Ihr seid verrückt!

I am one kind of a person who sees importance in “dates” as in Datum, be it as it may: birthday, anniversary landing in Germany or any others possible milestone. I’d cherised and will find a way to celebrate it any how, the catch here is: it has to be precisely on that specific date.

Meine Freundin Claudia texted me in October, “Freundin, let’s have frühstück bei uns to celebrate your belated birthday” I was very touched, it is very sweet of her, didn’t even crossed my mind as I already celebrate my birthday on my birthday date. The day will be just like their normal Saturday schedule, I’ll join them for sport then breakfast at their place.

They have a tradition to mix the Alpenzwerg-Bio Schokomilch until it has no sound, on the lid of the milk there is a “Gewinnspiel” back then when Alina and I looked at the options, clearly there are a big prizes like Camera or bicycle something #Can’t even remember. What stands out was “a day with Simon Brunner” who the hell is he? why a day with him could be counted as a winner? He is a TikToker Sport star lalala. Ever since, it became an internal joke that we need to fill in the code so that Marlyn can win a day with Simon Brunner.

On the breakfast day there is no sticker of the Gewinnspiel again #Oh nein! Unbeknownst to me, they moved it to my birthday card. They are very natural, prepare the tables while I only “dabei sein” #moralische Unterstützung 😉

I was sitting, Julius was lighting the candle on Esstisch then come Claudia carrying the jar with LED lights followed by Alina holding a selfmade card singing “Happy Birthday to you”. I knew it was meant to be Frühstück for my nachträglicher Geburtstag however I was never imagined or wish for them to prepare me a gift! That was indeed a successful surprise. Can’t say anything other than “ihr seid verrückt!” 😀

  • Freundin: Siehst du die Gelände?
  • Neee. Ist das nicht seit Dezember schon immer da gewesen?
  • Neee! Das habe ich um 7 Uhr für dich gehängt.

WOW! Even with the decorations, look at the thought they put to congratulate me, the jar + the card + Simon Brunner Photo haha #Very epic!

Once my adrenaline wears off, we could start the breakfast then made einen Termin #Typisch Deutsch hahaha. It was supposed to be on 16.11 but we postponed it to 23.11. They came to Dortmund, picked me up, went to Phoenix Des Lumieres #Expecto Patronum spell. I always wants to go there a. because it’s literally next to Nordwest; b. no b just a haha. We tried to book an appointment together with Hainka and PV yet it never works. That’s why, the moment I knew I got it as my birthday gift, was very pleased, they got me wirklich ins Schwarze getroffen 🙂

The room was an ex-steel factory which means it is a big broad room but not a flat room, you will see a round pipe in the middle etc. All of it was covered by the digital and immersive arts. The thema is “Wunderwelt Ozean – Ein Immersiver Tauchgang” it makes you feel you really inside a Uboot.

When the first round is finished, we feel it’s a bit too quick, was only 30 Minute-ish. We came in like 2 minutes after the show starts, decided to still stay in. We also walked around to watch it from other perspectives.

Den Abend lassen wir ins Treppchen Restaurant in Hörde ausklingen. I will always be sold to my favourite: Muscheln!!!!

I always planned for my birthday or being on someone’s plan to surprising someone. This is my first time somebody surprising me, let alone successfully surprising me. I used to see someone else speechless, now I am the receiving end, I finally understand that feeling. This surprise wasn’t just about the day, it reminded me how lucky I am to have friends like you, from the bottom of my heart, vielen lieben Dank my friendssss, it mean the world to me.

XOXO.

Cruellnah de Vil

I am a very active Instagram user which brings me to Nicolas’ story, one day he post something in die Richtung of showing his plan to visit Europe, replied “which part?” with a lingering hope it could be Germany. My wish came true, Berlin it is! Never have I ever book DB Bahn so quickly, gotta catch him there #Mission.

He arrived Thursday morning while I was on evening however we didn’t meet until Saturday lunch time. I was staying at Maria’s apartment, did home office on Friday as I only have one day-off left this year. I really don’t have any plan other than meet him 😀 To my knowledge there will only be him + Rick + Sebastian. When I arrived at Scheers Schnitzel this is the exact order of who I saw: Sebastian, Nick, Rick, Anderson, Davide? Whattttt?!?! there are more people??? I don’t mind at all, to the opposite it was a nice surprise! I knew Anderson & Davide from Shanghai but we never really talk much, I’m so glad we had this opportunity! Thank you Nick!

Turns out, there were 19 of them! haha The birthday boy Ty who played archery regularly after Covid hence I didn’t get to know him at all #Rookie vs OG a.k.a us 😉 On the table where I sit there was a new friend called Mischa. In summarize our table were Archery + Mischa, well…. Sebastian is not in Archery ~ he is Nick’s brother #Same same but different.

Then Ty came out to us, casually asking me if I would come to the party, I replied awkwardly “I do not know I was allowed to join you” Being a friendly OZ “Yes, you can come of course” Definitely I’m in. He said the theme party is Cruella de Vil. What?!?! There is a theme?!?! The guys said they would gonna wear nothing too far from black or white. I gotta be creative, had black shirt, need to mention they knew the matter for quiet some time, in addition we have Anderson, he’s always TOTAL. I must at least try to match them #FOMO.

After eating, we originally would go to the Wall Museum, until we realized they charged 14 Euro for entrance. Hell no! Sebs + Davide + me opposed to it, what could be a wall museum when the wall is literally outside and we have walked passed it? Sebs said “OK, if we are in a democracy they already lose the vote”.

