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Money’s Worth

Sightseeing in Florence day 5: Last day 🙁 don’t be disheartened, I will give my full gas! #Planned

I arrived before our meeting point for walking tour about Medici Family with Gabriela, giving me some time to soaks in the Renaissance beauty.

We gathered in front of “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” church at Piazza San Lorenzo. Gabi’s theory is if the church is not so pretty from the outside, it will be pretty on the inside, vice versa. Any proof?

We went to one corner where Palazzo Medici Riccardi located, yep they owned a palace ~ doesn’t mean they were royal residence, instead just a very wealthy person who can own an impressive formal building. They started as a humble shepherd family from selling wool to one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Europe, playing a major role in banking, politics and art. They realized the great power of art, if he wants to ties some business in another city, he would sent Michelangelo and Botticelli for example to decorate Sistine Chapel.

Gabi talked about the entrance of the bank is in the corner to be easily spotted as in the past they don’t have street name. The palace was normal lookalike from the outside with a reason: Medici wants to be liked by people of Florence, spreading their subtle message “I am just a normal people like you all, I also want my voices to be heard by government”.

Next is the heart of Florence, Duomo di Firenze. The exterior of Duomo is a collections of marbles: green from Prato symbolized hope; white from Carrara symbolized faith; red from Maremma symbolized charity or love. The 16 people are not Apostles #Math ain’t mathing 🙂 they are notable citizens such as Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, Dante, Leonardo da Vinci. At the center of the façade, there’s Virgin Mary and baby Jesus surrounded by 12 Apostles.

No one died #officially during the building of the Cupola owing to Brunelleschi’s engineering methods and his attention to worker safety. Not officially is one died because he drinks too much wine. We do want to live a longer life, therefore Gabi brought us to the lucky boar ~ Il Porcellino which obviously a replica, the real one is in Museo Bardini, do not under any circumstances tried to touch his snout, no luck gonna come to you. You can only touch the replica ones 😉

There is a secret passage near Uffizi connects Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace. All we need to do is look up haha #Not so secrets anymore.

Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici was the last of the Medici family, she was a smart woman, every reason why Florence still have everything is thank to her. Before she passed away she signed a packed to keep the Medici’s belonging inside Florence, it can’t be sold elsewhere. 18th February is celebrated as her day, many museums are free of charge.

I decided to go to Piazza Michelangelo, tried to use bus initially, in the end taking the same mode of transportation for the past 5 days: on foot. The view does pretty up here, some says at sunset it will be very good, seeing view of Florence from the other side. This is the Economic slash budget version for someone who wants to enjoy sunset from a higher ground. I however, will be on the Cupola 😉

I bought the Brunelleschi Pass for the Duomo cost 30 Euro consist of Cathedral, Santa Reparata, Baptistery, Bell Tower, Cupola. I am dead at this point #Too many walking. Seeing the line to get inside the Cathedral, hmmm I have bought the complete pass yo, can’t be waiting with all this free people #Devil’s laugh who only wants to get inside the Duomo.

I went first to Santa Reparata, using the other entrance, you will get inside the Cathedral as it’s located in the basement, make sense since it’s an archeological site. Back to first meeting with Gabi, she does has some point though, idk if it’s due to the Duomo is still under construction or is it only this simple hmmmm. In the Santa Reparata there is a bench, great! I sat there for 40 minutes before I move on to Baptistery.

Once I got inside, it is almost all covered due to construction. I really need to come back hey! Door of Heaven, why? Fun version: it was named by Michelangelo, it has taken ages to finish the door, he said he might have been in heaven when the door is complete. Once it’s done, he still not yet in heaven 😉 The serious version: baptistery is a crucial site for Christian initiation. Baptism is viewed as a rite of passage into the Christian faith, symbolizing the entry into a new life and the Kingdom of Heaven. Real fact: None of the door is original for there was a flood in Florence, they moved it to the Museum of Duomo.

Rest from my pass is Giotto’s Campanile Bell Tower, Cupola (got the timeslot) and Museum. I calculated if I managed to climbed the bell Tower prior my time slot to go to the Cupola. I can’t, I cannot, I am unable to can. #Reality is different from planned. What’s fortunate is this ticket valid for 3 days, meaning I can still go tomorrow morning before my flight back to Dortmund. I choose the later, went to a coffee shop, sat again for another hour, preparing my legs for 463 steps to Cupola.

While waiting on the line, I leaned on the barricade, suddenly snapped “we haven’t even started and I already tired” if I can get refund I would #First thought

Climb started, it’s all spiral, at some point I could need some seconds, sat in between the hole, letting all other people to go through. After gathered up some muscles back, I continued my journey in between a couple from Amsterdam and USA in front of me and USA Family behind me which later becomes my motivation to still continue the journey. Gabi said “if in the end you can’t going on anymore, drop it guys, its not worthy, you want to have fun on your holiday, don’t torture yourself”. Nope Gabi, I’m gonna make my money’s worth! #Dedication…or economic logic.

Finally I reached the top, the father from the USA family behind me said “if you want some pictures let me know” oh don’t worry I will have every pictures on every angle, I’m gonna make my money’s worth #Mantra. Jon and Rianne alas the couple in front of me patiently took every pictures of me + holding my bag. Without a doubt we were the loudest there on top, I don’t care, I paid for it, repeating my mantra over and over again until it’s being heard.

Thanks God I have an Asian mentality in my blood, I didn’t follow my first thought otherwise I wouldn’t have met Jon and Rianne. Leute, we really into this, we’ve got it all, all views only and view with ourselves #Were very busy!

