Being back in Germany was so exciting! Everything was in this luscious spring green and the temperatures were much higher than in Ireland. Ok so when I landed in Frankfurt the clouds were hanging so low they were touching the trees in little cloudstrings and people don’t say sorry when they bump into you but they do try not to run you over unlike people on sidewalks here in Ireland. 😉 Having made it to the central station in Frankfurt, my mouth almost dropped because lunch rolls/bagels etc. cost about half of what they are here. I hadn’t been able to get a reservation for the train seeing that it was a holiday and probably booked out months earlier but I was lucky enough to get a tiny seat even though coach 7 (the one without reservations) wasn’t there. I had a group of fathers on their way to Berlin for father’s day sitting around me and they happily offered to share their beer and sausages with me and we chatted all the way to my town. And they were German! Nice! That was actually the second time I got free beer on the train – seems like Germans aren’t as unfriendly as I always always make us out to be.
So I got home fine and on time(!) and I relaxed a bit at my parents’ house and then my step-dad and I visited my Grand-Ma who was in hospital (she’s fine and back home now). We came back and cooked a delicious dinner of porkroast, asparagus and potatoes. Yum!
Friday I took the train to Hanover for the wood working trade show Ligna. I met up with my friend and we walked around for a bit until he had to take care of some customers. So I explored a bit more myself, looked at some artsy things made from wood, had some lunch and watched timber sports. I definitely need to remember the Ligna fair as a great place to find guys, there were maybe 20 women in total that I saw (other than the hostesses of course). 😉 Anyways, met up with my friend again and talked to a couple of his bosses and then we headed to Bad Nenndorf where their hotel was. Hung out for a bit and then went out to eat some weird Italian food for dinner. It was supposed to be Spaghetti Carbonara but was more like Spaghetti with half-raw eggs. The pizza was yummy though.
Saturday I slept in and then we headed to Hannover, checked my friend in his new hotel and then started looking for some breakfast/lunch at 2pm. Luckily there was an Alex right outside the hotel. We were too late for breakfast (wahh) but lunch was fine, too. We walked around the city for a bit but the stores were so hot and I was feeling kind of weak from the weatherchange and lack of sleep so we headed back quite soon. Hung out a bit more and then Massimo drove me home where we had a quick dinner and I gave him a tiny tour of my city. Had a cup of wine with my parents and then I just fell asleep like a stone. So tired!
Sunday I slept in a bit and then packed my bags and tried to sort through some of my things. I don’t know why, but every time I come back from a trip, my closet is still full. A pile of mail is also awaiting me and I don’t even know where I’m supposed to put all my things. Arg! I go through my clothes every time I come back from somewhere and still no space! I’m at a point where I don’t want to give away any more of my things because I’m only left with the ones I like. Ebay…. big bag full of Beany Babies, books, CDs,…
My Mom made a rhubarb cake for me (yay!) and we sat on the porch in 26C sunshine and ate it with whipped cream. Oh so nice! I just caught my train in time (they closed the Autobahn and the cars were blocking the city) and this time coach 7 was there and I got a seat all the way to Frankfurt. Got into the S-Bahn (commuter train) and some British guy sitting opposite of me asked me if it was the one to the airport. I said yeah and we chatted for a bit. So we get to the airport and he asks me to show him Terminal 2 and bla. Then he’s like can I give you my card and nice girl that I am I of course say yeah. Well, he doesn’t hand it over, he sticks it into the backpocket of my jeans. Yikes! Weirdo. Also very nice that it’s one of those free to print out cards and looks really weird. Well, ego boost nonetheless. 😉
Made it back to Dublin and now I’m working working working. Seems like my to-do list is getting longer by the minute.
So overall, I had a lovely weekend and had a great time with my friend. We still get along super great even though he’s not the nice, good guy he used to be anymore. Talk about Americanization!
