Let’s shift to Hamburg’s red light district, the famous Reeperbahn! and Sankt Pauli (for some reason they always go together, at least to what I am aware of). Christian warned me to not go there in the evening, as an obedient child, I followed his advice. I registered myself on a walking tour in Reeperbahn at 20:00 it should be for 2 hours, I’m pretty excited for that. Sad story, it got cancelled due to now many participants, I thought we are still in pandemic need to abstand halten?! Na ja…. 🙁 what did I do? I went there on day time where everything is still not yet operating.
Besides the sin city, there are some interesting place such as the famous German police station called Polizeikommissariat Davidwache because many movies apparently shoot some scene there, Beatles-Platz and Sankt Pauli Fan Shop… well at least those are the one that is interesting for me. Until I saw that Sankt Pauli Fan Shop is rather scary! with skull, black and white color oh noooooo!!! I don’t want to sell my soul to the Devil! I don’t even want to get in there…sorry Sankt Pauli fans but your symbol scares the $h!t out of me #spooky! 0.0
I agree that this area is something else, it’s like a really different part of the world, I was not comfortable of staying there too long so I took myself back to the other side 🙂
Hello from the other side #Adele is here. Btw, I really meant it. The other side from hell is heaven, demons is angels, now you are getting into it, I am talking about churches. Here are the main churches in Hamburg:
Look at this magnificent St. Michael! what is that? so big, so marble white, so wow!
Neck to neck to St. Michael is St. Nikolai Memorial but the church is not there anymore, only remains. What I like most from St. Nikolai is the lady statue called “Angel on Earth” – Take my hand and let me lead you back to yourself! BAM! how powerful is that?!
Then St. Jacobi, for some reason the Alpha and Omega candle is really appealing to me 🙂 When I went there on Thursday, they had the organ concert for 30 minutes, ohh how beautiful!
Not far from there is St. Peter church, nothing special except they have “mistletoe” in the middle haha <3
Last one is St. Catherine 🙂 I like the church that is white and to me it looks like a mini version of St. Michael #cuteee!
Well well well I think after all the churches, I am back to the safe side again 😉
Boats boats boats, ahoy, captain! Those were my first impression about Hamburg #inspired by how i met your mother obviously but it is sooo true! There were many bridges and water all around, mir gefällt das!
At first I really got confused with the topography of Hamburg, it didn’t come easily for me, too many bridges, too many districts with different character. Speicherstadt, Hafen City, Reeperbahn and Sankt Pauli, Sternschanze oh oh! Marlyn was overwhelmed! O.O However since I spent more of my time in Speicherstadt and Hafen City, I kind of get the bit out of it in the end and mir gefällt das noch 🙂
This is at the most most must visit, Speicherstadt. All the buildings are this bricks looks #my favourites! then come the water and bridges.
Not far from there there is a “small port” I would say, not sure if it’s still operation like a real port but there I can see some small boats so kind of an “open-air museum” or whatever haha it’s just some nice path that you will go if you want to visit Elbphilharmonie. It is a Konzerthaus, when I saw on their website it cost 2Euro to go to their 8th floor, I didn’t buy the ticket online because I don’t know when will I go there and since it’s only 2 Euro I prefer to buy there direcly, I went and it kostet….nichts?! heeee, it’s for freeeiiii! The escalator kind of took us directly to level 6/7 because it’s such a gigantic and long escalator! It is really nice to just relax, enjoy the wind (because it’s quiet big up there) and just see the boats sailing 🙂
Then I come back to the land… Landungsbrücken, passed through Elbe Tunnel (such a cool Tunnel) went to the famous Brücke 10 food stall for their fishbrotchen but since I don’t eat fish soooooo….. this is important place sadly become unimportant mwaha.
What impressed me the most is the Ship Museum called Captain San Diego, it was a real ship that sailed throughout the year but now not anymore (that’s why it became a museum duh) I never ever ever know the engines from a ship and boahhh I suddenly have a claustrophobic because all the stairs etc are too small! even for my feet! I remembered the scene from Titanic where all the workers become panic and tries to run away oh yeah that scares me off!
