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Game of Stones

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 😉

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Focus

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!!!

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There’s First Time for Everything

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!

Capoeira icons created by Freepik – Flaticon

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Hotels Hopping – Part 2

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

…. as for now, back to earning Euros!

Kitty icons created by Mihimihi – Flaticon

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Two in One

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 😉

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Wheels Keeps Turning – Part 3

Spoiler: it is a whole other level!

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!

People icons created by Creartive – Flaticon

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It’s Too Late

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

Easter holiday Ausflüge done!

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Harry, Is That You? – Part 2

Moving on to Paderborn, we booked a Nachtwächter Erlebnistour, obviously it started when Sonnenuntergang at 20:30. What did we do before? made the Rundgang, visited the Adam & Eve House where actually a public library, Dominik suspect only Paderborner could apply for a library card, were so lucky someone opened the door so we can sit & chill for a while.

We were such an uncreative tourist haha ~ brings me back to Innsbruck memory with Joe to take a selfie and only selfie it is with the Goldenes Dach ~ here it is the Dreihasenfenster. If it’s written a must found, then a must it is. We even took a further length for it 😉 Funny enough, we found the first clue inside the Dom.

After checking the inside, not there, we found a storage room haha on the way to getting out, hmmm a section where it is under construction looks intriguing… perhaps? bingo! saw the Schild one more time. Oh no? What to do? Germans usually not want to break the rules, however curiosity got the best of us, zonk, couldn’t find it. It’s the job for our Nachtwächter later.

Our Tourguide ooopsss Nachtwächter appeared out of nowhere, I was sure few seconds ago he wasn’t on the meeting point, then I turned my head, there he was! He was very in his role, in the way he verkleidet sich, his voice, language he was using all in the Verganenheit. I like him! With his robe + Dom on the background, he looks like Professor Snape! We were on Paderborn at Saturday evening, its neither Karfreitag or Easter Sunday, the Dom has some kind of “meeting” where in my opinion…. it does look spooky…. let’s move on, shall we?

He explained back in the day, at night, the farmer will release his livestock that’s why they build the wall. There are some house who still have the real Paderbon wall, impressive hey! He said his job was to patrol around in the evening especially after 22:00 to make sure all candles are off. What happened if not? They will knocked the door, if no answer, he asked “what is this stick I carry around?” it’s “General Schlüssel” 😀 because broken door is cheaper than a burn down house.

He guided us to the same same but different Dreihasenfenster, we found two! one in the “gate”; second in the Fenster! I’m satisfied 🙂 “Der Hasen und der Löffel drei. Und doch hat jeder Hase zwei.” I do believe he wanted to guide us to Adam & Eve House, however since I asked about the Dreihasenfenster, I think he forget it haha. Thanks God, we’ve been there #Wink!

Paderborn is famous for the Landbrot. He explained 3 urban legend story about it. First is about the fact that it can hold for a very long time, if I understand it correctly even after WW the smell is still very pungent. Second it, it taste so bad therefore Napoleon? throw it to the floor said “it’s for my horse and his horse name is somehow similar with Land” then it developed to Landbrot. Third sounds more reliable one, yet forgotten. You can skip this part I’m sure I have a blur memory regarding it hahaha

Unfortunately we have to go back to our Post Kutsche before the tour done. He said “if I missed the Kutche, we will see us in the Rathaus”, of course we didn’t miss as DE Bahn late, I kept seeing Fatamorgana if the train will be in our Gleis, it’s not… until it is.

Day two checked!

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Sugarbomb

We are now officially on the Easter holiday, what to do when you feel like you want to go somewhere but your wallet doesn’t let you? haha #On budget 😉 Deutschlandticket is the answer!

Searching what is still distance-wise possible plus what to do there? As a regular #On budget travelers, I always look for a “free walking tour”. Why? You gotta come back with experience plus one tick smarter haha. It was a bit tricky with the Feiertage therefore everything must be mapped out precisely.

Since Dominik has nothing planned, we both packed up for these Ostern Ausflüge. I narrowed down to two cities, first is Aachen; second is for the next day #Wink. I remember QQ Dite said he has a friend who is opening an Indonesian Warteg called Warteg haha #Creativity to the max, they are already eingedeutsch 😀 let’s try then!

We were knapp inside the train, few seconds later then we have to wait for next one in one hour pfffff such a stressing morning. After a 2,5 hours train ride, oh boy gotta eat directly hey, you don’t want to see a Hungry Marlyn. Once we arrived at Warteg, Dominik said he need to go to the loo because he was feeling dizzy, oh no! let’s order some sugary drinks, what else other than “Soda Gembira” / “Happy Soda”, a bunch of sugars there ~ suddely a memory jumped in my mind, Thorben hadn’t had it when he was in IDN otherwise he would “die” from the sugarbomb!

The Restaurant is really good, very different concept from Toko Bersama or Warung Made, they have a real set menu. I found difficulties to choose as it all very delicious, I could feel it. He said not only that it looks good, it taste good too. I wish you Randy, Lina, Evelyn and all staff a sucessfull Warteg ahead!

Then we started our self-tour before the walking tour started, we kept coming back to the Dom + Furzbrunnen + Rathaus. I really like the view of the Rathaus, it gives me Hogwarts vibe, just amazing. I have to say the highlight is the Aachener Dom, what the hell is that? it’s the most beautiful Dom I have ever visited #Droll! The color, marbles, candles hanging on the ceiling, wow wow wow! #Speechless.

Strolling around without a purpose seems quiet boring hey? let’s find ourself a homework, a very easy one: find a store that is the same as our age. It took us some time to complete it yet we make it before our tour starts.

Okay what can I take from the tour? We started at the Aachener Thermal Bad, there is three Wasserhahn which looks like a Trinkwasser, it’s not, it’s warm. Then she started to talk about Printen which I thought a Drückerei? while Dominik thought of a Cafe? häää? guess what we both wrong, it’s a snack haha! I did had one in the office. We were on Easter and the Lindt Osterhase chocolate was made in Aachen! She also explains these characterical builings are 3 Houses next to each other. There is a Puppe in the city center where we can move the steel part etc, the characters there represents what the city of Aachen is, such as a Professor as Aachen also known for student city and a…. yeap only that I remember, you need to do your own interpretation hahaha Aachen also have a very small statue which reminds me of Manneken Pis, unless of course its a fisherman 🙂

Had Aachen is not 2,5 hours away, I’d say I’d choose Aachen than Köln, big times 🙂

Day one checked!