Tag: travel

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Costa Rica Germany

The dark side of living abroad

Cause not everything is rainbows and roses

Growing up in the tropics I always wondered about this places that have actual snow for Christmas and not that synthetic thing that some people put on the cypress trees to make it look more Christmassy… but my priority was always to finish my studies to a point where I could take care of myself and find this places on my own. Along the way I got a huge interest for Germany, the geography, music and weather, nothing huge.

Fast forward to 2018: I’m financially independent and had traveled already to Germany where I met my husband, this led to the decision that got me to this post. Do we settle in Costa Rica or in Germany.? It was easy for me to chose cause everyone had good health in my family and I had always wanted to live in a place where I could see the 4 season every year and go out at night without fearing for my life.
But once you live abroad and you settle, life changes in both places and you can not be everywhere. Your parents get older, your brothers grow, your cats forget you (nah, well, my Piyu didn’t forget me yet haha) and also the scenario changes. Now you notice how living abroad also implies that you might not be there for ALL your loved ones in difficult times.
When I was about to leave CR I decided to almost shut the world down and just stay at home the last days I was there watching Netflix and talking with my mom. Lost some friends for this choice but I cannot stress how important was it for me to spend time with my mom, specially since she had recently retired and finally had some free time to just chill and relax. She always worked a lot, she loved her work, but now she had free time and I decided to spend mine with her. Best choice ever.
Little did we knew that the pandemic would crush my family’s trip to Germany to meet my German family but also that my mom would get badly sick. That’s why we decided to make an emergency travel and see her properly, cause the last time we saw each other we were not certain of anything. Now we are also not, but this was the last time I saw my mom, the last time we saw a movie together, the last time we hugged, talked about life and waited for the new year to come together.
This is the price we pay for living abroad, specially so far away. I understand it and so does my family but it will never be easy.
She just died (24.01.2021) and I miss her like breathing.
So, you leave your family hoping the best for everyone but you truly never know know when is the last time you see them.

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Allgemein

Externsteine

This might be our most hyped place. The most hyped podcast too! And with all the reason cause this place is GORGEOUS.

We think there should be more people visiting here, it’s surprising how you talk about it with other germans and they don’t know about it or they just don’t where is it. So we bring it here for everyone!

It is located in Horn, Nordrhein-westfallen. In the north-east of this region, really close to Lower Saxony in the Teutoburg forest. You can also reach easy from Detmold.
This huge rocks reach the 15m of height and are super old, so much that there is said that this place was sacred for the Saxons and even had in the surrounding the Irminsul (the tree of life) which was eventually destroyed by Carlo Magno.

Another interesting thing is that you are allowed to go up this rocks through a set of stairs, and in one of the top of this rocks there is a hole, which aligns with the sun on the summer solstice. It has been speculated that it can be (or could have been) of astronomical importance in the same sense as Stonehenge for example.

So now you know, German cities are gorgeous, but the country side has jewels worth visit!

Categories
Allgemein Beaches Germany Nature Summer

Beaches in Germany

I’m clearly not an expert in this matter as i am not too fond of beaches in general. In Costa Rica they are too hot for me so never took the time to get to like them truly. I’m also not sure of how to clasify them but here we go.

Said this, Germany has more beaches than i originally thought. We all know Germany has borders with basically half of Europe (ok i’m exaggerating, but it’s a lot of countries), but it also have the North Sea and the Baltic Sea around in the north. This might not be enough for germans tho, as you can find a lot of “beaches” also around lakes and rivers (like the Rhin in Düsseldorf or the Elbe and Alster in Hamburg)

I remember the first time i took Micha to a Costa Rican beach, he asked me “Is this a natural white-sand beach or is it man made?. I was confused. Man made? Who would make a whole beach?. Well… Germans do.
So this beaches around rivers and lakes are mostly man made. Someone at some point decided to have a beach there and put a lot of sand. It works!.

So far we have visited the Elbstrand Oevelgönne in Hamburg and the Baltic Sea in Mecklenburg-Vornpommern

Elbstrand Oevelgönne, Hamburg.
You have to be careful when a big ship is passing close.

The best for me is Elbstrand Oevelgönne, cause it’s close to the city so you can run away from the heat anytime and go back to a normal environment. It is literally in the Elbe so probably not a good one to get into the water, but the rest is really pretty and you can just throw your blanket and chill while you see all the ships passing by in the Elbe.

Baltic Sea, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

The Baltic Sea is also really pretty and the water is (i think) cleaner than the Elbe so is “safe”to go in. I say “safe” cause i saw several germans inside, but i also saw a lot of jellyfish so i’m not sure. Apparently this jellyfishes are non-poisonous but i don’t know them so i didn’t risk it. This one is also way more relax than the beaches in Hamburg, as there is normal to see people drinkking or listening to music, but in the Baltic Sea is more about getting in the water and making LOTS of sand castles.