Extended Weekend in Germany

After our trip to the States in December I didn't really feel relaxed at all, and was in desperate need of another vacation. ASAP. Do I sound vain or something? Oh well… I needed to reset and have fun and so I started making plans with my friend S, whom I met in Portland in the fall of 2012. She and I had such a great time there, and after Portland I visited S in Germany and she visited me in Finland. 

I was so excited to have the chance to visit her again this year :) 

I flew to Bremen on Friday the 28th and S picked me up from the airport. After not seeing each other for… 10 months, it was a very happy reunion. We do actually see each other almost every week through Skype, but of course it's not the same. 

We had a pretty relaxed day, and had a great dinner at an American restaurant with a bunch of friends. I can't remember the last time I spent three or four hours at a restaurant, it was so nice and relaxed; just what I needed. 

A friend of mine, with whom I'd grown up together, surprisingly moved to Germany in December, and only an hour away from S, so on Saturday we headed to his place and ended up exploring Osnabrück. 

It was a rainy day and the carnival was in town, so it was busy and a lot of commotion pretty much everywhere. After walking around downtown for a while we headed to IKEA to get some stuff for M's new apartment, and afterwards had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant. All in all we had a very good day and it was great seeing my friend after two months. 

On Sunday S took me to a lovely town called Bad Zwischenahn. The day was sunny and the shops were open, so the place was buzzing with people. The town is located by a lake and looked like a postcard, so pretty :) 

These aren't sold in Finland, which, come to think of it, is probably a good thing. 

We went to a grocery store to pick up some goodies for the night, because we planned on staying up all night and watch the Oscars! And that we did :) Only, we didn't eat anything we bought. Seriously, I had like three pieces of chocolate throughout the entire night. Just didn't feel like eating, which is weiiiird.

After the Oscars (by the way, how awesome was Ellen DeGeneres??? She deserves an Oscar for best host!) S took me to the airport. My visit was short but wonderful, and even though I was half dead having not slept at all, I was happy I'd gotten to spend time with my friends. Even short vacations can make you feel so much better and this one certainly did. Yay :) I'm so lucky to have such great friends!

<3

And now I'll just wait until I can put in a request for my summer vacation. Then I'll start looking into flights a little further away. 

It's always nice to have something to look forward to!

Thanks for reading!