Great German supermarket product/price comparison site

Last October I talked about a UK/US supermarket comparison site called http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/ (UK version) that enables you to paralelly compare the total sum of your shopping with each individual supermarket taking part in the list and puts the cheapest of the supermarkets on top as soon as the sum of your shopping basket changes with a cheaper new product.

Now I stumbled over a similar German site called http://www.supermarktcheck.de/ - it does not compare whole baskets, as far as I found out it only compares single products so it takes a bit more work to figure out the basket for each single. Another feature of the site is that you can either search for 1st option: How much?, 2nd for: Buy where?, 3rd: How many calories?, 4th quality check? and finally 5th: How much will I save buying the shop's version of the product?

A neat site which surely could highly progress by offering a similar "basket comparison" option as the UK and US comparison sites.

Cutting my long hair - from tailbone length to waist length

After: Waist length

Before: Tailbone/hip length

Yes, for those who know my love for very long hair, it might be surprising news, but I finally decided to cut my hair from tailbone/hip length to waist length.

I felt like it got too heavy for my rather petite body structure and I had several serious neck issues, especially after washing it. It might be part stress, but I believe it is mainly due to the weight of my hair, which got thicker in the last few years after changing my hair routine.

Front view

I also had to give up not drying it with a hairdryer, every time I would let it dry by itself I could be sure to have a totally stiff neck the next morning. Nothing you wish to experience more than once, especially not after EVERY freaking hair wash.... So, I guess here in Europe, especially in Germany, I will have to rely on my hairdryer unfortunately.

So, there you go, my new hair cut - as always cut at home - my head and hair have not seen a hair stylist for more than 5 years now and I really don't miss the (at most times disappointing) experience ;)

Side view

Castles in Germany: Altes Schloss Hohenbaden & castle restaurant

Any castle fans here? Planning a trip to Europe any time soon? Well, congratulations, you are coming to the right place, Germany is the hotspot for all castle and middle-age fanatics!

This time I took my London friends to the Altes Schloss Hohenbaden, the Old Castle in Baden-Baden. It is part intact, part restored ruins and a very mysterious yet romantic spot.

As part of its history, it has (like most castles) lots of stories, including the legend of The Grey Lady: 
A countess famous for supressing the population and only worried about herself. Always asking for hard labour and high tax, and those who dared to resist, were promptly thrown into the dark and damp dungeon of the castles, where in worst case scenario followed physical torture.

One evening, she took her only baby son up to the top of the highest tower. Looking down on her kingdom, she held her son far over the stone window ledge and sneered: "Look and count all the villages, spots and farms! They are endless. As far as your eye can reach, all people have to bow and scrape to you. Force them under your knout and don't give them rest, thus you will live well on earth!"

But the moment the lady finished her cruel speech, the baby boy slipped through her hands and fell down into the deep darkness. Pale as death the lady rushed down the stairs to look for her son. Although she forced her servants to look for her child day and night, the boy was never found.

So since this incident, the legend says that the crual countess is running down the stairs of the castle on stormy days and when you listen well, you can hear her shrill voice being carried in the hoarse winds through the narrow corridors of the castles.

Me having some delicious moca tart

Got some goose bumps? hehe.... My friends indeed felt some shiver, especially with the wind harp close by, which claims to be the biggest in Europe.... We then decided that we had earned some rest and headed for some coffee and cake in the castle's own restaurant, I had some amazing moca tart and my friends both had fruit cakes, very yummy! Here the Castle Restaurant Menu.











Here some more pictures of the wind harp and beautiful sights of the mysterious, romantic castle:

One of Germany's most romantic, hidden gems: The enchanting Geroldsauer Waterfalls & Bütthof restaurant

My favourite romantic spot:
The Geroldsauer Waterfalls

So as I mentioned in my last post, I spend one beautiful day in May hiking up the enchanting Geroldsauer Waterfalls, together with the prince of sun, dance girl and holiday girl.

The weather was quite moody so after arriving a little bit later than planned due to the sheer impossibility to find any directions pointing towards the waterfalls, we finally asked our way through (even though we had to ask about 4 times, and one group of ladies were Russian grannies who did not speak any German, Baden-Baden is quite a favourite spot for Russians in general).

Getting there about 45min later than intended, we arrived just in time for a midday snack, so we thought. Hiking up the waterfall paths, we quickly found ourselves starving and ready for lunch, so we were very pleased when we realized that the nearby forest restaurant Waldgaststätte Bütthof was only about 5min away by foot so we were quickly speeding up and saw the pretty Landhaus style restaurant and its own grown Irish buffelos (?) already from far.

The prince of sun ordered the buffelo steak dish and I tried a bit, it was very soft and delicious (although I have to admit that I felt a bit guilty as they were peacefully munching along just about 100m away from us..... We all had a huge plate filled up with delicious, traditional Badener food, the girls tried out the "German sausage and fried potato salad" (Wurstsalat mit Bratkartoffeln, please try and imagine something different than some lettuce, chips and a sausage cut in pieces :D, below some pictures for further illustration). Your love, your friends, beautiful landscape, a beautiful restaurant plus nice waitress and amazing food, cannot get better than that, can it?

