Where does the time go?
Cannot believe it I woke up on Friday morning and realised it has been a year since my return to Germany. Wow, yet scary at the same time! Half way through my experiment - and still undecided on whether to stick around in Germany or whether to pack my bags again and try a new adventure in another excotic country where it is less of an hassle to integrate but yet still serve sausages and cake (not on the same plate of course, I might have developed a strange taste while living on the island but it is not THAT weird).
Needless to say, I needed to celebrate/ commiserate my one year anniversary in style and went to a pub. As I couldnt't find a decent British Pub in Hamburg (or lets say Google wouldn't find me one) I took the second best and went to an Irish Pub which even had live music, once the football had finished. Coincidentally, my one year anniversary fell on the same date of the opening game of the Bundesliga, when plenty of German men get excited that their is a reason to their live once more. One of the things England and Germany have in common. The background noise made the atmosphere even better in this great pub, cheering fans for the opposing team as they kept scoring and booing from the fans of the local team. Just missed the bouncers.
Sitting at the table with my friends having a sausage and bacon putty and a pint of lager and a packet of crisps (couldn't resist, if you lived in England for a bit longer I am sure you remember this great series :) ), I had a chance to reminiscent. Here, I was in Hamburg after 12 months of adventures and arguements with bureocrats, job centre, heath insurance, hit and miss job interviews, living with my parents again and settling into a new city where I originally had no intention of going to, I still missed London, the security of knowing where to go, how to avoid paying too much and my friends. At that moment, I have would have given anything for them to be there with me in that cosey pub. But then I realised how much I had achieved in just a short period of time. I didn't give up, although I was very close a many couple of times to book a return ticket to London. I managed to find a job and a place to live. Finally, I can afford to live by myself without having to pay a ridiculous price for rent. And I looked around the group of friends, sitting around the table, who celebrated that I have come and stayed in Hamburg. A nice odd bunch of people, whom you can have more than just a pint with and most of them have also just moved to Hamburg within the last year and still feel as foreign to the city as I am.
So as the second pint arrived, we prosted on my second year in Germania, and are looking forward to exploring what this city has to offer.
Cheers!!
