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The Moment I Knew – Trial Version

Tonight is The OG vs The Rookie’s, shall we kick things off?!

It’s 3rd round of Allerheiligen Kirmes! Had Hainka didn’t told me, I would’ve missed it, obviously this comes first other than some singing #Sorry not sorry #Not the only one who feels bad. Traditions are meant to be followed, otherwise what’s the point?

Since Feli always want to come, I asked her if she could join us this time, Dom is on board too. So we were a gang of 5 this year. Once we arrived, waste no time to have our mandatory picture, watch out ~ only the OG here, although our pose were only stand, we need to confirm the position & angle with comparison pictures from previous years #Efforts!

Hainka & Lena were steady as always ~ very good guide, told the Rookie what is what + what we’ve done + where all the attractions were before: how they changed the locations, swapping here and there.

Our essentials throughout the years: AMPEL! 7 Euro for all three flavors ~ my favourite! We cannot skip Froggy! why? Because Lena won it! BOAH!!!! The OG really has experienced in comparison to…. video will do the justice 😉 Promat Hammer still there, wonder if they would ever change to Tecwerk’s #Werbung.

Honey schnapps where the owner sing or tried to talk with customers and he announced: “oh this couple are coming from far away, can anyone guess?” being a German they weren’t the type of answering those kind of questions, from Bodensee. Hainka wasn’t impressed, eh komm, du kommst theoretisch aus Indonesien, es ist doch weiterer als nur Bodensee. Sag ihm doch mal, he did say to the colleague of the owner while he was too busy on his microphone to noticing us. Well, I didn’t gave him my Beitrag anyway so it’s OK for him to ignoring me hahaha. Next in line is Langos 🙂 Food Tour is done, for Schnapps Tour, one more station: Augenbulle.

Strolled around pointing the historical place where I was gekotzt haha which pavements, alley, bar and church #Facepalm. Oh, consecutively met another Lena!

Dom kommt überall mit, he joined Hainka on the Super Supferl #My Wendepunkt Carousel + joined Feli on Voodoo Jumper. Right on the end, we stumbled upon Big Monster Carousel, Lena said it’s the OG, from hundred years…. as if I want to change the prophecy, let’s try. First minute was OK then it was too much, seems age didn’t lie hey? Komischerweise, Achterbahn for me is not caused so much troubled as this one.

Our To-Do List:

  • Ate what needed to be eaten #Nomnomnom
  • Schnapped what needed to be schnapped #酒鬼
  • Played game what needed to be played #Smashed
  • Rode what needed to be ridden #Dizzy
  • Met who needed to be met #Hi
  • Had all the fun that needed to be had 🙂

My boyfriend bought me a Lebkuchen that I was contemplating if I need to eat or use it as Decoration? Well it has 2 years of expiration date, it’s enough to decide until then 🙂 Can you see it? can you can you?

For the past two years, I always rode home ALL BY MYSELF! This year and hopefully for the next years to come, I won’t be ALL BY MYSELF anymore! Why? For I have a big heart now 🙂

Thank you for the evening Hainka & Lena, store your clothes again because those outfits are not going to retirement anytime soon, it’s our OG trademark, watch out!

The Moment I Knew – Safe Version

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The 8 “Working” Hours – Part 5

I’m just a kid and life is a movie park! Sunday morning 02.11 wake up at 8AM getting ourselves ready for a ride to Bottrop, last day to see Halloween theme.

Arrived half hour after their opening time, started with simple one for kids where you just lay down, very comfortable, then next to it who looks very easy yet caused schmerz on my side as we thrown to the left & right. Studio C was good especially with unexpected rückwarts O.O

Let’s have a snack, shall we? In this kind of place, what else could you get other than currywurst + pommes? Best staple food, don’t forget we need some sugarrrr which we got from Churros. While waiting for our Verdauung system, we took Riesenrad. Sind verdaut, ready for action by taking the Holz Achterbahn; followed by the one Dom called “Industrial” where your feet are hanging. Then went to take Starfleet roller coaster, in my opinion that was the best!

Had to admit I took off my glasses on each attraction because Faktor U. I got scaredddd, habe Angst! closed my eyes many times. Puhhh Aging effect is real hey! Is it the end of my brave Era? #Thinking #Leaning to yes. By the way, never trust the German weather, it said cloudy, it wasn’t, the sun existed for about 8 hours. While people screamed AAAAA, to me it’s more like AAAAAAging!!!!

