In a blink of an eye

It’s 6am that I’m writing this.

About a week ago this time, I was talking to my aunt who was getting ready to go to work. A few minutes after that, I was on my way to take the bus to go to my parents house. It was still dark out. Looking the faces of sleepy people on their way to work and school reminded me of moments when I was still living in Singapore.

A scene from the Jurong East MRT. I spent years during Secondary School at Jurong Entertainment Center. And in a few years, even JCube at the back there will be demolished.

I looked out of the window, knowing that it was my last week there and almost choked up. So many things that I’ll be missing.

Visiting my ex Primary School with my siblings

It has been four years since I’ve last visited. I would have come earlier, but as you know Covid-19 happened and turned life upside down. It made traveling a lot more challenging and expensive.

A cool diorama of CBD at the URA Centre

And now with the rules being more relaxed, we finally had the chance to travel back. I made a list of things that I wanted to do … but mostly, I just wanted to spend time with my family and friends as much as possible.

A lot of things has happened in four years.

Each time I arrive back in Singapore, it’s like I coming out of a Time Machine. While there are a lot of things that are the same, so many things has changed. I don’t mean by just new buildings erected or old buildings demolished. But even the functions of daily life is different.

Clementi. Where I used to hang out a lot after studying in Jurong Institute. No more fountain. No more clock tower. And of course, A&W was gone a long time ago.

Like when making payments, vendors now prefer this new function called “Pay Now”. I was confused for the longest time when some of them didn’t accept NETS. And when going to the library, instead of scanning on the totems, you can now scan the books using an app on your phone. Woah, I feel like I’m living in the future. I’m so excited to see what new technologies that is to come.

Just use the NLB Mobile app to borrow. You can also borrow e-books.

But on the other hand, seeing my family growing older each time I visit is quite painful. My parents being less vibrant compared to before. I’m in a state of denial when I hear their ages and think to myself, that can’t be … but the maths check out.

All the years that I don’t get to spend with my siblings – birthdays and other special moments … Just makes me feel this sense of panic and melancholy and want to spend as much time with my family as much as I can.

Bothering the mother while she was on her lunch break

I guess living so far away has made me appreciate every moment that I have because the time I have is so limited. And I just hope to see you all again soon, in good health and happiness.

Second vaccine dose done!

Last evening, I got my second Pfizer vaccine done.

Personally for me, the entire process felt a little unreal – as if I was stepping in a recreation of a historical moment. Like walking reliving in a completely immersive interactive museum.

The process here in Rome is pretty straightforward. Vaccines dates are given by age groups, so you wait for your turn to book an appointment by either going to the Salute Lazio website or by the app.

You’d be given a choice of Pfizer, or AstraZeneca or Johnson’s or Moderna. For me, I chose Pfizer as it was one of the kinds that is recognised in Singapore, which theoretically should make it easier for when I want to return.

Cart managed to get an appointment at La Nuvola, which is lucky for him as it is just a few minutes drive from where we live.

La Nuvola means the cloud. Hard to see in this picture but there is a huge cloud sculpture inside.

Unfortunately for me, the only location for Pfizer for my age group at the time had to be done at La Vela which is about an hour drive away. Argh.

But apart from that, the organisation was pretty smooth. When I reached the location, all I had to do was to show the SMS I got, and I was ushered in the right queue.

Tents like these always give me an invocative feel.

The vaccination area I was at, was made up of big white tents. I didn’t have to wait for too long and I was allowed to enter.

The first stop was to take the temperature with a device that looked like a metal palm. When there was a green light, I passed through.

We had to have our tessera sanitaria ready, to be given to one of the staff at the computer who keys in your data and asks you to fill up a form about your information, health and declaration of agreement.

The next stop was an interview with the doctor asking you questions like your medical history or if you have allergies.

