Some reflections...

I just feel like I have to write about it. Already now in the beginning I have to say to all my Germans friends that I don't mean anything bad, and hope you won't get me wrong. It is just some observations that one (I) makes while living in a foreign country. And I bet I would make this kind of observations anywhere I would live.
So there is the thing: this is not the first time that I see how unflexible and short-sighted German people are (I mean NOT all of them! I don't want to generalize here). I just got back home from the gym (I will write some stories about this gym some other time - the topic for one complete blog, I'm telling you). And while stepping there on this cardio machine (which I most of the time do), I look at people around. And since around 19-20 o'clock this place is usually full, some people have to stand at the wall or walk around the place to get a free machine. So I see one girl who is waiting, and another one who comes some minutes after her. And the machine next to me gets free. So the girl number 2 who walked around saw this free machine (and I swear she had no clue that there was this girl number 1 in line) and she approached it at the same time as the girl 1 did it (with an angry face expression). So girl 1 tells girl 2 that she was waiting longer. OK, fine, girl 2 makes no issues and looks for something else.
Girl 1 gets on the machine, and starts to plug in her headset. Which apparently doesn't work! (I mean the connection in the machine doesn't work). So what she does is that she gets down and starts looking for some other machine...
My God!!! How about next time trying first your headset (without making fuzz that I was the 1 st one in the line) and in case it doesn't work, letting the other person use the machine??!?!?!
This is so typical! There is the "rule" first goes first. But there is absolutely no flexibility and no proactiveness to take this rule somehow softer!
It is just one example of the kind of behavior that I also observed at work. We have rules and we have to obey them but how about sometimes making life easier (I'm not talking about breaking serious rules), just be a bit human and proactive and FLEXIBLE! Life will be easier, I swear.
A similar behavior can sometimes be on a highway. Some guys driving like crazy, flashing you with the long (full) lights, overtaking and in 1 minute breaking since there are other 5 cars on the left lane. Get a break!! ave a look first on the situation ahead instead of stresing everybody.
Puh! OK, I just had to le it out from me...
Again, please don't take it as an offending issue. I get angry at stuff in Poland or Sweden, or Romania for that matter... But since now I'm here I'm just sharing the experiences.

Otherwise, grey and 100% moisture (=light rain). Bläh!
But at least now I got the complete set of winter tyres.

I-lands problem...as it is called in Swedish

Why so? (in Swedish it is Industrialized-countries problem). Well last week at work we got to know that we have to use all our holidays until the end of this year... Due to cancelled orders from our customers (car manufacturers) we need some savings. Plus if there are no orders - there is no work for us. So now I have a "problem" since I'm off from work on the 6th of Dec already!!!! I mean it is nice with holidays, don't get me wrong, but would be better to have some plans. If I had known about it earlier, I would have bought a ticket to Mexico, Argentina or whatever - for almost the whole month! But now it is a bit too late. So I'm asking around some friends and maybe Dan and I will go to Egypt. If we manage to find some cheap last minute trip. Anybody else who would like to join?
Then back to Hamburg, then Poland, Xmas, and then Marbella. Should be nice!

All Saints weekend has been quite calm and quiet. Alex arrived on Friday - he came by car cause he was supposed to change the tyres - for the winter ones. On Saturday he went with Sandra and Hans downtown to get some electrinic gadgets (GPS and some presents for his dad), while I went to gym. Then we met in the city for fika. In the afternoon Alex started to change my tyres first. Everything went fine until....the 4th wheel, which just had some different nut and couldn't be unscrewed! So now I have 3 winter tyres and one summer one left. So I guess I have to go to some car workshop on Tuesday or so. Puh!
A neighbor of ours was also changing the tyres yesterday so it looked like "winter-tyre-picknick" ;-) Except the weather wasn't so nice...


This morning Alex started to change his tyres...and guess what? The rims don't fit in!! :-( So he has to look for some other ones and try to change them with someone in Stuttgart. Crap! Anyway, I managed to take a photo of (what I thought) him changing the tyres.


