Homesickness

So Cydney and I toughed out our travel night of no sleep on the shuttle bus and the not yet awake Stansted airport for our flight to Bremen, but we did make it barely awake.

There were some unfortunate family matters that developed just as we were arriving but my sisters Natalia and Jessica had prepared a fairly traditional and extravagant German breakfast for us and took the edge off at least for a bit. Strawberries in soy yougurt, rolls with dairy free margarine, a choice of spreads to enjoy with tea or coffee.... we were in heaven. After chatting it up a bit we had gotten our second wind but Jessi insisted we nap and as soon as she ensured we were comfy on her couch we did pass out.

Natalia's cat had kittens and we got to go to the vet with her to have them dewormed. They were only just 4 weeks old and every free moment we were hanging out with them (totally girly).


My hometown of Bremerhaven has been investing a lot of money into attracting more tourism and remodelling. One of its new showcases was the Sea City Hotel which is a builiding that looks like the famous curved one in Dubai. We took the elevator up to the top and overlooked the city and the coast of the North Sea, and beyond to the further German countryside. My sisters also took us the the extended Mediterraneo mall and explained about the Klimahaus, which features every climate on the planet in one building and lights up at night. We out to eat at Blatloss, and while it was delicious it took over an hour and a half to get our orders and everyone was food cranky by then.

Saturday we had gone to the swimming pool chain Bad1 ("Bad" is "pool" and the number denotes which location). It has everything like a mini waterpark but I think we mostly enjoyed the massage and spa treatments offered. We hung out in the aquamassage areas longer than anywhere else. Following that we had done some shopping in the city but with limited time we didn't really get to explore and the weather was really nasty preventing our hosts from wanting to go out. As we were leaving the shopping mall we stopped by the dyke in the pouring rain just to say we were there. It was my nephew, Simon's, birthday and there were plans to go out. We went from one bar to another but for some reason nothing really seemed to be going on (next weekend was a big event so it may have been the calm before the storm). Cyd and I were challenged to a game of table Fussball and despite not having the long developed skills we only lost by one point.

Sunday we made the long trek out to my grandparent's out in the countryside. Cyd kept saying everything looked like it came out of a fairytale. The house was packed full with guests to visit us and in all the madness my grandmother showed us her ridiculously priced sewing machines. Some were 8000€!! Tea and cakes and then the long drive back. We finished up the night with a walk in a nearby park.

I cried with every goodbye and three days in five years was clearly not enough.