"kalo lo udah pake skechers, lo bakalan males pakai Nike lagi"

That was a line I heard from a man, not far from me, around the skechers shelf when I accompanied my husband to buy skechers shoes in sports station, at Summarecon Mall Bekasi.

Well, setelah sekian lama tidak mengupdate blog super alay ini, setelah mengalami banyak perubahan dalam hidup (ceilaaahh, baca: udah married, punya anak 1), ujug2 gw ingin update blog gw dengan konten santai, ga terlalu berfaedah, tapi ya ga alay2 banget seperti jaman dahulu kala.

Kenapa temanya kali ini skechers?
Jadi gini ceritanya..
2014 yang lalu, saat pengen beli sepatu sporty tapi santai dan agak mahalan dikit (versi gw si wanita superhemat menjurus pelit), gw jalan-jalan ke sports station.. Niat gw waktu itu mau beli airwalk atau converse atau nike yg simple, sporty, bisa dipakai buat jogging tapi keren juga dipake jalan dan kerja.. 1 sepatu untuk semua, hihi. Dan ga lupa, yg harganya paling ekonomis.

Setelah lihat sana sini, harganya kok pas di atas 600rb semua.. Ya emang kalo ke sports station udah kudu diniati dan disiapin suit buat beli di atas 600 rb sih ya.. Cuma waktu itu juga hoping that there was a clearance sale, haha. Gw udah 2 kali jaman kuliah dapat clearance sale sports station. Airwalk dan converse seharga 100rban. Dan keberuntungan macam itulah yang juga gw harap dapat saat itu. Tapi gw lagi ga beruntung sih hari itu. Ga ada yg 100rebuan.

Sampai akhirnya gw nyamperin rak skechers. Pas 2014 waktu itu, skechers sama sekali belum booming. Dan disitu gw liat sepatu mayan chic, seharga 275rb kalo ga salah waktu itu. Di bawah 300 lah pokoknya. Model pure elegance seperti ini:

Gw belilah.. Mayan di bawah 500rb dan chic jg trus bisa dipake semua aktifitas termasuk jogging..

Pas gw pake ke kantor, temen gw nanya sepatu baru gw merk apa kok bagus. Pas gw bilang skechers, mereka yang agak ga terlalu paham gitu. Ya iya sih wajar, pas itu belum booming. Masih booming wakai kalo ga salah.

Setelah gw pakai kemana2 bahkan ke gunung juga (ini sih rada gablek emang), akhirnya skechers pertama gw pensiun di tahun pertama kerjanya..

Gw berniat beli skechers lagi.
Model yg sama sebetulnya karena gw suka yg murah tapi bagus haha.
Nah di tahun 2015, pergilah gw ke sports station mall artha gading. Gw cari skechers model yang sama.. Ga ada. Model lain dan harganya lebih mahal semua. Paling murah 799rb. Tapi modelnya bagus bangaat.. Simpel. Namanya Go Walk. Dan yang paling menggoda gw adalah goga mat insole nya.. Yg diklaim selembut yoga mat dan bisa menyerap bau keringat kaki walau kita tidak pakai kaos kaki.  Bagian terakhir ini tetep kudu dikasi note, kalau sepatunya ga lu cuci 3 bulan lebih, lu ga pake kaos kaki dan kaki lu lagi keringetan.. ya tetep bau sih. Gw pernah dikomplen temen gw tu pas sepatunya lagi bau (ini aib banget sih sebenernya.. Tapi buat kasi deskripsi dan review note, gapapalah..).
Gw coba sepatunya juga super ringaaan banget. Dan waktu itu, gw baru keluar dari rumah sakit karena ada sedikit pembengkokan di tulang belakang gw, in which gw ga boleh jalan jauh, ga boleh jogging, dan ga boleh aktifitas yang terlalu menekan kaki gw. Jadilah, sepatu yg bikin gw serasa ga pake sepatu dan mengurangi beban kaki gw ini, cocok sekali..
Akhirnya gw belilah..
Ya ampunn model go walk ini bener2 bikin gw jatuh cinta.. Mana awet lagi.. Udah hampir 3 tahun, baru defect dikit, tapi udah buluk abis hahahaa..
Ya wajar sih kalo sneaker buluk mah. Apalagi udah gw pake di segala suasana. Sampe ada temen gw yang komen, skechers enak ya katanya? Gw jawab: iya, lha ini kan gw pake selama ini.
Dia bilang: oiya, lu pake skechers ya.. Tapi punya lu udah buluk banget.
Gw: diem aja ama eyes rolling, cuma mbatin, yaudah sih gw pake kemana2 ini.. (lagi ga pengen debat wkwkwk)

Nah pas itu, gw baru nyadar. Kayanya skechers sudah mulai famous.. Gw iseng gugling liat reviewnya kayanya udah mulai banyak yg pake dan puas karena enak dan ringan dipake. Apalagi Skechers pake Demi Lovato sebagai brand ambassador. Kayanya mayan mendongkrak popularitas.

Waktu gw beliin bokap dan nyokap skechers pun, mereka berdua kesenengan.. Karena super ringan dipakai dan temen2nya pada bilang bagus.. Malah temen2 nyokap pada beli skechers go walk lho ahahaaha..

Sampe gw juga sering banget akhirnya liat orang pakai skechers go walk di mana2. Dan skechers pun udah buka gerai sendiri di beberapa mall.

Dan akhirnya di tahun 2018, pas gw mo beli sepatu karena skechers gw udah mulai defect dikit after 2.5 years, gw pun tetap berpikir untuk stay wearing the same brand.

