Kawah Ijen - this volcano is famos for its sulphur collectors. The mountain itself is on the very east coast of Java and is accesssible from two sides. We chose to approach it from Banyuwangi - it's close to the ferry and the travel there is less complicated. We hired a local guide in 4WD and took off at 4am - it was about 60 minutes drive up on a very beat-up road, so then we understood why the 4WD :) Once we reached the park entrance, we started walking up actually very decent path, along with multiples of locals and tourists. The crater itself is quite impressive and we waited long enough for the clouds to move so that we got to see it whole with the green-ish lake. We also went down the crater where the local dudes collect the sulphur and then carry it up - 150lbs. at once! It was quite an experience and we were glad to make it back up ok, when wind changed direction and the sulphur fog moved on us.
Gunung Bromo - one of the most known places on Java. It's a big crater in the middle of even bigger crater, which makes the scenery quite unique. To get there, we've moved to Probolingo and thought about catching the last bus in the evening to go up to the Cemoro Lawang. Luckily, I tried calling couple of the accommodation places we had in our guide book, only to find out that everyone is full. Travelling during the week after Ramadan was really bad idea :( So we decided to stay in Probolingo and try to catch the first bus in the morning. We were approached by "Mr. Toto" on the bus station, who turned out to be priceless help - he helped us with finding hotel close to the bus station and he promised to get us on the morning bus too. He was a big football (soccer) fan too, so he was calling me Mr. Koller (famous czech player, tall and bald) :) He kept his word and showed up at our door next day while we were still in bed, rushing us to move as the bus was about to leave - 30 minutes ahead of schedule! So we did and packed in record-making 2 minutes! Once we squeezed ourselves (literally) into the little bemo, first thing we found out that the 3 guys sitting behind us were from Czech. The world is just not big enough! :)
Bromo itself sits in the middle of the bigger crater, surrounded by a sandy platform. Locals know how to exploit tourists, so not only we had to pay 10x the locals' entrance fee, but there are jeeps, motorbikes and horses everywhere, trying to scam you into taking you to Bromo. Don't fall for it - we leisurely walked there in 30 minutes. To get on Bromo, you have to climb the final 300-ish steps. As we were walking up, 2 teenage guys ran pass me, laughing and apparently showing me how it's done. Well, their stamina lasted about 100 steps and then they couldn't walk no more, so I ended up reaching the top way ahead of them, while they were having their heart-attacks below :) The crater is nice, but honestly, we didn't see what the big fuzz is about. Kawah Ijen was way more impressive. There's also one more volcano right next to Bromo, but you can't walk it up. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around for some views and then took off back to Probolingo and to catch an overnight bus to Yogyakarta.
Merapi - one of the most active volcanos in the world (at least according to the guide book). To make our life earier, we went on an organized tour. The driver picked us up at 10pm, drove us to the village at the Merapi base where we started the ascend at 1:30am to catch the sunrise. Why is everyone so obsessed with sunrises anyway? The climb was not easy, very steep and the final part is just walking on a lavafield. We made it up 5-ish, just before the sunrise. Took the obligatory pictures, admired the views, put ourselves back together and 6-ish started our descend back. By 8:30am we arrived back to the village, got a quick brekky and boarded the bus to go back to Yogya. The ride back was probably the most crazy thing we've experienced in the whole stay. The driver was pure maniac. We figured that maybe he's used to riding a bike and he didn't realized he was driving a minivan instead - he was squeezing into every tiny spot between cars, tooting constantly, overtaking using the opposite side of the road... insanity! At the same time, he did cut the travel time to half, probably making a world-record.