Back in My Old Homeland 24. July 2022
It's been a while since I last wrote - the days have simply been packed. So much needed to be organized before we could travel to Germany. It was especially important to us that our cats were well cared for during our absence. Fortunately, everything worked out, and we could set off on our way.
The journey itself had to be carefully planned, because there were several things waiting for us in Germany that we absolutely wanted to take care of. At the top of the list: Michael's car. Our faithful Hyundai was finally to be returned. One last time it drove with us the roughly 1100 kilometers to my old home - a long stretch that somehow still felt familiar to us.
We arrived on Sunday evening and were immediately treated to a magnificent dinner at Susanne's - how wonderful it is to be received like that! The next morning we got an early start: the Hyundai was taken to the car dealership, where all the formalities were handled quickly. They even offered to drive us back - but we deliberately chose otherwise. Instead, we wanted to walk back.
This walk is more than just a stroll for us - it's full of memories. We used to walk it often before, together with Maya, with Ebbi, and I myself much earlier with Monti. It was lovely to walk it again, step by step through the familiar landscape of our past.
After that, we made a short stop at Lidl, bought something to drink and a few little things. At the cemetery we paused, visited the graves, watered the flowers - a quiet moment of remembrance. Then we went on to Michael's parents' house, where we had a light bite to eat and already began with some tidying up.
While Michael was intensely occupied with remodeling the house - with lots of effort and drive - I made my way to Anke and Thomas. There I was kindly allowed to borrow their daughter's car, since we wanted to be mobile for the next few days.
In the evening we met up with Christoph and Yin - a lovely reunion in a delicious Vietnamese restaurant, which was definitely a culinary highlight. And as if the day hadn't already been complete enough, we even ran into Johanna there, who owned the car we had borrowed. She had come by bike and accepted with a smile that we were "using" her car right then.
So this first day in Germany was rich in memories, encounters, and tasks - but also filled with gratitude that so much is possible when you have people you can count on.
