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Money’s Worth

Sightseeing in Florence day 5: Last day 🙁 don’t be disheartened, I will give my full gas! #Planned

I arrived before our meeting point for walking tour about Medici Family with Gabriela, giving me some time to soaks in the Renaissance beauty.

We gathered in front of “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” church at Piazza San Lorenzo. Gabi’s theory is if the church is not so pretty from the outside, it will be pretty on the inside, vice versa. Any proof?

We went to one corner where Palazzo Medici Riccardi located, yep they owned a palace ~ doesn’t mean they were royal residence, instead just a very wealthy person who can own an impressive formal building. They started as a humble shepherd family from selling wool to one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Europe, playing a major role in banking, politics and art. They realized the great power of art, if he wants to ties some business in another city, he would sent Michelangelo and Botticelli for example to decorate Sistine Chapel.

Gabi talked about the entrance of the bank is in the corner to be easily spotted as in the past they don’t have street name. The palace was normal lookalike from the outside with a reason: Medici wants to be liked by people of Florence, spreading their subtle message “I am just a normal people like you all, I also want my voices to be heard by government”.

Next is the heart of Florence, Duomo di Firenze. The exterior of Duomo is a collections of marbles: green from Prato symbolized hope; white from Carrara symbolized faith; red from Maremma symbolized charity or love. The 16 people are not Apostles #Math ain’t mathing 🙂 they are notable citizens such as Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, Dante, Leonardo da Vinci. At the center of the façade, there’s Virgin Mary and baby Jesus surrounded by 12 Apostles.

No one died #officially during the building of the Cupola owing to Brunelleschi’s engineering methods and his attention to worker safety. Not officially is one died because he drinks too much wine. We do want to live a longer life, therefore Gabi brought us to the lucky boar ~ Il Porcellino which obviously a replica, the real one is in Museo Bardini, do not under any circumstances tried to touch his snout, no luck gonna come to you. You can only touch the replica ones 😉

There is a secret passage near Uffizi connects Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace. All we need to do is look up haha #Not so secrets anymore.

Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici was the last of the Medici family, she was a smart woman, every reason why Florence still have everything is thank to her. Before she passed away she signed a packed to keep the Medici’s belonging inside Florence, it can’t be sold elsewhere. 18th February is celebrated as her day, many museums are free of charge.

I decided to go to Piazza Michelangelo, tried to use bus initially, in the end taking the same mode of transportation for the past 5 days: on foot. The view does pretty up here, some says at sunset it will be very good, seeing view of Florence from the other side. This is the Economic slash budget version for someone who wants to enjoy sunset from a higher ground. I however, will be on the Cupola 😉

I bought the Brunelleschi Pass for the Duomo cost 30 Euro consist of Cathedral, Santa Reparata, Baptistery, Bell Tower, Cupola. I am dead at this point #Too many walking. Seeing the line to get inside the Cathedral, hmmm I have bought the complete pass yo, can’t be waiting with all this free people #Devil’s laugh who only wants to get inside the Duomo.

I went first to Santa Reparata, using the other entrance, you will get inside the Cathedral as it’s located in the basement, make sense since it’s an archeological site. Back to first meeting with Gabi, she does has some point though, idk if it’s due to the Duomo is still under construction or is it only this simple hmmmm. In the Santa Reparata there is a bench, great! I sat there for 40 minutes before I move on to Baptistery.

Once I got inside, it is almost all covered due to construction. I really need to come back hey! Door of Heaven, why? Fun version: it was named by Michelangelo, it has taken ages to finish the door, he said he might have been in heaven when the door is complete. Once it’s done, he still not yet in heaven 😉 The serious version: baptistery is a crucial site for Christian initiation. Baptism is viewed as a rite of passage into the Christian faith, symbolizing the entry into a new life and the Kingdom of Heaven. Real fact: None of the door is original for there was a flood in Florence, they moved it to the Museum of Duomo.

Rest from my pass is Giotto’s Campanile Bell Tower, Cupola (got the timeslot) and Museum. I calculated if I managed to climbed the bell Tower prior my time slot to go to the Cupola. I can’t, I cannot, I am unable to can. #Reality is different from planned. What’s fortunate is this ticket valid for 3 days, meaning I can still go tomorrow morning before my flight back to Dortmund. I choose the later, went to a coffee shop, sat again for another hour, preparing my legs for 463 steps to Cupola.

While waiting on the line, I leaned on the barricade, suddenly snapped “we haven’t even started and I already tired” if I can get refund I would #First thought

Climb started, it’s all spiral, at some point I could need some seconds, sat in between the hole, letting all other people to go through. After gathered up some muscles back, I continued my journey in between a couple from Amsterdam and USA in front of me and USA Family behind me which later becomes my motivation to still continue the journey. Gabi said “if in the end you can’t going on anymore, drop it guys, its not worthy, you want to have fun on your holiday, don’t torture yourself”. Nope Gabi, I’m gonna make my money’s worth! #Dedication…or economic logic.

Finally I reached the top, the father from the USA family behind me said “if you want some pictures let me know” oh don’t worry I will have every pictures on every angle, I’m gonna make my money’s worth #Mantra. Jon and Rianne alas the couple in front of me patiently took every pictures of me + holding my bag. Without a doubt we were the loudest there on top, I don’t care, I paid for it, repeating my mantra over and over again until it’s being heard.

Thanks God I have an Asian mentality in my blood, I didn’t follow my first thought otherwise I wouldn’t have met Jon and Rianne. Leute, we really into this, we’ve got it all, all views only and view with ourselves #Were very busy!

We were second to last groups that went up at 18:00, the guide shouted “continue to go down please, its over, time for next group”. Walked passed a room of handgun or something, its not even pretty yet I’m still gonna take picture of it as a proof, chanting my mantra. We were back to inside the cathedral, one higher level in comparison to when we went up to the Cupola, what I want to express is we could see the frescoes clearly and the bottom of the frescos are so ugly fulls of devils or so. I said this to Tracy at home she commented “yeah hell is a scary place”. Stimmt!

