Hey guys! This week I can tell you a lot! It started out with the midterms. I had 2 per day for 3 days. They were okay and on friday we were glad that we were done! I also had to go to the immigration office on friday for our visa extension. The whole process of finger prints and taking the photo was pretty fast and I could finally go home and enjoy the beginning of my break.

On saturday I checked out a new place called “Livingstone Bakery” for breakfast. It is a super nice place and I like it a lot! The interior and design are awesome!

Monday started my week trip to the neighbour islands. The shuttle bus picked us up at 6.30am in the morning and we drove one and a half hours to Padang Bay for the speed boat to Lombok. The speed boat was unexpectently a very calm ride. I layed on the roof and enjoyed the sun. The sealing was only 40cm high – it would totally be forbidden to be on top of the boat in Germany under these circumstances but here everything is diffrent. Everyone got pretty sun burned because we underestimated the sun in the morning.

 First stop was on Gilli Trawangan. The water is amazingly turquois there.

We waited like 45 mins for the next boat to Sengigi – Lombok. When we arrived we met up with 2 friends who have already been traveling Bali for 2 weeks. We went to the same hostel like my roommates in Bali who were already on Lombok. The hostel was called “On the way” and the stuff was really nice but the beds were super dirty, so I can not recommend it. The next day another roommate of mine joined and we did a trip to waterfalls in the middle of Lombok. The walk was easy and the waterfalls were really pretty. At night my dutch roommates joined for dinner.

The next day we had another trip planed. First stop was a small pottery village where all the pots and mugs and other stuff is still made by hand and hand-painted.

 It was really interesting and I could practise my bahasa indonesia a little while speaking with the locals. They were so happy that foreigners spoke their language. After the pottery we went to a village that is known for weavery. A local girl can only get married if they know how to weave. A sarung takes almost a month, it is crazy how much work it is. We also got to wear local clothes which was really funny.

 I also had an experience one can only have far, far away from home. A lot of local women wanted to take pictures with me because I am white and european. They were amazed by my looks and really thankful for a picture. It kinda was a strange situation because they treaded me so diffrent and like I was something better.

The last stop in Lombok was Kuta Beach in the south. Sadly I did not like it because it was really dirty and many kids that tried to sell stuff. The next beach was called “Mahun Beach” and it was really a bumpy ride there and it was pretty!

After the beach we dropped the guys off at the ferry because they made their way back to Bali. My friend and I drove to the north for the boat to Gili Trawangan. The north is really green and beautiful. It even rained a little bit in the mountains.

The boat to Gilli Trawangan was just a little wooden boat but the ride was okay. We arrived without having booked a hostel. Usually it is totally okay to do that but we were really tired after the trip and only saw dirty ones. We took the first best one, it was still dirty and not recommendable. This night we only got some food and looked at the shops for a little while. We went to bed pretty early to have more time the next day.

I will let you know how my journey continues next week! See you!

Yours, Jana