We walked passed a stage where DJ Max Bering from Acid Rain played his music, it was fine but then it started to drizzle so we opted for some dinner. On what supposed to be Parade they have many Halloween characters coming out, walking on the boulevard, scaring us. I’d say they’re pretty awesome, the clothing + make up, for sure each took 3 hours to the least.

Before moving on to our next Agenda, curiosity got the best of us, we KNEW exactly those kind of games were designed to failed. Given some thought… just one game, OK? If we won then we have our decoration for next year ready as I was aiming on the Spider. Obviously, I didn’t get it, nope… we’re far from done, Dom wanted to try other game too, of course we’ve known the result.

We bought additional ticket for the show, called Unhallowed 2 ~ didn’t know there was the 1, costed 3 Euro each. I was very happy it wasn’t about Ghost, instead a combination of fire, pole dance, betrayal! Lasted for 30 minutes, very money’s worth. No photo allowed.

We still got time to Riesenrad ~ yeayyy we had day & evening view, plus last chance at Van Helsing Roller Coaster. I didn’t get the hype of why people are queuing for 80 Minutes, the ride was done inside & in dark (like space mountain). Yeah the moment I wear my glasses, I didn’t see nothing. My comment: was just alright.

In the end, rain poured down again, this time it didn’t stop, let’s clock off this 8 hours working shift 🙂 #We made overtime. If only real job was this fun #Mironic ~ Marlyn Ironic.

Good evening and Good bye 😉

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Re-confirm

Perks of spending too much time on the phone ~ leads me to a good deal!

Join us to the dark side

#Or perhaps in Slytherin, you’ll make your real friends ~ Sorting Hat

During our walk, Dom spotted a building with lights from outside, he pointed “would be cool if our Halloween is there” Feli looked at her GPS “actually, it might be” At first we thought it would be at a normal house party, it wasn’t, was on a restaurant called Friends.

Once we got in, the waiter greeted us by asking if we wanted to take some red spritz, ähnlich wie Bloody Mary with Tabasco and stuff. Mehh, only Feli had it. He explained the whereabouts of our All-you-can-eat. I “secured” the table while resting my feet #Multitasking. Dom and Feli took their first round. They came back with plate full of meat and dessert. Wow! The Ribs are amazing, next I took 4 Ribs, as if there will be no tomorrow. Nach dem Motto “Wir haben es schon bezahlt, hajaaarrrr!”

Moving on to photo sessions, what a shame if I don’t have a photo of me wearing these high heels. Felt for a second like Gloria from Modern Family at Disneyland haha. None of the attendees took pictures of the Halloween decorations, had all of them were Asians for sure every corner already on the Gram.

I was a bit unangenehmen because we blocked the entrance to the Buffet until Feli reassured me by saying “bagus tau!” 😀 Ignoring their stare, we took one corner whereas our main goal is the middle part. We waited until those two girls moved from the table, vergist es, they didn’t budge. Well… who moved then? the spider!

Should we go to the next round? Unsure if our money’s worth…. Dom got a tiny bit plate more to share with me. Continued to re-confirming everyone with one big question “are we already breakeven?” Only after we confirmed, we left the premise 🙂

Once you get to adulthood, not having money is the real Halloween #Spooky!

  • Location: Friends ~ Wellinghofer Str. 167, 44263 Dortmund
  • Price: 29 Euro (not included drink)
  • Comment: Very worthy, perhaps we should go for a normal dinner sometime #We are not all bad 😉

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Compromise

Dom and I still have few days off left hmmmm where to go? the options for doing holiday in Europe in Winter is limited, we do not need a colder place than Germany, warmer options were either Spain or Italy. He chose Italy, agreed immediately. Where then? Let’s go to Venice, si to a Romantic city 🙂

Our flight from Düsseldorf might be the earliest one, arrived around 10AM, ready for actions und zwar pronto! We dedicated full Venice on our first day to visit all mandatory places as much as possible and last day to either re-visit, ticking off the places where we couldn’t before, last but not least….. save the best for the last: Gondola Ride! #A MUST do activities.

