I am back!... and some more Germany

Hey, I am back!

Well, actually I am back for the last week but I just didn't have time to get online for more than 10 minutes and to be honest I also found it quite difficult getting back into the swing of things. I am one of those people who finds it very hard getting back into her routine again. especially after such a long time. I am still kind of in my German routine.

I miss Germany a lot and my family of course. But hey, I have no choice so there is no point in sitting here and feeling sorry for myself.

My last week in germany was very nice. We visited my great aunt who just lost her husband of 40 years in February and is grieving a lot. It was pretty intense as she gets upset a lot but I am glad I could spent those moments with her and got to see her from a different side.

She also took us out for a little sight seeing at the sea as she lives very close to the Baltic sea. There is a huge memorial remembering all the German fighters that died in submarines during WW1 and WW2. It is pretty impressive. You go down a couple of steps, which bring you into this little chamber with a lot of wreaths.


From there you step outside and you find yourself in a path that is outside but below ground. It is shaped in a half circle.



On both sides are high walls that are covered in these black panels on which you can see all the names of the victims.



It is very quiet down there and so peaceful. Like their last resting place.


Once you get to the end of that path you enter another -identical to the first one- chamber and from there you get out again.




It is so close to the water and so big that it impossible to get a picture of it all together. But you can see the layout on the map below.


In the middle of it all towers a huge collum with an eagle on top, the symbol of Germany.




And just a few more pictures I cannot resist showing you:

I love Germany

Growing up in Germany I never felt that it was ok to be proud of my country. With our history, all I learnt was to be ashamed. Ashamed of a truely horrible crime that, however, I have not commited. Other cultures are proud of everything that makes them, their history and their country. All I ever learned was that you risk being classed a Nazi if you say that you are proud to be German and that we all have to carry the burden of the holocaust on our shoulders.

All this was reason for me to move abroad. Since I was 14 I knew I wanted to move to Ireland and when I finally finished school, I fullfilled this wish. Funnily enough I only learned in Ireland to be proud of Germany. A lot of great things have come from Germany: most famous fairy tales, Volkswagen cars, good quality electrical goods and other things. Nowadays Germany is a beautiful country with people living in it that share different religions and cultures. German people are friendly, and welcoming and in their own way humurous. We have delicious food in our supermarkets and brilliant bakeries with very yummy breads and cakes.

Today I can stand tall and say: I am proud to be German....not proud of our history at all but still proud of what we have achieved since and how far we have come in less than a century.

Yesterday I went for a little walk while Lucy was sleeping in her buggy. I took some photographs and I would like to share some things with you that to me are truely beautiful and a reminder of my home country.

Come fly with me.....

Today has been a quiet day. Just the usual stuff: grocery shopping, cleaning, looking after Lucy...

Tomorrow is the start of the last week before Lucy and I will fly to Germany. I brought her over already three times. But this time will be very different. for all of us. Now, Lucy is walking, is starting to talk and is in general not the same child as on Christmas anymore. My family will have to get to know her all over again. My mum hasn't seen Lucy since her first birthday in February and that was pretty hectic, as we were so busy with the party preparations. She also came as a surprise and was therefore only here for two days.

Now that Lucy is walking it will be much harder for me to bring her over all by myself. Last year I just strapped her into a baby sling and off we went. This time I will have Lucy in a buggy and a suitcase and I have to go from the airport in ha burg onto a train to my Mum's. I also have to change the train once. We will be on the go all day, from around 7:00 am till 7:00 pm German time, which is 6:00 pm our time. Eleven hours. I am exhausted just thinking about it.

So this week is all prepeaations in the house. That means: cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.... I really want to leave the house spick and span for my husband. he works so hard and deserves to come home to a clean and tidy house every night.

Next week will be then all week packing. Well, its only four days really, so that doesn't leave me with much time. I have to wash all our clothes and actualy do a trial run with the packing of the suitcase, just to make sure its not over weight.

I don't want to bore you any more. Just thought I let you know what it's like here. I doubt I will be getting much crafty stuff done from now until the 14th but if I am lucky maybe the elephant.

Hope you are all having a lovely week so far.

Look what the postman brought me

In January when I tried to organise my daughter's first birthday party I decided that I wanted to bake a lot of German cakes. Because the flour in the UK is different to German flour I searched online for a place to get the flour I needed. So I came across a shop in London that sells all kind of German food called German Deli
Last week I placed another order as it is really nice to see, smell and of course taste the food I know from my childhood and beyond. I know it may sound silly, the idea of ordering a lot of food from London but anybody who lives in another country and knows how it feels to be homesick will understand me.



YUMMY!!!!!!

Some items where wrapped in newspaper as they where highly breakable or very valuable...like chocolate ;). While I was unwrapping them my eyes caught the writing on the newspaper and I realised it was all written in German. Turns out it was a newspaper called 'Germanlink' and it is especially for London and the UK. So I got free reading material out of it as well. Woohoo!!!