It’s been two years since our last blog post, and we’re excited to update you on our latest adventures. We’ve moved to a new home within Germany, and we’re thrilled to show you more about this beautiful country and the region we now call home.
We’ve been busy renovating our house, and it’s been quite the project. It’s amazing how much work goes into making a house feel like a home, but we’re enjoying the process and can’t wait to share the finished product with you.
As for our furry friend, Saarland, we can hardly believe how quickly he’s grown up. From a playful kitten to a crazy teenager, he’s been a joy to have around and always keeps us on our toes.
Now let’s talk about Germany. It’s a country with a rich history and diverse culture, and we’re excited to explore more of what it has to offer. From the city of Berlin to the stunning countryside of the Rhine Valley, there’s so much to see and experience.
But where did we end up now? We’ve moved to a new home in the beautiful region of OWL, located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and we can’t wait to share all that this area has to offer.
One of our favorite things about OWL is its picturesque countryside, dotted with charming towns and villages. There are also several historic landmarks to explore, from ancient castles to modern museums showcasing the region’s rich cultural heritage.
But perhaps the best part about OWL is its outdoor recreation opportunities. There are countless hiking and biking trails to discover, and the region is home to several stunning parks and natural reserves. From the rolling hills of the Teutonic Forest to the flowing river Weser, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.
Of course, we’ll also be sharing more about the local cuisine, which features delicious specialties like Pumpernickel bread, Pickert, and Rübenkraut (a sweet syrup made from sugar beets). We’re excited to try out new recipes and share our favorites with you.
So stay tuned as we continue to explore and discover all that OWL has to offer, with our furry friend Saarland by our side.
So we recently moved houses, from our previous flat to our country side home to work on it full time (or full-ish, cause actual work), and… is so tiring!!
We had some much stuff and feels so weird
Personally is the first time I move homes in the same country without my parents. Let’s not count moving countries, that was more complicated 😅
Besides the space, the vans or cars you might need, you have to call _everyone_ to tell them you moved out: Your bank, your telephone operator, the post service, everyone. And you have to go register in your new city to get the address in your ID changed to the latest. If you happen to have a car you have to do the same as with your ID and change your plates to indicate the area you live in (for example if you were living in Berlin your Plate started with B, if you move to Hamburg it will change to HH)
And if you, like me, have an… i don’t know the translation for it, but like a temporary residence card then you have to go to the Ausländerbehörde to change the address on said card. Something I have learned in Germany is that my dream is to work in that office, they open like 3 days a week and only take calls for like 2h a week, no matter where you are (we hoped the new office of our new city would be better but noooope, just the same).
There’s so much paperwork implied, and more if you were renting, cause they have to check the status of your previous flat to decide if you get your deposit back, of you have to renovate the flat by yourself or if you’re good to go. Thankfully the renters we had were great and fair, so we didn’t had to do much there 🙂
Also, a tip: Transporters are cheaper during work days than on weekends. I swear Germans have so many holidays a year cause they need them to deal with bureaucracy a lot 😅😂
As some of you may know, we just (finally) adopted a cat ♥️ I was raised in a house with cats literally since the day I came home with my mom from the hospital after being born, so when I moved to Germany to a new house, new environment, food, language and people I really felt the emptiness of not having a cat. My cats stayed in Costa Rica as good tropical cats that I won’t bring into a place with winter, besides we were living on a second floor so no cat friendly.
Now we live on a ground floor and the cat project materialized thanks to a friend of Micha’s brother, who’s parents had some spare kittens to give away ♥️
we present you: Saarland 🥰
So we visited them first to check Micha’s allergies and since no allergies were given we adopted Saarland 🥰 For those of you out of Germany, this country is divided in 16 federal states and the smallest is named Saarland. People in the news use it as reference of size when there are natural disasters (e.g a forest fores the size of Saarland) so we decided to name the cat like this to measure our stuff in cat measurements 😂.