We were second to last groups that went up at 18:00, the guide shouted “continue to go down please, its over, time for next group”. Walked passed a room of handgun or something, its not even pretty yet I’m still gonna take picture of it as a proof, chanting my mantra. We were back to inside the cathedral, one higher level in comparison to when we went up to the Cupola, what I want to express is we could see the frescoes clearly and the bottom of the frescos are so ugly fulls of devils or so. I said this to Tracy at home she commented “yeah hell is a scary place”. Stimmt!

OK we got out from the church now, we do live by our mantra on that evening. As if all the thousands pictures on the Cupola weren’t enough, we must make a picture with the truck too hahaha

Rianne is dead tired, nevertheless I brought them to the front side where you can see 4 buildings in one: Baptistery, Cathedral, Cupola and Bell Tower. She gained some energy for last couple of pictures.

Only Jon lived by the Mantra ~ he followed a YouTuber with all money’s worth tip 😉 he solely will come up to Bell Tower the next day while Rianne wait downstairs. Usually the wife is the one who comes up whereas the husband wait, well, its time for a change now hahaha. They will start later while I need to be there once they opened.

Big shoutout to Jon & Rianne, I’m really grateful we met, my Duomo experience would be totally different had I not met you two! Climbed up solo, climbed down with friends 🙂 Since we are geographically neighbor, I really do hope to see you guys again in the near future!

On my last evening, I went to have dinner with Tracy, she said once you were on the top of the Cupola, you don’t need to go to Bell Tower, it will be with Grid plus its lower anyway. Oh girl, no way, I am not only FOMO but on a mission to make my money’s worth, I still coming up hahaha. I was very happy I didn’t go on the same day to both tower or else my leg might get amputated hahaha #For real.

Next day it is! On the way to Bell Tower there is also some benches to rest, I took advantage of it. I’m not in a hurry anyway, this and Museum then I crossed all my list.

Last pass! Everything you see from outside is the replica hahaha the real one is in the museum. It is a three floor museum with statues of the churches. The idea of Duomo, look at this the “possibility” of how the Cupola might looks like based on different architect.

There is also a movie where I watched two times in Italian and English so I sat longer hahaha

Then a Poem from Michelangelo, I think was good, well he’s a legend 🙂

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rime.

Sonnet written in the years he was working on the Pieta.

  • The course of my life has brought me now through a stormy sea, in a frail ship, to the common port where, landing, we account for every deed, wretched or holy.
  • So that finally I see how wrong the found illusion was that made art my idol and my king, leading me to want what harmed me.
  • My amorous fancies, once foolish and happy: what sense have they, now that I approach two deaths-the first if which I know sure, the second threatening.
  • Let neither painting nor carving any longer calm my soul turned to that divine love who to embrace us opened his arms upon the cross.

Closing the day with some shopping, I need to get myself something yo, reward after all this one million steps hahaha. Tracy said about a gloves leather shop called Madova and a pendant charm store at Santo Spirito called Giuliano Ricchi.

The experience at Madova was amazing, she held my hand, in an instant knew exactly my size ~ it’s 6,5, like Tracy described. The price cost either 47 Euro for Silk or 53,50 Euro for Cashmere. I don’t ask if they have any other style, I choose the silk one.

The Giuliano Ricchi Jewelry is a normal house you need to ring the bell, I bought a necklace with one charm, it cost 25 Euro.

Yes I managed to get it all, in additon sip my last Hugo.

Once more, regardless of many Baustelle, Italy has my heart. I will come back for sure, until next time Firenze!

Tips: The Duomo is a must, I strongly suggest to buy all the Brunelleschi Pass like me, yes its cost 30 Euro. Need to mentioned, other than the time slot to Cupola, it’s valid for three days, you can do one each in Ruhe.

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Frequency

Sightseeing in Florence day 4: meeting Kate in Rome, skip Tuscany sky for a bit, moving on to Eternal City. Was on the way to train station when the sun rises at 07:35 AM, finally I see the daylight!

What a coincidence that her flight from Russia landed Rome during my stay in Florence, the train distance is only 1,5 hours, our half day in Rome planned 🙂

Kate really understand the ultimate point, this is what I’m talking! People who knows how to take pictures and how to do a boot camp whilst travelling! We are in the same frequency! Rome wasn’t built in a day, but with her plan, we’ll try to see it all hahaha

If you haven’t been to Rome, it’s a must as in M.U.S.T! It’s where every street feels like a storybook. I am fortunate I was with her, she never gets annoyed at my comment “oh, what’s that?” her responses were always “let’s go closer, make picture there”, it could be very south if I go with other people. That’s my girllll!!!! you got me and you got me good 🙂

Trace back our more than 20K steps:

What else other than….. Trevi fountain! oh hello Baustelle Julius informed me about the upcoming events, jubilees ~ the holy year in 2025, caused Rome under numerous construction and restoration projects. This is the Trevi Fountain without any water guys, nevertheless you can’t take away the beauty of it. I asked her to take picture of only building, she was… you could also do it, then she got my point “you asked me because i’m taller?” yessss! if I do the picture I will get the fence only haha

Next on our list is Pantheon Rome, while walking I found an interesting Pillars, undoubtedly she is ready with her camera + squat position. I like my first photos, she replied let’s do it one more time until I like it. #That’s the spirit!

I went in to one of ancient Roman buildings, renowned for its massive domed ceiling. With the oculus – about 9 meters diameter, it allows natural light to illuminate the interior. It has symbolic meaning which represents the connection between the temple and the heavens. Wooooo amazing hey!

