Whoosah~
I tried to convince myself that everything will be okay, and managed to stay calm. We had been waiting for our flight at the airport for hours, as we got there early as per usual. We even passed the check-in counter and the immigration with no problem, then we encountered a bit of a hiccup at the waiting room. It was boarding time, and the staff took a longer time than usual to double check my passport. They escalated something that seemed to be an issue to someone over the phone which I had no idea what it was all about. I was puzzled, yet still confident that was nothing wrong with my tickets. I also never breached any regulations or had no problems with my previous trips. They finally returned all our passports and boarding passes, and let us go with the assumption that everything was sorted. Phew!
As we were walking into the airport isle, and almost reached the airplane door, someone quickly walked in trying to reach me, they informed me that I had to go back to the waiting room desk. I was like wha-? I asked Daddy and Izzy to get into the airplane first, and would update them soon. The other airport staff tried to explain to me carefully about the issue. It felt like I was going to puke when they said my Schengen Visa was premature. A mixture of anger, sadness, disappointment, and shock were wrestling in my head. They basically said that my visa was not valid yet. Oh Geez! How could we miss that!?
I had to make a quick decision that was best for everyone, yet wouldn't cost us even much more money. I called the airline's call center in Dubai to ensure about my flight situation. After managing my mind, I decided to cancel my flight as well as Abby's (Izzy's little sister) as her ticket was connected to my name as an infant. Izzy and Daddy would be better off continuing the trip to Vienna, Austria as per the schedule. It was a quite hard decision, I was sad because I had to see both of my kids crying, it seemed like they could sense that their parents were stressed out. Daddy looked even more stress about the situation. I didn't expect this situation whatsover, all I knew that I had to be strong. It would be the first time for me to be separated with Izzy for more than 24 hours. I felt sad, because I definitely preferred to fly with my husband and both of my kids altogether. But there was nothing we could do. It was our fault for rescheduling our tickets earlier than the previous schedule. I didn't even think that the visa’s validation would start according to my flight schedule, unlike the most visas I had which started according to the date when my visa was granted. Anyway, that sucks, yet I’m a strong believer that everything happens for reasons. I disappointely went back home with Abby, and hugged Daddy and Izzy, and wished them a good journey. Anyways, we would be meeting them again in 3 days! Cheer up! From the airport, I decided to go back to my Mom’s, rather than going back home. Otherwise Abby and I would feel lonely without Daddy and Izzy.
Vienna, Austria (Daddy & Izzy only)
Daddy and Izzy arrived safely in Vienna, Austria. Mommy’s bestfriend whom was a diplomat for Indonesian Embassy in Vienna offered to fetch us. We even stayed in her government designated apartment during our stay in Vienna. In fact, she was one of the reason we visited the country during our summer trip. As she would be coming back to settle in Jakarta for a couple years before moving overseas again for her next postings. So, that was a perfect time for us to visit, as she was still there.
Abby and I’s new tickets were with a different airline (Turkish Airlines), as we had to catch the flight to a different city and different country. The initial airline didn’t have a direct/in-direct flight from Jakarta to Budapest. Budapest was set on our next schedule to visit. Our train tickets from Vienna to Budapest were sorted, too bad that the tickets couldn’t be refunded or rescheduled. So that was it, luckily it wasn’t that expensive. We were so happy to finally reunited a couple days later, we finally arrived in Budapest, Hungary, safe and sound.
Budapest, Hungary
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| The view of Budapest, Hungary from above. |
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| At Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport. |
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| Walking around the city of Budapest. |
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| In front of St. Stephen's Basilica, Budapest, Hungary. |
We actually heard a bad story about this city from Mommy’s other bestfriend. She shared her bad experience when she visited Budapest with her Mom. Oh well, I appreciated her concern, but we wouldn’t change our mind, whether the trip was booked or not. We thought it was unfair to judge a city based on other’s experience, let us be the judge and experience it first. We were hopeful that our experience would be better than hers. Turned out we were lucky that we had an awesome experience. Thank God!
