Angkringan is an unique feature of javanese culture, specially in Yogyakarta region. It’s a place to hang out with no formalities or class distinctions, just pure friendliness. This means students and artists, journalists and hookers, police men and the poorest of poor. It’s a little street coffee shop, selling hot drinks and cheap snacks or rice dishes wrapped in banana leaf, the lowest way of eating, the simplicity of everyday life. It’s a place where people stop for breakfast or a coffee late at night and a chat, during the whole day available for the ones searching for a brief comfort from the harsh sun, or a pause from the speed of life running on the outer side of the always present, always protector, plastic sheet. This little pocket of stillness and freedom of just being. No formalities, no distinctions. Some moments to be with yourself, reflecting, some opportunities for random conversations with unknown people, here, inside, it’s just normal to do whatever you want, everyone engages in talking with each other, everyone engages in leaving you alone for smoking a cigarette in peace, relax and get yourself together for returning to the sun, to busyness, to life itself. In this shaded corner of the running world, you can stop and breath.
Sit, relax. Have a coffee.