First explorations: we let ourselves lost in the canals, visit St. Mark’s Square + Bell Tower next to it, take a stroll across Rialto Bridge, along Riva degli Schiavoni. We didn’t go to San Giorgio Maggiore because it’s located in another island. We only saw the whereabouts on the ferry to Murano.

We also joined… obviously: walking tour, tried to gain some Venice history knowledge ~ kann man vergessen, even my note doesn’t seems to make sense anymore hahaha. However, I have some fun facts: all the small bridges ~ even the one consist of 6 steps or so, turns out they connected two islands 😉

The booked out church for wedding: Santa Maria dei Miracolli. Why?

  • Religious reason: there is a painting of Virgin Mary & child associated with miracolous healing.
  • Practical reason: since there is no car in Venice, every entrance access is through the canal ~ conveniently next to the church.
  • Aesthetic reason: outside and inside was full of marble, the altar is lift up ~ there are 14 steps to reach to step 15 which is the altar itself.

Venice is recycling a building, from hotels to school, from Scuola Grande (Assosication for rich people) to public hospital.

Three Famous Venetian:

  • Marco Polo ~ not a game, he came from a wealthy family that’s how he got source of income to travel. He was famous because of his book “Il Milione” where he explained in detail his travel experience to China.
  • Giovanni Bellini ~ not a cocktail 😉 at his time, he was a famous painter.
  • Giacomo Casanova ~ a “playboy” with a very interesting life, he was a priest, scholar, musician, actor. Perhaps he was the most related to all of us, wasn’t born into a prosperous family, in fact he was a poor man. On his way to the Piazza to play music, he saved a man who turns out to be a nobel named Ramo Bragadin. Since Bragadin felt indebted to Casanova, he legally adopted him then introduced him to a very high class circle. The message is: you’ll never know who will you meet on the street 🙂

Venetian Mask is not only famous for Carnival, it was used as a disguised #Clever ball! it allows citizens to step outside social norms: nobles could walk through the crowded cities without being recognized, people could flirt / gamble / speak freely, it symbolized anonymity ~ allowing Venetians to be whoever they wanted for a moment.

After the walking tour, I was still contemplating if I should pay 9 Euro to see Venice from Scala Contarini del Bovolo? it was only 6 floors… Oopps no need anymore haha we came 12 Minutes after its closing time haha.

What’s still missing? A Gondola ride! FAQ:

  • How much does it cost? 76 Euro per person
  • How long? 30 Minutes ride, I even timed it, was only 27 Minutes
  • Did he sing? No!

We took it around 17:15 ish and it was Feierabendverkehr haha very funny to see all Gondola wait for each other. People were waiving at us from the bridge. The ride was purely an experience, can’t leave Venice without 😉

Recap for our 7 days trip: regarding the weather, we were so lucky, the water level was kept rising in comparison to the first day. In my opinion, our last day there could be the last comfortable day in Venice. The food on the other hand, I’d say very 0815. It was good but not as good as food from other cities. Sadly, I believed what Dianna told me ~ Venice has slightly lost it’s authenticity. She explained many Venetian sold their houses to the tourismus for Hotel or Restaurants. Our Guide Simone informed us during a normal day, Venice received 65.000 tourist daily, in peak season the number could reach to 100.000 #Phew. My archery friend Kate was very spot on, “you came to Venice solely for the view, the rest must compromised”

Nevertheless, I don’t mind, it’s still a wonder!

Venice, you are the painting <3

Apropos, still owe you something… right?

What should one do in a Gondola under the bridge?

Here you go 😉

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Rainbow After Rain

Hainka was surprised with my answer to his question on how long will we stay at Venice, what are you gonna do for all 7 days there? This is how we do it : 😉

Vicenza

Weather forecast: Raining! It is a small town only about 30 Minutes away via Train. When I planned it, I really wanted to visit La Rotonda und Villa Valmarana, only from the outside since I think it wouldn’t be as beautiful as Venetian one #No offense. From the descriptions on how to get there, looks like far away, it wasn’t, still on a walking distance.

