My fabulous long holiday!

Ok, shit, my nice long post about my holiday got lost cos of Adobe Acrobat making Firefox hang! Blah. But still, I want to write about one of the best, if not the best weeks of my life. Been really busy the past couple of days, but finally, I have the time to sit down and do it. Two hours of work lost, but what to do? Can only look ahead.

It all started on Friday. Packing was actually a headache, cos I was going on holiday for 9 days but I didn’t wanna carry 9 days' worth of stuff, and yet I had no idea if I’d get a chance to wash my clothes. Also, the weather report showed that it was 3 degrees C in Feldberg, where we were going for the SSAG AGM. However, it was going to be slightly warmer in Konstanz, my next stop, and EVEN warmer in Mannheim, my last stop for the week. So, I just packed everything, from thermal underwear to spaghetti-strap top (which I took out later)…and 3 jackets of varying thickness. Even then, I tried to pack light, i.e. slightly less than enough..but I also had to bring my laptop and assorted adaptors and cables to do my homework, listen to music, charge my phone etc. Whatever the case, I managed to do my packing and leave the house and not miss the train!!

I happily sat in a seat with a table in the ICE to Frankfurt. I could listen to music on my laptop and look at my photos. Of course, I also read some of the articles I saved for my presentation on Indian Cinema. Raymond was supposed to meet me at Leipzig, but he got onto the wrong part of the train, so we ended up meeting only when the train got to Frankfurt. From the station, I bought some Italian sandwich, which turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever had. I love tomato-mozzarella sandwiches, but this had a slight twist. The bread was spread with pesto and apart from really cute AND tasty blobs of mozzarella and juicy tomatoes, there was a sun-dried tomato…and all of this on crusty Italian white bread! Mmm…on the way back from Mannheim, I stopped over in Frankfurt again and I bought another one. But hmm, next time if I ever intend to make my own sandwiches, I’ll keep this combination in mind..it’s yummy!

The ride from Frankfurt to Freiburg was quite a disaster. The train was SUPER FULL! It was practically like the MRT during peak hours…but this plus luggage and a 2-3 hour ride! Raymond and I had to stand nearly the whole way…and when it cleared a bit, we sat on the floor. Phew…this made me wish I’d made a reservation…but in any case, at least Raymond was with me, if not, I’d have been bored to death and frustrated by the situation. The ride from Freiburg to Feldberg was pretty ok…Raymond explained his chio bu mentality theory. I am not really good at explaining it, but in essence, he thinks that chio bu-ness is a state of mind and not really much about physical beauty…at least when applied to Singaporean girls. All chio bus are cut from the same mould…and dress and think more or less the same way. Not that they are bimbotic, mind you….they can be smart too, but they tend to fit a certain pattern. Apart from that, he said the way I write is boring. Oh well, whatever. I don’t depend on his opinion for a living, thankfully.

We met Lee Ting on the bus and were really happy to be at the Jugendherberge after more than 7 hours of being on the train. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant across from our Jugendherberge...I had baked Risotto Bolognese. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I am convinced that I can cook better than that. But the salad was really good! Nice and vinegar-y, just the way I like it…I like fresh, crunchy salad veg…not soggy slimy veg…not in salad anyway. Then after dinner, we decided to play a game while waiting for the rest to come. Most were late…anyway, we played this game kinda like “broken telephone” but more like “broken television”, as Lee Ting calls it. The first person writes a word, the second person takes a look at it and tries to draw a picture depicting the word and the third person, without having seen the first word, will have to write a word which he thinks the picture is trying to represent. And the next person will draw based on his/her word. It was hilarious. Innocent things became dirty and dirty things became innocent! Like “chemistry”. It went along fine, until Raymond drew 2 test tubes and what looked like an explosion…which is what most people we showed the picture to said. But A. wrote “ejaculation” and M. was shocked, but she still drew some stick figure jerking off. To which, J. wrote “bedwetting”…haha. Another funny one was “wild”, to which M. drew a caged and a wild animal, putting a big cross on the caged one. A. guessed “Liberty” and the next person drew the Statue of Liberty. The next person also guessed “liberty”, and W. also drew the Statue of Liberty. BUT, it turned out looking like a monster to his gf, who wrote “monster”, so I drew the one-eyed monster from Monsters Inc. Haha!

