marlynpraseli.com
How do I start year 2026?
Together <3
Thank you Claudia for inviting us, thank you Alina for snapping our very first picture in year 2026 ~ it was at midnight, the clock just strike 00:00 and for your unwithering jährliche Glück Pflanze. Wishing you all: Domi, Guido, Alina, Claudia & Julius from the bottom of my heart, the very best 🙂
2026, we are ready!
When I told my colleague I was going to Dubrovnik, some advices comes in. Tanja said there are a lot of seafood like mussels , it wasn’t what she likes but I do! Oh I ate mussels almost in every chance! There are three restaurants I really like: The Captain + Mediterra + Kamenice near the “Walk of Shame” ~ you will see a blue white table cloth on the table. To the one who doesn’t like mussels, shame! Hahaha Dominik became a big fans of fried calamari, small fishes, black Risotto. He never even had it before, well… well… well…. see what travels done to you 😉 #Only good vibes!
Hainka told us about Lavender ice cream from Gelateria Dubrovnik, seems pretty Dubrovnik things to tried. I dont like it at all haha found it super weird. Right around it, there is a “podium” with some urban legends. It was believed one child around 15yo climbed on it, removed his shirt, turn around to the “well” where the women would take some water… right there and then, he found love. Which one is true: the guy was shirtless or was the “Podium” really has it charm?! #I’m thinking.
No one left behind: friends got their postcards, mom’s her magnets, dad’s his Hard Rock shirts and I got the you can’t mistakenly Croatia pattern 🙂
From the bottom of my heart, Dubrovnik is a city you must go if you visit Croatia. Dubronik Pass is something you must buy even if you’re only spend one day there.
Video’s that wasn’t do the whole justice for showing the beauty of Dubrovnik hihihi
#Made the best from what I got 😉
Thanks for your wonder Dubrovnik! Left a piece of my heart there <3
Dominik has completed his round trip around the sun 😀 we celebrated in style! booked a dinner experience called “dinner in the sky” cost 117 Euro per person for two course & wine. Isn’t it too much? no doubt! at the same time, if it’s for birthday? there’s no such things as too expensive #Take my money!
We have to gather at 17:10, signed some paperwork if God forbid something happened, we won’t sue anyone from the company. The crane located at a hotel Valamar Lacroma, there was a group of 4 Norway dudes who one of them ~ named Alex also had a birthday. They couldn’t be chill, kept shouting “Oh happy birthday Alex” that Alex dude clearly doesn’t want anyone to know it. I was walking in front of them chanting “verdammt” in my head.
I have to admit this dinner has a really cool concept, we gathered on hmmm… “decorated parking lot” haha the Captain called our names & tell our designated number then the crew adjust our seat belts. First was Dom, naturally I thought mine will be second, nope! I’m the third. After boarding completed, we are ready to fly!
Captain Mario was our DJ / MC, he’s very good in bringing up the mood. Once we up there, Mario made a video + photo of us one by one. I overheard the Norway dudes talked to him “today is his birthday”; his answer “you should have told us before, so we could prepare a cake, there is also someone who is having a birthday and only he will get the cake” Damn right dude! you can’t stole my man’s moment! suck it!
Eating time! got explanations on where do the menu came from, each represents a different part of Croatia. I really enjoy how the Chef are making the food especially because the stove wasn’t infront of me haha the seats are “moveable” too, you can rotate 45 degree to left or right. The foods portion are all very very very smallllllll. Then come the cake for Dom 😀 lucky they have something extra, the Norway Dude got a wine. I realized I need to learn how to share a moment hey #Self-reflections.
That’s it, we were being lowered to the ground. The whole journey was 2 hours, I also noticed we are having the guy who held us the entire time. If you search for a style, this is a must do; if you want to get a belly full of food, unfortunately it’s not.
Overall, we are happy we’ve done it. I wish you a happy birthday Sayang!
Hope to celebrates more birthday ahead, either in the sky, water or land 🙂
Hauptsache, in style! #We never go out of style <3
Me and Dominik just had our very first trip outside DE, it was happening on last week of July for his 30th birthday. Neither of us have been to Croatia before + I was FOMO because I have three colleagues + one friend that has been there, I gotta do it as well!
