Phone calls

Nice and sunny day in Berlin, again. Gabi called me and invited me to meet at "Cafe Mirell" where she was having a late lunch. We talked some on travelling and people we know; she will go to Prague next wednesday for a week.
I then took the bus to Neukölln and the turkish market at Maybachufer for a stroll and to buy some fruit and cheap, but good quality cloth to sew cushion covers for Anna's new kitchen chairs. Didn't find any, but fruit were really good bargain cos the market was closing: 5 kilo of grapes for 3 euro! Too much fruit for me, though.
And of course as I always do, some lunch and hot sweet tea at the turkish imbiss "Leylak" close to Kottbusser Tor aka Kotti. This time I could enjoy it outside. A turkish women sat down opposite me with a sweet rice dish, and we talked some on us and life in general. So it works in Germany as well, not only when travelling. ;)
From Kottbusser Tor downtown to browse the bookshops for new books by Terry Pratchet and Jasper Fforde. Which I will buy in one of the small bookstores round the corner of Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz or my favourite crime and mistery bookshop "Hammet" in Kreuzberg.
Time to start reading some more after all this travelling and chatting online. Cuddling in a corner of my big couch with a great book, some nice hot tea (!), good jazz or soul music - autumn ain't so bad then!
When there's a nice fireplace or heating, too. Which is a problem in Vaihingen right now. Alex had called and told me. The heating is old and doesn't work any more and has to be replaced by a new one. 4000 Euro. That's the money I meant to spend on my vacation in Australia. Duh! So that has to be postponed for a while. :(
Well, and another phone call. Last, but most important. My daughter Anna and my sister Ulrike in Düsseldorf had called and told me my father was feeling really bad. He's 84, and his health is getting worse fast. So I'm glad I can't go to Australia after all. Cos how could I, when knowing he might die any day now?
I spoke with Uschi, his wife, today. He's a bit better, but still. I'll send him a letter, which she'll read to him. And will go to Düsseldorf whenever they need my help. Of course.

Coffeeeeeeee! All thru the day!

Guess what! Today is the day of the coffee in Germany! It's launched by the coffee industry, but still! You get a cup of coffee for free at Dunkin' Donuts and a cute little coffee plant at Tchibo and there's lots of other events. So I will have my share today! :)
In Austria it's on October 1st. I wonder why.
Anyway, best espresso in Berlin you get in "Double Eye", just round the corner from my place. Just admire the cortados they do here! Hmmm. Should I join the coffee-web?
Yesterday I went to ver.di to visit some working friends and catch on the news and rumours. Well, same old story. But it was nice to meet Gabi and Hanne and Bert again. To name a few, but best. Bert from the Stach family in Kiel, you remember him from June. We will go out for a gurls' night out and/or a beer somewhere next week. I missed Bernd Steinmann who's on vacation now. But I'll hopefully see him some of these days or rather evenings, as well.
So now you know what you're coming home to: not only the flat or the town, but the friends! :)

Old friends

What a day! Getting up late, having coffee, and then the fun started: unpacking, washing, buying food and drinks, reading the mail of the last weeks. And at 4 pm off to the dentists'. The date had been fixed last time I was in Berlin, just the usual checkup. But tueday night I had bitten on something hard, and my tooth went dang, and it wobbled. Oh-oh! The dentist said I could keep my dear old friend the tooth if I treat it well. And she will check next monday. Maybe it can be safed. If not, it has to be torn. :(
The afternoon saw me browsing new and old shops between Kudamm and Wittenbergplatz. I had left my favourite soap in Vaihingen, so had to buy some more at "Lush". Now I smell very special again. And expensive.
On my way back Dirk Elsaesser called, a friend from way back IG Medien times. We had built the first website ever of a german trade union in 1996. Those were the days...
We met at "Cafe Mirell" and chatted on old and new adventures. He's going to Conil and his flat end of next month for some weeks. Lucky guy!
He suggested I should go to Morocco, Asilah would be great. We'll see..