The forest restaurant Waldgaststätte Bütthof 

Check out this quick youtube video of the Geroldsauer waterfalls (the music is lovely as well!):

Mannas Zappan - Organic soap bars from Hungary

Mannas Zappan Soap Bars & Dresdner Essence relax bath

I had to write about one of my latest obsessions... but first things first: A few weeks ago, my London friends dance girl and holiday girl came to visit me here in Germany for a weekend. Spending our days eating out and sightseeing around the Baden-Baden and Alsace regions and hiking up the enchanting Geroldsauer Waterfalls, we actually spent our first 1h together just exchanging presents <3

One of the presents holiday girl gave to me was a wonderful collection of organic body, face and hair soap bars that she ordered from a supplier in Hungary. The brand is called Mannas Zappan and the products were originally made by a mum that got frustrated with available body care products. Mainly due to her children's allergies, she felt that common products did not work with her family and created their own original organic products: the soap(bar)s are all natural and organic, the ones I received in my collection, have an intense and earthy perfume, each of them has its distinct smell that gets you quite quick. All lather fantastically (for those who miss the lather in other organic soaps), probably due to the coconut soap that most of the soaps contain. I tried them out today (yes, all of them at once :D, I just could not resist) after having a wonderful muscle relax bath using the Dresdner Essenz Muskellockerungsbad. (Got to spoil yourself from time to time, don't ya?!)

My collection of
Mannas Zappan soap bars

On the left a few pictures of the soap bars, here a quick translation of each soap type (no guarantee though, it has been with the google translator ;)

On the upper left, a body soap bar with cinnamon and coconut, it says something like good for maintaining firm skin. Yummy it is for sure!

On the lower left in light green, the shampoo soap bar of my collection, I absolutely loved my hair - I tend to have normal, rather dry hair and often have an electricity thing going on just after drying them, but this shampoo soap really helped avoiding the static state. It smells a bit citrussy and I suspect another green ingredient here:

Trip to Germany & Berlin coming closer! PLUS Information on Aguia-Branca, MeinFernbus & Condor luggage allowance

Since Dezember, I am planning my next Trip to Germany and Berlin! YAY!!! This time together with the prince of sun <3 Now there are only about three weeks left, OMG, so excited =)

I am going to visit my friend Berlin girl at her place in Potsdam, do Berlin sightseeing (and shopping) with the prince and her and we will even do a short day trip to Warnemuende, a seaside resort and former fishing village situated on the Ostsee, Baltic Sea in the North-Eastern part of Germany, close to Rostock. I am really looking forward to showing the prince an authentic German beach and sea as well as traditions and his first, ever dunes (and dune rabbits!). (He does not know about the day trip, so.... cannot wait to see his face when he suddenly stands in front of the beach and sea, he thinks we are only going to visit Berlin and Potsdam, no word from me or Berlin girl about the trip or destination hehe....

Castle beauties - Fantasy vs Reality 

There is more, my family and I are planning to go on many castle trips, at least 4 different ones, one will be the Hohenbaden Castle, one castle near Gengenbach (forgot the name, I have to research some more...) plus the beautiful Hohenzollern Castle (those three are all located at less than 2h by car from my parents' place) and the famous Neuschwanstein Castle (the one that Disney used as a template for their dream castle) (located more or less 4h by car from my parents' place).

And as a cream-top for my holiday cake of wonders, two of my dear London friends, holiday girl and dance girl, are coming over for a weekend trip, none of them have been to Germany so I am thrilled to introduce them to our wonderful culture, delicious hearty German food, relaxing Roman bath-spa, breath-taking waterfalls.... *_* so excited!

So, other than that I have been planning to take lots of books and have made some packing lists (what to pack in Brazil), German-culture-related items (especially German children s books and items), shopping lists, Berlin packing list, Berlin to-do list, Berlin shopping list, my region's to do list, home-trip packing list.... I did mention that I love making lists... haha....

I mentioned some of our travel companies during my Europe trip last year already, I actually used the same companies as we do this time, but now I'll explain the baggage allowances for each company in detail.

So here you go, here more about each company we are travelling with:

Our first travel company is a Brazilian coach company called

Aguia Branca - 12h night bus from Porto Seguro to Salvador
-one suitcase of 30kg (to be stored in the luggage department of the bus)
-no exact restrictions for hand luggage

Last time I travelled with them, I only had one hand luggage (the carry on size), but most people travelling with me on the bus had a carry on plus normal handbags plus enormous plastic bags with them so I am quite optimistic that they are pretty generous with hand luggage taken on the bus with you (as long as you can fit it into the relatively generous space in front of you).