Our base was in the city of Dubrovnik. While we were still on planning stage, we saw so many tours about Game of Thrones movie set. Unlike him, I didn’t dedicate myself to watch it, therefore I couldn’t care less. Hainka has been there, he told me it was mostly filmed in the Old Town, I don’t need to necessarily join the tour, I still can go to those spots. Ahhh okay understood!
We flew in, arrived at our AirBnB around 01:00 AM. Our Host Zoran & Igor were waiting for us. P.S: I really like their place, located only 800 meters from Old Town…. chill… there’s no straight way in life, their place was up in the hill, you gotta be good at the game of stones #Stairs everywhere.
Regardless of Game of Thrones’ fans or not, you gotta admit, Dubrovnik’s Old Town has it’s own charm. My first time in East Europe and it’s not dissappointed 😉
The moment we step in the first alley, Dominik said “it’s directly given him a GOT vibes”. Not to forget the iconic scene of the series, if someone who doesn’t watch knew it, it does meant something 🙂 None other than the famous “Walk of Shame”. I guarantee you will find it, there where most tourist are!
We tried to familiarize our way through the Old Town first. Where does this path leads to etc until we found the beautiful corner near the Port area. The view of the boats parked + lights on the walls make it looks magestic.
You can’t really change what stunning hey? That area looks dazzling day and night time. We bought a Dubrovnik Pass (40 Euro) had one main target in mind: City Wall (the entrance itself 40 Euro). Will I be satisfied only with breakeven? No way in hell #Haben wir es schon bezahlt! Was kann man noch sehen? let’s tick it one by one and boy oh boy we did!
I didn’t want to be on the City Wall during midday, we unraveled what Dubrovnik Pass has to offer, such as: Rector’s Palace + Dubrovnik Natural History Museum + Friars Minor Franciscan Monastery Museum + Archeological exhibition ~ where I sat in the kids corner to “dig” some archeological stones.
Around 15:30, it’s about time to visit the City Wall, one more Museum to check: Maritime Museum. Little that we know, it’s connected the entrance to the City Wall. It reminds me of Great Wall of China. Take some water please, there was no shade.
Unless of course, the whole wall takes only about 1,5 hours max to walk haha in the end it’s not really like Great Wall of China 😉
Last spot on the Dubrovnik Pass of the day was Lovrjenac Fortress. Where? up the stairs, my oh my. I have no Lust for pictures. The entrance without the Pass is 15 Euro, in conclusion: get yourself the Pass! #Money wins 😀
Are we content with all the stones we seen? Noooo. It is not Marlyn if I don’t participate on Walking Tours. Our guide Antonia (Tonka) took us around the Old Town, which means I also got some behind the scenes theory of filming GOT.
What I like the most was how the HBO Productions supports the economy of Dubrovnik. It is extremely important to keep the secrecy, they didn’t want any spoiler to record them during filming so they need the locals who owns a restaurant / hotel to be closed. They paid them a big time a.k.a choose the highest earning per day then trippled it. They paid every house owner located on the “Walk of Shame” stairs to shut their windows for 3 days. Tonka explained there was a very smart grandma who kept coming back to his apartment during shooting, what did people do? They need to give her more money in exchange for her to not come close to the production area. Within those three days ~ rumours said the Grandma earned 1000 Euro, a phenomenal amount of money, talking back in year 2011.
Apart from the physical preparation to “play” Game of Stones, I love Dubrovnik, I mean… how could you not 😉
Here it is! my two favorite people!
The A(ggy)rthos and porTHO(rben)s ahahaha get it? everyone? 😉 as November almost finished and on December I will be barely in Shanghai, Thorben will be in Germany for 3 weeks and Aggy hmm….she should be in Shanghai hahaha so I requested a dinner date for 3 of us 😉 before all of us reunite again on year 2019!
