OLD FRIENDS NEW WAYS

I have been back in Berlin for almost 5 weeks now. I LOVE it! It’s funny coming back, I really feel like Berlin is my (adopted) hometown. It just fits. I feel really comfortable here. But then, I’m not working already, once you work in a place it’s a whole nother story. At the moment it’s kind of like a holiday. An adventure.

I thought I would be blogging basically straight away, but it took me quite a while to settle. Not in a way to feel at home, as I said that was no problem, more in a way to get back into a routine.

Routines are funny, the exciting part of moving somewhere different and starting something new is that you don’t have a routine or that you change it, but I like routines in some way. It’s a funny one.

For example, before we left I was eating really healthy, mostly raw vegan food. When we got here I was like “OH MY FUCKING GOD!! Organic shops here are awesome!!! I wanna try EVERYTHING!!!” So we ate a lot of organic, vegan, but nevertheless much more processed food. And the vegan restaurants!!

I had a couple of slip ups, were I ate some vegetarian, non vegan sweets. I made this whole list in my head ages ago of all the things I wanted to eat coming back and it’s difficult to get things out of my head once they found a way in there, so yeah, I’m trying to be more undogmatic, but still straight edge, if that makes any sense?!

But now I’m basically back to my old ways.

Breakfast! I try to have something like this every day.

Also, no internet.

Some minimalists seem to go for the ‘no internet at home option’. In our shared flat we can only pick up the signal of a free internet every couple of days and then it’s really shit. So mostly we go to the library now, they give you codes for 2 hours of free internet. I’m sure you could use the internet there the whole day, but I kind of like the 2 hour limit, it keeps my internet addiction contained. It’s amazing how quickly 2 hours pass on the net. Frightening!!!

I met some of my old friends again. It’s funny how you can  basically pick up were you left with some people, even if you might not have seen them for 5 or more years. One of my friends, I’m pretty sure she’s a witch, she’s got a black cat, is a feminist and collects herbs, 3 reasons she basically would have been burned at the stake for a couple of 100 years ago, is gonna go on a herb forage with me next week and I’m super excited!

We gonna look for elderberries, linden flowers and some ramson maybe, which is like a wild garlic.

I’m also going to another forage walk tomorrow.

Here is a cool music clip, by Sticky Antlers. A band I found while watching a documentary about Punk in Africa.

Here is the crazy long trailer.

I nearly passed out watching this movie, the cinema was so overcrowded and the show was really delayed. As with the trailer, the movie would have benefited from some better editing, but nevertheless it was very interesting.

Also cinemas are so much better in Berlin!!! Oh my god! I’ve got so much catching up to do! I love art house, independent, foreign movies. I hate that regular cinemas nowadays just show this regurgitated boring hollywood crap that just insults my fucking intelligence with it’s cliches and stories that have been done 1000 times before.

I’m trying to get into blogging again more regularly, see how it goes!

Have you tried something new lately?

Saturday Update

Today we just chilled. It was raining anyways. So we watched some German videos on alternative living.

Then we made a list of stuff we need to sell on Ebay for our move. Gotta list them soon! As we need to move out of our house several days before we leave. Getting rid off most of our possessions is also gonna prepare us for the minimalist lifestyle.

And I’m just about to sell all the clothes from my online shop. Hopefully that isn’t gonna be too stressful. Also a bit sad, I’d hate to waste stuff.

And one of my blogging friends posted this link about Berlin foraging and mushroom walks in my comments the other day. I thought that was really awesome of her! We were struggling quite a bit with the foraging here and I think that’s gonna be a great introduction to the German foraging scene. I’m really excited about it! Gonna be eating dandelions soon and making woodruff drinks and shit like that.

Changes

We are moving back to Berlin in less than two months. I should say ‘I am moving Back to Berlin’, as my boyfriend hasn’t been living there before. He doesn’t speak German and I think he is shitting himself a bit.

To be fair, I have some mixed feelings about it too. I haven’t been living in Germany for 8 YEARS!!! I don’t know how to behave like a proper German anymore..

A New Day

We already booked our tickets, we are leaving just before my birthday and I just checked my passport, that makes it EXACTLY 6 years, to the day, I have been living in Australia. Fucking Crazy!!

When I first came here, I would have never expected to stay that long! Ah well, meeting my boyfriend here took care of that.

In all the time I lived here, I never felt Australia was my home. I never took roots here, it’s where I live, have my stuff and where my partner lives. I actually think it’s quite boring. Now don’t get in a huff about it if you are Australian and patriotic, I find it quite boring everywhere, that’s why I left Germany in the first place. The People!!! I couldn’t stand them! I’m just a little bit antisocial in general, got high standards, right?!

The first couple of years living away from Germany I didn’t mind it at all, in fact, I really loved it. Now, that I haven’t been back for 5 years and I feel like going back. If I could afford flying over there once a year, things would probably look a bit different. But Australia is really so far away from EVERYTHING!! Another reason for going back is, where else would I live? What else is there?

We have been planning to go back for years and this year we’re finally ready for the jump. Don’t know why it has taken us so long??

My sisters. They used to be so cute!

It’s kind of good and bad. Scary, but exciting. Meeting up with my sisters and my friends again, who I haven’t seen for so long, is gonna be really cool. But it’s all a bit anxiety inducing too, especially considering we both won’t have jobs straight away.

That’s where minimalism comes in handy, getting rid of all this superfluous crap and cutting spending on items we don’t need. We never counted shopping as one of our hobbies anyways, now we’re just taking it to the next level.
Moving back is actually the reason why I started on this minimalist journey.

Just buying necessities and being able to live in a smaller space is also definitely going to help us setting up without a lot of money(actually my secret dream is to buy a gypsy or circus wagon and live in it, I will keep you updated on that).

A fresh start is always good for changing bad habits. Now that we’re changing them already it’s just an ongoing process.

So yeah, funny I will say goodbye to Melbourne soon. Not sure if I will be coming back. Remembering all the times I spent here.. To me, moving back feels really final, almost like a small death. Getting rid off stuff, getting your affairs in order, saying your goodbyes. You notice nothing is forever, things, people, experiences, you are growing older. It doesn’t last.

Changes

But hey, it’s good to do something different, keep on moving and developing. To bring some excitement and something new into ones life. Changes are constant.

All the best to you and wish me luck!