OK we got out from the church now, we do live by our mantra on that evening. As if all the thousands pictures on the Cupola weren’t enough, we must make a picture with the truck too hahaha

Rianne is dead tired, nevertheless I brought them to the front side where you can see 4 buildings in one: Baptistery, Cathedral, Cupola and Bell Tower. She gained some energy for last couple of pictures.

Only Jon lived by the Mantra ~ he followed a YouTuber with all money’s worth tip 😉 he solely will come up to Bell Tower the next day while Rianne wait downstairs. Usually the wife is the one who comes up whereas the husband wait, well, its time for a change now hahaha. They will start later while I need to be there once they opened.

Big shoutout to Jon & Rianne, I’m really grateful we met, my Duomo experience would be totally different had I not met you two! Climbed up solo, climbed down with friends 🙂 Since we are geographically neighbor, I really do hope to see you guys again in the near future!

On my last evening, I went to have dinner with Tracy, she said once you were on the top of the Cupola, you don’t need to go to Bell Tower, it will be with Grid plus its lower anyway. Oh girl, no way, I am not only FOMO but on a mission to make my money’s worth, I still coming up hahaha. I was very happy I didn’t go on the same day to both tower or else my leg might get amputated hahaha #For real.

Next day it is! On the way to Bell Tower there is also some benches to rest, I took advantage of it. I’m not in a hurry anyway, this and Museum then I crossed all my list.

Last pass! Everything you see from outside is the replica hahaha the real one is in the museum. It is a three floor museum with statues of the churches. The idea of Duomo, look at this the “possibility” of how the Cupola might looks like based on different architect.

There is also a movie where I watched two times in Italian and English so I sat longer hahaha

Then a Poem from Michelangelo, I think was good, well he’s a legend 🙂

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rime.

Sonnet written in the years he was working on the Pieta.

  • The course of my life has brought me now through a stormy sea, in a frail ship, to the common port where, landing, we account for every deed, wretched or holy.
  • So that finally I see how wrong the found illusion was that made art my idol and my king, leading me to want what harmed me.
  • My amorous fancies, once foolish and happy: what sense have they, now that I approach two deaths-the first if which I know sure, the second threatening.
  • Let neither painting nor carving any longer calm my soul turned to that divine love who to embrace us opened his arms upon the cross.

Closing the day with some shopping, I need to get myself something yo, reward after all this one million steps hahaha. Tracy said about a gloves leather shop called Madova and a pendant charm store at Santo Spirito called Giuliano Ricchi.

The experience at Madova was amazing, she held my hand, in an instant knew exactly my size ~ it’s 6,5, like Tracy described. The price cost either 47 Euro for Silk or 53,50 Euro for Cashmere. I don’t ask if they have any other style, I choose the silk one.

The Giuliano Ricchi Jewelry is a normal house you need to ring the bell, I bought a necklace with one charm, it cost 25 Euro.

Yes I managed to get it all, in additon sip my last Hugo.

Once more, regardless of many Baustelle, Italy has my heart. I will come back for sure, until next time Firenze!

Tips: The Duomo is a must, I strongly suggest to buy all the Brunelleschi Pass like me, yes its cost 30 Euro. Need to mentioned, other than the time slot to Cupola, it’s valid for three days, you can do one each in Ruhe.

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No Revolution

Sightseeing in Florence day 3.

Tracy was like “are you seriously you gonna be the whole day in Pisa? It is very small, what are you gonna do there?” Noooo don’t worry, the tour will be Pisa – San Gimignano and Siena. Then she was relieved to know it, quote “then it’s OK, you won’t be bored”

Tomato tomatoes with the day before, tour starts at 07:30 AM meeting point at 07:15 AM, it does feels like a disciplinary holiday 😉 the only reason I enjoyed waking up early. On the way to the meeting point, I met a couple, her name is Meta, she said she got an Email explaining they will got a refund because the Bishop decided to have a Mass on Siena’s church. I don’t get any Mail nor WA, then I know they went in a full mode including wine tasting + lunch + guided tour in Sienna while I only for transportation version.

We’ve got 45 minutes at Pisa. Our guide Fabi explained there are 4 parts to see: Baptistery – Church – Pisa Tower – Cemetery, describes the beginning and end of life.

I looked for another solo rider, aha, found her, Nora from the States 🙂 Passed the gate, seeing Pisa was an overwhelming feeling, although it was or is not considered 7 Wonders of the World, for me it is. I always saw it in Internet now it’s right before my eyes.

When you see the bottom of it, it does tilt, the picture didn’t do the justice. Obviously you need to have a mandatory pushing Pisa pictures haha.

We circled around….that was it hahaha! The whole city was literally centered in this square haha. Previously I was confused to why should I be bored in Pisa? #Understood 😉

We’ve given up on where’s the cemetery. Some says “you’ll find what you’re looking for when you’re not searching for it”. That’s exactly happened, we find the last part of life when we were supposed to be back to our meeting point. With that, Pisa: checked!

Fabi counted if all people are on the bus, she said “please sit back at your original seat guys, no revolution” hahaha so changing the seat consider revolution now heyyy 😀

Next to a medieval hill town called San Gimignano. Meta and Nora are the full tour people, they will have their wine tasting and lunch. Which means, I explore this town all by myselffff. Right after I entered the gate, I followed arrow to Punto Panoramico, what will it lead me to? A green panoramic view 🙂

Need to refuel my energy with Lasagna + Hugo. They have the best ice cream in the world ~ Behauptet, whilst I believe it, however the lines were just too long. I prefer see around what else do they have here.

I always set up a timer on my phone, met a couple from the group asked them what time we should meet up? #Sicher ist sicher. They speak no English, either Spanish or Portuguese. I opened calculator 😉 it has many functions not only for bargaining in China but also to talked about time. Thanks God I met them otherwise I will be the one whom everyone waits for, they saved me from my walk of shame haha

Last Chianti experience is Sienna. Initially I didn’t get the grasp of it as to where should I go, somehow I took the wrong turn, is it really what this city can offer?

