[Roadtrip] Where East Meets West - Part 4

January 13, 2015

The good thing in Sofia (in Bulgaria, it is spelled as София), was when we arrived there on the last day of 2014. Which means it was public holiday = no charge to park anywhere! At the beginning, we were so reluctant to park our car. So, we decided the two of us stay in the car, while the other two go anywhere to ask about the parking tickets.

It was freaking cold!

Since it was not weekend, most people said we need to pay for it. It was hard too to find shops that sell the parking tickets. Most shops were still closed. Suddenly I saw few policemen (I guess, they were going to have breakfast). I tried to ask them and luckily one of them speak English. :D

He confirmed with us that it was public holiday and we can park anywhere we want (as long as it is parking zone). What I mean with 'anywhere' is that there are at least 2 zones of parking (green and blue) in which each has different price per hour. ;)

1 Euro = 2 Bulgarian lev (BGN)

We managed to park the car quite close to places we would like to go. :) Yeay.

The first place to go is Banya Bashi Mosque! :D

Sweet mosque - women side on the first floor.

Early before (maybe many many many years ago), there were at least 70 mosques in Sofia but Banya Bashi Mosque is the only one that still functioning. It is very old (completed in 1576) and was built in the era of Uthmaniyyah (Ottoman). The opening hours, I guess during prayer times - as it was locked when we first come :) :)

Interesting fact about the mosque is that, it was built by Mimar Sinan.

Who is he?

Image - credit

He is the famous Ottoman architect and civil engineer for Sultans in Turkey. He was responsible to build lots of mosques, bridges, palaces, hospitals and he was compared with Michelangelo who is famous for St. Basilica in Rome (basically famous in the west). Mimar Sinan also built the Blue Mosque of Istanbul!

By the way, do you know that the word Banya Bashi is originally from Turkish language?
Banya Ba?? Camii

Camii means mosque while Banya Bashi means many baths. Outside the mosque, we can see an area of natural thermal spas, actually the remnants of original hammam (Turkish Baths). We can see from walls, there is warm water coming out. Nowadays, people will bring large empty bottles to be filled with the warm water. And it is FREEEE! ^_^

Turkish Bath - that uncle, he called the monopod as selfie melfie. Whattt? Haha. So, I invited him to take picture together.

The nutrients of water in Turkish Bath :) I can only understand that cations anions :p

Just in front of the mosque, we can see a building - Central Sofia Market Hall. They sell food, souvenirs, clothes etc. While around the market, there are lots of shops, some are branded shops and restaurants. I bought some postcards for my first giveaway! :)

The market :)

If you are travelling to Europe or specifically Central & Eastern Europe, try to bring Euro / USD money instead of Ringgit Malaysia. RM is not recognised here (as far as I know).

It was freaking cold with slippery pavements. I could not feel my fingers anymore, eventhough I wore the gloves! Ahaa, about the attire, make sure to wear clothes that are suitable for the winter. Boots (or maybe waterproof, strong grip sport shoes), gloves, scarfs, and coat (better with hoodies)

After preparing hot drinks from Turkish Bath, we decided to continue the journey to Istanbul. :)

See the speed meter. Slow and safe. :) The route was dangerous T_T

Routes to Istanbul and within Istanbul were the most challenging among all. They challenge our driving skills and patience. Since our GPS didn't cover for Turkey (we knew it already), so, we need to depend on GPS on phone, Google maps, Waze and instinct.

Why instinct?

Because we didn't understand Bulgarian alphabets. T_T It was really hard to guess the signboards.

Some incidents happened.

Alhamdulillah, Allah saved us and guide us all the way :)

Till then,
Assalamualaikum.

v Khaulah,

150109

[Winners Announcement] Postcards Giveaway from Czech & Germany

January 12, 2015

Guys, we are ready to announce the winner of the giveaway!

Alhamdulillah, our first giveaway together has ended and I really want to say thank you to Aisya for helping and guiding me all the way. She has more experiences to share and I really appreciate Aisya's hardwork. Wee. :) Love you lah! The starting to plan for the collaboration was so random actually, alhamdulillah, we made it; together!

InsyAllah, winners are randomly picked. :D And now, 21 postcards from each of us; which means 42 in total are waiting to be sent to the winners!

Image - credit

Check list of participants HERE

And the winners are.....

**drum-rolls!**

~~1, 10, 12, 16,~~ 20,

~~21, 23, 26,~~ 35, 38,

~~43,~~ 46, 47, ~~52, 59,~~

~~60, 65, 68, 69, 73, 74~~

For the winners in the list above, kindly leave your details to email beatback91@gmail.com

3, 9, ~~13, 14, 15,~~

17, 19, 29, 32, 34,

36, 40, 44, 45, 49

~~50, 56, 58, 70, 72,~~ 76

While, for the winners in the list above, kindly leave your details to email siti.aisya.ibrahim@gmail.com

Details needed are;-

Name:

Address:

Number of entry:

Blog URL:

InsyAllah, will try to get it done and sent them as soon as I get all the winners' details. I am not able to go to the post offices frequently. So, the lucky winners, make sure to give your details to us before 19th January 2015. :D

