How to make friends in a new city

For me friends are a key essential for a successful stay in a new city. When I find like minded people that I enjoy spending time with, I tend to explore the city way more and I am just happier in general.

A lot of you probably know how difficult it is to make new friends, when you just moved to a new city. Especially if you have a full time job and don't know when you will be out of the office during the week.

During university and school, making new friends wasn't as difficult. Due to being in the same class and already having contact, it was easier to hang out with these people after school. Making friends at that time was no problem. My social calendar was always full.

But once you start "work life" it becomes difficult. In Hamburg it was okay, as some of my Highschool friends and my boyfriend (now ex) were still in there, but here in Düsseldorf, I don't know anyone except for my little sister.
Due to the long work hours I didn't have many possibilities to meet other people outside of work. I have tried to hang out with my colleagues after work, but I realized that most of them already have a close circle of friends. In most cases these are school friends and boyfriends.
Furthermore, I like to keep my work and private life separate. I am not sure if you have noticed it, but when I am around work colleagues, I tend to talk about work. And this was something that I didn't want. When I am off work, I want to not think about it.

So I set a goal to find friends outside of work. :) And thanks to the internet, I found a few ways to reach this goal:

1) meetup.com:
This online platform lets you register for free and you can sign up for certain groups that interest you. I for example joined the Düsseldorf Expat group as I enjoy meeting new people from different cultures and because I prefer speaking English over German.
Furthermore, the posted calendar gives you an overview of events that are taking place in your city. So if you feel like doing something next Friday, you can click on that date and see all the meetups that are happening that day.

2) Facebook:
I barely meet people that don't have Facebook. :) Well, why not use this social media platform to meet new people. Here you can search for certain groups in you city. For example, for Düsseldorf I looked for expats in Düsseldorf and found a "new in Düsseldorf" group. When I just moved to Düsseldorf, I attended the Halloween Party and let me tell you, I was scared at the beginning, as I did not know anybody, but at the end of the night, I was the happiest girl in the entire club. I had such a good time and it was great meeting new people and listening to their stories.

3) Girl Gone International:
Yes, I am a GGI and I am proud of it. When living in Hamburg, I came across the GGI group online and since then I always look for the GGI group in the new city I am in. I like that only girls are in this group and that it is very international. However, here in Düsseldorf I was a little disappointed as the girls that attended the meet up that I went to, were abroad for 6 month and already considered themselves as a GGI.... Maybe my standards are just too high.

4) Sports:
Most of you know what a sport freak I am. But it is not only about fitness and health for me, but also meeting new people. In Hamburg I was part of the NIKE Club der Töchter group and every Tuesday after work, we ran around the Alster. I really enjoyed being around people who shared the same interest. Running crews are the best! You can travel with them, explore the city running with them and they will not think you are a freak, as you love to run every day :)

As you can see, there are a lot of different ways you can meet new people in a new city. But although there are so many possibilities, you have to have time and guts to go there by yourself. Be open and embrace this new experience. Cause friends can make a new city unforgettable :)

xoxo

M

I am back!

Hey y'all.

Guess what... I am back!

The last few days I have noticed how much I have missed blogging and thanks to my little sister, I have decided to bring this blog alive.

My last post was in 2013 and oh boy... a lot has happened since then.

First of all I moved to Düsseldorf. :)
I share a beautiful flat with my sister and my cat Lucky. We each have one room, a huge living room a dining room and a small kitchen. As we are not too fond of cooking, we don't really mind the size of the kitchen. 
What mattered to us, was the location and a balcony. (For parties during the summer time)
It still fascinates me how fast we found this place.


Just in case you are looking for a place in Düsseldorf: Go look for offers on ebaykleinanzeigen. It was super easy to use and the offers were serious and good. Furthermore, you do not have to pay any fee to use this online platform, nor do you have to pay for a real-estate agent.
As I was still located in Hamburg during the search, I contacted the people online and my sister, who thank God was working in Düsseldorf already, checked the flats out.