Luckily I managed to see the heart of this city, the Piazza del Campo where the student from Poland named Maksymillian took me as a confused tourist, brought me to Duomo di Siena. For a student, you can get in to Duomo for free, aha, it was an ancient times ago. Before we went back to the oldest bank in the world meeting point, we closed the day by sharing a very hype Ice Cream Grom #FOMO which similar to his last name Krom, nope he’s not the owner of the shop 😉

I have to say I wasn’t walking that much in comparison to the day before, yet of all the accumulated walking, I had to ask Tracy for a Voltaren or Counterpain or whatever gel to release muscles. She doesn’t have it, what she does though a massager, oh way better! She asked “so tomorrow you are going to Rome?” Yes – “At what time?” 8AM is the train – “Gosh hearing your schedule I already feel tired” haha I called it a happy kind of exhaustion 😀

Facts: I paid 65 Euro from Get Your Guide website “Tuscany: Day Trip to Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano and Chianti” the full tour including lunch + wine tasting + guided tour in Siena was about 122 Euro, I do the exchange rate because Meta paid in USD. According to them, the lunch + wine tasting wasn’t so good, they can’t have options for lunch it was already prepared and the wine was too little to taste anything, they regret it.

I asked Nora what are the most interesting information from the guided tour. She explains that Siena divided into 17 “groups” who were in horse war each year to decide who would be the ruler / winner for the year. The horse was decided 3 days before the race, within 3 days they need to find the jockey and…… the horse can win without the jockey. In the end, it’s rather based on luck other than any training whatsoever. There you go 😉 now you can decide if you want for a full tour or the economic version haha

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A Day as an Analyst Continued

***Triggers Warning: Disturbing Content, Includes Violence, not for fainted heart***

My legs has already given up at this point, on the other hand I’m running out of dates to do this dark mystery tour therefore I kept going! #Ain’t like tomorrow.

My tour guide was Angela, she was funny, she said we only enroll to this dark mystery due to we enjoyed family drama haha she was so right! She reminds us that the tour we are about to embark based on real story, what was really happening at that time & how they handle it, not about ghost.

First we were at Palazzo Grifoni named after a noble family Grifoni who married for love. Regrettably this blissful marriage only last for 3 days because he was sent to war. Every day his young wife waits for him to come back, she looks for any sign of him from her bedroom window. Hence the window is always open, day and night, winter or summer, all the time.

Unfortunately, he never came back, he died at war. She too, died in old age. After her death, their relatives moves in, they closed the window. This is when strange things starts happening ~ weather always bad, furniture moving by itself usw. It is believed the spirit of his wife is still there, still waiting for him to return, they decided to re-open the window and the strange things stops.

The windows remains open the same way including when it’s under constructions, no one close the window ever again. Now the palace is not functioning as a palace rather a private house by Budini family. Can you spot the open window?

Moving on to the Duomo area, precisely in the corner between the Bell Tower and Santa Reparata. Angela said underneath is used to be a cemetery for noble people #Didn’t surprise me at all.

Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet while Florence has a real life version named Ginevra degli Almieri and Antonio Rondinelli. Ginevra was a very beautiful girl in the final year of 1300. She was only 16 years old when she fell in love with Antonio. However, Antonio’s family is the enemy of Ginevra’s, without a doubt her father didn’t bless their relationship, her father arranged her to be wed one month later to Francesco Agolanti. Her father said “you will not get the permission, forget Antonio forever or we can kill him.” Thus, she obeyed.

After the marriage, she was always sad, became very sick, didn’t want to eat, cry, fell into deep depression. Four years later, she was found fainted to the ground in a very bad condition with blood etc. The doctor convinced she has caught plague, she needs to be burry immediately to prevent contagious. Her body was covered from head to toe so the people of Florence won’t see it, closed in marble coffin.

The midnight after her burial, it started a storm. What they didn’t realized is….they buried her alive! Sad to relate, at that time it was “common” that people were mistakenly dead. How do they know it? Once they want to moved the cemetery, the skeleton was found not in a normal position of how people died, some died while trying to get out from it. In this case, Ginevra managed to get out of the coffin, she broke her nails, in a dirty condition with Erde & blood.

She went back to her house where Francesco lived, he and her family were in grief.. Once he opened the door, seeing Ginevra, he thought it was a ghost of her. He told her to get away, “I’ve been praying for you, you are the ghost of my wife, please leave me alone, go back to your tomb” Her own husband rejected her, she went to her parents home only to get the same answer. Heartbroken, confused, where to go? she remembered way to Antonio’s home. He recognizes her, removed her veil, welcome her to his place. Being loved by Antonio, Ginevra’s health got better then finally the two decided to get married.

Of course news arrives to Francesco and parents of Ginevra. He seeks for revenge, went to the Bishop to send executors for Antonio. Thanks God the Bishop disagreed. He said “Ginevra comes to you but you rejected her thinking it was her ghost. Since then she is a free woman” Francesco is looking for a new woman, except no mother is willing to give their daughter to him knowing the treatment he has done to Ginevra when she came back alive. Therefore, no descendants coming from Francesco.

What is happening with Ginevra and Antonio? Is it happy ending? I wish. Something happened to Ginevra, as she tries to break out from the tomb, she saw corpses in a very bad conditions namely without head etc. She became to see it everywhere she goes, on the market, at home. In today’s language she is having a mental diseases caused her to lose her mind, she’s like a baby again, impossible to cure. Antonio couldn’t take it, he died perhaps due to big suffering in his heart. Both buried outside Florence, the cemetery for normal people.

The first time she was mistakenly buried was 1. May, it is being said every first day of each month there is her spirits walking until the end of the street then disappear. The name of the street was via la donna della morte. However in year 1800 the government change the street name to Bell Tower Street for Touristic purpose.

Next we stopped at Piazza della Signoria / Palazzo Vecchio where The Neptune fountain is located at. The statue with man on the horse is one of the Medicci family member. Back then, instead of fountain, this area was filled with torture machines to remove nails, organs, including genitals from both male and female.

