Katia 1 year

Yesterday we celebrated Katia's 1st year (Miguel's and Melody's daughter). We went to the same place where Pedro had his goodbye-grill. I decided to bike and it took me 50 min. Not bad. And it was all the way against wind. We had a mixed weather with sun and rain. So from time to time we had to hide under the trees, covering all the food. But still the grill was great, so was the b.day carrot cake. Yummi!!




Katia got lots of presents, we even succeeded to get different stuff; there were only 2 duplicates (but still the toys varied). Pedro and Paula came from Wolfsburg - she will be going back to Brasil in 3 days so it was a kind of goodbye for her as well :-(


Alex was driving back from Austria but due to 4 heavy traffic jams he couldn't make it on time. He arrived super tired after 8 PM...And he was supposed to drive to Stuttgart today. But I managed to convince him to fly. This way we could meet with the guys for brunch today, which was very nice.

Tomorrow is Monday (again...). But the great news is that Kristin will arrive and stay in Hamburg for some weeks. And she will stay at my place. Alex is in Stuttgart so it's gonna be nice to spend some time with Kristin - we haven't seen each other for 1 year now so lots to talk about.

Finally over...

...EM I mean. Football's mania. Punkt slut. I can only tell you that I was reaaaaaaallly glad that Spain won. The Germans were just too convinced they would win.... Already the game against Turkey was so so, and I was hoping that Turkey and Russia would meet in the final (European Championship, huh?). But OK, Spain won, they played better That's it.
We were 15 people watching the game at Handan's place; kind of equally divided into those cheering for Spain and those cheering for Germany (yeah well we had those as well ;-)
Anyway, we were probably the only ones screaming when Spain won. Handan is probably hated by her neighbors now ;-)
Here are some pictures of the gang (from the right: Johan and below Jenny - a Swedish couple; Roseline - Sweden; her French colleague; Sveta (Guillem's wife); Sandra (German); Guillem and Alex).

Here you can also see (from the left): Miguel (Mex) and Hans (Austria).


On Saturday evening we went to some friends' birthday party. There were 80 people!!!! The party was perfectly organized (Germans...). And it was very nice. We were out in the garden the whole evening. Well almost the whole one. Afterwards Alex was supposed to be a DJ with some funk music and the music was great, just not for dancing. So Monica (from Barcelona) who wanted to have some salsa wasn't so happy ;-) Anyway, at the end we managed to find somewhere Shakira, Gypsy Kings so people could dance. The trip back took over 1 hr. God we were tired!!! At 03.30 at home - it was getting light...
Sunday was little bit hard but a nap in the afternoon helped.
Now the new week has started. Alex left for Romania today and will be back in 2 weeks more less. Next week I'll start preparing a bit for moving. At least start packing a little... Hope we can manage to move before Magda's wedding.
All of you who read this - have a good week!

Vacations and Midsummer in Denmark

Wow...it's been ages I wrote anyting here...Sorry sorry sorry!
But I have good reasons I guess. I was away for 1 week on holidays at Mallorca and then Alex and I went over to Filip's to Denmark.
But from the beginning - I went with my cousin Magda to Mallorca over 1 week ago. Alex gave me a ride to Berlin Tegel and then I met Megi and we flew in the evening. Of course a little bit of delays, arrived to Palma and then over 1 hr in a mini bus to Cala d' Or. We were staying in some hotel apartments, really close to the beach. But we were really surprised when we woke up on Saturday morning cause it was a bit cold and super cloudy! WHAT?!?! Anyway we went to te beach and waited for some sun. It appeared in the afternoon. But we didn't swim the first day cause it was too cold.
The next days we spent pretty much sun bathing, swimming, reading books, and deciding which UV sun block to use ;-)


And of course watching football games in the nearby pub in the evenings. The pub owner was surprised when he was asking each evening which team we cheered for. Max. confusion I guess: once Sweden, once Poland, once Romania and Holland. Hahahah.
Anyway, time passed by fast and we were soon back to Berlin again. Milka and Sebastian came to pick up Magda from the airport so we had coffee together and later on I took train to HH.
On Friday I went to work for half a day and then Alex picked me up and we drove to Denmark.
Filip lives now in Ringköbing on the West coast. Close to the surfing, sailing and wake boarding paradise.
Oh yeah! And it is aparently the happiest town in the world!!! (according to whichever source....and ok, there are 17000 people living there). I really wonder which are these indicators... ;-)
On Friday we had dinner together with all his corridor roomates. Some drinks in the evening - despite all it was Swedish Midsummer on Friday!
On Saturday we went to the beach so the guys could try wake boarding (on a cable). Kind of ski lift principle. I didn't try cause it felt way to cold just looking at them.

Then we went to the nearby town and to the beach. They also have some Sand sculpture festival now so you can see some of the pictures.

