Fairytale of Ours: Germany

For me in Koln *perasan*

Syamim, Tiqah and I went to Germany on the 22nd until 24th December last year (eseh last year yo! hehe) while my other two housemates, Izan and Ani, went to Northern England. It was an enjoyable one walaupun sorang2 kepisan usulnya. On the 21st, Syamim and I tolak dari rumah kul 9 am. Then took the National Express to London Victoria. From there, we took another coach to Stansted Airport. Everything went fine until the thick fog emerged. Our flight which was supposed to takeoff at 8.20 pm was delayed 3 hours! We were supposed to arrive in Germany at 10.45 pm. Instead we arrived there around 1.15 am local time. When we arrived at Frankfurt-Hahn airport, we expect to get to Nazim's house as soon as possible and have a rest. Unfortunately, there's no bus at that time. We had to wait until 5 am to wait for the bus. The bus stopped at Mainz where we took the train to Bonn, not James Bond (where Nazim lives). The journey took around 3 hours. At Mainz, something funny happened to Syamim tapi biarlah rahsia and jadi kenangan terindah buat kami..hehehe. We spent most of our time in the train to sleep. Kepisan lah...sehari nda tidur. Sampai saja at Nazim's place, we settled in, mandi, breakfast and tarus jalan semula.

While waiting for the bus

At around 10 am, we went to Koln which is not far from Bonn. Before that kami ke Bonn Universitat. Masa kami jalan2 di Koln, I noticed that Germans love to eat. Kami jalan2 at some street market and most of the stalls jual makanan. Nyaman2 lagi tu baunya. Tapi sia2pun ja. At least ada jua lah kadai bejual makanan halal so kami bali Falafel. Nyaman.. We then went into a huge cathedral named Gothic Cathedral, if I'm not mistaken. Lain pulang rasanya tapi saja...mau meliat cana usulnya di dalam. Canterbury Cathedral lagi alum teaga..ampir saja..hehe.

Bonn University

Gothic Cathedral

Then kami jalan kaki ke Schokolade Museum (Chocolate Museum). Siuklah sana...macam chocolate factory. They even gave free chocolates :). Nyum nyum. After that, we walked to a Japanese restaurant and makan sushi! This is my first time makan sushi after a long time. It was ok. Not really into it though. Tapi siuklah because it was a bargain. We ordered the sushi buffet which costs 9.99 Euros which is equivalent to 7 GBP. Sudah kanyang kami balik rumah at around 10 pm.

Chocolate-making in progress

Free Chocolate!

Sushi buffet

The next day we woke up early to catch up the train at 7.45 am to Koblenz. When we arrived there, an announcement (in German) told us that the train was delayed because someone jumped onto the railways to cross to the platform on the other side (adakah patut...nda sayang nyawa kali). So we had to take another train to Heidelberg. We changed train 5 times and the journey was 5 hours! But it was worthwhile because Heidelberg (according to Nazim) is the only place in Germany unaffected by the bombing during the First World War (i think..). So the buildings there are ancient. Kami singgah kadai bali souvenirs and chocolates and makan pizza. Di Heidelberg banyak tourists termasuk tah kami. Lawa2 lah barangnya tapi tepaksa menahan nafsu sal tight budget. There is a castle on top of a hill where we had to climb 350 steps to reach the top. Kapus2 jua lah. The view was breathtaking from the top. We took a lot of pictures and then decided to go home because it was getting darker. Luckily, we had to change train 4 times only because the train yg kana delay tadi bejalan dah semula. Masa di train, kami belajar some German phrases. Example, kalau di UK org slalu cakap Heya! p kalau di Germany org cakap Halo!, Good morning=Gooten morgen, It is very cold/windy=Es ist zeyr kalt/viendiegh, Thank you=Danke, Yes=Yaa, No=Niyn, I=Ich, Love=Liebe, You=Sie, Kuyuk=Hun (all these are not the actual spelling). Cakap pasal kuyuk ani kan, ingat ku pulang Syamim. Masa di Heidelberg, ada kuyuk wah masa kami jalan2 atu, biasanya we will shout 'kuyuk kuyuk' supaya dpt elakkn, sekali si Syamim shout 'hun hun'. Iatah kuyuk atu kan mengaga tia pulang. Nasib baik ada tuannya..mun nda wah..hehehe. That night Nazim cooked chicken for dinner.

Mr Bunsen who created Bunsen Burner

Heidelberg Castle

View from top of castle

Venus

Handmade Hot Chocolate. Recommended!

Schokolade

Ayam si Nazim masak

Last day in Germany, kami jalan2 di Bonn and Koln saja. Bought some more souvenirs. Took the coach to Franfurt-Hahn. Masa di airport, time kami bequeue, ada org menagur wah, tanya if kami ani orang Philippines (barangkali sal bahasa Brunei atu kali). Pastu belayar....Sudah di Stansted airport, panjang wah queue rah passport control. Orang yang mencheck kami ani lagi becerita..atu kan kami gagas. Katanya abangnya keraja di Brunei for 4 years sal ada urusan oil kh apa. Sekali ia tanya di mana kami belajar. Nya kami Kent Uni. Sekali katanya anaknya belajar sana last year ambil Journalism and Creative Writing p ia pindah sal nda byk resources sana. Iatah nya kami what a small world. Udah atu belusir kami ke bus stationnya. We got on the coach to Victoria sal kami punya coach utk ke Kent sama Cardiff jalan kul 7.30 pm. Time atu kul 5 pm sudah. We arrived at Victoria Coach Station exactly at 7.30 pm. Malangnya nda sampat kami naik. Paksa tah kami bali tiket baru (buang usin...). Alhamdulillah lah, at least, I arrived safely home. All in all, good and bad things happened during the trip p puas hati lah sal I only spent less than 100 GBP and I had a great time :) A big thanks to Nazim for showing us around and for the place to stay.