After that, the next stop was actual injection. You sit down and be asked which arm you want jabbed. I don’t know if it makes much difference so I asked for right arm for the first time and left for the second. So it is balanced. Don’t know if this makes sense??‍♀️

The final stop was to stay in the waiting room for 15 minutes to ensure that you were fine before you were released.

It’s the morning after at this point of time typing. Loads of people are warning that the second dose hits harder than the first time. I’m not feeling feverish right now, but my vaccinated arm feels a little sore.

Regardless, now I have inbuilt 5G. And this is how I managed to blog this entry today.

We are Borg. Resistance is futile.

I’m okay

Hi everyone. Today is the second day that the entire of Italy is on lockdown at this point of writing and I thought that I’d just share a little bit of what has been going on here.

I’m okay.

The Covid-19 virus has been hitting Italy really hard. Even a month before, when the first cases was announced in Milan, it was already quite difficult to get hand sanitizers here in Rome.

I got mine, ironically from a Chinese mom and pop shop. Face masks were already completely sold out. You could get them online through resellers albeit multiple times more expensive. Personally for me, I trust more the old soap and water for keeping my hands clean.

Unfortunately, there are a few rare instance where there are random people who shouted “coronavirus” at me because I look foreign which made me very upset.

Early this month, when it was first announced that public places like schools, cinemas and gyms will be closed till the 14th March which wasn’t too bad… I had just made payments for my flamenco course. I would be missing one week of not meeting my friends for flamenco lessons but it’s still tolerable.

I’m just sad that we’ve been practicing so hard for the performance in lieu of the International Women’s day. We were supposed to dance at the Campidoglio which look really spectacular as the choreography was lovely. That’s cancelled. As well as all other public events like the marathon and performances were halted. Disappointing, but it was for the greater good.

And then the date got extended to the 3rd of April. Woah. That’s a long time! Did I just pay 110 euro for nothing? That’s about 11 hours of work for me.

And speaking of work, I do food deliveries to supplement my earnings and this moment has been really hard. I haven’t been earning as much as before, after my accident (will talk more about that in another post) and because not that many people order food online. In addition to that, most restaurants are completely closed to the public at 18.00, leaving just a few open for delivery.

A sign on a table in McDonald’s reminding customers to keep a distance of 1 metre

It was pretty quiet when I was out last evening for my dinner rounds. It was so surreal, like being in a war movie. Roads which was full of life was completely dark and quiet. Nothing was open. There were a lot of police cars making their rounds.

Even during the day, the mall which normally was full of people and I used to have to fight to pass through, was really deserted which was really bizarre for me. Loads of shops closed down because the proprietor anticipated that there would not be a lot of sales anyway.

Usually there parking here will be completely filled with loads of people walking around

My biggest worry though is that we don’t earn enough money to pay for the mortgage and bills that we have to pay. There has been political talks of mortgage, bills, taxes being suspended. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but it were to happen, would really ease our burden.

When the announcement was done by Giuseppe Conte, the prime minister last night, a lot of people went into panic buying mode. Crowding around the supermarket. Which just kinds of defeat the purpose.

Out of curiosity, Cart and I were at the big supermarket not too far away from where we live this morning. Just to see the situation.

Considering that it is a Wednesday, there was an unusual amount of cars parked outside. We soon found out there was a limit to the amount of people who are allowed in. So you might have to queue up to enter.

At the entrance, there was sanitizer gels and gloves for customers to use. Inside, each staff were wearing gloves and masks. And customers are reminded regularly to keep a distance of 1 metre from another. But apart from that, it was like any other day.

There were still loads of toilet papers available. You know, because Italians use bidets.

I just hope for the situation to get better. The virus is one thing, but the mass hysteria from the few is even worse.

My experience drawing on the iPad

Not too long ago, I got an iPad as a birthday present.

It was something that I’ve wanted for a long time as I thought that it would be a useful accompaniment for drawing my comics, plus, iPads were the only type of tablets which supports Affinity Designer, that I have on my windows laptop, which I’ve been using all the while for my rinaz cartoons. So hypothetically, I could work on my laptop and then continue working on it, on the iPad if I wanted to. 