Keeping Busy
Don’t feel like blogging right now but let’s see what comes out of it anyways 😉
Just a small recap about the weekend and other things interesting enough to be worth writing down.
Friday after work I picked up my friend Anke from the airport and we spent a nice night chatting. Felt like a girly sleep-over. 🙂 Of course Saturday we did touristy things. I made her look at the Book of Kells with me but it was much better than I had anticipated. Well made presentation of how they created the book and then of course the old library of Trinity College was really impressive. Reminded me of Harry Potter.
Afterwards we grabbed some lunch and coffee from Starbucks. Well, we had wanted to go to the park and eat it on a bench but it started raining (this is Ireland afterall) so we settled for standing in front of a pub with a smoking awning. Later we continued our tourist tour and walked along the regular places like the castle, Ha’Penny Bridge, Christ Church Cathedral… until we had dinner at Shan Indian Restaurant. The Chicken Tikka Masala and especially the Channa Masala (chickpeas) was gorgeous and of course we had to have a Mango Lassi, too. Yum! I much prefer this Britainized food to most authentic Indian. Or was that authentic, too and just from a different region?! Who knows!
Sunday we went shopping at Dundrum Town Centre, one of Europe’s best malls aparently. The tram ride there was fun and my was that mall nice! Great stores and both Anke and I got some tops and a belt. Clothes are the only thing that’s not super expensive here really. We actually spent about 3 or 4 hours there and after sitting down at Starbucks (again!) we headed back to the city centre, got some souvenirs and then went home.
Had a lovely dinner of penne with tomatoes and bell pepper after I had nearly gotten a heart attack because I thought we had loads of food for dinner but didn’t. Well thankfully Anke was fine with just pasta and veggies without sauce. We then just hung out on the sofa, watched Pride and Prejudice
The week has been fine so far. I got a new project at work that I was working on late today. Was sitting around much of the afternoon but then of course had to do that around 4:30 then and wound up staying there with my boss until 6:30. Ah not too bad but I don’t like working over-time when you were free all afternoon really.
Tomorrow is only half a day for me (hopefully) and then I’ll pack my suitcase and Thursday at the crack of dawn I’ll fly home for 4 days. Yay! Not looking forward to riding the train up to my home town from Frankfurt as I’m sure it’ll be packed. I couldn’t even get a reservation when I booked my ticket for it. :-/
One of my professors finally emailed me about grading my thesis. Yay! I think I might have the other one’s email about that somewhere in my outlook from last year so hopefully they’ll accept that, too, and don’t want a recent one…. I set back the counter to August 15th because of that whole email issue but either way I want to hand it in end June/beginning July depending on when I’m allowed to (you have to be signed up for it for at least 6 weeks).
Ah well, for not feeling like blogging I don’t think it turned out too bad now, did it? My nail polish on my toenails is dry now so I’ll hop into my bed and read The Devil Wears Prada.
Smoochie my dears! :-*
San Interviews Me
A while ago, Sannie sent me these questions as most of you had some interviews going on. so here goes:
1. If there was one person -dead or alive- that you could choose to meet, who would that be?
Hmmm not sure. Maybe my aunt who passed away in 2005.
Oh and uhm yeah, Robbie Williams! 😉
2. What is your best memory from highschool?
Ok so we’re looking for an event between the classes 9-13. At high school or also from my life while I was in high school? I really enjoyed the times my friends and I met up to work on our graduation magazine. We always met at my friend Marc’s place and had the best times working away. A lot of times we were really annoyed by my friend Jens who did so many funny yet super annoying things like taking photos while he was at the loo etc. Not sure why we didn’t kill him one of these days there. 😉
The five of us still hang out regularly whenever we’re all in town and it’s great fun.
3. What do you like most about yourself, what the least?
Well there are a lot of things that I like about myself. I’m really proud that I’ve come a long way from being this shy little girl that cried so hard every time she was dropped at Kindergarten (daycare) and am now travelling the world (ok not the world but some places ;-)) all by myself.
