17/05 Mannheim, Germany

Today, we went to Mannheim's Holi Festival !!!, which was a india's festival. Initially I did not want to go because it was quite expensive which was 23 Euro. But, everyone was going to there and I felt a bit boring after having lunch alone in my room. Suddenly I had a thought that perhaps this would be the last party we all could be together to have loads of fun in Mannheim and I could not even experience this festival when I came back to HK. And I only had exact two months left in Germany. Why not go to an outdoor party I had never tried in HK!!!!!!

The event started at 1200. Around 1530, I asked Saiyam if it was too late to go there now and he said it was not late cuz at that time they were just going to Luissenpark. Then I immediately went to buy online ticket and washed dishes and changed to a white T-shirt. There was a kind of dress code in this Holi Festival that we need to wear white shirts cuz the color can be more vivid. This Holi Festival is about throwing paint bags of different colors to others and at the same time listening to music and party in an outdoor area.

Around 1715, I arrived at the Lucisenpartk. On my right to the venue, I could already listen to the party music and saw many people with many colors on their shirts. I showed my e-ticket to them but they could not be able to scan it. I did not know why. However, they finally let me in and give me a ticket with 6 paint bags !! HAH, the ticket I bought only included 1 bags but I did not know why they give me this bag ticket. The ticket for 6 bags must be more expensive. Yeah, I got more bags to throw to them!!!

Finally I located where they were. I grabbed six bags from the booth. When I went back, they grabbed my paint bags and got 1 left-.- Never mind. And we threw bags to the others to their hair, shirts and face. The music there was really good. It was so awesome to listen great music and dance in an outdoor area and could throw paint bags to others and color up ourselves. This was probably the most happinest party I had ever in Mannheim. I took a lot of photos them. I really had a lot of fun there. Look at them !!

























The Festival ended at 2200. And we had danced for at least 5 hours LOL. We were all very tired. We took the tram back to Haupbahnhof first. Some went to eat doner and Santi, lucie, saiyam, margot went back to our dorms. Santi and me had dinner at 0030-.- Afterthat, I took shower and my hair was all filled with yellow color!!

16/05 Mannheim, Germany

Tomorrow will be Albert's birthday. So, we would have a kind of international dinner over his place. And Santi and me made tiramisu and macaupudding respectively. This was my third times to do it. The first two times macaupudding were fine. And Santi also made his first tiramisu. He bought a very big bowl to whip cream. We two were making our desserts in our post-war kitchen lol.

Around 2045, we went over his place. But Saiyam once saw us, he immediately grabbed us into his room in case albert knew we came. Roger and Kei also there. Roger made Taiwan port and Kei made Japanese curry!! Lucie, Margot and Fanny were in Lucie's room. We had waited there for almost 30 mins because there would be a group of spanish coming here to celevrate his birthday too and we were waiting for them to come.

Finally, we heard they came and we all came out from the rooms and ran towards Albert and said happy birthday to him!! He was very surprised that we were hidding in the rooms. Those spanish girls brought a lot of food like Spanish Omelette, some breads with spanish hams and salad. French girls also bought snacks too. We had a wonderful dinner there and we were all full.





Afterthat, we chatted each other and around 2359, someboay came in the room and prepared candles and put them on the pancake. Light went off and pancake with shining candles on it was brought to Albert. We sang happy birthday song to him then. He was very happy about all our preparation for him. We then ate dessert and I was so satisfied with my macaupudding. Santi's tiramisu was also very nice too.




Then we went to a bar in another residence but it was closed. We went back to albert places. Some spanish girls left, Roger and Kei left and we then played drinking game. We came back at 0330.

13/05 Mannheim, Germany

Long before Easter holiday started, we found that one of our stoves seemed broken as it does not heat much. Even we turned it on for more than 10 mins, it was still warm but not very hot. This really was very inconvenient for us to cook as we needed to take turns to use the remaining one stove, which increase our cooking time. I put the pot on it first and then he used it and then I use the pan and then he used it. Crap!!

Before we left for holiday, we sent an email to the studentinwerk to ask theim to repair the broken stove. We got an email from them in the middle of Easter and it said they would come soon to repair it. After we got back at the end of April, the stove was still not yet repaired. One week ago, we got an email from them again that they would come the other day.

Two guys knocked the door in the morning and me and santi were also sleeping. He let them in. Once I got up and opened the door. WTF!! Our kitchen got demolished totally.





