If a woman (only woman) survives after the torture, she would considered as a witch, consequently, she will be burn alive. They could suspect anyone to be a witch for example if you have red hair, have job without husband, independent woman, yep you might be one of them.

There were 3 ways to kill someone: First, hiring executor who wears a black mask so people won’t recognize him, he always carries an axe which could never finish the job in one cut. Second, ties both hands and legs to 4 different horses who runs in different direction. Lastly, hang for 3 days from the first floor of the palace.

One day, all of these horrible things stopped, one day to the other. Why? Because the last two male of Medicis are homosexual, they didn’t have kids therefore no successor. The last female heir Anna Maria Luisa obliged to married old king from him she got syphilis’s that caused her not be able to born a child. Medici family has a pact with Austrian family, Duke of Lorraine. First thing he did once he was in Florence is cancelled the torture on the square. Not an Italian family solved this problem, obviously the Austrians do the wrong things too. Even so, do not forget they civilized the city of Florence.

After that we went to a normal street corner that has a very dark facts, even darker to know it was happening not so long ago, on 27.05.1993. It was all starts when two judges from Palermo fights with a Mafia who has been hiding from police, living in bunker for 30 years. When the big Mafia boss got caught, they bombed the judges. The group decided to put bombed in Milan, Roma, Uffizi quarter. About 200 kg of TNT was placed at this corner, one student (Dario Capolicchio) was crossing this street being burn alive + young family (Fabrizio Nencioni, Angela Fiume, 9 years old Nadia and 50 days old Caterina) found already carbonized. You can see the bricks are different because it was the hole from the bombed where they lived.

Whenever you see two people kissing each other, stretched their arms into an olive tree meaning mafia attack in those place. On the wall it was written poem from Nadia two days before the attack as if she got a feeling something bad gonna happens.

Still around that corner, hanged a sculpture made by Barney. The blade symbolize Mafia, 5 figures represents the victim. Those 5 victims are walking in blade but never falling down. It is a message of hope and love, to let people know they will forever remains in our lives.

Gladly the tour is coming to an end, I was sick to my stomach already. As if all of those facts weren’t enough. Angela closed our evening walk by telling us notorious serial killer started in Chianti Area in 1968. Two couples around the age of 18 decided to made love in the car, they chose the wrong night, wrong place, they were followed. Somebody has a long iron stick, broke the window and shot them. The killer took the genitals of the guy, cut the breast of the lady only to attach it to her genitals then leave it on the ground. The day after, police was called, they were terrified, it was the first time something like this happened in Florence. This was happening for 14 years… the serial killer repeated it to 8 couples a French + German couple tourist became victim too. The youngest female victim was 16 years old, the oldest was 30 years old. The killer decided to cut her breast while she’s still alive to sent it to the police. How sick of a mind can someone actually do that?

In 1945 police caught a farmer who has bad record such as raped his own daughters, after some years he was declared innocent due to alibi he has. He died hanged, it was still not clear if someone kills him or he commits suicide. Strangely, when he was in prison the killing stops in Chianti… only to happened in other city. Until today the killer is still a free man, no one knows, no one being caught. The big questions is if the killer move to other place of Italy?

There are 3 main hypothesis: first, it was a surgeon because the cut was so precise. Second perhaps it was somebody works for police as the gun was the same gun from police office which could be stolen. Third it could be a practice of satanism or illegal human trafficking organ. Angela said there is a movie made from it called The most Florence in Mostrow and Zodiac. Watch it if you want to not be able to sleep for some days. It is very disturbing hey.

This dark mysteries tour is really something different, it goes beyond family drama, regardless this is facts that was happening in this city. We can’t / shouldn’t / mustn’t erase nor forget it, all we can do is hope the killer will die slowly in hell and raise our awareness of danger / predator possibility.

Be safe everyone! If something feels off, it’s off. Hope we will never ever encounter something evil like that.

https://www.arteleonardo.com/de/blog/473/mysterious-florence-the-window-that-is-always-open

https://www.arteleonardo.com/en/blog/159/the-story-of-ginevra-degli-almieri

https://www.governo.it/en/articolo/president-meloni-s-statement-30th-anniversary-georgofili-bombing/22727

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A Day as an Analyst

Sightseeing in Florence day 1 begin 🙂

When I told Julius about my Florence holiday, he directly said I must visit Uffizi Gallery and Michelangelo’s Museum. That Sunday before my trip I really sit down, arranged, booked everything.

FYI, Florence is small + Tracy lives in kind of city center, everything is walking distance within 25-35 minutes, besides the Bus App are really not user friendly, I gave up trying to understand it. First trip is from her home to Accademia Gallery where Michelangelo’s David statue placed, bought the first entry time slot between 08:15-08:30. I went out before sunrise, walked pass an expensive Salvatore Ferragamo boutique shop, Burberry with funny jacket on its mannequin, some Piazza until I reach the line queuing for my David’s.

Tracy said I wouldn’t spend more than an hour at David’s, the first floor are not very interesting because it has wayyyy too many Christianity paintings then David then room of Statues, last second floor. Just like she described, first floor is full of painting about Jesus, Maria and the Saints. Also on the second floor, I had to agree with her, at some point, you just have enough.

Wait until you arrive to the magnificent David, the one you have been waiting for, he looks very shiny from afar. The details, his eloquent pose, the size, it was really a WOW. He is the superstar in the whole Museum. Of course I asked people to take several pictures of me and David, from different angle, none of them are pleasing my eyes. Oh well, gotta live with it. These are the best I got 🙂

I started to go around him for complete look, Michelangelo is a genius! was in total AWE, how come someone sculpt someone he never sees… very handsomely? Look at his vein, abs, stature! #Melting. If only he’s a real person! #Drooling <3

I knew what room of sculpture she’s talking about, I was there. One of them reminds me of Mr. Whistler’s Mother from Mr. Bean movie haha I’m so sorry sculptor, didn’t mean to offend you.