What I like the least is that sometimes I have a really hard time to talk comfortably with people. I’d love to be someone who makes people feel at ease and can chitchat with them about everything and just have an auro around you that just draws people to you. Ah well. Oh yeah I also don’t like the size of my breasts at all!
4. Having lived in different places, do you consider yourself an “international person”?
Well not sure how you define international person. I am definitely German – something I always note when I’m abroad but I have picked up so many traits from other cultures American, Italian, Indian, and Irish people that make me less traditional German than most Germans are. So I guess, yes!
5. What do you miss most about the US?
My happiness. I was just so frickin’ happy most of the times I was there. My pittyful job fulfilled me, I love my way of living there, the weather, the pool, the shopping possibilities, the politeness, Charlotte, …
If you want to be interrogated by me:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your weblog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
London – Finally
Yes finally finally I made it to London. I was probably the only European over 20 that hadn’t been to London yet. Luckily the 30Euro Ryanair fare and the 19Pounds per night hostel rate made that possible. I have to say, Ryanair was much better than the hostel and I would fly with them again.
After a pretty uneventful flight to Gatwick, I bought train tickets and boarded the Gatwick Express. Well, turned out, I had bought tickets for another train and not the Express. 6Pounds and 30 minutes extra I got to Victoria Station where I left my luggage, bought an Oyster Card and then went out exploring. Walking around Westminster I was all giddy and excited about seeing Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Thames, House of Parliament and so on. Sooo cool to see these sights in real life! Then I walked up to Trafalgar Square via the Horse Guards and Downing Street. That all only took about 1 hour instead of my planned 2.5 hours (but that had included going inside Westminster Abbey but it was closed) so I decided to look at St. Paul’s Cathedral seeing that it was only open on Saturday. Stopped by a Starbucks on my way to the tube and man, those Banana Java Chip Frappuccinos are delicious!! 😉
So I tried the tube for the first time and luckily it worked well and I was on my way to that church. It was huge! A wedding had just been going on there and the bride and groom were really pretty. I wonder who they were seeing that they got married in this HUGE cathedral. Hmmm. Anyways, I went inside and looked around and wow – impressive!
When I got out the sun was out and the clouds were all gone so I decided to go to the Tower and Tower Bridge to take some photos. I did that and again I was all giddy about it – almost felt like the first time I came to the US. Just to be safe about the weather I went back to Big Ben and took photos with blue skies. It was a good thing I did, too, because the rest of the weekend was rather cloudy or even rainy.
Rich then texted me and we met up at Harrods. The store feels more like a frickin’ museum than a department store. Soooo amazing! Looking at all the designer purses, I got shivers running down my spine.. *sighs*. The food halls were fantastic, too, and all the halls were decorated so spectacularly, not to mention the Egyptian stair case. Well, the restrooms were kind of disappointing considering the rest of the store but they were still really nice and I got to refill my water bottle with Harrods water from the fountain there, too. 😀
We then walked towards Piccadilly Circus and I had a sandwhich while we walked around some more and then I got into the Prince of Wales theatre for the Mamma Mia! musical show. I absolutely loved it, super fabulous! If you have a chance to see it, do it! Fantastic! I was so happy about it that I actually spent 15Pounds on a CD. Yeah it was that great!
Afterwards I just took the tube to Victoria Station, got my luggage and checked into my hostel. A clean place with nice, somewhat comfortable beds, ok breakfast BUT also a bar. And in that bar they played music until 5am – which was when the birds started singing so oh well. Yeah I didn’t get much sleep even with earplugs at all unfortunately and I actually stayed the other night at Rich’s hotel seeing that his friend Conny left on Sunday and Rich had the room until Monday. After dropping off my bag at Rich’s room we took the bus along Hyde Park (so pretty), had a snack at Mark’s and Spencer’s and then took the tube to the Tower of London. Pretty cool in there and we enjoyed talking to the costumed characters of Anne Boleyn etc. The white tower itself had loads of weapons inside and I was honestly more smitten with the crown jewels 😉
We were starved by then but luckily there was a Wagamama restaurant right next to the Tower and Rich and I were both delighted as we had been wanting to try one anyways. Yay! The gyoza were delicious and my miso ramen was fine, too. Not what I had been craving for but nonetheless good.