All in all, Hamburg is so good, I’m glad I went here and I’m sure I barely scratched the surface of what there is to explore 🙂
In June 2018 I made a pinky promise with someone, we agreed “no matter what and where we are, we will meet each other again”
But first lets not go to that point yet because we need to pull back to the beginning of 2018 where I had a new intern in my office 🙂 I was so happy finally it will be a girl other than a (normally) French guy, you know stereotype of French people yeeahhh don’t even try to go that direction, nothing positive coming out of it haha
I picked her up from Pudong airport, I haven’t met her before but it wasn’t so hard to recognize a Dutch lady right? Screened through a coming passengers, excuse me! Are you Oda? Jackpot! Took one guess and bingo #detective
Oda was our intern for about 4 months, I was really happy to finally got a friend in the office! We even watched Breaking Bad once when our boss is not around (or twice or haha who knows how many times) both of us were so addicted and in love with Jesse Pinkman!
She also joined me and my archery guys for an almost all you can eat Laksa day, however we both were too stupid to wear a white top, we need to take care not to spill it! We also joined the evening where Hungover Games won the award! And not only our sport won, we also won free lunch! our friend Rich won this raffle but he gave it to us, since we were both broke we took it without hesitation, thanks to him we can eat like a king! 😀
One day around CNY I was sick, I asked Oda to came to my apartment, scratch my back with a coin haha! I showed her how my back supposed to look like after she scratched it, oh boy she was in shocked! Haha thanks to her I came back healthy again, even able to go to April’s home and celebrated together 🙂
However, her internship come to an end, time to say goodbye is just around the corner, we had dinner at f.r.i.e.n.d.s cafe. Its a serious thematic cafe from TV series friends. After that dinner before we parted ways we made our pinky promise. We don’t know when or how but somehow we believe that we will meet again.
Oda and I are not the type who keep contact all the time, oh please we got life! haha we are not even do it from time to time but thanks to social media we can still have each other and somehow update about what the other side is doing. First attempt was to meet her in 2019 where I went to Amsterdam but it didn’t happen. Aahhh so close yet so far away.
Then the Universe heard us, Oda and Philipp moved to Hamburg! I was about to visit Hamburg in July but why should I? I can just wait for her in Sept! So we can fulfil our pinky promise!
The wait is now over! After 3 years and 3 months, we met again 🙂
I dont have the very first pic of us together but she still remember that I brought her to Bar Centrale to eat pizza too! First, Italian food is never wrong, I don’t want to give her a culture shock, she just landed yo! And second, the wifi is good there so she can let her family and Philipp know that she’s safe!!
I met Oda every day after her work or during her lunchtime but on Friday and Saturday we got the full day, maaaannn…..I feel like we both on work because we walked for full 8 hours! From 10:15ish to 19:00
On Friday we joined a walking tour from Sandeman with our guide Umut. He explained us so many interesting stories like “Why we have Swan-father (people who protects Swan) in Hamburg?” because we believe that Swan brings prosperity to the City of Hamburg. He explained that (almost) only in Hamburg that citizen are more important than the emperor and it shows from the Rathaus that they put citizen statue (normal people with normal jobs) above their emperor statue. The running gags why Hamburg and Bremen don’t like each other because Hamburg is the door to the world (as it’s where the Port are) and Bremen said “yes but Bremen has the key to open that door” Umut showed us in Deichstraße where the fire began and by the end of the road it’s finished. We also went on a 1,8 Euro “cruise” boat haha! to “Portugal” 😉 , Elbphilharmonie and Landungsbrücken.
On Saturday we had brunch with Philipp, went to Dialogue in Silence, shopping, failed to eat at KFC because DB changed my train.
