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Calling

We reach the bottom of the story! The root of why I went to Brussels is caused by a simple question from Louise triggers another question to Anu triggers another question to Irina then to Helene, it’s a domino’s effect. “Do you want to go to Harry Potter things?”

The hell I want it, my inner child is calling, so does Irinas. Great! who’s living in Brussels? maybe Helene and Alex wants to join too. Helene said yes, Alex said no as she’s not a hardcore fans. No worries! we three will make it.

Damn right we did! Irina came just for the day, I met her after I finished with Gent. We went first while Helene join after she finish working. We took the non direct bus which means, 20 minutes walk to the forest is needed. We felt like we were in Hagrid’s home 🙂 outside of Hogwarts. By the time we were about 300m from the forest we could hear some music. Run! we don’t want to be late! Professor Mcgonagall is gonna kill us!

We only arrived no more than 15 minutes before Helene, safe to say we all made it on time.

About the same time when we were there, there was a mother and her son who were so nice, she kept helping us taking our pictures. Apropos, we helped her too, just in case someone questioning our behavior 😉

Harry Potter snacks welcomed us, not for free though 😉 Without a doubt, their price were ridiculous, take an example when you’re a child you’re ripping off your parents for asking them to buy you stuff, now the circle is closing, only you rip off yourself. It is all connected #confession, I binge watch Manifest lately. Just like in the series, you had to follow the Calling, you’re inner child is having the joy of their life now 🙂 Quote from Irina “take my money!” That bitch wasn’t even a Harry Potter fans she binge watched the whole movies before going to the forest.

Here comes the introduction of the forest that I have not the slightest understanding whatsoever because it was in French…. thought they will repeat it in English, hell no they didn’t! #meh -_-

Irina wanted to borrow someone’s wand for a picture, she asked a couple “where did you get the wand” from all languages that we speak (be in mind Indonesian, Mandarin, German, English, Spanish, French, Dutch), we need to ask a Russian couple hahaha suddenly we remember the mother’s kid has a wand with him! Find them!

We were so happy when we found a Butterbeer stand! This is on our agenda, we need to drink it! They both are amateur cannot get the moustache thingy pffff

On that Butterbeer stand we made our DIY wand, actually we didn’t do nothing apart from asking “can we get this straw?” the guy on the opposite side was “yes, you can have it more too” “no we need to save sea turtles, we will take turns on our Expecto Patronum spell”. Thanks God we don’t need to use it, they provided the wand for us.

Continue walking through the forest, we met Centaur, Niffler, Buckbeak. Another interactive session that I have no clue about. Hagrid’s half brother Grawp, Aragog..Hagrid, is that you? We heard the music of Durmstrang when Viktor Krum entering The Great Hall #ugh! 很 man! I remembered I went crazy about this specific scene.

Still walking until there was a battle light between Harry and “you know who” and that bitch Irina Avada Kedavra-ing me while I’m not even ready! I shouted shut up bitch shut up bitch, she ain’t give a damn! Avada Kedavra, Avada Kedavra, dieeeee! The final scene in Harry Potter is the final scene in the forest experience. Our Harry Potter experience has comes to an end 🙁

Here is a clip videos that I can make from all videos that Irina and I took. Of course it didn’t do the justice of the whole experience in the forest but it has our memories 🙂

Because we just experienced Harry Potter, we need to Manifest it to our names….. what could be our names in Harry Potter? hmmmmm… HA! found it!

Good bye for now from: Heleres Umbridge, Draco Marfoy and Rinald Weasley 😉

#Portus

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Fill in The Gaps

Four years ago, my family and I tried to go to Gent, sister booked a private city tour there, unfortunately when the time comes no-one replied us back. Plus the weather was predicted to be gloomy, rainy, windy and all of their friends joined together. In the end we decided to stay in Brussels, which leads me to another mission four years later to fill in that trip gaps!

Helene told me about some protest from the trains that is happening in Belgium. Intercity trains will stop operating for 3 days. Here comes the cherry on top, which dates it will be? on the date where I planned for Gent haha instead of one full day staying there, I had to cut it short to only half day trip.

Had there was no protest, for sure I’ll do Gent City Walking Tour in day time and Gent Horror Walking Tour in night time with some spooky story! sounds interesting ehhhh…. well, maybe this gaps will remains open until I fill it in again in the future 😉 #challenge accepted!

