Wow, finally the day had arrived which I’ve been looking forward to for such a long time. The international field project 2018 has begun, however, it felt so unreal that we were finally leaving to Indonesia for 4 weeks. While driving to Schiphol Airport, I realized that these four weeks are going to be an amazing experience. Though I was really looking forward to this experience, it was difficult saying goodbye to my friends and family.

The very much feared journey and jet-lag

Carrying my luggage at Schiphol, checking in, and finally saying goodbye to everybody was the beginning of a 16-hour journey to Indonesia. Surprisingly though, everyone was on time, including myself, which is sometimes a very challenging thing in the early morning. Luckily, it was also finally time for some sleep and some group pictures. Fortunately, for some maybe a bit unfortunate, the stopover at Singapore airport took some time. Eating seaweed crisps for the first time, drinking Starbucks coffee (mostly to just stay awake), and stretching my legs felt like the beginning of a very good, but tiring trip. While I am writing this blog at the moment (21:45 in the evening), that Starbucks coffee would be very welcome against the notorious jet-lag. As much as a good WiFi connection to download some new Netflix episodes.

Coming home

16 hours of sleeping, playing games, eating, watching Netflix and chatting finally came to an end when arriving to Denpasar, Bali. While I was getting out of the plane, the heat was already coming towards me. It felt like coming home, the typical smell, all the traffic, and people asking ‘taxi?’ or ‘how are you?’ on the streets of Legian, near Denpasar. For me, home is where you can go to the beach any time you want and watch some beautiful sunsets and sunrises. That pretty much describes Legian in a few words already. However, it is impossible to describe the feeling and the atmosphere in this town, since I probably experienced it very differently from those who never visited this beautiful country before.

This country has much to offer to me, to others, and to the world. A new experience has started. Let’s get the most out of these four weeks, together with my classmates, as well as with all the other people involved in this amazing tourism research project.

Kisses from Bali,

Julia B.