Julia & Holger told me in the past sometime Nordwest gave away VIP Tickets for BVB for free and many people answered the Email within seconds. That very email came, skimmed ~ to whom I should replied, directly wrote: iccchhhhhh. They only have 4 tickets and Im one of them who got it! #抢票 My colleagues Robinhood + CB knew it already, for sure I’ll be the one who react to those kind of freebies Email in a heartbeat 😉
Moritz contacted me saying he also one of the four, the other two was Kathrin and Ann-Christin. He texted “What time we should meet?” I replied with new question “When does the buffet open? I’ll come at that exact hour”. We arrived to a big hall shortly before 15:30 after taking a couple of wrong turns, it’s all paid up. The hall consist of buffet after buffet after buffet, some rich companies has their own block, while we were just looking for the empty table.
So far I have eaten some bites from their Hauptmenu + Vorspeise + Nachtisch + Aperol before the game starts. Moritz asked if I want to come out to the field because they will announce all the names of the player? ~ Nope. Also if I see the other two colleagues? ~ Still a no. I’m fully concentrated here, if he wants he can go whereas I’m keeping the seat 😉 On the Halbzeit I ate two sausages, small ice cream and a Radler.
On one corner, there are a bunch of people wore special Trikot Hummels.
Moritz: “Those must be a families or friends from Hummels, could be that he will meet them”
Me: “you gotta tell me so I can run and ask for photo!”
Moritz: “ah thats the girlfriend of Hummels”
damn right I made it so obvious!
Some people came for the game, I got my priority straight: food and Promi Hunting. This might be the only chance I got 😉
I can’t recognize if there are famous person or not, to me they all looks normal. If a celebrity in Indonesia you knew it immediately due to bodyguard and the way they behaved. But here in Germany, they dont really have personals who walks around them. In the end, they are just normal people with very much of money hahaha
My impressions about my perhaps one and only VIP Experience: you have a wifi connection! whattt??!! + those seats are way more comfortable + toilets smells nice + unstoppable food and drinks, they will come to you if they see you without one. Do I able to see players? unfortunately still a no, they are still very very small but I can see the goal clearly though 😉
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
We were sooooo happy we could finally find a day to go to Split, I heard so much of hype from this city. Took the earliest Flix Bus from Dubrovnik depart at 07:15 AM, spent exactly one working day ~ 8 hours before we had to take last bus to Dubrovnik at 20:30 PM.
Directly told Dom about what kind of Photo I must have! Not gonna leave Split before taking it.
#Split in front of Split
We had lunch at the Promenade, were not on a position to be picky, we must eat before Hangry kicked in.
Only then we started our day trip, mind you it was very very very hot, stayed inside a church for a good 20 minutes because it has AC and I kind of overslept for a while too 😉 Been a bit recharged, were on a mission to find: Diocletian’s Palace + Old Town + Cathedral + Peristil Square + Campanile + Salona.
What to visit first? opted for Salona as it was the furtherst among all, took us approximate 1,5 hours with 3 bus rides, had to stopped strangers car for direction. The entrance cost 8 Euro, nope, we “paid” it in another way which is on finding where Salona is. I was satisfied to just see from outside, in my opinion no need to see the ruins in the inside area. Be honest, this is not Rome sooo don’t really see the necessity of it hahaha FYI, the real named called Archaeological site Salona.
Continue our journey back in the town, strolled around until we stumbled upon a statue whose big toe color has changed due to so many people rub on it. Little did I know, it was a statue of Grgur Ninski ~ a Croatian Bishop. Across from this statue, there are two students doing a Part Time job posing as a guard, prepare your change to give them tips. Then one after the other, we ticked our sightseeing list.
The Diocletian’s Palace reminded me of Carlisle Cullen from one of his scene on New Moon. Peristil Square is pretty cool. Bell Tower was closed ~ not an issue for me, didn’t even plan to climb up.