Arriving at the bus station in Salvador the next morning, we will take one of the local buses to the international airport in Salvador, where we will catch our flights in the afternoon, we are flying with

CONDOR, 10h over-night transatlantic flight from Salvador to Frankfurt
-2 suitcases of 32kg each (yes, you are reading right here *_*)
-hand luggage=carry on of 6kg
-1 laptop bag plus laptop
-1 small handbag
-umbrella

Isn t that just a dream....! Let's get that straight.
Proper 64 kg checked luggage. 6kg carry on. Total: A whopping 70kg. Not counting the handbag and laptop bag stuff!!! AAAAND the prince and I are travelling together. Each of us has those allowances, making it official:  140kg. Plus content of two small (hand)bags & notebook bags *_*

Right, last trip to Berlin, we will probably leave most of my stuff at my parents' place when we leave for Berlin and only take one suitcase and backpack with us, so our last company mentioned is

MeinFernbus, 10h daytime coach trip from Karlsruhe to Berlin

Our luggage planning

-2 suitcases of each 20kg
-hand luggage of 15kg

Whopping, isn t it!

I know now you'll ask me how I will ever be able to get my luggage sorted with so many different luggage restrictions.

Keep calm and... read on ;)

Love parcels: If I were a little bird and had 2 little wings, I'd fly to you!

Today I had two sweet surprises waiting for me at my doorstep.

One was literally sweet: A parcel from my lovely mum <3 full of goodies, delicious, sweet forest fruit tea (that I am slurping right now) as well green tea and as other sorts, loads of beautiful poems, songs and prayers as well as the invitation to my cousin's wedding and some cheerful baloons. =) My dear mum always manages to surprise me over and over again with new ideas and beautiful memories of my childhood and favourite childhood songs as well as showing me new poetry and in general re-inventing life and love the whole time.

The poem that touched me most was my alltime favourite little bird song (shown on the postcard in the middle picturing a young woman with a looong braid sitting under a try, being thoughtful and observing little birds flying around. The only colour aspect of the picture is a tiny heart on the bottom <3 so beautiful! *_*).

The poem says:                                                     (this old-style-German poem translates to something like:

"Wenn ich ein Voeglein waer,                                If I were a little bird  
 und auch zwei Flueglein haett,                               and had two little wings,    
floeg ich zu dir.                                                      I'd fly to you!
Weils aber nicht kann sein,                                    But as it cannot be,
weils aber nicht kann sein,                                     but as it cannot be,
bleib ich all hier!"                                                   I'll have to stay right here!).

She has also sent me loads of beautiful poems by Rudolf Alexander Schroeder, which I will come back to in a minute =) By the way, my mum had sent some cosmetics as well, but those errr got lost on the way somehow - we will never know where, right, aehem....


The second nice surprise was a traditional postcard from my friend law girl who is doing her LLM, master of law, in San Francisco and has sent her lovely lines over. It is the first postcard that actually arrived, she had sent one from New York once that got lost in the nirvana of international air mail =) So happy it arrived this time hun! <3 And who knows maybe the Brazilian mail will be getting better and better each, paying a bit more to their staff resulting in more reliable work force resulting in better service offered to the public!

(So yes, just need to work on that 'stuff disappearing'-issue, but we'll get there right, as we say in Germany: Es ist noch nie ein Meister vom Himmel gefallen = It never happened that a master fell from the sky., meaning we all continue learning and perfecting what we do...

And now, as promised before, here some of the beautiful poems by Rudolf Alexander Schroeder:

Good hair, bad hair and our world`s fear of gray/white hair & Update on hair cut

Just as anyone else on our dear planet, I have been confronted with hair issues during all my life. Any kind of it really. But today let`s only talk about our precious tresses!

Starting at teenager age, I had just decided to let my hair grow and quickly learned that the hair business is not as simple as it seems. I was quickly told that my hair was not thick enough to be grown long or that it had too many split ends and needed 3cm to be cut and after some time, it was suggested that I also do something about my rather boring hair colour. Insecure as those teenagers are, my colouring routine started at about 16 ranging from dark blue-black to chocolate-red-brown and went on until I was about 23 ending with indigo-and-henna-dark-red-brown. (I love how literal you can see the expression DYING HAIR. right!?....) Seven long years of dying my hair. Seven long years of horrible chemical substances eating into my scalp and flowing down my poor vains. And at about 20 years of age, the first grays started to appear. So as soon as I realized that those grays were appearing, I was pretty much condemned to colour my hair forever. So I was told. By the media, TV ads, magazines, some of my family (except my mum who herself has the most beautiful gray-streaked tresses herself since her late 20s/early 30s <3), friends, and finally after enough brain washing, by myself. Getting grays in such a young age, dreadful!

Well, during those 7 years, my routine was quite simple compared to what other people do, I had a shampoo and conditioner (silicone loaden of course), some loreal and fructis and such. Plus one finishing cream for shiny and non-frizzy hair. Plus some hairbrushes (in 4-5x daily use), hair dryer (about every 3 days when washing my hair) and a small set of flat ironer, curler etc (which I used at the age of 22-23, maybe 10x or less in total before changing my routine radically). I coloured my hair about every 3-4 months, sometimes later and went to cut it about every 4-6 months. I was pretty low maintenance most of the time, already before changing my routine, some might say now.

