Author: marlyn

Remember Hasti from my waiting Cate Blanchett’s occasion? Unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to meet each other after that special encounter. She started her University class the next day so the time didn’t match but we won’t forget our first meeting in front of Armani hotel together! She will be studying in Milan for 4 years for sure we will try to meet each other again in Milan or Dortmund or any other place in between 😉

After my starstruck, I mustered all the energy to walk to Duomo. Since I’m doing solo, it’s hard to take a picture because it’s enormous! until I found two girls that looks like they are capable of taking pictures haha I took theirs too as they also facing the same problem, guys were not capable of doing a good pictures! Then I realized her phone is better! It is not an iPhone however the photo are wide and kind of fish eye thingy so I took some with their phone. They don’t have internet but once they have wifi, they send it to my email, so sweet! Now you can delete it haha won’t consume the memory of your phone no more, thank you Vanessa and her sister 🙂

Andrea went back to Germany one day earlier than me, I decided to have dinner in Navigli area (again) by myself, let’s do a bit of exploration there! It all started when I met a lady on a bridge who (again) haha #too many again, looks like someone who knows how to take picture. We started to talk, she’s half Poland half American living in Paris, whaaatttt so cool! Since we both are alone, we had dinner together, pasta time #nom nom Me and Pola came back to our places via Metro Station which is coincidently only one station apart.

So happy I keep meeting nice people during my trip, there are good Samaritans everywhere, perhaps faith in humanity is something that is still worth believing for 😀

Good luck in every part of your lives ladies, thank you for spare your time with me, hope we will meet each other again! if not…. wish you bump into many good Samaritans in your life, same as you have bumped into mine 🙂

NO NO NO it is not the “I have a pen, I have an apple, ehm, pineapple” which was famous almost a decade ago. Whaaattt? almost a decade? pffff I’m old!

I knew Thorben planned to fly to Germany for her sisters’ wedding + work + holiday. His sisters and my sisters’ wedding date only one day apart. So by the time he’s in Germany, I am in Indonesia. Almost every weekend in August I am already fully booked until one fine weekend my phone vibrated to a Wechat message “do you work next week?” yes ofc! somebody need money to pay all the cost increase due to this stupid war heeeyyyyy what an odd I won’t be working? very low correct?

He told me he will be in Spiekeroog and if I have time I can join him. Is that even a question? It’s been more than 2,5 years since the last time I saw him without a doubt I will find the time! First come first, where the hell is Spiekeroog? to me it sounds like Netherlands….. nope, wrong! it’s still Deutschland! By DB Bahn + Bus it will take 5 hours one way hell yeah it won’t stop me, I don’t know when will I see him again, might as well take this chance.

Checked if my holiday will clash with my colleague? nope! got my boss’ approval, I am lucky because Katharina and the gang hahaha I meant husband plus her two kids will also go to Spiekeroog on Wednesday so, on the way there I can join them. Last time I saw her kids was 2 years ago, Annalena didn’t want to talk to me like who is this Asian lady 😉 forget about Julian, he was just 6 month old, a baby! a very little baby #cuttteeee

I went to their hotel in Wuppertal. We left the hotel at 08:25 stopped by Edeka, set a timer to only 15 minutes. To my surprise or should I say not surprise as they’re all Germans, all of them were on-time! by the seconds 46 we were already at the cashier haha still amazed how they can managed it. Arrived at Neuharlingersiel Port at 12:30, our ferry depart on 13:00 wohooooo!! we really do behave in a timely manner #proud

Thorben picked us up in the Port huaaaaaaa! so happy to meet him again! the weather was sooooo hot like soooooo freaking hot! I was sweating all over! like all all over over literally. The main transportation is our feet haha many steps was made during my two days there. Thorben said the only one that allowed to drive a car is either an emergency krankenhaus officer or police but sometimes police are riding horse. In another words, we as normal people can’t have any means of transportation, just walk. Where did we go? straight to the beach each.

Me and Thorben took a very long walk to go to the beach so I saw a little bit more of the island where it all covered by sands, many of the people there are walking barefoot actually… I ain’t one of them haha

We didn’t get any of the Strandkörbe because we were too late, not a big deal because Rina brought her own “tent”. When you have 2 small kids, supported by the fact that you are a German, meaning you will always be prepared 😉

Annalena collected a bucket full of mussels, we separated it into the perfect mussels, broken and dirty group. However it’s all umsonst as she remixed it again haha, she was very dedicated! I am for sure don’t have that kind of patience when I was her age.