Moving on to the board game cafe, apart from our Board Game King-Rick, none of us know much of it. We played Saboteur, Dopple OG + Dopple Animals which I don’t even know the name of each animal. Saboteur was really the fun game especially when we put our suspection to the wrong people. Sebs won all the game even though he barely know how to play anything, quote “it’s hard but I won so I don’t care” haha

During our game, Nick went back to his AirBnB. Nate wanted to go to some second hand shop for tonight’s ocassion. I wanted to go to Uniqlo, hearing that brand Davide was shocked “They have Uniqlo here? I miss that Brand so much!” Yes, the feeling is the same! I must buy another layer because I definitely not prepared for Berlin’s weather. Exactly on Aleksander Platz I found some property for tonight! Reported to Nick, saved for the partyyyyyyy. Doubt if I should wear the hat, had the temperature wasn’t that cold, I wouldn’t do it.

I went dinner with my friend Sunny then join them to “Süss war gestern” Club, Vicky will be there too! Yippii another Shanghai connection. Saw Nate near the entrance door, he immediately recognize my hat fits the essence of tonight’s celebration. I gave up my jacket, Nate said “take a picture of your number” doing it, Nick came out saying “hey, you stole my friend’s hat”.

We were quiet split up, don’t know where we were going. The guys keep saying “let’s go downstairs” Sebs replied “where is downstairs?” we were walking in circle, in theory we just need to look for stairs thats going down. How hard could it be? #Failed! stay where we were until close to midnight when that secret doors open, we finally went downstairs haha.

Where are the Cruella de Vil people?!?! They only wear normal black shirt and black jeans. There is no one, literrally no one with Cruella de Vil, not even Ty. Cruellnah de Vil it is! I’m the only one with the crazy hat that makes me looks like a Russian Tsar. Nick said it fits Mischa perfectly due to he was half Russian.

Davide loves my hat! Sebs commented “You’re hat is the best” Then Anderson said “I’d like to take picture of everyone with your hat”

No no, let’s say “Happy Birthday Ty” in our mother tounge with this hat. He agrees, who has a better iPhone? Nick was around us, thus he became the videographer.

Once we finished, Mischa had a brilliant idea: “we should go ask random people to do it too”. Split second to think, let’s do it, we are tourist anyway, they won’t remember us. It felt sooooo challenging to tap someone’s shoulder, asking “Hi where are you from? can you please do this for our friend?”

Then some of the groups going downstairs joining us, one girl said “it smells like a Pizza” I understood it as “do you want a Pizza?” “No I already eat” realized immediately we didn’t talk the same language, Mischa was laughing his ass off. Hey! it was a loud club of course I could get the wrong interpretation haha.

I wasn’t really planning to stay longer yet I did once they have Super Mario Bross!!!! The couple before me didn’t know how to play it gimme gimme gimme! The video didn’t do the justice 😉 I did get better after some screaming + concentrating + guidance from Rick on where to go #Efforts!

The other guys still continue, according to Nick until 5AM, hufff I need my beauty sleep, me and Rick went home perhaps at 01:00 max. Next day I went to their apartment, only Nick + Rick + Sebs were alive, the other were still sleeping, jetlag hit the OZs hard!

We played three card games, couldn’t remember what’s the game called, I prefer Rick’s card game other than the one from the Cafe. Sebs analyzed the game, asked can we only play these with 2 people? #We don’t have many friends. 100% Sebs! totally agree haha we need a board game where we can play with as less participants as possible 😉

One by one; a divers game which we do not like haha; we do like the 8 animals drinking water game, I was on fire when we weren’t played according to the house rule. On our last straw, we played monkey vs manager game where explanation regarding the meaning of “over-sell” really needed #Facepalm. Once Sebs took notes on his phone about what he thought his card is, we did the same. Rick was “guys, come on it’s not that hard” we didn’t even play the wild card where we can switch the fruits, no no no too many mathematics after a night out, we were not in our 20s anymore, our brain works differently now #Adulting.

My last day before I took my train back, we had dinner at Maximilians then walk to Tophography of Terror when I said “we need to have a picture to show exactly we were in Berlin” what else other than Check Point Charlie!

Thank you so much guys for the weekend! Keep posting so I can follow your next plan #Not a stalker! Just want to put it out there so everybody is conscious 😉

Speaking of hat, there’s always something happening between me & hat 😉 Kann ja nicht alles unter einen Hut bekomme

Sveeeeeennnnnnnnnnn!

One of our department home office’s rule is someone presently need at the office always, it was quiet often to be me. During that period, I was responsible for a lighting project, which means I have to repeatedly communicate with one of the product manager named Sven. I’m glad it was him, back then I wasn’t able to speak much German ~ Of course he could feel our language barrier, therefore instead of explaining on the phone, he always come to me with printed version of everything. I am 100% sure any other PM wouldn’t bother to do what he did, nach dem Motto “nicht mein Problem”.

Definitely he has other projects with my colleague Andreas, sometimes he would like to speak to him but there was only me holding the fortress of our Flügel, asked “Wo ist Andreas?” to which I replied “Zu Hause”. This happened a lot until he comments:

  • Bist du alleine?
  • Du machst definitiv etwas falsch! deine Kollegen mag dich nicht 😉
  • Du bist wieder ganz alleine, ich muss jeden Tag zu dir gehen um zu gucken ob dir gut geht oder was passiert wenn du hinfällst? Niemand wird es wissen!

He kept his words! came to check on me, I can see from the corner of my eyes when someone is coming proceed to scream “Sven ist da! Sven ist da, da ist Sven!” “OK, gut zu wissen du bist immer noch da or du bist nicht verletzt”.