I arrived around one hour before the Walking Tour started. What should I visit? had no agenda at all, googled “attractions in Gent”, screenshot the pages one by one, made my own list, let’s move!

I want to see the oil painting called “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” it’s located at the St. Baafskathedraal. Good! two attractions in one. Went in to the Baafskathedraal, walked around, walked once again….hmmm… where is it? saw a corner to another side of the Kathedraal, there was locker seems you can’t bring anything inside, put my stuff there, went to the entrance door heyyy! you need to pay haha 12 Euro! hell yeah, ain’t gonna pay that! skip skip skip, failed to kill two birds with one stone.

For some reason I wanted to visit “Huis van Alijn” this house was formerly a children hospice, its says there are some photos and videos that are really emotional. Found that place, however I was too early, they haven’t open yet.

I went back to the starting point for our walking tour with some stops for pictures time 🙂 #snap snap click click

Then our walking tour time is up 🙂

Our tour guide has the softest voice that could ever exist in this world. I didn’t meant it to be bad just simply unbelievable. We started the tour by seeing 3 towers Gent could offer from St. Baafskathedraal, Belfort Tower and St Niklaas. Then we went to under the bridge…from the appearance it seems so old, in reality not even 100 years old haha #appearance can be deceiving to the fullest. Around this bridge we can enjoy the view of “Big Ben” which btw it does looks similar, good job Gent people!

She said something about the oldest building in Gent now is Manhattan Burger #definitely a nice way to remember history 😉 In the middle is the Tax office, it is small because they don’t want to pay big tax for big building, make sense! Everything needs to be count down to the pennys.

Next we walked in front of the fortress that never became a real fortress apart for one time and one time only where students able to manage to get in into the Fortress, threw everything they had at home like rotten vegetables, eggs etc to the police because the governments wants to increase beer tax for students haha it’s not happening bro #priority!

So what was that Fortress then? it was once a cotton mill, once also treated as a prison. However not every prisoners serve a long time there because there is a square literally in front of it and in that square is the life of prisoners ended either to be hanged or however way to die at that time of centuries. But now that same exact square who took out life became a square where they celebrate life. When the baby at the main hospital was born, the lamp post will blink.

Continued walking until we found a fountain that I really like! the bottom is for cats and dogs, then is for horse, next is for people on the top is for birds aaawww very lovely ehhh Gent make sure all get drinks, all included! From this fountain you can see there is also a building who looks like a skull, that used to be aaarrghhh I forget…. hospital? butcher? haha anyway something spooky happened too hiyyyy

We finished our tour in City Hall, it is one same building but finished in two different style 🙂 I noticed there is also an Indonesian participant on the group, talked to him when the tour ended, we went to Vrijdagmarkt to have a beer… wait! its not just a normal beer but a beer that has bicycle design, not my luck! the place is not open yet pfffff maybe save it for filling the gaps in the future too 😉

Our tour guide recommended to go up to Belfort Tower, it has elevator, you can see the view of Gent and it costs 10 Euros. Will do! I got a closer look to the dragon, don’t think it will looks like one in Game of Thrones or one in Goblet of Fire, to my eyes looks like a Dumbo but I’ll leave it to your imagination 😉

……glaaaaaadddd that I did! the view from the top is top!

After visiting Belfort Tower I didnt have much time left so we just strolling around the same route from the walking tour. Thank you Edwin for the company!

Still remember the Manhattan Burger + Tax office building? Well there is more to it! its located at the Canal per se, on the other side of the canal or with other words on the opposite side of the Tax office is now a Mariott Hotel. There are two swans statue on the wall but they are not facing each other…. do you know why? haha! Please imagine it, in the past when all the sailors comes to Gent, first things they do is pay taxes, what a horrible way to start. Moving on, what could be the second things to do after they leave the Tax office? Look at the sign please, swan to the left is for beer, swan to the right is for XXX rated, yes people Mariott hotel used to be a brothel haha Sorry to all people that stays there.

I dont think they should ever remove the “not facing each other” swan statue 😉 Cute ehhhh!

