Just yesterday, a dear friend of mine was reminding me to be grateful for what we are right now. I guess I've just been complaining for nonsenses lately. I shouldn't be.

I hope everything's good on your side. Enjoy your Sunday!

Vitra

Going to Vitra felt like a dream to me. Why? Hm, just because I've seen it so much in magazines, I want it badly enough that we decided to go to the very southern part of Germany just to go here. I guess I possess a bit of industrial-design self in me somehow. Who would've thought. 

Located in Weil am Rhein (am Rhein simply means it is along the Rhein), the city itself is called 'The City of Chairs'. When we arrived in the city, huge chairs are everywhere, monster size. If you walked to the river then you will see France on the other side. We would love to to that, but we were drawn so much into the greatness of the factory that we spent the whole day there.

We did the architectural guided tour. Tell you what, the area is simply amazing. There is the first Zaha Hadid's building, Frank Gehry's, Tadao Ando's, SANAA's, and the VitraHaus by Herzog & de Meuron. Too much goodness in one site, really. The factory itself is only used for assembling parts and finishing the products.

Strangely enough, I met two Indos there while we were reading books in one of the houses at VitraHaus.

It feels like IKEA, a really posh IKEA though. Gee, imagine working here. You are actually in this beautifully designed area, meeting your clients at one of the conference rooms designed by Tadao Ando (they are actually having meetings there when we were in the building), having lunch at the cafe and sitting on Erwan Bouroullec's Vegetal chair while deciding which design should go into production. Goosebumps.

Eca & Frankfurt

This is Eca.

And this is Frankfurt.

I don't think we got much of the goodness of Frankfurt. We went there on a Monday and we didn't realize that the museums are closed on Mondays. Sigh. The city itself, hm, partly very modern, partly pretty. It was my first city in Germany. The Hauptbahnhof is huge though, and people dress really well down in the south.

Mainz

Mainz is pretty. It's a very quiet city. Seems like everyone's just whispering. But it's nice.

October Fest

Have I told you that October Fest is simply crazy fun? This has got to be the biggest festival I've been to. As soon as we arrived in München, we saw everyone was dressed in the traditional Bavarian outfit and everyone was going to the same direction. We needed no maps, we followed people.

So shall we start with the food?

The types of food you might get at the October Fest:

- Weißwurst > Literally translated as white sausage

- Schweinebraten > Sliced roast pork shoulder (sometimes butt) with gravy

- Schweinshaxe > Grilled pork joint

- Rollbraten > Rolled pigs' belly

- Schnitzel

Sounds rather meaty, eh? Besides that, you can also get lighter food, like 1/2 meter Bratwurst, Halb Hähnchen (a 1/2 chicken roast), Leberkäse, or pork chop with sauteed onion in bun. Madness. If you feel like snacking, there's the lovely roasted almond in some sort of sweet mixture of sugar and cinnamon. 

We love the rides, especially the five loops roller coaster.

The chance of getting in to the tents was paper thin. Even to get in to some tents, you got to reserve days or weeks before. Somehow we managed to squeeze in, we found our way through to the tent and freed ourselves from the the tall Germans' blockage. We ordered our beer and the largest Brezel we've ever seen. No one was basically making any sense by this point. Everyone was on the table, singing, dancing, toasting. Fun. 

 

One thing I'm really amazed of is how clean the toilet was. No kidding, it was spotless clean. Keep in mind that everyone was pretty much drunk there, but the toilet was super clean! You can witness civilization through a cubicle of toilet I guess. Good on you, Germans.

Around The Corner

Hildesheim, lately.

Bon-Bin

Yang tau ini, tau indahnya dunia. Yami.

Chris & Konstanz

This is Chris.

And this is Konstanz. We are pretty much in the very southern part of Germany now. I love Konstanz simply because it's so pretty. The old part of the town is gorgeous, the people are nice. The shops are good, the cafes are pretty. Chris took us around the city then we stopped for a traditional pasta lunch. We sat on the balcony of Chris' favorite restaurant. Again, I can't remember the name of the food, it's too complicated, but I remember the taste, it was good. It's just like a mac and cheese but a thousand times tastier. Or was it just because we've been eating bread for days? Nah, I'm pretty sure it was really good. We walked a bit and we found the Bodensee. After enjoying the sun for a while there, we went back to the city to get ice cream. We were pretty exhausted already by this time because we've been on so many trains and we did so much walking in the last couple of days, so we were slowing down our pace and just enjoying the time.

Sunday, Years Ago

If I were at home in Indo, I would be sitting on the couch in the living room. Reading newspaper and filling in the TTS. My mom is watering the garden and my dad would be reading newspaper too and helping me with the TTS. A short time later, one of us will start up the conversation about what to have for breakfast. We decide and then we leave the house.

I miss lying around at home doing nothing on Sunday.

Berlin

This is a city you have to come to if you ever come to Germany. Last week we went there to see the shops. The shops are awesomely good. Can't believe they can put so much goodness in a city.