Before long, the lighting project is finished, alas: his visits stops. However, I have an obligation to let him know I am OK or just want to keep the tradition. So…. I come to him…. almost… every… day 😀 Little by little the “Sven ist da” became shorter to only “Sveeennnnnnnnnnnn!”

His desk is not facing the door, that’s why he always shocked whenever I appears. Running, out of the sudden behind him, “Sveeeeennnnnnn”. His colleague ~ Carla constantly say “lässt der arme Sven doch in ruhe” Gurl, what were you thinking? no way, he can’t escape it. Whenever he do Home Office, I call him just to shout “Sveeeeeennnn!”. My colleague PV said “Oh Got Marlyn, der arme Sven eh”

It slowly started became a habit to showed him anything I have which considered as ‘new’ for example my collection of hats, shoes or any other random things possible in order for me to be able to yell “Sveeeeeeeeennn” His comment was never be longer than “Gut” or “Hervorragend”

Besides showing him something, I also consult about random things from residence permit, passport validity, apartment keys. He is very international, he and his wife were once stayed in New Zealand, went to Asia many times for holiday etc. He knows a lot!

His colleagues ~ Carla and Tobi already got used to my “Sveeeeeennnn” Andreas proceed to call him Sveeennnn on the phone. I did it all the time, including in form of writing.

One day, I overheard Milena talked to CB something along the way Sven will leave Nordwest.

  • Was Milena? Hast du gerade etwas über Sven gesagt? Welcher Sven reden wir jetzt?
  • Unser Sven
  • Was? Sven? Sveeennnnnnn!
  • Monica joined the group, “Marlyn que?”
  • Sven und seine Familie werden nach Kanada auswandern.
  • Wer? Sveeeennnnnnnnnn?
  • Jap, genau, der Sveeennnnn!!

I talked to myself, “komme zu Sven” Monica followed me “ich auch” we both stormed out “Sveeeeeeeeeeennnnnn” his reaction was looked at his watch, “oh die Info ist schon bei euch angekommen”

The day when Sven will leave NW is getting closer. Asked Carla if we do something for him, she said no…. doch! Everyone in the room is doing / making / collecting gift for him except me haha I was there only for one last “Sveeeeeeennnn”

Makes matter worse, I wasn’t suppose to be there btw, see the original email hahaha this is the jungle rule when you’re not invited, you invited yourself! 😀 habe auch mit ihm gesprochen und er sagte “Ja, du darfst da sein”

On his last day in the office, I came to him like 3 times he stated “Ja, ja ich komme gleich” whenever he’s still not here I called him. PV reminds me “Marlyn, der kommt noch bestimmt” eventually he really came “Sveeeeennnnnn, Sveeeeeennnn, Sveeeeeennnnnnn” “ich mache eine Runde und komme ja nochmal, muss mich mit Marlyn nochmal verabschieden” On his final moment “Also, jetzt gehe ich” then we hug. When he walked out I kept screaming “Sveeennnnn, Sveeennnn, Sveennnnnn”

Tobi wonder “Marlyn, what should we do now? should I write in the job descriptions that the applicant should be called Sven?” Even so, Sveeeeeennnn ist nicht ersetzbar!

One thing I know, I will never come to Flügel 1 the same way again. All the very best to you, your wife, both of your children in Canada. Although Tobi reassure you are always welcome back… come on, you won’t 😉 Canada is something else #Stay stay stay.

This conclude one more reason to put Canada on my bucket list!

Mach’s gut Sveeeeeennnnnnn!

Kann ja nicht alles unter einen Hut bekomme

One of our dear food nerds friend, Thomas, is getting married in Franzin Alm. The Nerdies featuring Claudia + Giovanni, Sara + Diego, Fiona, Christian will be there, what a nice Shanghai reunion <3

A little bit of history background, I knew Thomas in year 2016, we became close somewhere in 2018 with new people like Claudia & Giovanni + Sara. In 2019 the Wechat group Food Nerds was established, not long after that, Diego joined Sara in Shanghai, followed by Christian then Fiona to the group. Why food nerds? because we do nothing other than eating, especially our weekly ritual Bar Centrale every Sunday for Buy 1 Get 1 Free Pizza + happy hour Aperol Spritz. To this day, I am actually biased of what made us come often to Bar Centrale, is the Pizza that good? or the money deal is undeniable? Long story short, we knew each other for some time.

That is why when I got a text from Thomas about his wedding, I am really happy for him 🙂 I’ll make sure I’ll be there!

Prior to the wedding there are many discussions on both Wechat & WhatsApp group regarding what will we do for the couple. The core members of both groups are the same ~ meaning I only know us the Nerdies, there are some other new people too that I haven’t even met. With bigger crowds come bigger discussion, many ideas thrown out yet not a concrete one.

The classics one was always a slide show presentation about our time in Shanghai, that is why “someone” asked for a photo to be uploaded in a google link. I have a lot of photos from me and Thomas, we were friends for years. Additionally, I visited Thomas in Bolzano in 2020, obviously I have many selfies.

Had to mentioned, I have never met Janine before, so does other people. It is common some people in the group only know one side, either they are friends of Thomas or Janine. Few people actually friends with both as they first met in 2021. Some factors weigh in such as the famous Corona lockdown makes it harder for larger group to gather around.