The size of Saarland keeps changing, but hang in there 😂
So come to the point: How to adopt a pet in Germany? Well… Depends of the pets you want. In the case of cats you can pick one from a shelter (Tierheim, there is at least one in every midsized town), or the cat magically chose you or, like us, you meet someone who’s cat was getting accidental kitties, then you just get it 🙂 After that comes the visits to the Tierarzt/veterinarian to get them the basic vaccinations (they even get a vaccination card ♥️) and you can ask for a chip. The first round of vaccines + the chip was like 60€, so not the cheapest thing in the world but waaaay cheaper than we expected. You of course need to get food, sand (that traps pee and masks poo smells, top), a transporter and a bed. And a Mousie, all cats i know love them 😂 If you want a dog on the other side, prepare to pay taxes, as there’s a dog tax in Germany no matter your dog’s size 😔
Easter in Germany is AMAZING. Bread-land becomes Chocolate-bunny-land for a long weekend and not only that, you have free by law.from Friday to Monday. A beautiful long weekend to get all the chocolate you can 🍫.
As a foreigner, there are some main differences I noticed, compared to Costa Rica. Here you can easily separate the church from the festivities, like in Christmas, so is easy to feel part of the party even if you’re not religious. In Costa Rica is more about going to religious sad and slow parades, watching The passion of the Christ and Ben Hur on repeat and not eating beef.
In Germany of course there is also this if you want, but you get also the fun version of this holidays with bunnies, chocolates and even the lamb-shaped cakes that are supposed to be a representation of Jesus but are also tasty and covered in chocolate. Also, nobody cares really if you have a BBQ on good Friday, as soon as you don’t turn it into a party, cause it’s “Ruhezeit” and you should keep quiet… (or you will get to identify which of your neighbors is the annoying one 😂)
Scary, but super tasty 😋
Of course here you cannot get the gold old empanadas de piña or other traditional Costa Rican treats that I miss, but the local traditions make up extra for it and make you feel at home 🙂
Let’s get real about skin care and weather: I come from Costa Rica, a humid and warm place where all my life I kept retaining liquid and my skin behaved pretty much greasy. I’m not a dermatologist to talk about why or how, I just tell you about my experience 🙂
So all that time I was following the routine of washing my face 2 times a day with a foamy wash, in the morning using a toner of the Face Shop (Chia), then serum, cream of the same line, then sometimes primer, and then whatever makeup I had time for. (Usually a LOT in comparison to my life in Germany)
When I moved to Germany I stopped retaining liquid, as a matter of fact I get easily dehydrated and my skin went from greasy to totally dry and peeling in winter. And by skin I don’t talk only about my face, no, weirdly enough my ankles get specially dry to a point where they are itchy and look like fish scales. My cute usual creams are absorbed in no time and I had to sleep with heavy Nivea cream on my face. I went NUTS with skincare after this changes (tea tree oil, niacinamide, 2 washes a day, full chia treatment and heavy makeup remover) and my face was not so happy about the extreme care and not only got dry but had some random breakouts.
Now what I follow is only washing with water in the morning, ALWAYS using primer before whatever makeup I want to use and only do a full wash before going to bed to remove makeup and any impurities from the outside world 🙂 only then using toner, serum and moisturizer. The niacinamide and tea tree oil are now for using a couple of times a month.
In general, be mindful of having full hydrating cream not only for your face, but for your arms and ankles! Specially in winter but also in summer (and remember always to use sunscreen ☀️)
This is kind of a taboo topic to talk about, specially in an international household, but is part of the reality of being from a “third world country” and moving to a “first world country”, so I think is time we address it
As we know the division between 1st, 2nd and 3rd world was an old definition to mark the west, the east and countries not affiliated to any. Nowadays “3rd world” refers to “less developed” and 1st world to the opposite.
But hear me out…
There’s still some people that believes the 3rd world means living out of coconuts in the jungle hunting jaguars or something, when in reality, some of this countries have better informatic systems (and some of them even technology) than some of the “first world countries”.
