Hanover my love (now with photos!)

Last week, after starting to recover from Vienna, I spontaneously decided to go to Hanover for the weekend. I was planning on doing that during the summer anyway, and I noticed that I was running out of time. The week wasn't all about resting though, I went to see the dome with a colleague one day and on another we went to the theatre at Park Monbijou again, this time to see the play Winter's Tale by Shakespear.

A Winter's Tale by William Shakespear

On Thursday, after stuffing my 30-hour-week into four days, I took the train to Lower Saxony. I arrived late in he city and one hour even later I came to aunts house in Letter, a small village close to the city. I say village, since that's what they call it here, in Finland they would call them suburbs... Letter is a very cozy suburb of Hanover, only half an hour bus ride away from the city centre. I lived with my aunt for 6 months in 2006, so it is quite the comfortable feeling to go there, almost like going home. My aunt lives in a big villa next to her mother-in-law. Both houses are on the same land lot, which makes a beautiful garden. My aunt loves to work at her garden, but last Christmas she had a heart attack, so she's recovering at the moment and doesn't have the energy to work at the garden. It didn't look that way though, it was just as beautiful as ever.

Love at first sight

The next day my cousin brought her dog to daycare at my aunts, and I was happy to get the chance to see them both. I love my cousin, but she was very stressed at the moment, because she has a lot going on at work. I hope she will have the chance to take some time off and come and visit us relatives in Finland very soon. Me and my aunt (and the cutest Labrador ever) made us a comfy day doing mostly nothing. We played some Skip-Bo, cooked and took a walk with the dog. In the afternoon I headed to the city to spend the rest of the weekend there. First I went to see my Croatian friend Ana. Her family was visiting and I was happy to see them all again. A bit later we headed to the city to meet some other friends. Starting with a wine at Extrablatt where my old colleague Rami works, continuing to Colosseum with Ana's sister Dragana to have some ice cream with strawberries, and finally ending up in Linden, the part of the city where I used to live, at the cafe Stubenwechsel with our friend Alexander. My friend Janina got off work at half past ten, and after getting my bags at Ana's place, Janina and me sat down on the sofa, had a glass of sparkling wine and remembering good old times. At half past twelve we were exhausted and went to bed like two old ladies - well certainly not as two young girlfriends who haven't seen each other in quite the while...

Anas beautiful granddaughter Alicia

There was a reason for getting to bed early though - for Saturday we had made quite the plans. After enjoying breakfast at the bagel shop next door we headed to Janina's office to borrow bikes. In the morning it was quite cloudy, but just in time for getting the bikes, the sun came out and it turned out to be an amazing day! We biked around the lake Maschsee and headed for the beautiful green area Ricklinger Teiche, where there's many ponds and great swimming opportunities to swim during the summer. We biked around for a while after which we found a nice place to lie down and enjoy the sun. We were quite annoyed though that we hadn't thought of bringing swimming suits and towels... Not that the ponds are that inviting, when you compare with the beautifully clean lakes in Finland, but in that heat it would've still been refreshing.

Taking a break was absolutely necessary on that hot summer day!

When we came home we were starving, so we made a delicious wok with glass noodles and chicken. We took it easy, freshened up and headed out on the town. We met up with Lena, a good friend and old colleague of mine and her friend Jasper. Our first stop was a cocktail bar called Heaven, where the cocktails are delicious and quite cheap, especially during happy hour... After being in Heaven we came back to the ground and headed to a bar called Peanuts, which was one of Jasper's favourite places. It was quite cozy and nice and we enjoyed a few drinks there before continuing to Steintor, which is a bar area in Hanover. First we hit Sansibar, which brought up a lot of memories, since I used to go there quite frequently while living in Hanover. Our last stop was a rock bar called Rocker (very innovative...), where we just had one more drink. Before going home we stopped at one of the best kebab restaurants in Hanover, Öz Urfa. I think it's open almost 24/7, at least I've never seen in being closed, and they have delicious Turkish food. We finally came home at about 4.30 in the morning, and fell dead in bed.

Delicious wok food

The next morning we slept long and had breakfast at about 2.30 in the afternoon. The weather was quite nice, so we decided to go out, to get the chance to enjoy it even a little. It turned out to be quite warm, so we went to a cafe called Bar Celona, where we experienced one the most rude waiters ever! I ordered an ice cream with fruit, and when it came the ice cream was melted. Of course I sent it back and after two minutes the waiter came back with the same portion saying that there were two scoops of ice cream like promised in the menu, and it wasn't his fault that it was already melted! I've never experienced anything as rude! So I went to the bar with the ice cream and told them what happened. The waitress was totally nice and brought the ice cream to the kitchen and after like two minutes I had two new scoops of ice cream. I do have to say, the waiter didn't get a tip from me and I will probably never go back to that cafe. A little later we went to a sushi bar with all you can eat sushi for 12,90 euros. Again we experienced totally rude service and not so good sushi. The selection was crappy in comparison to what they had on the menu, and we got the same things all the time. That's one more place I will never go to again!

Those people who say that Hanover is ugly, haven't ever REALLY been theree!

Well, if you don't consider the bad service, I had a great time in Hanover, all thanks to my amazing friends. I got kind of "home sick", if you can call missing Hanover that. Part of me wished that I could live there again, but then again, there are so many other places I'd like to live, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to enjoy Hanover again as a citizen of the city. But you never know what the future will bring. I will hopefully be finished with my studies in one year, and then I have the world at my feet, and a lot of adventures ahead of me.

A view over the Nazi-lake Maschsee in Hanover (Hitler was the one who commissioned it)

Speaking of adventures, I have one coming up in the near future. This coming weekend Matt and me are going to Venice. We'll be there for four days and hopefully I will have a lot of great stories to tell when I get back. Til then...