Frankfurt Once Again!

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Frankfurt! I love Frankfurt. Why? It’s Frankfurt of course. The food is different. Lots of cold cut and lots of meat; all kinds of cookies covered in chocolate. The buns… don’t get me started on the breads and buns. And the weather. Chilly cold with grey skies, the snow and OMG the wind! Brrrrrr… check out our red noses.

So Frankfurt happens every year in January. This would be my fourth trip to Germany. We took SIA and our flight to Singapore was delayed therefore we had to rushed from the gate to gate for our connecting flight. STRESS!

But, fret not. We got ourselves an express buggy which was waiting for us somewhere in the Terminal. The buggy driver was scary. Just zoomed to our gate. Security didn’t even managed to frisk us. We had to run to the plane. AMAZING RUN!

Zooooooming awayyyyyyy!!!

 

Are we there yet? 12+ hours…

 

We touched down at 6.30am… it was snowing! Bed of snow welcoming us everywhere. Psst~ Hub’s first snow and it’s quite a massive fall!

Hotel Scala

 

We stayed at Best Western’s Hotel Scala which was along Schafergasse. It was still too early to check in therefore we left our luggages at the reception and roamed the empty streets.

Zeil – Shopping Street

 

Little Girl playing in the snow

 

It’s getting brighter!!! Since MyZeil open its doors at 8am, we took the opportunity to use their free Wi-Fi service. My Zeil offers free Wi-Fi to the public which was a plus. After checking our work and personal emails and of course updated some Facebook postings, we headed back to our hotel which was 3 blocks away. It takes about 5-7 minutes walk to our hotel. Love the walk.

The Receptionist at Hotel Scala

Rooms weren’t ready. Cleaning lady not at work yet so we decided to have breakfast! When I say cold cuts and breads.. I mean what I say…

Yogurt, mixed fruits, nuts, cold cuts, cheese, cereals, etc

 

Fantastic spread…. all kinds of buns. What else do you need?

 

Finally, we got our room! I was suffering from a very bad migraine since the red-eye flight so I threw-up don’t know how many times, took a short nap then continued with some sightseeing before work starts tomorrow.

We headed to shopping street again but towards branded street. I’ve got a list of things to buy.. advanced orders by colleagues and friends. So… we went into Longchamp then into Louis Vuitton. Once I’m done with the tasks, we headed to the Opera House which was just around the corner.

The Opera House or also known as the Alte Oper

 

Winter drying trees in the park

 

Snow covered path… thank God for the blue sky

 

We wandered around and found ourselves near a lake. A frozen one at least or perhaps half frozen. I was feeling too adventurous. So, I lowered my leg into the lake then SsssZZZiiiiiii – > CRACK!

Yup! Not entirely frozen at all. Hubby was shaking his head in dismay of what I did. Haha!

Ice-Testing!

 

It really does look frozen right?

 

Snow-Tastic

 

This is the only tree with greens during winter

 

Brrr… it was freezing! Checkout the flight of birds at the back!

 

Hungry… and freshly baked fries was number one on the mighty list!

Hubby is savoring on the freshly baked fries! It was delicious and steaming for winter!

 

As we walked back to our hotel, we took a shortcut or tried to take one and eventually found a beautiful old church which was situated just before the hotel.

We couldn’t find the name of this old church. It does look a bit creepy because of the dull skies but it’s still beautiful and nevertheless historical

 

The next day after setting up our exhibits at Messe, we took a train and had the walk of our lives looking for the DIALOGUE IN THE DARK Museum. After overjoying from finding the place and being rejected because we didn’t make an appointment for tours in English, we moved along and took shelter in a deli which serves really good sandwiches, salads and coffee. Hmm YUM. What’s winter without a hot cuppa? This place was truly our savior.

Serving the best for the best~

 

On the last day of exhibition, we took a walk around Romer and Zeil area with Mr Paul Turk. We went into numeral shops, gazed at the windows with its expensive displays, picked and prodded some wooden items, tossed and turned some plates and arrived in Kleinmarkthalle.

Anything that you see here is everything that you want (I want!)

 

It was an indoor wet market and you can get everything and anything here from clothes to plants to poultry to greens to pickled fruits to stingy fish to chocolates to herbs to sushi bar. We were glad to find this interesting place as we found the best coffee in town and it was confirmed by a guy who so happens to be local; ordering his coffee and speaks perfect English!

Coffee Stop

 

Frankfurt left us with many memories… snowy ones and I left something in Frankfurt too. My poor boots which is my favorite pair who has been with me since 2009. Poor baby. You lived long enough and travelled far across the world. It’s time to let you go and I still miss you. I’ll never get a replacement like you.

My First Boots… truly missed



Major Dubai Upload

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DUBAI!!!

Dubai was a beautiful place. I would love to go back there for the FOOD but I wasn’t fond getting driven by crazy cabbies. Somehow, I find Malaysian drivers are quite polite.

We’ve taken quite a number of pictures of the sand, the skyscrapers, the food and most importantly, the scenery.