Oh noooo time for me to come back to Dortmund! now we dont need pinky promise anymore, rest assured that you and Philipp are always welcome here 🙂
We can’t overlook the tragedy that happened in Berlin especially when the wall was there. At first I thought the wall is just a straight border but I was totally mistaken, the separation from the wall was just unbelievably uneven. This part of the story I named it “Marlyns realized what strive is”
For me, visiting the debris of the Berliner Mauer is a must. However, since the wall was everywhere, means it’s not located in one single long space but it’s splitted into many parts of Berlin. I only went to Berlin Wall Memorial in Bernauer Str and visit Topography of Terror.
To begin with Berlin Wall Memorial, it seems to be “only a wall” until I joined Berlin-Unterwellten Tour where they explained more about what happened to Berliner during the Wall time and get ready, it is a tragic, sad, touching, full of emotional journey.
In Bernauer Str they built some memorial monument for the victims of either World War or Cold War and part of the walls still stands there. The victims are mostly younger than me and ended up losing their life 🙁
Then, I visited Topography of Terror, they have inside and outside museum mainly tell the story of how slowly Hitler’s gain the power, in economy, politics and army-wise. How he and his troops put a disgrace on hippies, homosexual and Jews. It is really sad for me to read how they turned homosexual in and force one to put a conflict to his or her partner. Nothing much to say about this place, it is a must visit but at the same time I become very upset because of what had happened to them in the past, how come such a sick mindset man gain so much power. What makes me even more upset is not all ex-officer got punished, especially the one who considered as “accessory of the crime” meaning someone who ‘just’ built the gas chamber but not the one who turn on the button, this people don’t get any punishment, what a fair world. They know for sure what the purpose of it but yet not found guilty of a crime.
I just want to say that Thanks God right now Berlin is one of the city where homosexual can express themselves as they truly are and not stuck in past’ mindset.
Another very touching story is the one I got from Berliner Unterwelten Tour. About how 4 peoples built a tunnel illegally to save people from East to West, the remarkable Tunnel 29 and 57, where they saved 29 and 57 people through unstoppable 5 months of digging for 145 meters long. These 4 heroes inspires other engineer, real diggers to also dig some tunnels and rescue their loved ones, very rarely succeed.
This is really sad and extreme scary of how people tried to escape, they would write a message on a paper, put together a rock and throw it over the wall hoping someone would read and prepare something to land on the other side. They would just jump from a rooftop, if the other side prepare a matrass or anything to land it’s good, if not… either they got injured or die. The border patrol will just shoot you and leave you bleeding to death for 3 hours at least and then moved your body and on and on and on.
The very touching and emotional part from the tunnel diggers are mainly they want to be together with their family again, the wall had separated them from their loved one for decades and the tunnel had showed me how they never gave up on each other, how they strive against all odds.
I can’t go on, Berlin’s wall history is really beautiful, it is so beautiful to the point that I can’t take it anymore. Berlin is really really must visit and can offer you 1001 things to do.
Thank you for the experience Berlin, we definitely see each other again. I can’t let you go yet, not ever <3
The Clash has London Calling and Berlin has Marlyn calling 😉 This second part of my Berlin story I named it “Marlyn invited herself” as she starts to call her friends that might be available by the time she’s in Berlin. Lucky me, I got to see them all!
First, contact Nico! He has a brother that lives in Germany, I can’t remember where exactly in Germany but Nico made it so clear last year he said “Whenever you go to Berlin you need to tell me and I will tell my brother” Booyah!! Supporting reason to visit Berlin 🙂
Sebastian is really really cool guy, I like him and he looks exactly 99,9% like Nico! People definitely can see they are brothers, had Nico didn’t spend so much time in the sun, people will think they are twins haha. Sebastian chose a restaurant called “The Big Dog Berlin” what the hell is that? what a name for a restaurant 😀 I told him I wanted to have a Berliner wurst so this is the place.