The next day, there was chocolate and Baby Bel at breakfast! I was already impressed with the clean and nice showers and luxury toilet paper…this just really took the cake! After breakfast, Azman led us on a hike up Feldberg. I complained a lot…which is normal when I have to walk, cos I hate walking. But the view was so totally worth it! It was really windy up there and the higher we got, the more snow there was. In fact, some people even started throwing snowballs at each other. Thankfully, I wasn’t in the line of fire! Azman even got snow thrown down his back! We took photos at the Bismarck Denkmal. Everyone took the sides without Bismarck’s face…except me. Haha. The third photo is of the Feldberg See. Gorgeous!

We then went to the Feldberg Turm and on to some stone that told us that Feldberg is 1493m high. Then we had to go down…and that was the challenge. We went down a super slippery path that had snow that was knee-deep. I was glad that I wore my thermal underwear, cos my shoes were soaked and so were my pant legs. A. wore SHORTS! I don’t know how he survived, but I didn’t hear him complain. Ah well. It was quite challenging and I actually fell down once or twice…but landing on soft snow is fun. Also knowing that it’s temporary makes it a lot more bearable as well. Probably wouldn’t find it so fun if it were in winter and I were freezing the whole time. I commented that we should go to somewhere warm if we meet up in winter, to make up for this summer snow adventure. But the view was fabulous! When I whipped out my camera to take a photo, Gunardi said “Oh, you want me to take a photo of you?” That really wasn’t my intention, but oh well…what the heck. So that’s the 4th photo.

When we got back down, we tried to let our shoes dry a little while before heading off to Titisee. The bus ride took about 30 minutes I think…and it was great to be driving on the mountain, surrounded by trees. Raymond, Azman, Gunardi and I got into a “Tretboot” and the former two pedaled around the lake, while Gunardi and I sat in the back, being mean and telling them where to go…haha. We’re so evil! Anyway, it was really really peaceful on the lake. We got them to pedal all the way to the other side…but there wasn’t much there except for Wohnwagen. We had to go back anyway, cos we had to meet the others. Some went to buy Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cake) but I don’t like cherries, so I didn’t try it.

In the evening, we played UNO and later, we joined Azman, Zool, Jialin and Yun who were playing 1000 Questions. Some questions we totally had no clue about, because they had to do with fairytales and cartoons we’ve never ever heard of. There were some really silly trick questions too, like “Welches Wort hat 3 Silben und beinhaltet alle 26 Buchstaben?” (Which word has 3 syllables and encompasses all 26 letters?” Answer: ALPHABET! Haha…I got that one! Another silly one was “Wie nennt der Jäger ein Wildschwein?” Jialin’s answer was „Schnitzel!“ Haha! Everyone just cracked up!! The actual answer is „Schwarzkittel“ or something like that. But we all learnt a lot, even from the questions we couldn’t answer.

The next day was AGM. Will not say much, cos it really is just SSAG’s business.