#Love Gent
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3 on 3

On my third time in Brussels I have this weird obsession: I need to see all 3 Pis, it cannot be postponed to my 4th Brussels trip, has to be done now or never #determination. While I’m writing this, I realized all goes along the way, first time I only saw Manneken Pis, second time with the girl Jeanneke Pis spoiler alert she looks absolutely horrifying, third time aka this time I gotta see the dog hey! Zinneke Pis. Makes matter worse they are not even related haha there was only Urban Legend for Manneken. Jeanneke was created by Delirium Bar as an attraction so people would come to the bar. Zinneke was a piece of street art statue. Another spoiler alert which is not exactly a spoiler as I do believe you already knew it… all of them were a disappointment haha. Nevertheless, I still treat them as a mission to fulfill 🙂

I spent 5 days on the end of November in Brussels for various reasons, we will get to the bottom of it 😉 First arrival was on Saturday evening-ish, I went to Frederic Blondeel Chocolate Shop because Claudia Kohl said it’s the best in Brussels. Followed by Christmas Market with Helene and her GGI Brussels. They are using a very unattractive cup for Glühwein, on the bright side the city of Brussels doing recycle which means the cup was from year 2016 haha. Not happy with only snacking, I took matters in my own hand, decided to have the most Christmasy dinner ever, Ramen!

On Sunday Alex joined us for brunch at Leopold. Brussels is not like Dortmund where nothing open on Sunday other than restaurants, although its also not everything open like in Asia but still some stores are open, we three were hunting for a black Friday discounts 🙂

Helen and I wanted to go to a Sports Bar or just any Bar to watch Worldcup, not the Belgium vs Morocco, the later one which played at 17:00 Germany vs Spain, it was no avail, nope nope we cancelled it, strikes hits Brussels city center where we were therefore it is a wise decision to run to the other directions then took bus back home. In the end we watched it on Laptop haha. Most important ist: Wir überleben die Hooligans.

What else to do when you got free time in town? Join their free walking tour. We gathered in the City Hall, he told me there is a statue of someone on the wall that I need to touch the gold part to have good luck in life, checked! done that. Next we walked passed the Manneken Pis where I almost gone with the crowd, was so happy when I found the tour people again. Had a pit stop for 15 minutes, using this chance to eat…. waffle…duh! and to visit Jeanneke Pis.

He also mentioned that the Manneken Pis had a museum full of his clothing #very important hey. One day I saw the classic Manneken, the next day he was wearing an Architect costume.

Need to state the fact, that Manneken is a copy mwahaha so don’t be too hype about it, the real one was inside a Museum and you need to pay 10 Euro for it, but you got 2 ticket, first to the Museum of something haha, second the Museum of Manneken’s clothes 😉

After we finished the tour, I still have some time before Claudia arrived. She’s the other Claudia, not from office who really crazy about Frederic Blondeel. She’s Claudia Chan, while she’s still working, I strolled around until I found a small place with many people outside standing. Hmmm….. I got closer, read the descriptions, OK it’s a sandwich place. I’m not a big fans of sandwich let alone waiting in line for it….. anyway, let’s give this shop a try.

Leute, it was really the best sandwich! Take my opinion with a grain of salt ofc as I don’t eat Subway sandwich or any other type of sandwich so I don’t have any comparison however what I do know is that sandwich is really good. The guy was so nice, “tell me what you like Miss, please try first, if you don’t like you can give it back to me, I’ll eat it anyway” I literally told him I like honey and Chorizo…. he replied “ok it’s very easy, you need this cheese, pear and honey” oh boy! it was awesome! I think for a sandwich person this place is really worth to check, be in mind that he takes each person’s order like 15 minutes so not a good option if you are in a hurry. The shop called Tonton Garby, very small and humble shop yet lecker guaranteed!

While waiting for Claudia, I get inside a church to warm myself up, I brought my hot chocolate to the church, yes people sorry! it’s very unpolite, the least I can do is not drink it. She arrived with bubble tea, we chatted a bit inside the church on the last row until she asked “can we drink in here” “no ofc this is not a cinema let’s go out” I got my last Pis with her! Zinneke! Wohooo After successfully achieved my mission, we went to Christmas Market, saw the light shows and had Mussels as dinner.

3 Pis on my 3rd time in Brussels! … #so not G.O.A.T # I knew 😉

With my 3 on 3, I am happily closed my Brussels trip!