New hair cut:
Shorter front hair on March 2014

Wake-up-hair ;)

Then, about 4 years ago, I started researching about product content and general (beauty=) health related issues as well as going through some personal growth and changes in attitude and how I viewed myself and everything around me and totally stopped EVERYTHING I did before. I went through a lot of different stages (like trying out the no-poo-movement and such) and then finally decided to let my true hair/hair colour shine (and sometimes bounce) again =)

general length the same,
kept at hip length

And I have not looked back ever since. I did go back to shampooing due to my sensitive scalp, no other products such as spray or such, a very mild shampoo version (see my hair routine for more information) (most of my shampoos are Alverde) and wash my hair about once a week now. I brush it once (sometimes twice) a day, mostly in the evening, sometimes in the morning, but here in Brazil I have it up in a bun for most of the daylight (HOT) hours as it is really too hot for having hair longer than your ears ;) I have it down in the late afternoon and evening hours as well as when sleeping, I just throw it over the pillow and wake up with my octopus hair almost strangling me ;) I have tried sleeping with buns and braids during almost 3 years. But it is just not the same comfort and now that my hair is long and heavy enough, I just keep it over my pillow for most of the night and from time to time, throw it back into its off-pillow position when it gets into my face after tossing around too much and have to grab it from under the prince of sun`s head haha.... oh well ;) since changing my routine, my hair shows that it too has its moods. Sometimes it is very wavy and almost curly, sometimes it is almost sleek with just really slight waves.... it probably just depends on my current state of mind haha..... one thing that I noticed though is that the longer I go between washes, the easier it goes to the wavy-curly state. I do love combing my hair and letting the curls (that appear at the ends mostly) bounce around for a bit.

Side view of new shorter front section

I also cut it myself (straight across mainly, at hip length), a few weeks ago I decided to cut some of my front hair as my hair was getting too heavy for my taste and finally had the courage to cut about 3 hands of length! But I love it, the rest of my hair is still hip length, it is lighter and the front section lies in a soft wave next my face.

My beautiful glitter-whites in the sun <3

Now about the gray hair/white hair issue: I LOVE my white hair which distributes in layers and fine glitter-lines throughout my head, but mostly at the front sections and I get so many questions who coloured my hair and did the delicate light-blond highlights and that it looks sooo nice and natural and shines like little stars glittering in the sun, especially the front highlights sections... and how I managed that sometimes only a few hairs are highlighted and not streaks of hair, really SINGLE hairs. I always answer that my hair dresser is called god and that he is a real genius in making me perfectly look exactly how I am supposed to be, combining my hair colours and structure exactly to how it best combines with my natural skin, cheek and lip colour :D

I get strange looks then, some pauses and deep thinking periods and some ask:

Punctuality revisited: Cultural differences in German, London and Brazilian culture - part 1

Punctuality. Efficiency. Honesty. I guess those things were mostly mentioned when someone talked about positive aspects of German people's character. So here my three cents to a few related topics, all in comparison of my experience in each culture I am living in: Germany, London (UK) and Brazil.


PUNCTUALITY

German translation: Pünktlichkeit
I won't say that there are no exeptions but in general, Germans (including myself) take punctuality quite serious. It is seen as a polite act (of kindness) to respect each others time and (most probably) commitments (the other person might have after meeting you). So that's why in most cases, when you plan to meet someone at 11am, it will be 11am. Not 11:05 or 11:30. Or very often, the person you are meeting with might be arriving in a so called Puffer-timespan. Which means he or she arrives about 10minutes or so earlier just in case something might happen that could cause some delays. So don't be surprised if you are early and your friend already sits on a bench with a book in his hand, smiling when you arrive early as well =)

Londoners & punctuality:
I have to be honest, I cannot say too much about the rest of Britain as I have only done a few day trips to other cities so... Anyway, in most cases one could say that Londoners are pretty punctual. Maybe not in an arriving-too-early-manner like Germans, but you will not wait longer than 5minutes after the agreed time. (I can only refer to what I have experienced with teachers, friends and appointments). And in case they are late, they will make sure to let you know by message or calling you. I do know one exception, but I guess my friend dance girl just tends to run late anyway (so I do know that she will arrive late and always have a book or some work stuff with me). We always meet close to cafes so I always end up having a coffee or tea while waiting for her and she then joins me for the second cup ;)

Brazilian translation: pontualidade
I guess it is no news that Brazilians are famous for being late. People don't mean to be rude and lazy, it is just that everyone assumes that the other one will be late, so in general anything from 10 to 40 minutes of delay can be possible. Just take a book with you in case you wish to be punctual. In my experience, people tend to call only in case they have to cancel the meeting, not if they run late. But I am sure there are exceptions. So no worries if you run late, in most cases people will probably not even notice or mention it ;)


