Short Escape to Medan

After finishing my master degree and coming back to my hometown, I think I had been so afraid to take a chance to travel until two days ago. It was a brave short escape journey, yet the expensive one but I don't mind. At least, I gained my bravery again, and it might cost more than what I paid for the journey if I didn't do that. So, in short, I was happy and I plan to make it aregular escape every two or three months.

I went to Medan by plane. From Aceh, I took JT 305 flight at 4:30 pm. However, it delayed about 20-30 minutes and it's okay since I know the habit of the company. While waiting for the journey, I wrote a post on another blog of mine.

It's time to be on board and I sat beside a man that came to Aceh for a national event. We talked for a while and I knew from our conversation he is from South Borneo and his journey would be long that day. He appreciated me that I was so lucky, so young and beautiful and I am a lecturer now. My mom would be so proud of me. :)

The flight was okay, no turbulence and arrived at the Kualanamu International Airport at 6 something pm. Then I directly went to the train ticketing counter to exchange the voucher I bought from traveloka. It was IDR 10,000 cheaper than buying at the location. My trip would be an hour later so I chose to have a meal first.

On the train, I could connect to a Wi-Fi provided. The connection was fair. The train stopped several times and I worried a bit since I had to be in time for movie time. My friends already waited me in Medan. Alhamdulillah, the train arrived on schedule and the location was just right next to the mall; Centre Point Mall.

I used escalator to go to the cinema and watched Critical Eleven with my friends. After movie, we walked to the hotel that we booked online before. It was Karibia Boutique Hotel that located behind the mall. We discussed about the movie and our personal lives before bed at the hotel. It was indeed a 'girls' night out'.

The next day, we woke up late and we left the hotel at 11 a.m. We checked out yet we still boarded our luggages out there. We had brunch at Nelayan. We ate a lot. Then we headed up to the cinema for 'Unlocked'. It was a great movie but I could guess the plot so I gave 4 out of 5 stars. The movie also reminded me about my postgrad life in the UK since the very first scene because the location was in London.

After movie, we went to a shop. I bought a novel by Nicholas Sparks, a backpack for my sister (she will be 17 soon), and a lego for another sister of mine in Jakarta (She will celebrate the birthday soon, too).

Our mission was complete and we didn't know where else to go. Starbucks was the choice to sit and read the novel for a while before heading to airport. Starbucks in the mall provided a nice spot to spend the time for reading or just sipping your coffee with friends.

We'd been there until 4:45 pm. We left the mall, took our luggages, and booked a taxi to airport. The taxi driver was a nice person. He even didn't ask us for the highway fee. At the airport, we directly went to check in counter. Beside us, there was a man who was late and the it was the boarding call for the flight, however, I amazed with the service of the officer at the counter. He still talked softly to the late man and guided him well to be on board soon.

It was dinner time already and we ate dinner at AW restaurant after buying cakes for souvenirs. Our flight was delayed about 20-30 minutes. So we managed to read some pages of our new novels at the gate. On board, I sat behind no one. It was an empty seat in the middle of the row. The weather was not so good, we did experience small turbulence but the pilot could handle it well and we arrived at Sultan Iskandar Muda safe and sound. I went home with my friend.

That is the story of my new traveling chapter. It was simple yet it leaves a lot of thoughts for me that I didn;t write here. During the trip, I thought a lot, about my life. I was drawing lists on my mind what to expect next, how to do those, how should my life be, and so on and so far. So, see you on my next journey!