Thank you Helene, Alex and Claudia for spare your time to meet me, until next time, love you Girls!!! XOXO

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Marlyns Spectacles

Small Iceland bitches reunion! Why small? because the big reunion happened back in April for a Tulip festival where unfortunately I was Corona positive one day before the trip, thus I missed it. Where? In a theme park in Germany called Europa Park! One important truth in life, bitch always comes unexpectedly, one of our friend broke her legs about one week before the trip causing her not to be able to drive 🙁

Feel threatened that even this plan will fail…. I stayed silence during the whole discussion if the girls will still keep it, who will drive and so on. I am the only one that lives in Germany, obviously I still want to go, I can take the train therefore they don’t need to count me in on their car’s space. Odds are in my favor, my bold bitch Irina make sure the plan still on! yaiss girl! you rocks!

They started around 3PM from Amsterdam, picked me up in Köln Hbf around 18:30, arrived in Rust at 00:15, all done by Irina. While Me and Lina slept on the car, Tereza and her keep awake all the time, that is respect yo!

Mind you, I just came back from Milan, whole day on the way, arrived at the hotel at 00:15, they put our keys in the Briefkasten. My brain literally was no where near functioning, grabbed two envelopes, didn’t even bother to ask why there are two, opened one of them, took out the card key, saw the number, okay let’s go to room number 10.

Beep! door opened, saw two shoes, “oh girls I think they haven’t clean the room” to my surprise there is a girl at the bed! She was for sure shock as well however she still managed to politely say “Hi! I think you are in the wrong room”….. hmmm, my spirit starting to come back one by one….I couldn’t even remember what I replied her, should be somewhere along the line…. “how do you know?” “it’s not your name” heeee? she continued “it’s my name on the envelope” first I was amazed she can read her name written on the envelope from that 2 meter-ish distance, second my whole spirit were already back at my body, “oh I’m really sorry, I didn’t check the name” “can you please put the key back?” “yes, I will, good night! bye” We were laughing like wtf, how come the Germans put all the keys in one Briefkasten! Imagine if I’m a bad person! Irina was also puzzled when she said “it’s not your name?” well, how do you know my name? haha Little did I knew, Lina or who else I don’t know had the correct envelope with our name written on it, we were totally at the wrong floor at the wrong room at the wrong time haha the circle of mistakes couldn’t be more round than this #facepalm

We found where we should belong, into our family room (4 beds in one), arranged ourselves to rest, had a really long day #snooze out zzz zzz

Breakfast done, drove to Europa Park, the weather was bad at the beginning, but it gets better during our day there.

We literally just enter the park only to found out that I already dead! #dead inside

We tried the attractions that doesn’t have a long queue first, I thought we just need to sit down but nope we need to pedal the bicycles so it moves faster! we didn’t believe Irina at first when she said we need to pedal after few minutes of confirmation she said “let’s go bitch, don’t tell me you didn’t move faster when you pedal” woah what an exercise in the morning.

We did Moulin Rounge together then we got separated because Lina and Irina doesn’t want to ride Silver Star whereas on the opposite side, me and Tereza were waiting in line for first row! the feeling was amaaazzzinnggg!!!

We had lunch at a restaurant called Food Loop simply because they will deliver us our order via a roller coaster thingy, see this pictures and videos so cute eh!

From the website it’s written they closed at 18:00 near the closing time, we took the deceiving no waiting line roller coaster, yes no waiting line because we come out wet like wet! Credit to German efficiency, directly after we came out there is a dryer machine 🙂

Seeing people still walking around, we took one more attraction, not roller coaster, just the one where our job was to sit and enjoy the view. We could finally relax because at this point I already have a back pain haha #getting old, the struggle is real.

This Europa Park imo is very much interesting than Disneyland or Universal Studios because the place itself is not so big anyhow they really maximized all the usage, all attractions are close to each other, there are toilets everywhere. It’s not like Disney where you need to wait in line for each attraction followed by wait in line for the toilets. The attractions itself are more for adults, there are of course kids and family suitable roller coaster. We know the character of Disney and Universal studios more but Europa Park just like the name, we are in Spanish part, Italian part, Greece part, or the animal “character” that they used is like dinosaurs etc.

So, if you want to be in the whole Europe, go to Europa Park haha

Check out day, I was the last one who use the bathroom, ready to had breakfast… until…. where is my glasses? where my damn glasses! Texted the ladies if by chance they saw it even though my second thought was “how could they?”