It’s funny because it weren’t for this software, I probably would have gotten an android tablet instead. HOWEVER! Despite so many claims on how easy it was to use, there was a steep learning curve for me and after 4 months, there are still things that annoys me greatly about iPadOS… but that’s probably material for another post.

Nevertheless, I was quite excited to play with my first tablet and here was one of my first artwork with the apple pencil!

Cute but needs a bit work … hahaha.

So what I did was to I watch a number of tutorials on YouTube. At first for Affinity Designer naturally, but eventually saw plentiful of videos recommended for me on Procreate. It looked fun, and it costs about 10 euro, and finally I caved in to all the hype.

At first, I didn’t quite get it. Because I normally worked with vectors. I had to take a short course to understand better. This lesson by Brad Colbow is really good, but if you want to sign up, you should wait for their sale which they tend to have on a regular basis.

But it was only when Inktober was live, was when it got me really started on my groove. Inktober, by the way, is an event held in October where artists (there is also one for writers too) have a theme to draw with a different theme each day.

It was something that intrigued me for a long time and I decided to participate for the fun of it using procreate. 

First it looked like this :

Day one : Ring

Day 2 : Mindless

Theme : Mindless

Which weren’t bad …

But it was the next theme – “Dizzy” … which inspired me. I thought about what made me dizzy and remember a happy memory I had as a young girl, and living at my old house in Singapore.

It was then that I got inspired by that to do a continuing theme using my childhood…

Day 26 : Dark

I had such happy memories during the mid autumn festival, playing with my paper lantern with my good friend Micheal and his sister.

Day 29 : Injured

My mom was a seamstress so I had access to a lot of threads and needles which I practiced using on my teddy bears whose paws tend to get loose. I pretended to be a doctor and they would have their surgeries to help them feel better.

Day 30 : Catch

This was supposed to be a scene of my best friend E1 and I in the swimming pool when I pushed him in the pool without realizing that there was someone in the pool! And he hit him! Oops! Sorry! I was a very mischievous kid and I am surprised that E1 didn’t scream at me then.

I tried drawing a pool but it looked horrible, so in the end settled for this simple picture of us playing catch instead at the shophouse near the school.

Not sure if you noticed, but kid me is wearing a yellow dress, my favourite thing to wear then. I don’t know if can ever find a real picture of me since practically all of my pictures are at my parents’s house in Singapore, but hopefully I’ll try to remember to take a look the next time I visit.

Sadly, I didn’t managed to do complete each day because of real life commitments but Inktober was so much fun and extremely inspiring to me and I try to continue to draw when I can.

Autumns are one of my favourite season. I love how the leaves of the trees changes colour to a beautiful red, orange and yellow. Even after so many years living here, I never get tired of seeing this magnificent, spectacular view.

This piece is something that I am very proud of. A cartoon version inspired by a photo taken by the extremely talented Inge Morath where she snapped a photo of a llama in a car in New York. It intrigued me … what on earth was a llama doing in a car?!

(Sidenote, there is an exhibit on Inge Morath at the Trastevere Museum right now. It’s a MUST go. I really recommend it. I enjoyed it a lot

And in case you were interested to play with procreate here are some links you might like :

P.s Just blogged this completely on the iPad. Yeah I prefer my laptop. 

My experience drawing on the iPad

Oh my goodness

It is 4.30am right now and I couldn’t go back to sleep. And so here I am. My goodness. It has been a very long time since I’ve last blogged in here. Is there still anyone reading me?

A lot of things has happened, but I just haven’t really the chance to sit down to blog about it as I used to. Time just passes by so quickly for me and before you know it, an entire year has just passed by.

