Servus, Munich!

Hello and goodbye

We are off to Germany in 10 DAYS – 240 HOURS – 14400 MINUTES....

This week and a half will be crazy with packing boxes, saying farewell to our Australian friends, cleaning the apartment, getting the little one ready for her big trip... Crazy organisation and moving stuff!

Emotionally I am ambivalent.

One the one hand side I am so happy and excited to go back to my family. To my friends who know me for decades. To my country. To my Berlin. To people who speak the same mother language than I. To food that I have missed. To stores in which I haven’t shopped at in 3 years.

On the other hand I am sad to leave Australia. My new friends. My Melbourne. My travel adventures. My job challenges. The place that really has been home for the past 3 years. My fresh seafood.

I am afraid I won’t have much time to post on this little blog of mine. Therefore I have prepared some Hello-Goodbye posts for the next week. To show you all the things I look forward to in Germany and all the Australian things I will terribly miss.

Wedding Shoes

On Wednesdays I share everything wedding with you: tips, projects, organisation, photos, faux-pas, fun things and golden rules I ‘learned’ from my own wedding. I feel I need to give something back to the fabulous blog community who helped me stay sane and enjoy every second of my ‘big day’.

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For many girls the shoes are the highlight of their wedding outfit.

I have to admit that for me they were less important. Partly because I am more into accessories than into shoes. Partly because my dress was very long and I knew that you would only be able to see the toe-cap of them.

Nevertheless I ended up with the two most beautiful pair of wedding shoes:

1. Pink Power at the registry office

The pinkest, highest, most extravagant, most comfortable and most special shoes of my life. A gift from my auntie. They were made just for me. They are one of a kind. Even buying them was such an amazing experience. We went to Schuh Hiegl in Munich and then we were in shoe heaven. This shop is full of beautiful shoes, but the most exciting thing is that they make all shoes themselves and that you can choose any combination of: style, height of heel, type of leather and colour. They also give you valuable advice on what works together well, what is comfortable to wear etc. We spent hours in the shop and it felt like minutes – so much fun. In the end I decided on a classic style with a playful little bow, smooth leader in a flashy pink and the highest heels I ever wore. But let me tell you, they are really comfortable. Obviously it has something to do with the gradient angle rather than the height itself. Anyway, the shoes arrived 2 weeks later, I wore them all day and felt amazing.

2. Dancing Queen on the big day

The story behind my shoes for the big day is considerably more profane. I had chosen the dress, I had a little sample of the fabric in my purse and knew that I needed to find shoes. The style was a bit secondary, because my dress would hide them mostly anyway. Still I wanted ones with a tip that was neither too pointed nor too rounded. I wanted them to be extremely comfortable but a bit more flattering than my usual ballerina. Finding white shoes in the middle of the Australian winter proofed to be somewhat of a challenge. But then a colleague gave me the crucial tip: Boyles on 460 High St, Prahran VIC 3181‎. They are specialised in dance shoes, which are the best wedding shoes in my opinion. Because they come in white and cream, in fabric and leather. Because they are super-comfortable due to cushions in high-pressure areas like the sole beneath your ball of the foot. Because they have heels but are not ridiculously high. So I spend the whole day in these shoes – from 2pm to 5am in the morning. I walked. I jumped. I ran. I danced. No blisters, no pain, no falls! Perfect!!!

My hometown(s)

For the past 2,5 years I have called Melbourne, Australia, home. Andi and I moved here in August 2007. We didn’t have to. We didn’t have a job here. We didn’t have an apartment here. We had never been to Australia before. We just wanted to experience a different culture. We wanted to see this amazing country. We wanted to improve our English skills. We wanted to live near the sea for once in our lives. Crazy? Maybe, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions in our life. We absolutely fell in love with this country, its people, its animals and plants, its beaches and its dry desolated landscape, its food, its traditions and celebrations. Melbourne really became our hometown.

Before I have lived in Berlin, Germany, for 13 years. Andi even spent more time there since he was born there. It is not a very typical German city. First of all it is bigger (about 3 million inhabitants and growing) but I think its differentness originate in other things. For 40 years it has been a divided city due to the Wall and the split of Germany into East and West. Then it was chronically broke – enabling artists and bohemians to make an affordable living there. Therefore various subcultures developed and are still developing and reinventing themselves every day. It became my hometown because it embodied freedom of thinking and living. I studied there. I had my first ‘real’ job there. I started my career and settled down.

My first hometown, however, was Munich, located in the south of Germany. I spend a wonderful childhood there. I grew up in the outskirts of Munich, close to forests and lakes (great when being a kid) but still within the public transport system of the city (very important if you are a teenager). After finishing my A-levels, however, it suddenly seemed to be too small for me. Just 1.4 million people, you know. I was 19 and needed to explore the world. So I went to Berlin to start university. Munich is still my hometown though and I remember this every time I visit my family there. When you go to the local post office or bakery, you can be sure that you will meet someone with whom you went to primary school or someone you played basketball with. And you know what I start to appreciate rather than resent it.

Until now I found three very different hometowns and they all have a special place in my heart. I am a very curious person, however, and my previous experiences gave me the confidence that I can make many cities my hometown. So, we’ll see how many will be on my list when I turn 82 ;-)