After lunch at an Imbiss which served quite a huge Schnitzel, we went to Steinwasen, an Erlebnispark. Azman and I, and a few other people bought the 10 Euro unlimited rides ticket…and went straight to the Rodelbahn. Have a photo of that…have 629 photos of the trip altogether…cannot post them all, unfortunately. Anyway, it was my very first time on a Rodelbahn. It’s called toboggan run in English, I think. It was fun, but I didn’t dare to go fast the first time…cos I’m a coward, not a speed demon. There were also quite a lot of flies on that particular lane, so I had to work very hard to keep my mouth closed. The next 2 times we went, I dared to go faster…but the people in front of me were slow…so I had to brake sometimes…so that I wouldn’t be in danger of banging into them. We went on “Spacerunner” too, which was an automated, indoor version. It meant that you couldn’t have an accident with the person in front or behind you, cos you have to stop if the person in front is too slow…which is good, cos I don’t like accidents, but which is also bad because I had to stop a lot sometimes, thanks to the not so fast people in front of me. But I had the chance to go at full speed all the way 2-3 times, which was good enough for me. Oh yeah, we could also go a whole lot faster than with the Rodelbahn…and without the fear of falling off the track and crashing. Cool huh? Azman and I went on it 5 times! It was like being a kid again. We also went on the roller coaster, but it would’ve been way more exciting if they’d changed the angles more abruptly. The Eiswelt was a waste of time…and so was the Schwarzwald ride. Azman and I were totally bemused at the speed (or lack thereof) of the car and the really poor quality props. And there wasn’t even a commentary! But maybe if you were a kid, you’d be fascinated. It’s not for adults though. We also went on the long suspension bridge. It was pretty cool, but we all got pretty “seasick” after a while. It’s not so bad when you stand still, but when you’re trying to walk, it’s really horrible! I have photos of the bridge too! The rest of the people went to see the animals…on which someone commented: “They look like zoo-rejects!” Lee Ting’s explanation was that they probably were shedding their winter fur.

I forgot to mention that the drive to Steinwasen was heavenly. The trees, mountains and little towns…absolutely gorgeous! J., M., Azman and I were the last to leave…cos we didn’t have enough cars. But it was nice and relaxing to have that extra hour there. We had dinner at the Jugendherberge again, like the previous night. This time they had tiramisu as dessert. I have no idea when I started like tiramisu, but I was very happy anyway! Then we played UNO and more games. Oh, we played charades too. Don’t really like it, but I guess it’s ok. I’m just bad at acting.

The next morning, we had to leave already…AGM was over! A lot of them left super early. W. and his gf sent Lee Ting and me to the Titisee Bahnhof. But there was this fence running along the entire length of the Bahnhof and we didn’t see any Durchgang. So we tried to ask a couple, but they told us that they were tourists too. Blah. So we walked along until we saw a gap in the fence and quickly ran over…which believe me, is not easy to do when you are carrying a heavy bag…ugh.

We got to Konstanz slightly afternoon. We walked to the erm…what is that place called, where the ferries are docked? Erm, harbour? Anyway, we took some photos and Lee Ting told me that that famous statue of Konstanz is actually that of a prostitute. Hmm…interesting. And there’s a statue in honour of Graf Zeppelin as well. Lee Ting lives in a village called Dingelsdorf…it’s about 30 min by bus from Konstanz. I’ve never really stayed in a village before, so that was cool…it only has 3 bus stops. Her place is nice! I have nothing to complain about, except for the lack of light. ? I like bright rooms…I am not into “romantic lighting”. But it is a nice cosy place. I slept very well while I was there. That Luftmatraze was way better than I thought. ? And Lee Ting’s comforter was very nice and warm! And I had a pillow to hug!!

Anyway, Lee Ting cooked fried noodle for lunch…and then Ayline and Johannes came over. We walked around Dingelsdorf…and walked down to the water, which was nice! Only it was a pity that the weather wasn’t so great. But then we went to Insel Mainau, which is a pretty island with lots and lots and lots of flowers! Even though I don’t usually care much about flowers, I did like Mainau a lot. All the flowers were soooo pretty! We took lots and lots of photos of the flowers! The water under the bridge connecting Mainau to the mainland was so shallow and so clear that I could see all the beautiful stones underneath! This is the photo with the 2 ducks. We went into the butterfly house, where it was super warm! But it was cool to have butterflies flying all around you. But you’re so scared of accidentally stepping on them or killing them. I have a thing for butterflies, but probably not really the real ones. We saw poppies and roses and lots of other flowers! We saw a lone yellow tulip, cos tulips are no longer in season. My mummy would love this place! I suppose when they come over, I will bring them there. If it’s summer, preferably. I bought postcards…a lot of them, cos they’re so pretty. But I’ve sent most of them. I’ve only kept 2, I think.

We cooked chicken rice for dinner. Yummy! For the first time in a long time, I tried cooking rice in a pot, instead of a rice cooker. Thankfully, the bottom didn’t burn badly! Lee Ting’s pot has a glass cover, not a opaque one, like mine.