From one home to the other

Yesterday after packing and cleaning and finishing some last tasks, I left Stuttgart and my kids at home in Vaihingen (the pic shows our kitchen changed into an internetcafe on Monday night). It was goodbye hugs to Anna and the cats, and then Alex took me to the airport at 4 pm. My handluggage wasn't handluggage with hlx, so I had to check it in. They only allow 5 kgs, and my backpack was 8. :(
After a short flight above the rain clouds and a short drive with bus and U 7, I arrived at home in Berlin around 6:30. I got out at Eisenacher Str and enjoyed walking along Akazienstr to Crellestr. The weather was still great, the air was nice and warm, everybody was sitting outside on the sidewalks soaking up the late summer sun. How nice!
I left my luggage at my flat, changed into summer dress, and went out again for "Leuchtturm" and a small hc-meeting with gabiberlin and junglemonkey. We had fun chatting on travel experiences and plans, exchanging stories and informations.
Around midnight I was back home, and right into hc-chat, where Mark from Australia had heard the news I might not come to visit him this year. No secrets in hc! Sofia from Athens was online, too, trying to convince me Greece would be nicer next spring. We'll see.
It was great to be online again, some girl said I must know lots of the guyz in chat, cos everybody was greeting me, and I made them all so happy. Wasn't that a nice thing to say? I liked it! :)

Happy birthday, dear Alex!

Alex is 26 today! Congratulations! We couldn't celebrate with cake and gifts early in the morning, cos he left for work before we all got up.
I had sent him a "Hoops and Yoyo" e-card already late at night, so he got my good wishes at work.
Anna and I went to IKEA to buy some chairs for our new kitchen table, which is actually the very old one I had had made 28 years ago. Roland had taken it with him after our divorce, and now, since he moved to his new flat, we get it back! It fits perfectly in our small kitchen, but we had to get some nice chairs to go with it. We found some very comfortable wicker style ones at IKEA after having had köttbullar, Anna's favourite dish there.
When Alex came home in the evening, the new/old table was laid with presents and birthday greetings. Alex got some vouchers for Zarah, Mediamarkt and "C'T" and lots of phonecalls. Annelie called from Thailand!
We all liked the new look of our kitchen, and enjoyed the pizza we had ordered.
Later we put our laptops onto the table and felt like in an internetcafe. More comfy, though! ;)

Starting birthday celebrations

Alex is 26 today. And yesterday we started celebrating his birthday, because of his very tight time schedule this monday. So Anna baked one of her wonderful cherry-nuts-chocolate cakes, and we had that in the afternoon. Then we drove to the Cannstatter Wasen to walk around the fair some, like we do almost every year. It was one of his favourite birthday presents when he was younger.
Took us like half an hour to find some parking space and to get to the fun. We strolled around, stared up at the better-bigger-more expensive every year buster drives, and had some icecream. Waved to the ghosts in the ghost ride (they waved back), cheered the fighters at boxing, and wondered about how many suebian style dressed people there were. They had been part of the big parade on sunday morning. So weird to see families dressed up like in 19th century, enjoying the rides and sugar floss!
Back home we admired our freshly painted doors, and I managed to write on Anna's album about her first three years. It's been twenty-some years now I meant to do it. Well, all's well that ends well. ;)

Bright sunshiny days

The doors are green and the window sills white, and the garden is nice and free from unwanted herbs! Anna helped, and we finished the work of the week.
In the afternoon I strolled around Stuttgart center, noticing old pubs and meeting places had closed down and new ones opened up, and later met Anna to go to the Monet exhibition. We admired the astonishing paintings of fields in the sunlight. At home I searched the web for more information on the famous garden in Giverny. Would be interesting to go there and look for myself.
I was reminded of my favourite Turner's paintings and will have to go back to London to the Tate gallery again to see them once more. Soon, I hope.

