11 DAYS: Give Hope, One Hat At A Time

I know, I know, it's been too long since my last post. Procrastination struck me again. But hey, here I am, there you are, reading this post and I assure you, this is something special.

Remember about the countdown of my blog posts? It's a countdown to my birthday. I'm not the kind of person who celebrate birthdays, because come on, you're getting old and really, who wants to get old? But this year, I'm turning double two (yes, read that as 22) and I want to make this day meaningful. Not to me, but to others in need. Why? Because I think I'm already living in a content life surrounded by amazing people, family and friends. I don't need gifts to make me happy, but they do.

Who are they?

They are young girls, children, women, mothers in impoverished community in Romania. Those who are seeking for an opportunity to live and hope for the future.

What I'm asking for... is not birthday gifts or cards from you. But I want you to give them hope, because that is the most valuable thing a human can ask for.

I'm not going to bore you with this, so I'm just gonna go straight to the point. I'm doing a fundraising campaign and I invite you to join me.

My goal is to get $777 by September 17th (I'm quite obsessed with number 7, by the way). All you need to know about the campaign is on the Indiegogo website. I've arranged some super cool perks if you donate, and some of the items are very limited.

Before I end this, I must say I'm pretty surprised with myself that I'm doing this campaign. This is probably the most meaningful thing I've ever done for my birthday and I just want to say thank you to all of you who inspires me, especially my friend, Arthur Zetes who's the founder of Sperantsa.

Giving is indeed more rewarding than receiving. So give HOPE, one hat at a time.

Cheers!

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23 DAYS: For the Love of Prague

Note: It's been an extremely hectic week. Wrote this a week ago but never had the chance to finish it. So let's keep the countdown to 23 Days, shall we?

On August 3rd (yes, that was about two weeks ago), John, Mike, Brian, Anna and I decided to take a break from our hectic life and go to Prague for the weekend. It was a total blast! Great city, awesome travel companions - best weekend ever! We traveled by train for six freaking hours, but it was totally worth it.

Prague, Prague, Prague... How do I begin to describe this city? It is absolutely beautiful from every angle. The architecture, the music, the view, everything is just breathtaking.

I was a tourist for the weekend. John & Mike had a list of places to go and things to do. Being map blind and all, Anna and I followed them around gladly. Off we went to the Old Town, the famous Charles Bridge and the Canal for a boat trip.

It was really, really sunny that day and I only brought my UGG boots - yeah, imagine that. This is the Old Town Square where tourists gather; yes, I was one of them. In the middle of the square there's the Jan Hus memorial, while the buildings around the square are mostly churches, museums, art galleries and cafes. 

The famous Astronomical Clock is also at the Old Town Square, attached to a tower. It plays a song when the long hand strikes twelve. This clock is apparently one of the oldest mechanical clock and astronomical dial - it was installed back in 1410.

 The entrance of the Charles Bridge. As always, you can see people everywhere.

Honestly, we all fell asleep during the boat trip! We were so exhausted from walking around the entire day and being on a boat was just relaxing - they even gave us free beer and ice cream, so of course we'd fall asleep.

Back to the Old Town Square, see how crowded this place is?! On the second day, Ana and I decided to stop being tourists and have a classy weekend instead. From window shopping at Cartier and Swarovski to being art critiques at Salvador Dali art gallery. Followed by an afternoon tea in front of St. Nicholas Church and a Vivaldi concert at the Mirror Chapel to end our day. Now that's what I called chilling in style.

I can keep going on telling you about how much I love this place. Even Mozart loved this place. There's a memorial for Mozart in the middle of the Old Town. If I'm not mistaken, he wrote Requiem in Prague (?)

Finally, last stop was the Prague Castle. It's actually a really complicated church complex with a gothic-style cathedral as its main building. But the view of Prague from the castle was just absolutely amazing and apparently many couples took their pre-wedding photos there - save this idea for future reference!

I can keep talking about this city. I love Prague, the city and its rich culture. People also genuinely love to preserve their old classic culture - if you love classical music, this is your place. Instead of Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber concerts, they have classical music concert almost everyday. Some major organizations/universities even host classical music composition competition for serious musicians. Last but not least, here's the renowned Lenin Wall.

Prague has been a dream destination for me since I was 16. Back then, I was living in my own bubble in Jakarta and could only dream of travelling the world. Who would have thought that I could actually do it - and even better, actually went to Prague! This city is now ticked off from my list! I am so glad that I went on this trip - and especially thanks to my friends who made this trip the best weekend in my entire life (kinda exaggerating here, but really, thank you so much for coming with me!)

With that, I think it's appropriate to end this long post with a cool graffiti that I found somewhere in the city.

PS: For those who come from nothing, we have nothing to lose - so go out there and become something you've always wanted to be.

Cheers!

29 DAYS: Something Better Than Instagram

About a week ago, I stumbled upon an insanely cool photography technique called cinemagraph. What is cinemagraph, you ask? My reliable source (Wikipedia) defines it as still photographs in which a minor and repeated movement occurs. See them for yourselves.

I don't own this - found them on THE INTERNET, but these photos make me miss Seattle. And here are some more photos!

This cinemagraph concept was actually created quite recently in 2011 by two New York based photographers, Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck (here's their website). You can also see a complete cinemagraph album by Jamie on his tumblr here - unfortunately, you can't really save the pictures to your computer.

Now, I don't know about you, but I instantly fell in love with these photos when I saw them. My first thought was: how in the hell did they do this! So I looked it up on Google (duh!) and there are tons of Photoshop tutorial. It's quite easy but I just don't have the time to do this PLUS I don't own a camera, my only camera is my iPhone 4S camera.

But THANK YOU technology (and Apple), we now have a quick fix to make this cool photos. Let us all now use Cinemagram - it's like an advanced version of Instagram!!! Take a quick video with your iPhone, edit here and there and BAM! Your animated photo is ready. The result will look like this.

It's quite neat, isn't it? Well ok, it's not as great as Kevin's and Jamie's photos but they are professional and god knows what kind of camera they're using. So for now, I'll settle with these photos created by iPhone and Cinemagram app. If you have an iPhone, download this app now (because it's better than Instagram!) and find my profile! Let the Cinemagramming begin!

Cheers!

36 DAYS: Hop On the Plane They Said

Note: Wrote this a week ago but never had the chance to finish it, so let the countdown stay at 36 days on this one

This trip to Cologne (Köln) happened about two weeks ago - and that was the most exhausting weekend ever in my entire Summer. Ok, so imagine having a party until 3AM on Friday night then you had to run home and catch your flight at 7AM. It was nearly impossible, but with a generous hint of miracle, I managed to zombie-walk to the airport.

Before I start rambling on and on about Köln, look what I brought for my 2-day trip!

TADA! I've had this bag for a little over 3 years now. I've been carrying it around the world (no kidding!) from a rural village in Panama to the Black and White Desert in Egypt. This bag is the reason I'm not calling myself a backpacker. I mean, seriously, I don't even travel with a backpack. So call me a handbagger maybe? - Uh... that sounds weird.

Anyways, back to the Köln trip:

With only 2 hours of sleep, I finally arrived in Köln and first thing I have to deal with is how to get to Main Station where my friends were waiting for me.  So I looked it up on the map and I was like, ok... I barely know Berlin's map and now this...

Uhhh... yeah. This is too much for my weary eyes. Oh I miss using OneBusAway app - you don't have to think cause your smartphone will do the thinking for you, isn't that why they are called 'smart' phone??

Ok enough with the rant, overall the trip was awesome. First stop, the Köln Dom or the Cologne Cathedral.

I think these windows are the best thing in the cathedral. They are so colorful and simply beautiful.

Philip and I then decided that seeing the Cathedral was not enough; we need to climb the tower. Yes, climb to the top of the tower, which is about 553 stairs high. I must say, it was a great workout!

From here, the group got bigger as Evi and Yusuf joined us. Next stop, the famous love lock bridge.

Doesn't this look familiar? Yeah, things like this are all over the world. I seriously think this is absurd (sorry hopeless romantic people out there!). So the urban myth says if you lock a 'love' lock here, your love would last forever - WRONG. True story, a mutual friend did this and 2 weeks later they broke up. I didn't know forever is that short!

Here's Yusuf trying to break people's love by skillfully opening the lock. We are indeed the non-believers. But hey, guess what I found! My name. On 10+ locks! I guess other Jessica's are hopeless romantic (?)

The last one is my personal favorite. LOL! And here are also my personal favorites.

(You'll understand if you read the book - which I don't recommend. It is such an awful, awful book)

I can sense good music when I hear one and this guy is the real deal. While others passed by him on the street, we sat near him and listened for a while. I ended up buying his CD - and I was right, he is good. This Polish dude, Michal Lech, has toured around the world with his cello for the past decades. I pat myself on the back. See his Youtube video here!

The rest of my trip was just bar-walking-chilling-more bars. I honestly didn't plan this trip that much. I'm more of a go-with-the-locals kind of person and I was fortunate enough to be accompanied by 3 amazing people when I was in Cologne. They even host me on their couch as well! So well, here's a summary of my trip.

Thanks to these people and a couple others who are not in the picture.

I am so, so glad I skipped my sleep and hopped on that plane. I went to a great place and met genuinely awesome people. That's a lot of good things happened in 2 days!

Finally, let me end this long post with a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien.

PS: Book a trip and hop on that plane/train/bus - whatever. Good things will happen.

Cheers!