Our current place was our favourite asap and thus my sister and I made a plan how to win the owners over. My sister was super friendly. She asked the mother of the owner a lot of questions and showed lots of interest. Well let me tell you. Her humour, good looks and sweetness convinced the owner that we were the right candidates. A day later we received the confirmation and we started to think about how the flat should look like.

But as you might know, plans and reality are in most cases not identical. So when we rented a sprinter and packed everything within 3 hours, we thought we were set. Well guess what. That was not the case. As we arrived at 23:30 pm we were not able to set up our beds etc. and thus we slept on a carpet on the floor, waking up with lack of sleep, growling tummys and no motivation to unpack everything.

These kind of moments make me miss our mother so much. With her funny and strange moments, she would have made this unpacking adventure fun and unforgettable. But as she was not there, my sister and I dealt with it. We quickly unpacked, brought the sprinter away and started to build up our beds.

As my sister and I are working girls and thus only had the weekends to get the flat ready, it took us almost 2 month to finish everything. For example, getting a fridge was also a hassle. I never knew how important a fridge was until I didn't have one. We had to buy fresh food which we didn't have to prepare / cook every day and after a while we were so sick of it. I really wanted a yogurt or a coffee with milk in the morning.

If moving would be easy, everyone would be doing it on a regular basis, right?
But although getting the flat ready, was difficult, meeting new people was really easy here in Düsseldorf.

I am not sure what it is, but I have never had so many people come up to me before. On Halloween, I decided to go out by myself. Via Facebook I heard of this Halloween Party which sounded interesting. After a few minutes, I met so many new people, which I still meet on a regular basis.

I really enjoy this new city and I hope that I can entertain you with my blog. :)

If you want to read more, keep visiting! 

I promise... I won't neglect this blog. 

xoxox

M

Breakfast Time!

Hey y'all!

Have you guys ever heard the saying "breakfast is the most important meal of the day"? 

I bet you have, and I bet that most of you peeps do not find the time to have a prober breakfast. I mean sleeping those extra 20 minutes is way more appealing than preparing breakfast... right?

Well, I have checked the web for some great breakfast recipes that I can prepare the night before already and just take with me and consume on my way to work.

Let me tell ya, there are a lot of good things out there... but one recipe caught my attention asap and frankly, I have made it several times now.... Egg muffins.

I just love these. They are easy to make and you can always change the recipe by adding new veggies or spices to them.

Here is the recipe:

Egg Muffins by Kalyn

• Ingredients:

• 1 heaping cup finely diced ham (use ham with less than 10% fat for South Beach Diet)
• 2/3 cup finely grated low-fat cheese (I use Costco Four Cheese Mexican Blend)
• 1/2 green bell pepper, finely diced
• 1-2 thinly sliced green onions (optional, but recommended)
• 12 eggs, beaten well
• 1 tsp. of any seasoning 

Instructions:

* Preheat oven to 375F/190C.  

* Dice ham and green pepper and slice green onions.  In the bottom of the the baking cups layer the ham, cheese, green pepper, and green onions, dividing each equally among the 12 baking cups. 

* Break eggs into a bowl or large measuring cup that has a pour spout, then beat eggs and Spike Seasoning with a fork until they are well combined.  Pour eggs over the other ingredients until the muffin cups are nearly full, but not quite reaching the top.  (I pour some egg in each cup, let it settle, and then pour more until the cup is nearly full.)  Take a small fork and gently "stir" to distribute the ingredients in the egg mixture.

* Bake 25-30 minutes, or until the egg mixture is set and starting to brown slightly.  (The last few years I've been liking them more browned, but if you don't like them as brown as I do I would start checking after 20 minutes.) 

* Egg muffins will keep well in the refrigerator for at least a week.

Vienna...

Hey guys!

Oh My God! I am so sorry for not blogging for ages. I know... not good! I know that. But I have been so busy with moving and trying to settle in that I just didn’t have time to share my wonderful new experiences with you guys. You guys probably understand, as most of you are moving around a lot etc.