Global warming effects

Thanks to that we have summer and +30 every day. I like when it is sunny and warm but those temperatures and sun everyday for almost 2 months now is a bit too much...I know, global warming is not the only contribution but I think we all should do something to be more environmental friendly and care more.
I was in Göteborg last weekend. Went on Friday morning, had some meetings at our company in Vårgårda, then got a haircut in Götet (somehow I think it is too short). Then I went to Tania's place, had some rosé wine (Tania - Peñascal is SPANISH!!! - trust me!!! I drank this wine a lot when I was in Luleå, dating a Spanish guy!!!). By the way, I think the price in Spain is around 3euro/bottle). Then we went to Hammarkullen - every year there is a carnival - lots of people from all over the world who live in this area, lots of exotic food, and music. We went though to see a very Swedish guy - Jens Lekman. The concert wasn't probably the best of his life but we had fun. Later on we went downtown, met Dan and had some food and drinks. We also decided to go to the coast Saturday morning, with picnic, coffee and kanelbullar (ok it was some pistage cake - yummi as well!). And guess what?? People were already swimming in the sea!! So did Tania and Dan (I forgot my bikini!!! Grrrr....). They claimed the water was warm.
After geting roasted in the sun (of course with protective creams UV 10 at least) we went home and decided to have BBQ at Dan's place in the evening. Tok-Jörgen with family came as well. And Fredrik joined us later on. The meat, sallad and potatoes were great!! And it was good Tania and I walked back to her place. I needed it after the grill.
Sunday was as usual too short. And I had to take the earlier flight :-(
I met Dan and Magnus at Röda Sten, we had coffee and cake, chatted a bit and then I had to leave.
But I was lucky with no flight delays, and also met Cyril (the French friend from Hamburg) at Kastrup so it was fun to go back to HH together. Alex picked us up so we were at home quite fast.
The temperature in the apartment was +27. In the evening... no comments.
New week has started. Have a good one everybody!
Oh yeah - I made it possible to write comments now. So - there you go! Be my guest!

Friends start leaving...

It is getting sad in the multi-culti environment here... Yesterday Txell & Thomas had their Farewell party. This will be their last week in Hamburg, next weekend they move to Barcelona (both of them will be working at our company there). It's been almost 3 years for Txell in Hamburg; for Thomas this will be a new adventure. We will miss you guys!!!
I will add some pictures from their party soon.
I will take over their apartment at the end of June. So soon we have to start packing and preparing for the move. And probably there will be another party in this flat. This time - a house warming one :-)

Pedro (Brasil) will also leave next week. His contract is over and he will start working at VW in Wolfsburg. Pity that Paula (his girl) will go back to Brasil. But Pedro promised to come to HH almost every weekend so we are not going to loose him forever :-)
Here are some photos from the big grill they organized last week.
Of course Pedro with his "thumbs-up", glad gang, and the youngest beer-lover - Katia.






I cannot believe it is already the end of May... Work is OK, little bit hysterical the last week but still OK.
Meg and I still plan to have some holidays in Portugal in June. Hope we will manage to book something this week. It would be great with short vacations.
Next week I'm going to Sweden, will work at ALS on Friday and stay over the weekend in GBG. Yuppi!!!

Summer is here!

We've had summer here for over 2 weeks now... This past weekend we had a long weekend (Pingst). We were so lucky with summer weather! Filip came from Denmark and on Friday we had dinner at home with Txell and Monica. Then we went out to Repeerbahn and met with Thomas. The whole weekend was Hafengeburtstag (I've never experienced any harbor b.day in Gdynia or Göteborg) and there were many people out. On Saturday we went dowtown and afterwards biked to St. Pauli to see some of the celebrations. But due to the heat we didn't manage to see much. In the evening we went to one of the beach clubs at Elbe to celebrate Miguel's (2) birthday. Oh yeah - this is another invention here - those beach clubs at Elbe - a little bit "wanna-be" from Hamburgers side..since there is no real sea here, they've decided to import sand, make some bars, place sun chairs and make a few clubs at the river. Well...little bit funny idea but somehow it works. The evening was nice, Miguel was happy and we had fun.




On Sunday we went to the beach at Elbe. Again...beach and beach... but it was nice and warm. Too bad you can't swim in Elbe...anyway water is still too cold... In the evening we did nothing. Just ate a dinner and chatted...
Monday was nice, we went to Alster and laid on the grass. Filip was leaving back to Denmark around 4 PM. I'm writing this blog now and Alex is taking a nap. Poor him, suffering of the heat ;-)
Until the next time...

Long weekend in Göteborg

On Thu May 1st, Alex and I went to Göteborg. We drove his car since we had to pick up some cases of beer at the Bordershop in Puttgarten (this was a real adventure!). Anyway, not so far from Hamburg we already got stuck in a STAU due to a motorcycle accident - so already one hour longer trip...Later on we got to the Bordershop - for those who have never heard the word - it is "cheap alcohol paradise". 90% of people are Swedish. And funny - you can buy Swedish beer which has been transported from Swe to Germany, and then you transport it back to Sweden again. I thought that those 10 cases of beer which we had to get were a lot, but no way! People were loading trailers with alcohol. We looked like losers ;-)
Anyway, after shopping, we took the boat to Denmark. We left HH with sun and +18 degrees, we got to Malmö and it was pouring rain and cold in Sweden :-(
We arrived to Dan's place and went out to Götas for a good pizza together with Dan, Magnus, Fredrik and Tommy. Alex got the first introduction to IFK :-D
On Friday we went to Marstrand (Bohuslän in a pill). It was sunny and nice. We walked around the island for some hours, had obligatory fika with kanelbulle. Mums!


Then driving back to GBG and preparing for grill at the Willquists'. We were quite many since Tania had over her sister with family. Below you can see some pictures from the grill. Theo was so sweet! And cool in his sunglasses, huh?





On Saturday it was time to visit the city. We went around from Haga, Vasaplatsen to Götaplatsen with Poseidon, then Kronhusbodarna and Trägårds.



I had some intentions to buy new shoes but didn't succeed :-( Alex liked the city very much. In the evening we had dinner with Christer (he was also working in Brasov when we were there).

Later on we met Dan for one beer.
Sunday - packing, breakfast and coffee with Dan & Magnus and taking off.

I really didn't want to leave :-((((( It is home over there! And the weather was soooo nice on Sunday (not for driving some hours).
The trip went well until we got to the boat. As soon as we got out of it, there was again STAU in Germany. Grrrr!! And then again before HH. So again the trip took 9,5h... And I know people managed in 7 hrs or so...
Anyway, we had a very nice weekend. The weather was great. Some quality time with my "la familja". I miss it...