Surprise surprise the place was closed! with no announcement what so ever, Sebastian was so upset, he complained to JW Mariott (because it owns by them) and JW Mariott just say “yeah, not so many people today so we just close” pffffff but kein Stress, we will figure somewhere else. We walked through Potsdamer Platz and Sebastian said the traffic light here was the first traffic light in Germany, oh cool! a bit of a history haha he wasn’t sure if it’s the first in EU but bestimmt in Germany. We went to Sony Center and in the end we had Obatza and Schnitzel in Paulaner 🙂
Then, I asked Radite-my highschool friend who studies in Landshut, he has many Indonesian friends like Christo for example. But more importantly (not that Christo unimportant heyyy), he connected me with one of my high school friend that I haven’t met for 14 years, Gita! Little that I knew she is heavily preggo now! what an amazing surprise!
Radites sister gave him a “wide angle” thingy for taking a selfie, because both of our iPhone is not the latest one so we don’t have this function but thanks to this thingy we can have something similar to that. We were so dedicated to test it at first but since the difference wasn’t so big and it’s annoying so we ditch it right away haha
When I’m with him, we had mainly Asian as a big meal but we also have Western breakfast, snack or brunch whatev. However, best of the best is Indonesian food! whoaaaa the taste really close to home! Thank you Nusantara for bringing our food to Berlin! We went to Gita and Budi’s house and ordered a Vietnamese food. We met with Christo and had Japanese food.
Of course I am a member of Girl Gone International Facebook group where I got to meet empowering ladies that lifting and supporting women. I joined a couple of GGI Zoom movie film meeting. The organizer named Trish from Ireland just moved to Berlin in July. Heyyyyy, Carlos also has a friend, why don’t I met her too? I actually already met Fabi one time on Carlos bday so just ask him for her number, easy peasy 🙂 We had a brunch at The Father Carpenter, this place is really good! Waited for one hour due to it was so crowded on Sunday but it’s ok, we have time 🙂
Last but not least, I contacted my online German teacher, Michael. I wanted to meet him because when you see someone all the time through a monitor, you feel like he is a movie star so you got to meet him haha. At the beginning, I can’t meet him due to the time doesn’t fit in his schedule, but one thing lead to another, good that DB Train has a streik and didn’t operate so I had to prolong my stay in Berlin, in the end I can meet him 🙂
I met him for a early coffee before I came back to Dortmund…..and….. being a German he said “He won’t smile on the picture” and he did it 🙂
Berlin is very very very international, we can meet all people from everywhere here. Reminds me of Shanghai, I miss my Shanghai people so much though XO but life goes on and I’m doing well in Germany 🙂
I like Berlin already and now I like Berliner, double thumbs up! Until next time, peps!
I got the inspiration for the title from what we know of 1001 Nights because it represents of 1001 things one can do in Berlin! Julius also support this when I asked him what can I do there, he replied “1.000 Sachen!”
And this is only the first part of it, I named it the “Marlyns first try to conquer Berlin” 😉
When I get off from my ICE, read the sign “Berlin Hauptbahnhof”, breathed the air, I instantly feel “I’m in Shanghai”. For Germany, this Hbf is really big! It has 4 floors, many shops and places to eat but among all of that, there is one that really caught and got my attentionnnnnn, it was the Ampelmann shop! I have been wanting to visit this shop ever since I saw my Hermano Binbin wore an Ampelmann shirt while we were on Moganshan back then in 2018. He said he will get me one when he go to Berlin, no need Hermano, I’m getting myself one and few other stuff from the shop 🙂
Visiting scheduled already planned, no deviation allowed, first and foremost what else other than Brandenburger Tor! As expected, there were so so sooo many people there, regardless of cloudy, rainy or anything it will always packed! Thanks to my sister, she’s able to photoshopped all other people behind me so it looks like I have the Tor all by myself ha! thanks sissy!
Right next to it is a Holocaust Memorial, a place of remembrance to more than 5 millions murdered Jews during World War. It is stand on an uneven ground with many columns of different heights that was designed to make us disoriented, confused, dizzy and just hopeless. When I walked through in between those columns, it makes me feel so small and nothing. Not much to say about this memorial but it is a must to visit and to experience. Please pay some respect by not stepping it.
