Short Trip Semarang-Solo
That was my first time visited these two cities, Semarang and Solo. Our trip started from ITB campus at 10pm with a bus, passed Jalur Pantura, North Java Coastal. We stopped for a while at a Rest Area in Kabupaten Batang, Central Java at 06.45am for taking a bath and having breakfast, prepared to our first destiny, Diponegoro University, Semarang.
We arrived at Undip at 10am, then we go to Ruang Serbaguna, at 2nd floor of Gedung PWK. The main purpose of that agenda is “kunjungan balasan”, because Undip had visited us about a year ago. We introduced about our majority studies in ITB and Undip. We also got a short lecturer class, about “Territorial Partnership, a.k.a Kerjasama antar daerah” dan “City Branding”. It' was finished at about 2pm, then immediately we go to Solo. (huah, capek pake bahasa Inggris, ganti bahasa dulu deh). Perjalanan menuju Solo dari Semarang menghabiskan waktu kurang lebih 3 jam. Singkat memang perjalanan kami di Semarang, bahkan tidak mengunjungi lokasi apapun selain Undip. (Actually I wasn’t feel that I’ve ever been to Semarang now).
In Solo, a.k.a Surakarta City, (I still don’t know the differences between Solo and Surakarta actually, The map state with Surakarta, but people always called it as Solo) we stayed at Nasional Hotel in Jalan Arifin, near Balai Kota Surakarta. The first place we visited in Solo is Balago, the famous place that made of PKL relocation. After pray Maghrib, we go there for having dinner. I took Nasi Liwet with ‘rempela’ (part of chicken’s body). Nasi liwet is a kind of rice was cooked with santan, which mixed by chicken and egg that served with banana leaf (daun pisang).
After having dinner we go to Sekatenan at Keraton areas to see night market there. Before we decided to buy some tickets for a wahana, I got a message, asking for coming back to our bus then go to Taman Sriwedari for watching human puppet shows. Taman Sriwedari, a place that we can watch a human puppet shows everyday, but the shows are always taking spontaneously from all actor, without any scripts. (How cool isn’t it?) But the shows felt little boring caused we didn’t understand about Java language, but I quite enjoyed that shows actually. After the show ended, we went back to our hotel and took a rest.
Before we went to sleep, me and my roommates, Widia, and Irene were agree to wake up early. then go sightseeing and taking picture around our hotel. At 6 am we went sughtseeing and took a picture around Jalan Arifin, Pasar Gedhe, there was many lampion and dragon decoration caused lunar year celebration event. There was also a mini klenteng that already open for any people who want have a pray.
The first agenda in that day was meet and greet with Mr. Joko Widodo, Bupati (bahasa Inggrisnya apa ya?) of Surakarta’s City. We’re really curious about his leadership method which could relocate many number of illegal seller (a.k.a PKL, pedagang kaki lima) in order to make Surakarta become well-regulated and neater. He did 45 times meeting with them to make a deal until they understand and agreed it well. But there was a technical worse happened with our agreement that made Mr. Jokowi couldn’t come caused he must cycling went around Solo with citizen as his weekly routine, every friday and Sunday. But from his staff explanationed, Dinas Pariwisata, dan Dinas Perdagangan dan Pasar, we knew that the key factor of Mr. Jokowi succeeded is communication. He did the wise relocation, making the administration easier, located in the new place which better than before, and also free. The basic of his succeeded made from entrepreneurial basic, that applied with this motto: “How to manage brand, How to manage Products, and How to manage Customers” for branding this city.
After having a discussion in Balaikota, I’ve met my old school friends in Senior High School, their name is Deborah and Ericson, they were studying at Medical Faculty in UNS. I’ve never met them before since we graduate from our highschool, SMAN 61 Jakarta. We went to some Solo’s special food counter, Surabi Notosuman, Tengkleng and Sate Buntal and Intip. Tengkleng is a kind of lamb soup like Madura version, but contains more bone than the meat, and Sate Buntal is a rolled meat of lamb that covered by fat then roasted with arang, as a usual sate. Then me and my ITB friends leave Solo at 5 pm, after bought some (oleh-oleh) in Orion’s store.
Sayang perjalanan berangkat menurut saya kurang berkesan, perjalanan yang lebih banyak dilakukan dimalam hari tentu tidak dapat dinikmati dengan baik, didukung rasa ngantuk karena lelah membuat saya tidak terbangun sama sekali selama perjalanan berangkat. Bahkan dari rest area menuju Undip-pun saya juga tertidur. Menyesal sih, tapi perjalanan ini terhitung sebagai liburan yang cukup mengesankan. Selain karena saya ini kali pertamanya saya berkunjung kedua kota di Jawa Tengah ini, saya juga sudah lama tidak berlibur keluar kota dan melalui perjalanan yang panjang. Actually, I like this city! Neat, calm, and still traditional. See you Solo, Surakarta! Semoga kesempatan berikutnya akan mengantarkan saya untuk berlibur ke Kota Kediri dan Malang, Jawa Timur. Insyaallah tercapai, sebelum itu: Mari menabung terlebih dahulu ;)
* I am so sorry for the wrong grammatical that I have used in the text above, Maklum lagi belajaar hehe
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