Kids to be proud of

Alex passed his oral exam with the best possible result yesterday morning, and an interview with Anna was published in the newspaper "Stuttgarter Zeitung", picture included. Children to be proud of, hein!
In the afternoon Anna got home from the "Juristentag", rather tired after working hard for five days. We still managed to go to the Metzingen outlets and buy the jacket she wanted. And then she went to bed and slept like a log. Whilst I was busy looking for new hosts. :)

HC-meeting in Stuttgart

What a lovely late summer this year! The days are bright and warm, the nights getting cold already. But still - I enjoy being outside in the garden with the cats jumping around (catching butterflies, sigh). Even when painting some more ;)
In the evening around 15 hc-members from Stuttgart or staying here now met in the SI-center. Ken aka uaflyer had arranged the get-together, and I was one of the official invitors in the forum.
Valentina from Russia came as well, she's not a member herself, but her boyfriend is. I had met him in chat on Wednesday, he had told me that she was working in Stuttgart now, and I had suggested to invite her to the meeting. He did, and she came! We had fun talking, though her german and my russian are almost non-existent. English helped. Pity we don't have much time to spend in Stuttgart. But she might come to Berlin next week, I will host her then, and she invited me to visit her and her boyfriend near Moscow.
I left the meeting around 9:30 pm, quite early, and in chat talked to her friend Vasily again. How he wished to have been there with us! That's what I like about internet: you can meet friends from all over the world!

Family life in Vaihingen

Sun, sun, sun! Lots of sunshine around. Our cats Felix and Emily are loving it! And I'm staying inside doing some cooking and washing and housework routines. Well, I get out, too. To do some shopping. Ach! So very adventurous, these days are!
Anna and Volker are having fun at the "Juristentag", working at the counters, and coming back home totally exhausted, and Alex is learning for his exam on friday. That's family life to you!

Summer's back in town

Nice hot weather is back for the week. Way too hot for the month, but don't we like it?
I managed to paint some more yesterday (see pic - that is before I started), and then went to buy some books and cds from various bookshops downtown Stuttgart. Crime! Love stories! Wolf Haas! Nat King Cole!
And change Anna's new winter coat which she bought at posh and expensive Breuninger the day before from brown to blue. Which could not be done. In all of Germany this colour and this size seems to be sold. In September!
And then on to the travel agency to book my trip around the world aka Berlin-London-Toronto-Honolulu-Sydney-Perth-Stuttgart. Well, they wouldn't do it (no idea why not), and flights to Australia are at least 200 Euro more than through the internet. Pffff
This morning BA was a little more than 1100 both ways. Then again Boston and indian summer is 480. Lithuania again? Slovenia? Athens? Istanbul? Cypres? All places I've been invited to. But in Europe, alas. Seems I have to throw darts.
Finland? ;)

All hope abandon, ye who come here! ;)

Monday was a rather cold, though not yet rainy day. No use painting the door then. I thought. Guess what? Today it's raining.
First thing in the morning, I went to the doctor's, who told me my health was fine, and I was fit to travel. Great!
Then I joined International Youth Hostel Federation (IYHF) online, so I could get cheaper prizes when staying in their hostels. They have great bargains and lots of other offers which will help me save money on my trips.
I checked some more places to be and friendly hosts to visit in Australia, but didn't meet anybody in chat from there. Some nice guy invited me to join him going with the Transsib in January. Brrrrr. Bit cold then. Still it's on the Lonely Planet's Calendar of what to do in January. Australia is recommended for winter, as well. :)
Rubberduk (who still hasn't got the rubber duck Pulina was to give from me) told me about the "International Talk like a Pirate Day" today. Hence the silly title of this posting. See for yourself here. Arrr...

Sunday special in Vaihingen

Yesterday was a special day in Vaihingen, the suburb of Stuttgart where I live. Two years of Schwabengalerie, a mall not two minutes from our house. So it's feast and songs and beer and hocketse in the center all around the mall. And shopping on sunday afternoon, rather special for Germany.
Every autumun they have a so called artists' mile as well. This year it's the same weekend as the anniversary celebration. Always good for a stroll around. Which I did, and discovered this african art.
In the evening Annelie, Alex's girlfriend, came for a short visit and took him to Tübingen after dinner. She studies Geography at Tübingen university and left early this morning for Thailand. The trip there is part of her studies. Wow! Ain't she lucky! Even though it's the worst time to go there because of the heat and humidity in October.
Anna was gone all day learning, Volker and Alex did some soccer first and then were busy inside, and I didn't feel like painting - most probably because of the vaccination. Or maybe the weather which is changing towards autumn?
Whatever! Have to get going today, it started raining and is even colder than yesterday. A front door which is partly green and partly blue doesn't look so great. ;)