Sure as hell I couldn’t find it that time, anyway, went to had breakfast while all the 3 ladies moved around my bed, their bed, checked their bags, went to the car, talk to the receptionist etc (they had breakfast before me, I’m not acting like a diva here hihi)

OK. I was made to believe that I lost it in the park pfffffff I still have my sunglasses though, it has prescriptions too. We were doing some sightseeing in a French city near the border of Germany, called Alsace-Riquewihr. As you can see from the pictures, we didn’t see the sun (aka ‘was raining), nevertheless, I’m wearing it haha!

When in France, have a pancakes….. don’t forget ciders! We versehen Cider at the drink menu, we all ordered Apfelschorle or sth like that, luckily Tereza saw it combined with Irina speaks French, so we all get our beloved ciders 🙂

After that Irina drove me back again to Köln, not a surprise DB got delayed so my arrival at home is the same as their arrival in Amsterdam haha! so severe ehhhhh. In the middle of no energy left, loaded my clothes to the washing machine when out of the sudden a booster energy erupted, there’s my glasses!!!

The trip that ended happily 🙂 just like driving back to Köln after Riquewihr, all through the rainbow.

I am really glad to see you again, yes you bitch with the addition of my new two bitchessss 😀 you’re the best!

#GGI

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Marching On

What type of sightseeing I did in Milan?! One thing I know for sure, I was marching like a soldier during this trip, over 20K steps each day, if only my hips can speak, I’m sure she will try to leave my body haha

As much as I want to believe age is just a number…. its effing true!

The Last Supper painting by Leonardo da Vinci. I am glad I got the ticket eventhough not from their official website, why you’d ask? because it’s already sold out for another 2 months! I paid 49 Euro for the tour. The tour is 45 minutes but we only get 15 minutes inside the Last Supper painting, it’s the same from the official website we can only do 15 minutes too. It’s expensive heyyy although I’m not big fans of any art still I muss visit it. At the end of the day comes the question, is it worthy? honestly speaking, not for 49 Euro. The silver lining however, I saw one of the world most magnificent painting!

Following day, walking tour from guru walk started at 10 AM. The duration was almost 3 hours. Starts at a Duomo’s ticket office building, looking at the Alfa Romeo symbol haha it is not Alfa Romeo symbol, it is a Milanese symbol that Alfa Romeo integrate as their car’s logo 🙂 ends up in Piazza degli Affari where they put a statue of middle finger in front of a stock exchange building.

Andrea and I had a pasta lunch, duh! what else can we eat in Italy other than a good pasta #nom nom, in Miscusi. We can build up our own pasta or trust their creation, I chose the second 🙂

We were intrigued by our walking tour guide called V about the explanation of one building next to St. Stefano church, by reason of this is the place where they put real skulls #spooky we definitely check that place, before we arrived, we stopped by a very interesting jewelry store called Cosiii @cosiii_milano or @cosiii_official the owner is so nice, they had a very cute packaging which put me in shame since I only bought 5 Euro earrings, I think the packaging itself cost more as 5 Euro, to my luck, Andrea bought something worth more, conclusion was we didn’t left that store in shame haha had a tea snack then reach our St. Stefano church destination.

Next we visited Castello Sforzesco, Andrea chose to sit while I marched to the other end to see Arco della Pace.

Had dinner at Risoelatte, had Milanese style of Risotto, the owner gave me 1 Euro discount, he doesn’t have the 4 Euro change so he just gave me 5 Euro bill, yeay! Both restaurants we ate that day was good!

On last day with Andrea, I woke up soooooo late, we don’t have any agenda other than shopping at Zara! Their Zara is different from Germanys bzw. Dortmunds haha Before we separated, we had lunch at Pasta D’Autore.

After Andrea gone to the airport, it is still noon time….I took a tram to visit Brera, this place has a beautiful architecture, color, definitely a to go place for art lovers.

Then closing the evening with Navigli. People, please buy the magnets or any souvenirs you want from Navigli, it is the cheapest one! 3 magnets for 5 Euro instead of the stands at Piazza Mercanti.

The food, the weather, the Limoncello, the statue, the building, the city <3

Forza Italia!

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The Good Samaritan- Part 2

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

She’s already so fashionable ehhh!

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

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

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

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

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Impromptu Fans

Me and Andrea planned my birthday trip to Milan on the last week of September. I arrived one day earlier than her, landed in Milan Bergamo on Saturday evening, did nothing except go to my AirBnb and sleep directly. I have never booked an AirBnb before… hey there is a first time for everything right? This is it, my birthday week, my first AirBnb!