Then we had dinner, Thorben cooked for us yeay! That’s not a new news btw haha. There is a bar in Spiekeroog quoted “best bar in the world” ha! yes right! better than any bars in Shanghai, New York etc, it has to be in a small island at the north side of Germany. According to Thorben it’s a very normal sailor bar kind of things, he is veeerryyy realistic heyyy. At first I wanted to go but after dinner, I have 0 energy anymore, mehhh lieber gern to snooze zzzzz

The next day as known as my last day T.T hiks hiks we had breakfast together, Thorben’s grandma made her own bread, not the dead grandma #oopps sorry haha that bread wasn’t 2 years old. Why oh why grandma you could have rest the whole day but you chose to made a couple handmade bread, what a grandma would do to her grandkids.

After breakfast Annalena was so motivated to join us for a walk around the village, she’s keep giving us a surprise that wasn’t even close to a surprise 😀 she collected leaves, flowers from the street, tear it up to small pieces then throw it to us saying “Überraschung” or suddenly throwing herself to the street, what element of a surprise a child has in mind 😉 Don’t worry Thorben made sure she was eingecremed! she’s protected from the sun by my sunscreen SPF 50 PA+++ at least this time I got the German preparation point.

While waiting until 11AM to eat the Bunte Eis, we went to see the statue of a man looking far away, de Utkieker. Julian hold himself very well, remembering that last time I saw him he was only maybe 5-6 months old still full of Sabber and couldn’t even walked. There he was the whole time running, yoga-ing, laying on the street, such a free soul. The wind was so big, my hair looks like a pineapple there.

Followed by walking around the village again, went inside the old church which is very small haha! This was the first church I see that has a ship ornament, cool eh!

Then the must have Bunte Eis! Julian was really really really frech haha he had finished his ice cream, Annalena hasn’t. Julian approached her asked “probieren?” 😀

Unfortunately my departure time has come 🙁 huaaaa we arrived 30 minutes before the boats depart. What will you see? The germans already starts to queu up. Stefan said “typisch Deutsch oder?!?!” haha

Bye bye gangs!!! thank you for introducing me to Spiekeroog!

I had a bit of time to spend in the Port area before taking a bus + DB Bahn back to Dortmund. I think if I come again next time I will stay one day in the Port area too. I don’t have a pen, I don’t have an apple but I have a pineapple hair ehm! 😀

Just FYI, I don’t like to expose a picture of an underage kids thanks to Freepik from flaticon.com they always have a perfect icon to represents those kids!

HA! I took an ICE train bound to Hannover on the last weekend of June, ofc it doesn’t cost 9 Euro but at least it didn’t take forever to get to Hannover as it would if I take die RE Bahn.

Why out of the sudden Hannover? Because I have a secret mission with one of my sister’s husband (Dominic) Aunt, Ingrit! In order to get to the bottom why I got in contact with her we have to go a bit back. I think somewhere in May, I was with Andrea in one of the castle near her village, my phone rang. It was an unbekannte Nummer….hmmm who would call me on Sunday afternoon? this won’t be work related isn’t it? nope it wasn’t. A lady voice called, I didn’t catch all as I was suspicious who the hell is calling me, however she mentioned the important keywords: Berger, Hannover, Schwester. AHA! I know who you are!

Since then we wrote each other via WA from time to time, then she called me again around beginning of June saying that she won’t come to my sister’s wedding in Jakarta but she has a gift for them. At first she asked me my home address so she can send it. I told her, I’ve never been to Hannover I can also come to pick it up. We decided the date will be on my sister’s birthday so we can call her and wish her a happy birthday.

Like a German, she need to plan for my arrival, the hell is that. She called me what do I want to eat, where do I want to go, mind you at that time I’m still working, as if she couldn’t sense I wanted to end the phone so badly, she continued talking blablabla in the end I said sth along the way “let’s see what will we do after I come btw I need to go back to work now” OMG relax! so much fuss about it, maybe I should rather ask her to post the present.

I’ve told my colleague Holger and Sven about it, they googled what to see in Hannover. Herrenhausen Gardens falls in first category followed by Maschsee. Holger said I need to say to Tante Ingrit “I want to visit Herrenhausen Gardens because I heard it already when I still in Shanghai” sie freut sich bestimmt! Dummerweise, I followed his tips, Ingrit was “You knew it oh yes then we need to visit it!”

Managed myself to find Ingrit in Hannover Hbf, went straight home, had breakfast. Although she is a vegetarish, she bought me Mett brötchen as I requested haha. She said it was her first time to go to Metzgerei after so long 🙂 Danke für die Mühe…. plus Proseco.

