Well with my currency passionately making out with the levels of all-time low thanks to the horrendous government, everything is too expensive and I can't afford going abroad this year. So no Montreux, no Budapest, no Roger tour for me, unfortunately.
I would still love to archive some stuff tho. If you've followed my blog in the past few years and familiar with my content and would like to help with any of those please hmu. 🥹🙏
Well it's been a month since I came back from my sexy lil European solo trip (it was not sexy, I lugged my luggage through tubes and trains and trams in that weather!)
So here's a non-fandom lil blog post of my well-earned vacation... I skipped QAL 2024 in Japan because I hadn't gotten a job yet coming back from Manchester, now that I'm nearly two years into my new one I thought - I could have it, it was time 💖
There's something infinitely relaxing about waiting and wandering at the airport if you know where to settle. I boarded in the evening from Jakarta (left), did like a 4 hour transit in Dubai (right), before landing in the morning in beautiful Amsterdam. Of course, I was watching TFR throughout the flight, which inspired some others around my seat to do the same which I was proud of lmao.
Weather was superior at this time. Crossed my fingers that the bathroom is big and clean enough for me to change and refresh, very luckily it was very big and clean made for that exact purpose! So the trip started right and I was very pleased.
I loved the train stations! Well European stations, especially when they're attached to the airports - Indonesian ones are nightmares. But Schiphol train station (left) was a decent level of modern and crowded. From there I took a train to Amsterdam Zuid to meet my lovely Queen friend Kumi! It was our third time meeting and it was actually nice going for a non-Queen (well not entirely) low-pressure sightseeing trip.
My main destination for the first day was actually Brussels - I had landed in Amsterdam cause for some reason it's cheaper to land there than directly in Brussels. So I took a train from the Zuid station to Bruxells Midi (right - I think? I LOVE the old fashioned departure display there!). From there I took the tube (I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE A TRAIN I cried inside as I lugged my luggage) to the station nearest to my hotel, where we dropped our stuff and got ready to explore Brussels! The last time I was in Belgium I didn't actually get to see Brussels other than the airport, so this was new!
We had a super late lunch, and I was starving I didn't even care, we had a lil chicken stew and beef stew with fries in this cute lil resto (left) which is right by Grand Place in Brussels. I know I know, not very solo budget of me but wow, it was very good and the view made it worth it. I probably needed the carbs too, like I could not be complaining walking next to Kumi whom I thought was very powerful walking through all this as she just had a leg surgery a while ago (I keep checking in with her if she's okay cause I keep getting worried like I would whenever I take my mom traveling 😭). I'm 30 and fit I would not be whining through this vacation!
We then tried to get as much of a look around just as the sun was setting. FINALLY visited this iconic TIntin staircase mural (middle) so that's another box checked! It's also right around Maneken Pis, so everything on that street is d*ck shaped. They had d*ck shaped cakes on the window stores but I won't be using up my 30 images per post limit for that. Have a lovelier photo (right) of a Smurf, Tintin's moon rocket, and a cute display of snacks/desserts.
We had waffles because they're touristy, peeked through the fancy shopping gallery, and visited the Hard Rock Cafe (my self-imposed mandatory stop in any foreign city). I'm gonna save the Hard Rock Cafe finds for a specifically Queen post! Then we went back round the Grand Place which looked stunning with that lighting.
The next day we caught up with as much as we could before the afternoon where I had to move to my next stop. In the morning we (finally!!) visited the Tintin Boutique, which is a glorified merch store really and but it is both cute and fancy. Fully living out my childhood and indeed, I asked them without embarrassment whether they had a figurine of Piotr Skut. They did not. Shame on them.
From there we walked to the Royal Palace of Brussels (left!) A beautiful weather, again. And not much to say other than it was a palace and it was nice to put my step count through Brussels. I parted ways with Kumi here and got back to the hotel for my luggable luggage to take tram then train to Louvain-la-Neuve, which was my second time going there.
Arriving there I met up with bestie Lurex B. as we went on to our SECOND visit to the Musée Hergé! Our first time there in 2023 was so rushed because I had just dropped by before having to go to Montreux, so we made sure we took our time with this one to soak everything in. He was so patient with me too when I was taking pictures of EVERYTHING, bless him! By the evening I took a train to Gent where we would meet up again the next day for our main agenda!
(I soon learned there was nothing in Gent, it's so small and quiet, one time my tram switched numbers/lanes midway so I had to drop off where I wasn't going and there was NOBODY. I WAS ALONE. AND IT WAS SO WHITE. Anyway, never again if I can help it lmao.)