We had our Pause on the Garden of Villa Valmarana, only few visitors was there, couldn’t see where the yellow flower garden I saw from another blog, Dom peeked to which he commented “the Garden looks sad, just leaves & trees”. Moving on to La Rotonda that was zu, literally got what I want, couldn’t be more outside than this haha

Padova

Weather forecast: Raining! It is still a small town, about 17 Minutes away via Train, slightly offered more things to do than Vicenza . I booked a ticket to Scrovegni Chapel e Musei Civici degli Eremitani. It reminded me of the Frescoes from “Leonardo da Vinci” in Milan where you can only be inside for 30 minutes before the bell rang ~ only with a much more reasonable price 😉

Also went to the Basilica of Saint Anthony, it’s another type of beautiful from St. Mark in Venice, the marbles are stunning. The Tomb of St. Anthony is really there, it was guarded and prayed upon.

Treviso

Weather forecast: Raining! It is the biggest town among those two, only 40 Minutes away from Venice by train. Dom was on a Pancake Hunting and Treviso was the winner! See the comparison, you know which one belongs to which cities 🙂

Besides the foods, there are definitely more things to do, such as: Fontana dei Tre Visi (Fountain of the Three Faces) nope don’t mixed up with the one in Rome Trevi Fountain 😉 , Cattedrale del Duomo, Porta di Santi Quaranta.

Update weather forecast: we got Rainbow! My Diannaaaa! We were waiting for her, suddenly I catch a glimpse of a familiar face lurking at the window, Matteo!!!! What a pleasant surprise, I’m so glad he could joined! Few minutes later my gorgeous sister Dianna walked into the room, with her fashionable style, prettier than ever. I was and still am smiling from ear to ear, very happy to be able to hug her again, at last!

We crammed stories during 9 years span of life into one an half hour of lunch at Tavernetta Butterly. Shared family updates, our experience on moving to Asia for her vs moving to Europe for me. We met the first time during the horrible trip at Abandon Island ~ none of us know the real name and we close it with an “open” trip possibilities, you two are more than welcome to join us in Bali! Would love to show a bit of my countries to you.

Thank you very much Matteo and Anna for inviting us for lunch, it was the best restaurants in comparison to all our trip in Venice, very authentic. Next time you’re in Germany or Indonesia, it’s on us! #Deal!

Us, 9 years apart! 2016 vs 2025 #Aging like fine wine 🙂 We don’t have to wait another 9 years to meet each other again.

A presto Amoreeeee miooooo 😉

Leonardo da Vinci in Milan: Marching On

Trevi Fountain in Rome: Frequency

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Heads Held High

We booked a ticket to Venice must visit Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace) and La Basillica di San Marco (Markusdom).

What I know about a Palace is they always consist of thousands functional rooms, luxurious halls, wall of paintings etc what I wasn’t aware was… at Doge’s ALL chambers has a very nice frescoes, you must hold your head high to see it, too pretty to miss but too pain for your neck hahaha #Can’t have it all!

What I have been waiting from this Palace is actually their prison… #Ironic hey. The so called Bridge of Sighs, there are two “windows” that “allows” them to see Venice one last time before being locked away. Was sad as their last view was only through small stoned barred windows #Sighs.

The Doge’s tickets also included entrance to Museum Correr. We are not a big fans of museum visitors, rather a beliver of #Wir haben es schon bezahlt. Went in anyway and have fun nevertheless. Did we learn anything from this Museum? is to resist yourself not to touch the object!

Then our timeslot for St. Markus is there, the ceilings is again… high, hold your head up! hahaha we went sowohl to the church als auch to their Museum ~ Museo e Loggia dei Cavalli because we wanted to go to the terrace, it’s ended up there 🙂

Although their terrace is not sooo high, in my opinion, it’s enough, the view is pretty too. We have more places to move around, instead on a Bell Tower. This church is kind of reminded me of Aachener Dom, I found it very beautiful. Sugarbomb

Would be great if you could buy the tickets from the official website, we got it from third party as it was most likely sold out month in advanced, therefore plan plan plan.

Two must visit places in Venice: checked! still one more BIG MUST do activities 🙂 #You know what I’m talking about!

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The Amazing Race – Part 2

Time in Venezia is on another dimensional. What says only 30 Minutes could be 50 Minutes due to crossing the river by “Water Ubahn”, couldn’t predict how long the queue gonna be. We barely had buffer before the meeting point for “Island” Hopping, ran like hell all the way through since got out from our AirBnB + had to detour because the GPS Signal kept jumping which dragged us to a wrong Gasse where the end was water instead of road, luckily we stopped on time. During this whole race, told Dom I’m not sure if they will wait for us, nevertheless we gotta give our best shots, keep running! Saw a bunch of people gathered + a tour guide who already started briefing, yeap that’s our tour = we made it, in a nick of time.