Apalagi setelah pak suami juga pakai dan pas nemenin dia beli, gw denger ada yg ngemengin line kalimat di atas. Sekali pake skechers, lo jadi males pake Nike. Line nya terngiang banget di telinga gw.

Jadi last night gw memutuskan beli skechers go walk 4 di tunjungan plaza karena gw lg mudik.
Dan momen ini sih sebenernya yg mendorong gw pengen nulis blog ini..

Jd gw beli di gerai skechers nya. Di mana model2nya lebih lengkap. Dan wktu gw liat2 kesana kemari, gw liat dong model pure elegance yg pernah gw punya dahulu kala. Dulu yg harganya cuma 275an, sekarang jd 699. Wow.
Hmmm..
Jadi mungkin dulu harga perkenalan kali ya.. Skechers belum terlalu famous. Jd pasang harga rendah dulu. Gw rasa yang bikin jadi famous seri go walk dengan goga mat nya sih. Jadi sebelum itu, karena inovasinya masih tergolong biasa aja, ga terlalu menonjol between converse, adidas, apalagi Nike.
Nah berhubung sekarang udah famous.. Jadi lah model2 yang dulunya pun cuma 200rebuan, sekarang terdongkrak jadi 700 rb. Ckckck.. Brand marketing strategy lah ya..
Anyway, go walk 4 is awesomee.. Sekarang nama insolenya goga max, dan ada stabilizernya juga di bagian bawah. Trus model upper meshnya juga jauuhh lebih keren dibandingkan gowalk yang dulu. Review lengkapnya kapan2 aja dulu ya.. Kalau udah dipakai kemana2.

Keep up the good work, Skechers.

Another Travelling story: YES SOMETIMES YOU SHOULD BELIEVE IN MAGIC part 4

So then that African girl looked like thinking "who the hell are you?? How dare you ask me to take you along in my journey to my future parents in law's house?"

She then told me with a pity-sight towards my face, " Sorry.. I can't.." well, I already guessed her answer. " Had I met my boyfriend's parents before and already close to them, I will take you. But that's just not the case. " she continued.

Yeeaaa I know. I am smart but sometimes (often, actually) doing stupid things without thinking too much. So we continued our dialogue again about everything.. That she looked so smart. She could speak some foreign languages beside her native. She also studied 4 year full in Czech with scholarship.

Not so long, her bus came. She had to go. She left me alone then -__-...

I came back to the state where I became homeless looked-alike. Wandering around outside the hall without any certain destinies. The weather became warmer, so I thought better to walked around than just sitting inside the hall. Then I took out some Corona again through the ATM, in case I needed it, cause seems like I certainly needed it!!

I went to an internet cafe searched for some probabilities. I browsed my previous hostel to see any possibilities to stay back there, and planned to email the hostel where I planned to stay at Hungary, to cancelled my stay there.
The owner of the Hungary hostel said that I had to pay the fine as I cancelled my booked room. Only 2 euros actually. Ha-Ha. Even with Rupiah it was soo cheap. Only 26.000 ahaha. The fine was taken from my advance down payment.

Then I browsed my previous hostel at Prague and I got that the hostel price like almost 3x times higher if you    plan to pay at your arrival! I re-checked it via phone and that was true ! But I had no choice either :(. So I told the receptionist that I might come back there and would like to book the room again. I told him that I've stayed before and paid a down payment with my friend's credit card.

 I was just panic, gave up, confused,.. Could you just imagine my situation at that time??

I did not want to pay at higher price :'(
I've lost the money for the ticket for going to and coming back from Budapest. I've lost my money for the down payment for the room at the hostel in Hungary and also to pay the fine. Well, not at that time but later, I had to pay to Pol :(

So I insisted planning to look for a mosque. To stay there for free!

By the way I met many Vietnamese there, whom I thought they were maybe English speaking foreigners from South East Asia just like me, or even better Indonesian who spoke Indonesian, which is exactly like me too. But unfortunately, they just told me in bad English that they could not speak English. That they were Czech Vietnamese and spoke Czech. That they were lived in Czech since their childhood or even since they were just born. Unless I could speak Vietnamese towards them of course, which is I could not, natuurlijk.

Then

Well, then here was the magic part started
.
Okay, in Netherlands, you'd find hijabers sooo easily. Whether they were Turkish, Moroccan, Iraqis, or just simply Malaysian or Indonesian. But there, in Czech, since the first time I arrived, I did not find any women with their hijab on their head. Well, I know, it was Europe, ex communist country, far cry from moslems related activity or symbols. It is not so multi cultures as well, in which immigrants will stay and change nationality along with their whole big family from the home countries and breed vast like the Turkish in Germany and Netherlands and Maroccan or Iraqis in Netherlands and France.

Therefore, it was so difficult as well to ask the people there where the mosque was! Aside from the fact that their English was bad, they also even did not know what mosque is! And always said that they did not know.  It was very different situation when I was in Netherlands. In every city, it's always easy to find the mosque. Even when you asked the white, the non turkish or other middle east descendants there, which mostly are non moslems of course, they sometimes still know what and where the nearest mosque is.

So that was added to my worst situation..

I found that pink hijab head in front of me. But I could only see the back part of the hijab. Not the face.
I ran into her and called her. But she did not hear it. She walked with other Caucasian woman without hijab. With red jacket and curly dirty blond hair.

Well, when I almost reached her, her friend turned her head around to me and told her that I was calling her. That woman with pink hijab turned her head to me. Subhanallah! I could see her beautiful face! She's definitely neither Turkish nor Moroccan like many hijabis I found in Netherlands!

She had those beauty of Eastern European. With high long nose, pink lips, round big blue eyes and white crystal skin of course! She smiled to me then and I asked her where the nearest mosque was..