Regardless of how some might think that blogs are dying, I think I would like to continue to blog again, maybe at least once a week just to write down my thoughts and experience. It has been something I enjoy doing, letting my fingers dance on the keyboard.

And so this will be my first blog for 2020, something simple to get the engines started for the next one.

Hello 2019!

Hi everyone, and welcome to a new year.

Feels like time has just wooshed by but when looking back, a lot of things has happened in 2018, both good and bad. Nevertheless I’m very grateful for all the experience and beautiful memories that I’ve encountered and am looking forward to stepping up into my life.

I don’t really belive in new year’s resolution, but for this year I want to try to take care of myself better and focus on what makes me happy and everything else will fall in place.

New year, new journey. I hope that you come and experience it together again with me 🙂

rinaz.net

Happy Anniversary Cartcart

It is now 6 am at this point of writing and here I am amazed that ten years ago, Cart and I were in Singapore being solemnised, in front of my family, relatives and close friends.

rinaz.net Cart and Rinaz wedding anniversary

I still remember the day quite vividly, excited and happy to be surrounded by the people that I love.

rinaz.net Cart and Rinaz wedding anniversary

I will have to say though, that the past decade hasn’t been easy – moving to Italy and having to start all over again – learning the language and assimilate in the culture, and being so far away from my family …

rinaz.net Cart and Rinaz wedding anniversary

Not to mention that economy wise, it has been quite tough for the both of us but I’m grateful to have such a constantly loving partner who is kind, and patient towards me, understanding and supportive when I’m having my bad days and being on board when I have a sudden spark of creative motivation.

rinaz.net Cart and Rinaz wedding anniversary

I didn’t managed to reach the goals that I’ve set before migrating to Rome, and I get more and more alarmed each time seeing how much my parents has grown older each time I get back, which means that we are getting older too.

rinaz.net Cart and Rinaz wedding anniversary

But on the other hand, when I reflect back, there has been so many achievements that I’ve reached which is only possible living here, and I want to continue this journey and experiences with Cart for as long as it is possible with our limited time here.

rinaz.net Cart and Rinaz wedding anniversary

Thank you Abang for all that you’ve given me. For comforting me when I’m feeling scared, for pulling me up when I’m feeling down, for motivating me when I’m feeling lost … There are many ways that you’ve made me a better person that I am today.

rinaz.net Cart and Rinaz wedding anniversary

I hope for many more years of happiness for us, I love you very very much. Happy anniversary, amore mio ❤️

rinaz.net Cart and Rinaz wedding anniversary
rinaz.net Cart and Rinaz wedding anniversary

P.s. These gorgeous photos were taken by our very talented friend Marco. I love how they turned out, Cart and I look like we were in a magazine cover. Ahaha

rinaz.net Cart and Rinaz wedding anniversary

An amazing experience in Berlin!

So I have a good friend, Jules who I’ve known since school. She asked me to join her for a get away, and I jumped at the chance as I thought that it was a great way to spend time with her. It has been a long time since we had a vacation together.

The place where she chose to go to was Berlin – and in all honesty, till a couple of weeks before the flight I didn’t do any preparation at all. I know of some people who tried to learn the local language and did loads of research about the place that there wanted to visit. Me? At most, I just did a deposit at my hostel and bought a travel pass.

On the day of the flight itself, I woke up really early to play tetris with my hand luggage. It’s late Autumn at the time, so we needed to wear bulky, wooly clothes which could take up a lot of space, but in the end I had the idea of putting each clothing individually in ziplock bags and squeezed the air out of it to compress it. In the end, I was quite proud of my little handiwork.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany
(5 wooly tops in one hand luggage!)

A few hours later, Cart drove me to Ciampino airport, and I was feeling rather unusual. I’m not even sure why, considering that I flew all by myself from Singapore to Rome over 10 years back. But luckily for me, I had the company of lovely people on telegram to distract me and keep me calm.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

While the airport was quite crowded, the flight itself didn’t take long. I watched some videos I’ve downloaded on my phone, listened to some music and at length, I reached Berlin! Woah. Hearing the language, seeing all the signs in German … It was so unreal. I’m really here!

