Easter in Poland and summer in Hamburg

We spent Easter holidays in Poland. I decided to show Alex my home town and Tri-city so we left already on Wednesday to Gdynia. On the way to Gdynia we stopped at Gosia's place (my study-time friend) in Lebork.
Thursday was planned for Gdansk and Sopot. We went with my dad to Gdansk quite early and walked around the Old Town. As you can see yourselves it looked quite nice, huh? (ok despite some rain maybe).










We have visited Solidarity Museum and went the Gdansk Shipyard gate. Nice, but as usually a bit touching...
Later on we had super cheap lunch with my dad and then went to Sopot.
We went to Molo of course. The weather got really nice so it was great just to have a bit of summer feeling in Sopot.





One funny twisted house on the walking street in Sopot.


We got back home in the evening and after having a dinner we went with Filip out into some bars in Gdynia. We met Filip's friends, had some beers and shots and had a bit of hangover the day after ;-)



We went to Gdynia to some cafes at the beach. As you can see the weather was still perfect so we spent some hours with coffee in the sun.








We had some fresh pressed juices in Gdynia. Super healthy!



On Saturday we drove to my grandmom's place. I drove my Bubbla, with Alex and Filip as passengers.
Easter was all about eating, taking care of our old dogs, having walks in the park and taking it easy.
This is our blessed food from the church (typical Polish tradition).


And me being a kid again ;-)


It was really nice to have some days off. Trip back went fine and the same evening we met Txell and Thomas (our friends who moved back to Spain but visited Thomas' parents in HH).
Now we still enjoy summer weather and looking forward to the weekend. Christer will visit us!

Some while ago

I've realized that I don't update this blog so often. But one thing is that not so much is happening nowadays or I simply don't have energy or motivation.
But OK, a little bit has happened since I wrote here last time. Not this past weekend but the weekend before I went to Göteborg. It was great being there and spending some time with la familja and other friends. I also worked in Vårgårda and had some talks about the future. We'll see...
It was good to have a bit more than just a weekend in Götet and more time to do stuff.
This past weekend we celebrated Cyril's birthday and he had his good-bye party as well. Another friend has left...
It is fun to work abroad and meet many cool people who become your friends but then everybody is leaving and this is sad. Part of this life I guess... Anyway the good thing is that Cyril will work in Germany and promised to visit us quite often.
Well at least he has time to do it until the end of June. Afterwards noone knows where he can visit us.
We helped him with packing stuff and moving to some storage room. I got a flashback of my last years in Götet - when I had all my things in the storage room... It was hard.

Next week is already Easter!! Time is passing by so fast!! I think I'll take Wednesday off so we can drive to Gdynia and later on to my grandma and family. Looking forward to some days in Gdynia.

But still one week to go. Hope the sleeping habits will be back. Time change to summer time is still hurting ;-)

Århus

During the weekend we went to Århus. Filip was there together with some friends and we decided to meet them. The drive is only 3,5 hrs so not too bad. We met with Filip and Olivier on Fri evening, ate a bit and had some drinks. All of us agreed that in Denmark drinks don't have so much alcohol... And so much more expensive than Germany!!! I have already forgotten that...
Anyway, we just had a "soft" evening to spare the energy for Saturday.
On Sat we did some shopping, went around the town and didn't do anything too demanding.

Here, the three amigos waiting for me to get out of a Danish design shop :-)



We saw a duck couple trying to get to one restaurant. While we were convincing them not to get there since they may become a dinner, one waiter came out and told us that this is normal. Those ducks just come everyday to get some food! Since, the restaurant is at the channel they don't have a long way for dinner :-)



After 1 hr power nap we went out to eat and to have some drinks. There is this quite cool bar called Fidel's - opposite from our hotel so we spent some time over there. We met some other international guys from Filip's company and for once talks around the table weren't about seatbelts, but wind turbines :-)

We stayed out quite long and this morning I had to get up really early to meet with Ulrika (my one year roommate from the US times) and her family. It's been more than 5 years since we met last time!! We had brunch together and talked a lot about updates. Later on Filip and Olivier joined us, we had a walk and drove back home in the afternoon.
The weekend was nice, too bad no spring weather in Århus. Contrary to HH ;-)

Nothing really...

Last weekend (BTW - the last weekend of Carnival) we went out!! WOW! This is something...considering that it's been a long time we were out in a club, dancing and having a drink or two ;-) We met in a bar in Schanze with Monica, Alex and Kazuhiro, then Cyril joined us as well. After a bit of food and some drinks we decided to look for a place to dance. We were lazy so we decided to stay in Schanze area (lots of bars and pubs). But as we are quite "demanding" we always found something which wasn't 100% good ;-) (I guess we are too old and comfortable hahaha) - this was too crowded, over there music sucked, the last place - too much smoke, etc etc. At the end Cyril who was tired after partying on Fri night, went home. We decided to go to Bar Nour which turned to be OK. No smoking, quite ok music and a spot to dance. Since Monica stayed in HH over night and Kazu stayed at our place, on Sunday morning we had a breakfast out. The rest of Sunday was lazy and the only activity for me was a bit of fitness in the evening, after I drove Alex to the airport...