The next day, Lee Ting had school, so I went to Zurich on my own. It wasn’t too hard…but I found out it’s cheaper to buy the ticket online than at the Reisebüro. They didn’t even check my passport…which was great! Anyway, the train ride into Zurich was pleasant. Lots of grass and fields. And cows! I saw A LOT of cows, and a lot of Swiss flags. When I arrived in Zurich, I was glad that Lee Ting had gotten me to pack lunch. Food there was really expensive! In any case, I walked to the tourist information office to ask for a map. The guy at the counter was cute…haha! He gave me a map and asked if I already had a Zurich guide. I didn’t, so he gave me one. And it was even more useful than the map. But there was no clear indication of where the Altstadt or main attractions were, so I just trusted my instinct and walked in one direction. It turned out to be the correct one! Haha! Anyway, I wanted to see the Zürcher See. So, I just walked and walked and walked. I walked into a supermarket and bought Lee Ting a bar of dark chocolate and got some Swiss Francs at the same time. I continued walking down the streets. Some guy asked me if I knew where there was an Internet café. He was German…I’m sure. But I didn’t know where a café was…haha. Anyway, I just kept walking…and I eventually found the See! And I also saw that they offered cruises and there was a 1 ½ hour one leaving in 5 minutes, so I quickly bought a ticket and hopped on. It was a fabulous cruise, although I suddenly remembered I was going on a cruise again the next day. But I enjoyed the fabulous weather, the expensive-looking waterfront villas and the view of the mountains. I got a nice tan and read the Zurich Guide, trying to see what there was to see in Zurich. Zurich is very clean and there are lots of businessmen running around in business suits. I saw a pretty-looking church and an interesting building, which I went to photograph once I got off the cruise. I went walking in the general direction and with the help of my map, I managed to find the church too! Then I walked back to the river, where the famous Zurich churches are…took photos of them and walked along one side of the river, crossed a bridge, walked on the other side, walked over another bridge etc etc. There are 7 bridges I think! I went into a Fremdsprachenbuchhandlung…and was tempted to buy stuff, but I didn’t have much cash with me…so I didn’t buy anything. I also went into Claire’s, which I love..but also didn’t buy anything, cos of the lack of money. Then, I finally came to the Bahnhof again. I went to the other side of it and into the museum. I forgot what it’s called. But it’s in a Schloss. It was not too bad, but I practically ran through it, because I only had 1 hour before my train was leaving. I skipped all the parts I didn’t like…and most spent time looking at the reconstructed rooms and the fashion of the past. I don’t remember much else of what I saw. Then, it was time to go back. I went to the tourist info again to buy postcards…cos it was the cheapest there. I bought 10…and it was the same guy as the counter…there were 3 counters, but I just happened to get him again! Haha. I tried to spend the rest of my money by buying a drink and some weird pear bread that turned out tasting ok, but I wouldn’t wanna eat it again.

Then I met Lee Ting at the Kaufland in Konstanz..we bought stuff to cook chicken curry and to bake a cake and lots of other things. We cooked chicken curry when we got back! Yummy! We ate it with bread, cos we were too lazy to cook rice in a pot again! The curry was a bit too watery, thanks to my heavy-handedness with water…but it was still edible and really not bad ? Haha…my ego!