Little did I knew, “someone / he” mistakenly took me as Janine! due to the reason, he never met neither me nor Janine! I think I’m the only one who sent a lot of selfie with Thomas on the google drive. Then, I realized he wasn’t make the classic slide show, he made a hat! for us to wear on the wedding dance floor! A hat with my selfie + a lot of hearts…it’s a funny hat for me, not sure what would the newlyweds think!

How did I found out about this hat?

During dessert time, I was talking with Thomas’ brother Philip then Rickard put something on my head. It must be a hat, what else can it be? I didn’t think it was THAT HAT! I thought a hat from PhotoBox. I utter the word “ah what kind of hat are you putting me on” Philip replied “a very nice one” took it out from my head, I WAS SHOCKED! directly hide it under the table, no no no no, you can’t do this to me, breath breath breath! Philip didn’t know the background story. I told Philip what “the hat creator” told me, according to him, he asked photos from Janine & Thomas. I misunderstand it as “please send me a photo of you with Thomas or you with Janine” Philip laughed, he said, let me see the hat, give it to me.

I really didn’t want the hat to spread around, I have never met Janine before, I don’t know how she will react. Started with Philip, it created a chain of information. Now it is to Diego, to Sara, to Claudia, to Giovanni. Giovanni said “give it to me Marlyn, I need to see it” Claudia cut it “no, not now, after the wedding. Don’t give it to him Marlyn, it’s dangerous if he has it”. When Manuel see on the ‘storage room’ there are a lot of these hats packed in a poly bag, I freaked out, ran, closed the door, put all the hat into the Koffer, no no no no this can’t be. The Nerdies were just laughing, they all said “I want to have one of it”

My hat was hid perfectly well on the pocket of my jacket, others I put it inside the Koffer. So far so good, no one needs to know other than the Food Nerds + Philip + Manuel.

The wedding party went smoothly, food after food, cakes after cakes, first dance, party started!! we were all having fun….until…. the hat reveals itself, boah I can assure you, all food nerds were flabbergasted! there was a brief moment where I locked in eyes with Claudia on the opposite side, our jaws dropped to the floor before burst into laugh. You can see on the video, Giovanni hasn’t stop laughing! The reason why I was shaken was…. how did Janine found out? who’s giving it to her?

Now the cats are out from the bag, no secret anymore! haha we all can wear the hats! Diego said “Marlyn, whoever from us married next, we will make a hat with your face and the guy’s face on it” The Nerdies hats are special, we have Thomas & Janine signed on it. Thomas has one with my name written on it. He said, when you are getting married, I don’t care if I’m invited or not, I will come with the hat and ask your guy to sign it as well, I will tell him “See, I have been there before” hahaha

After the wedding, some guess put the hat on the lobby area, hey! don’t throw it away! Luckily, the hotel receptionist approached Claudia to asked “is this belong to your party?” “Yes” “do you know the person on the hat?” “Yeeessss!” so now Claudia has two!

Sara, Diego & Fiona stayed a few days after the wedding, they did hike together with the hats! oh God! this hat really will go everywhere! They won’t let it go easily.

Perhaps we will wear it all together when we meet again, Oktoberfest hey? See you all soon nerdies! don’t forget about our hats!

FYI, now that I’m calm down, I scrolled the chat, he didn’t specifically mentioned Janine AND Thomas, not like what he told me on the wedding day. He and his wife told me because they never met Janine before that’s why they asked in the group to send a picture of both Thomas AND Janine. They said “And you send your selfie, so we print it” Nope, no prove of you saying that word ‘AND’. The whole time I thought I misunderstand them, I wasn’t! They fucked up then they wanted to throw the shit out of me, not gonna happen brother, I backed up by Janine humorous personality.

Well…. sometimes mistake must happen in order to know the real character of the person, I’m relieve Janine took it as a jokes 🙂 it could potentially be really schief gegangen, thank you for not letting it go south.

Love you Food Nerds! Happy Wedding Thomas & Janine, thank you Janine for being a fun individual!

Double Personality

This is the moment! tonight is the night! the reason why I insist of having Innsbruck Card after all is due to the Innsbrucker Nordkettenbahnen / Top of Innsbruck. The cable car’s ride itself will cost us 47 Euro ~ or 40 Euro according to Ankita #Whatever. It is already included in our 72 hours = 79 Euro Innsbruck Card. Comprender?

Gave Joe some warning on this particular Thursday, we will do ‘overtime’ than yesterday since there are 2 Cable Cars we want to do. The Top of Innsbruck and the Evening Ride from Patscherkofelbahn.

Our AirBnB lady said there’s not needed to go to Patscherkofelbahn as Nordkettenbahn is already the best. Hell no to the o o o, we will go just because we can, on top of that we already paid for it, we are not going to your concert which located on the next city, read: are not included in the Innsbruck card #The math ain’t mathing.

We took the Ubahn at Hofburg, crossed the river, it will stop at Löwenhaus, #Stay on your seat. Almost drop Joe there to check before he got saved by the bell sounds of door closing. Passed through Alpine Zoo, final Cable Car Station: Hungerburgbahn. This is where you all got off.

Joe had his brief moment of enjoying the view while I got busy with my body lotion that spread around my bags to my power bank, his phone charger etc. I need help! he instruct to wipe it with tissues. On the contrary, I responded “noooo, we can still use it, moisture my skin!” He thought the body lotion was somehow ruin, it wasn’t, I didn’t close it properly. #Oh, there goes my sympathy! After the tissue solved the issue, we could walk around to see what Hungerburgbahn offer us. We enter the church, Joe pointed “why do we have Alien? her face is green?” feel a bit creeped out, let’s go to the next station.