Arrived at Murano for glass demonstrations where the craftsman were making a horse under one minute. His translator said “Our work is not according to safety standards as this is more like a family business, how many times he burnt his hand? every time”. It is very impressive, especially when the horse is finished, he put a slice of paper and it burnt, cool! Photos are not allowed inside the store, the American lady from the tour asked if I visited second floor, I have no idea they have second floor. She explained it was breathtaking, like for a much bigger item such as chandelier with pattern + color out of glass. Do I think the glass decorations are pretty? At first I’d say “why not?” the moment I saw the price my answer changed to “it’s definitely not” 😉

Dom asked if there is some I like to take as a memory from here, si! a small colorful heart shape pendant <3

We stayed perhaps 45 – 50 minutes top at Murano only for Vetreria Ducale Glass Factory. Then off to Burano where we got more time. Since I forgot our banananaaa, hungry kicked in so I stayed at the chicken nugget counter while Dom followed the tour. In the end he separated himself as they just walked around and talked, they didn’t, they had a lace demonstration, we didn’t go, were busy on taking pictures and + snacks on our own.

How busy were we? Very! To the point that none of us paid attention to the wherabout of our meeting point for next island: Torcello. I was sure it was exactly on the same place where they dropped us, just some steps back, I even saw our boat. Dom noted some additional info that leads into confusion as we have another church building on the other side which also has water. Did we made it? Nope! The word “upset” wasn’t enough to describe my dissappointment. Never have I ever missed such important information, couldn’t comprehend it. There is a first time for everything but this surely must be the last. We came up with a better strategy for next trip because this stupid mistake musn’t be repeated.

As if things can’t get worse? oh yes it can, on the way back to Venezia a lady who sit next to me has a leak water bottle. I only realized it when my side part of my clothes were wet, luckily I’m wearing light brown therefore it wasn’t too visible. What else? we got scammed by some sellers, now we have 2 angeblich Hakuna Matatas bracelet #He can say anything, the way he wanted us to have it was by throwing it, out of reflects I catched it, then no turning it back. He gave us an elephant statue and again angeblich bracelet from Kenya, what are we gonna do about it? left it at our AirBnB 😀

Tainted afternoon need some reparation. Dom lead the trip as I don’t want to think anymore, I’ve done that job long enough already. We visited a very interesting book shop with a hot rabbi calendar, oh yeah, mood booster, things got better there 🙂 You can only walk one direction, there is a corner about a story about Hermes, Balanciaga or Dom’s fav Lamborghini. It’s interesting until you see the price, nope! Let’s just have a digittalllllll version of the book hahaha.

Then we walked to Ponte dell’Accademia, wow! the Grand Canal view was breathtaking, more breathtaking than the second floor of the Murano Factory Glass for sure 😉 haha. The Cupola from Santa Maria della Salute, we stopped for a while to enjoy it. Life is good again <3

Since we haven’t properly eat all days, we had an evening of what Dom called “Food Experience” at II Paradiso Perduto. Guys, it’s really good! I’d say from all restaurant we ate, this is the best one. Unfortunatley we couldn’t finish all of the fish, if I’m in Indonesia, I would have take all the fishes and gave it for street cats, Dom was totally against it. He was thinking about Müllentsorgung usw und so forth. Sorry stray cats 🙁 I’ll do better next time!

But how? maybe eat it all haha

The Amazing Race

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Journey

Round of Oktoberfest is coming, meaning journey of visiting friends located in the South of Germany has arrived 🙂 Very happy to see you all!

My highschool friend QQ, thank you for letting me stay at your place, cook Indonesian noodle, took me to Taylor Swift concert stadium, followed by free BMW Museum. Last but not least the 1972 Olympic village, some people really give Mühe on painting their Apartment!

My childhood friend Krisma, he came with his Tracht, ready for action!