All filled and happy we then paraded over the Tower Bridge and took the bus to the Tate Modern. Interesting art and an impressive building. Not as much fun as everyone had told me it would be but then again, there were no slides. 🙂 Aparently there’s always more going on there between October and March so I’ll keep that in mind for the next visit.
The next stop on our agenda was the British Airways (love them) London Eye. The view from atop the 135m high ferris wheel was spectacular and the ride overall pretty nice, too. It’s a really neat construction. We then walked across the Westminster Bridge once again, looked at Downing Streeet for Rich and then went to Masala Zone for dinner. Really authentic Indian food. Totally tasted like the food at my old host family. Our appetizer, some puri with joghurt, was delicious and then the main course was in a couple of bowls on a big stainless steel plate (very authentic). As it was very authentic I can’t rave about the taste as real Indian food is not really that much my taste but it was good in the way that it was so authentic and brought back good memories of my host family. The mango lassi was excellent by the way. For desert we had a lovely view of the Tower Bridge by night. Pretty!
Monday, Rich left pretty early and I had some tea and shortbread at the Hilton (sounds fancier than it was but I slept the whole night!) I brought my luggage over to Victoria Station, did some shopping there and then got sushi from Wasabi. They basically had a big shelf full of individualy wrapped sushi, some onigiri, etc. You picked what you wanted in a aluminum box and then paid for it. Super cheap and really good!
All happy and stuffed from the sushi I went to the Dali Universe and enjoyed their exhibit. They had a lot of sculptures on dsiplay and it was a great complement to the Dali Museum in St. Pete. I really enjoy his works and thus had a great time.
Buckingham Palace was still on my list of things to see and so even though it was raining I walked there (nothing stops there unfortunately). and gazed at the guards for a bit. I kept on walking north then towards the British Museum and I kept walking because I had wanted to see China Town and I was close by it then but man, it turned out to be one big walk. 😉 I finally did get on the tube at Leicester Square but when I saw a Starbucks in front of the museum (once I had finally found it…) I just had to go in and sit down for a bit with a skinny blueberry muffin and a latte. Yum!
The British Museum itself was absolutely impressive. You totally get a feel of how huge and powerful the British Empire once had to be in order to capture all these treasures. Seeing the real Rosetta Stone, Cleopatra’s Mummie etc. was brilliant. They also had some Meissner china but I have to say, that museum in Hamburg was a bit better in its collection of soup bowls than the British Museum. 😉 (I took a photo just for you Ben). Well, I stayed at the mueum until closing time so it must have been really good.
A nice walk up on Oxford Street with some store browsing but no good purchases, except for tea, I went back to Victoria, got my bag, got some more sushi at Wasabi because Dublin just sucks when it comes to good, cheap sushi, and then boarded (the correct) train to Gatwick. I was a bit worried that the check-in desk would close before I got there but it was still open and then I flew back to Dublin. Uneventful flight again, thought I was lucky and would get out of the plane fast because I was sitting in row 5 but then we had to disembark from the rear so tough luck, it took forever. By the time I got to the luggage trains my bag was going by, though, so that was good. Had meant to take a taxi home but the line was miles long (at least ;-)) and as my bus was just approaching I took that instead and walked back the 1km to my place. Always a bit scary at night but all went well and I got home safely.
Great times! I absolutely loved London and there is so much more to see (and buy) there so I will definitely have to go back at some point. 🙂
I tried uploading my photos to flickr last night but my connection was a bitch so I’ll try getting those 240 photos up tonight…