New place

Wow! today I can say that the new apartment starts to remind a real place to live and function in. The move took few days; packing and preparing, then Alex, Handan and I moved most of the stuff. Then the whole multi-culti gang helped on the 22nd July.
Then there was a short break when we went to Magda's and Sebastian's wedding. It was beautiful and the party was great! Thanks guys! On top of that we had a wonderful weather so the whole party we were out on the terrace. When I get some pictures you can be sure they will appear here.

(as promised here are some pics):

From the Church:


And the couple at the wedding reception:




I also got some pictures from Megi, one from the wedding, one from karaoke night:



Last Friday I returned the keys to the old place, this weekend we went to IKEA and bought some new lamps and other stuff which was missing in the new flat. Otherwise the weekend was good. We went out with one Mexican colleague on Friday - back home at 4 AM. Then on Saturday we had some beers with two friends - Hans and Sandra (I took care of their rabbit and cat when they were away on vacations 2 weeks ago). Today Alex and I fixed some more stuff in the flat and then he left to Stuttgart.

Here are some pics from the new apartment:

Living room



Bedroom


Guestroom (so everybody who will visit can have her/his room!!)


Kitchen


Alex who was fixing the connection for washing machine


More pictures later on.
Tomorrow a new week is starting. On Friday I'll go to Stuttgart to see a little bit of Schwarzwald and then next Monday - to Göteborg for 1 week!! Yuppi!!!

Packing and moving weekend...

Amazing!! I somehow got some free internet connection, at least I can use google and update you what has been happening here.
So it has started - the moving out project. Wow...two days of packing and moving stuff. Alex arrived on Fri evening. By that time Handan helped me with packing kitchen stuff and we were really efficient! On Saturday I continued packing the boxes and Alex was moving them to the other apartment. Then Handan and I were unpacking some stuff. It went quite smoothly with the 3 of us. Then in the evening we went to Gröninger - a beer cellar where they brew their own beer. Yummi! We were celebrated my birthday with some friends. Nice!!!
On Sunday Alex and I moved the rest of the stuff before the final move on Tuesday (the heavy stuff: closets, bed, soffa, washing machine etc). Then he left back to Stuttgart and I cleaned the apartment, windows etc. Again with Handan's help - it went to fast!!
This week will be short since I'm going to Poland on Thu evening. Magda's wedding!! Well we'll probably arrive there around 2 AM so I hope to sleep in as long as possible to be "fresh" for the wedding.
And I saw that the weather will be sunny and around +30 degrees. Yuppi!!!! I can have my summer dress on!!! :-D
Well, right now it is +14, like in fall!!!
Have a good start of the week!

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!!!