Personally I’ve been asked some of this questions (and affirmations) while living in Germany, and some people I know have gotten some others while living in other developed countries:
Do you have cars in Costa Rica?
Do you eat lizards?
You have internet in Costa Rica?!
Costa Rica is a poor country? (here comes the image of the jaguar hunter)
How do you communicate in the jungle?
Is Costa Rica part of the US?
Is Costa Rica in Africa?
Latin America is all an extremely violent and conflictive area… *silently judging you*
It must be super dangerous to live so close to Venezuela…
Oh Cost Rica, so you lived in South America?
*Assuming you cannot speak more than 1 language, when you speak 3+, then getting surprised that you speak good english*
Are you marrying a German to get a visa?
There seems to be little geographic understanding in the rest of the world… while we are taught where Mozambique, Luxembourg, Surinam and Malaysia are, the overall of the french revolution, wars and things like this (just random examples), it seems uncommon in the first world to know much about Central America. Or cars in the tropics, lol. Of course, disclaimer, not everyone is like this, but the people who make themselves more notorious are asking/saying those sort of things.
Now, living in Germany made me realize that I also underestimated my own country. Here you get 74727485 papers for everything, rarely something is digital, and you will get it via post some day. While in my country you can get information via email, WhatsApp or other digital ways. Like, you can see you medical history in the public healthcare system app. Yes, we have an app for that. In Germany… The healthcare system covers the same but is separated from wherever you’re getting your health checked, is not centralized. You want the epicrisis of a surgery you had? You have to call the hospital at certain times and eventually they will send it to you, printed, via post.
One time I was talking with someone about something of this and was asked “Ah, but then how would it be in your country?” – Digital. It would be digital.
Another thing is credit cards. Or debit cards, any plastic money. Costa Rica is a bit behind in the use of Paypal. A bit too much. But you can pay a coffee in a restaurant by a volcano with a debit or credit card, while in a centric town of Germany (to be understood: not the country side) I tried to pay for breakfast with an EC card (not even a real card, is a card system of Germany that works only inside of Germany) and was told “We only accept cash, you are in Lüneburg”, like saying “where TF do you think you are?”… Well… The first world I thought?
Here when you add money to your bank account on a Friday, it won’t be available for using it until Monday.
You know how we always complain in Costa Rica that you cannot go to the banks on Sundays? Well in Germany you cannot even go to the supermarket on Sunday. Everything is closed.
On the other hand, transportation in Germany is LOVELY. The highways are in good conditions, the trains are fast and there is a schedule for when the bus should be passing by (approximately). You can buy train and bus tickets online or in person, go with the subterranean train and with other transportation systems available different in each region. The buses will even go down with an hydraulic system so old people and wheelchairs can get in easier. In Costa Rica if you use a wheelchair better get a car…
In Costa Rica… well… you don’t know when will the bus arrive. Can be that you know it goes each 20 minutes, but that doesn’t really mean anything. Sometimes you would wait for a bus in the city center and, after waiting some time unsuccessfully, someone tells you the stop was moved to who know where, then you have to walk and find it. Traffic on general is terrible.
The available trains are basically for 2 routes/lines and as slow as driving without traffic. And driving… I remember being in a traffic jam for 2h to go to class, 9km from home. In Germany I can go from Hamburg to Denmark in that time (+-230km).
So yeah. Costa Rica is not the paradise jungle the first world thinks we are, and Germany is not that technologically advanced country the third world thinks they are. In fact if you are a medical doctor or an IT specialist, come to Germany, we need you!.