During the morning it was the time that me and my family have our regular WA call so I thought this time it will be a surprise because Ingrit will be there. However this time the call was a bit postponed because my mom was somewhere else and Ingrit again made a fuss about it “oh should I send Katrin the picture of you now? then she will calls you. Or maybe I can send it to Horst first” Lady please! I said just wait until we made our regular video call, then you can do whatever you want with the picture. Apparently it’s not a good enough answer, she asked again “when will it be?” no it’s gonna be later. I know she is very excited but at some point it got me to the nerve but Processo helps 😉

While waiting for the call, we went to a small city center kind of things, had ice cream, stopped by at Ingrit’s working shop. And then the moment we are waiting for is there or I force it to be there as I can’t handle her fuss anymore, I called my sister, not long after that my parents call in again during our way to Herrenhausen Gardens.

It was such a bright day, 39 degrees, I was a bit worried about my sunscreen as I haven’t re-apply it whoaaa on the other hand, Ingrit was full mode! We didn’t visit the whole garden as it separated into 2 part. But I’ve done enough imo. We saw flowers, bronze statue, taking pictures here and there. Ingrit has a talent as a photographer btw! She can see where is the better place, tell what you should do, including giving a pressure to other visitors to move out so we can get the spot too haha

Ingrit said wir müssen unbedingt die große Fontane sehen, tadammm! reached it! We were sitting on the bench for a long time before we decided to move our asses and asked someone to take our pictures. Then she told me I need to see the Grotte? forgot the name but it’s some kind of mosaic artistic indoor place. Then we stopped by to re-fuel with cake! the birthday cake for my sister. The service was too slow and the waiter took a very ugly picture, not even wanted to say 1 2 3, pffff we left no tips!

Left the Herrenhausen Gardens, went through a park that lead us to the Rathaus and Maschst See. Honestly, I’m done for that day. So want to just lay down and do nothing, the heat is killing me.

I slept in what was expected to be 30 minutes turns into 2.5 hours haha when I woke up it was still bright but already 21:40. Took shower, had Indonesian snack that she bought, at around 23:00 off to the forest to see fireflies. We saw it! many of them! but it flies! I can’t take a picture because the camera won’t catch it. One man on the bike passed by, Ingrit asked him if he also searching for fireflies, turns out that man hat Ahnung about it, he told us its not a fireflies rather than a Johanis Käfer and only in this 3 days it will appears! what a lovely encounter 🙂 so glad Ingrit has a free spirit soul to suddenly have a random ide, go to a forest in the hope of catching some “fireflies”

The next morning, I still haven’t finish my yesterday’s Mett and I had to finish it as she wont eat it. Then we went to a Kanal near her home then she send me back to Hbf.

Hannover checked, wedding present checked! Done my Job 🙂

Travel without worries with 9 Euro Ticket…. at least for me, not for Claudia hiiiiiii. We were supposed to go to Gevelsberg Kirmes on 24th of June. I didn’t see Claudia that whole week because she was in Hamburg with Stefan and Milena for a Procurement Seminar things. They scheduled to return back to Dortmund on Thursday, work on Friday then after work we will go to Kirmes together. One day before, Stefan was Positif with Corona that means Claudia needed to stay at home, that also means no Kirmes on Friday, although she is negative she still need to stay at home until day 5 and do the test, if still negative then she can come out. Day 5 from 24.06 is 28th of June which also the last day of Kirmes! She’s free!!!

I came with RE Bahn and S Bahn to Alina’s home in Gevelsberg, then the 3 of us walked there.

We were the early bird’s team, we were there around 17:20-ish. It is like a Christmas Market BUT in Summer! even the stand are similar wohoooo me like it! We went up the hill, checked, then start our food hunting. Alina is the Kirmes’ expert 🙂 We started with clasic Langos, although I already had something to drink on the way up the hill hihihi

We went up again to the middle of the hill to had a drink plus a shot! HA! Interesting 😉 First shot, Claudia and Alina had Rhabarbar or only Rhabar? hmm anyway…..I took Himbar. Gulp! so refreshing, it’s like a Saft with alcohol, you don’t feel it that time. Then Alina bought the second round, we all had the same, yuhuuu still tasted good! Hmm…. now I want to try the Rhabarbar too, third round on me, gulp, I started to feel the alcohol getting in 😉 Because we 3 keep standing there, the stand owner said “let me invite you all for the fourth one” wohoooo I’m in Cloud 9 O.O need to stop, no more alcohol.

