Tag: Seasonal Festivities

Claudia asked me to join Gevelsberg Kirmes, it’s a yearly fun fair where they have a lot of food stands like in Christmas market only on summer, I have been there before in 2022 and would like to be there again 🙂

Our program: always gathered at Alina’s home ~ her place is exactly where the entrance of Kirmes which also become our Pipi Box #Save money! There I met new people, Karen and Jens.

Gevelsberg Kirmes’ located on a hill, once you reach the “top” there is a Ferris wheel. Claudia & Alina established a ritual, every Kirmes day they will ride it. We also have it in Christmas market Dortmund yet for whatever reason it never attracts me #perhaps someday it will. Now I’m at Kirmes, let’s follow their ritual. Leute I’m not gonna lie, I was scared! shit man! getting old’s never become realer!

As I mentioned before, you will see Mandel, Cotton Candy, Ice Cream, Langos etc. I ate Kartoffel Twister, once I paid, I moved to the other lady who will pour which spice I want. The lady was “Wo ist die Dame?” “Bin here!” did she missed me while I’m right in front of the Theke? pfffff. Besides eating, we must have shots Rhabarber + Himbeere at the middle stand #Always.

Around 22:00 where it was dark, Claudia & Alina afraid I will lose in crowd of people, they bought me my Lebensversicherung. Both of them were “I will buy Marlyn Balloon, let’s do it” The seller wants to give me Peppa Pig, it wasn’t so good, Claudia choose die Katze as a representatives of HB who is sitting at home with Julius. Neither do they know, that Balloon costed 13 Euro! Damn! ~ Long time ago it was 2 DM hahaha. Too late to cancel, I’m proudly walk with it! it is very convenient for them, they know exactly where I am 😀

We are sure we will meet some NW people, we did! Sabrina, Melanie, Claudia (other), Carsten. Apart from Arbeitsleute, we met with Claudia’s Bootcamp people, Markus & his wife Kathrin. Yeah, forgot to mentioned on a Saturday they always do sport which means I am also doing that #Gruppenzwang. I was participated on their Bootcamp before so I knew Markus as Mario guy because he was dressed up with hat + hoodie like Super Mario color. One of the guy, Alex asked me what do I think about the workout? Eww Brother, I’d rather sleep! Valentine’s training plan was better than before…however #No offense, I still don’t like Bootcamp training haha. TSC Eintract Dortmund, why oh why you cancel my Yoga class during EM!

Back to Kirmes Topic 🙂 On a Saturday we rode das Riesenrad for the second time #Ritual. Honestly, I have less Angst than yesterday. Claudia believe “Höheangst kann man überwinden” you only need to do it more often. Apropos, we have a Gevelsberger 2024 Pin! Alina took it for us, she has a sharp eye to see where the bucket is! #Ess dä Kiärmis inne Gänge, schmeet ek mie inne Menge.

I went back to Dortmund on that Saturday kurz vor Europameisterschaft as DE vs Dänemark plays in BVB Stadion, it’s die Hölle los für Dortmund! I need to get myself a seat or at least able to Bewegung because I will bring my balloon to NW! Therefore I must survive the crowd!

Did I? Half! until Unwetter greeted me right on my Ubahn Station. Blitz, Donner, Hagel usw. FYI, Feli informed me the game stops for 15 minutes. I always bring umbrella but I have to protect my Balloon, took shelter for a while at Dogewo21 before decided to just hit the rain, made it home! ballons saved! can’t wait to show it to NW!

Almost 4 years in Germany, even though I don’t have a lot of friends here, my friend does 🙂 I’m lucky enough to have her who introduces me to all of her friends, love you Freundin! Oh wait, how about my friend? Julius is not a big fans of Kirmes, still he picked us up, no matter what time, thank you my Freund. Now I know what I’m gonna do every last weekend in June 🙂

First Gevelsberg Kirmes experience in year 2022 http://marlynpraseli.com/2022/07/03/german-full-part-2/

Tips: prepare about 35-40 Euro cash for each day you visit Kirmes, just to be on the safe side 🙂

Well…well…well never had I ever thought that I will have sequel of “nightmare” before Christmas. Good news is this time I didn’t almost miss the flight or anything happened somewhere near the airport. It happened right on the city center of Julu Road, Dodu restaurant.