The outside view of Pantheon equally astounding. You can feel this building does have history! beckoning you to come inside, you will bow to.

We walked passed two historic landmarks ~ under constructions too haha church Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza: a church symbolizing wisdom and learning with famous spiral-shaped lantern; Piazza Navona: an ancient stadium turned into a square with three Baroque fountains ~ Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, Fontana del Moro and Fontana del Nettuno.

I did zero research about Rome, I just went there because of meeting Kate. We stopped seeing the view at on of the Ponte until I questioned something…..

  • Kate…. that building… is it where Angel & Demons movie takes place?
  • I don’t watch the movie but it’s Vatican
  • Are we going there?
  • Yes we can go to the border, you can see from outside. Vatican is in Rome.

I AM GOING TO VATICAN CITY!!!! #Beyond believe.

Still on the journey to Vatican 😉 another landmarks show up: Castel Sant’Angelo / Castle of the Holy Angel which has serve a lot of function since it was built 2000 years ago from mausoleum, military fortress, papal residence, prison and now it’s a museum.

In front of the Vatican ~ still under Rome jurisdiction, there is Piazza Pio XII, a public space before entering the sacred boundaries of Vatican City. Kate took sooooo many picture until I got the IT picture.

In the end asked Sissy to removed all of people in the background mwahaha, my fav is the Air Jordan style 🙂 What do you think?

Stepping on at Piazza San Pietro / St. Peter’s Square which is one of the most famous squares in the world, located in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City! Let me repeat: I am LITERALLY ON THE GROUND OF VATICAN CITY!!! The place where Papa Francesco holds Mass! Felt a rush of emotions words barely capture, realizing how lucky I was to be here. The place I’d only seen in “Angels & Demons” was now right before me, it was no longer just part of a movie, rather a vivid reality, a tangible experience, one I could see, feel and remember forever. In some way, I was in a sense of disbelief realizing I was truly here. #Lost of words.

I remember when I was 16 years old in Bandung, my housemate, she is a Catholic, she was very very proud ~ borderline arrogant way saying “I’m going to Vatican” I was just listened. 17 years later, here I am, witnessing this majestic building. Never have I ever thought I would be able to be present at this awe-inspiring square.

I managed to put one feet on Vatican + one in Rome hahaha I promised myself I will come back to both Rome and Vatican, do the research so I can be inside! #Me want! One more thing to look forward too.

This dazzling experience leads me to hungrrryyyyyy we just eat somewhere, pasta in Italy = never wrong. We enjoyed the view of what we have accomplished so far from Janiculum Hill, we have walked quite a bit heyyyy! At Trastevere we could see Zara’s national war hero haha.

It’s not finised yet people, we still have got some hours before our trains departs 🙂 Kate took a silhouette picture of me inside the Church of Our Lady of Consolation near the Forum Romanum / Roman Forum a.k.a Ruins. Although the Forum now is archaeological site, back then it served as the political, social, economic and religious center of ancient Rome; lived beyond the Imperial Era of Augustus, Vespasian and Trajan.

It is forbidden to miss the most iconic symbols of ancient Rome and a masterpiece of engineering and architecture: The Colosseum we are saving the best for the last 🙂 we were talking the fact that it was a gladiator contest places, however at that time it wasn’t consider inhumane. There is no time to go inside, we just saw it from the hill.

Let me correct it, the Gelato is the best for the last! We were separated after this on Rome train station 🙂

Kate, it’s been five years, at the same time it felt like no time had passed at all, we were picking up exactly where we left off. Thank you not only for our tour in Rome, for the real conversations we had, and for being the friend I can reconnect with, no matter the years in between. I wish you all the best as you settle into this amazing chapter of life in Italy! Buona Fortuna!

‘Till we meet again 🙂

Tips: buy the ticket of Pantheon online to save some time waiting in line for ticket office. I bought the entrance on 13:00 and get in at 11:00. We asked them, she said OK, they didn’t really control the time. It cost 5 Euro but online fee 0,95 Euro so 5,95 Euro.

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No Revolution

Sightseeing in Florence day 3.

Tracy was like “are you seriously you gonna be the whole day in Pisa? It is very small, what are you gonna do there?” Noooo don’t worry, the tour will be Pisa – San Gimignano and Siena. Then she was relieved to know it, quote “then it’s OK, you won’t be bored”

Tomato tomatoes with the day before, tour starts at 07:30 AM meeting point at 07:15 AM, it does feels like a disciplinary holiday 😉 the only reason I enjoyed waking up early. On the way to the meeting point, I met a couple, her name is Meta, she said she got an Email explaining they will got a refund because the Bishop decided to have a Mass on Siena’s church. I don’t get any Mail nor WA, then I know they went in a full mode including wine tasting + lunch + guided tour in Sienna while I only for transportation version.

We’ve got 45 minutes at Pisa. Our guide Fabi explained there are 4 parts to see: Baptistery – Church – Pisa Tower – Cemetery, describes the beginning and end of life.

I looked for another solo rider, aha, found her, Nora from the States 🙂 Passed the gate, seeing Pisa was an overwhelming feeling, although it was or is not considered 7 Wonders of the World, for me it is. I always saw it in Internet now it’s right before my eyes.

When you see the bottom of it, it does tilt, the picture didn’t do the justice. Obviously you need to have a mandatory pushing Pisa pictures haha.

