Hamburg my pearl

Hamburg has been my hometown for 2,5 years and I am thankful for every minute of this time I could spend in this beautiful stunning city. Actually it is even the second largest city of Germany, located in the North at the Elbe River. The Port of Hamburg ranks right after the one of Rotterdam in the European top list regarding the amount of transshipments. The metropolis is a magnet attracting students, employers, business men and searchers from all over Germany.

I have known this city as a kind of Island where thousands of people stranded by the tide, washed up from the ocean of life. In my vocational college class I met girls from Magdeburg, Wolfsburg, Coblenz and Berlin. They all came to this place to find work, friends, answers and love.

HafenCity

Sparkling Lucerne

You remember that abnormal hot summer 2013 in Germany? That was the time I took a lowcost flight to the even hotter Switzerland to visit my fabulous aunt living in Lörrach on the German side of the border triangle (France-Germany-Switzerland). The airport of Basel is in fact on French ground but is used for tourists coming to Basel as well. Imagine what a desaster it was to have three (!) different currencies in that area. French Francs, Swiss Francs and a long while ago the German Mark. Fortunately France decided to join the European Monetary Union in 2002. My aunt was temporarily  living with three wallets at a time. Thank EU this is over.

From our place we took 1,5 hours by car to get to Lucerne in north-central Switzerland. Capital of the Canton of Lucerne counting 76,200 people.

Cooling me down at Lake Lucerne

Kos` it was amazing

We did it. Shame on me and my darling. Our first longer stay abroad was ... a package holiday tour. 

In summer 2012, my first year of apprenticeship was not over yet - this explains our misery to book this awful touristic product, we took up our travel to the Greek island Kos.

Located in the Aegean Sea before Turkey it counts 33.000 inhabitants, most of them living in the principal town Kos Town.

harbour of Kos Town

Par(ad)is

If every city has a word, like Elisabeth Gilbert concerned in her great book Eat Pray Love, so the word for Paris is Elegance.
Like an old madame the city has it weaknesses: an old creaky ageing underground metro system, wasted garbage on the trottoirs, crumbling facades and dusty museums but first of all she has it`s pride. She affronts the new skyscrapers in the suburbs and does not bother about linearity of modern architecture. She refuses to bow to all this because she is amazing and marvellous just like she is since forever. The 35 million visitors yearly give her reason.

La tour Eiffel

I want to go back to Westerland

Last year in november I dediced to do a goodbye-trip with my best friend. The choice was not easy because our destination should have been not so far away and not that expensive.

So we travelled one weekend to the northernmost German island Sylt. After explaining my boyfriend that it is a great idea and ignore his arguments about cold weather and low season, I searched for ways to get there.

We took the train from Hamburg-Altona in North Germany which is only 3 hours through nowhere.

Where to stay? Sylt is an exclusive and posh Island and we needed something around the capital (9000 inhabitants actually do not justify that term) to get there easily from the main station.

One holidaycheck later we reserved a double room in the Sylt Motel nearby the main station.

The interior was as creative and stylish like the name. But clean and that is most important to me.

Promenade of Westerland with seagull