The hotel apartment we stayed was quite nice too, it has a nice restaurant, and was very strategic. TG Hotel Apartments & Tom George Osteria were connected and they were in the heart of touristy area, and a walking distant from the city signature building, St. Stephens Basilica. We basically just strolled around by feet most of the time.
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| Tom George Osteria |
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| The food we had were so tasty! |
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| TG Hotel Apartments: our pinky room. |
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| Izzy & Abby were so excited to play on the sofa bed. |
We experienced the Danube river cruise boat in the afternoon on the first day of our stay. The river devides the city to two different sides, Buda and Pest. The view from the boat was incredible, it was a beautiful scenery of the old town of Budapest, including the Hungarian Parliament.
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| River cruise Budapest. |
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| On the Danube river. |
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| The Hungarian Parliament as the view from the cruise boat. |
On the next day, we walked through the Széchenyi Chain Bridge and we took a shuttle or castle bus to go uphill. We could see the city from castle hill above. We stopped by to visit Matthias Church, Fisherman’s Bastion and Buda Castle.
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| On the Széchenyi Chain Bridge. |
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| Buda Hill map. |
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| Matthias Church. |
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| Fisherman's Bastion. |
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| Castle Hill |
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| The beautiful scenery from Castle Hill. |
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| The view from Buda Castle. |
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| Enjoying the most expensive Walls ice creams we have ever bought. Lol. |
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Kavehaz, Buda Castle. |
Our short-trip in Budapest was over, we then took an afternoon train back to Vienna, Austria. It took around 4 hours to get there.
For more details, you can also check our vlog about our Budapest, Hungary trip:
Vienna, Austria
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| Hofburg Imperial Palace. |
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| Vienna Sisi Museum. |
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| St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, Austria. |
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| Cafe-Konditorei Aida. |
Finally, we arrived in Vienna, Austria. I was excited to meet my best friend who’s like a big sister to me. We stayed at her apartment for a couple nights. She took us to must-visit-touristy buildings in the city. We also visited a nice cafe that serves delicious hot chocolate, pastry, and cakes. Yum!
It was Sunday morning, we woke up early, as we needed to be at the Indonesian Embassy of Vienna (KBRI) early to pray and celebrate Eid Ul-Adha 1445 H. We got the chance to meet the Indonesian Ambassador of Austria and Slovenia, Mr. Damos Dumoli Agusman, and his lovely wife. They were so kind and welcoming. It was my first time celebrating Eid at the Indonesian Embassy, they served Indonesian food with some selections. Not a bit fan of Lontong Sayur, but hello! It’s free food~ alhamdulillah, (still) happy tummy!
Check out our vlog for more info about Vienna, Austria:
Bratislava, Slovakia
We were on an hour road trip to Bratislava from Vienna with Mommy’s friends. We used 2 different cars. It was the right time to visit the neighbour country, Slovakia. The shopping area in their capital city, Budapest are still open even on Sunday. As all the shops in Vienna are always closed every Sunday. It took around an hour to travel from Vienna to Bratislava by car. Our first stop was the Eurovea Shopping Center which located by the Danube river — This city is also one of the 4 cities that Danube river is passing through. Vienna, Budapest, and Belgrade are the other 3 national capital cities that sit along its banks. We then visited the old town after doing a little shopping in that Mall. By the way, I didn’t see any other fellow asian when we strolled around, it was just probably us (me and my friends). Ha!
You may also visit our vlog for more information about Bratislava, Slovakia:
Our time was running out, time to go back to Vienna. It was around 7 PM when we left Slovakia, the sky was still bright as it was summer time. Although it was just a quick return trip, but it was fun.
The next day we visited the shopping center of Vienna, Mariehilfestrasse Wien again, which is not far, walking distant from the apartment where we stayed.
Prague, Czech Republic
Another day in Vienna, we were getting ready to catch our train to Prague, Czech Republic. Woo! We were so up for a new adventure! It took around 5 hours to get there, we decided to buy the morning tickets, thus we could rest in the train, had a small breakfast in the train, at least for Izzy & Abby, and we had our brunch in Prague.