Few weeks before Christmas, me and Courtney has been texting and asked each other if we will be here on Christmas and yes we both are. We didn’t plan anything until 23^rd of Dec when Courtney said let’s meet up on 24^th I said yes to her and we started to look for a place to have dinner, we didn’t want to be a fancy deal dinner, there were some places that we were interested in but in the end we chose Dodu at 7:30pm. Courtney made the RSVP and we all set for the next day.

On the day, I had to take the wrong direction so she had to wait for me, she said “it’s ok because we didn’t get the table yet” until I arrived which was 15 mins late we still didn’t get the table but we were not complaint about it, we understand that restaurant was busy. The only table available was the one that directly in front of the door, originally we didn’t want to sit there because it’s cold….but anyway we chose that table for a while. We ordered “roasted cheese” and “half roasted chicken”.

We both kept talking until I realized some guest from upper floor already went home, so I talked to the Chinese guy-let’s call him the manager- that I want to move upstairs and he said “No, upstairs only for 4 people” heee??? What is that? He can’t separate the table into 2-2 or what? And I turned myself to Courtney and said “Courtney, as white people to another, please talk to this white guy, he seems to work here” and she did, the white guy was peeking to upper floor and said to the manager “yes they can move upstairs” I think the manager tried to be funny by saying “yeah, you can move upstairs if you want, actually it’s colder there” yeah for sure it’s colder there. #weird feeling number 1

When we were upstairs, the table that been set up by the white guy wasn’t really convenient but we didn’t complain about it, within few minutes we saw another table of 4 left so we just moved there, the waitress- I assumed she’s a Filipino separate the 4 table into 2-2 and sitting next to us was a couple.

Our first dish arrived, which is surprisingly not the cheese but the chicken, not a biggie, we were hungry anyway, it came with the sides and since the table is small so the food was kind of consumed all the space on the table.

Then our cheese arrived but the waitress gave it to the couple next to us and I said in Chinese and Courtney said in English that “this is ours” the girl heard us and move it to the next table of 4 and I said to her “that cheese is mine” she said “no, they also ordered” Courtney said “but we were here before them” #weird feeling number 2

Anyway we continued eating our roasted chicken, I think it was not more than 5 mins the manager came to me and asked “did you order roasted cheese? We didn’t mark it and now it sold out” and we both said “that cheese was ours but she gave it to their table” well the manager done what every manager would do which is he gave us a pate as a compensation.

Even after the pate we were still hungry and thinking about dessert until the food of the couple arrived which is half roasted chicken and their portion was bigger! Turns out they mistakenly gave our order, they gave us quarter of a chicken! No wonder we were still hungry! #weird feeling number 3

I had a habit of taking picture of the food and I called the manager to talk to him and he said “I can’t see the difference in the picture” hmmmmm you can’t see the difference? Like HOW?! They have 6 pieces and we only have 4?

Anyway the white guy was around and Courtney talked to him, he was quiet surprised and I asked him “are you the manager here?” he said “I’m the boss here” I continued “Good, can you see this picture and the food that this couple had?” but the way me and Courtney talked to him wasn’t complaining, we just informed him about what happened and he took our report seriously than his staff. I said “I’m really sorry but I won’t write a good review about this place” and he was so wise by telling me “It’s OK do what you need to do”

Then we went downstairs to pay and the white guy still there and he said “OK, we will charge for the quarter of the chicken and please wait here I will give you something to compensate” and guess what he gave us??? A complimentary voucher of a free quarter of a chicken! Yeay!! And when he handled me the voucher he told me “Now you can write an OK kind of review right?” haha! I asked him what is his name, he is a Hugo Boss and we really appreciate him for his behavior but we warned him that the attitude of his staff is not good at all.

We left Dodu in searching for a dessert place, while we were walking we got a bit calmed and able to think clearly and we find it funny that it seems like we got the food for free due to this voucher 😉 and we just laughed when we realized that our Christmas Eve dinner was only 78 RMB mwahaha bottom line is it wasn’t really a bad thing after all.

The voucher was written valid until 31^st Dec but Hugo crossed it until March and I said to Courtney well actually we can use it now and said to them “Hello, we’re moving on, we’re still hungry and we both demand our free quarter chicken now” haha but we didn’t do that we stick to our dessert searching.

I ended up having ice cream at Garcie’s and Courtney having crepe at Odelice!

As the night is going late…. We had to say goodbye but both of us will come again to Dodu to see if the service has improved or not and for our free food obviously! Haha! Turns out this wasn’t a total “nightmare” before Christmas but I don’t mind to not have this kind of moment again for next year, please don’t let it become a tradition!