Weekend pleasures

My choice of the day: Painting the frontdoor green, and getting other windows and parts of the house ready for being painted today.
Things you do on a weekend, when you should be browsing fleamarkets, or drinking beer and munching on brezels and sausage (until noon, weisswurst is best) at one of the many hocketse or big fairs.
Oktoberfest in Munich started yesterday. More than 6 million visitors are expected the following 18 days. The liter beer is up to 7,50 Euro. (!)
Cannstatter Wasen in Stuttgart will follow next weekend. Same prices. Sigh. I guess I'd rather stay at home than join the feasting crowd.
During lunch break yesterday when I bought some Erdinger Weissbier to enjoy after the painting session, I saw the beer the pope had blessed: Malteser Weissbier. Omg!

And the winner is.....

Australia! Yep!
Been to the doctor's for serious talks about getting ready for Asia and vaccination, and he told me to forget about hot and humid weather. Hot and dry would be ok, he said. China and the silk road would be great, he said. In summer. Well...
Or Chile, or Namibia, or New Zealand. Or Europe, of course. Canada. The States. Australia.
So I spent 80 Euros on vaccinations, and went home to write to all my friends in India, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, and other hot and humid countries who had invited me for some time during the next six months that I couldn't make it for sure.
And changed my profile in HC and posted a message in the forum saying I was looking for hosts and friends down under. The first invitations came in like two hours later. And Mark whom I had met at Lake Bodom wrote from Spain saying he loves Europe and especially Spain, and will go back to Sydney in October, and I'm welcome to share his flat and his 700 bottles of wine.
Later Anna and I went to buy some colour to paint the front door. I should have painted that door ages ago. Actually I had started doing that, but then it was raining and I had to stop. That was around 1995.
I wanted a nice bright red, and the kids wanted a boring green, and we settled on a nice dark green. Will look like one of those front doors they have in England. So that's what I'll do today: paint the door. :(
I got Anna a cd with a funny and exciting crime story, which I'll listen to whilst working. And the sun will be shining, the weather report said. So it might be a nice day after all. :)

Market day in Kirchheim unter Teck

On Thursday I accompanied Anna to her job in Kirchheim unter Teck. Whilst she was in her office, I enjoyed strolling around the small medieval town on market day. I almost forgot how beautiful and cosy suebian towns are, with all those old frame work houses, town halls and churches built centuries ago, market places with fountains...
You look up and you see the surrounding mountains (or rather hills) with castles on top. Like the famous Burg Teck. Hiking and biking is always nice here. Life seems so much more relaxed than in Stuttgart. And flowers, fruits and vegetables are just half the prize!
I couldn't live there for ever, but it's definitely worth a visit more often.
The evening was spent watching tv (sitcom "Schillerstraße" is on again) and checking the internet. I'm getting sick and tired of looking for nice places to travel to in winter, not too hot, not too dangerous, not too expensive. And no more cheap flights to Vilnius end of the month, to go to Lari's and Dovi's birthday party. Blah!

Late summer in the city

and the living is still verrry easy! I decided to skip work for the day. Instead I went with Alex and Anna to visit Gipsy, our dog, and check whether she feels fine with her new hosts. Well, she did, and we decided she can stay with the Kaiser family. In the animal home Anna signed the paper work. Now we are without dogs again! :(
From Botnang I took the tram downtown and went to the travel agency known for great offers on trips around the world. Problem was they wanted to know where I would like to go. Sigh.
I got some new ideas on Australia, New Zealand and stopovers, all the same. And now I will decide by either throwing dice, or darts on a map of the world (as R-men in chat suggested - but since my skills are not that good, I might hit the south pole and be hosted by penguins), or by good luck aka invitations.
Later in the afternoon I met Bettina, my friend since I don't know how many years at the italian restaurant close to university where she works. Well, I do know: we met in Düsseldorf when studying, about 30 years ago. We strolled from "Mezzogiorno" (too expensive) to the beergarden close to the main station, and enjoyed chatting and sharing a flammekuchen and a few beers until way after 9 pm. Weather was just great, and the air nice and warm until late.
She gave me some new ideas about New York and Canada, where she had been some years ago. So maybe a stopover in Toronto on my way to Australia? Hmmm...

