Went to another country ~ Bosnia i Herzegovina, second stamp on my passport 😉 Got picked up again at 06:20 AM, once the border crossed, we visited Kravica Waterfalls. Never crossed in my mind that Bosnian don’t use Euro, they accept it, our Guide Boh or Boah don’t know how to spell his name said, if in the store I can pay with Euro as the amount is written in both currency, Konvertible Mark and Euro but in Restaurant better pay with Card because there is only Konvertible Mark written on it. Usually 1 Euro = 2 KM yet if there is no Euro written, perhaps they will charge more. OK thank you for the info!
We spend about 50 minutes on the waterfalls, I managed to get magnets for mom’s collection + had waffels. Am I impressed with the waterfalls? No, it’s not bad however I saw or have better one back home 🙂
Then we passed by to a very small village called Pocitelj, it was such short stop, only 20 minutes. There is fortress on the top haha thank you, my legs are still sore from previous days. We just went for a loo in a restaurants, I think the guy thought I was one of their guess, thank you Sir, may your Restaurant has success!
See! The Fortress is up there, had we have enough time, I won’t even bother to walk further up haha
Then to our main stop: Mostar! I actually like this place than two previous ones. The bridge is the main attractions, need to get it right! On the downside, I found a difficulties in finding foods, I got used to Croatian sea food, especially Oyster. Here in Mostar mostly you will have meat.
Regardless how good the tour turns out ~ perfect guide, tour participants were all on time, the bus driver drove responsibly, the timing they gave in every stations were all make sense; like the Yang from YinYang ~ the black dot in white, even in light there’s a bit of darkness. The food wasn’t really my taste. Ah well…. You can’t have it all 😉
Every even days of the trip, we were out of Dubrovnik 🙂
To the other country: Montenegro with the tour offered by Get Your Guide, passed the border with a car, #Collecting stamps in Passport. We were being picked up at 06:20 AM, there was only 7 people in total. Instead of going with a bus, we got a mini van. I personally think it was cool, a private tour. Dominik is the only guy there haha the elephant in the room 🙂
We made a first stop to make a picture, this is us: a Korean lady + American Gang.
At the beginning, it was actually fine. Our driver ~ initial L informed us about his friend who sell Oyster in Montenegro + right after the border there was a restaurant with price cheaper than in Dubrovnik, he can dropped us there. Actually, we were excited to tried, in anyway we have to eat.
Reached first town called Perast. While we were still in Dortmund, I wasn’t planned to take any boat, wanted to just walked around. However L said there was only one street, it’s very small, the only attractions was taking the boat with extra cost. Hmmm…. I sensed a bit of a red flag. Being suspicious whereas my mind kept reminding me “what else can we do?” Therefore, paid the 15 Euro for boat trip to Church of Our Lady. The fee was only for transport, not to enter the church, it will be another 10 Euro.
He also explained we would go to more stops, we didn’t! only to this one. Wtf?! Either he doesn’t know what he’s saying or he “robbed us” from our real boat experience? After reading some signs, I came to understand the cost for 1,5 hours boat ride = 40 Euro. Okay, I took the first red flag as Misscomunication, made peace with that.
Second town called Kotor, there we have 3 hours. The only attractions were: Old Town + Fortress + Cable Car located 4 km away. Me and Dominik opted for the Fortress. Cecillia had some doubts, in the end she made it too. I told the girls I’m going up so they could make a forecast at what time we could be done.
Was on the verge of giving up when we reach the church, which only 1/3 of the Fortress until Daly texted “I’m also at the Fortress” Ah cool!!! she gave us some fuel to actually catch up with them. Hike after hike, where are the girls? there is only one way, I couldn’t miss them. Still not seeing them, even at the top… Hä???
One the way down we met Cecillia, she also hasn’t seen the American Gang. Continued our journey to the Old Town. Daly texted she is ready to leave, replied I need 30 minutes. In total we have been 3 hours 15 minutes ish in Kotor. The issue is, Cecilia is still up there. I catched Maly’s pants from far away, her words: “I looks like a traffic cone” 😉 very easy to spot on. Curious, I asked where they were on the Fortress. Guess what? They were mistaken, they were never in the Fortress, perhaps they only have the Fortress as a background from any restaurants or so hahaha no wonder I didn’t see them.
One hour goes by without a trace of Cecilia, as if she went on radio silence. A Croatian number called me, no “hello” directly “where are you” obviously it will be L ~ who else. To my surprise he was starting to shout “I have been waiting for you for one hour, I don’t care where Cecilia is” I was perplexed, what the hell is going on? Is he gonna leave us here in Montenegro? Being scared, I ran to the girls, let Maly do the talking while I tried to see where Cecilia at. Dominik sent her our location but she was confused and confusing beyond reason. Maly was so distress as L screaming at her too, Daly & gang tried to buy some time by going to the parking lot to find him.