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you all had a nice Christmas Eve and Christmas day 😉

It all started when Siti (the star of one food app) asked me if I want to go to an event called Zaku Night.

The location was at M1NT, I am not a fan of night club so when I first saw M1NT I was a bit skeptical but yeah I clicked on the link and read the descriptions and find out that it was quiet interesting so I signed up 😉

Up until the moment I signed up, I only knew Zaku is Teru’s event, Teru is Eiman’s roommate (now become ex roomate because he moved out haha) that we knew and he was the organizer for this event so yeah I came.

The attendance list was Siti, Julia, Eiman, Phil, Gordy, no Thorben and no Aggy hahahaha 😉
From the description, I know that there will be free ice cream, free soft cake or whatev its called and some foods and drinks. Thats enough to convinced me to go 🙂

So here we are, at Zaku Event!
They gave us this bracelet and coupon to use for foods wohooo free food on a rainy Friday, what more can I ask.
We had the soft cake and then ice cream and the third icon was nails? I mean… what is the connection between ice cream, soft cake and nails? hmmm idk somebody please explain! haha

The decoration was nice actually, the color was dominated by blue and white, I mean it has to be match with Zaku’s logo right hahaha Thanks to Siti that quote “I was here since 4PM helping them with ALL of this” yeah sure M1NT only has chandelier before you came right? hahaha

Then here is the main star of the night, Teru!

Not sure if 11th Jan was the first day that Steve Jobs launched apple back then…hmmmm need to check it out, but this year 11th Jan marked the first anniversary of Zaku zaku! wooooo *clap clap clap

With this first anniversary they also announced their new menu which is Zaku Latte, with the caption of BEST MILK EVER! from Hokkaido with the best cow ever! hahaha

This is the situation during the event, I mean its a fun event, Eiman! Idk why you looked so serious, this is not in class where you need to answer teacher’s question and got additional points hahaha

The food on there was great but not as much as its written on the descriptions I guess….or maybe there was too many people and they grabbed the food faster than us pfffff therefore we were hungry and we went to Xinwang restaurant just 30mins before the business hour closed, idk is it the people power that made them still let us in very late or what haha.

We were on the second floor with a small table for 10people haha! and Eiman ordered the food like a boss.
E: 我要这个咖喱something something (pointing at the picture)
XW:几分?
E:随便.
What is 随便?hahaha don’t order too much! we had 3 portion of ducks I guess and then all other food was doubled portion, we had 12 dishes in total. Surprisingly, we kind of finished it all.

During the dinner we discussed about Zaku’s event and how everybody on the table was invited as Teru’s VIP list hahaha *facepalm. It does feel very special when we can share this VIP list together, doesn’t it? #should be a rhetorical question, not sarcasm 😉

But at least in this dinner I gotta met the awesome crew like:
1. Nick, who apprently quiet upset that Zaku Latte is the new product other than Zaku Americano but hey you gotta taste the best MILK ever for once right haha otherwise you really missed something in life haha
2. TeeJ, the Korean guy that was carrying his spicy sauce around and for the sake of Asian’s I also carry my spicy sauce around sometime lets have spicy sauce battle later on hahaha. Special thanks to not choose fast food chains restaurant such as hahaha you named it.
3. Ken, from Japan that insisted we ordered too much food and wanted to cut down all the food to one portion only hahaha thanks God we didnt do that otherwise it wont be enough
4. A very cute husband and wife Vincent and Sonia that apparently came back to China (according to Eiman) too f$@!ing soon 🙂

Phil we missed you on the dinner!

Even though none of us won the lucky draw of free dessert for 365 days but we all know Teru and we made it to his VIP list (wonder if the VIP list does exist when everyone was on the list hahaha) then why dont we just came to Zaku’s shop and asked for it haha use the People’s Power one more time 🙂

Above all Congratz to Zaku Zaku for having their anniversary and thanks for having us there!

PS: pics was taken by the link that Teru’s shared and camera 360 from TeeJ.

And here the sequel of source code begin….

Hahaha! Started at Zeitgeist during the kick off of Christkindlmarkt aka Christmas Market.