Where to go now?

Late summer is still going strong, so I took the laptop into the garden and browsed the web for ideas and information. And HC for hosts.
Seems like South Africa is great, but dangerous. So are lots of other countries well worth traveling to. Since I still have six more months until I start work again, I guess countries you can easily go to in four weeks vacations would be out of the choice. I should go for a trip around the world! Or countries like Australia and New Zealand. The fares are that expensive, and the countries that huge, you can hardly go there for four weeks only. And do a stop-over in the States and/or Asia?
Health problems should be taken into consideration as well. Tropics or subtropics for me? When I don't go to Spain or Italy in summer because of the heat? I doubt it. And my doctors advised me to reconsider my choices of Venezuela, India and Thailand.
O heck! Problems I've got! ;)
And now comes the goody: I went to the bookstores, bought the Lonely Planet on Australia, and a book on the most beautiful roads around the world (I wished I could drive better!), and discovered a website on places and books. Like Dublin and "Ulysses" by James Joyce. Check yourself here, and add your favourite books on your favourite places. It's fun!

Work, work, work

Shopping, cooking, cleaning, doing the garden. When I'm not too much suffering of my cold, that is! Traveling is so much nicer!
Well, I like the garden round our small house as well, to tell the truth. :)

The day of the open monuments

Anna and me felt still quite weak with our colds. But the sun was shining bright, and we just couldn't stay inside the house all day. Volker had gone for a long ride with his bike and some mate, and Alex was in Cologne with his friends since more than 20 years, Benny, Toby and Marc.
So we browsed the web for ideas, and found it was the day of the open monuments. Checking closer for open air monuments, we chose the Lapidarium. It is open in summer every day, but somehow we had never been there before. And it was well worth a visit. Looked like someone had been sorry for lots of stone monuments, doorframes, gravestones and alike, and couldn't resist collectng them when the houses were demolished. And then they had been set up in this garden in the middle of Stuttgart.
From there we moved further up the Karlshöhe where we had been so often when living in Senefelderstraße 1981 until 1988, going to the playgrounds almost every day in summer. The beergarden on top of the hill has a splendid view over the valley, and the food was great as well. We had Apfelsaftschorle and Wurstsalat, suebian summer tasties.
Then on through the city, passing the castle, a few musuems, the opera and the theatre, checking the program for the next weeks. Whilst in Stuttgart, I might as well enjoy the cultural ife. The opera house is one of the best in Germany!
After three hours of strolling, we felt really tired again and took the tram back home, where we had a lazy sunday afternoon and evening. It was still quite warm outside, and will be all next week. So let's enjoy the last days (and nights) of summer! :)

Trash and treasures

I am sooo lucky. Whenever I come to Vaihingen, there's a fleamarket close to the campus. Well, almost always. There's the fleamarket on Karlsplatz downtown Stuttgart every saturday, but the Vaihingen one is a lot better because less professional. Anna and I love to go there, stroll around and look for nice things. And bargain a bit and get them cheaper. That's an important part of the fun.
Anna got lots of summer blouses and shirts and skirts for under 20 Euro yesterday. And I bought her some perfume for half the normal prize as a xmas gift. She got that nice old couch for xmas on thursday already. She had spotted it in our neighbour's car; Andreas can't resist picking up great stuff thrown away by negligent people. He sold it to us for 50 Euro. Ok, it needs to be upholstered again. But it looks great in our small house even now. So comfy! The cats like it a lot.
In the afternoon, we had some bbq in our small garden. The late summer sun is so nice and warm. All next week will be great. We should do some hiking with a weather like this!
But no, instead Anna and I got this awful summer cold. So the rest of the day was spent dozing and doing nothing but trying to get well soon. We hope it'll work.