The interior of  Wafi Mall

The Pyramid


The Horus


We are very serious when we choose our dish for lunch



Noodle Factory Menu which is simplified.. and yes the prices can be a little notch higher


Jake’s Yaki Udon with Lemongrass Chicken & Tiger Prawns


Elaine’s Korean Kimchi with Grilled Beef


And… my Singapore seafood laksa in coconut curry broth

(so, we’ve got Japanese, Korean and Singaporean)


The view from Noodle Factory


Nice to see only :)


Please find Jake’s masterpiece below.. this picture looks so real and yet it looks like pastel art drawing

Taken at the junction near Dry Docks

(it was man-made to look like part of the docks)


The Burj Khalifa

The musical fountain


Candylicious attracted both the young and the old


At The Top is where we shall go

Security Check


Dubai strives for inspiration and it really gave me some. Thank you!


We were lucky enough to buy the tickets on-line early. It was sold out on the day we went.


View from The Top but we weren’t exactly at the top. I would probably go weak in my knees if I was on top of the world


There’s still a long way to go…


Pricey souvenirs


The names of People who contributed to Burj Khalifa, both physically and mentally


Our amazing view from Novotel, World Trade Centre


Dow Cruise (Dinner + Sightseeing)

It was COLD…..wind blowing cold air.. shivers


DHS 1 to cross the river using this mode of transport

The many skyscrapers of Dubai.. I just love the building designs


SALMONTINI –  fine dining (Elena-jakun)

Classy decor


It was snowing inside Mall of Emirates :p


Even the utensils are scaled


I really loved the lemonade with mint leaves


The best seafood soup or should I say broth… EVER!

(can you spot the chunky salmon, tuna and mackerel and dory?)


My dish which was Salmon with couscous and spicy Harissa sauce

(eventually, I surrendered cause I found out I’m not a fan of couscous)


Jake’s Duck with Risotto which was cooked to ‘perfecto’ @ ‘al-dante’

(which eventually became my dish and I would prefer risotto over couscous)


OMG… Fudge Sundae = Paradise


This is the cafe’ for the wealthy.. they rest and have a cuppa and we enjoy the view



Guess what branded stores are these below:

ANSWERS: Top: DIOR, Middle: GUCCI, Bottom: Louis Vuitton


What a fantastic wrap! Bread with mint leaves, bay leaves, goats’ cheese, pickled and condiments


Mixed Skewers


FYI, Sephora will be opening at Starhill Gallery soon! Be sure not to missed it!


On our way to The Palm



Pictures below are of Atlantis, The Palm


For our last day in Dubai, we went for Desert Safari

Dining Area


There were performances too by the locals; belly dancing, fire show, etc.


THE END


Frankfurt Once More

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OH yeah… it’s been some time since I’ve halted on blogging. There were so much going through my mind and life that for a minute there; well probably for days, I thought my blog would be shutting down.
There’s just not enough time for me to sit down in front of my lappie and blog; let alone cropping pics and resizing them. I’m leaving for another exhibition later today and finally, I have the time to sit here and start typing (sorry didn’t managed to post them before I left for KLIA -  so this is a week due).
In between packing and tidying, I found the time to re-size some pictures of Frankfurt. Forgive me, I did not fair well in beautifying them. Besides, there were only a few. There’s not much of Frankfurt these days that wowed me besides the food and the cold weather I have to endure.

Anyways, just a short description with ‘points’ of the days I spent in Frankfurt.

  • COLD
  • DRY
  • FOOD
  • CASTLES
  • INFECTION
  • PAPERWORLD
  • ACCESSORIZE
  • JET-LAGGED

There you go… COLD is for the weather. DRY is also for the weather as it was sooo cold that our skin dried up pretty much till it was flaky. Yuck! I know! Therefore, we got ourselves Nivea’s SOS Therapy which cannot be found here :p. And then there was FOOD which was yummy at times, bland at times and what’s with the big portions? CASTLES…seriously, Elaine loves castles. Everywhere she goes, she has to visit a castle. No matter a town away, how high we got to climb, she must visit a castle. By the way, she’s looking for castles with existing bedrooms. She wants to witness how does the bedroom of a medieval era looked like.  For me, I enjoy looking through the ruins and its structure. Now, that fascinates me. And then, there’s INFECTION. Urrgh.. I was actually having coughs and sore-throat while flying. So with the air pressure + the altitude, I googled and found out I was having ‘Otitis Media’. It sounds resonating but I actually thought I was going deaf in one ear. So, I visited the ER, got my consultation, prescription and that’s it. Don’t worry, I’m all fine now. The reason of Frankfurt visit is of course for the PAPERWORLD exhibition. This year our booth was slightly bigger  – YAY! ACCESSORIZE… omg so many Accessorize shops in Frankfurt. I got myself a beautiful necklace and Judith plenty of girly stuff and of course souvenirs for family members. After getting used to the cold weather in Frankfurt, it was time to fly back to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived the night before CNY so it was kinda rush. Then, that’s where the JET-LAGGED comes in. That’s my description of Frankfurt. Photos are below:-

Macarons

Funicular is coming!!!

The famous Dr Muller a.k.a. Erotic Shop

Our networking dinner at Messe Frankfurt

My favourite drink of all time in Frankfurt, KAKTUSFEIGE

My Breakfast

Lurve these eggs

Yup.. this was the URGENTNA I mentioned

The handwriting isn’t easy to read…

My inflamed ear with antibiotic cotton stuffed into my ear

Our booth before and after