We circled around….that was it hahaha! The whole city was literally centered in this square haha. Previously I was confused to why should I be bored in Pisa? #Understood 😉

We’ve given up on where’s the cemetery. Some says “you’ll find what you’re looking for when you’re not searching for it”. That’s exactly happened, we find the last part of life when we were supposed to be back to our meeting point. With that, Pisa: checked!

Fabi counted if all people are on the bus, she said “please sit back at your original seat guys, no revolution” hahaha so changing the seat consider revolution now heyyy 😀

Next to a medieval hill town called San Gimignano. Meta and Nora are the full tour people, they will have their wine tasting and lunch. Which means, I explore this town all by myselffff. Right after I entered the gate, I followed arrow to Punto Panoramico, what will it lead me to? A green panoramic view 🙂

Need to refuel my energy with Lasagna + Hugo. They have the best ice cream in the world ~ Behauptet, whilst I believe it, however the lines were just too long. I prefer see around what else do they have here.

I always set up a timer on my phone, met a couple from the group asked them what time we should meet up? #Sicher ist sicher. They speak no English, either Spanish or Portuguese. I opened calculator 😉 it has many functions not only for bargaining in China but also to talked about time. Thanks God I met them otherwise I will be the one whom everyone waits for, they saved me from my walk of shame haha

Last Chianti experience is Sienna. Initially I didn’t get the grasp of it as to where should I go, somehow I took the wrong turn, is it really what this city can offer?

Luckily I managed to see the heart of this city, the Piazza del Campo where the student from Poland named Maksymillian took me as a confused tourist, brought me to Duomo di Siena. For a student, you can get in to Duomo for free, aha, it was an ancient times ago. Before we went back to the oldest bank in the world meeting point, we closed the day by sharing a very hype Ice Cream Grom #FOMO which similar to his last name Krom, nope he’s not the owner of the shop 😉

I have to say I wasn’t walking that much in comparison to the day before, yet of all the accumulated walking, I had to ask Tracy for a Voltaren or Counterpain or whatever gel to release muscles. She doesn’t have it, what she does though a massager, oh way better! She asked “so tomorrow you are going to Rome?” Yes – “At what time?” 8AM is the train – “Gosh hearing your schedule I already feel tired” haha I called it a happy kind of exhaustion 😀

Facts: I paid 65 Euro from Get Your Guide website “Tuscany: Day Trip to Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano and Chianti” the full tour including lunch + wine tasting + guided tour in Siena was about 122 Euro, I do the exchange rate because Meta paid in USD. According to them, the lunch + wine tasting wasn’t so good, they can’t have options for lunch it was already prepared and the wine was too little to taste anything, they regret it.

I asked Nora what are the most interesting information from the guided tour. She explains that Siena divided into 17 “groups” who were in horse war each year to decide who would be the ruler / winner for the year. The horse was decided 3 days before the race, within 3 days they need to find the jockey and…… the horse can win without the jockey. In the end, it’s rather based on luck other than any training whatsoever. There you go 😉 now you can decide if you want for a full tour or the economic version haha

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Yes, I’ll Be There

Sightseeing in Florence day 2, I am going to Cinque Terre! Saw some pictures while I’m booking for Pisa from Get Your Guide website, hmmm… this does looks like Amalfi Coast, it’s a M.U.S.T 😉

Tracy did mentioned the possibility to go to Cinque Terre by myself, normally that what I would do but since I have not really do my usual preparation, decided to just do it with the tour, one less concern.

The tour departs at 6:40 AM, meeting points 20 minutes before, walked from Tracy’s place needed 30 minutes. Calculate backwards you know what time I should get up right? As a comparison my first alarm for waking up to work is at 6:30 AM, doesn’t mean I really got up though. However, if it’s about travel, trust me, rain or shine, I’ll be there! #Dedicated. Little did I knew when I arrived at the train station to register myself, the ticket lady said my tour is the “Bus Transport” only, doesn’t include visit to all villages, if I want to upgrade I will have to pay 51 Euro. I asked if I can take the train by myself or there is really no other transportation way other than by car? Getting yes as an answer, Ok I’ll do the first, checked on trenitalia website, the cost of each train ticket is only 5 Euro. Perfectooo!

They dropped all of us at Levanto Train station, that’s where we separated, some people goes with the groups, I bought my Cinque Terre Card for 19,50 Euro. I’m all set! Adventure for one: starts!

Cinque Terre = Five Lands, consist of Monterosso al Mare; Vernazza; Corniglia (up in the hill, bus needed or walk up 1 km); Manarola; Riomaggiore.

According to Tracy’s the best is Monterosso al Mare. I made sure it was my first station, had she not tell me, it would me my last’s as it was the closest to Levanto where our meeting point is.

Not only beach, there is a kind of Fortress here, I’ll hike up!

Where the fortress? haha got distracted by a tunnel which lead me to “city center” area offering some places to eat + church. If I continue walking, wouldn’t reach the Fortress at any time soon so I had to go back.

Now I’m ready to slowly walk up 🙂 Mind you, my legs are still sore from yesterday full day walking haha I did have my doubt, nevertheless after put one step in front of the other, it’s kind of doable. I used some chance to sit every now and then.

On the way down, well… up too, I just didn’t pay attenzione, written a graffiti “just the 2 of us” but I’m only one hmmmm

My plan next is going to the further side (Riomaggiore) then back getting closer and closer to Levanto. If they don’t have mussels restaurant, I would say Riomaggiore is not my fav, sowohl small als auch only way up, there are stairs too that leads to have no idea, I saw it and immediately throw white towel haha.

