A (Nearly) Perfect Last Day of the Year!

This was a really good day. Despite the fact that I had (and still have) headache the whole day it was nice. After the walk yesterday I slept like a baby, got up late and had a good breakfast together with A.. Then she went quickly to town and I went to Lidl to buy some supplies for tonight. Now the cask of beer is in natural cooling called winter.

The rest of the day we were at home and just doing anything and everything. Later we watched Dinner for One an old short film that is traditionally watched on New Years Eve in Germany. When it was finished I started cooking our linner (mixture of lunch and dinner).

As a highlight of the year I made duck with an apple-chestnut-side-dish and dumplings. It was super delicious and a good finish of the year. 

Soon we will head over to L. & A. to celebrate New Years Eve. I am really looking forward to it and hope it will be good. This is the last post of 2011, take care guys, have an awesome night! See you next year!

~M~

Always Something To Do!

There is always something to do in a household. Today I was quite productive: I folded clothes, washed and hung up the laundry, cleaned the oven and found and fixed a leak in the kitchen.

 

Already yesterday I put up two small picture frames that we brought from Finland. They are fitting nicely on the wall and are making the living room a little bit more cozy. 

 

We also brought two lamps from Finland that are now in the windows. Since they are in front of the curtains they create a "light barrier" that makes it nearly impossible to look into our living room.

More and more we are making this really our home. Now we still need some few things like pictures in the corridor, a carpet in the bed room and a cupboard in the living room; but we will get there, little by little.

Now A. and I just came back from an evening walk around the Alster. We packed ourselves in our outdoor clothes and went out. Don't we look sporty?!

~M~

Christmas Time!

I am back home in Hamburg. The Christmas time is over and it has been a good one! A. and I were in Finland with her family. However, since it took me three days to write the previous three sentences I decided now on the fourth day to just let the pictures speak and not write more than the annotations. So, enjoy!

Calm Finnish landscape

A. driving for the first time in a long time. We were coming home from the dentist, who had to fix something in my mouth.

Simply beautiful and relaxing

Getting the Christmas tree

Taking an evening stroll through the snow

A. learning from her mother how to make traditional Karelian pierogies

Putting the star on top of the Christmas tree

Wrapping the last presents

 The awesome Christmas dinner

A. with her niece N.

A. with her Christmas present

Christmas storm aftermath

N. having a morning nap

Little L. with the bear A. and I gave to her two years ago when she was born.

The women fixing the lunch

Playing with the kids - loving it!

~M~

Packed and Ready!

Everything is packed and ready. I did the dishes, brought the couch in order and made the bed. Today the postman again brought good news; for her birthday in September I gave A. a gift voucher for tickets for the musical The Lion King. We finally decided on a date and ordered them two days ago, today they arrived. Now I am just waiting for time to pass to finally hit the road... or rather the metro to go to the airport.

At the airport I will meet A. who is at work at the moment. She has our tickets and I hope she take me with her to Finland. We will go the wrong direction first, though. We will fly from Hamburg to Frankfurt and from there to Helsinki. What a waste!

Anyways, A's dad will pick us up. I will not take my laptop with me, wont need it. So folks, for now that will be my last post before Christmas, I guess. I hope you have a good one and may all your wishes come true.

 

Merry Christmas!

~M~

Christmas Cards!

Our post man brought two more Christmas cards today from A's friend K., who is working on the Canary Islands at the moment and from my aunty from Aachen. So nice that everybody is thinking about us; I reckon that's how it goes once you live together. We however were very bad with sending cards. In fact we did not send a single card!

Anyways, in the afternoon I went to pick up A. from work, but when I came to the office the whole crew was sitting together and invited me to join for a glass of sparkling. After some time sitting together we went together to the Christmas market for a Glühwein. Later also A's colleague's boyfriend A. joined our small group, which was very nice.