Anyway…  Now that I finally have Internet at home, I am back… and that means that you peeps will be bombed with amazing blog entries about Vienna and about my new life here.

I don’t even know where to start, as Vienna has just been amazing.

Blueberry

As most of y’all know I left Hamburg on the 1^st of January. I was actually planning on flying to Vienna, however, airberlin, told me a week before take off, that rabbits were not allowed on the plane. (Dogs and cats are.. but rabbits, hamsters etc. aren’t)…. So I had to book a train ticket, which meant 9 hours sitting in a train…. Ugh… I was not in the mood for that. But I really wanted to take Blueberry (my bunny) with me and thus I decided to do it. Hey, 9 hours in the train couldn’t be that bad right?!

Well once I have arrived in Vienna, I was super tired of course, but I couldn’t resist going to the Heldenplatz. This has become a tradition…. Always when I am in Vienna I go to the Heldenplatz first. It is amazing and so powerful I think. Standing there and seeing the Hofburg, the Rathaus, the Museuams Quartier…. As the picture shows… Magical!

Heldenplatz

So when I stood in front of the massive building, it finally hit me. I then realized that I really left everything in Hamburg and that I am in Vienna…. I started to feel a little scared, hoping that this was not the wrong decision.

To be honest, the last couple of days in Hamburg were like going through hell. I couldn’t sleep and I was crying several times, as I was just scared. The fear that leaving everything behind and not knowing what was really going to happen was crawling up in me. Several of you probably know what I went through…. - The feeling of not knowing what will happen and whether this is the right decision, can cause sleepless nights.

But then again, I know that I can always return to Hamburg. However, I knew that for me that wasn’t an option right now. I wasn’t happy there (job etc.) and thus I had to do something about it. Packing my bags and starting a new chapter was the way to go….

And until now, I haven’t regretted a single moment. Of course I feel a little lonely, when I come home after a super day at work and my boyfriend is not there. But then we Skype and I think about all the wonderful things that are currently happening to me here and a smile plants itself onto my face 

Rathaus Vienna

Last weekend my boyfriend was here in Vienna and of course I showed him all the touristy things like Schönnbrunnen, Hofburg, Heldenplatz Stephansdom etc. He loved it! He totally understood why I adore this city so much. The things that I love: coffee, fashion and culture can be found everything in this city. Especially coffee! Vienna has the most amazing coffee places that one can imagine. I will post about my favorite coffee places later this week. 

As you guys know I can talk non-stop about coffee I will return to my actual story, which is 

about my boyfriends visit… On Friday we went to Figlmüller and had the famous Schnitzel with Weißer Spritzer. It was amazing. Good thing was that we’ve reserved a table. Because when we entered the place, it was packed and everybody was waiting for a table. … So if you would like to eat the biggest and best Schnitzel in Vienna make sure to reserve a table at Figlmüller!

Schnitzel at Figlmüller Vienna

But of course there are many more restaurants, cafes and other places that you have to see, when you are here. I will post about all these things and about all of my experiences, so make sure that you will check this blog regularly.

So this is it for now….

But don’t be too upset, I am already writing my next blog entry.

Xoxox

M

Donating is totally In!

As the year 2012 is almost coming to an end, I tend to clean my apartment and see what things I can throw out. Usually I end up giving 2 bags of clothes to the Altkleidung Sammlung. There are several Altkleider Sammlung containers in Hamburg, which makes it super easy to donate your clothes to the ones that need them. This is a super opportunity, as you are not only giving your clothes away for a good cause, but you are also creating space in your closet for the next spring and summer collection. (I know… I am a little fashion monster)

Anyway… This year I have decided to organize my books and to toss out the ones that I have read and won’t read again. I have managed to fill a huge bag. However, I wasn’t sure what to do with them. One option was selling them on Amazon. But once I have checked that people offer the same books for only 1 cent, I was not motivated to put them all online and wait until someone would be interested in purchasing my books. So I kept looking for other ideas.