Manarola on the other hand, is walking friendly, even though at some point you also reached the higher position in contrast to when you started, you don’t really feel the hike. I’m not sure if you can swim on the beach side, it could be only on Monterosso. I do not mind, I’d say Manarola is giving me the most Amalfi Coast vibe.

Follow the path, ended up in a slightly higher level, feel so happy aaaaaaa! It could be better than Amalfi Coast due to the fact Cinque Terre is in the north part of Italy. The Italy I always have in mind.

Einerseits I still want to stay a bit in Manarola, andererseits I’m also FOMO gotta see the last 2 Terre in less than 90 minutes. Move move moveeeee, next is Corniglia. To my disappointment, it was not as good as the others. Since it was raining + located on top of the hill, I will / had to wait for the bus with the hope I would still catch the train on time to Vernazza.

Ran to the Platform, yes! made it on time. I love Vernazza! It’s good to have this as the last stop, they actually have a castle. I didn’t even know where the castle located, for some reason didn’t see it. Sara from the tour went there she said its cost 2 Euro except she didn’t have time to see the church. I do the opposite way from her.

What I like about joining a tour, got one more amiga in south of Spain 🙂

When I visit my other Sara haha, I’ll see you too 🙂 until then… ¡Hasta luego!

Much needed dinner! Tracy brought me to her favorite pasta place ~ Alla Vecchia Bettola, we both took a scooter, it was a bit juggling because the road in Florence is not smooth, in the end I manage it! The foods are delicious! I like their pasta #no question ask, surprisingly the liver of the chicken too! We go full version with ice cream! #Wenn schon denn schon.

Tips: You can also do the same like me from Get Your Guide website choose “From Florence: Cinque Terre Day Trip by Bus”, it cost 54 Euro while the full tour cost 99 Euro, if additional on the day then +51 Euro. The tour does include cruise by boat ~ if Zeus against it, no refund was given. I’m not sure how much if you go by train / bus by yourself maybe back and forth from Florence, perhaps it could cost cheaper than 54 Euro.

Once you arrived Levanto buy the Cinque Terre Card it cost 19,50 Euro and you can go to all 5 Terre, using the bus to Corniglia too. I agree with leaving Florence around 6:30-7:00 AM if you want to see all 5 Terre on one day then better arrive as early as possible. I only have no more than 1 hour on each Terre, it was enough whilst I also need to hurry. Imo, Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza and Manarola are the best. The rest it’s totally OK to skip, you won’t miss much 🙂

If you can’t go to Amalfi Coast, go here, Tracy also had the same view, she commented: they both have same concept, colorful house and beaches, only the color in Amalfi is more nude. Just an alternative if you’re not mentally ready to face Southern part of Italy 😉

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A Day as an Analyst Continued

***Triggers Warning: Disturbing Content, Includes Violence, not for fainted heart***

My legs has already given up at this point, on the other hand I’m running out of dates to do this dark mystery tour therefore I kept going! #Ain’t like tomorrow.

My tour guide was Angela, she was funny, she said we only enroll to this dark mystery due to we enjoyed family drama haha she was so right! She reminds us that the tour we are about to embark based on real story, what was really happening at that time & how they handle it, not about ghost.

First we were at Palazzo Grifoni named after a noble family Grifoni who married for love. Regrettably this blissful marriage only last for 3 days because he was sent to war. Every day his young wife waits for him to come back, she looks for any sign of him from her bedroom window. Hence the window is always open, day and night, winter or summer, all the time.

Unfortunately, he never came back, he died at war. She too, died in old age. After her death, their relatives moves in, they closed the window. This is when strange things starts happening ~ weather always bad, furniture moving by itself usw. It is believed the spirit of his wife is still there, still waiting for him to return, they decided to re-open the window and the strange things stops.

The windows remains open the same way including when it’s under constructions, no one close the window ever again. Now the palace is not functioning as a palace rather a private house by Budini family. Can you spot the open window?

Moving on to the Duomo area, precisely in the corner between the Bell Tower and Santa Reparata. Angela said underneath is used to be a cemetery for noble people #Didn’t surprise me at all.

Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet while Florence has a real life version named Ginevra degli Almieri and Antonio Rondinelli. Ginevra was a very beautiful girl in the final year of 1300. She was only 16 years old when she fell in love with Antonio. However, Antonio’s family is the enemy of Ginevra’s, without a doubt her father didn’t bless their relationship, her father arranged her to be wed one month later to Francesco Agolanti. Her father said “you will not get the permission, forget Antonio forever or we can kill him.” Thus, she obeyed.

After the marriage, she was always sad, became very sick, didn’t want to eat, cry, fell into deep depression. Four years later, she was found fainted to the ground in a very bad condition with blood etc. The doctor convinced she has caught plague, she needs to be burry immediately to prevent contagious. Her body was covered from head to toe so the people of Florence won’t see it, closed in marble coffin.

The midnight after her burial, it started a storm. What they didn’t realized is….they buried her alive! Sad to relate, at that time it was “common” that people were mistakenly dead. How do they know it? Once they want to moved the cemetery, the skeleton was found not in a normal position of how people died, some died while trying to get out from it. In this case, Ginevra managed to get out of the coffin, she broke her nails, in a dirty condition with Erde & blood.

She went back to her house where Francesco lived, he and her family were in grief.. Once he opened the door, seeing Ginevra, he thought it was a ghost of her. He told her to get away, “I’ve been praying for you, you are the ghost of my wife, please leave me alone, go back to your tomb” Her own husband rejected her, she went to her parents home only to get the same answer. Heartbroken, confused, where to go? she remembered way to Antonio’s home. He recognizes her, removed her veil, welcome her to his place. Being loved by Antonio, Ginevra’s health got better then finally the two decided to get married.