We owe big time to Cornaro Hotel for “allowing” us to use their bathroom many times a day 🙂 While walking we got the urge to use the loo, where then? I hate paying, see a sign “Cornaro Hotel” okay, in theory, every toilet located in the corner. We just need to come to the receptions as if we were waiting for someone, be there with some confidence. And we’ve done it! May God bless your hotel with more worthy tourist 😉
I have to admit, I have sooo high expectations from Split. Facts is their Esplanade with coconut trees is really really on another level ~ something that Dubrovnik can’t offer. Also facts: we missed Oyster so much 🙁 plus swim in the city beach ~ although not so much but that’s not the point, it’s about the availability + accessity!
In the end, we found ourselves longing for the embrace of Dubrovnik once more <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
Went to another country ~ Bosnia i Herzegovina, second stamp on my passport 😉 Got picked up again at 06:20 AM, once the border crossed, we visited Kravica Waterfalls. Never crossed in my mind that Bosnian don’t use Euro, they accept it, our Guide Boh or Boah don’t know how to spell his name said, if in the store I can pay with Euro as the amount is written in both currency, Konvertible Mark and Euro but in Restaurant better pay with Card because there is only Konvertible Mark written on it. Usually 1 Euro = 2 KM yet if there is no Euro written, perhaps they will charge more. OK thank you for the info!
We spend about 50 minutes on the waterfalls, I managed to get magnets for mom’s collection + had waffels. Am I impressed with the waterfalls? No, it’s not bad however I saw or have better one back home 🙂
Then we passed by to a very small village called Pocitelj, it was such short stop, only 20 minutes. There is fortress on the top haha thank you, my legs are still sore from previous days. We just went for a loo in a restaurants, I think the guy thought I was one of their guess, thank you Sir, may your Restaurant has success!
See! The Fortress is up there, had we have enough time, I won’t even bother to walk further up haha
Then to our main stop: Mostar! I actually like this place than two previous ones. The bridge is the main attractions, need to get it right! On the downside, I found a difficulties in finding foods, I got used to Croatian sea food, especially Oyster. Here in Mostar mostly you will have meat.
Regardless how good the tour turns out ~ perfect guide, tour participants were all on time, the bus driver drove responsibly, the timing they gave in every stations were all make sense; like the Yang from YinYang ~ the black dot in white, even in light there’s a bit of darkness. The food wasn’t really my taste. Ah well…. You can’t have it all 😉
Every even days of the trip, we were out of Dubrovnik 🙂
To the other country: Montenegro with the tour offered by Get Your Guide, passed the border with a car, #Collecting stamps in Passport. We were being picked up at 06:20 AM, there was only 7 people in total. Instead of going with a bus, we got a mini van. I personally think it was cool, a private tour. Dominik is the only guy there haha the elephant in the room 🙂
We made a first stop to make a picture, this is us: a Korean lady + American Gang.
At the beginning, it was actually fine. Our driver ~ initial L informed us about his friend who sell Oyster in Montenegro + right after the border there was a restaurant with price cheaper than in Dubrovnik, he can dropped us there. Actually, we were excited to tried, in anyway we have to eat.
Reached first town called Perast. While we were still in Dortmund, I wasn’t planned to take any boat, wanted to just walked around. However L said there was only one street, it’s very small, the only attractions was taking the boat with extra cost. Hmmm…. I sensed a bit of a red flag. Being suspicious whereas my mind kept reminding me “what else can we do?” Therefore, paid the 15 Euro for boat trip to Church of Our Lady. The fee was only for transport, not to enter the church, it will be another 10 Euro.
He also explained we would go to more stops, we didn’t! only to this one. Wtf?! Either he doesn’t know what he’s saying or he “robbed us” from our real boat experience? After reading some signs, I came to understand the cost for 1,5 hours boat ride = 40 Euro. Okay, I took the first red flag as Misscomunication, made peace with that.
Second town called Kotor, there we have 3 hours. The only attractions were: Old Town + Fortress + Cable Car located 4 km away. Me and Dominik opted for the Fortress. Cecillia had some doubts, in the end she made it too. I told the girls I’m going up so they could make a forecast at what time we could be done.
Was on the verge of giving up when we reach the church, which only 1/3 of the Fortress until Daly texted “I’m also at the Fortress” Ah cool!!! she gave us some fuel to actually catch up with them. Hike after hike, where are the girls? there is only one way, I couldn’t miss them. Still not seeing them, even at the top… Hä???