Both of them continued to have another drink, strawberry thingy plus alcohol, I can’t, I literally can’t, as can’t as can’t even reach the Theke huaaaa 🙁 #life is unfair.

I only stayed there until 8 because remember it’s on a Tuesday, I need one hour plus to go back to Dortmund and work the next day. They both stayed until the fireworks at the end, I watched it too via drone from Youtube… cool eh?!

Hope no more Corona topic so more festival in verschiedenen Städten will be stattfindet 🙂

From June to August, Germany implement a new policy to make people use public transport more, that policy is called 9-Euro Ticket. Meaning that if we buy the 9-Euro Ticket in June we can take any public transportation to whole Germany except IC, ICE (the high speed train) and Flixbus (that can go to whole Europe) for that whole month, then we need to pay another 9 Euro for July and 9 Euro for August, isn’t it great? If you need a comparison of how expensive Germany ist, for only Dortmund, I paid 72 Euro per month for my transportation card pfffff

I was told that the first weekend in June was a Katastrophe! because everyone is trying to get out of the city so all the train station was full. It didn’t stop me to go to Köln the following week with this 9 Euro Ticket though. I was a bit afraid to be honest but my way to overcome is just woke up earlier to take the train that wasn’t at rush hour, should be OK. Texted Leo, he said I was so brave to even try haha! nothing can hold Asian from a good deal!

Took RE Train at 8AM from Dortmund Hbf, arrived earlier so I still can get a sit. Indeed the train was full! but not full full full to the point you can’t breath. Here, even though every row consist of 2 on the right and 2 on the left, if you travel alone, you consumed the whole 2 seats, no one will sit next to you. Actually I can say the train was only 70% full, nothing compare to Shanghai’s full 😉 I did have to stand up when I had the interchange in Wuppertal as it was already a rush hour time, I ain’t complaint about it. But for a German this is already a full full full pffff come to Shanghai once please then you understand what is the meaning of full 😉

Arrived Köln in full piece at around 10-ish, headed to breakfast immediately 🙂

Started calmly hot chocolate, as if the sugar wasn’t enough BAM! Pancake!

Like always, we need to re-cap what was happening in our life during the time we didn’t see each other. This time they had a lot more stories to offer 🙂 starting with the struggle of getting Tracy out of Shanghai and into Germany plus their dog, Dandy! it was really such a stressful time for both of them, glad they made it! Their Standesamt wedding in Denmark and baby on the way!

None of them told me but my ears are as sharp as a knife! I heard when we ordered breakfast Leo said to Tracy “remember you cannot eat fish” owh! how I suddenly filled with joy, almost jumped from my seat but managed to be chilled. Wait until the waitress went away, directly addressed the question “Tracy, are you pregnant?” they were in shocked! it’s not that she became fat because she wasn’t look like anything close to pregnant. I explained, I heard what Leo said then Leo said “oh you are smart” haha having a 4 months pregnant sister who also cannot eat seafood made me aware of it. What best is their child will also be a girl and should arrive at the same time as my sister’s child! wohoooo this baby girl will be half Asian half German, can’t wait for both of them!

Leo is not a fan of Köln city center as it’s always full, yeah the Dome is there, what can you expect. We decided to walked around the Rhine river. Tried to get an ice cream in a shop that looks like an ice cream shop, we kind of “stealing” the seat from family of 5 but it was really keine Absicht just to find out that it wasn’t an ice cream shop and needed to head out, sorry family of 5!

We can’t take it no more with the heat and our Beine also stopped cooperating, we just need a place to sit plus additional curry wurst hahaha so far from what we wanted first, actually I was the one who wanted ice cream so bad. But Leo did his job, he won’t let me leave Köln before I had it 🙂

As Leo told me it only takes 30 mins from Köln to Düsseldorf with RE Bahn, okay! I decided to have a Ramen in Takumi’s Düsseldorf. Said goodbye to both of them plus Dandy, it was always good to meet your old friend again although by the end of the day when Leo knew he wasn’t invited to my 30th birthday he said “Marlyn are we only your third class friends?” haha! know your place fellas! #devil’s laugh

I shall hang this photo before they visited me in Dortmund otherwise they might thought they fall into fourth class friends hahaha

Thanks Leo and Tracy, until next time, which is very soon 😉

Last destination for this short trip: Bolzano / Bozen! While I was on the train the scenery did reminded me of Bali. Only Bali was full of rice terrace, Bolzano was full of winery, it’s the same “green” but not the same green, get it? Thomas picked me up, drove to his village located at Eppan. It feels so damn good to meet your friends again! Really really really fest hug for Thomas 🙂 We summarized each other 2 years life stories within that evening.