Friday at home

Well, yeah, you guessed it: Cleaning, cooking, chatting. Reading the comics Alex had ordered through the internet on "Benni Bärenstark" by Peyo. We had given him the first volumes when he was seven or eight years old. Now some cost up to 150 Euro the piece. Ridiculous. He misses volume 11. So we'll try to find it for him on the fleamarket on Saturday. Might be a nice birthday present.
And then in the evening the Kaiser family called. Our dog Gipsy is with them since a week, and now they decided to keep her for sure. We're glad Anna found a nice new family for her dog, with the website of Stuttgart Tierheim helping a lot.

Thursday shopping downtown

Wonderful sunshiny weather and lots of people enjoying the last days of summer in town (click pic). And we took the tram to join them. Doing Thursday shopping downtown Stuttgart and not buying anything. Not one single little thingy. Duh!
Anna wanted a cozy, comfy winter jacket, and I'm looking for a rain jacket and some bikinies for my travels. No chance!
So three hours spent with browsing shops, and then later some more online. In vain. Och menno.
And the "Explorer" travel shop was closed by the time we made it there. So I'll have to get back some other day. They seem to have great offers for Australia, and that's my last choice for this year's travels. Though my friends in chat said I should just stay in Europe and bounce between Finland, Latvia and Lithuania. Invitations the lot, including morning coffee and internet access ;)
Oh, in chat everybody (like in EVERYBODY) was online around 10 pm, even Ahoora who came back from his trip to Lapland. Our storytelling worked as well as at killerlake Bodom. Nice!
Hey: my hair's back to red-red! Thanx to the hairdressers! Ta-daaaaaaaaa!!!

Extra special fun on Wednesday

Just another one of those days in between coming from one corner of the world and going to another. So off to the doctors', getting a check-up for traveling to the tropics, and to the mall, to buy some food. Some easy cooking (fresh pasta with tomtatoesauce) and some paper work. Blah.
Kids are studying and working hard at home, Volker left for his parents' place in Straßdorf near Schwäbisch Gmünd, since the library at university is closed to be cleaned, cats are swizzing in and out the house and the garden enjoying some nice last summer days. They feel safer cos the dogs aren't here any more, but we miss Kali and Gipsy.
Meeting my dear old friends Susanne in the evening and Heike on Thursday is postponed to the weekend. My summer flu is not bad, but keeps hitting me with headaches.
So time to relax and get well soon. And here is where the fun comes in. A few of my beloved hc-chat-gang-members joined my Freundeweb on the internet (Ieva from Riga had invited me a few weeks ago), and in chat Rubberduk had sent me this link to cheer me up. Which worked and might work with you as well. Check more here and enjoy!

Ruby Tuesday

Paper work - yuk! Looking out of the window onto the Vaihingen roofs doesn't help a lot. And first signs of summer flu, so no flight booked to Helsinki. :(
No pizza party on Lari's roof to celebrate Claudio's new flat, no meeting with Lina, no weekend at Kliment's, no housewarming party at James', no birthday party in Mikkeli with Tilman and all the others. S****! And the ticket would have been 150 Euro only Stuttgart Helsinki and back, because of extra special Lufthansa offer. Life can be a bitch! :(
Oh, and my hair looks awful as well! :( :(

Monday, Monday...

Hmmm... What did we do that day?
Getting up, calling some friends I haven't seen or spoken to since months, making up dates with the doctors so I can travel safely and in good health, buying some food, helping Anna doing her great and delicious Kässpätzle with salad...
Nothing much, really! One of those days.