The next day, I washed my clothes, cooked bak kut teh from a packet mix and then, I went on a cruise to Überlingen with Ayline’s friends…it was another day with great weather! The cruise was also very pleasant. We went past Mainau and Dingelsdorf. We had ice cream!! Then when we got there, we went to get maps…it was very funny because we tried to follow the maps and ended up “banging” into things…i.e. we were looking for certain buildings and we found ourselves standing in front of them within a matter of minutes, or even seconds! One of the guys commented that the scale of the map seemed to be 1:1. But the benefit of the place being so small is that we didn’t feel hard-pressed for time to see everything. There were lots of pretty buildings there, so we went to take photos of them. I LOOOOOOVE Fachwerkhäuser! Then we went to have a light lunch. They really liked the Leberkäse, said it was like a less oily, higher class version of luncheon meat. The boys and I decided to try rowing a boat, while the mothers went off to explore. It was a hilarious experience. Lee Ting was telling me about her and Xizhen’s experience with a rowing boat at Titisee…so I was keen to experience it for myself…and the guys were too, so we decided to try it for half an hour…after that, we had to catch our ferry anyway. It was a hilarious experience…and definitely a lot harder than it looks. We went round and round in circles at first. It was totally hilarious. We suspected that we were a source of amusement for those sitting by the lake…especially the guy renting us the boat. Haha…but it really takes a lot of arm power, which I totally don’t have at all! But it was really great fun! After that, we went to get ice cream…which was pretty good too! I can’t remember what flavour I got, but it was good. I think it might’ve been tiramisu or some coffee flavour. One of the boys got 2 scoops on 2 separate cones…haha…he had to quickly eat both alternately. I was rushing to finish my ice cream before getting onto the ferry..and ended up dropping a bit of ice cream cone on the ticket. The conductor said, “Mit Eis?” and laughed. Haha…oh dear…so paiseh! The cruise back is relaxing and towards the end, we all doze off.

When we reach Konstanz, we meet Ayline and Johannes outside the Ferienwohnung, which is really very nice! It has nice furniture and is very clean and pleasant! The boys started cooking, but I’d already cooked bak kut the and was looking forward to it..so I went back to Lee Ting’s place…not before we took that photo of the 5 of us!

Back at Lee Ting’s place, I cooked rice again…it gets easier and easier! We also baked a cake! The bak kut teh was nice, especially when we mixed it with the chicken and cabbage soup we had cooked 2 days ago, cos the former was a tad too salty. We baked a banana, walnut, chocolate cake…yummy! A bit oily though. ?

The next morning, my clothes still hadn’t dried…sigh. But Lee Ting put them into a bag for me…and then I headed off to the Bahnhof when she went to school. I bought a Baden-Württemburg Ticket and got on the train…but then realised that it was only valid from 9am! The train left Konstanz at 8:38. Shit. But thankfully, the conductor was really nice and didn’t mind. I planned to stop for a while at Karlsruhe and take a look, before heading off to Speyer if Karlsruhe wasn’t interesting enough. However, all the lockers at the Hauptbahnhof were unavailable or weren’t working. I wasn’t about to drag my heavy bag all around Karlsruhe, so I decided to head straight to Speyer. BUT, Speyer was really small and they had no lockers at the Hauptbahnhof at all! Sigh…however, seeing that Mannheim Hbf, where I was supposed to meet Glenda that evening, was only about 40 min or so away, I decided to head over there to dump my stuff in a locker first. So I went there…and thankfully, found a locker. Then realised I didn’t have exact change for the locker. I asked a lady there, but she didn’t have either. The man collecting all the money from the lockers helped me to change my 2 Euro coin…sooo nice! Then I walked around Mannheim Hbf until the S-Bahn to Speyer left. I ended up in Claire’s and bought a nice green bracelet. That turned out to be the start of a shopping spree! At Speyer, I again trusted my instinct and walked for about 1.3 km before reaching the Innenstadt. Anyway, I went into Orsay first, cos it was sooo warm and I wanted to get into something with less cloth..was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. The service there was super good, but I couldn’t find anything that looked good on me. So I just continued walking down the street and bought a tank top and a pair of khaki shorts at a shop. Then I took photos of the town, because it’s very pretty. The weather was good and everyone was sitting at one Eiscafe or another. I ended up at the church…it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site…and then decided to go to the museum nearby. It’s an absolutely gorgeous museum! But I didn’t have much time there either! Only 90 min or less. But that meant that the lady sold me a normal ticket and I didn’t need to pay for the extra exhibitions, because they were having Happy Hour 1 hour before closing time and entrance would be free anyway. I was fascinated with the exhibitions…too bad I didn’t have much time..I saw the exhibition where they had really old artefacts. Ok, honestly I cannot remember when! Sigh. Bad memory..but stuff from the Bronze Age and the Iron Age etc etc. I was totally fascinated! I also got to see a little bit of the wine exhibition and the “Barbaren Schatz” special exhibition. It resulted from some Germanic tribes invading the Roman empire and looting the villages or something. It was also very fascinating how the Gemanic tribes cut up the silver pieces…i.e. the intrinsic worth of silver was more important to them than the aesthetic value of the ornaments. Interesting eh? But then, the museum was closing, so I had to leave…but I was super happy that I’d gone into this museum! It was totally worth the money! If I ever go back there, I am going to that museum again. Then I walked back towards the train station…and ended up in shoe shop, where I bought a pair of sports sandals (cos mine are in Singapore) and a pair of Hausschuhe, which look like Birkenstocks and have a very nice pattern, but cost less than a third of the price. Would love to wear them out, but Birkenstock-type slippers are worn AT HOME in Germany…YES…Germans wear the oh-so-popular-in-Singapore Birkenstocks at home…like you would wear $1 slippers at home. Oops…despite having such a heavy bag already, I ended up buying more stuff! Sigh.