Guess how many hours I spent there? Perhaps three! haha not because I was looking at all paintings but rather it was raining outside, at the end I was just skimming and sit for some hour before I continue my trip haha.

Walked pass Spedale degli Innocenti / Hospital of Innocents where I found this meaningful pink ribbon on the middle of the Piazza with QR code. Go visit nudmfirenze.noblogs.org it is a symbolic for women who have no more voice as they were assasinated.

We planned to have lunch together however Tracy was really swamped at work so I choose a random Pasta + Hugo place around the Duomo ~ heart of Florence. Tracy mentioned “you know we are not located near water right? so you might not get or have a good seafood pasta, order rather a meat one” Nope, you can’t stop me, Pasta with seafood it is hahaha, it’s still verrryyyy delicious!

Ready for my next analytic project: Uffizi Gallery. This is huge! as in H.U.G.E! It has many collections from Leonardo DaVinci, Raffaelo Michelangelo, Caravaggio. What amazed me the most are the ceilings! They are all decorated very beautifully.

I did recognize some of the names though, for example Julius Ceasar, Titus, Painting of Wedding in Cana, Adam and Eves, John the Baptist, Salomon. There is a red room where you can’t enter, you can only see from the sides.

I was very overwhelmed hence I decided to sit down every now and then. Tracy informed in the middle of it there is a Cafeteria, I can’t missed it. After almost 3 hours I reached it, let’s have a rest first, so much deserved 🙂 There I got the chance to know Juli from Brazil who located in Zürich, aha! since then we visited the rest half of the Gallery together 😉

She knows some art, she was very happy to see Carravagio Medusa! Look at the painting of the wine, you can see the bubbles, very real. I have to snapped a picture of the important family in Florence, the Medici!

Once we finished, we decided to have Florence “Döner” hahaha right after that we separated, I went to my Dark Mysteries of Walking Tour #First timers, very curious!

to be continued… my day hasn’t finished yet 😉

Facts: It was actually confusing to buy ticket for David and Uffizi from the official site, it always leads to B-Ticket website with 4 Euro fee. If you want to wait in line to see if the ticket office still have tickets for that day it will only cost 16 Euro, on the internet is 20. Same for Uffizi, I paid 26 + 4 while some people might get it for 19 Euro on special day or special time or so. The walking tour guide Gabriella told me, of course I didn’t pay attention about the how, since I received this info late, been there anyway. To my personal view, David is a must visit while Uffizi hmmm unless you really understand Renaissance, interested in paintings, prepared to walked for over 4 hours then you can go too, if not, feel free to skip it 😉

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Silent Week Treatment

I have been waiting for Bea’s visit since few months until the day she arrived, picked her up at Hbf, went back home, had ramen…..suddenly….. my voice’s gone!!!! I c.a.n.t. s.p.e.a.k!

Next day I did WFH only transfer my phone to my colleague as I barely able to utter a word. Called it off after not even two hours. She was isolated in the living room, did her home office there while I was on my bedroom.

Half of our plan still go through which is crossing out as many places we can from my Gutscheinbuch. Nothing is able to stop us from eating 🙂 you can see most of the time I only drink Tea with Ginger and I carried 2 hot water bottles with Lemon slice on it.

  • We’ve had Kuchen at Cafe Kompott, lecker!! It’s my first time being in a Ukrainian restaurant.
  • Cafe Auszeit for Breakfast. I’ve been there with Kinga for Kuchen too so I know this place is good.
  • Klubhaus1249. I had Schnitzel boah the portion was giant, Bea had Burger. Although we have all time in the world to finish it, I couldn’t however she nailed hers!
  • Hoshino. I really like their Bento Box!
  • Wonder Waffel in Hörde. We also have in city center but I want to show her Phönix See as the other tourist spot for Dortmund.
  • Tequilaria Bochum, some mexican food.
  • immergrün Dortmund. We finally have a healthy food, salad yo! save it on her last day 🙂

Besides eating, we’ve done some other activities too such as:

  • Had an appointment in Salzgrotte where we just lay down for 45 minutes in a room full of Salz.
  • Watched a Musical Express in Hansa Theater. I didn’t expect the show will be 3,5 hours + 30 mins break. I thought it will be 2 hours max, we kind of dragged down the average age on that show haha #Finally, we weren’t the older one. I feel very happy to see rather senior people still actively go out with friends or family watching musical show. This is what aging suppose to looks like 🙂
  • On the weekend, we went to an Escape Room in Bochum. We managed it within 1 hour with some helps from the operator. It was actually a beginner task but since we both read Chinese, we think more complicated that it has to be.

Since I knew she likes Manga, I took her to Düsseldorf, walking a long path the Little Tokyo. We had our lunch in my favourite Takumi Tan Tan Mian Shop 🙂 not for Ramen though haha

At first we planned to go to Movie Park, I saw my improvement day after day, decided it’s not worth as I am for sure not be able to stand on a line nor sitting on a roller coaster. On her last days staying with me I heard sometimes she’s coughing or sneezing, I kept asking “do you need my medicine? do you have vitamins?” God please protect her!

It was really nice having Bea here, selbstverständlich it would be better if I was healthy so we could do what we intended to do. Sometimes, life takes an unexpected turn. Sorry to give you the full week silent treatment Bea!

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Spotted

Day 2 is really a challenge for us, we woke up early as we have a boat to catch aiming for Nusa Penida Island. We were advised to be in the Port Pelabuhan Matahari Terbit Sanur at 06:20 AM.

You always need to go with a Tour agent, we choose 2 days in NP so we got to see the West and East side plus snorkeling activity. The boat ride from Sanur Bali to NP is slightly over an hour, maybe in between 1 hour 10 to 30 minutes, easy ride, no need for motion sickness pill.