Of course news arrives to Francesco and parents of Ginevra. He seeks for revenge, went to the Bishop to send executors for Antonio. Thanks God the Bishop disagreed. He said “Ginevra comes to you but you rejected her thinking it was her ghost. Since then she is a free woman” Francesco is looking for a new woman, except no mother is willing to give their daughter to him knowing the treatment he has done to Ginevra when she came back alive. Therefore, no descendants coming from Francesco.

What is happening with Ginevra and Antonio? Is it happy ending? I wish. Something happened to Ginevra, as she tries to break out from the tomb, she saw corpses in a very bad conditions namely without head etc. She became to see it everywhere she goes, on the market, at home. In today’s language she is having a mental diseases caused her to lose her mind, she’s like a baby again, impossible to cure. Antonio couldn’t take it, he died perhaps due to big suffering in his heart. Both buried outside Florence, the cemetery for normal people.

The first time she was mistakenly buried was 1. May, it is being said every first day of each month there is her spirits walking until the end of the street then disappear. The name of the street was via la donna della morte. However in year 1800 the government change the street name to Bell Tower Street for Touristic purpose.

Next we stopped at Piazza della Signoria / Palazzo Vecchio where The Neptune fountain is located at. The statue with man on the horse is one of the Medicci family member. Back then, instead of fountain, this area was filled with torture machines to remove nails, organs, including genitals from both male and female.

If a woman (only woman) survives after the torture, she would considered as a witch, consequently, she will be burn alive. They could suspect anyone to be a witch for example if you have red hair, have job without husband, independent woman, yep you might be one of them.

There were 3 ways to kill someone: First, hiring executor who wears a black mask so people won’t recognize him, he always carries an axe which could never finish the job in one cut. Second, ties both hands and legs to 4 different horses who runs in different direction. Lastly, hang for 3 days from the first floor of the palace.

One day, all of these horrible things stopped, one day to the other. Why? Because the last two male of Medicis are homosexual, they didn’t have kids therefore no successor. The last female heir Anna Maria Luisa obliged to married old king from him she got syphilis’s that caused her not be able to born a child. Medici family has a pact with Austrian family, Duke of Lorraine. First thing he did once he was in Florence is cancelled the torture on the square. Not an Italian family solved this problem, obviously the Austrians do the wrong things too. Even so, do not forget they civilized the city of Florence.

After that we went to a normal street corner that has a very dark facts, even darker to know it was happening not so long ago, on 27.05.1993. It was all starts when two judges from Palermo fights with a Mafia who has been hiding from police, living in bunker for 30 years. When the big Mafia boss got caught, they bombed the judges. The group decided to put bombed in Milan, Roma, Uffizi quarter. About 200 kg of TNT was placed at this corner, one student (Dario Capolicchio) was crossing this street being burn alive + young family (Fabrizio Nencioni, Angela Fiume, 9 years old Nadia and 50 days old Caterina) found already carbonized. You can see the bricks are different because it was the hole from the bombed where they lived.

Whenever you see two people kissing each other, stretched their arms into an olive tree meaning mafia attack in those place. On the wall it was written poem from Nadia two days before the attack as if she got a feeling something bad gonna happens.

Still around that corner, hanged a sculpture made by Barney. The blade symbolize Mafia, 5 figures represents the victim. Those 5 victims are walking in blade but never falling down. It is a message of hope and love, to let people know they will forever remains in our lives.

Gladly the tour is coming to an end, I was sick to my stomach already. As if all of those facts weren’t enough. Angela closed our evening walk by telling us notorious serial killer started in Chianti Area in 1968. Two couples around the age of 18 decided to made love in the car, they chose the wrong night, wrong place, they were followed. Somebody has a long iron stick, broke the window and shot them. The killer took the genitals of the guy, cut the breast of the lady only to attach it to her genitals then leave it on the ground. The day after, police was called, they were terrified, it was the first time something like this happened in Florence. This was happening for 14 years… the serial killer repeated it to 8 couples a French + German couple tourist became victim too. The youngest female victim was 16 years old, the oldest was 30 years old. The killer decided to cut her breast while she’s still alive to sent it to the police. How sick of a mind can someone actually do that?

In 1945 police caught a farmer who has bad record such as raped his own daughters, after some years he was declared innocent due to alibi he has. He died hanged, it was still not clear if someone kills him or he commits suicide. Strangely, when he was in prison the killing stops in Chianti… only to happened in other city. Until today the killer is still a free man, no one knows, no one being caught. The big questions is if the killer move to other place of Italy?

There are 3 main hypothesis: first, it was a surgeon because the cut was so precise. Second perhaps it was somebody works for police as the gun was the same gun from police office which could be stolen. Third it could be a practice of satanism or illegal human trafficking organ. Angela said there is a movie made from it called The most Florence in Mostrow and Zodiac. Watch it if you want to not be able to sleep for some days. It is very disturbing hey.

This dark mysteries tour is really something different, it goes beyond family drama, regardless this is facts that was happening in this city. We can’t / shouldn’t / mustn’t erase nor forget it, all we can do is hope the killer will die slowly in hell and raise our awareness of danger / predator possibility.