While he already gone to work, I just woke up, had some breakfast then figure out how the hell should I get out from his apartment, where is the main door? I managed it in the end, it’s not a rocket science isn’t it haha! I was walking to the bus stop heading to Bolzano City Center, for the past days I really having difficulties due to language barrier in Verona but in Bolzano not at all because all of them speaks German including the bus driver and passengers too so I can ask anyone freely wohoooooo #freedom!

Arrived city center, did some sightseeings, found a church, when I tried to look what was the name it’s Duomo, ooowwww but it’s a small Duomo haha then walked to Piazza Weather, shopping, having pasta allo scoglio, alles!

I continued walked around until I found some more greens in the area. Imo it’s very calming to see mixture of nature and city. Then Thomas met me after his work to have ribs as our dinner yummyyy!

Weekend come, I requested Thomas to take me to see Dolomites, it is just to see not to hike (Corona survivor here, no sports allowed yet for now and some time in the future haha) Friend of Thomas gave him some tips about one place called Lago Carezza the good things about this lake is we can just park our car then walk to see the lake haha no hiking or any sort of long walks involved.

Driving duration from Eppan to Lake Carezza actually not so long, maybe within 1.5 hours supposedly haha 😉 it’s located about 1700m above the sea level. It is up in the mountain, actually it’s quite nice but my God the way up there was left, right, left, right, sometimes turn a bit sharp. Thomas honestly speaking drove very well, not fast, really smooth etc, we were talking talking talking then I started to feel something not comfortable in my stomach but I kept quiet, drink my water lalala until I broke the silence and he said “it is because of the road, not because you don’t eat enough breakfast or so, we can stop if you want” Oh yes I need to stop. I took a deep breath, stretching, sitting on top of the tree trunk, thinking should I continue to go or just go home because I really really want to throw up haha!

In total we stopped 3 times on the way up. When we arrived, it was in between rain, small rain, cloudy so we decided to eat currywurst haha! Eating something very German in Italy to buy some time in the hope the sun will shine when we’re done with it. After we ate, the sun did shine for a bit of time, I don’t see the famous Dolomites but I saw the glimpse of it and I’m happy 🙂 it did resemblance with the Toblerone mountain but it ain’t.

On the way back Thomas also had to stop 2 times, he said “Marlyn I can see the tunnel where it lead us to Bozen” Nope Thomas, we still need to stop here haha

Thomas had an idea to visit Messner Mountain Museum in Firmian as it located on the way to Eppan. Hell yeah! I watched 14 Peaks I know who Mr. Reinhold Messner ist. Little did I knew, he is an original Bozen-er, I thought he is a German guy haha. Went there, the location is amazing! Right on the cafe, Thomas said to me “Oh Marlyn he is there” damn I have a starstruck, feels like I am meeting a celebrity, yes he is a legend for mountain hikers. I said “Thomas I need to have a picture with him, come” I approached to him saying imo politely schon, “Herr Messner, darf ich ein Foto mit Ihnen machen?” he did say something to his companera I didn’t get what he said but I understand when he said “Ja aber bitte abstand halten” OK, then Thomas said to me what he said to his companera “Yeah I paid 13 Euro for entrance ticket now I need a photo” well damn yeah! if your museum is for free then I wouldn’t bother if you don’t want but I paid yo! Just look at the camera and chill!

The museum is really good designed as it was an ex-castle with a very good interior. We thought we won’t spend so much time there but it’s soooo big, we were there until it’s about to close.

Reached Eppan in the evening, had another pasta in Eppan city center haha alla chitara with Seafood. Thomas told me “oh if you want seafood you can have this” I asked “why they don’t call it allo scoglio?” “because it’s not that otherwise they would’ve called it that way, not every seafood pasta is allo scoglio Marlyn” hahaha it’s just a different way of cooking but still sooo damn good!

Last day in Bolzano I went back to city center to visit Castle Roncolo and had a lazy walk.

Next day morning, Thomas send me back to train station to Milano Centrale. It was such a great 3 days spending out with your long time friends, thank you Thomas for all your hospitality, I wish you all the best in your career, personal life and goals.

Lots of love for you <3

I used my last chance to eat another seafood pasta with Aperol spritz and this Aperol is as giant as my face haha!

Finished my lunch, ich verabschiede mich mit Italy, took the bus to Bergamo then flew back to Dortmund.

Arrivederci Italia!

I will be back, sooner than you thought 😉