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

(Who is the naughty person who pasted this black strip?!)

It surprisingly easy to navigate around – I already had my travel pass printed out, and the directions to reach my hostel was pretty clear so I had no problems at all. The bus was practically right outside the airport exit, and as soon as I boarded my bus, I settled down and admired the view from the window and looked at the scenery – kids coming back from school, how triangular and rectangular their buildings were, seeing friends chatting with each other, while I did unique visits on Ingress.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Everything feels so unknown and new, like the first time I ever visited Rome.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Eventually I reached my hostel and met Jules who was having her lunch. As it was still too early for me to check in, I deposited my luggage and went for a walk around the neighbourhood. The area where the hostel was at is in an area called Hermannplatz which was close to the U Bahn and a lot of public transportation.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

One thing that you could immediately feel was how cold it was! When I reached there, it was about 1 degrees celcius! My hands has never turned so red as it was when I was that week.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Nevertheless, I had a nice walk, passing by interesting shops, with all the strange fonts and language.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

(I will have to blog soon about the amazingly cheap affordable stuff that Jules and I found. We are totally in love with it)

And that was where I stumbled upon the Turkish Market which was quite cool to see, so many people selling their colourful wares and food right next to the river.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

There was also a lovely vegan bakery in that area. So many colourful doughnuts! Of course, I had to get a box to try – so I chose Boston Creme and a Chocolate and Orange one for breakfast the next day.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

And then I headed back to the hostel to do my check in and to finally see my room. Staying at Cat’s Pajamas was pretty affordable and  public transportation was close by, the beds comfortable, there was a place to shower and even a working kitchen to cook in. I had a pleasant stay throughout there. I’d recommend this place if you don’t mind sharing a room with others.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Sidenote, I happened to catch this German soap opera while having dinner the other day and was extremely amused at how calm the characters were compared to Mexican telenovelas. Even when a woman poured a glass of wine over one of the male protagonist, he didn’t react at all and just walked out of the room.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

I wish I knew the title of the show, it would be such a riot to watch a small segment and do my own dub over it.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Travelling with Jules was pretty easy going I found out. While we had different ideas of what we wanted to do – she likes social dance, and I don’t … in the end, we managed to find a happy agreement where we spend the days together and in the evening, we do our own things so while she goes dancing, I get to play ingress which was perfect for the both of us.

And thus, my first evening was having dinner at a Vegan place called – H&D Chay, a Vegan Vietnamese restaurant. Not very German, but it was near the hostel and the plate of noodles that I had was really yummy and I loved the crispy, fresh and colourful vegetables accompanying it.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Food wise, I never had any issues in Germany as I’ve always found the country very veggie friendly so you can do a quick search on happy cow or google. And after our lovely dinner together, we went off to do our own separate things.

I decided to go for a mission banner which was in the area which lead me to see the Museum Island. It was so pretty seeing the statues and the monuments by the river.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

(By the way, I was surprised to see that there is a Mobike bicycle in the area. I still have the app from when I installed it back in Singapore, and lo and behold, it works!)

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

By the time that I was done with the banner, I found myself in the area called Alexanderplatz. Here is my banner by the way :

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

And Alexanderplatz is famous because this is where the TV tower, the Fernsehturm is located, and this is the tallest building in Germany.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

There happened to be a nice Christmas Market going on in there too. It was such an interesting sight, looking at all the colours and the lights of people selling local food and trinkets.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

There was even an ice skating rink in the middle, framed with a huge ferris wheel in the background.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

I thought it very cool, and quite magical.

By the way, I keep seeing a lot of bears like these :

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

And that’s the end of day 1.

