Hello, can't believe it's been exactly a month since my last post, i thought I've only been gone for a couple of weeks, indeed travelling makes you lose track of time >.<

Yes, you heard it right, I've just come back from a short-sweet-escape to another part of the world. 

"Where to?" you'll ask. "Turkey!" I'll answer. 

"What? Turkey? Why?" you'll ask again.

"Just...," I'll answer again.

Trust me, I got this a lot. When I first told people that I was going to Turkey, people got worried and asked me why I would choose to travel there. Truthfully, I didn't have any intention or any plan to go there this year. Everything just happened so suddenly. My colleague, Jenny and I were hanging out in a mall, when we saw this Jakarta's leading tour agency's branch and we got in. (Initially, Jenny was the one who wanted to look for some information about any trips that she could join during our holiday, cause this year we got one full month holiday after the semester ends (Yippieee! Yeaaaayy!) and she thought that she would be very bored if she stayed in Medan >o<). Theeeeeen, the talk about the Turkey trip came up. It was 29th May that day, and the trip would set out on 9th June. Imagine how sudden was that for a travelling trip to somewhere far away from your country??? It's almost like an Europe trip! I got myself a day thinking whether I should just go or not, it was in my bucket list to visit Turkey one day, but I'd never expected that it would be sudden like this. There's a lot of thoughts in my mind, about the budget, about whether or not I would have fun with the tour members, should I just go there by backpacking one day, etc, but none of them was about terrorism. To be honest, I didn't even have the slightest idea about the bombing issue till I decided to join the tour on 31st May, and we made the payment right away. 

Another colleague was shocked when we informed her that we're going, and she asked,"You're not afraid? Turkey is the way through Syria. ISIS? Bomb?" and then everything struck in. I browsed the internet and found that there had been bomb attacks for months in a row and there's a big possibility that there'll be another one coming. I was in deep doubt, should I go, should I not go; will I regret going, or will I regret not going. 

I would be a big fat liar if i said that I'm not afraid of dying, but a few words from Jenny(who said she would still go on even if I cancelled going), Daniel Jiang and G-8 members braced me up, "It won't matter where you go. Even at home, you could die."  And thanks to that, I got myself a chance to experience a short chapter in my life where I got to admire and embrace one of the most beautiful countries I've ever seen. I'm so thankful that they encouraged me to go, cause I don't regret even a bit, and if I got a second chance to go there again, I will surely come back. 

And my heart breaks when I heard the news about the latest Istanbul airport attack T.T

It is a very beautiful country, with the friendly people, clear blue sky and the dazzling Marmara sea. 

The tourism sector is declining drastically and the people are suffering. 

May our prayer be with them.
#PrayforTurkey