I gave myself a little unusual treatment on this weekend. It's unlike the usual weekend when I wake up at noon and being be a geek in front of the computer all day. The ritual keeps repeating until Sunday night.
On Saturday the National Museum opens until 17.00. I woke up early and made my way to the museum. The entry ticket was god damn fucking cheap. IDR 750,0 for 1 adult & IDR 250,0 for 1 child. The management should have made it free.
Instead of arranging the collections in chronological order the relics are gathered in 1 room based on their categories. Visitors can choose which room they want to see based on their interests. I was clueless about the room I should visit first. Therefore I visited all rooms starting from the 1st chamber on my left.
The explanation on the display wasn't telling much. It said the name of the relic, the time it was constructed, and the place of discovery. I was hoping to read longer sentences. It would be nicer if I had a museum guide to explain those relics deeper. Next time I'll join a guided tour. The stillness, while I was reading the display explanation. was occasionally interrupted by noisy Indonesian visitors. They couldn't keep their crap shut. Foreigners were more observant and silent. The ethnography room displays had longer explanations attached to the display boxes. I just passed them because my feet were tired.
Next was the scupture room. Observing an old sculpture was fascinating. I noticed the difference between prehistoric statues and the ones from the Hindu-Buddhist era. The prehistoric one is sculpted simpler & less embedded with ornaments. In contrast artists from Hindu-Buddha era gave artistic details to their arts. The details make their statues more complex than the ones from prehistoric era. My mind wandered: what story did each statue have in the past? They were worhipped as gods but now they are piece of artistic stones from the ancient era.
After departing from the museum I went to Veteran Street. There lies "Ragusa Italian Ice Cream". I had heard about it several times before, but had not yet visitted. It was easy to find. It was around a 5 minutes walking distance from the Juanda Busway Station. Even though the ice cream shop is old, it had many visitors. Maybe it is because it was on the weekend. On the wall there were some photos from the 1930s. The Ragusa building was bigger then than it is now. The customers were westerners. During its golden age Ragusa had music performances at the edge of the room.
All of the ice cream options do not exceed IDR 30.000. I ordered a Banana Split (IDR 27.000). I enjoyed the ice cream because I had it a lot. The banana slices were small. Such a pity. It would have been great if they were bigger. I almost had some left over because of the milk ingredient in the ice cream. It made me full quickly. Overall I like Ragusa ice cream. The ice cream leaves an aftertaste. I am surely going to visit again. Upon finishing my ice cream I took a bus home.
Visiting The National Museum
