Winter Wonderland

15th January 2019, 哈尔滨 Day 1: The Arrival 

IT'S HAPPENING. You could say this is an unexpected journey of mine. 

From the start I haven't thinking about going there, because people said its too cold, I couldn't survive there if I go, BUT HERE I AM NOW typing this in the hotel room.

So, how can this trip happened?

This trip happened because my classmate ask me if I want to go to Harbin with him, so I was thinking..... yep I actually DO want to go, but the Indonesians that I'm close with didn't want to. Even one day my father called me and asking me why I didn't go to the "Ice and Snow World" which located in Harbin, that's the biggest Ice Lantern festival in the world? that's what Wikipedia said tho, BUT yes that festival is totally beautiful. And one Indonesian traveler which I followed on Instagram just went there, I saw all her Instastory and I was like..... WOW, must be great to go to there, AND HERE I AM NOW.

Ok, so, the two of us, with so much help from his father, make this trip happened.

We went to Zhengding airport at 3.50 PM, yep we took a night flight. Once we landed, the plane didn't directly arrived on the terminal, we have to take a bus there, so once I stepped out of the plane..... SO THIS IS HOW COLD IS HARBIN, damn. And we have to take another taxi ride to the hotel, and I should say this hotel is decent, so good even. AND YES a kinda pricey for me, but it's ok, I RARELY have this kind of exPenSiVe trip, and I am happy.

We will start our adventure tomorrow morning, we already make an itinerary, hopefully we can full fill it!

16th January 2019, 哈尔滨 Day 2: Parks, River, & Parks!

Today I get up at 7.30 and lazying around until almost 8 AM then started to get ready for the day! First we went to the St.Sophia Cathedral, which got a Russian architecture, but first we went for a breakfast inside a... some kind of Tanah Abang or Mangga Dua in Indonesia, there's a food court there, I ate a bowl of noodle that I can't finished, so such a waste of 10元. After that we take some pictures in front of the cathedral and around that area.

Then we decide to directly go to Zhaolin Park which there have pretty ice sculptures!

And we think this must be more beautiful at night, so I told Santiago (here comes my travel partner!) can we wait until dark and see how is the sculptures looks like, as he said yes we went to the river first! we just need to take a walk for a few minutes and we arrived! It was amazing how the whole river is frozen.... And it was cold, really, but I still can handle it! maybe just sometimes my hands and toes freezing to death.

Santiago wants to play some game in the river so I went with him, me actually want to walk to the middle of the river near the bridge, but its too far, its REALLY cold, and I didn't want to risk anything because no one go there that time! But I think from where I am standing that time, I felt really grateful already.

The frozen Songhua River!

In front of the river there's Stalin Park, we went there too. After that we go back to the plaza near St.Sophia Cathedral to warming up with a glass of hot Chocolate in Coco. To kill the time we went to some shopping mall and a bookstore near Zhaolin Park until its dark outside and go back to Zhaolin Park!

Wrapped up like a burrito. 

After Zhaolin Park night view, we went back to our hotel to rest for a while, ordered Burger King for dinner, buy some snacks and bread for breakfast, watching movie while eating, and now I am typing this while having Korean sheet mask on my face.

But really, I am grateful and thankful that I can come here..... It was incredibly beautiful, and amazing, for me to finally experiencing this kind of winter holiday.

17th January 2019, 哈尔滨 Day 3: Another Park & Snow Sculpture Expo!

Today we go to 太阳岛公园, I THOUGHT that the 门票 only 30元, because that's the internet says, BUT turns out that the 门票 for winter is.... 330元 wow, because there's a snow exhibition, and some free games that we can try, and the park is beautiful too.... frozen and beautiful.

She & snowy park.

The park is covered by snow, so... beautiful......

The most crowded part in the park only where the snow expo located, and near the frozen river where there's some free games that the visitors can try on. Other parts of the park like.... no people  visited there, because it's just a park. But for me, an empty, and covered by the white snow park give me this calm energy.... It's really peaceful, with the faint sounds of musics from afar, standing in the middle of empty park gave me this emotional feelings. So, the two of us also exploring other part of the parks.

These sculptures made by people from different county across the world!

This one made by the Indonesian's artist from Bali! #proud

Le baby travel mate feat a deer statue.

I cannot find another word for this... like I am so grateful, I would NEVER forget this experience.

18th January 2019, 哈尔滨 Day 4: The Highlight of The Trip!

As my travel mate said he is sleepy, we went to the 冰雪大世界 at 1 PM, the ticket price is 330元, expensive I know, with that price you can buy 高铁 tickets Shijiazhuang - Beijing, Beijing - Shijiazhuang. But well, it was WORTH IT. I really want to cry when I stepped into the ice world........ I am literally speechless.

Always, small 安娜. 

Stairways to heaven, perhaps.

Even the sky looks majestic here, I am out of words.

Since we went there when the sky still bright, it was not that cold, and we still can see how's the view in daylight. After walking around, we went to KFC to have a rest, ate some chickens & fries. Went out again to a room like a hall? we stay there until around 4 PM when the sun starts setting down, and they already turn on some of the lights. 

This was a touching moments for me, few years ago when I still struggling studying Chinese language, my text book have this text about 哈尔滨冰灯冰雕, and who knows, in 18 January 2019, I am standing here, seeing what I read years ago, it was...... an amazing feeling. Well, I always get emotional about things.

Your letter will go directly to Elsa and Olaf from here.

This one is my favorite Ice Sculpture Castle!

Well, this is actually the highlight of the trip. Tomorrow, early in the morning we're going back to Shijiazhuang, but in 3 days I will be flying again, to Shanghai.
So, this Harbin trip maybe such a last-minute-decision-trip, and a brave choice of course because the weather in here is SUPER cold. But then, I am having fun, and really really happy.

My biggest thanks goes to Santiago, who out of nowhere asking me if I want to go to Harbin with him. 

If he didn't ask, maybe I will never go to Harbin, and experiencing the REAL winter, a winter wonderland. 

So, thank you, very much.

Love, Nach.