Congratulations to the winners and thank you everyone for the participation! :) May our steps to get to know each other be blessed, and may this friendship continues!

v Khaulah,

150112

[Roadtrip] Where East Meets West - Part 3

First of all, I can't say how many parts will be for this roadtrip :) Hehe, feel free to read, hopefully this can inspire you to try travelling somewhere by car :) Just like when I shared few experiences with my parents, they even asked me if is it possible to travel by car when they come here. They are interested to apply for international license too! :D

Enough for introduction. Let's proceed! ;)

Bucharest-Sofia
approximately 390km, in 6 hours (non stop driving)
ETA - 7am Wednesday

Route to Sofia with its own challenge when half of it has only one road for each direction. So, we need to carefully cross another car, make sure, no cars from opposite direction. The road was really dark! Seriously, like I mentioned sometime before, we can just depend on our car's light, and of course play around with the high beam. I think, most of time I was using high beam. It was not a straight road, so, need to know how to balance your gear and brake along the hilly roads.

Phewww, I guess, I have improved my driving skills drastically from this road trip. Manual car is not a problem, anymore. Alhamdulillah.

Well, I can relate this one quote by Robert Ricciardelli I read before. It was like;

The road to success is NEVER a straight road, right? There are always loops of challenges, speed bumps of friends, red lights of enemies, caution lights like family, weather changes that can fog your vision - some may complicated your journey, but some may be a booster for you to go further :) Keep determined and have faith!

Since the view was most of times dark, I found it tiring to strain my eyes to keep my focus. Tried to open the playlist and sing along. Eat a lot, chew gums a lot, Drink a lot. But bad moment was when you need to go to the toilet in the middle of forest where petrol stations were not so many. And even, they were conserving lights too T_T

My urinary bladder, himnae! keep strong!

Image - credit

The border of Romania and Bulgaria is Giurgiu (Romania side) and Ruse (Bulgaria side) where here, we need to use a bridge to cross Danube river that form mostly the border between Romania and Bulgaria. Still remember I said in previous part, Danube river in Budapest? Yeah this is its continuation :)

The bridge is called Giurgiu-Rousse Friendship Bridge. The age of the bridge is more than our Independence Day. Hoho. It was opened in 1954. Even though we need to pay (~ 6 Euro) to use the bridge, but it is really NOT in good condition!.There were holes everywhere, cracks along the road.

This was taken on our way back.

See the bridge :p

The customs was nice, they even had a conversation with us while getting our passports checked. Basically, customs will ask you where are you heading to (like the final destination). What are the reasons of your trip? Just answer; holidays :)

Yeah, he was wondering why we chose to travel in this cold weather, why not in summer? We just said that summer is the only opportunity to go home for a long holiday. He just nodded, showing face of understanding. "It must be hard for you. Okay, everything done! May you have good trip to Sofia and managed to catch the new year in Istanbul". Smile :)

But, Sofia is not that close to the border T__T

We need to drive for another 300km! Hahahaha.

Thats mean, Bucharest to the border was only 90km!

Alhamdulillah, there is highway to drive faster and safer (of course, not for whole 300km) :)

I stopped by at many petrol stations to take a 10 minutes nap. :) It helped!

In the middle of the journey, suddenly it was raining/snowing heavily. Fuh, luckily the road was not slippery and I can still maintained with 130km/h. Getting close to Sofia, about 150km, the roads pass through mountains (again), and it was really beautiful to watch lots of wooden houses, covered with snow. And there were I guess, at least 4 tunnels, each about 800 meters :)

Pardon me if I mentioned about the beauty of mountains a lot. T__T I'm so into nature, I can say :)

We arrived at Sofia, Bulgaria; about 9am Wednesday. And as planned, we will walk around the city, maybe at least to 2 places of attractions :)

More stories? Want to know something about Sofia?

Till next post, bye!
Assalamualaikum.

v Khaulah,

150108

Korean Age vs American Age?

January 10, 2015

Reunion with Eun Hui after 7 years!

And I didn't expect our friendship still going well after long years of not seeing each other. We first met in middle of 2008, then lost contact, then met again on Facebook and started to keep in touch at least once in two months since then :)

First thing I must say.
She is so beautiful and lovely!

Vaclavske Namesti, Prague

Alhamdulillah for this memorable day:)

I was so excited when she asked me if it is possible to meet if she put Prague in her Europe tour. Awww, I was more than happy to save my day for her.

And there you go! We met, finally!

Lots of updates to catch up. Well~ we are still on our way to be friends from acquaintances (kenalan). :) We talked about many things and it was awesome to exchange experiences. And she became my 2nd inspired person of solo travelling after a lovely girl I met, Izzah.

Incheon - once upon a time.

Let me share with you something. For our general knowledge.

And maybe exciting one for Korean stuffs lovers. Tehee. :)

Korean age vs American age.

Koreans believe that a baby is already 1 year old when he/she is delivered.*point number 1* (maybe they respect the gestation age) :) And regardless of your birthday, on New Year, you will turn one year older. *point number 2* Meanwhile, American age depends on your birthday. When you are born, your age will be counted as days and months until you have your first birthday.