On the second day, Jules and I decided to go for a walking tour starting from the Brandenburg Tor.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

I like walking tours because they are pretty easy going – you don’t really need to book in advance and you’re in the good hands of the guide for the next two hours or so.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

For today, we did the “Free tour of Berlin“. And we walked to the Holocaust memorial, we saw the area where over 20 nobel prize winners studied, we passed by the place where a carpenter tried to blow Hitler up, we even walked to the area where Hitler’s underground bunk used to be.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

I can’t remember everything that the guide told us, as it was an overload of information for me, but some of the things that did stick to me was this particular monument which was a memorial to a person who tried to blow Hitler up.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

And here is the Humboldt university where 20 thousand books were burnt during World War 2. In the picture below is a memorial with empty shelves with space for 20,000 books. We were told that at night, there will be an orange glowing light which represents fire.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

There were so many sights to be seen –  I feel blessed and it feels incredible that I was fortunate to be able to see what I saw.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

By the way, while walking, I saw these restaurants side by side – it’s amusing to me because Va veloce means go fast, and Va piano means go slow.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

The day was still quite young, so we decided to head to the Victory Column, where the guide recommended, to have a look at the view from the top.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

It was an impressive building, with the Golden Goddess, Victoria right at the top of the tower.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

One thing that I didn’t expect  though, was how much climbing was involved. I think it was a good 15 minutes of us climbing up. I was so out of breath!

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

(Don’t look down Marina!)

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

But boy, was the view from the top so spectacular. Everything looks like miniatures from up here. ❤️

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Evening befell, so we headed back to the hostel. I felt a little tired and decided to take a 15 minute power nap before going out to do a mission banner. Unfortunately, that ended up being two hours! It was starting to be a little late, but I decided to continue going for the mission banners anyway.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

The area where I was at was called, Adlershof which I found out, was known for media and technology. There were quite a number of interesting buildings that I saw which reminds me so much as if I was walking through secondlife.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

One thing that I didn’t expect, was it to be so cold though. I was shivering and it was tough to type on the phone, and I kept wondering if it was such a clever idea to be going out at this time … that was when I saw how the cars were – with snow and ice on top of them.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

You can probably hear me raving like a lunatic on Instagram stories

Nevertheless, I trudged along and was finally done at about 2.30 am. Yes! Finally! And here is my mission banner :

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Unfortunately it was then that I found out that U Bahns stopped functioning at midnight during the weekday, and the next functioning one will run at 4 am. Fortunately, for me, there was the night bus that I could take and it brought me all the way back to Hermannplatz, the area where I was staying. I think I reached back at about 3.30 am?

It was a cheerful bus ride for me anyway, there was a group of people at the back of the bus singing and playing the harmonica, which was extremely amusing to me.

But you can imagine how stoned I felt in the morning. I still wanted to maximise my day though, so instead of walking, I thought that it could be nice and relaxing to just take the bus.

But first things first! One can not go to Berlin without eating something local. And Jules and I had currywurst!

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

At least the vegan version anyway. I found out it’s called currywurst, because of the curry powder sprinkled on top of the sausage. The place where we went to was called Bergmann Currywurst. And by the time we finished ordering, there were loads of people who queued up for their lunch there.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

I’m not sure how my tofu-seitan sausage compares to the meaty counterpart, but I really liked my meal. It was really good. And you could choose from a lot of different hot sauces there.

We then took the bus number 100, which in my opinion is a great way to see the interesting sights of Berlin and if you have a travel pass, you can just hop on and off anywhere you like. I really like that with the combination of google maps, you can calculate when your next bus will arrive.

(Even if, it might not be the most accurate app. There was once when we had the bus late and it arrived like two at one go)

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

In the evening, I decided to visit a group of Resistance agents in a clubhouse called C-Base.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

(This colourful mural can be seen when you reach the nearest U Bahn)

It was a tough place to reach, first time visitors would definitely have a challenge – google maps lead me to a barricaded building, and then the guard told me to walk to the bridge which was completely the opposite direction.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

(Where are you?!)

