Yogijakarta - the cultural capital

On 02.September we had an extremely uncomfortable but funny ride to Jogjakarta.
During the busride from Pangandaran to Serenjeda (train station) we were literally flying through the bus while the driver was navigating over the bumpy road. We couldnt do any other but laughing about the sitouation, which caused all the other local passengers to laugh as well :D
After a fine train ride we arrived in Jogjakarta and decided to take some midrange hotel with wifi, pool and nice breakfast buffet, as we were staying here for 4 nights.
During our stay in Jogja we also visited the unesco world heritage temples of Borobudur and Prambanan (see next post).
The next day (03.09.) we started our sightseeing trip with a visit to the oldest and biggest university in Indonesia. We were hoping to attend a lecture... but unluckily most students were too shy to talk.
So after seeing the campus we visited the water castle, which was a really nice building and the kings historical playground with his harem :P
Next on route was the bird market. Unluckily it moved from city centre so we had to take a becak (bikcycle with a cabin)... some great picture to see 2 oversize Europeans in that small cabin^^ Probably due to the new location, the market looked too professional and we were missing the asian market flair here. But still quite impressing.
We continued our route with a visit to the art centre, THE place for batik paintings... yes batik is what all the people here are very proud of. And indeed there were some superb paintings... in the end I couldnt resist to buy one that I fall in love with :P
In the evening a visit to a traditional wayang show (shadow puppets) finished our cultural day. But we couldnt stay the full 2 hours as we had no chance to follow the story, so we left after 1h.
After that we went to alun alun kidul. A park with 2 big trees. Finding the path between the trees blindfolded was supposed to bring luck. Benni and I mananged to do it (with minor help of each other^^).
In the night we tried some nightlife again... but guess what, ramadan :P So just got a little tipsy in a club that played karoke versions of hits from Black Eyed Peas, Pitbull and co.
The next morning we wanted to visit Borobudur... but the bed was too nice so we arrived there in the afternoon :P
On 05.September we visited the palace (Kraton) of Jogja. Followed by the dutch Fort Vredeburg. Both were not too impressive, but still worth a visit :)
At the afternoon we made our way to Prambanan.
The next day we continued to Solo (Surakarta).

2 huge Europeans on a becak :P

the water palace

Verdeburg