So now he left to Stuttgart.
Next week is Göteborg for me :-)

First complete weekend at home

On Friday we went to the movie theatre. To Abaton - one of the few original language cinemas in Hamburg, which are left. Alex and Hans and Sandra met earlier on Friday (guess who's got his new laptop - to know more check out Sandra's blog: http://www.millischeckl.com/).

They bought the tickets for Coen's new movie "Burn after reading". The movie was great!!! Later on we went for a drink to a bar (which was bar and hair dresser in one) and we got kicked out at 22.00! :-( Well, it's a hair saloon, right?
So we went further to "Elbe" near Handan's place. And got new Cuba Libres.
Saturday started with some gym, Alex's ironing session, groceries' shopping, fika with some friends, cake baking - for a dinner at Handan's.
Here you can see the whole group (Alex took picture).


Pedro came from Wolfsburg and stayed at our place. It was nice to see hime again. The weaher was sooooo great on Saturday!
In the evening we went for a dinner to Handan. It was nice!
Today the weather is crap. Raining, grey, bläh. Alex left to Stuttgart and Pedro back to Wolfsburg.

Weekend in Berlin

On Friday evening I went to Berlin. During the train journey I got some sms from Magda saying that Filip is stuck in STAU 50 km from Berlin, and Alex' plane got redirected and he is stuck in Amsterdam. What?! I somehow felt it was a joke... (and it was that!). Anyway, I met with Magda and Sebi at the central station, then taxi and we went to the apartment which we rented. Of course Filip and Alex were already there, with some beers :-)
That's the view from our apartment:


Around 22.00 we got hungry so we went out to have a look around Potsdamer Plats and our street - Charlottenstr. We found some "diner" and got some food. Then back to the apartment and get some sleep to be fresh for Saturday.
On Sat. first we had some breakfast near our place. Then we decided to take the double decker tourist bus around Berlin.


We started at Checkpoint Charlie and got off at Brandenburger Tor.


The day was beautiful and warm. From the Tor we went to the Jewish memorial place. Although it is a memorial place and one should be serious and respectful, you cannot help hiding behind the stones in this "labirynth" and scaring each other...
I really like this place. I mean as a memorial and architecture-interesting place.




Then we went went back to the bus and got off at Kurfurstendamm. We walked on the shopping street and had some tapas in KaDeWe.
Then headed to the apartment, bought some wines and food for breakfast.
At night we had dinner at Vapiano (which I must say is not as good as here in Hamburg). We were close to Sony Centrum with all "spacy" buildings and we finished the evening with some drinks (they had a rasberry mojito!).



Sunday we didn't do much. Coffee, walk around our quarter, then walked to Hauptbanhof were we all splitted into different directions.
Thank you guys for the weekend! It was nice!!!

Goodbye weekend with Miguel and Melody..and other stuff

Last weekend was crazy! We planned to spend it with Miguel, Melody and Katia, and we booked minigolf dor Saturday. First I met with Sandra to buy some presents for the leaving family. Then we met Alex and Hans and had a fika, and in the meantime I received a call from Tunesian consulate that I need to deliver some papers to get the visa. And I had 30 min to fix it!!!!! So I drove with Hans to some bike shop to borrow their fax and I sent those papers. Sandra prepared the presents, and later on we went to minigolf.





After minigolf we went to Marrakech - a Marrocan restaurant in Altona. When we were booking the tables we said: we will be smth between 8 and 25 people. And guess what?! - at the end we WERE 25!!!
Dennis joined with his American family - 9 people! And then the Catalan connection came as well.
It was loud, food was great, wine even better (thanks Cyril for the choice, and Alex for the extra 3 bottles!). It was really really nice.


Then we decided to go to one bar to watch Barcelona soccer game. Well...some people watched it, while we were standing outside and having some beers and other stuff from Pedro's "Car bar". We had really good laughs! And although it was cold, late (we had to get up at 5.00 to go to the airport), it was great to be together with Miguel for the last time (until we go to Mexico and party together again).