I got to Mannheim at the expected time, but Glenda and I missed each other because she thought it might’ve been me, but it was strange that I didn’t have a huge bag with me. Haha! Then we went to pick up my huge bag and she drove to her place. She asked me if I noticed that she was driving a Singapore-side car…haha..I noticed that something was strange, but because I am close to never in a car here in Germany, I didn’t know exactly what was wrong. It’s because she’s driving her boyfriend’s car and he’s British. Aha! Anyway, her place is very nice, but the landlady is a bit of a hassle, and the toilet and bathroom are downstairs…and she lives on the 3rd floor. But she has a really really nice place! I love the way she’s decorated it. I wish I had a room like that too! We had fried noodles for dinner…mmm! And tofu with minced meat! Then we talked for a while and then went to sleep. She has a very cute monkey!

The next morning, I asked her former housemate who was also staying with her for a while how to get to Metzingen, a good shopping place. She told me I had to umsteigen twice, probably…once in Stuttgart. Then when she said that, an idea struck me. Kevin, my fellow NJ councillor (wah…so long ago!) was in Stuttgart, so I spontaneously decided to call him and ask if he was free that day. He only had classes till 12:15…so yay! And the connection was perfect timing! So he met me at the Hbf and 2 of his other friends were there too. We had Leberkäse oder Frikadelle mit Brötchen. Then they went to buy some stuff for the World Cup opening match that they were going to watch on a big screen later. I decided to join them, cos I figured the atmosphere would be great and I also do like watching football. The 2 girls went home to put there stuff and Kevin showed me around Leipzig. We asked a couple to take a photo for us in front of a huge grass ball. In return, we helped them to write some Chinese word. Haha…and the embarrassing part was that I wrote it wrongly at first…and I had to ask the lady to give it back to me so I could correct it!