Nothing special happened during the week. Work varies, due to the car industry situation nowadays. There are different signals coming every week, mostly info about how many people and where will have to be laid off...Tough times, no fun...

But now we have weekend again. Today we are supposed to have multi-culti dinner at Monica's place. Since Monica, Kazu, Raul and family live in Elmshorn, they already met at the market in the middle of the day. We, Hamburg-people, are a bit less organized or there is simply other stuff which we have to take care of (like Dennis - looking for a new car; Alex - driving now from Poland) so we are planning to go there in the evening. Right now my feta-aubergine-tomatoe-pie is in the oven. Mums!

Tomorrow I hope we will finally go to see Matisse's exhibition in the city. There is also Degas' exhibition but maybe too much to have both of them in the same day.

Filip, Magda and I have plans to go skiing. But so far many options and nothing decided. If we make it, it will be starting from the next weekend. Ohhh it would be great!!!! We'll see...

Weekend in Prague

On Friday the 13th I flew to Prague. I worried a bit since in the morning there was quite heavy snow storm in HH (until noon). So I was sure that if I manage to fly there will be delays etc. But thanks God the snow melted and there were no issues...
When I got off the airport-bus it turned out that Alex was already somewhere in Prague and we met him with Ales in front of the door. Good time planning! ;-)
Friday evening we spent on talking talking talking, had some beers and a bite of food. Lisa and Ales have a really nice apartment right behind the castle. On Saturday after breakfast Alex and I went to the city. We started with a monastery's square and Miniaure museum. Cool! Amazing stuff!!! Check out the camels made on a needle.

Afterwards we went towards the castle. It was a sunny but cold day but still nice to explore Prague in winter.


Then from the castle we took stairs to the Charles Bridge. Some renovations are going on but it was no problem to walk on the bridge since it wasn't sooooo crowded.




Then we went to the Old Town's Square, had a fika and walked around on the small cute streets. Waiting for Ales and Lisa to join us after their "buying-furniture-project".



When they joined us we had a late lunch in a quite nice restaurant (Duck's feet or something like that). Here you can see Ales "teaching" Estelle to drink beer ;-)



Then we walked a bit more and headed towards home.

We had some wines and ordered "Mexican" food. There was quite much talking about work but we tried to avoid the subject ;-)

On Sunday we went to the castle, saw the guard changing at midday. Then had coffee in a really cosy café close to the castle.




Then unfortunately we had to walk back home since Alex wanted to drive early to Poland and I had my flight in the afternoon.
The weekend was great! Thanks Lisa and Ales!
On the way back we had some delay due to snow chaos (both Alex when driving and me flying). And as usual, as they always say when you land with Lufthansa, this time was the same: Goodbye, Take care und Aufwiedersehen! Grrrrr!! ;-)))

Long time...

It's been a while since I wrote something here. Sorry for that. But I just kind of didn't have a big motivation. Plus nothing exciting really happened in my life ;-) During the last few weeks I went to Göteborg though. It was nice to be with la familja again. And I saw Petra's new house. Really nice in a calm area. Great!!! Theo is a big boy now. And he talks a lot!!! so cute!!
We had dinner at Fredrik's place. It felt like good old times. The same with Sunday walk in Botaniska with Tania and Petra and Theo. Great!!

Last weekend Alex came home. Finally! After 1 month... On Saturday we had cheese and wine evening at Handan's. We were supposed to be around 14 people so Handan got quite a lot of different kinds of cheese and so much wine!! At the end we were around 10 and some people had dinner before so there is a lot of cheese and wine left. Until next time ;-)

This week winter returned. Bläääääh!!! Today it's been raining & snowing the whole day. The weather is so bad and annoying that if I could only emigrate somewhere warm today I would do it right away! I thought spring was coming... yeah right...

This weekend Alex and I are going to visit Ales, Lisa and little Estelle in Prague. It will be nice to change the environment for 2 days. And since it's been a long time since I was in Prague, I'm looking forward to it. So I can show you some pictures afterwards.

Phenomenon in Eimsbuttel

There is a bakery/cafe/boulangerie in Eimsbuttel which is a real phenomenon. It's "Kleine Konditorei" (http://www.kleine-konditorei.com) - there is one of them on Osterstrasse, 5 min walk from my place, and another, smaller one closer to my previous place. It is one of the most popular places for fika with my friends. And sometimes even for breakfasts. The amazing thing is that this place is ALWAYS full of people! I mean Germans love sweets, cookies and Brötchen and Kuchen etc but there are actually quite many bakeries at Osterstr. and around Eimsbuttel. But whenever you go to "Kleine" there is always a line to buy stuff and also people having fika inside. I still wonder how the other places can handle this competition.
Anyway, "Kleine" has great bread and Brötchen and pastry. Mums!!!! The only drawback is that their coffee is not so good (strong) but maybe I can ask them once to improve it ;-)

Yesterday (Sat.) I met with Monica and we went for a little shopping, then we visited Sveta and Guillem and we stayed there 6 hours or so!! Wow! It was a nice afternoon/evening, we ate twice (once when we came, then later on in the evening), had a good Rioja, played with Nadia, saw a lot of pictures, etc.

Today I had plans to wash my car, but guess what??? I started raining a lot so the cleaning activity has to wait until the next weekend... I hope I can see anything through the windshields ;-)