3-Day Short Trip to Central Java - DAY 2: Solo

Hello, hello!

Back with long postponed travel diary of mine!

So I'll talk about my day 2 and 3 of my Central Java short trip. I was in Solo and on the last day decided to spend a day in Jogja.

DAY 2 - SOLO

I am telling you, this whole vacation was hidden as Job Fair trip, LOL. Yeah, most of us who went for this trip are freshly-graduated from the university, thus, (desperately) looking for job! So day 2 was meant to visit the Job Fair held in local state university; Universitas Negeri Solo (UNS). Lucky us, a friend of us study here and live with her parents, so, free lodge!! YAY!!! (I'm a cheapskate after all..)

We went to Solo by bus, it only cost me Rp 20.000 or 25.000 (I forget) or around USD 2-2.55. Yes, it was so cheap, and it was air-conditioned bus. It was 3-4 hours of journey, so we were all fall asleep. We arrived at Tirtonadi Terminal and even luckier was, our friend's place is located just 5-10 minutes walking from the terminal! 

So, Solo is famous for the neatness of the city, especially since the ex-mayor; Jokowi (now governor of Jakarta) named third best mayor in the world for 2012. 

So she picked us up and arrived at her place. Her family runs baking business, the familiar one is Brownies, which she always used to give to us back then. Soon after putting our luggage, we headed straight to the Job Fair venue. And Dezca; our friend, kindly lend us her other 2 motorcycle, so that we don't have to rent motorcycle or took taxi everywhere, we just have to refill the tank (YAYNESS level infinity).

So, there it was, we were at the Job Fair and won't tell you further because it was so BORING. No cute guys, and truth to be told, it was kinda suck (well, whaddya ask for? I was half-hearted too). After the Job Fair, we decided to go for culinary tour! I was randomly browsing on my Instagram and found few nice food spots and yes, we went there.

First, we went for Bakmi Toprak Yu Nani. I was laughing at first. Yes, Yu Nani. HAHAHA. But the spelling is more like Yu' Nani, it reminds me of Greece in Indonesia. 

Imam posed in front of the stall

So, basically, this famous food spot is a food stall located in Kartopuran area. This stall only sell one main dish which is Bakmi Toprak. Bakmi Toprak consists of 12 different food stuffs inside; cabbage, bean sprouts, peanuts, tofu, tempeh, cakwe, Solo sausage, yellow noodles, vermicelli, rambak, fried onions and beef.

But don't be worry, there are a lot of cakes and snacks available just on  your table. LOL. Temptation at its best,  right? 

And  here's the famous Bakmi Toprak!

Gotta admit that it does taste delicious. But well, I have that typical Sumatran taste, so this is rather bland for me. Well, blame it on my tongue. But, for Javanese food, so far I can tell that this dish deserves my two thumbs up! A portion of this Bakmi Toprak cost me Rp 13.000 (USD 1.33), though I was sure that I read it on the internet that it cost some people Rp 10.000-11.000. Well, this is also the common problem for few places (especially, tourism spots) in Indonesia. When they know that you're tourist/ not local people, they'll charge you more. I am strongly against this. Well, I mean, we're still Indonesian, not those expats with $$$ per month. LOL. Should've they decide fixed pricing for the food stuffs? I don't mind those few thousand rupiahs, but hey, this is unfair. And everything big always start with small  things. So, please dear Indonesians, fix your behavior!

Then, we continue to Es Dawet Bu Dermi, near Monumen Pers Solo Kota. I also knew this place from Instagram browsing. The place is quite hidden, we had to enter a small alley to reach the place. So, it's also a food stall, on a small river (kali). By the way, I was surprised to find out that the kali has crystal clear water! Yes, I peeked through the sidelines of the wooden dock, and it's nice! HAHA.

courtesy of my friend; Reni's Instagram

After that, we went to the Galabo (Gladag Langen Bogan), a night culinary spot in Solo. We went there during weekdays, so it wasn't that crowded. I was confused in choosing the food and stuffs there, because there are A LOT!

courtesy of Surakarta Govt site

So I ended up buying the Nasi Liwet and Jahe Susu. Food here are quite expensive for Solo's reputation for affordable life, in my opinion (my Nasi Liwet was Rp 9.000 and Jahe Susu was Rp 5.000). Ah, my friends (they are all Javanese) also said that the food is a bit expensive. Well, but this is a tourism spot, so I don't mind! I love the atmosphere here, it's good for chillax or having fun with friends. You can also choose to sit everywhere, the food hawkers even provide the mats for people who want to sit on the floor. There were also few live band, where you can also request to sing, LOL. No bravery.

Sitting on the floor!

Funny story was, we split into 3 groups. Dezca (the local one), lead the groups riding the motorcycle by herself. While Reni & Imam and Me & Vita, each took the bike together. Me and Vita were lost! Hell yeah, Dezca (she was always be like this anyway hahaha), drove the bike so fast, forgetting that we don't even know exactly where the Galabo was. After guessing and riding around nowhere (because three of them can't be reached via phone!), I wisely decided to rely on Google Maps. I wasn't that familiar with Google Maps, so it was kinda..... Confusing. We ended up lost, again, with Google Maps. Shame on me. Hahaha. But turned out that Dezca finally contacted us and she decided to pick us on our stop (while looking for help). Finally, we arrived together at Galabo. Thank God!

So, that's the end of my one-day journey in Solo, see you on my last post about Jogja soon!

You can also read my previous post about first day in Bandungan here:

3-Day Short Trip to Central Java - DAY 1: Bandungan