Jogjakarta, A Place Worthy of Love

“What is your dream city?”

“If you have one chance to live in one city for the rest of your life, which city do you want to choose?”

          I guess that most of the people will mention Paris, Prague, London, Florence, Barcelona, Kyoto, Edinburgh, and so on. Well, they have a great point. Those cities indeed are beautiful cities and famous from all over the world. The most reliable website also put such kind of the cities I mentioned before. I admit those cities are beautiful even I only scroll down the websites page.

          Among those countries, I love to visit Prague and London one day. However, those cities are not suited to answer the questions above. I prefer to choose one of the cities in my country. It is Jogjakarta. YES. Jogjakarta is my dream city and a city where I wish to spend my rest of life. This post is not for comparing which city is better than another. This is purely my individual preference.

The year 2015 was the first time I visited this city that located in Central Java, 400 km from my hometown. I had no idea at all what was Jogjakarta would look like. I only heard from mouth to mouth that it was a nice city. My journey at that time not for travelling, but for joining an English debate competition. I went there with my friend using one of the travel agencies. We went there at 8 p.m. and arrived around 4 a.m. the next day.

During the trip, I still thought that Jogjakarta was the same as Malang, my hometown. I thought like that because of it still dark. By the morning came and the sun started to appears, I started to realize why Jogjakarta was beautiful. I saw the warm sun shone on the rooftop of the houses and the light glows through the leaf gap. I opened the car window, breathed the morning air, and the fresh morning dew met my face. Just in second, I felt so alive. What a nice greeting from a new city, I mumbled.

I stayed at my friend’s house. Again, I mesmerized by the peace that Jogjakarta had. Even though I was a new person in that area, even people had no idea what would I do during my three days and two nights, but they greeted me as if I already lived with them for a long time. “Sugeng injing, Mbak” (in English, “Good morning, sister”), a group of boy greeted me. They asked me where I came from and invited me to play with them. I smiled. Actually, greeting people was a common thing in my hometown and my country as well. Nevertheless, I did not know, Jogjakarta was just so different. Their attitude was totally in very good manners.

The second attempt I went to Jogjakarta was in 2016. I was excited again because I would have a slight chance to feel the afternoon situation in that city (I had no chance to go anywhere in the first visit).  At that time, I stayed in another region of Jogjakarta. I stayed in a home stay with five of my friends. Before we went to visit one of a famous restaurant, we decided to take a rest for a while. It was around 1 or 2 p.m. The sound of birds singing, the wind slowly blows, and Javanese music relaxed all the nerves on the body. I slept tightly.

Photo source: rumahrosohomestay.com

We went to a famous restaurant, The House of Raminten, at around 4 p.m. We went there by rent motorcycles. This was another great experience in Jogjakarta. We could see many people walked in the sidewalk, talked with their friends in the park, played and laughed, we could see many traditional food sellers sold their goods, and street musicians played the instrument as well as sung in a great melody. In the restaurant, another uniqueness of Jogjakarta appears. In common, the waiters would wear a t-shirt or white-black uniform, but, in Raminten, all of them wore a traditional cloth from East Java. Interesting, right? The smell of the room also a scent of Java. I rarely found something like this before. Not before I visited Jogjakarta.

Photo source: jogjawis.blogspot.com

Photo source: www.intiwhiz.com

As the night came, I swore it only the sky that got darker, but Jogjakarta got more alive. The light from the street vendors lighted the city up, the sound of people’s footstep was in sync with the music of the street artist. Many people include the tourists, also filled the street enjoyed the night. Some of them drank a cup of hot coffee or ginger while laughing shared some stories with their friends, some of them were busy capturing the moment with their phone or camera, other people just simply sat in the bench watched the crowd passing by.

The thing I regret until right now is the fact that I never went to Jogjakarta for travelling. Three times (last visit in 2017) in Jogjakarta only for a competition. I am craving for spending a week, more or less, exploring this city. I never get tired of this city. When I was in the train station for going back to Malang in 2017, I convinced myself that I fell in love with Jogjakarta at the first sight. The memory of Jogjakarta; the people, the food, the culture, the air, the sound of birds singing, the laughter of people I met in the street, the smile, and all of the things in Jogjakarta, will remain on my heart. I will keep it in the special place and will never let the memories faded away.

Jogjakarta,

A city where the light of the sun peek from the trees and kiss your face warmly,

It greets you not only with the genuine smile of people,

The breeze of the wind follows your steps,

Jogjakarta,

A city where small things are all the way more valuable,

It bonds you with the feeling that more down to earth,

It bonds you only by two cups of coffee and snacks,

It strengthens you even by the string of guitar and hand clapping,

Jogjakarta,

A city to remember,

Where the raindrops make you leave all the confronts you make,

Even within yourself,

The smell of wet soil calm your sleep,

Jogjakarta,

A city worth of love,     

A city where it does not matter who you are with,

Does not matter how broken hearted you are,

Jogjakarta eases you,

It eases you in the way you cannot imagine,

Jogjakarta,

A city where it can be the remedy of your tough day

I am into you, Jogjakarta.

(I only put a few pictures and I regret do not have many photos of Jogjakarta. Well, I guess this is the sign to come to Jogjakarta sooner and longer, isn’t it? :D)