We did snorkeling in 4 different points: Crystal bay, Manta bay, Gamat bay and Wall Point, each is around 30 minutes. Don’t get your hope highs to see Manta though. Irina dropped the bomb by saying “Marlyn, I might or might not able to snorkel” wtf yo, we are in the middle of an open water, you told me this right when we were about to jump? She had her panic moment for a while, we decided to hold hands until she gain her confident. Water in Manta bay is colder than in the other stops brrrrrr, wall point is really nice since the current takes you, no need to swim, like doing a rafting 🙂

You got all pictures through WA, that’s why they asked for your WA number in the registration form. Only they sent all 225 pictures of the people on the boat. Forget about Datenschutz whatsoever 😉 My poor eyes and thumbs, clicking all one by one O.O

After 2 hours snorkeling, they said we can take shower, we can’t. The sogennante “shower” is basically just a Wasserhahn…. located outside…. you can rinse yourself from salt water, they allowed you to shower with shampoo & soap if you want… you don’t, no, negative.

Moving on to sightseeing activities on the West side. The path is quiet rocky, I wore a flip flop, should have worn a shoes.

The word “Billabong” refers to a very famous Badeanzüge brand in Indonesia, I didn’t think any of it that Billabong is actually a branch of a river haha now I got to see it in real life #Discovery

Don’t know why it’s broken for….. #I’m thinking

Then we visited Penida number 1 aka Kelingking Beach. Everywhere you search for NP, this picture will appears. It has 3 side of sightseeing, the famous one is the middle part where you need to pay… I think 50K to take picture in the spot they provided. We didn’t go to “the spot”, only took picture on the stairs.

On the far end to the left is Paluang Cliff with the view of also Kelingking. At that point we were already boiling, lack of sleep + heat = decided to skip the next itinerary. We don’t need to walk to the Cliff as it has the same view anyway, skip watching sunset on our first snorkeling place ~ Crystal Bay, we can’t wait that long. We were literally out of function.

The Sehenswürdigkeiten seems a lot on paper…. in practice, it’s all located in more or less…. same place.

Tentacle hotel is our hotel provided by the tour with open bathroom, I like this concept, it is getting more and more hype, on the contrary Irina hates it haha. We had dinner in Secret Penida, 20 meters from our hotel. Oh, we got to see sunset from here! with foods, fresh body after swimming in the pool & showered! Nothing can beat this feeling 🙂 there is also stairs if I want to go to the beach again… nope, I’m already clean.

The second day in NP feels better to me. Our driver ~ Bli Kade (Bli is Mister in Balinese) ~ pick us up at 8AM, it took us slightly more than 1 hour to arrive Diamond beach which is good because not too many people are there at that hour. Bli Kade is nice, he took a lot of good pictures… only his shadow is there, inform Irina about the necessity of redo it all, she said “well then you need to wait until the sun moves to other directions” hahaha true! #We didn’t redo it!

Here is Diamond Beach, why don’t you see people swimming? A. you gotta go down the stairs. B. The current is big. I believe A is the main reason.

Just walk to the other end you already on the Atuh Beach. Same story, need to go down. Seeing from the top is enough for me 🙂

Then we arrived to the photo spot called Tree House, you need to pay 75K to go inside the tree house, got only 2 mins before they called you out. At first we both sitting at the top enjoying the wind to regain our energy. We saw the stairs, Iri back out, I am going through.

Before the famous tree house, there is a Coco Cliff where you can also take pic for 50K. However, since no one went there Iri got in for 35K haha. I was determined to reach the end of the cliff. In the meantime, the tree house is getting closer and closer.

Irina spotted me with my red cap, I also spotted her. Look where I am compare to where she is 🙂

Here is the view you got on the edge:

I was already again as sweaty as a pig when I went up. Last destination is the Teletubbies Hill haha did you grown up with it? I am wearing red which resembles Po + Irina’s purple for Tinky-Winky 🙂 #Matching dress code. Seeing this suddenly makes me happy.

That was the East side from NP, we took the boat back to Bali at 13:30 🙂

Bonus Tipssss & honest review:

  • I have to say the tour I found from Instagram balinusapenidatour_ dont forget the underscore “_” or contact via Email baliandnusapenida@gmail.com I contact them via WA +6281353941730 is not foreigner friendly, not that they don’t speak good English, I don’t care about the language, this is my country they can speak Indonesian to me, I can translate to Irina, that’s not a problem at all. The things is, the information they given to me is very minimal, I was the one who asked “what time do we meet, where, who will pick me up in the NP Port”

Had I not live in Germany, this all are OK. But having to go with Irina where she asked me “where is our hotel?” how the hell I know, it was written in the tour it’s include hotel + lunch, I didn’t see the necessity to ask much about it until someone demanded that kind of information from me.

It all works out in the end, somebody ~ Bli Kade ~ really pick us up in the Port Nusa Penida, take us around with the car, dropping to all destinations according the Itinerary in the website had we wanted too. He texted me once I was on the speed boat. Being watched true crime a lot, I asked the Sanur guy what is the name, the number of the Penida guy, match it = OK. In case you are following my tour, don’t worry about no detail information, I have been using their service, you see I came back alive 🙂

Strongly suggest not to bring your luggage, pack it in a backpack, you won’t spend more than 2 days anyway.

Do I still think NP is worth to go? Well, I am Indonesian, this is my 4th or 5th time in Bali, 1st time in NP. If you are only a 1st timer or only think to just go 1x to Bali, I would really consider it.

Imo, if you have done snorkeling in Bali or Labuan Bajo maybe there is no need to do it in NP, perhaps you can short the trip to only 1 day as all of the destinations are more or less located at the same place? Like Angel Billabong + Broken Beach, Kelingking Beach + Paluang Cliff, Diamond Beach + Atuh Beach. Only two things, I’m not sure you can handle the heat. The second is more important, we don’t have a 24 hours boat ride from Bali to NP. Or you can just visit the West side where Kelingking Beach located?