As promised! Here is the recipe we use for our oatmeal waffles 😉
You will need…
– 500g of oats, can be the full ones or the crushed ones, as you prefer 🥣 – Half a teaspoon of salt 🧂 – 2 spoons of honey 🍯 – 2 bananas 🍌 – 2 teaspoons of baking powder 🥄 – 2 teaspoons of cinnamon 🥄 – 2 eggs 🥚 – 170ml of milk 🥛(we use oat milk but you can use any)
1. Combine all the dry elements in a bowl (oats, salts, baking powder, cinnamon). 2. Mix the milk, bananas and honey in a blender. 3. Add the dry ingredients and blend until smooth, then add the 2 eggs.
And so your mixture is ready for the waffle iron or if you want, to make them as pancakes 😁
For the ending, you can use any berries, bananas, cream, honey, cinnamon or whatever your heart desires as topping 😊🧇
Finally with you: the nut bar recipe we use for our home made bars ❤️
This time all the measurements are in grams 😉 You will need…
400g of a mix of ANY of the following: Cornflakes Puffed rice Puffed amaranth Oatmeal Cashews Almonds cutted in tiny pieces Peanuts Dehydrated cranberries (for added sweetness) Chocolate chips/cacao nibs Walnuts… Or any nut your heart desires, but make it 400g in total. Of this step will depend if your bars are more fruity or nutty 150g of apple puree with or without sugar. Apfelmus if you live in Germany. Aaaand 100g of integral/full corn flower
100g of honey
Mix everything together and put it in a baking tray, shape it so it has about 1.5-2cm thickness. Then it goes for 20 minutes to the oven at 170°C. When done, let it cool and cut it before is completely cooled down. Now you can drizzle some melted chocolate on top if you want. We hope you enjoy!
I realized this year that there are 2 kinds of winter: The dark, cloudy, rainy and extremely boring one… and the snowy, with blue skies and temperatures of under -12°C. BEAUTIFUL. Precisely the kind of winter I always had in mind.
Like 50cm of snow, -12°C and frozen rivers!
Apparently this kind of winter… with this amount of snow, didn’t happen around here since at least 10 years ago. You know the only natural thing to do with some much snow right? RIGHT.
We made a full, big, proper snowman! With his own snowcat and all
I definitely had to use the chance to do all the things I couldn’t while growing in the tropics, like making a snowman (and a snowcat), riding a sled, walking in a frozen lake, making a snow “angel”, and having a snow fight!
For the sled part we had to buy one, thankfully Micha found a place that had a couple and was selling them on the spot so he, thankfully, took the chance!. Is more complicated that it seems, specially when you ride it on a slope with a curve haha. The good thing is that if you roll, the soft-ish snow catches you.
Walking in a lake? Check!
We cannot encourage you to walk in a lake though, is quite dangerous. We did it here cause is the lake in the surroundings of Micha’s family house so he knows it, don’t try this just anywhere.
We also saw a snowy Externsteine!
And of course, we had snowball fights as much as we could, before our fingers started to hurt haha. There I discovered there are 2 kinds of snow: the powdery one that’s super cute but cannot get in any shape, and the “wet” one that’s ideal for snowballs and snowmen. The first kind happens when the temperature is too low and the second when the temperature goes up so a bit of the snow melts and helps the rest merge into any shape you want
So we got this recipe from somewhere on the internet but we modified it so much that we had to write it down, as it follows:
(inb4 I use cups cause I got used to it but the conversion is roughly 235g).
1 cup of butter (warm/melted/soft) 1.5 cups of sugar. Half a cup of vanilla sugar or brown sugar, whatever your heart desires 4 eggs. 6 bananas. 1/4 cup of chocolate chips. 1/4 cup of blueberries. 1/4 cup of almonds (can be in tiny pieces, slices, as you wish)
3 cups of flour (we mix a bit of integral flour sometimes) 3/4 cup of sour cream/saure Sahne/ natilla. 2 teaspoons of baking soda
Just mix everything together, put in any container oven-friendly (butter it before, can be with butter, margarine or oil) and put it in the oven for 1h at 170°C. And there you have it! Not so dry/not so moist (but enough) perfect banana bread 🍞