We went to the tower at the top of the Bahnhof and I took photos of the view of Stuttgart. It’s actually quite pretty, with nice houses at the edges…unlike what a lot of people say about it. I was last there in 2001 and only for a day, so I don’t remember much, except that we went to the TV tower then and it was very windy and I was freezing! We then went to walk around the gardens a bit. Took a photo in front of the Staatsoper and in front of a “floating” car. Then, we went to a Biergarten. I didn’t drink any beer though, cos I might’ve gotten too tipsy to walk, knowing my super low alcohol tolerance. After that, Kevin brought me to Vaihingen, which is near his uni. I bought a Deutschland T-shirt…which turned out to be a good size. You can see it in the photo as well. Then we got some snacks for the match…since we were already late and there were others who were saving a place for us…in case they were not happy, hopefully the offering of food would appease them…haha! We had to squeeze through lots of people to get to where the other Singaporeans were! Some guy with one of those air-filled plastic sticks whacked Kevin on the shoulder repeatedly and shouted “Schweini, Schweini!!” Kevin thought the guy was calling him a pig, cos Schwein means pig in German, but actually, it was cos Kevin was wearing a T-shirt with the number “7” on the back, which is Bastian Schweinsteiger’s number…for the uninitiated, Schweinsteiger is one of the players on the German team. Haha…it was just so hilarious! SO many drunk, or at least semi-drunk people around! The place we got wasn’t so bad…but there were 2 damn statues blocking our view. One guy also brought a Singapore flag to wave…but it was like a bit paiseh, cos firstly, nearly everyone had a German flag and secondly, even people who had brought other flags were those of countries that were actually PLAYING in the World Cup! But we became a sort of tourist attraction. A couple of people wanted to take photos with the group, cos we had a Singapore flag and yet, were decked out in German colours. And there were some people who had been to Singapore and were thus telling some of us that they liked Singapore. In any case, the match finally started and was pretty exciting. It’s nice when many goals are scored…according to the commentators, at least it was great that they’d broken the tradition of having very few goals in World Cup opening matches. Everyone was cheering and singing and waving flags and taking photos and stuff. It was fabulous! There was this one crazy guy who ran around shouting “Costa Rica, Costa Rica!!!” and taunting the German fans when Costa Rica scored a goal. Someone commented that he probably wouldn’t be able to go home that night if Costa Rica won. Thankfully, it was 4-2 to Germany…so I guess they let the guy off for his crazy euphoria.
After the match, I rushed to the Hbf to get back to Mannheim. I was sooooo tired that I brushed my teeth and went straight to bed and fell asleep immediately.

The next morning, Glenda and I went to the bakery to get raisin buns..very nice and fresh! And then she drove to her colleague’s place to help him water his plants. It was a very nice place and I totally loved his bathroom. The shower was amazing! I’ve love to have something like that. She said that he’d designed everything himself! Wow! But it was funny…he only had a set of encyclopaedia on his shelf and nothing else! Then we went for brunch at this totally cool café! Unfortunately, I hadn’t brought my camera with me, so I only have 2 blurry photos taken with my phone camera. The food was super good! Parmaschinken, Melone, Spiegeleier mit Tomaten und Mozzarella, Apfelquark, Orangensandkuchen, diverse Brötchen, Salami etc..and 2 drinks! The weather was great and there was a little pond. And we ate slowly, taking in the fabulous atmosphere. This is when I thought: This is the life! It’s really the simple things in life that make me happy. Taking things slowly and being surrounded with good food and good weather…nothing can make me feel better than this! It was super clear to me that the past week had been one of the best of my life.

We went home to shower and change, and then we headed for Heidelberg with Hai Bo, Glenda’s former Mitbewohnerin. Glenda drove there…which was great. I’d rather go by car if I had the choice. Haha. We saw the house in which Dr Jose Rizal once worked. For the uninitiated, he was one of the early Filipino nationalists, who died a martyr in prison. I am quite impressed by him, so I decided to take a photo of the sign. Haha. There were lots of nice buildings too, so I took lots and lots of photos! There were SOOO many tourists though. Glenda was hoping they’d all stay home and watch the World Cup, but there were still lots and lots of tourists. We bought strawberries from this lady, who assured us that they were sweet…and she was absolutely right! On our way back to the car, we bought another 2 punnets! We took photos of ourselves eating strawberries and I think we even asked some guy to take a photo for us. We went around taking quite a lot of photos actually, and asking people to take photos for us. Then we climbed up to the Schloss and paid money to go in. We took MORE photos…posed in front of many different backgrounds. From there, I could see why Heidelberg is so popular with tourists. The view is really beautiful and I think you’d remember the view of the bridge for a long time to come, like the view from the Marienbrücke at Neuschwanstein, and the view from the Terassenufer in Dresden. We headed for the garden, where we laid our straw mat and had a little picnic of potato chips and Brötchen. We talked for a while and enjoyed the sunny weather and the nice background…this group of American students (more like high school age) said something about Asian girls and came over and sat next to us and took a photo with us, or rather, NEXT to us, as if we were some sculptures or a tourist attraction. Then we all got drowsy and decided to take a nap. Fabulous! Really, how much better can life get? Just as we decided to wake up though, this other group of guys came over to us and asked us if they could take a photo with us. It was hilarious! We were joking that we should start charging money for this.