SENSE OF TIME AND SPACE
German translation: Das Empfinden von Zeit und Raum
This one might sound strange, but I will try my best to explain what I am at here. When you are out and about in a new place, maybe a tourist in an unknown city, you always end up asking locals for directions. Those are always measured in time and space, how long will it take to get there and how far is it. Germans will mostly try to tell you the exact time or check on their smartphones in case they don't know. Most preferably in exact minute and meter description. It will take you 5 minutes and 2 seconds and it's 155,55m distance. (Just kidding). Being known for their (slightly perfectionist) exactness, they would probably rather tell you that they actually don't know about how long it will take and how far it is, in case they really don't know or have no mobile (google map) help at hand. Just to be on the sure side so don't think they don't want to help. It is just that they don't want to lie to you. You might however also meet someone offering to take you straight to the place where you wish to go or telling you that they are on their way to go there and offer you to come with them.

Londoners' sense of time and space:
Most Londoners think in tube stops when they talk about time and space. Most probably when someone is late, the tube (or some delays in the tunnel) are the reason. (Or pretty convenient excuse). So most people tend to give a rather foggy description of time span, such as 'in case you catch the tube when you get on the platform and it is not too crowded, then in case no tunnels are blocked or no inspectors stop you, you might get there at maybe 10am'. But due to construction works, certain roads might be blocked, so the journey could be much longer than originally thought. To be on the safe side, they might check google map or the London transport page called Transport for London which has an excellent Journey Planner for their whole bus, tube, train etc network. A life saver really. And tube and bus stops show the exact time in minutes when your next bus or tube arrives..... ok, that might be another topic ;) Just always leave with least 30minutes time puffer and you will be fine.

Brazilian: Senso de tempo e espaço
Talking mostly about my husband, his sense of time and space is rather... flexible. He might say that he will just get some bread at the bakery around the corner 'REAL QUICK'. And arrives one hour later, telling me some interesting story about what happened this time. :D He probably just knows too many people around here, is very sociable and kind, and tends to chat around and looses his sense of time. A few months ago, I learned the hard way that his sense of time and space REALLY is very very different from mine when we went on a walk with our puppy Luke and the prince of sun just QUICKLY wanted to show me something 'closeby'. His favourite words are 'rapidinho' (very fast, very quick) or 'pertinho' (very close). So me thinking 10minutes, 1km. At the most. It rather turned out 70 minutes and a few kms more than imagined and resulted in a deep sunburn and a very thursty hubby, dog and me. haha.... Most Brazilians tend to have a very generous sense of time and space (mostly in their favour ;), so do count on a few minutes and km more, when someone tells you, that this and that is VERY close or very quick.

EFFICIENCY
Let's maybe take two examples for efficiency: work place and supermarket

German translation - I had to list quite a few words in addition to the obvious as we Germans do describe it in quite a lot of words depending on the area: Effizienz, Faehigkeit, Tuechtigkeit, Leistung (the list goes on)

Work place: People tend to concentrate pretty much constantly on what they have to do, most people have their to-do lists and time sheets and organisation sheets and packing lists and... haha, am I talking about myself here? Let`s just say that Germans are very efficient, time efficient, work load efficient. They prefer to really concentrate on getting their tasks done before or for the deadline, to then leave work and enjoy family life or free time (if possible not do more work at home), most Germans really like to seperate their work and private life as much as possible.

Supermarket: There might be some supermarkets that have more relaxed cashiers, but most (especially discounters such as Lidl or Aldi) have reached almost dangerous speeds in getting your shopping from scanning into your bag. And you really are expected to join the put-stuff-in-the-bag-as-quickly-as-possible-RUSH. Do prepare yourself and have your money at hand as soon as possible to avoid annoyed looks from the cashier assistant or even the people waiting in the queue behind you. (They should relax a bit more ;), I guess people are getting pushed way too much in those shops and the older they get, they probably are in danger of getting a heart attack sooner or later - but I do have to admit that it is excellent when you are in a rush and have to leave this supermarket REAL QUICK and then have to face a huge queue. In general, in such supermarkets, you really get out quick even if you join a 30 people queue...

Here a taster, and no, there is no quick-play-trick, just observe the people behind the lady moving in a rather `normal` way:

Love parcels: Belated Christmas parcel and very belated November-beauty parcel

November beauty parcel

You can imagine my joy when I realized that the November beauty parcel that my sister and mum had sent and that we already thought had been stolen, made a 3-month-belated appearance today! =) A huuuuuge Lush chunk of Coconut Shampoo and Bodywash - Soap was waiting for me, as well as a hydrating face gel for the prince of sun, my favourite German soft toothbrush, a delicate Alverde face cream for dry skin and a muscle relaxing Dresdner Wacholder bath essence. *_*

Second Christmas parcel

It was however not the first one in the (you guessed it already) parcel bunching list: About one week ago, a belated second CHRISTMAS parcel  sent by my mum arrived <3 It was filled with tiny, sweet Christmas decoration (all packed in a (still perfumous) tunnel-perfume packaging), two Kamillin Camomilla bath solutions, two relaxation and spa bath essences (one with refressing Melisse and the other one with romantic flower perfume), a natural face wash, my favourite Weleda reconstruction oil as well as a 2014 calender with beautiful mouth-and-foot-paintings-pictures and famous-poet-quotes, January was a deep yet wintery quote by Goethe: "Wer will denn alles gleich ergruenden! Sobald der Schnee schmilzt, wird sichs finden." (translated to English, something similar to: Who wants to examine-discover-explore everything! When the snow melts, it will be found!) and February a DANCE QUOTE by poet Aurelius Augustinus=) which totally spoke out of my heart!