Still on the same area we have the Reichstag, unfortunately I didn’t get the appointment to enter. Then I visited Charlotten Burg, it’s already close by that time so I just stay in the Garden area.
Next sightseeing are Siegesäule (the Victory Column) and Charlie Check Point, but I only walked passed and visit the shop. I already buy the ticket but I’m saving it for the rainy day and I meant it! I only enter museum when it’s rain, can’t waste a sunny day in Germany, as it is a solar eclipse phenomena 😉
Ooopsss how can I forget Museuminsel and Berliner Dom! I got a WOW effect on this area, the Dom is so magnificent, the Museums are all awesome! Wait for a mega geil 360 degree view of Berlin from top of Berliner Dom!
Then, a very different area where East Side Gallery and Oberbaum Bridge located, as you read from it, they are on the East part of Berlin. I have a mix feeling about this particular area, a bit of a punk but at the same time I found it really cool too! I need to found the famous “Mein Gott, hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben” wall, I’m glad it’s not on the far end of the wall 🙂
This is my first time in Berlin and my first impression about it is really cool! I like it! Definitely there is much to see in Berlin, need to figure out about the people, food and history much more… but so far… Berlin got my thumbs up!
When online meet offline, what? what is this and who I’m meeting with? It’s a he and he is our Grammar-Guru when I took my online German class 🙂 Ahmed from Egypt!
Originally we supposed to meet with Leon too but due to heavy rain disruption and a rainy day, we kept postponing our trip, in the end only me and Ahmed that can do it. I’m still happy we made it!
I insist to go on Saturday because Münster have Wochenmarkt and I specifically need to eat Reibekuchen. It is nothing more than an oily potato haha! Nothing worth to mention here. But! This Wochenmarkt is located in the city center, where the main attractions are.
I really like Münster Cathedral or also called St. Paulus-Dom and Ich muss unbedingt the Astrological counter-clockwise clock and “Paradise” (a hall lined with larger than life-sized status of Jesus and the 12 Apostles) finden. Okay, church visit started! Ahmed is Muslim so he doesn’t know the story and all the characters, me on the other hand is Christian so I know it or I supposed to know.
We walk inside the church and kept counting the statues because it has to be 12! but it always either 10 or 14! rrrrrr And it is written “larger than life” statue…..so….. it should be bigger than a normal person but I only see one statue that is bigger than Ahmed with a baby on his shoulder and Ahmed ask me “is it Jesus?” I said “No, Jesus doesn’t look like that, I don’t know who is this child maybe a baby Jesus, but Jesus is in the middle” I pointed to the one in the middle of the altar and we counted the statue surrounding Him, it’s also not 12 and we tried to guess maybe the small gold statue down there? but then it’s not a larger than life sized and Ahmed pointed on a 12 circles on the back of the church and ask me if those are the Apostles? and I said “no, Apostles is a person” Hmmmmm cannot find it….
I saw in the corner a “free-tour” and I always caught the word “free” 🙂 we had a very beautiful lady from Spain named Nuria and she explained us everything about the church from the very beginning, turns out Ahmed is not all wrong!
Okay, so the paradise is the place where we just got in which is a small “hall” before the main church I’d say. Why is called a paradise? Because all the statue on the wall is representing animals and plants. And yeah indeed it is, didn’t pay attention before so this is the whole Paradise things I’ve been looking for. Yes, found it!
Next is the larger than life statue and where is it? exactly on the entrance door to the main church! I counted…. “Nuria, it’s only 10?” and she said yes because the other 2 were lost, aaaaaaaaa haha who would have known?!?! and she said no one can recognize who is who unless for one Apostle called Bartolomeus because he wore a shoes, ahaaa can’t unsee it now!
