travelling home. two ways.

at this point i am comfortable to say that the only thing i like about the French is their macarons and their champagne.

 

after 32 hours of travelling i made it back to cape town. the part when i ate all the ladurée macarons, my last euros could buy, and drank all the champagne at the business class lounge was fun. the part when i was stuck on the plane for an extra three hours at the airport till 2am wasn’t fun. neither the part when i subsequently missed my connecting flight and was put on another one that was also two hours late. and neither when this one was also stuck at the airport for another hour due to a dent, which may or may not have been caused by a poor little bird (captain’s words, not mine – fuck that bird!). did i mention that they put me in the last row, middle seat, and that air france managed to lose my luggage yet again?!
yeah, all so not fun and even the macarons barely made up for it. but as they did, i need to thank marie for telling me about the ladurée stand at the airport. i don’t think it would have even occurred to me to look for it, if she hadn’t told me.
so now i’m back and my luggage too with a little delay. i’m sick and exhausted, emotionally and physically. however i am happy to be back in the sun, with my solar powered fairy lights and a big pot of freshly grown basil on the balcony.
but for all of you who were hopeful that once i travelled back to cold, dark germany in the winter and would be inclined to change my mind about moving there, i have to disappoint you. despite the less than fortunate circumstances i liked it. 

i liked that the people in shops and restaurants were really friendly and generally knew what they were doing. a large number of girls sported an unfortunate choice of eyebrows (as in none, replaced by a black marker line), but while it made them look a bit scary, they were still all really friendly and i think it might only be a regional thing.

oh how i loved that things run on time! except very busy surgeons when they meet you for dinner, but how often will that really become an issue in the future?!

my nephew asked me when i was going to come visit him again (i didn’t get to see him this time around) and so i told him about my plans to move to hamburg where he lives. he was so freaking excited and just kept on asking for real? like really?
so i have to move now before he turns into a snotty teenager who couldn’t give a damn about where his aunt lives. 

 

but seriously i am also moving back for the love of pasta. i mean look at this…

i almost cried when i saw the wall of pasta at karstadt and tried to figure out how i can take all some back. in the end i didn’t take any because my bag was full, but i have planned to return there immediately when i move back and buy all some of it.

last but not least: germany is pretty when the skies are blue and yes, even in winter they sometimes are.

ain't no martha stewart.

i’m not really a sweets person. except for the occasional pms induced snickers i always prefer savoury over sweet for comfort food. i do like gummibears, but if some relative from germany is coming and ask me what i want i still prefer a stern to haribo. this year i found christmas chocolates in my fridge at easter and whenever vida e wants to give me a lindt i want to ask them if i can rather have some chips with my coffee. so no, i am even a fan of chocolate. gasp! what? the horror! i know, what kind of girl am i to not like chocolate? insert shaking head here.

the one thing i always did like was cake. probably because i was a bit deprived as a child when it came to cake. we would only have cake occasionally for a sunday afternoon treat.  my dad and i usually shared a slice of fruit cake. today we have tart, back then we had fruit cake and it usually involve canned fruit drenched in colour coordinated jelly. he ate the fruit and i ate the dough. it was perfect as we each got the part we liked best. for a big birthday party of his he once ordered crates of little fruit cakes with vanilla cream and berries. i do vividly remember that i ate all the left over ones including the fruit, they were just that good.

so moving here i fell in love with cassis not only for their macarons, which i still declare the bestest ever (i have yet to have ladurée), but also their little fruit tarts which are perfect for a single person’s appetite. the other day i was very excited to have gotten the last one. getting the last one of something always makes me feel special and extremely excited. even better it was a random wednesday and they told me i could pick another little cake. it was 2-for-1 day and yay for me. now i didn’t feel so excited anymore for getting the last fruit tart as there was no other. only chocolate left. i almost refused my free cake; this shows you just how little i care about chocolate.

cupcakes are also quite uninspiring to me, after all it is just dough and icing…bleh. i almost cried with disappointment after finally going to magnolia bakery in nyc to have one of their famous cupcakes. one does wonder how they ended up starring in so many movies and tv series when it was more icing with cupcake than a cupcake with icing, too dry and overly sweet; something my mum would refuse with the words i’m not spoiling my figure for junk.