I read the word “JETZT” with red, bold, capitalized. Enough to get my attention, it is time, now! whereas he read the info “STOP. Please take the next one”. Two “Germans” ~ not necessarily from Germany, might be from German speaking countries were also confused, he asked Joe about why the gate wasn’t open. Yeah, in the end, the non-German-speakers was the only one who could explain what’s going on 😉 We just need to wait, the sign will always be “JETZT” unless it wasn’t true.

Next station is Seegrubenbahn, we can see…. the same view with higher altitude haha. There are some playground, place to sit around, suspicious white parts ~ had to check if it is snow? be careful on the way there are many shits #Watch your steps. There is restaurants here, looks nice, we both agree no matter how good the view is, we will eat inside, if not the soup or whatever food we ordered will already be cold before entering our mouth!

Joe was distracted by a bunch of birds flew around us, he suspected it was because of me eating chocolate bar. Hey, the other Asian people next to us also eat something, except the birds ain’t coming to them! #I’m innocent

Running away from the flock of birds, we went to our last cable car to station Hafelekarbahn aka Top of Innsbruck! The sign say it themselves! While Joe soaking all the sun, I, on the other hand preserve my youth by reapplying my sunscreen. We saw the signs to go to Karspitze, Geo Trail, Klettersteig, Innsbruckblick or Karwendelblick. Let’s do 3 out of 5, then we satisfied. Walked to Karwandelblick + Innsbruckblick then Karspitze.

On the way to Karspitze we sat for a while, when down there was a fight against the birds, here on the top we have fight against the ‘smoke’ haha I meant clouds. There is no need to go up when the clouds are coming, we can see the skies passed us. Slowly but sure we went up. On the top, we saw a family eating chocolate, that’s a good idea! told Joe to look at the chocolate maybe they can feel our pressure #They didn’t. Joe ran away when he noticed this family would ask him for a picture, instead she asked me. Did it nicely, still getting no chocolate pffff now is their turn to take picture of us! Beautiful up here hey!

Some time ago, on site, Joe was “there is a balcony down there, do you want to go?” “Noooo”. Fast forward to when we were waiting for cable car to wrap this up, I watched the TV, tapped him “Joe, there is balcony on the TV, where is it? we didn’t see any or?” “Yes we did, I asked you, only for you to answer with ‘nooo’ ” ahhh ok! that question I remembered 😉

Now we are back on the ground! What do we doooo? Museum Tour! First is the Goldenes Dachl Museum. We were exactly on the roof, we can see people on the bottom or on the City Tower. Attempted to say hello, no one return his hello 🙁 let’s do some coloring shall we? haha

Second is Stadtmuseum & Stadtarchiv. We didn’t understand why the lady said ‘just go’ the archive section, not knowing is not part of the museum, the guy was working there. I was like “Hmm, is this part of the Museum?” “No, it’s the Archive, feel free to look around” We backed out, we are not a detective who wants to see city archive haha

Honestly speaking, none of us are a Museum Person, is it worthy to continue? or let’s sit somewhere? We do the later, sat down on Starbucks near the Goldenes Dachl, having ice chocolate + ice latte while judging 2 then 3 then 4 street performers before moving to our next Agenda.

What’s next? obviously the Evening Ride we were waiting for since Tuesday, Patscherkofelbahn! We were so happy when we saw a family from the other side of cable car saying hi to us, the father was “gluing” himself to the glass, his daughter on his left, didn’t see the son but Joe said he was on his right. The girl waving her hand, we both return her hi. We knew exactly how it felt when no one return our hi from the Dach! So happy that our thought got passed down to the next generation.

The suspected “German” guy said there was an easy path walk called Ziberweg, not so long #According to him. I’m smart enough to ask “how long will it takes?” 2,5 hours. Noooo, noooo, nooo, noo we can’t. I think he was surprise with our answer. Dude, our “not so long” is 30 minutes back and forth! Don’t you see how much white our shoes are, these ain’t made for hiking….. We will just look around here, you have fun!

Once we arrived, I read the info in German “Joe, look, it’s written we can enjoy the sunset”. “When? At 23:00? We are in the mountain” 😀

We were only sitting from one place to another, calculated how much money we saved by using the card. Then he casually asked “have we been there?” pointed on the fucking cover of the Innsbruck brochure I have been holding for the past 72 hours. Hmmm, I think so…. flipped it to the page where that picture located, fuck! no! we haven’t! shit! we missed it! let’s go now!

I’m telling you, this is where our second personality come out, I remembered we were quiet tired, nevertheless, the moment we knew, adrenaline rush kick in #You think you know someone, you don’t. Joe was a bit ragu ragu “no…. we need to come back once again to Innsbruck” being a very calculated Asian, “no! we still have time, use your 120 GB capacity! look for direction, we need to leave this mountain”

We were brought from our lowest low to our highest high within one second, were hyped up! move directly to our new mission like no others, even Justin Timberlake Intime is not comparable to us. Saw our bus leaving from our cable car cabin! aaaa, okay we take the next one. Got off on the correct station, find out we were in the middle of nowhere. Joe wonder what do people do, what is the purpose of this station? there is literally nothing here, we use his gigantic internet capacity to zoom in, do the 3D view, there is simply no road, it’s can’t be 6 minutes walking? there is a forest, river, stones, everything….. how can we cross it?

Decided it’s a no go, make a conclusion if you want to see this platform, do it from Bergisel, you just need to hike for 30-40 minutes. We took the next bus to Joe’s road: Maria-Theresien-Straße, I’m afraid at some point he will tattoo this road hahaha.