My AirBnb landlord’s Victoria has some suggestion where to go on first day etc she has a complete manual eehhh so organized. Andrea will only arrive around dinner time therefore I do some sightseeing by myself first. After having breakfast in a Patisserie of her choice, went to the area close to home called Corso Buenos Aires and Porta Venezia via foot. I took some detour, saw some ancient style building or neostyle or however style you would describe it. For statue lover I think it would be artistic but for me it’s a bit scary, I like it when the statue are on churches, on some entrance gate too but no need to be so much hahaha

If you already arrived Porta Venezia, it’s already halfway to the Duomo so let’s continue walking. I read in billboard everywhere Milan Fashion Week 20-26 SEPT 22 but my brain processed it as 22nd September instead of reading the 22 as year 2022, “oh the fashion week is already passed” that’s what I thought until I walked passed Armani Hotel.

Why there are so many people waiting in front of it? my mind still didn’t connect with Milan Fashion Week, I thought “famous people maybe wants to come out” since I don’t have any agenda, I chose to asked around, most of them also don’t know. I ain’t give up, I have nothing to lose. Until one Korean lady asked a security and she said Cate Blanchett is gonna come out. Oh let’s wait!

One girl from Dubai, at that time I didn’t know her name also asked “do you know who is coming? What if its not worthy?” but the moment she know it’s Cate Blanchett we waited together! I think she is a fans of her while me rather an impromptu fans. I mean… I’m already so close to see Hollywood A Star, no backing down! #dedicated

We kept waiting, people with make up come out “who is she? Is she famous? Ah no they are model wannabe or some local actress who unfortunately we don’t know” not meaning bad but we were so nervous, curious, every feeling mixed about when Cate Blanchett will appear, we had our camera always ready.

Then a photographer told us “do you know the blonde?” hmmmm no “she’s the wife of American basketball player and a model of Dolce & Gabbana glasses” ahhh ok the photographer was nice though to talk to us.

Suddenly 6 bodyguards are lining up in front of the hotel, said to Hasti “I think she will come out soon” She is in dilemma because her father is hungry should she leave or wait for some time because we did already wait for some time at least 20 minutes.

Hasti’s father recorded us waiting infront of the hotel, here is the compilation video of the crowd + us. You can see both Hasti and I were so invested 😉

Then she came out, didn’t say hi nothing, walked somewhere I don’t know. I got separated from her because I was holding my phone tried to record her, I didn’t want to follow them but people around me started running. If I don’t run, I will for sure fall down thus I had to run too! Turns out we were waiting at the wrong place, there were even more people and photographer waiting in front of the building where Milan fashion week takes place.

I raaannnn passed the crowd, tried to get some selfies, well… someone famous is standing right in front of my eyes, let’s try to make the best out of it. The bodyguard was “Senora senora” shut up! I already almost stomped, let me get some selfies at least. And yes I got it!

You might think I got even a chance to talk to her because I got it so close and no one took a selfie behind me but nope here you can see the bodyguard tries to remove my arms hahaha

Then I started to wonder if Kim Kardahsians will come too because Hasti said that she is in Milan not sure for fashion week but she’s here. Okay let’s wait. Some cars arrived, too bad I can’t see who is inside the car because the windows are dark.

There are so many model wannabe or the guest. Italian always dress up well so I don’t know which one are famous, which one are not. I wasn’t on the front line anymore as I thought there won’t be famous people walking there again until I saw a lady from distance that was so stand out among the crowd however no bodyguard but she was sooooo beautiful she can’t be a normal people or model wannabe. I squeezed myself to the front…thinking…. “Victoria Beckham? No way….” The crowd saying something like Alessandra, smile….Alessandra who…… until she walked infront of me “damn it! It’s Alessandra Ambrosio!”!!!

They are soo tall ehhh! they do wear heels, it doesn’t mean had they took it off they would be the same height as me. I was a bit dysfunctional after my first encounter with Hollywood actress / model.

Then I went to Duomo happily, met two sisters who borrowed me her phone. Finally met Andrea, she craves for Japanesse Ramen haha we could just go to Düsseldorf but nope need to fly to Milan to eat Ramen….thanks God the Ramen was worthy!

I’m already content with the trip that has just started 🙂

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Pineapple

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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German Not Full

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hannover checked, wedding present checked! Done my Job 🙂

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German Full- Part 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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