We stopped by a restaurant in the train station, it’s called Fantova Kavárna Praha. It was brunch time! We needed to fill our tummy before walking to our hotel apartment.
We enjoyed strolling around the old city of Prague due to the beautiful views, although their pedestrian paths were not the best one, it was so rough and uneven. Not suitable for family who are walking with their baby strollers and suitcases like us. We were a bit struggling, therefore we decided to carry Abby on the baby carrier.
The sky was so bright, it was a sunny day. The hottest day (29 degrees) we have experienced during that holiday. We needed to cheer up our throat with some ice creams. We then stopped by to an ice cream shop that was called Zmrzlina Gelato. It caught my eyes because the shop name contained my first name, which is Lina. Turns out Zmrzlina means ice cream in Czech and Slovak languages. LOL. We really enjoyed the ice creams we ordered, they were big portions and undoubtedly tasty! Both Izzy and Daddy went for the strawberry ice creams, Daddy also shared his ice cream with Abby, I ordered the pistachio flavour.
We chose to continue walking to the hotel apartment we rented, then we could do the check-in. We planned to stop by any restaurant that we thought interesting for lunch. We then found a quite unique restaurant that had a dungeon, the resto’s theme was kind of medieval looking. It reminded me of the TV series scenes, Game of Thrones. Especially when Jon Snow was having feast with the starks. U Pavoka, Medieval Taffern was the name of the restaurant. We liked the food we ordered, Daddy really liked his local beverage, Staropramen Dark.
After demolishing our lunch, we then continued walking towards the hotel apartment we have booked. We did the self check-in at the front reception, then went to our room, resting. Gold Art Apartment was very clean, perfectly situated, it’s near the city center of Prague. We also got quite a nice view from the window and the balcony.
It was afternoon, when we left our hotel room, as we have a fixed schedule to look around the cruise boat on the Danube river around 5 PM. We felt so fresh after showering, and ready to have fun and add some more new experience. Nevertheless, we stopped by an Italian restaurant called Pepe Nero for our early dinner before sailing the boat. Time to fill our tummies again. Daddy wanted something soupy as he had a sore throat, I ordered a bowl of fresh tuna salad for myself (so yummy!), and the kids shared a big portion of pasta, we asked them to split it and serve it in two different plates.
After finishing our food and paying. We continued walking to the pier to catch our Prague river boat cruise on Vltava river. It was a very nice late afternoon. We enjoyed some drinks and snacks during our time on the cruise. It was a 2-hour trip, we then went back to our apartment to rest, and had our dinner in the room.
The next morning, we decided to grab some breakfast nearby the apartment we stayed. In fact, it was a small cafe with a nice ambiance next to our apartment. The cafe was called Little Break.
We then travelled to see the famous St. Vitus cathedral and Prague Old Castle after finishing our yummy breakfast. It was quite busy, we got to see the guards formation changing. In the afternoon, we caught our train back to Vienna.
Check out our vlog trip to/in Prague, Czech Republic for more information:
Vienna, Austria
Back to our based city of Vienna, Austria. We went back straight to rest at the apartment, and had our dinner there. Tomorrow would be our exploring time again, time to explore more about the history of this beautiful country, before flying for 2 hours in 2 days, to our last EU country destination, our only West Europe country to visit for this trip.
I really enjoyed eating cheese and olives, even with my breakfast toast. Yum!
In the next morning, we woke up and got ready early as we planned to stroll around. We visited Schonbrunn Palace Vienna. It had beautiful gardens and water fountains. The bright sky completed our beautiful morning. Izzy was so happy to experience a tree climbing for the first time.
We also visited the Natural History Museum Vienna on that day. Izzy and Abby was excited to see so many animals, although they were taxidermy animals.
We had our afternoon coffee and breads at the museum’s cafe, before heading back home. It was a fun last exploring day in Vienna. Kindly visit our vlog below fore more about this trip. So Long Austria~ thank you for being nice to us. Thanks for stopping by here, folks. <3
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