My Brother Thorben, was very happy to meet you again after more than two years! I’ll ask where you two will ended up staying, I mean…. being #On Budget Traveler, need some free accommodation yo 😉 For example: Celina please stay in Switzerland! haha

My Shanghai friend Nora, we have been friends for 9 years yet this is the first time I know you studied engineering #Face palm. When one has been friends for so long, we passed the basic knowledge way tooo far to the point we forgotten it haha.

My Lästerschwester friend Shelly who now became my friend too! Good idea of choosing a Tibetian restaurant, what a great Momo we had #Yummy!

Janine & Thomas, it was fun taking all the Quitten to the Juice shop! hard work in the afternoon rewarded by a very satisfying hotpot dinner. It took us 2,5 hours to eat yet still many left übrig. Janine said “it’s good, otherwise it would be embarassing for Asian to let guess left hungry. Thomas commented “also for Italian, they will take everything out from the Keller, if you’re still not full, they would ask the neighbour” 😉

My Dortmund Home: Feli + Katrina + Selina thank you for your home made food; cookies or bought made chocolate 😉 when stomach is full = heart is full <3

I cherished the openness in our conversations, every shared moment of time. Good luck, my friends ~ may each of us find the journey we deserve in the end.

Till that moment arrives… keep fighting!

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Improvement

Background song: it’s the most wonderful time of the year…. not Christmas (yet!), more precisely Food Nerds annual gathering, in a style we know best ~ Tracht & Dirndl to our favourite season Oktoberfest 😀

After having a very authentic Chinese Lunch at Xiang, done set up at Claudia’s: I got the Sofa, she got the air matress, Thomas brought the pump. One last straw, getting ready for Schützenfestzelt where Drake was there during the opening day. Claudia explained that our tent is second Promi Zelt after Käfer.

Thomas went off earlier to meet Dan as he proclaimed he just wanted to say ‘Hi’ then stay for one Maß ~ spoiler: he didn’t, went through thick and thin of the night.

Familiar faces from last year started to appears one by one. Once we completed, hau reinnn, were welcomed by some finger foods, me likey! We all directly ordered our first Maß, the Nerdies told I gotta improved, don’t worry it’s on my agenda 😉 I’ll try to make it to the second Maß.

Started pretty good, almost ‘neck to neck’ with Thomas’. Right after, I lost count, he went through his fifth while I was still on my second mwahaha. I can’t get my Dessert due to lost track of time and space, more explanation: (A) Kitchen is closed. (B) Honestly… had it not, couldn’t get anything anymore! My Dirndl felt soooo tight!

Decided to walked around the tent with Elena + Janine. I had one mission: tried to find some Promi. Failed miserably, forget it, look at the crowd, it’s impossible.

Hours of laughter, dances, songs and drinks later…. 不知不觉 our evening of wonder has passed! Thank you thank you thank you soooooo much to:

  • The one and only powerful couple Claudia & Gio, not only for getting us a table in a correct side so we could stood up on the bench but also to gather the coolest crowd;
  • Janine & Thomas for opening your brand new house to me. I was there when your home was still full with Baustelle. Thomas didn’t accept money at Xiang, he said to me “Marlyn, you can pay me back with your labor in my Garden” hahaha hope I did my job well 😉
  • Kai & Coco who somehow amazed by how small I am? Well…. I’m consistent, was already this size since last year 😉
  • Stephan & Elena, I’m glad we got to talk more! can’t wait to see your next year’s Dirndl, what could it be? hmmmm;
  • To Dan for not only staying for one Maß like you proclaimed before, hope I can also meet Nino next year!

I’m so grateful Claudia asked me to join, getting a table on Oktoberfest is very challenging. Without you, I wouldn’t even able to experience any of it. Pictures & Videos don’t do the justice on how fun our night was 😉

Food Nerds main crew: Prost to our second & still counting Oktoberfest! #Mandatory picture on the Bavariaring’s elevator 🙂

Quiz time: do you see the subtle difference from 2024 to 2025? #Only Oktoberfest participants will know. What an improvement a year could bring 😉

Can’t wait for next year! <3

Oktoberfest 2024: In der Badewanne

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Nachhaltig – Part 2

We have a new decoration in our office for the Birthday Gelande! whhhaaattttttt, who bought this? I suspect no one, most probably we borrowed it from Milena’s Abteilung #Wir sind nachhaltig 😉

Obviously it was only last for a day because Monicita’s turn is around the corner, keep recycling!

Nachhaltig