We were suppose to meet at 6:30 but me and Gordy arrived earlier at Zeitgeist due to the reason I was super hungry before the xmas market and at the market it will only be snacks instead of proper food so we had proper dinner first before we swayed to the backyard for the Gluhwein 😉 Gordy already had 2 cups of gluhwein on the restaurant, I just had Schnitzels and the gluhwein will be on the market. The market was nice and surprisingly full for the first day…well maybe because it was on Friday, it was hard to walk without spilling your gluhwein no matter how careful you are, you just can’t haha

Gordy was the one that super prepared in terms of thematic sweater, it’s still the 30th November but he already wear a xmas sweater with a xmas tree on it and it is so match with the real/fake xmas tree in the middle of the market haha. Many people took selfie with him just because of his sweater, I really think it’s a good investment to buy that sweater haha 😉

In the market, they have chicken something, pepito pancakes, bratwurst and friends and honestly speaking I had my gluhwein so I need to take off my glasses to drink it otherwise it would be dewy, so I can’t see anything clear about what kind of food there haha I just know there was also some stalls that selling earing, candle, nuts and etc etc. Elle was so persistent on having a pretzels and then at some point she saw a kid holding pretzel walked passed by and without any excuse me or so on she just said (read: a bit scream) “where did they get the pretzels?” and to her surprised the kid replied “it’s from the restaurant” and Elle said to me “I didn’t expect that the kid would actually reply” hahaha Wesley got his chicken something but I don’t know what was going on with him, we went to the chicken stall, he looked at it and somehow we walked all the opposite way to the other side to see some skewers and Wesley said “I want a chicken” and I said “You mean the chicken on the other side?” and he said yes, so we have to walked all the way back there, carrying our gluhwein that was already spilled anywhere just so that he can get his food *facepalm.

Gordy met many of his friends there, but me and Elle also saw a very interesting guy that looks like an assassin! like in every movie kind of assassin, sleak hair with a very clear hairline, sharp eyes it’s very like wow! I need to look up for a sniper or something because they must have a code between each other…and the code was…. a rose!

OMG we were so nervous what can we do with the rose, so we put it on the nutcracker statue so Elle should be undetectable by the assassin 😉 hahaha *fiuh just save the day ahahaha, we lost the assassin. That’s need a cheers!

At some point, we somehow lost Gordy, well….not lost but he was talking to his friends so the three of us were walked around and waited for the food and while we finished, we came back to where he supposed to be which is next to the tree but he wasn’t there! But yeah we couldn’t lost him anyway so we tried to take a selfie with the tree, and then here he is! the blurry guy on the background, while they have “where’s Waldy?” we have “where’s Gordy?” hahaa

Elle got her food, Wesley already finished and now it was Gordy who still wants to eat something so he also ordered the same thing as Elle if I remember it correctly. While waiting for the food, they put a Christmas songs or a song that all of us know so we talked about songs quiet a lot but I don’t know why they can’t catch the song that I sang pffff guys 🙁 ahaha #begging me for mercy, yeah yeah yeah

While it was about 10PM, they already closed down the market, they stopped the music even earlier so that we have no other options other than to leave. Elle and Wesley got a day trip the next day to somewhere in Suzhou where I don’t even think they know either hahaha.

But as the night goes by, the code about the assassin getting more and more clear, so who is this? What I know from all the movie I watched, the characteristic of an assassin should be:

1. Very careful,
2. Isolated,
3. Always reveals incomplete clue.
4. (Read: Not always) mostly guy.

And who that can fit to those three (or maybe four) basic categories?!?!

I mean, Gordy can’t be because he’s not careful at all as he spilled the gluhwein the most, clearly not isolated especially with his sweater where he became the attraction of the xmas market. So crossed him out, it means only leave to Wesley! *shocked face…..

Verdict 1: Wesley did very careful on the market, he paid attention to every gluhwein that he might spill to his shoes! he doesn’t want any spot on his shirts or shoes.

Verdict 2: Speaking of isolated….well, sometimes picture speaks thousand words 😉 He doesn’t want to eat around people!

Verdict 3: Another proof that pictures speaks thousand words… well, maybe in this picture, it will only speaks few words.

Me and Gordy was waiting the next message from Wesley but it was never came!! *facepalm

By this so called failed detective analysis, the assassin might be ehmmm ehmmm again, I’m not gonna say the brand ahahaha but in the end everything went safe and sound, no one get hurt 😉 #this the season to be jolly lalaalalalalallala

As I won’t see you for this Xmas sooo…for now….happy early Christmas then! I’ll see you in year 2019!! HO HO HO!

Have a good holiday guys!!!