Then, we went inside the main church, we started from the back side where we have 12 circles on the wall and she said “it’s representated the 12 Apostles” ahaha Ahmed was right and she turned to the very giant statue and a baby on his shoulder, the one that I forgot his name hmm…. can’t remember it but I knew this story, anyway…
So he is a very strong Saint, the one that always help people to cross the river….any clue about his name? hmmm… okay, let’s continue, one day there is a child that want to cross the river, he hold his child on his shoulder but the child is very very very very heavy, he made it to the other side still but then he asked the child “you are so heavy” (something like that, maybe not too direct) and the child said “you just carried the weight of the world on your shoulder” and that child is a baby Jesus.
P.s Marlyn was right 😉
Moving on to the astrological clock, at 12:00 they have some “show” where the devil rang the bell 3 times and of course I forgot what happens later but I got it on a video 🙂
For some reason I really thought the clock will ticking haha! Naja… Anyway the church visit need to end now because they will start the ceremony. But both of us were so happy to get this tour from Nuria.
Then, we went to Aasee, we don’t walk around the whole Aasee but we arrived there! The distance for all main attractions here is only 15 minutes to everywhere. We also went to Schloss Münster but it is on renovation, so skip it! let’s walk again. At some point we got hungry and we decided to have a food at Frauenstrasse. The moment we sat on the chair, we got somewhat a revelation that we were Kaputt! We have been walking for 4,5 hours! I’m immediately attached to the chair. But something pushes us, we remembered Nuria said the church closed at 5PM and there is still one more church that we haven’t visit- Lamberti Kirche- it’s famous because it has cages on top of it. We really really force ourselves and we hope there will be a tour but unfortunately they don’t have it. Nevertheless, I’m glad that we haben es geschafft! instead of keep staying in the restaurant 🙂
This mark the last Sehenswürdigkeiten for us in Münster before we headed to Hbf, we need some sugar intake so we bought a doughnut which I’m sure can caused us diabetes, chocolates everywhere haha anyway, imo, Münster is good! I like it!
Our physic was dead tired but there was one more mental examination for both of us! The journey is not over yet haha. Ahmed train were 5 minutes earlier. Mine was RB 89 but the train on my Gleis is written RB 69 I thought it will move and my train will come but 3 mins prior my departure time this RB 69 still there okay so I asked the passenger inside if this train will stop at Hamm as I have to change there and take other train from Hamm to Dortmund, they said yes hmmm then the name on the screen and on my App was wrong, naja egal, this RB 69 will take me to Hamm anyway.
I reached Hamm as planned, then I saw on the screen it’s my RB to Dortmund and the train already in the Gleis. I saw den Schaffner outside but I didn’t bother to ask, I jumped right in and so was he. He asked me to show my ticket, I did it and he said that I need to buy a new ticket because this one is invalid but why? Because the train that I took was an IC train! He was so angry and said “my colleague will come and you must buy a new one, you can ask me before but you just jump in” Oh gosh relax! it’s not that I rode without a ticket yo! and I asked him if this train go to Dortmund? and he didn’t reply, damn! I didn’t see any Dortmund on the screen and I don’t want to go to meet other passenger because I was waiting for his colleague, I don’t want he to think “oh this Asian lady is a free-rider blablabla”
What makes me more nervous is my battery already 18% and I texted Ahmed to find out where this train will takes me! I felt that my train was getting slower at least 3 times but it didn’t stop! And Ahmed cannot find my IC train from the Apps, perhaps it’s gone from Berlin or somewhere so he cannot track it anymore. I was total total total nervous, I don’t want to go to other direction on Saturday and how can I find the right train without my phone und so weiter und so forth!
It was only 10 minutes but it feels like an ewigkeit! haha When the trains really getting slow and I saw people started to stand up then I got ready to go out and tell Ahmed what is the name of the station and when I saw “Dortmund Hbf” oh my all the stress were dropped hahaha! Even Ahmed was stressed too hahaha
Thank you Ahmed for not only joining my Münster Trip that broke our feet apart haha but also joining my mental panic attack 🙂
Have a good time back in Egypt and see you when you come back to Germany again! Next trip is waiting!