The next day we met up again in Gent at Flanders Expo for the main event!! Which is FACTS Comic Con (picture was early in the day when it hadn't been too crowded, it got PACKED by the afternoon), to see Simon Pegg and Andrew Scott. Mostly for Simon, mostly for this (it had been MONTHS since TFR came out why had nobody asked him?? do I gotta do everything myself in this house?? lmfao). But anyway I had SO MUCH interaction with Simon I was sooo happy. So so worth it.
I did get a VIP ticket because if I was gonna go I might as well make sure I get a good spot in queues and audience seats and a proper place to settle aka a lounge and locker and clean-ish bathroom. Worth it! Meanwhile Lurex B. got his own copy of 20th anniversary of Shaun of the Dead! And I poked him to buy more stuff which eventually led him to buying some Funkos he didn't already have hehe. It was a super fun day and absolutely the highlight of this trip.
Early next morning I travelled back to Amsterdam which was a MESS transit wise lol, I love that public transport is so accessible in Europe but when it's late or disrupted, my God the chaos I had to go through. Basically I took the tram to Gent train station. Then from Gent I was going to Amsterdam Zuid via Antwerp (photo above - beautiful architecture!) But when I got to Antwerp the train going to Zuid got disrupted and I had to take another train and get down elsewhere (I even forgot where, maybe going to Rotterdam? it was all a blur from there...), and took another one before arriving to Zuid. Which - actually I stopped at Schiphol station because I was staying at an airport hotel so I took a bus to and from there and dropped my luggagey luggage, then - I was actually going to Centraal, so after that I went to Zuid, then took a tram before arriving at Centraal.
In Amsterdam I was meeting up with the loveliest @emmaandorlando!! (I hope it's OK to tag you and I'm sorry that this is just a lot of rambles ❤) who had just gotten engaged!! And took some time to come all the way from Denmark to see lil old me 😭💖 This was our third time meeting?? And since we only had just the one day for ourselves she took me on a quick touristy tour around Amsterdam! Complete with her historian knowledge (like why some of the buildings were painted black!) and being very patient with me taking photos in places that did not look That Good until she told me which spots would DEFINITELY look good (she was absolutely right). Weather was Preparing for a Rain but it wasn't too bad!
We had lunch at this super cute, super cozy pancake place, it was so tiny (like 4-6 tables??) but looks quite popular, you'd have to book in advance which Amore very kindly did! I was surprised by the size of it cause it wasn't like the smaller but stacked pancake that I usually had ("Oh, you mean American pancakes," Amore had said, /derogatory lol). It was sooo good and we had a nice time catching up. Then we went on the city tour and also dropped by Hard Rock Cafe! Which again will be a separate Queen post. It was raining a bit by then and we parted ways at the station. Far too short of a time but we made very good use of it!
That night I had the nicest hotel room throughout the trip that was within my budget so I was very satisfied using it. The next day was a chill day meeting up with one of my classmates when I was studying in Manchester, as I had told him I was going on vacation he took a day off for a daytrip to Netherlands! I told him I wanted to go do the touristiest things so we made a trip to Zaanse Schans.
It was a nice place with a lot of photogenic windmills! It was still a bit cloudy but we made do and the pictures were still nice. We went to a cheese place and did a lot of cheese tasting which was really nice, I wanted to buy something but I didn't really want to go home with kilograms of cheese, so I bought a few boxes of the lighter cheesy crackers. Finally we went to a clog place and saw (gasp!) an actual clog factory!! Well just a showcase of how it was made anyway. We were actually on time for a live demonstration which was super impressive! I bought a lil clogs keychain just because I wanted something cute and Dutch.
In the evening we went back to Amsterdam to get dinner, it turned windy and rainy then but I hadn't seen the city at night before, so this was nice and I took a cool photo of the Centraal station (I thought it was cool anyway). Then we got back to Schiphol airport where I saw my friend off and I enjoyed my second night at Nice Hotel for Small Budget near the airport.
The next day was super early for me as I made my way to Germany! This was the second top list of my agenda where I visit my sister as she's been on an exchange for a few months. First time on a DB train which was quiet and clean I really liked it. That one was to Osnabrück for about 3 hours where it actually departed on time, I had thought. Of course just thinking about it jinxed it because my actual destination was Bremen and that one was delayed for 90 mins. But I did make in time for lunch (an hour trip). It's got a nice Hauptbahnhof (left) and some cool, I guess old German-typical? architecture (right - I thnk...).