Downtown Stuttgart

Summer is back in town! And Stuttgarter Weindorf running in downtown Stuttgart, with lots of wine and regional dishes. So Anna and Volker and I went there. Alex had gone to help his father Roland to move to another flat in Stuttgart and to go to Bodnegg to his grandmother for the weekend.
Weindorf was expensive and a bit crowded with elderly suebians and tourists, mostly from Ireland because of the soccer match on Friday. Well, we had expected that. So we just walked around, and then on to the park and just in time to hear the Band "Silverados" play their last gig. We had some beer at the Biergarten, and then went back home to enjoy the evening of a lazy weekend.
With the cats. The dogs had gone to new homes, because of our somehow not so easygoing cats. Poor Anna! She had loved all four animals, and they are great, all of them! But it can't be helped, if they don't feel comfortable together. :(

Saturday in Vaihingen

Yesterday was a normal saturday in Stuttgart Vaihingen, where we live across the street from the church. After breakfast Anna and I went to the market to buy some fresh salad and plums, then to the mall to get some cozy home slippers, in the afternoon to an even bigger mall, "Breuningerland", in Sindelfingen, still looking for slippers and for a woolen jacket, because I shrink-washed hers. :-(
We didn't find either. Back home we enjoyed the finnish tasties, and then Volker went to watch the football match Germany-Ireland, and we stayed at home doing nothng much, just chatting and stuff. Normal saturday...

Home again after five months

Meeting Kliment and Sofia under the balls was almost the last thing I did in Helsinki. They helped me find lakka (at Stockmann's), gave me some violet sweets from Bulgaria as a special treat, urged me to stay or at least come back soon, blew some soap bubbles in front of Stockmann's, the famous mall, and hugged me goodbye.
The bus was fast, e-check-in at the airport as well, and two hours later I sat in a teenzy-weenzy finncomm-machine crossing the Baltics. Weather and sight were great. We flew above Tallinn, Riga and Kurzeme, and I almost felt like jumping down to those well loved places.
My son Alex met me at the airport and took me home to Vaihingen, where my daughter Anna and her boyfried Volker plus a delicious suebian dish of Maultaschen and potatoe salad were waiting for me. The finnish tasties I had brought will be eaten today.
Staggs of mails were waiting as well to be opened and answered. Sigh!
Surprise, surprise: tax office was not asking for more money, but willing to give some back. Some. Well, quite a lot, actually. So I bought a bottle of sparkling wine today to celebrate, and we will decide what to spend the money on. More travels, I suppose.
Stuttgart -> Helsinki and back is 150 euro in september. Hmmm...
Back to yesterday, which saw us jumping into the car and driving to IKEA opening night around 8 pm. Didn't get much, but was fun to be at one of our favourite shops again. I almost bought lakka wine. ;)
And guess what Anna and I did this morning? Yessss, you're right. Off to the "Schwabengalerie", the close-by mall in Vaihingen, and getting some nice cheap travelling trousers and a nice verrrry cheap tank top and some even nicer and cheaper sandals. I'm wearing them now and feel rather fresh and good looking, inspite the 2 or 3 kilos I put on weight during traveling. You can't resist food you never tasted before and might never-ever have a chance to taste again, can you? Well, I can't... :-))))

What to take back to Germany

Weather was great on thursday, bit colder, but still sunshine. So I couldn't stay inside and read or build lego whatever. Temmi had to help his sister with some computer stuff anyway and stayed.
The bus took me to Helsinki Kamppi, the bus station, from where I checked places to buy goodies to take home to Stuttgart.
What would I like to bring my kids? Karelian pies, of course. Minttu, from Alko. Those delicious cakes we had had for breakfast at lake Bodom. Cooked cheese. Lakka. Muikku? Might get bad. Maybe kalakukko. Oh, and rievä, bread from Tampere. Mariannen, needless to mention. And salmiakki. A huge bag full of finnish tasties it will be!
The market square and the old market hall were nice, but expensive. Too many tourists around Helsinki center. You hear spanish, italian, even french and german, but hardly any finnish. Oh, by the way, Pulina told me later she had seen me there. No secrets in Hospitality Club. And you can't get lost either.
What more to take back? Lots of memories. Lots of new friends, some close. Lots of invitations to come back. Three in September!
Sigh... Time will tell.
In an hour I'll leave Temmi, who's packed and ready to go hiking through Lapland with Tuula and another girl from HC. Kliment and Sofia will wait for me at 1 pm under the balls. And then on to the bus and the plane and to Stuttgat airport, where my children will be waiting. It's gonna be a great evening, full of talks and stories, and hugs! :-)