"Ich liebe den Tanz, denn er befreit den Menschen von der Schwere der Dinge."
(translated to English something similar to: I love the dance because he frees us humans of the heaviness-weight of things).

Right now I am just using half of the sweet, romantic flower bath essence salts for a relaxing foot bath, Luke loves the smell as well, he sniffed and examined the perfumed pink water and immediately afterwards relaxed and fell asleep next to me on the sofa....

Easy 32p Soda Baguette with a slight taste of Bretzel

Freshly-made warm bread is one of the things I never get tired of. Especially when it's simple ones with basic and only few ingredients, a short preparation and short baking time.

This Soda baguette is kind of a copy version of Easy Soda Bread - A girl called Jack - a simplified 32p Soda Bread recipe posted by Jack Monroe.

I have changed a few things, but most of the recipe is the same. Wonderful and quick "Airy Fairy Easy Peasy Soda Bread", which surely will become one of my quick weekly fresh bread options from now on. I was really surprised that the bread had a slight Laugen (pretzel) taste on the bottom side and crust *_* Another plus point here!

I have to admit although I had warm lunch and warm dinner, (heavy lunch of rice, beans, pumpkin and cooked chicken and heavy dinner of rice, beans and fried carne-de-sol meat), the latter actually just about 1h before the bread was ready, I still managed to eat the whole baguette (supposed to serve 4) all by my own and had it warm with melting butter and blackberry jam......

Ingredients:

Foldable, lightweight travel wellies - Hunter Original Tour Rubber Boots

Hunter Original Tour Wellies in black

This one is pretty funny. Every time I tell people that I urgently need quality wellies (rubber boots), the next best thing they answer is `but aren`t you living in Brazil - isn`t this one of the most tropical places with long sun hours and burning heat?`

It surely is. Nevertheless, the quantity of rain is very impressive all year round, the rainstorms and resulting immediate floodings cause totally muddy streets in less than 5minutes, streets would have to get redone about 2-3 months if they were to look about alright and tidy. But that`s probably just a dream of all residents, no reality in any case... I have often observed old people being really afraid of walking outside due to the totally slippery pavement and street, often the pavement is totally destroyed or simply non-existent, so everyone has to walk on the street instead. I already slipped several times - which isn t very tragic as my bones are still pretty flexible. But imagine someone older...

Hunter Original Tour Boots and its anti-slip rubber sole

And nobody likes to slip, if we are really honest, especially when it`s totally muddy. So shoes or wellies that have adequate soles for slippery grounds are very precious. Nevertheless, I also walk my dog in the muddy streets so.... he really doesn t care if the ground is totally slippery and muddy and will play anyway so my feet, legs and trousers will be totally soaking in water or mud when we come home (let`s not talk about Luke`s muddy condition after the walk here haha, that`s another topic). But well, good resistent waterproof wellies will pretty much resolve most of those problems. That`s why I decided to get quality travel rubber boots as I will also use them as winter boots, just with high boot socks to keep my feet warm in addition to dry during the autumn and winter months I spend in Europe. As I am going to travel with them, they should not be too bulky and heavy, and as I wish to use them both during walks in the countryside, but also in the city, they should be pretty as well.

Quite a challenge. But thank god, I stumbled over the following blog: libertylondongirl.com - Living in London and close to Hampstead Heath, food lover, sausage dog walker and passionate traveller herself who introduced her readers to her favourite Hunter boots. And following her blogs throughout the - what? about 5-7maybe few? years that she continues to passionately write about them, totally convinced me to get them myself.

Hunter Original Tour Wellies - foldable & lightweight,
but city-chic - perfect for travellers

They have some original sturdy ones for rain and snow which are more convenient if you only use them around your area but also have one model for travel bugs like me: The Hunter Original Tour! Foldable, lightweight and stylish-city-chic! So I`ve ordered them, in pretty black which combines with about every item of clothing I have I guess... (and if not, who am I to care :D All I want is having clean and dry feet and less washing jeans to add that one - lol), happy and lucky to have found those boots that just include everything I needed at the very moment =)

Love parcels: Belated Christmas bunching

So waiting patiently during Christmas and New Year really paid off ;)

Punctually at about 2 weeks into the new year 2014 (oh and I totally forgot: HAPPY NEW YEAR BY THE WAY)! 