Not writing much about this one since I was mostly just hanging out with my sister aka her ransoming me for a nice lunch and hot chocolate while she barely knows direction to make our way around town lmao. I didn't stay overnight and got on a train in the evening to Hannover. And I didn't go anywhere there either, because I went there solely for the reason that I'm actually going to Munich (!!) and the only way there from Bremen is to change in Hannover. Rather than getting up so early in the morning for a non-direct train I stayed over in an actual budget hotel (actually shitty) at the Hannover station. It got really cold really quickly because the next morning I woke up it was 0 degrees Celsius! My luggagey luggage was at its max and did not have my usual thick coat in it so I barely survived...
So the next morning I got up super early for another 4 hours train direct to Munich! This time I wasn't meeting up with anyone so this was literally the only solo part of this not-so-solo trip. And of course obviously this day was a Queen trip part of the itinerary, so I won't be posting much here either and I'll do a dedicated post for it sometime. Germany is actually so huge, how was it that I have a lot of friends in that country but none of them were in Munich at that time.
So I reached out to multiple Queen fanbases, group tours, and even Jim Jenkins just to at least get a Queen map for a daytrip. My own resource was from the Mercury in Munich book which was fully in German but the map on the inner cover was helpful. At the end, all of them came thru and I did my own route to go to as many places as I could before losing sunlight. Ended with a nice shot of photo above at night. Definitely needs more than just one day tho!
So my final night was in Munich. I did find out the day before that one of my old classmates from Indo was in Munich, I hadn't seen her in years so we met up for breakfast near the Ostbahnhof. She was there for an event which I won't name but it does have Bob Geldof attending annually (which I was aware of, but the stars did not align sadly so I wasn't in Munich yet when he was 😭). It was also her first time in Europe ever so we both exchanged complaints about how cold it was. Of course it was nearing the end of my trip when it got to below 0 degrees, in Munich of all places.
Anyway we caught up for less than two hours before I had to go catch my flight. Munich airport (left) was decent, a bit like Manchester Terminal 2? but not as bad lmao. Very consciously enjoyed the flight for myself, and through all total of four flights all the way back to Indo, I had either isle or window with empty middle seats. What luck! Photo on the right was from my final take off from Dubai and too soon after I landed back in Jakarta.
Overall it was the most relaxing, indulgent trip, I loved that I had the trip all to myself and that I actually met with friends at every stop, all of whom I am ever so grateful for, it's nice to remember there are people who would take some time out of their busy days just to let you know you matter 💖. Maybe another trip next year? If I can save up for it lmao. Montreux and Budapest for Queen things at least!
Hi friends, I will be in Europe on 30th Oct - 6th Nov. I'm looking for a friend for when I will be in Munich on 5th Nov (I'm flying home the next day from there). It's the only day I'm not booked to meet anyone, but my plan is to do a Queen/Freddie themed day tour in the city. If anyone wants to take a day off to travel and hang out there I'd be happy to meet up! (I am actually begging because I have zero knowledge of the German language. Somebody please hold my hand)
Since the last interesting thing that happened in Queen was almost a month ago in Sweden and they keep putting me off with gen AI content clearly approved by Brian and Roger I don't even know if I like being in the fandom anymore...
I was looking forward to the Queen II boxset this year but streets have been saying for a few months now that it'll be May 2026. I thought Brian would be doing Brixton for the next Gold Series but where is that now. I have been saving for Montreux and Budapest in Sept 2026 and I'm mildly still looking forward to that but even the exhibition date has been taken off to "to be confirmed". I'm sitting on random things I'd probably sparse out to post in the next few months maybe? But then I don't know what else.
I have been enjoying other fandoms very much! I have been enjoying Doctor Who and I have also now fallen into a Mission: Impossible rabbit hole (thanks Simon Pegg). I've gone back to catching up a bitt with DC but with the hard exclusion of anything G*nn-related. So while this has been an almost exclusively Queen blog you might see some scattered mix posts here and there starting from now.
Also on an irl note I just got promoted at work (!!!). So if I haven't been able to spare enough time to dig random buried gems now I probably would have even less time in the future. Of course despite this long note you'll still see me posting Queen, if not just new quick materials then whatever I'm sitting on when the well gets too dry.
Anyway! Don't know why I keep making these long notes not like anyone reads them if it's not fandom. But hey it's my blog. I'll probably do a new pinned post sometime to make it more all-fandom inclusive but we'll see.
It's Sunday so hope you are all getting some good rest ❤