  • The tour cost 2.840.000 for 2 person (foreigner pay 100K more) + Retribution fee once you arrive NP 25K per person cash only. If you decided to go to NP better stay at Sanur area near Port where your boat depart “Pelabuhan Matahari Terbit Sanur”.
  • Download Gojek or Grab App for taxi, it’s like Freenow in Germany. The car need to go inside parking gate in order to drop you to the Port in Sanur, it will have entrance fee of 5K.
  • Dinner at Secret Penida 370K
  • It is not for faint hearted people, the road in NP is on another level, do not even attempt to rent a scooter or car, forget about it, don’t risk your insurance life. Once we were back in Bali, Irina said “Bali’s road now feels so civilized”.
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Glowing

Check out from my Capsule Hotel, parents are arriving Zürich Airport! Mother had a lot of Ransum of Indonesian food! Father took a selfie with the background that shows the same as if we are in Karawang -_- I had to ask Mother for Kerupuk in the bus #Haphap

We are in total 19 people (including me) + 1 Guide. First destination is St. Gallen. Walked around the city center, visited churches, had our “red carpet” moment haha. That whole Raiffeisenplatz was covered by red carpet, including the allegedly Porsche Car.

While some people are having Italian food for lunch, we were having rice at Mr. Rice! it can’t get more rice than that 🙂

We went to another country too, Liechtenstein! Yeay, my list of countries visited is growing. To be exact we were at the capital-Vaduz.

Ride the Odong-Odong Car for 30 minutes surrounding Vaduz, which all it takes, this city is very not complicated. Some children’s are waving their hands to us. Very cute, I’m sure no Asian kids will do it, we don’t get raised like that. They have castle to which we can’t visit as the real Prince of Liechtenstein is there.

After we saw the grobe of Vaduz, me, mother and Aunty Lielie went to the end of the road to visit the church while father chose to sit down somewhere. The weather was very hot, Eka said I’m Glowing a.k.a Sweating haha yeap! wrong clothing!

Day 1 survived, didn’t have any group picture, owing to the glow we all are 😉 on the next days you will see the participants of this Mono Swiss group #Wink

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Second Round

What’s second round of? #Embrace My Second Covid.

Here are the chronologies: on Tuesday I had the same exact symptoms like my first Corona which is sore throat + coughing, let’s do the test, resulted negative. Suspicious but stay chill, it could be a normal sick. Wednesday morning, oh no, called in sick even though I was still negative.

Thursday a.k.a third test during the week, waited for the result, came a stripe on the T, my initiate reaction was “ah this is ungültig” I must open a second test pack… until I musn’t, another stripe appears on the C, oh neeee!! its all crystal clear now why I felt something off within me.

Weirdly, I felt Arbeitsfähig on that day, decided to do home office, after 1 day, realized I shouldn’t have done it. When your body telling you “you are sick” better believe it.

Nevertheless, I am more chill, as a saying: The Second One Is Not as Good as the First. I wasn’t so depressed, in fact I do a lot of productive things, namely:

  • Finished reading my first roman novel in German, wait…. doesn’t mean I understand a single things happening within the character, I just tacked it after God knows how long I started this book. Which leads me to start reading the second one
  • Booked my flight ticket home in May + make rough itinerary for Bali
  • Plan for attending Thomas’ wedding
  • Submitted my On-Schuhe complaint
  • Tried a red seems like Dracula peeling from The Ordinary #No Irritation fiuhhhh!

Bravo! What an accomplishment! Seems like I really need this Positive to kind of get my $h!t together.

FYI, I was negative again on Tuesday, make it only 5 days positive, total feeling off for 9 days.

What a top is to celebrate my Negativity with my Bestie, Bito who I caught right on time before she went to Airport bounding to UK.

Love you Bitoooo <3 … Benjot too #Somehow 😉

Sometimes talking to your best friend regardless being an ocean away is a really effective medicine.

Did I missed some things? Unfortunately yes: BVB Games with Andrea, as well as Christmas Market at Köln with Erin. I’m sorry girls 🙁

They said “Little Party Never Killed Nobody” hey? #Think Twice #Nordwest Weihnachtsfeier

Both Covid was caused by the similar root. Will I learn from my lesson next year?

Only times will tell, we shall see 😉

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Bella Ciao

Una mattina mi sono alzato… I was on the shooting location of the greatest TV Series ever exist! O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao! My heart can’t contain the joy in me, I was smiling from ear to ear!

Needless to say, research has been done as in where the shooting takes place? Found this very useful blog for another fanatico fans 🙂

https://www.klook.com/en-IN/blog/money-heist-film-locations/

I can visit 3 shooting places in city center of Madrid: Plaza del Callao, Banco de Espana, Casa De La Moneda. We will go through all three of them. Are you ready for it??

First Stop: Plaza del Callao

Was Wonderstruck! spinning myself around on that square. I have the so-called “not even near death experience” haha named it myself, they said when you near death you experience 7 minutes where all your memories flash back? yep had that too, only about the memories of La Casa De Papel episodes.

Professor threw money from Zeppelin or when he made announcement about Lisaboa & Rio. Brain rush to the fullest! I have never been to NY Time Square, undeniably it’s more WOW than this but for me, being present in the shooting location of my fav TV Series was another level!

Second Stop: Casa De La Moneda + Spanish National Research Council

Let’s go to the real Royal Mint which actually a Museum, at first I was arriving to their side entrance hmmm is quiet weird….. Okay, enough, wanted to take the Bus until I look up….. what?!?! this is the real entrance! re-do the pictures por favor!!!! 😉

How about the Royal Mint in the series? unfortunately I can’t get in, that is the research building. There was also a gate so you can’t really see it clear yet it’s enough for me, I was gasping in awe :O

Third Stop: Banco de Espana + Nuevos Ministerios

Went to the Nuevos Ministerios first, it was on a Saturday 11.11 yes it’s close, the guard stopped me with a very limited English while me…. no hablo Espanol at all at all. Though he managed to say if I just want to see, go around this building. Yes Sir! I don’t have any importante to be let in into the Ministry building.