We had Thai food at Thai Li restaurant, it’s his first time trying Mango Sticky Rice, he assured me it won’t be his last. We had a very typical Innsbruck delicacies, Asian food! Wherever you are, top of mountain or on the ground.

Thank you so much Joe for accompanying me in Innsbruck, I always enjoy the time, everything seems funnier with you, whenever you’re around it’s just a different level of energy. Very grateful we knew each other back in 2016 and still somehow manage to be in contact from time to time. Wish you all luck as well as happiness! ‘Till we meet again, take care!

*we conquer Innsbruck within 72 hours* #Mic drop

The 8 “Working” Hours – Part 3

The second day of our 24 hours Innsbruck card, we did very durchgetaktet! Zack Zack Los! Clocked in our Journey at 09:00 AM. All the rides for today sponsored by a Hop on Hop off aka Sightseer bus! before you get too excited of sitting on a double decker bus, it’s not, just a normal one level bus. Pay attention to the Bus Station, you need to see the red symbol S on it.

First stop was the Imperial Palace / Hofburg. They have a Maximilian 1 Exhibition, please be aware of this name, you’ll hear or read about him many times. Do we know who he is? Not the slightest hahaha our memory is limited to how incapable the guard were.

  • So, Maximilian Exhibition is there, here is written “the office” do you know where is it? did we passed it?
  • Oh I don’t know why it’s written there, do not pay attention to it.
  • Do you know what is the stage outside the Hofburg for?
  • Oh no I don’t know.

There is no photo as we weren’t allowed to take any of it in the Imperial Palace. I almost got busted, could be the reason why the lady kept following us. She seems smart, we decided to ask what is the relation between Maximillian and the imperial palace people to which she answered “I’m not a tour guide” well…. mother!$k3r hahaha

At some point, she told us that we can only walk on the carpet because the floor is lava! haha there installed an alarm where it could ring really loud. Tempted to drop my brochure to test it, yet backed it out #Calm down Marlyn.

Moving on to the other side of Innsbruck, Schloss Ambrass. It was the same Sightseer driver who drove us before. This Schloss Ambrass is very confusing, we didn’t find the entrance easily. Everytime we asked someone, they pointed somewhere else, one of them said “there is a Karte (map)” I know damn it! I just didn’t want to read it! #Lazy ass.

Arrived to the allegedly upper castle which according to Joe wasn’t really upper haha only to being told the entrance was from the down side. The arrow on each is very confusing hey!

We finally made it! welcomed by an armor room, painting room which reminded me of Mr. Beans movie ~The Whistler’s Mother, you know which one~ Joe wanted to go to woods area for a while, he got his wishes granted, even tried to make conversation with a peacock. We followed the map, the Castle is divided into many exhibitions on different places, don’t lose your entrance ticket, you will need to scanned it every time. There were also Chapel, temporary exhibitions ~ while we were there it was about human with special characteristics, like the one from This is The Greatest Show! ~ where we can’t take pics.

Being inspired from the Hofburg where they provided a mirror for a good selfie according to me but since we can’t take a photo we didn’t do it. We saw more or less the same mirror, attempted to take pictures of our zodiac. See us with Virgo and Libra, no right? because we weren’t successful haha.

Next destination is Bergisel Stadion & Sprungschanze for the ski jump. The station called Das Tirol Panorama, the name speaks for itself. Asked Joe to take me some pictures, right after he took some, he confess “I’m not a very good picture taken” well, you gotta learn yo! haha just kidding, it was good 🙂

Oh there was a Café! let’s have a snack break here, I had cake and radler, what a combination #Brain doesn’t work anymore. Checked on his phone, 4 mins walk to Bergisel. Right when we about to leave, it started to rain. Oh no! Let me think, there are two options, went into the Museum while wait until the rain slow down…. or…. just go while it’s still drizzling. We choose the later.

Didn’t regret it, when we arrived the rain getting smaller, at some point it stopped. The “funicular” or should I say “elevator” rides every 15 minutes. What we can see from here? Panorama again! 😉 only from a higher point.

On the brochure, I can see there is a seeing platform nearby called Drachenfelsen. Don’t be so optimistic about the weather, like our AirBnB Lady said “Austrian is always prepared” the drizzle comes back, enough to annoyed us hahaha we decided not to go there now, rather try to go tomorrow when the weather supposed to be good. Unbeknownst to us, there is no way to get it other than to “hike” for about 30-40 minutes from Bergisel #Oh well.

We past the Memorial Andreas where it’s written for God, King and Fatherland #So touching. Both of us directly placed our hand on our heart, began the choir of aaaaaaaaaaaa

Last, we were entering a Tirol Panorama mit Kaiserjägermuseum. Where Joe was confused about the so called “Panorama” it’s just a screen 😀

Then we catch the last Sightseer bus, went back to Joe’s favorite / haunted street, Maria-Theresien-Straße. It was still the same bus driver from morning, he recognizes us therefore commented “wow, very busy!” yes Sir! we were working the same shift as you! When you have an Asian planner, everything need to cross the box!

We wanted to try if we go to watch our AirBnB Lady’s show #We couldn’t. It was far away like 40 minutes, by the time we have to come back it will takes us 1 hour or so. On top of that, remember we just “work” for 8 hours. Having no more energy, we decided to just eat at Chinese Restaurant nearby 来来来.