Be safe everyone! If something feels off, it’s off. Hope we will never ever encounter something evil like that.

https://www.arteleonardo.com/de/blog/473/mysterious-florence-the-window-that-is-always-open

https://www.arteleonardo.com/en/blog/159/the-story-of-ginevra-degli-almieri

https://www.governo.it/en/articolo/president-meloni-s-statement-30th-anniversary-georgofili-bombing/22727

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A Day as an Analyst

Sightseeing in Florence day 1 begin 🙂

When I told Julius about my Florence holiday, he directly said I must visit Uffizi Gallery and Michelangelo’s Museum. That Sunday before my trip I really sit down, arranged, booked everything.

FYI, Florence is small + Tracy lives in kind of city center, everything is walking distance within 25-35 minutes, besides the Bus App are really not user friendly, I gave up trying to understand it. First trip is from her home to Accademia Gallery where Michelangelo’s David statue placed, bought the first entry time slot between 08:15-08:30. I went out before sunrise, walked pass an expensive Salvatore Ferragamo boutique shop, Burberry with funny jacket on its mannequin, some Piazza until I reach the line queuing for my David’s.

Tracy said I wouldn’t spend more than an hour at David’s, the first floor are not very interesting because it has wayyyy too many Christianity paintings then David then room of Statues, last second floor. Just like she described, first floor is full of painting about Jesus, Maria and the Saints. Also on the second floor, I had to agree with her, at some point, you just have enough.

Wait until you arrive to the magnificent David, the one you have been waiting for, he looks very shiny from afar. The details, his eloquent pose, the size, it was really a WOW. He is the superstar in the whole Museum. Of course I asked people to take several pictures of me and David, from different angle, none of them are pleasing my eyes. Oh well, gotta live with it. These are the best I got 🙂

I started to go around him for complete look, Michelangelo is a genius! was in total AWE, how come someone sculpt someone he never sees… very handsomely? Look at his vein, abs, stature! #Melting. If only he’s a real person! #Drooling <3

I knew what room of sculpture she’s talking about, I was there. One of them reminds me of Mr. Whistler’s Mother from Mr. Bean movie haha I’m so sorry sculptor, didn’t mean to offend you.

Guess how many hours I spent there? Perhaps three! haha not because I was looking at all paintings but rather it was raining outside, at the end I was just skimming and sit for some hour before I continue my trip haha.

Walked pass Spedale degli Innocenti / Hospital of Innocents where I found this meaningful pink ribbon on the middle of the Piazza with QR code. Go visit nudmfirenze.noblogs.org it is a symbolic for women who have no more voice as they were assasinated.

We planned to have lunch together however Tracy was really swamped at work so I choose a random Pasta + Hugo place around the Duomo ~ heart of Florence. Tracy mentioned “you know we are not located near water right? so you might not get or have a good seafood pasta, order rather a meat one” Nope, you can’t stop me, Pasta with seafood it is hahaha, it’s still verrryyyy delicious!

Ready for my next analytic project: Uffizi Gallery. This is huge! as in H.U.G.E! It has many collections from Leonardo DaVinci, Raffaelo Michelangelo, Caravaggio. What amazed me the most are the ceilings! They are all decorated very beautifully.

I did recognize some of the names though, for example Julius Ceasar, Titus, Painting of Wedding in Cana, Adam and Eves, John the Baptist, Salomon. There is a red room where you can’t enter, you can only see from the sides.

I was very overwhelmed hence I decided to sit down every now and then. Tracy informed in the middle of it there is a Cafeteria, I can’t missed it. After almost 3 hours I reached it, let’s have a rest first, so much deserved 🙂 There I got the chance to know Juli from Brazil who located in Zürich, aha! since then we visited the rest half of the Gallery together 😉

She knows some art, she was very happy to see Carravagio Medusa! Look at the painting of the wine, you can see the bubbles, very real. I have to snapped a picture of the important family in Florence, the Medici!

Once we finished, we decided to have Florence “Döner” hahaha right after that we separated, I went to my Dark Mysteries of Walking Tour #First timers, very curious!

to be continued… my day hasn’t finished yet 😉

Facts: It was actually confusing to buy ticket for David and Uffizi from the official site, it always leads to B-Ticket website with 4 Euro fee. If you want to wait in line to see if the ticket office still have tickets for that day it will only cost 16 Euro, on the internet is 20. Same for Uffizi, I paid 26 + 4 while some people might get it for 19 Euro on special day or special time or so. The walking tour guide Gabriella told me, of course I didn’t pay attention about the how, since I received this info late, been there anyway. To my personal view, David is a must visit while Uffizi hmmm unless you really understand Renaissance, interested in paintings, prepared to walked for over 4 hours then you can go too, if not, feel free to skip it 😉

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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

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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*

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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!*

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Hotels Hopping

When my parents are joining us in Bali, we stayed in a very hochwertiges Hotel!

Ayana Rimba (4D3N)

We got our welcome flowery necklace thingy, drink Rosemary tea cold #so good! + hand towel. I was hesitant to take it as I didn’t hear she said “refreshing” I thought it was warm like the one you get on the airplane, therefore when she drop it to my hand I screamed aaaaaaa.

This Ayana Group is a collections of 4 hotels: (Just) Ayana, Ayana Segara, Ayana Wana, last Ayana Rimba. You can go to each hotels for breakfast, swimming at Ayana’s infinity pool or others, kids club etc. They provide shuttle bus every 10 minutes with destinations to each Hotels, Saka Museum, at the end station approximate 10 minutes ride you will reach their private Kubu Beach, be careful there were monkeys on the way.