One the way down we met Cecillia, she also hasn’t seen the American Gang. Continued our journey to the Old Town. Daly texted she is ready to leave, replied I need 30 minutes. In total we have been 3 hours 15 minutes ish in Kotor. The issue is, Cecilia is still up there. I catched Maly’s pants from far away, her words: “I looks like a traffic cone” 😉 very easy to spot on. Curious, I asked where they were on the Fortress. Guess what? They were mistaken, they were never in the Fortress, perhaps they only have the Fortress as a background from any restaurants or so hahaha no wonder I didn’t see them.
One hour goes by without a trace of Cecilia, as if she went on radio silence. A Croatian number called me, no “hello” directly “where are you” obviously it will be L ~ who else. To my surprise he was starting to shout “I have been waiting for you for one hour, I don’t care where Cecilia is” I was perplexed, what the hell is going on? Is he gonna leave us here in Montenegro? Being scared, I ran to the girls, let Maly do the talking while I tried to see where Cecilia at. Dominik sent her our location but she was confused and confusing beyond reason. Maly was so distress as L screaming at her too, Daly & gang tried to buy some time by going to the parking lot to find him.
In the end Dominik called Cecilia by video call, we saw the background, she was so close, Maly screamed on top of her lungs, I ran towards her, we don’t want L to leave her or worse all of us. The journey back to Dubrovnik was such a Katastrophe, no one dare to talks. I texted Daly if we should ask for the oyster, no we don’t need too.
Maly tried to defuse the bomb by saying “do you need our Passport, L” he only gave a receiving hand gesture. After some minutes, he told us he need to use the loo. There we talked, My Gosh what is happening? This is so crazy, I’m not in the mood to go to his friend’s restaurant. I meant, he ruined our day! My Asian genes won’t gonna let him get the comission from his friends’ place! Thanks God we all agreed to go directly back to Dubrovnik. When L back to the car, I deliberately said “oh girls, I’m so sleepy”. He replied “you can be sleep now until we reach the restaurant” I gave eye contact to Daly, wasn’t dare to talk until our saviour Maly commented “do we have to? I kind of tired, let’s just go back to Dubrovnik” Thank you girl! We owe you big time 🙂 #Women Power.
You have no idea how relief I was when we reach the Old Town of Dubrovnik. What I can take from this experience was he didn’t voice out properly, at the end I was completely uncomfortable. It could be since we were a small group, we could clear it among ourselves. No we can’t! we were all tourist for f#$k sake! I assume he was lazy, took advantage of small groups and want to go back home faster.
Regardless how bad the tour turns out; like the Yin from YinYang ~ the white dot in black, there’s always a little light in the dark. I got additional friends! It’s such a pity that the atmosphere was so down, I would love to spend the evening with the girls in a chill dinner but it wasn’t possible. Maly you are a very brave girl for standing up for all of us! I’m glad we have you on the group! I’m also grateful we all survive L’s driving haha Daly was afraid of her life during the ride 😉
Well girls, Daly + Maly and gang also Cecilia, we shall make up the relax time that L stole from us, if you ever thought to visit Germany or Indonesia, you have a home 🙂 #Just do it!
See you in another time, another place. Until then, take care!
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 😉
My former Boss in Shanghai visited Germany for a business trip, obviously he planned to come to Nordwest, he is a very nice guy ~ always positive vibe, try to understand from other point of view und und und. I’m looking forward to meet him again, after all those years.
Unfortunately his trip needed to cut short because his backpack was stolen on the train. What’s in there? all of his most important stuff: Passports, iPad, MacBook, Wallet with all bank + ID cards. The thief managed to use his card to eat at McD for 18 Euros.
My heart sank the moment he texted me, I said to him: You know what I will pray so whoever did it, he / she will loose much worse than what they stole it from you. He was already laughing about it but I’m not. I am so full of revenge. That revenge lasted for a full week then I sensed something wrong…. let’s shift the prayer focus to Alvin! Hoping he will get much more than he lost 🙂
Don’t worry Alvin, Karma does exist!
You are a good person, you are having a good Karma, good deeds will come to you!!!
