A day in Brussels

First of all, I do apologize for not posting last week. It is merely because I was hella busy preparing stuff for my visa appontment. For some information (this post will be full of information, can you believe that?), if you are a NON-EU foreigner living Germany, you must have a date with Immigration Office or what they call Ausländerbehörde in german at least once every two year, if you lucky. Some of us can go there once a year or once every 6 months to take care of our permit. Long story short, Ausländerbehörde (ABH) is just a nightmare.

But, If I tell you truth, I was very busy only from Monday till Thursday. The rest? I was just lazy as hell. I mean, after exhausting preparation and appointment in ABH in Thursday, I just wanted to chill and do nothing (like every other day). So as a result there is no post for last week and I try to compensate it this week.

So let’s move on and forget last week!

Unless you are my friend in Path (another social media platform which is very popular among Indonesian), you must not know that I was in Brussels around two weeks ago. The reason why I went there was just because round trip ticket Berlin-Brussels-Berlin cost 10 euro with RyanAir. So without even thinking, I bought it and went there of course with my lovely boyfriend. Another info that I must share, I was just having day trip to Brussels without staying overnight. So basically, we went there Saturday Morning and came back Saturday night. Reaction from people? They went nuts.

HAMBURG PART 2: quan do

Finding good Asian restaurant is quite hard in Germany. For me, except for Berlin, other cities that I have ever been to don’t have many good Asian restaurant (ah yes I have been only to 4 cities so far #clearthroat). So that is why, when I was in Hamburg and and I found good Asian restaurant, I feel like I wanna move there and live like a Kanye West and Kim K riding some boat in Alster river (ignore this sentence, please).

The Asian restaurant that I was visiting in Hamburg is called quan do. It was like Vietnamese street kitchen that reminds me a loooot of District Mot in Berlin Mitte or Monsieur Vuong. They don’t offer much varieties of food but they indeed served very fresh of food. And the reason why I visited the restaurant was simply I wasn’t full enough eating Krabbenbrötchen from Brücke 10 (read my review here) and I need RICE and Asian can't live without rice! Like what my mother said, you haven’t had any lunch/dinner yet if you haven’t had any rice on your plate. Hamburger, pizza, döner? All of them are snack! #asianlife #asianthuglife

Hamburg Part 1: Brücke 10

My list of cities in Germany that I have visited is not that long. Well actually pretty short. So far I have been only to Berlin, Cottbus, Düsseldorf, Dresden,… and that’s it ( the list is pretty sad, quite honest). And, the reason why I didn’t visit other cities is quite unknown. Why? Because I said so.

But, there is a city that fascinates me for so long. This city is actually quite popular back in Indonesia and somehow I have always wanted to go there. However, the timing wasn’t never right and the budget was never there (remember, I was a budget student, okay?). And after almost 4 years waiting, dreaming, and imagining going there, I finally visit that city named: HAMBURG!


This Hamburg trip was pretty much spontaneous. Me and my bf decided to not to stay overnight because one day trip Berlin- Hamburg-Berlin is pretty much doable. So without further discussion between us, we bought the ticket to go to Hamburg for 10 euro (for round trip we paid 20 euro) at 6 am in the morning and back to Berlin at 21:45 in the night. Result: super tiring but it was an amazing trip.

I am not gonna tell you how much I spent in this trip since I have some unhealthy obsession to food. I am literally that type of girl who will think twice to spend 15 euro on bus ticket but never complain to spend 20 euro on food. So despite the ticket to Hamburg was pretty cheap, I splurged on the cuisine because YOLO!

Days before my visit to Hamburg, instead of looking spots that I have to visit, my search engine history was populated by: top 10 restaurant in Hamburg,  food that you must to try in Hamburg, cheap food in Hamburg, best restaurant in Hamburg, specialities in Hamburg, how to act in Reeperbahn and so on (the last is pretty much a joke, I guess). And believe it or not, most of the list will lead you to a restaurant where they serve a Fischbröthcen or fish sandwich called “Brücke 10”. As an amateur foodie and a-girl-who-never-say-no-to-good-food, I decided to go there.

Saturday, September 3^rd 2016

It was raining in Hamburg. Somehow I wasn’t that surprised to have rain in September because I was living in Germany where Summer practically doesn’t exist (kidding). I arrived in Landungsbrücken, a place that somehow a promenade next to the Elbe where you can find so many little shops and restaurants. Here, you can see as well huge containers across the river and somehow it felt romantic and stark at the same time. In addition, Landungsbrücken is the area where Brücke 10 was located. That's probably the reason why I was there. The end.

To be honest I was pretty much cranky when I went to Brücke 10 since I was soooo hungry. I didn’t have time to have breakfast since I woke up at 4 am in the morning and ain't nobody got that time for breakfast at 4am (but if you do, you are a champion). With rain pouring Hamburg, I was just in a rush to be in Brücke 10 ASAP. And after walking 10-15 min walking in the rain (luckily Adele didn’t set the rain to fire, bad joke), we arrived there. Without hesitation, we ordered the best seller of the restaurant and one Brötchen that looked that good, Krabbenbrötchen and Stremellachs. Verdict? See below:

Stremellachs

One thing that I can tell, it looked better than it tasted. The smoked salmon with pepper in the Brötchen was pretty much ordinary. I mean I can't lie that the salmon tasted fresh but that’s it. The Brötchen was pretty much dry and I am not sure how to explain it more. It's basically a fish in a bread. That’s it. Overall: 5/10