Another option that I have found, was giving my books to the library (Hamburger Bücherhallen). You are able to bring your used books to the central library, which is at the Hühnerposten between 07:00-14:00 (Mo-Fri). I was planning on doing this until Monday night… because on that night, I found a new little book store at Hamburger Meile. It was full of second hand books and as I love books, I of course had to go in there.

My Book Box 2012

As this store did not look like a normal Thalia or other bookstore, I’ve asked the woman what the concept of this store was. She told me that people can donate their used books and that this store sells these books. (Prices range between 2-4 Euros, depending on their thickness). The money that they receive, goes to a good cause in Hamburg. E.g. Obdachlose in Hamburg. Once I have informed myself more about this online, I brought my books to the store on Wednesday. The store owner was super happy with all the English books and I was super happy that I’ve managed to get rid of my books, knowing that they would not be thrown away etc. This so made my day. 

And thus, I would like to share this idea with you guys, as I know that lots of you probably have old things that you would like to get rid of. So if you like to donate your books, check out the second hand bookstore at Hamburger Meile or check online what other options there are. These projects are not that big yet, but I think that they are great and that we should support these kind of projects. So before you resell your books or throw them away, think about whether you would like to donate them for a good cause. :)

Xoxo

M

Weihnachtsmarkt in Hamburg

Hey peeps!

How are you doing? How was your weekend?

Did any of you go to the Weihnachtsmarkt? If yes, to which one of the many did you go to?

On Saturday, I went with a bunch of people Christmas market hopping. It was so much fun. We’ve started at the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz in the City Center. This year they have changed this market. They have decorated the trees with candles and the Glühweinstand is located in the middle of the market. They have rebuilt a little forest. With lots of fir trees and wood shavings on the floor, the entire area did not only looked like a forest, but it also smelled of one. They did a really good job. Also the Glühwein was amazing as it wasn’t too sweet.

Our next stop was the St. Petri Weihnachtsmarkt. All the Christmas markets huts surround the St. Petri Church and in front of the entrance there is a Weihnachtskrippe (Nativity Scene). It always portrays the same scene. Jesus Christ, with Maria, Josef and the three kings. Usually a donkey, a sheep and some other animals are also being displayed in this scene. When looking a little closer at this scene, we saw that the cow was much smaller than the donkey and that Jesus Christ was bigger than most of the presented characters. A little out of proportion …

Last but not least we ended up at the Rathausmarkt Weihnachtsmarkt and at 20.00 we even got to see Santa Claus. Unfortunately this Christmas market was the fullest one and the Glühwein was way too sweet. But then again, here you can find a very special  Glühwein, which you cannot find everywhere… You can get White Glühwein here. Yummy!

But in total I can say that the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz Weihnachtsmarkt wins. It was the prettiest, coziest one out of them all and the Glühwein was delicious.   

However, one thing that I have noticed this year, are the Weihnachtsmarkt cups. Every year, the Christmas market would produce special cups which say “Hamburger Weihnachtsmarkt 20XX”. This year they do not state the year. Which I find is a pity, cause it started to become a tradition, to always take one of these cups home and add to the Christmas market cup collection.

Maybe more people will mention this to the organizers, and who knows…. Maybe in 2013 we will have the real “Hamburg Weihnachtsmarkt” cups back!!!

But until then, we have to drink the yummy Glühwein out of the normal looking Christmas markets cups.

Cheers!

Xoxo M

Starting to realize that soon it is time to say goodbye

Hey guys!

As most of you know I will be leaving Hamburg in a few weeks and until a couple of days ago, I did not realize that I am actually leaving this beautiful city. Do you know that feeling? It hasn’t fully hit me yet. But I am starting to realize that I have to say goodbye soon. However, I am super excited to move and to explore Vienna. And because of this excitement I would like to share my experiences with you. This blog will still supply you guys with popular Hamburg weekend tips and insights about my favorite city Hamburg. But it will also include an entire section on my new life in Vienna and everything else that I am currently experiencing as a city hopper.

So peeps. I hope that you guys will follow and enjoy this blog.

Cause I am super excited to share all of my experiences with you.

Xoxo

M