When we came back home we ate the lasagna that I had been cooking during the day and started packing for our Christmas holiday in Finland. Tomorrow evening we leave. A. will come straight from work and I will start the journey from home. I can't wait to be back there and see the whole family again. I haven't been there for 1 1/2 years and really miss them all. It will be a great time!

~M~

Back in HH!

After visiting my parents on the weekend I am back home in Hamburg. Today I am totally useless and not doing anything. I will go to pick up A. from work later on and we will go to the Christmas market. Tonight I will start packing for the Christmas holiday in Finland. I really can't wait to go there!

Christmas eve 2009!

~M~

Home-home!

Right now I am at my parent's place. It's the last weekend before Christmas, which A. and I will spend in Finland. Therefore I wanted to see my parents and my family still before the holidays and to bring them their present.

Yesterday I did not write, since I was most of the day in the car on the highway to Aachen. Today we had a pre-Christmas Christmas lunch and it was awesome. My mum made duck with a Calvados-apple-sauce and as side dish dumplings. Awesome!

My brother also came to eat with us and after lunch we had a nice dessert and coffee. We were still sitting long together and were talking a lot about everything and anything. It was really nice and actually somehow like Christmas already.

 

 Now my brother left and everybody is doing his thing. I am quite tired and dont really know what to do. The weather is not so nice and I dont have popper clothes here to go out anyways. Mah!

~M~

Keeping Busy!

Today I kept myself busy. I started directly in the morning: While A. was fixing herself for work I took the covers off our new sofa and put them into the washing machine. Somehow it is nicer to sit on a fresh sofa, you never know what the previous owners did with it.

Washing the first load got me into a washing-spree. I anyways had to wash two loads with all the covers of the sofa and pillows and so on. Since I was on it I washed a third load with some things that I had wanted to wash for a long time but always left out as the machine was full every time and the things were not so important to be washed.

While the machine was washing I was folding clothes and was cleaning up a bit. I let fresh air into the flat and was doing the dishes. I had lunch and went to get some cash for the rides on the weekend.

This weekend I am going home a last time before Christmas. Since trains are so bloody expensive in Germany I always going with a Mitfahrgelegenheit. There's a website, where people offer seats in their car when driving e.g. from Hamburg to Aachen and everybody who is interested can call and go with them - and that a lot cheaper than by train.

Anyways, I feel that my writing style s*cks today and that it is quite hard right now to find the words. So I will stop now and have something to eat. A. is still not home, she is in the Finnish consulate for a Christmas party, how nice!

~M~

Refurnishing!

Today we brought the sofa that A. and I looked at yesterday home. Actually it was not A. and me who got it home, but our landlord and me. Yesterday evening after looking at rental car and transport services prices I wrote Mr W. a text message to ask him if he knew some alternative. He has many contacts here in the city and I thought maybe he knew somebody or could negotiate a cheap price. Instead of that he offered to get the sofa with his own car.

So this afternoon, after A. and I did the last and successful Christmas shopping in Hamburger Meile, I went with Mr W. to the other side of the city. We carried the sofa down to the car and drove slowly back home. It was so nice of him to help us and I think we shouldn't take stuff like this for granted.

Now we are sitting on our new sofa and still have loads of space on it. That really is something that we didn't have for the last seven months and were missing badly. The old sofa was really, really uncomfortable and really, really small. It feels even more like a home now. Can't wait for the How I met You Mother Marathon to start. I will enjoy it with crisps and beer! Lovely!

~M~

Christmas Time!

Today we received an envelope with a beautiful Christmas card from Finland. A's friend K. thought of us and wished us Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2012, how nice! Furthermore our landlord knocked on our door and brought us a bottle of wine. And another neighbor, who locked herself out and whom we then lent the phone and some winter boots (so she could go over to a friend), left something at our door as a thank-you!