In the end Dominik called Cecilia by video call, we saw the background, she was so close, Maly screamed on top of her lungs, I ran towards her, we don’t want L to leave her or worse all of us. The journey back to Dubrovnik was such a Katastrophe, no one dare to talks. I texted Daly if we should ask for the oyster, no we don’t need too.
Maly tried to defuse the bomb by saying “do you need our Passport, L” he only gave a receiving hand gesture. After some minutes, he told us he need to use the loo. There we talked, My Gosh what is happening? This is so crazy, I’m not in the mood to go to his friend’s restaurant. I meant, he ruined our day! My Asian genes won’t gonna let him get the comission from his friends’ place! Thanks God we all agreed to go directly back to Dubrovnik. When L back to the car, I deliberately said “oh girls, I’m so sleepy”. He replied “you can be sleep now until we reach the restaurant” I gave eye contact to Daly, wasn’t dare to talk until our saviour Maly commented “do we have to? I kind of tired, let’s just go back to Dubrovnik” Thank you girl! We owe you big time 🙂 #Women Power.
You have no idea how relief I was when we reach the Old Town of Dubrovnik. What I can take from this experience was he didn’t voice out properly, at the end I was completely uncomfortable. It could be since we were a small group, we could clear it among ourselves. No we can’t! we were all tourist for f#$k sake! I assume he was lazy, took advantage of small groups and want to go back home faster.
Regardless how bad the tour turns out; like the Yin from YinYang ~ the white dot in black, there’s always a little light in the dark. I got additional friends! It’s such a pity that the atmosphere was so down, I would love to spend the evening with the girls in a chill dinner but it wasn’t possible. Maly you are a very brave girl for standing up for all of us! I’m glad we have you on the group! I’m also grateful we all survive L’s driving haha Daly was afraid of her life during the ride 😉
Well girls, Daly + Maly and gang also Cecilia, we shall make up the relax time that L stole from us, if you ever thought to visit Germany or Indonesia, you have a home 🙂 #Just do it!
See you in another time, another place. Until then, take care!
Me and Dominik just had our very first trip outside DE, it was happening on last week of July for his 30th birthday. Neither of us have been to Croatia before + I was FOMO because I have three colleagues + one friend that has been there, I gotta do it as well!
Our base was in the city of Dubrovnik. While we were still on planning stage, we saw so many tours about Game of Thrones movie set. Unlike him, I didn’t dedicate myself to watch it, therefore I couldn’t care less. Hainka has been there, he told me it was mostly filmed in the Old Town, I don’t need to necessarily join the tour, I still can go to those spots. Ahhh okay understood!
We flew in, arrived at our AirBnB around 01:00 AM. Our Host Zoran & Igor were waiting for us. P.S: I really like their place, located only 800 meters from Old Town…. chill… there’s no straight way in life, their place was up in the hill, you gotta be good at the game of stones #Stairs everywhere.
Regardless of Game of Thrones’ fans or not, you gotta admit, Dubrovnik’s Old Town has it’s own charm. My first time in East Europe and it’s not dissappointed 😉
The moment we step in the first alley, Dominik said “it’s directly given him a GOT vibes”. Not to forget the iconic scene of the series, if someone who doesn’t watch knew it, it does meant something 🙂 None other than the famous “Walk of Shame”. I guarantee you will find it, there where most tourist are!
We tried to familiarize our way through the Old Town first. Where does this path leads to etc until we found the beautiful corner near the Port area. The view of the boats parked + lights on the walls make it looks magestic.
You can’t really change what stunning hey? That area looks dazzling day and night time. We bought a Dubrovnik Pass (40 Euro) had one main target in mind: City Wall (the entrance itself 40 Euro). Will I be satisfied only with breakeven? No way in hell #Haben wir es schon bezahlt! Was kann man noch sehen? let’s tick it one by one and boy oh boy we did!
I didn’t want to be on the City Wall during midday, we unraveled what Dubrovnik Pass has to offer, such as: Rector’s Palace + Dubrovnik Natural History Museum + Friars Minor Franciscan Monastery Museum + Archeological exhibition ~ where I sat in the kids corner to “dig” some archeological stones.
Around 15:30, it’s about time to visit the City Wall, one more Museum to check: Maritime Museum. Little that we know, it’s connected the entrance to the City Wall. It reminds me of Great Wall of China. Take some water please, there was no shade.
