, with hardship [will be] ease.
So, let me share my collections of sky in 2014 :)
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| 7/1/14 - Beautiful sunset | Palachova Hostel, Hradec Kralove, Czech |
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| 19/1/14 - My first road trip | Hradec Kralove - Prague, Czech |
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| 26/1/14 - Let free of myself from books | Olomouc, Czech |
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| 1/2/14 - Spent time at the mosque | Hradec Kralove, Czech |
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| 16/2/14 - Gloomy day | Warsaw, Poland |
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| 16/2/14 - Weekend escape before start of new semester. | Warsaw, Poland |
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| 27/2/14 - Day trip | Pardubice, Czech |
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| 27/2/14 - Reflection of sunset | Pardubice, Czech |
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| 1/3/14 - I can't recall this T_T | Orlice river, Hradec Kralove, Czech |
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| 10/3/14 - The park in front of Ad-Deen, I guess T_T | Zizkovy sady, Hradec Kralove, Czech |
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| 14/3/14 - I was so distracted with the missing flight MH370. May Allah blessed all of them involved. | Hradec Kralove, Czech |
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| 20/3/14 - Going for class in the hospital. The building up there is the emergency department. The red thing on top of it is heliport - used to land helicopter, taking critical patients from countryside. | Fakultni Nemocnice, Hradec Kralove, Czech |
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| 20/3/14 - Going back home - Zizkovy sady; Hradec Kralove, Czech |
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| 21/3/14 - Train ride to OSEM (medical) programme | Olomouc, Czech |
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| 25/3/14 - Walking home | Hradec Kralove, Czech |
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| 29/3/14 - Hiking trip to Narnia's famous acting site | Bohemian Switzerland, Czech |
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| 30/3/14 - Another beautiful sunset from my window | Hradec Kralove, Czech |
More to go :)
I hope these pictures give you peace while facing one of the hardest time for our country; the flood :) Yes, of course the main element of peace is to turn back to Allah and remember Him always.
"Those who have believed and whose hearts are assured by the remembrance of Allah . Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts are assured." Ar-Ra'd 13;28
I can't be there at this critical time, but insyAllah my prayers will be continuously. Ameen. May Allah grant you with strength and patients. Important thing; redha and believe in His plans.
Till then,
Assalamualaikum.
v Khaulah
141229
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