We no longer had our sink and tap water in the "kitchen". The fridge was still working thankfully. They said they would replace a new set of stoves in 2-3 weeks and we could only use the water in the toilet to wash dishes, which is very inconvenient as everytime we finish cooking, we need to take the unwashed dishes to the toilet and go to the kitchen to put them in the cupboard.  I hope my real kitchen will come back very soon !!!!

04/05 Berlin, Germany

We woke up at 0900 and had breakfast at the common area. We again put a piece of Ham into the bread as our breakfast. About 1000, we went to East side gallery which was near the ostbahnhof. We chose to take subway to get there. When we get on the subway, we stood in front of each other in order to keep an eye on whether if there were any suspected ticket officer got in through the first and last door. We made it to ostbahnhof.

 Once we got out the station, we already saw the Berlin wall. There were many different color paintings and graffiti on the wall. Some about Berlin, the earth etc.

We saw some famous wall painting like Gorbachev kissing xxxxxx. And I also took a Polaroid with this painiting and photos with some that I thought was meaningful, interesting and beautiful. 


































East side gallery was really a good place for painter to show their talent to the public.  Unfortunately there was no such place in Hong Kong. The gallery was quite long. There was a sourvenir shop at the middle and it could give a stamp in your passport. We did not if it was legal to do that. But we did not intend to pay for it.

We then walked back along the wall and was thinking about what place to take Polaroid for us. We decided to take one at the end of the wall where the photo could capture more than one paintings. We asked a women for help. As today's weather was quite cloudy, the color was not very vivid. Later, she found the polariod interesting and wanted to have one for her friends too. As I did not want waste films as I already wasted quite a lot before, I rejected her by telling lies that this was the last film and no film was left. We spent about 2 hours there and took the subway to the flea market near the Berlin wall Memorial.

The market was full of people. Many second handed shops were found there.

They sold cheap clothes, handmade stuff, old camera etc. i liked a leather money bag which looked very vintage but it was quite expwnaive. The whole flea market was quite like the Temple street in Hong Kong. We just did window shopping for about 1 hour. We could hear some musics playes by some bands and singers outside the flea marker in the open area.

There was also Berlin wall right next to the flea market. We walked a bit uphill. There were more graffiti on the walls than paintings and we could even see some making graffiti on the wall. Along the wall, we saw a group of Hong Kong girls taking photos but we did not want to say hi.
After flea market, we took U-bahn to Bernauer Straße to the Berlin wall memorial. Berlin wall memorial site was once at the border strip between the walls on both side of east and west Germany.

It was so cool that we were standing in between them. The Bernauer station had a historical story background as it was located between the Berlin wall and in the border strip. It really  surprised me at that time in 1950s there was already U-bahn. As west and east Germany was separated, train at that time could not stop at this station.

Today was very cold again and we all were trumbling. There were around 6 sections and in the end we started from the last one. But never mind. in this Berlin wall memorial, we learnt a lot of history about the Berlin wall like the structure and of the Berlin wall and later the layout of the border strip. We also found that at that time, people livong between the wall could just flee to west germanu by jumping from the window or walked though their back door. We could see many valuable videos recording how people fled to the other side.

One video really surpsing me was that a guy was in the process of jumping down from the window but his leg was got by a east germany border solider. People at the west side kept helping him to get rid of the soldier and finally he made it.

In order to prevent east Germany people from fleeing tothe west, they even clear the residentoal area or even demolish the houses, leaving the walls of the houses as a wall separating two side. We also found that they also walled up all the windows of all the houses near the border so that they could not jump over the wall. The top of the wall was also modified into water-pipe shape so that they could not easily climb over it. We also found at the border strip, there was once a cathedral bit it was later demolished because they wanted to have a clear sight for surveillance. In the meantime, we saw the hong kong girls but by listening what they said, they were not very interested in the history behind. They just kept taking pictures.  In general, all of the history showed in Berlin wall memorial really amazed and suprised me.

We all had learnt a lot of the history of Berlin wall and we really liked it. i initially wanted to go to other museum but it was already closed. We then walked to Nordbahnhof to take the subway to the hostel. We made pasta again with tomate Saussure, broocoli, pork steak and cheese. When we backed to the room, the roommates  were drinking and listening music which a bit disturb my sleep.

Overall, I am happy with this trip as I went to Berlin with my friend that we had known each other since asso. We met again at Poly and now in Europe. Destiny makes us meet each other again. Nice to meet you Fatkwan!!