Unless of course, the whole wall takes only about 1,5 hours max to walk haha in the end it’s not really like Great Wall of China 😉
Last spot on the Dubrovnik Pass of the day was Lovrjenac Fortress. Where? up the stairs, my oh my. I have no Lust for pictures. The entrance without the Pass is 15 Euro, in conclusion: get yourself the Pass! #Money wins 😀
Are we content with all the stones we seen? Noooo. It is not Marlyn if I don’t participate on Walking Tours. Our guide Antonia (Tonka) took us around the Old Town, which means I also got some behind the scenes theory of filming GOT.
What I like the most was how the HBO Productions supports the economy of Dubrovnik. It is extremely important to keep the secrecy, they didn’t want any spoiler to record them during filming so they need the locals who owns a restaurant / hotel to be closed. They paid them a big time a.k.a choose the highest earning per day then trippled it. They paid every house owner located on the “Walk of Shame” stairs to shut their windows for 3 days. Tonka explained there was a very smart grandma who kept coming back to his apartment during shooting, what did people do? They need to give her more money in exchange for her to not come close to the production area. Within those three days ~ rumours said the Grandma earned 1000 Euro, a phenomenal amount of money, talking back in year 2011.
Apart from the physical preparation to “play” Game of Stones, I love Dubrovnik, I mean… how could you not 😉
My former Boss in Shanghai visited Germany for a business trip, obviously he planned to come to Nordwest, he is a very nice guy ~ always positive vibe, try to understand from other point of view und und und. I’m looking forward to meet him again, after all those years.
Unfortunately his trip needed to cut short because his backpack was stolen on the train. What’s in there? all of his most important stuff: Passports, iPad, MacBook, Wallet with all bank + ID cards. The thief managed to use his card to eat at McD for 18 Euros.
My heart sank the moment he texted me, I said to him: You know what I will pray so whoever did it, he / she will loose much worse than what they stole it from you. He was already laughing about it but I’m not. I am so full of revenge. That revenge lasted for a full week then I sensed something wrong…. let’s shift the prayer focus to Alvin! Hoping he will get much more than he lost 🙂
Don’t worry Alvin, Karma does exist!
You are a good person, you are having a good Karma, good deeds will come to you!!!
One not fine afternoon ~ full of work, yet Arbeitslos is not an option haha #Realistic, got a phone call from Hainka informing me about Bomb-Evakuierung… he said the radius exactly ended on my street, hmmm OK at the same time not OK because I was clueless… should I wait until the Police come to my apartment and ask for me to move somewhere for couple of hours? or better I remove myself? Never had this experience before… well… there’s first time for everything 😉
Who am I surrounded with? Sophie is wayyyyy to close…. Monicita is a safer option! Called her immediately. After disscussing the logistics, I decided to get out from the house: pronto. She said to pack my important stuff + clothes as if you want to stay overnight. Got it! What I consider as vital? My education certificates ~ crucial for applying new job elsewhere, DE paperwork ~ prove I’m legal, Passport ~ if everything goes South, still can go back home, hard disk ~ my well of memories. What did I forget? Money + Bank card haha #Facepalm. .
Once I got out from my apartment around 15:30 ish, saw a father carried a backpack with his son in tricycle… ah yes, seems everyone got this info. Arrived at Monicita right before she need to leave her place to bring her daughter for Capoiera class, if not mistaken.
I continued my work with majestic Coco in front of me while she aufräumt.
At 16:00 they started the evacuation progress, I guess around 18:30 they started to defuse the bomb, within two hours they managed it! Yeayyyy my area is safe again #Greatful!
We did a lot within few hours! went gassi accompanied by gossiping; reach wayyyyy advanced connection with Coco by hugging him #Tabitha would be so proud of me; played a game called… had no idea, I thought it’s the stupidest game ever haha something with adding numbers until at least 30 to start the game pffff lost it all the time; dinner #Pimientos! thank you so much guys for letting me eat your supplies 😀 finally being sent back home with Kuki in the car. Not gonna say suddenly become an animal lover but at least I wasn’t sooo paranoid as before #Improvement.
Thank you Monicita and fam for your hospitality during emergency situation, Hainka and Maiwald for the news!
After 6 whole stressing month in the office ~ what a half of year, I went to my wohl verdienen Urlaub back home 🙂 you have no idea how much I looking forward for this, so much so till I kept forgetting which Airlines I took, Qatar or Turkish? In the end it was Etihad hahaha! Flight from Düs to Abu Dhabi wasn’t full, yet my seat was in the middle row of the emergency so I couldn’t pull up the bar pffff didn’t enjoy the benefits!