One not fine afternoon ~ full of work, yet Arbeitslos is not an option haha #Realistic, got a phone call from Hainka informing me about Bomb-Evakuierung… he said the radius exactly ended on my street, hmmm OK at the same time not OK because I was clueless… should I wait until the Police come to my apartment and ask for me to move somewhere for couple of hours? or better I remove myself? Never had this experience before… well… there’s first time for everything 😉
Who am I surrounded with? Sophie is wayyyyy to close…. Monicita is a safer option! Called her immediately. After disscussing the logistics, I decided to get out from the house: pronto. She said to pack my important stuff + clothes as if you want to stay overnight. Got it! What I consider as vital? My education certificates ~ crucial for applying new job elsewhere, DE paperwork ~ prove I’m legal, Passport ~ if everything goes South, still can go back home, hard disk ~ my well of memories. What did I forget? Money + Bank card haha #Facepalm. .
Once I got out from my apartment around 15:30 ish, saw a father carried a backpack with his son in tricycle… ah yes, seems everyone got this info. Arrived at Monicita right before she need to leave her place to bring her daughter for Capoiera class, if not mistaken.
I continued my work with majestic Coco in front of me while she aufräumt.
At 16:00 they started the evacuation progress, I guess around 18:30 they started to defuse the bomb, within two hours they managed it! Yeayyyy my area is safe again #Greatful!
We did a lot within few hours! went gassi accompanied by gossiping; reach wayyyyy advanced connection with Coco by hugging him #Tabitha would be so proud of me; played a game called… had no idea, I thought it’s the stupidest game ever haha something with adding numbers until at least 30 to start the game pffff lost it all the time; dinner #Pimientos! thank you so much guys for letting me eat your supplies 😀 finally being sent back home with Kuki in the car. Not gonna say suddenly become an animal lover but at least I wasn’t sooo paranoid as before #Improvement.
Thank you Monicita and fam for your hospitality during emergency situation, Hainka and Maiwald for the news!
After 6 whole stressing month in the office ~ what a half of year, I went to my wohl verdienen Urlaub back home 🙂 you have no idea how much I looking forward for this, so much so till I kept forgetting which Airlines I took, Qatar or Turkish? In the end it was Etihad hahaha! Flight from Düs to Abu Dhabi wasn’t full, yet my seat was in the middle row of the emergency so I couldn’t pull up the bar pffff didn’t enjoy the benefits!
Being picked up at the Airport with Mom went inmediatamente pampering myself, had bakso, cut my hair, got massaged, medi pedi. Enough 72 hours in Jakarta, flew to Bali!
Indigo Seminyak
We spent our first three nights at Hotel Indigo.
This holiday is more of a chill, we didn’t do much other than swimming, visiting mall, eating. Sightseeing was only to Desa Panglipuran because Mom has been thinking about it since last year, let’s break the cycle before it become a yearly mandatory discussion. Then Puri Empul, we also tried Coffee Luwak.
I personally like this hotel better than our next one. Mind you, our next one is also a very good. Indigo won due to modern interior plus I have a hutang budi especially after I snapped regarding my allegedly missing glasses whereas its on my bag. Deeply sorry Indigo, I did wrote a good review, hope someday you could forgive me. Readers please come here!
Intercontinental Jimbaran
Last three nights at Intercontinental. I could imagine this hotel was number one some decades ago, it’s very well kept, you can see the definition of magnificent back then. It won my heart because the path from their backyard to their swimming pool or beach are wider.
Their beach was already in Jimbaran where we have our Seafood evening the first day we landed in Bali. Only this time we opt for Frida’s recommendation Menega Cafe which was much better taste equals to much better payment haha #You got what you paid for 😀
Jukung has better entertainment in terms of while we were there, approached by a “band” who live sing to us. Susi chose twinkle twinkle little star + happy birthday + baby shark. Could be this “band” would keep walking around the coast until it reach Menega too.
Last but not least, home sweet home. I really like our new home, we just moved to PIK 2. Parents are way happier here and I’m happy for them. We met our relatives, visited Dad’s amazing office contained majestic Ostrich however I was totally impressed with their Alpaca #Couldn’t be more random than this 😉
Oh Bali, how I love you, I’ll come back again 🙂 in about 365 days hehe