Where is the entrance, where is it, where where where? the feeling that you can’t just wait for it! My excitement level is high! coming close…..soon…

This is it!!! their “Banco de Espana” I knew this building so perfectly damn well! invested 1000000 times watching the Series! The “Ai-ki-do” scene, Denver waving white flag, Professor entering the Bank und und und, beyond words! Dude….. are you for real?!?!?!

Perhaps you wanna know, how does the real Banco de Espana looks like? Very Bella too! Didn’t went inside simply because… por que? it’s a Bank, what do I’m gonna do there? become a Profesora, rob a Bank with my mask? haha

How Bella isn’t it? Obviously they can’t shoot in the real building, look how narrow the space on the real places are, it goes direct to the main street. Here is the surroundings video:

I rewatch the last episode with Feli (fact: she hasn’t watch the last one, pfffff how dare she?!?!) until it suddenly struck me, I think I was there, Plaza Mayor…. look at it how similar the red background is.

Then I rewatch it by myself in ruhe, came out with a conclusion, yep it is! it’s written Madrid, no doubt it’s on Plaza Mayor, must be it! I was there too!!! See! the same right? Hey! I discover a new shooting place 😀

Oh Madrid, you are so Bella 🙂

Gracias por todo! <3

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The Moment I Knew

Andreas is kind of Kirmes’ fans, me on the other hand was only OK, apart from the public knowledge such as the biggest Kirmes is in Soest, I don’t know any ‘property’ of Kirmes: when its starts, where to get what from which stands etc therefore when he asked if I want to come to Kirmes Soest on the first day it started on 08.11.2023, my answer was yes!

We took Eurobahn from Dortmund Hörde to Soest. After several attempt to ask our colleague Maik or hoping Mike ~ yes thats 2 different person 😉 if he can drive us to Hörde failed, took the matter on our hand ~ take Bus instead. Lena joined us in some stations before arriving Soest.

Wiiiii! it’s indeed bigger, the location is direct on Soest’s Altstadt, surrounding by many old Fachwerkhäuser, makes the atmosphere even more beautiful! Like a Christmas Market minus the Glühwein + Christmas Baum.

As an introduction to Soest Kirmes, we had the rote Ampeln-Schnapps! It’s literally the translation of traffic lights ~ meaning 3 schnapps in one go with color red-yellow-green. I shared it with Lena, according to her we need to drink from the least favorite to the most, starts with Green. Had to agree with her, I do find green is the less tasty than the yellow & red. I like them both!

Moving to Langos, not this one, the Langos that parked near the Honig-Schnapps-Laden. Wokei, follow you! On the way there Andreas showed me Mr. Honig guy ~ he’s pretty famous in Kirmes area, owing to his singing ability that attract people to drink Schnapps with him, not all Schnapps, it has to be his Honig-Schnapps in his Laden.

I saw a girl holding a microphone in front of the Honig-Schnapps-Laden, playfully said “hello” to it, she proceeds with “oh do you want to say something to our DJ? you can say let’s come to Kirmes here is all great” during which Lena already on the way to the Laden, grabbed her arm, pull her to me as my morale Unterstützung. OK let me say some few words, after me it went to Lena then Andreas. I mean yo, you can’t just leave me #all by myselffff 😉

Wait, we haven’t even bought the Schnapps haha after our Radio-intermission, we had our Honig-Schnapps. What can I say? it’s sticky….the glass is cute which made from ice cream cone where we can eat, have to be honest, this Schnapps….gefällt mir überhaupt nicht iyeeeeyyyy -_- Anyway, the song! gefällt mir, something with cuk ku cuk ku cuk haha

Once we were out from his Laden, Lena met a famous 1Live DJ aka Daniel Danger, asked for a selfie, of course I also involved!

Besides food, there were some games, we played Frog. It’s 5 Euro for 12 frogs or so, I counted it was only 11 frogs! hey we are missing one! #Good job Marlyn. If we are able to put the frog to the bucket, we will get a gift, what could it be? a frog doll 🙂 did we get it? nope! there were some hits that was closed enough haha.

Even though the frog was not in our favor, we received a pleasant surprise when I found out the hammer we were using was a Promat hammer coming from one of my order!

Enough with the play, moving on to the carousel slash Achterbahn. Lena didn’t want to ride it, I was tempted simply because I don’t have this kind of carousel when I was younger. Before I became too scared or not interested anymore, it’s time to tried it. You can see how we ~ I meant me, still innocent before it starts.

I didn’t fell down except I got “kicked” from the girl next to me as we were all kind of jammed to each other and her legs were kicking my leg etc. We kept sliding over and over.

In comparison when I’m dropped dead afterwards. I felt soooo shitty not sure what could be the reason…. maybe I went after I eat Langos? Should I went before I had anything? hmmmm… not willing to test this theory #definitely.

I always carry an umbrella together with a plastic bag to put back the wet umbrellas into the bag. I told them I felt bad yet still walking until I can’t anymore…. I need to sit somewhere, on an Eingang of the Geschäft, me don’t care! I have my own Geschäft going on on my Belly right now. Andreas said “are you really want to do it?” Yes! we need to go to the dark alley since here is many people hin und her. I managed to do it, very little but it was good for the start! #facepalm

Walked around again, I do feel slightly better but there was still some unfinished business. Told them I think having a tea would helps, went to Kühbar and there is where I did quiet a number on the toilet, I was all out! Came out totally healthy again 😀 We closed our trip with finding a Bobatea-Doll! even as big as me! Life sized Boba!

Next year = no carousel! Not gonna ruin the Kirmes experience. Told QQ about it he replied “Remember your age, we can’t do that anymore” Yes! this conclude the moment I knew pffff not again! I had to stop or else it stopped me!

Oh remember I said few words on the microphone from 1Live? it got aired on Saturday, the Chef from our Kantine recognize my voice he said “I was listening to Radio on Samstag and suddenly Liebe Grüße aus Soest!” he said to his wife “this voice, I knew her” I don’t need to listen you say your name, I knew it immediately hahaha.

Insgesamt, it was a good outcome coming to Soester Allerheiligenkirmes 😀 Vielen lieben Dank Lena & Andreas!