It was just minutes before lunch time. I was getting ready to walk out of the room to prepare my lunch and suddenly a email appeared on my mailbox. It was from the real estate agent.
“I thought I told you to checkout before 11am! They called me saying that all your belongings are still there. Please checkout NOW, otherwise you’ll need to pay the bill for today, yourself.”
And she attached a email from 3 weeks ago asking me to checkout before 11am, cc-ed it to my secretary.
Before I even get to pickup the phone to call her back, the secretary came in rushing into my room and asked me to go checkout the apartment right away. They won’t be paying the bills if I am charged for today’s stay. My initial plan was to checkout the apartment after work as the landlady of my new apartment is only available after 6pm.
I totally forgot that I need to be out by 11am.
There I went. I had only 1 hour. A bus ride from office to the apartment would take 20 minutes, that’s if the bus comes straight away! I was lucky that I only had to wait for 5 minutes for the bus to come.
So, in 1 hour I had to go back to my apartment, pack all my things up, checkout, then take a taxi to the new apartment, some 2km away. When I’ve finished packing, I realized that there are quite a lot to carry. A luggage bag, 2 backpacks and 5 bags of foods in all. Some of the foods were mine, some were passed to me when my colleagues left.
The heavy rain this afternoon just made things worse. Within minutes of calling them, the taxi arrived but it was parked some 100m away. And I had to carry everything to the taxi under the rain.
The new apartment was very near to the main train station, less than 200m away. There was no elevator. Again I had to carry all these bags 3 floors up. I was staying at the roof unit.
After all the packing, carrying things around while getting wet under the rain, I was greeted with my new apartment for the next 4 months.
My New Apartment!
This is How A Fully Equipped Kitchen Looks Like
Welcome to The Bedroom!
It was definitely much better than the old one.
Everything in this new unit is from IKEA. I thought to myself, “Back in Malaysia, we all want to fill our homes with IKEA furnitures, and here I have a studio apartment 100% furnished by IKEA!”
I can even see the phrase For IKEA From Whirpool on the microwave cum oven.
I definitely feel much better here. At least now I feel more at home. The previous apartment (was it even an apartment?) had the bed, toilet, kitchen and living room everything in 1 room.
Not ideal for a long stay.
Aachen's Town Hall
The Aachen Cathedral is one of two very famous landmarks here in Aachen. The other one is the town hall which is situated directly opposite. You wouldn’t miss them if you’re in the right place. It’s that big that it will definitely catch your attention and your camera’s.
And mine certainly did.
Last week, I was lucky enough to join a customized, short, guided tour around Aachen. 2 hours of walking and 10 euros didn’t come to a waste. At least now I know a little history of the place that I will be until next year.
The cathedral was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It was built around 800 AD by Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, and is the oldest cathedral in northern Europe. The name Charlemagne is pretty much synonymous with Aachen. There are events named after him, his statues etched at important places and he was buried here when he died in 814 AD.
If you have a good look at the structure, there are 3 different types of architecture there. All these 3 are built in different centuries. It started out with the structure in the middle, initially called the Palatine Chapel.
From 936 to 1531, it was the church of coronation of 30 German kings and emperors. Charlemagne’s throne was used for these coronations.
600 years later in 1414, on Charlemagne 600th death anniversary, they expanded the structure by building a 2 part glass chapel on both sides on the Palatine Chapel.
And it has since been called the Aachen Cathedral then.
Wait! Did I not say that the Aachen Cathedral and the Aachen Town Hall used to form what they call Palace of Aachen? It was a collection of residential, political and religious buildings used by Charlemagne as the center of power of his Carolingian Empire.
But today, most of the palace has been destroyed and only the cathedral and town hall are still standing, facing each other.
Special events are held throughout the year at the area surrounding the cathedral and town hall. I was lucky to be there during the 3 week Aachen September Special Music Festival in September, and the Christmas Market in December.
Finally arrived. Destination : Aachen, Germany.
It took me 12 hours to fly into Frankfurt. It was a comfortable flight all the way albeit the long hours. What more could I complain from a economy class seat with wide screen LCD screen, comfortable seats, good foods and Dolby Digital-like sound system (thanks to my own headphones)?
Not forgetting also that I was entertained with 3 movies to pass time; Street Kings, Ah Long Pte Ltd and What Happens In Vegas.
I was 30 minutes ahead of time upon arrival at Frankfurt. So, I managed to catch the earlier train to Aachen. This train would only take around 2 hours and I should arrive at Aachen at about 11pm.
If I had missed this train, the next train would take 3 hours and by the time I reach Aachen, it would already be after 1am. Who knows what time it will be when I finally get to sleep.
Took the earlier train hoping to reach Aachen at around 11pm. And by 11pm, I was nowhere near Aachen. The train stopped for 45 minutes at a small town called Duren, some 40km away from Aachen. Apparently there was an accident at the next station and the train couldn’t proceed any further.
Everyone was asked to get down, or take the same train back to Cologne and wait for tomorrow maybe?
Asked around and found out that someone has jumped onto the tracks and got hit by the train? I wasn’t too sure about it, so I asked the others and the answer was still the same.
Someone jumped onto the tracks and got hit.
Now, this was really getting on my nerves.
It was already past midnight. I didn’t have a proper sleep for 24 hours, just got down from a 12 hours flight, hungry, sleepy, tired and the next thing I knew was..
I’m stucked in this small place until tomorrow!
It was almost 1am and there were no signs of the train moving again until tomorrow. Decided to the last taxi queuing outside the train station to Aachen.
So, Hallo Aachen!