A small letter with a wedding invitation arrived around the 10th of January, then the first two Christmas and indulgence related parcels from my mum arrived on the 14th and the last Christmas surprises parcel came from my sister on the 16th.

My mum`s Christmas parcel had a really sweet mouth painted postcard with a wintery setting, a decorated Christmas tree and a pretty child-angel holding a the top star of the tree, in the background of a snow-covered landscape with a cute bridge and little houses. And even Luke received his own postcard, with a cute Christmas sausage dog frontside and a tiny yummy", crunchy dogfood plastic bag. Luke`s eyes totally glimmered when he was eating it, so this was a true Christmas treat!

The second parcel was poetry and arts indulgence with a beautiful butterfly spray painting, a ballet-culture postcard, a tiny calender for 2014 and a mouth-painted calender picture with a beautiful quote by Jean Jaures (German: Die groessten Menschen sind jene, die anderen Hoffnung geben koennen. = English: The greatest people are those who are able to bring hope to others.) plus some amazing dividable dog-sausage treats for Luke which he absolutely loves - a good thing to use for our training sessions, need to get more of those when I visit my family in spring. Oh yes, I did not mention it yet, but YYYAAAAAY, we are close to another trip to Europe, this time together with the prince of sun and we are concentrating on Germany only with a short visit to our funky capital Berlin (and Berlin girl obviously) and other treats coming soon *_* - cannot wait to see my sweet niece and sister, brothers, mum and dad, grandma, friends.... aaaah =) By the way, I was really laughing at the name of the Orlando dog sausage product but cannot go into details due to privacy reasons but... I really love the fun thought behind it and understand why mum picked exactly those HILARIOUS! And finally, my favourite relaxing Camilla bath liquid *_*

  

Now let`s get to the final love parcel, sent by my sister (and partly my mum as well):

Love parcels: Winter Wellness Parcel, mouth painter Ivanov and thoughts on Brazilian sense of time & space

Today I ran some errands in the centre and arrived at home in the late afternoon - totally tired (and sunburned :D aehem, but we'll get there later ;))! As if the post man had known that I was really needing a good amount of sweetness and love right now, a lovely surprise was waiting for me - tucked under our front gate:

A winter wellness parcel from my mum!

She had sent it in October, so the parcel and post service was quite punctual this time =) That's lovely news in addition to a wonderful surprise wellness parcel!

So, let's get to the lovely contents: My mum had sent relaxing camomilla bath packs as well as my favourite Ginger Lemon tea and Green tea that will both come into use in a just few minutes! She has also sent a delicious strawberry shower gel, a cherry wood nailfile set and last but not least high children sunscreen 30Spf.

(I have to admit that I am dangerously lazy with sunscreen and only use it about once a week or even less - although living in one of the hottest, sunburning-regions on earth. And I should really have used the latter today morning: during our usual rather early morning dog walk, the prince of sun wanted to show me something that 'é pertinho' (which translated means 'it's very close') so I thought that the sun wouldn't be too strong until our return and that we would be back in about 30min time but - as very often happens when Brazilians tell you that something is either 'pertinho' (very close) or 'rapidinho' (very quick) it actually isn't! So I thouroughly burned my shoulders, face and arms as I was only wearing shorts and a shield tank top.... hasn't happened in a long time as usually when we plan to continuously walk in the strong sun for longer than 30 minutes I make sure that I use sunscreen or at least shield my face and shoulders with a t-shirt and cap. Well, should have known better by now that the 'Brazilian very close' really cannot be compared at all to the 'German very close' ;)

Anyway, back to the lovely contents: The picture postcard my mum has sent this time is a beautiful painting called 'Wiesenlied' (German for 'meadow song') by mouth painter Aleksandr Ivanov. It`s a still-life of a flower vase with a mix of 'blue-purple centaureas' and 'white-yellow anemones blandas' ((as far as I google-searched the sorts, so no guarantee on that one!)). The painter himself was born in Astrakhan, Russia in 1956, studied painting and visual arts from his early youth on and then started working in the field until suffering an accident in 1990:

Love parcels: River flows in you - "Bella's Lullaby" piano sheets by Yiruma

Today morning a wonderful surprise parcel was sitting on my doorstep, carefully packed into protective waterproof foil. (It actually looked like someone had opened it - again... must have thought it was a secret plan or something, who knows ;) ....

Inside my own personal often-dreamed-of flowing river was waiting to be discovered and mastered: The beautiful piece 'River flows in you' by Yiruma.

So I spent the whole last few hours training this amazing song - I believe it is one of the famous Twilight songs as well, Bella's Lullaby to be precise and I had often listened to this song, either when watching the movie or most often just on youtube, dreaming along the beautiful melody. Many thanks to my dear mum who has sent over the piano sheets along with other great sheets plus a correction roller for future changes during training and my good old antique wooden books and sheet marker. <3

Here Yiruma playing his song during a concert:

Schlösserrundfahrt - Palace boat tour in Potsdam

During my time with Berlin Girl, we reunited with another friend, let's call her Lizzy Girl (she shares my passion for Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice!).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

We decided that it was the perfect day to do the Potsdam Schlösserrundfahrt - a boat tour during which you can see the most beautiful sights and castles and palaces which range along the banks of the Jungfernsee. For the hungry ones: Yes, you can get food and drinks on the boat.    