We started walking downhill and were planning to go up Philosophenweg, which is where we could get the “postcard view” of the Schloss. But in the end, we got distracted by an Italian fair, where the girls bought green olives and sun-dried tomatoes wrapped in aubergines…and by the World Cup matches that were playing on a big screen at the field in front of the Studentenwerk in Heidelberg. We watched the first half of Sweden vs. Trinidad & Tobago…and what a bore it was! All the players seemed to be stuck in the middle of the field, with neither team going anywhere near the goalposts. No wonder the end-result was 0:0. We decided to watch Argentina vs. Ivory Coast at 9pm, so we decided to walk back to the car to dump some stuff and get other stuff. I had to draw money though, and since there was a Citibank there, I decided to draw money. But the problem was, I was so tired that I didn’t realise that I’d left my card at the ATM. This guy quickly told me about it..but it was too late, and the machine had already sucked up my card. Sigh. He told me that I could come back on Monday and ask the bank for it, but I said that I don’t live in Mannheim. He told me that he was going back to the bank on Monday morning and that he’d tell the people at the counter what happened and ask them to send it to my address. He was so nice and honestly, I wouldn’t have know what to do without him. I probably would’ve panicked. Instead, I was calm and realised that it wasn’t THAT bad after all, I mean at least no one stole my card and it’s safe with the bank and all. And I do have another card to draw money with. I will have to check my bank balance soon though, especially before I leave Germany. Have to make sure that there’s enough to pay the rent and insurance while I am in Singapore…if not, I might have a bad credit report. But if worse comes to worst, I suppose I could borrow some from friends first..I promise to return it ASAP. My father always tells me not to owe people money. Anyway, he told me his name and promised to send me an SMS once he got info from the bank. So I was really relieved. I also called Citibank Singapore and the lady said they’ll probably send it back to the bank in Singapore, or if the guy managed to tell the bank, they’d probably send it to my alternate address. Ok, so to fast-forward to Monday, he said the bank told him that an external company collects the cards, so they’d probably send the card back to Singapore. I wrote an email to tell my mum to call Citibank and ask them what I could do to get my card sent back to me in Germany…but she still hasn’t replied, although she promised to call them on Wednesday or Thursday, or was it Friday? In any case, it’s Sunday now and I still have no news.

We bought dinner after that and went back to the Studentenwerk to watch Argentina vs. Ivory Coast. The food wasn’t bad…and neither was the place we were sitting at. Well, our first seats were actually quite good, until all the tall guys started sitting in front of us. So annoying! So we moved to the side and sat on our mat…and had a surprisingly good view! The match was also pretty exciting, though from the way the Ivory Coast was playing, I thought they actually deserved to have gotten more goals. However, their shooting skills left much to be desired and as Glenda commented, they seemed to be losing all their duels with the Argentineans. But it was a really fast-paced, exciting match on the whole, so we had a good time eating strawberries and watching the match at the same time. It got colder and colder though…and I had to put my legs into my backpack..and I really couldn’t wait for the match to be over…haha. 2:0 Argentina! And yay, I know some football terms in Chinese!

Then we drove home…thankfully we hadn’t come by train! It was already past midnight by the time we’d gotten home. We quickly washed up, uploaded our photos and went to bed. The next morning, I woke up a little earlier to shower and to pack my stuff for the trip home. Glenda drove me to the Bahnhof and I bought some breakfast there, as well as my ticket home.

The train ride was a pleasant one. It was peaceful and I looked at all the photos from my trip before I started work on my article review that was due on Wednesday. I was pretty efficient actually; I’d managed to finish most of it by the end of the 4h 30min train ride. I guess it was because I was in such a good mood! It really was a wonderful week I had. All that travelling and making decisions made me feel grown up, and there was a good mix of time spent alone and with other people. I felt so at ease, carefree and happy. This is one of the weeks I’ll never ever forget in my life…or at least, one of those I never want to forget!