Visited Saka Museum, went to Auditorium where they explained what kind of celebration Nyepi ist. It is a silent day for all people in Bali to stop doing anything for one day; airports are not operating, hotel will reduce their working hours. We saw Ogoh-Ogoh ~ no picture because I’m 胆小鬼 it is a scary version of Ondel-Ondel. They making it on purposely scary to catch all bad evil spirit to burn it in the midnight. Only then, they started their new first day of the year with Nyepi.

Our room rate included 1 hour free Thalasso Theraphy. Some precautions: it is a salt water pool theraphy, you must eat 3 hours before you do this ~ meaning you can’t go if you just had food for half an hour or else you will feel nausea. We took shuttle bus to Ayana Spa! there is a place for a fucking spa alone! Cray crayyyyyy.

Here is how it go, station number one is to walk against the flow. Boy oh boy, couldn’t even go through, Sissy need to go first. While you passed the curve, there are some rocks on your your feet! aaaahhhh… Station number two is 4 “bubble massage” from ankle to hips, each one minute. It felt good for 10 seconds, longer than that I started to feel itchy. Next is same “bubble massage” for back. I lost control on which station where it was for palm of your feet, we were laughing the whole damn time, was so ticklish. Icing on the cake was “water jet massage” to our shoulders. The pressure was…. we describe it as if we were beaten by 10 people! We were so grateful we only got the one hour free. What confuses us is since this Spa open for public, some people actually paid for getting tortured! We named this therapy a “Rich People Therapy”, not our cup of tea.

Parents and I were kind of explore a bit. Went to Melasti Beach & Garuda Wisnu Kancana. I have been to GWK since I was 16 years old however the complete statue of Wisnu riding on a Garuda has never finished, some says it’s done in year 2019, okay then, let’s check.

At the same time we have World Water Forum where important people such as our President + Elon Musk attended, accompanied by 2000 delegations #Why? I found some WWF cars in Melasti beach but not my President, must be one of the delegations aka not so important people #Causing traffics.

Sissy was kind of bewildered why do I need to go to Melasti beach where we have a private beach at the hotel? she got the point though. Rimba is a kind of hotel where you don’t need to go anywhere else. If you don’t stay in one of the Ayana’s, I strongly suggest you to book a table in Rockbar Ayana during sunset, it’s perfect! located in Ayana hotel so you kind of see what Ayana has to offer. I am satisfied with Rimba!

Thanks for the stay, Rimba!

Apurva Kempinski (3D2N)

I was so amazed by the lobby of Rimba. Schwager said Apurva’s lobby is made of marble, during the evening some stones are sparkling, like a museum it was top top top. To me, the lobby in Rimba is already wow! wait until I arrived at Apurva, it took me to another world of Hochwertiges.

The smallest room is 65 sqm which is bigger than my whole apartment in Germany haha ~ 58 sqm.

What’s so characteristic about Apurva is the stairs, I need to have the IT picture or should I say picturessssss #Plural, can’t get enough, day mode night mode, all of it! The pool also giving an infinity pool vibe, due to the fact it was really infinity haha you looked at the beach in front of you.

Why do we chose Apurva? to celebrate Mother birthdays at Koral restaurant. It is a set menu, I chose Experience Food. Koral has feeding shows, twice a day, the fishes gathered like crazy, fascinating!

Neither did I know, my cousin Santy knows someone who works in Koral so the diver dives to our table, carrying a print out Happy Birthday sign while other people doesn’t get this special announcement, thank you Santy!

We also visited Pandawa hotel just because its 10 minutes away while private beach is walking distance #Mom’s logic. I think we were happier had we stay inside Apurva, feeding fish, walk around or so haha

You need to have a really good Orientierung here. I mentioned the stairs is what makes Apurva different. Why stairs? because the lobby is on the 15th floor whereas your room is down with different elevator. They have buggy services too yet not durchgetaktet like in Ayana, you need to use the phone provided there, in the end we didn’t even use any buggy service, not needed anyway. Downside of Apurva, the check in process dauert Ewigkeit, of course you get welcome drink etc to buy you some time. However you’ll reach the point of “these freebies are not enough, give me my room”.

I think Apurva is fit for honeymoon while Ayana is fit when children already arrived 😀 The kids club in Ayana is better when your child is still small while in Apurva is more suitable for toddler above 5.

Thanks for the stay, Apurva!

Swiss Bell Tuban (2D1N)

Pay attention to the very important Hotel you can’t miss, on your last day in Bali before you go to the Airport, you must sleep at Swiss Bell Tuban. It is located only 10 minutes away from Airport, with traffic it will still manageable within 1 hour. I remembered when I still with Irina at Menzel it took her 2,5 hours to Airport, you don’t want to deal with that stress! It doesn’t mean there is no attractions surrounding btw, there are many restaurants, laundry service is just 60 meters distance, hair salon right next to the hotel.

Our room is on the ground floor, hence we could go direct to swimming pool. Downside is people thought the “balcony” is for public, I had to warn them to remove their belongings and don’t talk there because baby is sleeping on the other side of the door which of course she wokes up haha

Do not buy any souvenir in terms of food or stuff everywhere else, just buy it from Pusat Oleh-Oleh Krisna near Swiss Bell, it’s open 24 hours #Heard that Germany 🙂

Thanks for the stay, Swiss Bell!

What I take from my hotels hopping experience is I would never be able to work in hospitality industry, too many basa basi chit chat, can I help you with anything? Get lost dude! help yourself haha or the famous German phrase “Es ist so wie es ist”

Time stops when I was there…. Listen Bali, I’m coming again XOXO

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