For this date, I prepare myself hahaha *wink wink 😉 I’ve never done any hairstyle whatsoever for anything, not even for my birthday I’m too lazy to do that haha! but yeah I spent quiet some time on youtube to find what to do with my hair, and when the girl on youtube showed it to her hair it looks good on her but when I did it to mine…. I look like a 5 years old! *facepalm hahaha
They both had archery so I came slightly before the game was finished, I watched from the side, I saw both of them playing for the same team and I knocked from the glass cages whatever its called to make sure that they see “hellooooo look what I did with my hair! haha” John got out to say hi to me “Hi Roomies” and then I went in to hug Thorben and John said “What? Thorben is all sweating and you hug him and not me?” hahaha roomiesss! you didn’t choose me to be on your team! #just kidding 😉 and I did hug John after that!
I asked many people “What do you think about my hair” and the reaction from almost everyone was “Did you cut it? Is it a different style?” hmmm “No, I put a hairband” and they were like “ooowhh” Bohai, Fredoy and Brendan were one of the guys that didn’t realize it. Miguel kind of realize it, Aaron realized it and so did Tim. I asked Tim “Do I look like 5yo with this hairband?” he said “Yes, well before you look like 12” hahaha I said to him “I’ve got a date tonight” and he said “with Aggy?” ahahahah! is it that obvious?! 😀
I kept telling everyone (apart asking for my hair) that I got a date and Andy said “Did Thorben approved?” hahaha Thorben said “the date is with me and Aggy, we will watch Marlyn while she’s having a date” and he said to me “Marlyn, we set up a tinder profile for you and now you have a real date” and Aggy said “Yes, we will sit some distance and watch her, like no hands under the table” ahahaha and Andy said “Can I also be on the date?” I said “No, it’s exclusive for 3 of us” and he said “I will buy my own table and then watch Thorben and Aggy watching you on a date” hahaha 😀
We went to Pie Society which is just around the corner from Cages and from Aggy’s home, the place is wayyyy too bright, the food was good but we ordered too many and we couldn’t finished it. We ordered 4 types of pies. Tim warned me that “do not try to steal their food while you’re on a date” and I just “hmmmmmm” Well Tim, report, I didnt steal their food, in fact they were quiet surprise when I said I’m full hahaha
When we ordered (well, Thorben and Aggy did) I just looked at the menu and the pies, it is a dry pie instead of the pie with gravy and so on it’s different from the picture and I kind of told them “But it’s a different pie from this picture” and Thorben said “relax Marlyn, it will be enough food” I still hesitated and he continues “do you want to go somewhere else?” and talked to Aggy “I think I feels like a parents that go with a kid” and Aggy is such a tiger mom she said “No, I will say eat whatever on the plate” and I kept showing the picture on the phone to Thorben and he said “put down your phone” 🙁 phewwwww but yeah in the end I got what I wanted with gravy, sauce whatever it’s called hahaha
Thorben was sooo sleepy during the dinner due to someone went to a party the day before haha. Look at his face, he barely opened his eyes and just yawning the whole time haha sorry Thorben but I caught you in a funny face and feel that I will be too selfish to not share it here 😉
Due to my effort of making my hair, I insisted to take a selfie and Thorben was like nooooo, he’s on the movember look so he’s got to keep his moustache till the end of this month haha but I think the moustache is not that bad…..hmmm
When it was time to pay, I asked how much it is and will transfer it to Thorben but using red packet and the funny thing is me and Aggy wrote almost the same meaning hahaha!
I once watched one of the video from Simon Sinek and it really has a good meaning, he once said in the military they have brother and sister, that’s how they think about each other and if anything from the outside showed up they’re looking for a unified front. He also said sth about courage, that its not something inside of you and you dig down and find it, it just doesn’t work like that, courage comes from external, it’s the support we feel from others. And when I heard it, the first things that popped out in my mind was the obstacle race that we just did few months ago, where Thorben and Aggy was very supportive, they became my courage source even though in the end Aggy had to cancel the race but it was really because of these two I got all the things I needed, I know that I got my unified front already.
Also when I mentioned the guy name that we never heard before Thorben suddenly acted as a protective big brother, it was so funny that he even spent 20 mins looking for a sticker with a guy looking through holes in a newspaper but unfortunately he couldn’t find it so I have to just imagine that haha 😉 so if any of you have this sticker please send it to Thorben’s hahaha so that he won’t waste 20 mins of his life again 😀
What I know for sure if my life would sucks without you <3
Stay tuned for more stories of Arthos, porTHOs and araMis in year 2019 😉