Picture from the Palace tour
 source Schifffahrt in Potsdam HP

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

We were really surprised that it passed by so quickly: only 90 minutes but packed with loads of beautiful sights such as the Palace and Park Babelsberg, the tower "Flatowturm" and the "Small Palace".  I loved the story of the Palace on Peacock Island (unfortunately we did not spot any peacocks, from far at least).                                                                                                                                                             

Then we enjoyed the sight of the Church at Sacrow, the new Hans Otto Theatre, the Glienicke Park and the famous Glienicker Bridge. Last but not least the New Garden with the Marble Palace and finally the famous Cecilienhof Palace, where the Potsdam Agreement was signed in the summer of WW2's ending! Oh, as far as I remember you can even do the tour with another, older boat, the original "steamer Gustav" dating back to 1908, so if you love old ships and boats, that might be THE secret tip for you! 

Here a few tips in case you would like to do the same trip and a few more pictures of the boat tour: 

Spargelcremesuppe mit Roggenbrot - Creamy white asparagus soup with rye bread

This is my mum's delicious Spargelcremesuppe (creamy white asparagus soup) that I had last time I was at my parents'. Sitting on the garden varanda in the Midday sun, I was slurping a nice Latte macchiato and eating my favourite hearty German cream soup with Roggenbrot, rye bread. The simple things in life are the best...

Parcel post delivery in Brazil like bus bunching in London?

It is one of the funniest (but at times also most annoying) phenomenon of London buses. You keep waiting AGES for a bus... and then two or three often even with the same destination come along at once. They called this phenomenon bunching as far as I remember.

My mum's autumn surprise parcel

We are talking about buses, right. 

However, here in Brazil parcels seem to fit into the same bunching category it seems. You feel like no letters or parcels from home are arriving when people finally ask whether you got their (SUPPOSED TO BE) SURPRISE parcel, both of you already believe some of them got lost(or stolen-used (my favourite soft toothbrush that my mum had sent by parcel) or eaten (Lindt chocolate), depending on the delicious content :D lol)  which did happen at times. 

Berlin Girl's surprise parcel

And then, out of nowwhere, when all hope was lost, during two or three days ALL parcels are delivered in groups or one day after another. That’s what happened with Berlin girl’s and my mum’s parcels more than once. Berlin girl had even sent a yummy chocolaty replacement care package for the last care package which did arrive (last parcel blogpost with Big Ben notebook) <3 this time with two yummy Ritter Sport with the chocolate flavours Nugat and Halbbitter 50% Kakao) which arrived today together with a lovely autumn surprise parcel that my mom invented <3, I could almost smell the perfume of German autumn with its wet and windy weather and dancing colourful leaves!.... 

Parcel bunching it is.

Little parcels of Love

After receiving a surprise parcel from my friend Berlin girl, I thought why not show some of the lovely little surprises I often get send by friends and family.

Especially my mum has THE most precious and sweetest ideas, it always lights up my whole day no matter what I was feeling a few seconds before receiving it. The rest of the day I always just walk around with one big fat smile on my face.

One of her last surprise parcels had a whole set of my own (almost antique :D lol) collections of mainly paper-copied piano sheets that I had left at my parents' house and she had sent it over as soon as I bought my e-piano <3

The last parcel that I received (the one in the picture) was kind of an emergency surprise care package: We had been through a couple of pretty harsh weeks and who if not Berlin girl would think of such a wonderful idea to make us smile again - I particularly love the Big Ben style notebook and post its <3 Thanks so much hun!!!

"Knowledge is for sharing. And so are strawberries." Frozen Joghurt @ Wonderpots in Berlin

 During my Europe tour, I went to Berlin and Potsdam to stay with - you probably guessed it - Berlin girl! During one of the days we went to WONDERPOTS, a cafe that sells the healthiest ice cream I know - and by far one of the most delicious organic ones: frozen joghurt with all imaginable fruits and sweets *_* AMAZING.

We went twice, once to their cafe in Berlin-Mitte (lovely atmosphere, quite spacious compared to the other stores)

Georgenstraße, S-Bahnbogen 194
close to the train station Friedrichstr.

and the other time to their cafe in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Hardenbergplatz 2
close to Zoologischer Garten

There are three Wonderpot stores in Berlin, the third one is at the Alexa shopping centre at Alexander Platz.

Berlin girl enjoying her wonderpot <3 Miss you hun!!!

It is THE BEST during warm spring and hot summer days, even if the weather was rather chilly with a bit of sun on the day we went there, the taste really made up for it. 

As a coffee lover, I had to try their espresso which was lovely as well. I'll definitely return when I visit Berlin next time!




My simple choice this time: