Marseille is located on the south coast of France and the second largest city of the country after Paris. The city is founded in 600BC and is one of the oldest cities in Europe. Marseille has definitely a lot to offer: Vieux Port (the old port), Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde (where the old fishermen used to have their boats blessed in this church), Palais Longchamp, Cathedrale de la Major (with amazing mosaic floors), Parc National des Calanques (with dazzling blue sea and spectacular lime cliffs), La Corniche (a road by the sea with lovely views of the Mediterranean sea) not so far from Vallon des Auffes (a small and colorful old port), Palais du Pharo (which is built by Napoleon III in 1858), Le Cours Julien and La Plaine (a hangout area with a lot of graffitis, cafes, book stores, fountains, and playground).

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Lyon is our first stop of our three weeks journey to south France. It is the third largest city in France, so we thought it would give a similar touristic vibe like Paris. But we were completely wrong, because we hardly saw any large group of tourists, only a few travelers like us or some local tourists. And the best part is: no one tried to scam us or to rob our belongings. Maybe we were just lucky or just happened to be there at the right time and place.

It was the last Sunday in June as we strolled around Lyon. First, we visited Théâtre et Musée Gallo-romains and imagined how cool it would be to watch a play with the view of the city as the background. No wonder they still use it for concerts and plays in modern days. Then, we walked to Basillique de Fourvière, which is not so far from the Théâtre, before exploring Vieux Lyon. Too bad that we only had one day to explore Lyon, because we had to leave for Marseille in the evening.

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We arrived at Zagora just before sunset and our dromedaries (one hump camels) had been waiting for us and were ready to go. Despite the bumpy ride on dromedaries for one hour, we could still enjoy the beautiful view of the rocky desert during the sunset and watch the rise of full moon right before arriving at our camp. The full moon caused the night sky in the middle of nowhere so bright, which made us easy to find our tent or toilet. On the other side, the stars were barely seen. So, the experiment for astrophotography had to be canceled.

After dinner, we enjoyed the evening together with our fellow travelers, danced around the campfire, and had a good chat with new people before returning to our colorful Berber tent, which was surprisingly quite cozy.

The next morning, we only had a brief time to play at the desert. It was quite fun, although people said that Zagora desert does not offer a real Moroccan desert like Erg Chebbi or Erg Chebaba (well, maybe next time?). After finishing our breakfast, we hopped on our dromedaries and luckily it was not another one hour ride back, because our minibus picked us up at another place.

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During our road trop to Zagora, we had a chance to stop at Ait Ben Haddou and explore this magnificent Ksar (a collective group of dwellings), which is established in 757 is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The Ksar is constructed with clay bricks and has thick defensive walls to protect its interior. Even though the city is abandoned, there are around four families still living there, while most of the citizens live in the nearby villages.

We were surprised by the fact that there are a lot of film studios in Morocco, especially in this area. Ait Ben Haddou really gives a sensation of time travel to the ancient Egypt or other desert cities. So, no wonder that a lot of films (e.g. Gladiator, Prince of Persia, Babel, even some episodes of Games of Thrones) are shot in this Ksar as well.

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Another reason why we picked Marrakech as our destination is because of the opportunity to take a quick trip to nearby places, like Essaouira or Sahara. Since our stay in Morocco was only one week, we could only manage two days road trip to Zagora (a Morocco's gate to Sahara desert), about 720 km away from Marrakech.

We were packed with other passionate travelers in a mini van and hit the road early in the morning. We passed through the gorgeous High Atlas mountains, visited Ait Ben Haddou, reached Zagora just before the sunset, and arrived at the desert camp to spend the night there.

At some point, it's a good idea to escape from the busy street in Marrakech and enjoy the slowly changed panoramic view from mountains to desert. It's also fun to observe the locals as we passed small towns or villages, especially in the golden hour.

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To celebrate our anniversary, we decided to go for a short trip to somewhere not so far away that still can be reached by a car. After a nice experience in Rheingau a few weeks ago, we wanted to have another walking day somewhere else. A colleague suggested us to visit Tirol, which is a region in Alpen. This area is actually more popular for skiing in winter, but in summer it's beautiful as well, and many people visit this area for hiking and walking too.

We really love the view from up there, especially the color combination of blue and green. Hearing the cowbell and breathing the super fresh mountain air made us feel so lucky to be alive. The only thing we worried about was the unpredictable weather (we even couldn't rely on weather report!). Luckily, it didn't rain at all on our way to the top of the hills.

The view was so amazing and it made our 8 hours walk really worth it. As first timers, we thought the route we chose would be easy. However, we ended up choosing the wrong one, which was actually for people with more hiking experiences. Good thing that we made it to the top without falling from the cliff. Another good thing was: we didn't forget to bring our tripod for selfie moments.

We were soooo happy seeing sooooo many cows around and also soooo amazed to see them lining in queue to get into their barn every 5 pm sharp! Even many (or should we say.. most..) people in our country (Indonesia) can't do such a queue! Too bad we were too far away to take any picture of it. Next time maybe ;)

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Summer... Sunshine... Blue sky... Vineyards... Rhine River...

A perfect day for a very long walk. We got bored hitting the gym, and decided to have a walk in Rheingau, which is not so far from Frankfurt. After a short research, we decided to take Rieslingpfad as our route to walk. It was fun and have a little bit of adventure feeling in it, especially since we have to look around for the sign, which are painted in the wall and sometimes were hidden by the bush.

We walked about 5 hours, starting from a small town called Assmannhausen and ended our journey in Lorch (detail can be found here). Well, actually we spent more time taking pictures than walking ;) Good thing that we brought lunchbox and enough water during the long walk, because there're no kiosk or restaurant around.

This kind of sport activity is far better doing some boring training at the gym. The fresh air, the beautiful view, and it's free too... You really can't expect more! Just don't forget to apply sunblock to avoid any sunburn and bring a good map or GPS.

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Last weekend was a little bit different than usual; we made a last minute decision to have a short getaway trip to Bavaria. We arrived at Burghausen on Friday night, spent the night there, visited Berchtesgaden and Königsee on Saturday, and drove back to Frankfurt on Sunday.

Despite living in Germany for years, our body still don't get used to the frosty type of weather, since we grew up in a tropical climate country. However, the white and blue landscape was so breathtaking and made us forgot about the freezing temperature. Although the trip was kinda short, it was worth it. Breathing fresh air and enjoying the great view of Winter Wonderland gave us a positive energy to enjoy the winter to the fullest; before the snow melts and the flowers bloom.

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The Charles Bridge (or Karluv most in Czech or Karlsbrücke in German) is the famous bridge and the top must-to-see attraction in Prague. The bridge crosses the Vltava River and connect The Lesser Town or Malá Strana (which is below the Castle Area) and The Old Town

The Bridge is about 621 meters long and 10 meters wide. It has three bridge towers; two on the Lesser Town side, and one on the Old Town side. What makes this bridge so beautiful is the statues. There are 30 of them standing on both left and right side of the bridge. They give the feeling as if they're watching everyone who crosses the bridge.

For us, the bridge is the highlight of our visit to Prague. We're so fascinated by it and came back every single day of our stay. During the day, it's so packed with the tourists, artists, and souvenir kiosks. Despite of hectic situation, the bridge seems so cheerful and lively.

On 2nd day of our visit, we managed to get up extra early and rush to the bridge to take some picture of it. It wasn't 100% empty (there were also a few people like us with their camera gears), but it was worth it. The dawn at the empty bridge was so gorgeous. It revealed more its beauty and gave the mysterious vibe at the same time. There were some creepy auras because of the silhouette of the statues and crossing the bridge at the dawn also gave the chill of time-traveling to the Middle Ages.

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Prague (or Praha or Prag) was on the bucket list for a long time. To tell the truth, a japanese manga, called Monster (by Urasawa Naoki), made Prague became one of our wanted destination. After a few years of longing, at last we had the opportunity to visit this gorgeous city last Christmas.

What makes Prague so special is its long history. It has been through many eras, wars, and revolutions. The little damage from World War II allowed most of its historic buildings and architecture stay in its true form. It's really a good place to learn the history of architecture, since you can find different kind of buildings from different era, such as Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Art Nouveau, and so on.

The whole city is actually quite big, but the main attractions located near each other, and makes it easier to explore. Its rich cultures also makes the city feels so lively and there're also a lot of interesting details to be found.

Despite of massive tourism (which makes this city quite expensive), Prague became our favorite city. Visiting Prague during Christmas also allowed us to experience their Christmas Market. And the best part is it stayed open during the Christmas! (in Germany, Christmas Market only open until Dec 24th)

It might be a little bit late, but Merry Christmas anyway...

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It was my first visit to China. Since it was a "family trip", we let our parent to decide the destination for us, and Guangxi province was the answer. Guangxi is a province of southern China. It has a mountainous terrain, which became inspirations for Chinese paintings and also a typical landscape of China.

In this trip, we joined a tour group, and had our itinerary done by a travel agency. All we did was enjoy the view, hop on and off the bus, took photos, did some shopping, got in and out the restaurants, and did things what typical asian tourists do. It was fun, though for me the public toilets were hell on earth.

If you love nature and beautiful landscape, you might love this place. The culture seems interesting too, since they have a lot of races with different cultures. But there wasn't much interesting buildings/architecture. Maybe Beijing would be our next target when we have another chance to visit China again.

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