We were at home at 2 and had to get up at 5. Alex and I flew to Romania. I was sleeping almost the whole way....
The week was intensive - plant visits in Romania and Turkey.
I got back Thursday night.
Yesterday Monica, Handan, Sandra and Hans and I went to see "Opera meets Kuba" in a Hamburg Filharmony. It was nice and different with this combination... Here you can see some more info and pictures - Sandra's blog:
http://www.millischeckl.com/

Today laundry, fika and Kumpir (baked potatoe place) in Schanze. Now packing again for the next trip tomorrow. So, again a short weekend. And next weekend probably Berlin.

The last wedding this year...I hope ;-)

Again it has been a while I gave you some update. Last weekend I was in Romania. It was nice being in Brasov again, although I forgot how tough the whole trip is. On the way to Bucharest, my plane from Dusseldorf got delayed by 2 hrs! "The crew didn't arrive" was the answer. And when they arrived from Prague, it turned out that the pilot couldn't fly any more since he flew for too many hours that day. Great! So we had to wait for another pilot. I was tired but somehow couldn't sleep on the plane...
We arrived at 00.30 instead of 22.00. Bleeeee
Taxi journey was also a bit unpleasant. Rain and quite many trucks; we arrived around 03.00 to Brasov and I had to wake up Bernd to let me in his apartment. And then I couldn't sleep... Bernd went to work around 8 and I had a meeting at 10 but cannot say that I was totally relaxed and awake. Anyway, Alex arrived later on Friday (after I spent some time downtown) and we went to his dad's place. Nice dinner, some chatt and going to bed.
The day after we met Paul and his girlfriend for lunch (before the wedding). Then we took cab to the groom's house. Cause that's the tradition. The family and some close friends were there. Some music, cakes, food and drinks. Afterwards all of us drove to the godfather's place for some blessing....or whatever they did there. We, the guests were waiting outside, freezing!!! It was damn cold.
Here are the guys/friends Alex used to work with: Paul and Vlad with their girls.


Anyway, after freezing for some while we went to the church. Oh yeah - bride's dad is Hungarian and they live in a town Sfantu Georghie (for sure wrong spelling) 30 km from Brasov. It is a Hugarian town pretty much - quite big minority (or majority) lives there.
So the church service was Hungarian and Romanian mixture.
After the church (I swear the temp. inside was around +5 degrees!!!) we got back to the cars and headed for the restaurant where the wedding party took place.
Well, it is certainly a different tradition than in Sweden or in Poland.
First - people dance almost all the time! Second - there is WAY too much food!!
We started with a champagne and a starter - some ham, cheese, bread, etc. We had some cognac which I drank fast since I had to defrost ;-) And then....a dance! It is cool - people just start dancing and having fun so fast. Anyway, after an hour or two we got the first dish - some fish and potatoes and sallad. I thought this was the main and kind of final dish...but no no.
And then dancing again.
Here - Jo and Paul.


The couple in their Walz.


And after some time we got the second dish - famous polenta (mămăligă) and sarmale (cabbage rolls with mince). Mums! But NOT after already so much food...


Then dancing and partying again...


The party finished around 4AM and since Alex and I were not going to Brasov we had to take a taxi to his dad's place. So we got one and as soon as we entered it, I kind of fell asleep. Kind of...cause you can't really sleep on that road ;-) Anyway, I woke up when the taxi stopped and I heard a question which road to take. And somehow we ended up on a sandy, field road in the middle of a corn or whatever field at 04.30 AM. OK.... holes in the road were so deep that I thought we would just loose all the wheels and would have to carry the car. And at the end...we got lost! I mean this road was some road to a farm or whatever. Hmm...ok, now turning back - and we managed to take a wrong sandy field road!!! My God!!! I thought I was having a bad dream and didn't even want to make a mess and yiel. Too tired as well. So at the end we made it back to the asfalt road (that I have no clue why we left at all) and we were at Gelu's place at 5 AM. I hit the bed directly.