Next, I embraced myself to a city that took 3 hours away from Dortmund which is called Koblenz and why is that? Because Moni has a cousin there, she said “my cousin will be so happy to meet you, you will fit for each other” okay then, say no more! I’m omw 😀
Her cousin name is Aleja and she looks exactly like Moni haha! btw I’m not the only one, Moni’s boyfriends JP also said the same, he told me if I go to Mexico and meet all the relatives of Moni they all looks the same haha
The transportation in small city like Koblenz is not convenient, if I miss the bus then I will have to wait for 30 mins P.S this is for morning, in the not so evening which is after 18:00 bus will only come every hour that is why I have to walk more than 5km from Hbf to her place and I have to pass der Friedhof iiiiii spooky but I manned up! managed to reach her home and had a low connection video call with Moni and JP because they were on the beach! while we were on a rainy cold German summer >.<
I have never slept like a baby before, I think one of the reason is Ale’s curtain is the black out type that block all the sunshine haha I didn’t even realized it was raining outside so I wait until the rain is acceptable to take the bus and explore the city!
The city is so small and all tourist attractions are located next to each other, what a definition of perfectooo 🙂 I like the Alte Burg, Jesuitenplatz and churces.
And of course the main main main attractions is the Deutsches Eck! where Rhine and Mosselle river meets in the middle.
Not so far from the German Corner, there is a Biergarten, church and a cable car to one of the castle and of course I took it! On the way back I chose to sit on cable car number 17 because they have a part in the middle which made from glass so I can see what’s under me…. which is obviously the river 🙂
During my visit to the castle, rain starts to pour down but it didn’t stop me from enjoying it, I visited the museum for child. This museum is really really interesting, there are games, stamps collection station and was full of colors! Of course there’s a lot of kids but I don’t care, I have a traumatic childhood, they need to wait for me until I finish the game and collect those 8 stamps!
I had so much fun, I even don’t bother to check if it still rained or not and when it stops, this is the time for me to go out and finish my castle’s tour 🙂 The Deutsches Eck view from top of the castle is amazing! Mir gefällt es!
After my whole day tour, I reunited again with Aleja and her friends, Paula and Pamela, we had a Mexican dinner, ice cream, meet a funny statue and walk around in the city center.
Only Pamela came around one month ago while Aleja and Paula came almost the same time with me, maybe a few months earlier. So we all came during Corona time and travel was a bit hard back then but now I know they haven’t been to Dortmund yet, why not next time they stay with me 🙂 must be so much fun for us to travel together, I make sure I have my Indonesian chili sauce for Pamela 🙂
Koblenz definitely got a Marlynapproved stamp! I like it, it’s such a cute small city even they have a statue for #thumbs up! cool, eh?!
When Hollywood produced “Me Before You”, Marlynshood produce and keep producing “Me After You” me after who? who is you? is me after my vaccine 🙂 The rule in here is from the date of my second shot + 14 days later then I belongs to the category of fully vaccinated and are allowed to travel without PCR or Rapid test.
However, I am still not confidence to go outside of Germany because the list of “dangerous country” from Germans Authority keeps changing every day and I don’t want to risk it. Therefore I decided to start small by taking a one hour train to a neighbor city, Düsseldorf 🙂
I stayed over the night there haha when I told the Germans that I am staying in a hotel in Düs they all were laughing because the distance between Düs and Dortmund is soooooo close, yes I don’t want to go back on the train the same day, I’d rather chill a bit there, I have all the time in the world 😀
It’s all really big compare to Dortmund, Königsalle shopping district (not that I’m shopping btw), Old Town and Rhine Promenade seems to be the highlight of this city. It is so big that leads me to a confusion… like where am I? I am already in the area? Seems so, let’s walk around.