Let me give example (if I'm not mistaken) :)

I was born on 15th August 1991.

In Korean age, I was 1 year old when I was born, and I am one year older since last 1st January 2015 - that's mean - today I am now 25 years old. While in American age, I am still 23 years old. And on 15th August 2015 - I will be 24 years old. :)

Ouch, 24? I feel old now. T__T

Easier way to calculate your Korean age

2015 - 1991(year you are born) + 1 = 25

But, imagine a baby born on 31st December 2014. He was already 1 year old on the day he was born. Then, the next day on New Year (1st January 2015), he gets 1 year older - in which in Korean age, he is already 2 years old, while he is only 1 day old in American age.

That's so...unique!

I think this topic came out when I told her about my classmates. Some of them are already 30 years old and some are just passing 20 years old. Still, we mingled together without having to care about the age gaps. We just called each other with names - no brother, no sister, no sunbae, no dongsaeng. Yea, I know people in Korea, when they talk to someone older (even though only 1 year apart), they use term hyung, oppa, noona, unnie. Similar like Malaysia too, right? Abang, kakak senior?

It's culture :)

And that makes a community more special.

I respect it by still calling my Malaysians seniors with Kak. Except who refused that. ^_^

-----

So, what is your Korean and American age? Is there difference of 2 years like me?

Postcards Giveaway From Czech & Germany

January 9, 2015 Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

ALHAMDULILLAH, THE GIVEAWAY ENDED!

Hi guys! We are collaborating!

Yeah, me and the famous Aisya Ibrahim from http://jindrisska.blogspot.cz/!

We are sending postcards all the way from Czech and Germany to you, no matter where you are!

I know you are excited to receive one. And just to let you know, we are so excited too. :D Basically, we will post them from Czech and Germany but the interesting part is *drumrollssss* we have postcards from different other countries (cities) too! Like; Rome, Frankfurt, Paris, Bratislava, Barcelona, Prague and so on. I can say, A LOT. Well, what makes them more valuable are of course the stamps and maybe our little notes to you with own handwriting, hihi :)

--------------------------------------------

There are few steps you need to do; basically the regulations;-

Hihi they are not so difficult, we guess :)

*************************************************

1. Be our follower; yeah both of us. You MUST do so, yea. :) These are our links. Aisya Ibrahim & Hanis Amanina

2. Follow this Instagram ; this is OPTIONAL, yea. :D.

3. Create a blog post entitled "Postcards Giveaway From Czech & Germany" (just like this post's title)

4. Then, put the banner above in the blog post and back link it to EITHER one of us, Aisya Ibrahim or Hanis Amanina. It is up to you :)

5. Tag 3 of your blogger friends to make this giveaway the more the merrier! Don't forget to inform them okay?

6. Finally, just leave your blog URL in the comment section of EITHER one blog of ours.

*************************************************

THE GIVEAWAY WILL END ON;-

9th January 2015

(11.59pm Malaysia)

------------GIVEAWAY ENDED------------

All the best guys! and please, be excited to join our giveaway! :D

*************************************************

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS! :)

71. http://www.schanazri.com/2015/01/postcards-giveaway-from-czech-germany.html
72. http://tintanienaannisa.blogspot.de/2015/01/postcards-giveaway-from-czech-germany.html
73. http://budaksukavanilla.blogspot.de/2015/01/postcards-giveaway-from-czech-germany.html
74. http://iekysmart94.blogspot.cz/2015/01/postcards-giveaway-from-germany-czech.html
75. http://herlifemanual007.blogspot.de/2015/01/postcards-giveaway-from-czech-germany.html

76. http://sebabakusabrina.blogspot.de/2015/01/postcards-giveaway-from-czech-germany.html
77. http://ohresepiku.blogspot.de/2015/01/postcards-giveaway-from-germany-czech.html
78. END!!

------------GIVEAWAY ENDED------------

p/s - let's keep praying for people in Malaysia who are affected by the flood. I know it is getting more serious now, even my hometown is badly affected too. Keep praying, Allah listens :)

[Roadtrip] Where East Meets West - Part 2

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.

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.

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 :)

Border of Hungary - Romania

While waiting for passport control. Ignore the dirty screen; the weather was not that good.

Vignette for Romania is not in sticker type that you can stick on the front screen; but in paper form - make sure you keep it in safe place as we need to show it anytime asked and especially at the border going out of Romania. The price for vignette, I can say...depends... (as in some places, they charged extra T_T)

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.

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 :)

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.

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).

Another picture of Bucharest :)

Till next part!
Weee :D

v Khaulah,

150108

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HANIS AMANINA

[Roadtrip] Where East Meets West - Part 4

January 13, 2015

[Winners Announcement] Postcards Giveaway from Czech & Germany

January 12, 2015

[Roadtrip] Where East Meets West - Part 3

Korean Age vs American Age?

January 10, 2015

Postcards Giveaway From Czech & Germany

January 9, 2015 Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

[Roadtrip] Where East Meets West - Part 2

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January 13, 2015

January 12, 2015

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January 10, 2015

January 9, 2015 Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

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