But after consulting with the locals on telegram chat, I managed to reach the place eventually.

It’s a cool place, full of tech paraphernalia and pop culture. It was there, I met some Berlin Resistance agents. While it was difficult to communicate since I don’t speak German, but they were really nice and I had a really lovely evening.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

It was here where I met Eumeline, who is actually in a two year relationship with a guy from another faction. I never thought it was something that was possible! And next to me here here is Zorig, who was the top player on The Grid. When I asked, what was his secret to having so much AP, (he had over 600 Million at the time) he said that he only plays for 2 hours a day. I find that a little hard to believe ?

And that is the end of day 3!

The next day, I woke up pretty early considering my late evening. It’s just that I’ve always been a morning person. And look at what greeted me at 6 am.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Such a glorious sky.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

And here I am with freshly washed hair! #vain #voluminous #natural #haha

Jules and decided to go for another walking tour. And this time, it was the Schasenhausen memorial. This was one of the location of the concentration camp during the world war two.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

To be honest, I wasn’t really keen to visit the place at first, because I was sure to feel l very sad when I see the place.  But in the end, since I was in Berlin, what other chance would I have, so I went ahead.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Together, the guide and the small group that we were in took the train together to an area called Oranienburg – which was slightly outside of Berlin

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

The gravel area, which you see here, is the size of an individual prisoners barrack.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

It was definitely sad for me to hear about how prisoners were abused for the smallest thing that they did.  Like how 400 people had to wash themselves in this small communal area. And how some were left in the cold in their regular prisoner clothes as punishment while we were already shivering in our puffy jackets in the rainy, 0 degree weather.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

This was a table where autopsies were done

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Here is a room where special prisoners were kept

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

One of the rare, few colourful things which I saw at the concentration camp, paintings done by the prisoners at the dining hall.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Instant death for prisoners who step in this area

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

In the end, as sad as I felt to be there, I was glad that I did, because it made me feel blessed to be living in a more tolerable world. Nevertheless, there are still some areas in the world which is still at war.

When we reached back to Berlin, I had a quick dinner and decided to do another banner in the area called Frankfuter Tor.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

(Falafel wrap, banana, salad and juice for a well balanced meal. Nom nom nom)

Frankfurter Tor is an amazing place – so interesting and full of pubs and places to eat. Since it was a Friday, there were a number of people out with friends and I really liked seeing how interesting their outfits were. I saw a number of people with punk-ish attire.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

(This building had such beautiful mural, it’s a pity I can’t take a better shot of it as it was so dark)

Unfortunately, it was cold and raining. Which made my internet connection wonky and slow. It was really frustrating.

Luckily there was mephx, a res agent who happened to be in that area that evening and he gave me hot spot, and accompanied me while I finished my banner. Thank you so much! You are so kind. ?

And here is my banner :

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

I told him about my visit to the concentration camp earlier in the morning and he said something interesting about how both factions made a pact together to not accept any portals there out of respect of the area.

And that was the end of day 4.

For our last full day, Jules and I went for another walking tour. This time round, to Potsdam.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

We took a train and arrived in Potsdam in about an hour or so. Potsdam is so pretty!

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

(And also full of green portals too, so bring loads of xmp with you if you’re heading here)

Practically everywhere you go, makes you feel like you’re in a set of a movie. I wouldn’t be surprised that there were many movies that were shot here.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

There were so many types of influences on the different builds, like there was an English area, a Dutch area, an Italian area and others…

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

One of my favourite would have to be this charming Cecilienhof Palace. So pretty!