The city itself is not so interesting imo, it’s a big city with many options, nichts besonders…. at least until I went to Kaiserswerth area. It is like their own small city and I like it more 😀
It’s basically a ruined castle, so the main attraction is only it but it’s located in such a quiet and peaceful area. I met a very nice lady with her dog, I think she knows I’m a bit confused about the place and she told me there is a very very very small alley and they have trees next to each other, it sounds very normal but the alley is indeed small and to me it looks cute!
I am not a big fan of visiting a museum, but I will be when it’s rain 🙂 I visit Neanderthal Museum, it’s a museum about human evolution, located I think in the far end of Düs because it took me almost one hour to get there. It is interesting though and a good place to be when you are waiting for the rain to pass 🙂
I also went to a Castle that unfortunately closed but I like the building it’s pink!! Then I went to Hofgarten where I found out there are more ducks than people and I don’t even dare to cross them so I went back mwahaha.
All in all, Düs is just OK, good for an “execursion” outside Dortmund but what I really like about it is the FOOD! oopps I meant the Japanese Food there! Yes, Düs got another name and it’s “The Little Tokyo” Immermanstraße and Carl Platz are just amazing!! Next time if I want to eat Japanese food, I’d rather to take a train and go to Düs other than eat in Dortmund 🙂 it is just that good! #drooling!
Thanks, Düsseldorf, time to move on to the next one!
Beginning of March, there was an email from our board saying that NW will have an event called “Autokino” which means you watch a movie inside your car and they projected it on a big screen. I really think this is a very good idea because cinemas were and still closed until this moment. Actually this Autokino ist ganz alte Schule! existed since my parents generation mwahaha but no harm on bringing it back on 🙂 good stuff does exist longer!
Julia directly called me and asked if I wanted to join because…… I don’t have a car, I can’t just come and standing in front of the screen, if that’s the case then it will be hmmmm Stehenkino haha obviously I said yes to her. This will be my first Autokino experience!
We chose the Wednesday 24th March and the film that we watched called Nightlife. Since I am not in home office period so I could see their preparation before! they put the big screen in our parking lot, bin so aufgeregt!
Behind the screen 🙂
The film started at 20Uhr German (on) Time but we were advised to be there since 18Uhr. When we entering the parking lot, they gave us plastic with wet towel and flag hmmmm ok flag… Then we passed through a drinking station and to our parking spot. Our cantine provide us with nachos, popcorn, currywurst and ice cream! and the good thing is all kostenlos! do I need to tell you what did I have? auf jeden Fall, alles! nyam nyam nyam 😉
When the time getting near to 8PM the sky is getting darker and the atmosphere really suit for watching movie on a big screen.
Before the movie start, we saw our board standing in a “stand-thingy” holding a mikrofon and gave us some speech. I thought it will be just “welcome and now we will start” but nope nope, mistaken! He did a presentation about NW, I was quiet shock when he said ” Präsentation” heee? did I mishear? there was not on the email that you will do presentation! haha its quiet funny when I see a slide with an “agenda” for today event. #very German :p
Btw there was one important slide which is the increasing number of employee last year, the number is +7 and Julia said “Marlyn you are one of the +7” yes! I made a “contribution” to the ppt 🙂
After that, the movie began! it was no subtitles but to my surprise I can understand it! not all words but approximate and this is good enough for me. The most impressive things is during the movie if we want to eat something we don’t need to come out from the car, we just…..raise our flag! that is whyyy…. and when we finished we all drove out and there were 3 people standing holding a garbage can. My comment was “wow this is very organize! they did a very good preparation!” soooo German! 😉
I really like when Mr. Simon gave the speech and there was a slide about Corona, he said “please not only see the negative side from corona and just waiting this to end because we can still do our best during this bad time” and this Autokino is one of the good thing that can happened in a bad situation as for sure no-one will bring this event back when we can einfach go to a real Kino.
Overall, I am very happy and did very impressed with the preparation for Autokino event. I am so proud to be part of Nordwest employee, thank you for coming up with this idea. Nevertheless, thank you Julia and Moritz for inviting me to join your car 🙂
