Remembering Königstrasse.

March 23, 2012

Remembering Königstrasse.

Today, I walk home from Golden Trully mall by foot. It doesn’t take a long time. It takes 7 minutes if I walk in the hurry and about 15-20 minutes if I walk slower. As usual, I put my headset on and walk along the way home. I take the same route with the same activity (listen to the music during my way home) but with the different feeling and atmosphere. Why?

Today is a national holiday and it makes the street less crowded than usual. You can see the cars could pass by so fast, not holding in line because they are trapped in the ‘never ending story’ traffic jam. The street also seems more quiet because they have no reason to press the horn. Yeah, today I feel Jakarta is more friendly to me by being looked like more as a heaven than a hell. But, I think it wouldn’t stay for a long time. As a holiday is over, it will go crazy like usual.

Well, I feel so lucky that today I could feel the heaven side of Jakarta. Going home by foot and breathe the fresh air that blows together with the wind. Even though my arms and legs are all painful, but it doesn’t reduce my mood to enjoy this scarce moment. And suddenly I remember about Königstrasse. The street that I know the best in Stuttgart, Germany.

Königstrasse.. A wonderful place to shop, a nice place to just look around, and a great street to walk. I never walked alone there. Together with many people that ready to hunt low-price items, I walked along the street and enjoyed the view of the shop on my left and right side. Sometimes, there is also good music there. People like to play music and sing a song there. We can enjoy it in awe because they are so wonderful. I never feel bored of walking along this street. And today, I’m officially missing Königstrasse.

Here, in Jakarta, I walked alone like I’m the only one that weird, like I’m the only one that uses that pavement. Yeah, here, people are too lazy to walk. They prefer to use the public transportation to reach any kind of place. And maybe, the atmosphere in Jakarta is not very conducive or comfortable for the walker to walk. Nothing good you could enjoy. Just breathing the pollution, hearing the annoying horn, competing with motorcycle even if you take the right way (walking in the pavement), and the ignoring the people who has lack of job by whistling or flirting at you. You can feel that hundreds pairs of eyes looking at you, because you’re seems the only one who takes the pavement. They are waiting the traffic jam turns green with nothing to do and then find something (you) to be paid attention on when you passed the pavement by. Wonderful! If you are confident enough, you can feel like a Miss Indonesian with a slogan, “Pairs of eyes focus on you.” (Miss Indonesia: Semua mata tertuju padamu). But, if you are not cofident enough, it would be like such an annoying thing. But, you can always choose to react differently. Enjoying the music and just don’t care about them. Just feel that there’s nothing happened.

So, today, as I walked home, I just consider this street (Gunung Sahari) just like Königstrasse to reduce my felling that keep missing Königstrasse. Näturlich, es ist gar nicht ahnlich mit Königstrasse. (Of course, it’s not similar with Königstrasse at all). I know they are not comparable, but today I just enjoy that atmosphere so much. Gunung Sahari Street is actually not so bad when there is no traffic jam. You could feel the great air and a nice view.

Maybe, now you are wondering how Königstrasse looks like. Well, it’s like a street along the Pasar Baru, Jakarta. But, if you still imagine nowhere, let me introduce to the ‘Artist of the day’: Königstrasse..

Enjoy the beauty of Königstasse, Stuttgart ^^,