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

We then had a quick lunch and had a walk at the Christmas Market

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

I was starving at this point of time, didn’t even had breakfast yet so this was a half eaten bagel before I remembered to take a photo of it. But look at how christmassy the cafe looks like! Tea lights and little fir trees at every table.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

(I’ve never seen a Vegan Nutella before)

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

And finally we saw the Sansoucci palace where the remains of Frederick the great was.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Sansoucci in French means, without cares or worries, which symbolises that the palace was a place for relaxation rather than a place for power.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

So great was Frederick, that unlike other rulers, he didn’t want to have a fancy grave. Opting to have just a simple one.  And if you are puzzled to see this mound of potatoes on his grave, it was because Frederick was also known as the potato king  because of his insistence that potatoes be grown and from there, it became the popular food is is today.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Potsdam is very pretty. Definitely worth going for a day trip if you’re ever in Berlin.

Juli and I rested a while when we reached back to the hostel in the late afternoon. While she got busy packing, and planned to go dancing afterwards, I wanted to have a nice final meal in Berlin so I decided to head to a place called Vincent Vegan which was in the area where I wanted to do my final banner.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

Ordering my meal was an interesting experience as everything was in German and I felt overwhelmed so in the end, I just chose the name which looked interesting to me. In any case, I loved my “cheesy one” with the sweet potato fries and the garlic sauce. Oh it was so good.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

And thus, my final hurrah, a last mission banner and this time, I chose the area where the East Berlin wall was. Unfortunately for me, this particular banner required some pass phrases which was in German, and I had to ask visitors chat for help.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

It was rather entertaining to see so many people in the chat helping me out along the way, it was so heartwarming to have people accompanying me while I’m doing my challenges. I felt as if I were a competitor in the Amazing Race.

This mission banner even brought me to the harbour, which for a wild moment, I thought that I couldn’t complete because it was gated. I contemplated on climbing over the fence.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

But I was advised to continue, and eventually I found an opening and managed to continue with the banner with not much problems at all. I did meet a very chatty person there by the way, who wanted to talk to me about pokemon.

Eventually, I reached the colourful area of Kreuzberg where I met picoh3rtz, a really sweet resistance agent who lived in the area and helped me and gave me to much motivation to complete the banner. ??? (And also xmp haha!)

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

(Try to type the street name in your phone)

And not before long, I was back at the Oberbaum bridge and was done with the mission banner! And here is what it looks like :

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

It was such a high for me to have finished this, with so many people in the visitors chat cheering for me. That was extremely heartwarming for me. My last few hours in Berlin was definitely unforgettable.

And with a few hours to spare, I decided to rest a little before my flight back home. And since I packed relatively light, I didn’t have much left to do.

Thank you so much Berlin, for your hospitality, your warmth, your amazingness. I had a beautiful, beautiful week and you will always be in my heart. And I look forward to return.

rinaz.net in Berlin, Germany

P.s. If you’re interested, you can see my Instastory so you can watch little videos of my trip there 😀

Beautiful Pisa

Cart and I were in Pisa during the weekend for mission day – an Ingress event where you explore a town, hack on specific portals to create missions for your profile, like this one :

And when you think of Pisa, what is the first thing that comes to mind? The leaning tower, of course. But like many others, before this trip, I thought that there wasn’t that much things to see apart from the tower.

But as we walked through the areas, as suggested from the missions, I saw that quite a number of things that I thought was interesting.

Like this small church which we saw right next to the river, with the white and grey stones and the statues on the top, which made it look unique – I don’t think that I’ve ever seen anything like that before.

I really find this door interesting, with the heads facing right towards you, which to me, is reminiscent of something from the Game of Thrones.

There is a river passing through Pisa, and sights like these is what makes me think that I’m definitely in Europe – the shape of the buildings as well as the mountain behind it.

It was such a lovely day, and coupled with the beautiful early autumn temperature, it made a very pleasant walk.

And at length, we reached the heart of Pisa, the Piazza del duomo and it’s such a magnificent sight.

The buildings look so pristine and majestic, and it’s easy to feel inspired here.

P.s. If you’re interested, I made a Pisa Instastory so you can watch little videos of my trip there 🙂