Sunday was the departure day. We had breakfast, the weather was beautiful (as usual when I'm leaving Brasov).
A girlfriend of a friend of mine (Carina) and I took the same taxi to the airport. We left in a good time - 4 hours before the plane departure. Normally this trip shouldn't take more than 2,5 hrs. Normally...
As soon as we got out of Brasov and left the first curvy mountain road and got to Predeal we got STOP.
So I could make this picture:


HUUUUUUGE traffic jam!!! We moved super slowly and had no clue how big this line really is. We heard on the radio that there was this traffic due to the end of some folklore festival in Bran (where Dracula's castle is). My God!!! On the distance between Brasov and Sinaia which normally would take us maybe 50 min, this time it took us almost 3,5 hours!!!! We got a bit of panic. Called Lufthansa, got checked in and prayed for making it to the airport. Our taxi driver tried to make his best. And he really did but we really drove more than "Romanian" style ;-) We overtook like 10 cars standing in that line. As soon there was some car movement we accelerated and built a third lane. Between the cars in our line and those which were coming from the opposite direction. Hmmm...quite akward. After Sinaia on a kind of straight road we drove 150km/hr, just blinking with the full (long) lights so cars would let us go. I think people just hated us, showed us the finger and I was thinking of making a sign that we are REALLY in hurry to the airport. Anyway, sweaty and full of adrenaline we made it!!!! The plane got delay of 50 min and that saved us!! amazing!!! Then we just missed the plane in Munich but that's no problem - they rebook you for the next one 45 min later. Once I got on that plane I just fell asleep. I think adrenaline dropped totally.

Now on Sunday a new trip to Brasov for work. Hope this time it will go smoother.
Friday is a day off - German national day so a relaxing weekend is ahead.

Oktoberfest (or Wisn' as it is called...)

Time is flying by and I just noticed that it's been 2 weeks since I wrote last time. I try to update this blog at least each weekend but the thing is that not so much happened last weekend. Beside that I fixed some stuff at home, spent half a day with Monica and Raul, watched the movie "Sex and the city", packed and left for a business trip on Sunday late afternoon.
Then I was gone for almost the whole week and on Friday evening I flew for Oktoberfest to Munich.
Alex and Hans picked me up with Hans' rented Mercedes. My God! Monster! I think it was the new S-klass (have to confirm that though) - there was so much space on the back seat that I could almost stretch my whole body and easily sleep. The car almost could make coffee ;-)
Anyway, we met with Sandra and her friend Susi (in whose apartment Alex and I stayed the whole weekend), Hans' friend Björn was there as well. We chatted for a while, had some beers and wine and went to bed.
On Saturday, first we returned this monster car, got some food and then had breakfast in quite a big group. Then Sandra, Hans and Susi put on their traditional Bayerish outfits and we got ready for Okt.fest (which over there is actually called Wisn' or Wissen?). The place is like a fair with lots of food, beers, roller coasters, and other rides, etc. There were quite many people but it wasn't soooo crowded.




We were lucky and managed to get a table in one place. Ordered 1 liter beers (and radler which is like alsterwasser in Hamburg = beer+sprite). Having good time and enjoying the atmosphere.
Here a traditional hat:


And some beers:


But since this table was booked from 15.00 we had to go out to a beer garden which would be OK if it were a bit warmer....so after another beer we tried to find some free table indoors - forget it!
So the evening finished up in a typical Bayern restaurant with some good food and ...."interesting" bil. For a kind of apfelschorle, they charged us 7euro!!! Separate for juice and water! WHAT?!

On Sunday we had breakfast and then went to English Garden for a walk. And a giant brezel. Mums!!!


Now back to HH. And the new week is ahead. With my dad's visit here, and going to Romania on Thu evening. Till the next time!