So I am back from Germany, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly for the most part. The only thing that proved to be disruptive was my cold rash (and for those who follow me on twitter would have seen a picture of a part of my arm with the rashes), which spread EVERYWHERE, especially my arms and legs. I'm gonna have to wear jeans and long skirts to cover my scars up now due to the fact that I scratched till I bled.
Check me out scratching at the ticketing station (warning: disturbing and unglamorous shots ahead):
You know how good it feels to finally scratch after controlling for half an hour or so?
You can tell by my face.
But enough of my rash rant and moving on to the actual trip. I dont really know how to start because there is so much to talk about, but let's just start with this....
I went to Hannover, Leipzig and Frankfurt during my stay in Germany, free and easy touring.
You might be thinking that my parents and I were travelling from region to region by taxi or plane or something, but NO, to save money, we had to take the tram and subway and train (yeah they are different, German underground works) while lugging our luggage along. This is actually quite a common sight in the country, businessmen and the locals apparently do it all the time. Anyway, after that experience I am quite proud to say that the family is rather apt at taking public transport in Germany now. :)
Now that you have an overview, time for the pictures....
Before I got to have any fun, I had to help out at the exhibition with my parents. My dad was actually doing a business trip, then decided to make it into a holiday as well.
The Back Factory serves the most freshly baked pastries and confectionery in Hannover. You can see people flocking to this shop everyday at the Hauptbahnhof (main station). The donuts and quiche are especially good!
My mum and I in the train! (regarding what Im wearing, you wont get to see a change because I wore the same overcoat and boots for 12 days straight. hehe)
Daydreaming.
Anyway, the exhibition that my Dad is attending is called Eurotier. It is the largest international exhibition for those who are doing businesses in animal nutrition and people from all around the world (Iran, Turkey, Finland, China, Japan etc.).
The entrance to Eurotier 2012.
The banner of our booth. My dad is pretty clever to put it there to attract people haha
MOO.
Doesn't the poster on the wall look gorgeous??
I got to meet many of my dad's clients
and partners, and at the same time, learn about the more underhanded
behaviours of businessmen. What I learnt from the trip isn't really
about the technical aspect of business, but more of the relationships
and also about how to handle difficult people.
(I
have to say, my Dad is not an EQ person. He manages to make quite a
number of potential customers displeased because of the way he speaks
(although it is not intentional), and my mum has to put him back in
place all the time. Whatever it is, I will never ever make the mistakes that my father made, ever again.)
When anyone talks about an overseas trip, they cannot miss out on the food.
Germany is really famous for their meat, especially sausages and pork knuckles. However, they have really underrated food that tastes absoultely heavenly, maybe even better than their sausages. Their seafood is a perfect example to illustrate what I mean.
Enjoying food from Nordsee. It is like a fast food restaurant, just that the food they serve is a lot fresher and healthier than Mac or KFC.
Codfish with lemon sauce. LOOK at the mixed vegetables. They are actually cooked fresh, not some pre-packed frozen shit like the ones I always get in Singapore.
Herring, eaten raw. It has a naturally very salty flavor so it doesnt taste like raw fish. My favourite dish here :)
skinny oysters. This one I enjoyed less. The type of oysters was just not to my liking :(
When my parents and I took the ICE (its a train) to Leipzig from Hannover, we stopped by a countryside station and decided to have lunch there. It was here that we managed to eat some real common German food.
I dont really like potatoes, but the way they cook potatoes here makes them taste really good!
And you don't even have to ask about the sausage, you just KNOW it was fat, crunchy and juicy. Perfect.
This ham/meatloaf (im not very sure what kind of meat this is) surpassed any kind of meat I have had in my life, even steak. The meat was so smooth, I just had to glide my knife through in order to separate it. It felt the same way in my mouth as well. Great for those who dont have any teeth to chew with. It's quite long ago since I had it so I cant exactly remember how it tasted but since it left quite an impression, I'm sure it was really good :)
The fish restaurant that I visited in Frankfurt. It was really near Zeil (shopping mall that I will elaborate upon later.)
Half of the dishes we had. Mmmm.
As you can see, my mum and I enjoying ourselves.
Just further down this restaurant, we discovered a wet market. A wet market in Germany, how cool is that? We decided to check out this interesting place, and were amazed by what we saw.
Entrance!
Seeds and bulbs for the gardeners.
A meat shop.
Too cute :')
Betcha guys are drooling just looking at it. x)
Fresh fruit and vegetables!
Just look at the variety of pasta. *.*
(HUGE)Black and white truffles. I have always though that truffles were a chocolate until I was about sec 2 before my mum enlightened me (it is a mushroom).
Lol look at the size of this chilli. It's twice the size of my Dad's hand, and that says something.
Olives and other types of beans....
The amount of sausages and ham and pork and stuff is enough to make you nauseous. Even for meat lovers like myself.
There was one shop in the market that displayed whole slaughtered pigs with the head and everything. It wasn't a pretty sight at all. The different sections of the pig (liver, stomach, skin, tail, you name it, they have it) were then further separated in the glass display for people to buy. Ugh
There was a fish shop upstairs that caters both cooked and raw food, and since it was a market, my dad assumed that the food was gonna be much cheaper than in other restaurants.
How wrong he was.
The cost for one bowl of soup, four oysters and a plate of codfish cost us up to 50 over euros, about 60 to 70 plus SGD. Thank goodness the food was really fresh and tasty, or we would have caused a mini riot.
Every spoonful of soup will guarantee whole chunks of fish and prawn. Amazing stuff.
Each piece of oyster cost 6 sing dollars. No way in hell am I ever gonna pay that kind of money, even if they were good.
Fish was so fresh, I could still taste the sea. (do I make sense?)
I rarely had any dessert in Germany, which was a pity because their cakes and confectionery are pretty well-known as well. I only managed to try the crepe and gelato there, and was a slightly disappointed because it wasnt anything too special (although good).
Banana and Nutella crepe with chocolate gelato on top!
Blissfully cutting the dough.
Other pictures:
Super hot and fat pretzel (bread), 99cents euro for three. And I always thought that pretzels were biscuits (think Auntie Anne).
Lovely hotdog and the shop we were in :)
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HALT!
I initally wanted to throw everything about the trip into one post, but while writing this particular one, I realised that it was way too long for you guys to handle (long and boring will make one lose their readers, or so I have learnt), so I'm gonna split this into two parts. Please do enjoy this post first while I construct the other one. Besides, I have so much to tell, so I think it is worth the wait while I fatten up the content of my other post. Second part is up next week, do wait for it :)
TOODLES~
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