Greeting Hive Worlds! It's me Iris from East Java, Indonesia. I'm visiting my home at Surabaya today so I took this chance to walk from the bus stop to my home. It's about 3.6 Km walk, so when I planned this, I wasn't sure if I am going to make the distance by walking because I didn't have a good stamina. But, today I want to highlight the story between two face of the cities where the dream never sleep and the hope never fade.
So, my bus stop at Jalan Tunjungan, a historic street that now turned to be tourist hub full of cafés and popular stores. It was a beautiful street with colonial building that was kept original from the Dutch occupancy. Our government use some of them for office buildings and some, there is also the old hotels that used as fighting point between our youth and The Dutch military, and also several old buildings that became commercial places.
The sky was clear, the weather was okay though still damp and thick with vehicle waste, but this afternoon was quite beautiful for a leisure stroll. I have passed this street so often that I didn't have any interest for window shopping. But Surabaya in this month usually offers stunning twilight if I am lucky, so it was worth to try.
The street was neat and well maintained, we also had one of the oldest mall of the coty that became the icon of this city as well. This mall has been expanded several times and now stretch out almost the whole street. It wasn't that majestic at the afternoon, but once the sun set and the sky got darker, its dazzling lighting show will mesmerize tourists and visitors.
As I predicted, I didn't have enough stamina to cover the whole route, so I hop on a minibus to get closer to my home lol. And then the scenery changed, from polished windows and clean street slowly become a dense housing that scattered behind the main road. My apartement was located in this edge street a pretty new building among the crowded urban kampong or neighborhood.
And I want to capture this. Perhaps this place only 5 minutes drive from those fancy street but how the life have change into something raw and unfiltered. A street that full of sigh and tired yawn of people that still don't lose hope to find some fortune in the big city. Most of the population is native of Surabaya but there are a lot of transmigrant from smaller cities too.
It was pretty contrasting but I think we can find this in any city of the world, the invisible line between luxury and struggle. Both has its own charm and characters that always fascinated me whenever I passed by. It makes me grateful for what I have now, that I am blessed to survive in this harsh but captivating city. And there it is, the silhouette of my building on the distance. And I was so tired already after work so I asked my hubby to pick me up lol.
So that ended my attempt for walking the distance. I hope you enjoy walking with me. Thank you for reading and shout out to @tattoodjay for arranging a very interesting read every Wednesday. See you next week, Hivers!