Being picked up at the Airport with Mom went inmediatamente pampering myself, had bakso, cut my hair, got massaged, medi pedi. Enough 72 hours in Jakarta, flew to Bali!
Indigo Seminyak
We spent our first three nights at Hotel Indigo.
This holiday is more of a chill, we didn’t do much other than swimming, visiting mall, eating. Sightseeing was only to Desa Panglipuran because Mom has been thinking about it since last year, let’s break the cycle before it become a yearly mandatory discussion. Then Puri Empul, we also tried Coffee Luwak.
I personally like this hotel better than our next one. Mind you, our next one is also a very good. Indigo won due to modern interior plus I have a hutang budi especially after I snapped regarding my allegedly missing glasses whereas its on my bag. Deeply sorry Indigo, I did wrote a good review, hope someday you could forgive me. Readers please come here!
Intercontinental Jimbaran
Last three nights at Intercontinental. I could imagine this hotel was number one some decades ago, it’s very well kept, you can see the definition of magnificent back then. It won my heart because the path from their backyard to their swimming pool or beach are wider.
Their beach was already in Jimbaran where we have our Seafood evening the first day we landed in Bali. Only this time we opt for Frida’s recommendation Menega Cafe which was much better taste equals to much better payment haha #You got what you paid for 😀
Jukung has better entertainment in terms of while we were there, approached by a “band” who live sing to us. Susi chose twinkle twinkle little star + happy birthday + baby shark. Could be this “band” would keep walking around the coast until it reach Menega too.
Last but not least, home sweet home. I really like our new home, we just moved to PIK 2. Parents are way happier here and I’m happy for them. We met our relatives, visited Dad’s amazing office contained majestic Ostrich however I was totally impressed with their Alpaca #Couldn’t be more random than this 😉
Oh Bali, how I love you, I’ll come back again 🙂 in about 365 days hehe
Let me take a selfie selfie selfie, nope! let me cut my hair! First thing to do as I landed was to go to Rendy Salon 😀
Saw so many reels of having two styles in one on my IG, well this is it! Feels sooo liberating being able to utter how I want Ko Rendy to cut it.
All my colleagues said short hair is also good for me, radikal! However, I haven’t reach mentally brave to cut it real short. I could see it will become my hair trademark for quiet some time now 😉
In March, Roland contacted us – the übliche 😉 for another photo shooting in Stadtgarten, the Peace Monument, like always three of us directly jumped in. The day was on a Friday 21st March, I had a very long day to which just finished work around 16:15, on the other side, Roland could only make a picture until 17:30, meaning I got a VIP Treatment: Amanda picked me up from the office! hahaha yaisss!
It took us a solid one hour photo session, in the end we weren’t sure if Roland did get the shots he likes or he had to catch his next event therefore he ended the session haha. Amanda reassured “no there are really good one, Roland took at least 300 pictures of you guys” We even got a chance to get to know Marlene’s small assisstant! He also took & be on the picture 🙂
Then on 1st of April we got Email, they selected down to 16. I like them all but they can only choose one to be paint on the wall. Which one…???
The whole painting process took almost 1 month and I was very very verrryyyyy satisfied with the results! Everything was super real, the bones on my hand, the way my jeans fold, sogar mit Spiegelung im Boden! #Explode
Thank you so much for letting us to be part of it, agreed to what Marlene said on the group “sind gerne immer wieder dabei ABER nur in Kombi” Hey Rollo, still need to get us the Hoodie yeah? haha
Of course I have to pay a visit, the location is on Höhe Straße 31!
It’s a Tulip Season hey? Still? Wrong! already the last stroke, look at that? barely alive, waiting for last people to pick it up then it’s gone, we are just toooooo late to check the Tulip, its toooo lattteeeeee. Lesson for next year, better go to Düsseldorf beginning of April!
Okay, we still have Botanischer garten, meh wasn’t my favourite either. They have the Kugel like a Las Vegas thingy, however nothing compare with Singapore Botanischer Garten. Germany, you’d better keep up. Confusing is I kept seeing Real plants with the name “Real” what are the other than? do we have fake plants in Germany? Also, Echte Feige (real figs) the explanation said a story from the old Testament about Adam & Eve… yo I’m pretty sure the fruit is apple! so how “real” all of these can be? #I’m thinking.
Then to the failed Japanese park which is very sad because it’s only one small pond and some trees, we did saw a corner of Tulip there, what a glimpse of hope.
Oh well… Bright side is all of those places are for free, do I want to visit for a second time? Not really haha