*continue to our last 24 hours*

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Can’t wait to spill the beans of a kind of roller-coaster adventure this week has brought me in, spoiler alert: it’s a fun one 😀

Thomas invited me to his wedding on 6th of July in South Tyrol, without a doubt I would like to be there. Planned started as in looking at the map, what is the city before South Tyrol? Hmm…. Innsbruck, Austria. Read good blog about it, decided it will be my Zwischenstopp. Next is gathering my crowd, texted Hanna whether she’s interested in my idea, think who could be the other person that we both knew? Joe!! I have meet him 2 years ago in Desenzano while Hannah hasn’t for like 7 years or so, let’s ganged up in Innsbruck #Shanghai connection! Sadly, one of the other reason Hanna was not able to join our small trip. Joe hasn’t really confirmed yet, however in the end he did! #Happy!

Do ground research, there are this things called Innsbruck Card for 72 hours cost 79 Euro, bought it in the train station. There were 2 counters with one old “German / Austrian” idk guy, spoke German to him, he said I need to go to the next (empty) counter, he was having 0 customer but it’s not his goddamn business, I wait…. wait… wait until Italian lady come out. Oh hello, Signora, where were you the whole damn time?!

Got yourself these two flyers, it will save your planning!

One by one, let’s peel what did we do in those 72 hours, we maximize it to our use. That I can guarantee #Devil smile.

I arrived earlier than Joe, had Thai food as lunch near Hbf, checked in, strolled around the memorial to those who died for the freedom of Austria, Annasäule, Triumphforte etc. Wow! You always have a mountain view on the background, love it! Innsbruck gefällt mir 🙂

Joe arrived around 15:00, we went to our AirBnB before exploring the city. Every article I read written we need to take a “selfie” with the Goldenes Dachl, being an uncreative tourist, we didn’t even try to take photo of each other, if it’s written a selfie then a selfie it is! We did so many times from different angle, Joe tried to delete some people from background, yet the edited version was too obvious, better try another one, another one, another one and gave up haha

Almost all attraction closed at 17:00. So we gotta go to next one, Hofkirche where they have a Bronze Statue human sizes, before entering the church there was a multimedia show for 15 minutes. What is this multimedia? Voice and a bit of “laser” show. To me it was like kind of escape room where one door opened after explanation or more out of a sudden a couple come out from the closed door, wtf yo?! were you lost or something? Done with it, we enter the real church, I like it, it reminds me of Logo of Hogwarts what? hahaha When we were out of the church ~ still in the courtyard, saw a map with some legends & numbers…. orange squares, number 3…. the altar… hä? what it is? you mean that room is the altar? took us some few seconds to realize it was the map of the inside! the one we just stepped in! #Facepalm.

Right after, we go to the Stadtturm / City Tower. There we can also see the Goldenes Dachl, remember the instruction from all blog I read ~ selfie with the roof ~ not the building so here we got, nothing other than the roof view! Nailed it!

Then my Asian calculation don’t let me miss any opportunity, we wanted to go to the Patscherkofelbahn, since it’s written Evening Ride from 17-23:00. We took a wrong bus direction on the way there, getting off, redirect ourselves, spending 50 minutes up to Patscherkofelbahn Station only to be confused as to…. why it’s so quiet…. I was in the toilet when I found out the Evening Ride was only on Thursday while we were on Tuesday #Shouldn’t have ignored the sign.

Come out, directly run to Joe, we need to go now otherwise we have to wait for the bus for another 20 minutes! Hop on to the J Bus, another 50 minutes to reach City Center. Joe was having a bit seasick / cabin fever due to the way was a bit winding #Sorry!

After almost 2 hours on the bus haha feel so good to breath a fresh air. We see the “Dancing House” inspired from Amsterdam, at least that’s how I called it. There we met Ankita, she heard us speaking English, approached to asked for a photo. Little did we knew, she also lives in Germany! you never know who you will meet along the way, could be someone living close by, for sure we will meet again in Germany 🙂

We talked about our Innsbruck trip, where to go etc, continue to eat in an Imbiss while watching the Europe cup behind us to know who is playing against who. There she had the ‘nerves’ to ask if Innsbruck card worthy haha I am not a person who pour oil to fire. Girl! you will cry once I told you what we are going to go with this card, don’t ask any question you are not ready for the answer 😉

We closed the day by me searching on where to take the bus while Joe said proudly “for sure it will be from Maria-Theresien-Straße” not only he has a correct pronunciation for a German street name, he was also correct regarding the Bus Stop, boah! after 3 hours he is already a local!

*24 hours checked, continue to our next 48 hours!*

Silent Week Treatment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not the New Kid on the Block

  • Mamaaaaaaa, oooohhhh. I don’t want to die, sometime I wish I’d never been born at all…. Carry on, carry on…
  • Love of my life, you’ve hurt me… you’ve broken my heart and now you leave me… love of my life, can’t you see? bring it back, bring it back…
  • All we hear is radio gaga, radio goo goo, radio ga ga… Radio what’s new? Someone still loves you

I am talking about none others, the legend Freddie Mercury! We got an optional tour to go to Montreux, hell yeah hello Queen Mercury!

There were another group before us, consequently, it took some time until the statue was empty. Once it does, we didn’t waste a bit 🙂 Group photoooo, in order to do a selfie, Joe need to come forward put his arm on the lake area, as you can see I was very ‘merinding disko’.

Still in the memory of the legend, went to the Queen-Studio Experience.

Look at how serene Montrex is, no wonder Freddie spent some time here to recharge from his busy life, it is 有山有水.

Then we visited Bern to beautiful Aare River again, the very unfortunate event side for all Indonesian citizen. In this side is the late son of Bandung’s governor got swept out by the current #Rest in Peace

As usual, city center area, however we didn’t visit any churches, rather Swiss bank #Fulus 😉 We tried the allegedly famous chocolate shop, some says its the best blablabla for me its just normal.

