Hardbread Land aka Germany

Went over to Hardbread Land aka Germany to visit my younger sister Yuni... haven't seen her new place yet... and I must say, I'm impress... it's a lot better than the places that I've lived in while I was in uni! Bleh...

Hehehe... my sister's room... looks like a page from the Ikea catalogue... wish I can change all the furniture in my flat to new Ikea stuff! :P

I was working really hard prior to this trip as I had quite a few deadlines... in fact, I was working all the way to Gatwick airport, while waiting for my flight and while I was on the flight itself!!! Poor me... but I'm so lucky because.... when I arrived in Germany, I was welcomed by these wonderful treats...

Yuni baked these cute and delicious little cheesecakes just for me! Aaawwww... so sweet :)

And her housemate made these yummy carrot cupcakes for me!

Wow... I felt so honoured... hehehe

Since I haven't been to Dusseldorf yet, we decided to make a trip there as it's only an hour train ride from Yuni's place in Dueren... Before we started the day, my Mimi insisted that we have something German... so, we had lunch at a local restaurant...

We had goulash with macaroni (although in the menu it says noodle! heck... they can't even differentiate between macaroni and noodles...) and German sausages with sauerkraut (those pickled cabbage which I don't really like)

And of course, we went shopping... (how can any trip not include shopping??) hehehe..

The supposedly designer street in Dusseldorf... where you can find all the luxurious designer brands such as Prada, LV, Gucci etc... you name it they have it!

And not forgetting, our main objectives of the day was to get this LV bag for my elder sister... according to her, the LV bag that she wanted is cheaper here in Germany and if you get the tax refund, you can save a few hundred ringgit wor...

So, here we are... in the LV shop... my first time shopping for designer goods! Feel like those "tai-tai" man... but embarrassed as well, because everyone in the shop was already carrying LV bags and yours truly here was carrying her RM40 bag... Ooops...

This is the bag that she wanted... er, to be honest, I don't think it's that nice lor... plus the shape looks a bit funny and the handle is too short so you can't carry the bag on your shoulder... god knows why she wanted this particular model!

The following day, we went to Cologne instead... since I've been to Cologne the last time I visited Yuni, we went shopping instead of sight-seeing... yes yes yes, I know I know... it's just my excuse for shopping... but I found so many bargain items that I was one happy girl at the end of the trip! :)

Can you see the sausages hanging behind? Yeah, they have sausages and potatoes stalls everywhere... this one is in the train station... but it's literally everywhere... stalls by the side of the road, between shops, around the corner...

And because my Mimi wanted to have the famous German pork knuckles, we went hunting for German restaurants again... I think my sis and her friends must had a hard time trying not to say anything about having German food! (They don't like anything to do with Germany and associate them as hardbread...)

So here we are... (clockwise) pan fried potatoes with bacon and eggs, pork knuckle, escalope with herb sauce and German-style rump steak.

See what I mean about potatoes.. every dish is served with potatoes... I was stuffed!

Night fall at the main high street at Cologne

At the end of the weekend, I'm glad that I made the time for this trip... it may be short, but it was sweet... and it gave me an opportunity to spend quality time with both my Mimi and Yuni. :)