Anyways, before A. and I went to the other side of the city to look at a sofa and we decided to take it; that's our Christmas present to ourselves Now the problem is to get it to our place. We don't have a car nor one available for things like that. We are at the moment checking different offers to rent a car or transport services. We'll see how we will solve that, I will keep you posted!

One more thing I forgot to mention: Yesterday I signed up for a Swedish course, which will start in January. A. and I are nearly three years together and I still do not speak Swedish, which is - for me personally - quite disrespectful. Every time I am with her family everybody has to speak English just for me and I think it would be better if just one person - me - has to adapt, not twenty people. 

So that's it for now. Today was really a nice and eventful day. I am happy and hope this will keep for some time. On the weekend I want to go home to Aachen, but I didn't get any Mitfahrgelegenheit, yet. Will figure that out as well tomorrow!

~M~

Total Makeover!

As you can see I performed a total makeover on the blog. Somehow I got tired of the blue design and the header and so on. Now it is fresher and feels more personal, since I have a picture of myself in the header. For that picture I had a small photo shoot here in our flat.

Also I integrated our wall-tattoo of the Hamburg skyline into the picture. The title is still the same as before, why should I change it. However there is actually two parts in the blog name. Of course, there is on the one side still The Wrong Way Home, but if you look carefully you will see that under the word Home it goes on with in Hamburg.

I thought that I should not change the blog title, but since I am right now living in Hamburg and A. and I decided to stay here for a while my post will not only be about traveling (The Wrong Way Home), but also about my life in this city (Home in Hamburg).

I really like the new design of the blog, I hope you too. Comments are of course appreciated!

Anyways, today we sold our old washing machine and still got quite a good price for it, especially since it is broken. In an hour we will go to look at a sofa. We really want to exchange ours and hope to find a good one and maybe get a good price for it too!

~M~

Everyday life!

Today was a normal day. The alarm was ringing way too early as usual and then A. went to work, the first time in a week. However after half a day she already came back home, since she was not as fit as she thought she was. Anyways, I went to the shops and then prepared our lunch. Later I did the dishes, nothing special there.

Now A. and I are sitting in the living room doing this and that. We made it nice and christmassy with candles and music and all. I really can't wait to be in Finland again, to see all the people and spend the holidays with them. Most of all I am looking forward to the good food and the sauna evenings; really missing that!

~M~

My Sunday Program!

Today I was again quite active here at home and was doing many dishes and was cooking. After having lunch I took my bike down to Überseebrücke. An aircraft carrier of the British Royal Navy is visiting Hamburg and today it was open for visitors.

When I arrived at quarter to four it was already quite full there and the queue was all the way from the ship to the beginning of the pier. In the end of the queue were some sailors to tell everybody that nobody despite the already queuing people could enter the ship anymore. So I walked around the pier and then took my bike through the city back home.

Now I am sitting on the sofa, watching a funny movie on TV. A. is slightly better and will go to work tomorrow again. After one week I finally can sleep in our bed again. The whole last week I was sleeping on the couch; now I know how comfortable our guests sleep. It was just for precaution to sleep apart not to get me sick before Christmas.

~M~

Preparing for Christmas!

The first snow this morning got me really into a Christmas mood. I was quite active the whole day, went, as I said in my last post, grocery shopping and on the way back I bought a small Christmas tree for our flat.

Before lunch I quickly went to Hamburger Meile, a shopping center near by, and looked for a Christmas table cloth to put on the Christmas tree table. In a One-Euro-Shop I found some and they were discounted to €0,50 and so I took two.

When I came home I cooked and then put the tree up, while A. had a shower. When she came out all was set and we started putting the lights into the tree, hanging up the decoration and listened to Christmas music.

When we were ready I sat down under the tree and had a piece of warm apple-cinnamon-pie with vanilla sauce and drank some coffee.

  

Then A. and I were just sitting in the living room together, looking at our first Christmas tree. We put it up so early, since we will be gone in 1 1/2 weeks and wanted to have some time with our tree already before Christmas.

~M~