Guess what? we went to Germany too! what an experience of passing the custom via bus. Jo tell a very weird legend about Titisee, a kid being transported by Burung Bangao ~ like in Dumbo movie. Out of nowhere, came water to which it became a lake. I heard it like Hä? what kind of a story were you telling me???

We went to Schwarzwald not for hiking, sort of to buy a Kuckucksuhr. We were explained about the history, how to make it by an Indonesian seller. Right after the explanation, mother wants to have not only the Kuckucksuhr, but also the Magnet for her collection. Pass auf, she took out the magnet from the display and walked through the Kasse, only for a lady on a mask to snap it out of her, unpolite saying in English “You need to talk to my colleague about it” walk away, put the magnet back to the display.

I was behind my mother ofc I can understand her but there was no time to react. I can read the room, she will take the new one from the storage. After some time, she didn’t come back, I asked the other guy to get the magnet for us. He came back quicker than her. All 3 of us were in the Cashier. Like the way she appears was out of the blue, so does the way she reapperas, spoke to him in Chinese asking “Oh you already take it for her? then I don’t need to take it”

Leute, it was my time to shine, I was for sure having metamorphosis process, articulate my loud and clear opinion in Chinese “you didn’t tell you will get us that, besides we wait for you for a long time, you should have inform me at least and not just go away without telling anything” to her defense “but I did tell” I cut her sentence “No you didn’t, you only told my mother ‘she should have speak to your colleague’, none about whether you will grab it for us” Oh Lady, you think I am the new kid on the block who’s afraid to talk back? watch out, I was 7 years in your homeland! #Feel proud of myself.

Right after mother got what she wants, we went to eat. A piece of black forest cake is a must! as this is her favorite cakes. Same thing, according to her it’s very good, to me it’s only mehhh… She even had another one to take it away.

I genuinely quiet confused when I got it because the black forest cake is not….black?….hmmm…

As if all previous 水 not enough, here is the final 水 ~ Schaffhausen. Back to Switzerlandia.

The Amazing Race

As promised, here are the groups! It’s not legitimate without the epic flag 😉

Despite their jetlag, we are ready to explore first city, Zug! #Not train. Find the church meaning you are in the middle of the Oldtown 🙂

Up from this day, we will always “Back to Nature” mode. We have free time to enjoy Zug’s beautiful lake. Sat on the bench while eating mother’s ransum 🙂 These whole Western food except ice cream are not interesting to me haha

Off to Lucerne, this city is beautiful! A combination from “Back to Nature, read: water and some city vibe. We walked inside the Wooden Chapel Bridge where they have story painted on the top of their Dach, jep don’t even bother to understand. Oh what do we do? another group photo in front of the Lion Monument! Take out the Flaggieeeeee.

Here is the paradise for my mother due to they have a 3 floor souvenir shop, she can use all of her time there. Since I won’t buy anything~ thanks God I have Dela~ we went to explore the surroundings together.

Do we have any sense of directions? none at all, just followed whatever looks good. Oh that big house above looks like a castle, let’s try to come closer. On the way up, we bumped into another group of white people, seems like walking tour per se so we know we were on the right location #It must leads to somewhere. That hike didn’t go to waste, we found some path to a nice view….. plus cat

Satisfied with the view, continue with the pathway ~albeit our cluelessness~ which surprisingly lead to the Tower Clock. Its pretty cool hey! We look from the top there is a kind of fort or wall thingy to walked on too. We were thinking on which exit to take, only to find this is the only way out. Fun fact! this bridge connect the full chain of towers.

Out from this Tower, “on” to the next one, except we took the wrong exit which leads us to their backyard. What did we entdeckt? There is a lift up to somewhere near a building called Gütsch, what is that? Me want to check it! We decided not to go to the second tower as the view might be more or less the same, only the other tower got closer to the river view or so. However, we were not sure what time we should be back, Dela called her mom, okay we have around 50 minutes. Let’s move!

Increase the speed!!! half ruuuunnnnnnnn. Crossed the bridge, red light, intersection without traffic light. I don’t want to get fined in Switzerland so I asked some guys who were waiting for the lift about where did he get the tickets. He showed me the ticket machine, I have no idea which to click, ask some lady for help. I know the ticket says Bus drive since there is no options for lift nor I know the name of the Stations we want to go…. lets just take that one. Tadam…. we arrived at another top!

The Gütsch is a Hotel, wow! why don’t we sleep here? maybe our tour doesn’t have budget, besides we have 1000000 Koffer + only one lift functioning haha this will takes ages. I wanted to get into the frame of Lucerne, not sure if its only for guest #I’m thinking…. we went this far, lets get in, worse thing they will just ask us to leave the property. Dela wants to read the announcement on the door, told her “don’t read, none of the hotel guest will do so, we have to pretend we are one of them” 😉

Succeed! Get off, hop on to any bus!

Not sure where to stop, looked at Google map, two stations from now there will be a church we can visit, hop off there! Walked to the first church, followed by the second church where they have a sermon only to know we are back to the Chapel bridge again. #Pro runner!

Arrived on time to the meeting point where both of my parents already sit down outside, tired, ready for Abendessen. Ofc Dela was gebrieft, we don’t want to make our parents feels left out~ we were everywhere whilst they weren’t…. so, we need to have the same story. Just in case we got asked where did we go? Standard answer, visited churches at the end of the road and saw some view 😉 Keep it simple!

What a nice race with you!!!