Day 104 | East Java, Indonesia
So much has happened in the last 48 hours adding to that not sleeping since yesterday so part of it feels like a fading memory of a dream. Yesterday, I shared one last frozen yogurt with Nadine before an early goodbye and getting back on the road solo. Met up with an Italian girl since we had similar dates to go to Ijen volcano. Where did we find each other? Through one of the backpacking groups on Facebook; a great way to plan and re-plan your journey based on what others did and experienced and meet other travelers along the way. We took a 4-hour bus ride then a ferry to cross from Bali to East Java. Stayed in Banyuwangi for a night or actually just 5 hours then started our very intense hike to Ijen Volcano. If my legs could speak they would ask me,"How many times have you said this is going to be your last hike?!" Then kick me in the guts and run away. Our hike started at midnight to catch the blue flames at the crater then hiked out of the crater to the top of the volcano to see the sunrise. The blue flames alone are an amazing, extraordinary sight but before going down the crater the surrounding suddenly changed as if we were transported to another planet once we put on those gas masks.
I've been trying to pretend my flight home will get delayed, not by hours or days but months... I have less than two weeks left so I decided to go with a different and a more exciting approach, instead of heading straight to Jogja which is around 16+ hours away by train from where I am now, I decided to Couchsurf my way to get there, so I'll be stopping at 2 or 3 cities along the way that aren't touristy and stay with locals. The cities were randomly picked so I almost have no clue what's there besides some keywords from Google written under each city such as culture, mountains or nature.
