Woke up at six and regretted it. I am really looking forward to getting enough sleep again.
I did everything very slowly because I didn't have anywhere to be. Had breakfast (I am also looking forward to breakfast at home at lot.) and made plans for the day.
Shortly before ten I walked to the “Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe”. I spent all morning there and it was wonderful. I looked at Greek vases, pottery from all over the world, swooned over ceramics that were thousands of years of and from the other side of the world, felt my heart beat a little faster when seeing the harpsichord collection. (And there was someone in there practicing for a concert. The piece he was playing was really intrguing. The concert will be tonight and they are playing rather modern music on rather old instruments.)
I left the Art Deco and the Bauhaus stuff for last because I love it so much and wasn't disappointed.
And then I started thinking. Why does this kind of museum make me so happy? I was basically looking at old furniture and pottery and clothes. Of course this was rather special furniture and clothes but still. And now that I'm writing this it just occurred to me that when I'm stressed I usually go and look at things like tiny houses or minimalist packing guides. More furniture and clothes.
The funny thing is that for someone who can be soothed by pretty things my home is not furnishes with this in mind. I am one of those people who doesn't change a room once it's furnished, who values her time and energy higher than finding just the right thing for her living room, and about three quarters of the stuff in our house is something we have because we got it for free. Then we put it in place and there it sits, 25 years later.
After the museum I had to eat lunch and decided on a bag of potato chips and some chocolate because I couldn't be bothered to choose a restaurant and find out what I wanted and such.
This was delicious but turned out to be a big mistake. I love potato chips but they don't agree with my digestion. And I had been eating too much fructose every day for days at that point.
In the afternoon I met with Eliandhra again. I had been wanting to take a boat or something but we were both rather tired and it was starting to rain. So we sat and knit. The sock I restarted is coming along nicely. And then we took the subway and walked around a lot and started getting hungry and all through that I felt like I was sick and needed to retire to bed. I thought a sandwich would make things better but it turned out it didn't, I felt worse after a few bites so I left it.
We walked around some more and looked at Scandinavian churches and bought lots of licorice and walked some more. By then I felt better, took a ferry along the river and walked around some more. The beauty of feeling unwell because of something I ate is that the worst is usually over after a few hours.
So I was all ready for my 3-course dinner. I was having dinner with a view of the harbor. The food was good, service was impeccable again and I had really interesting conversations over fish. I shared a table with a man I had already met the night before and he was telling us about visiting Gambia, and a woman was from the region I was born and was a teacher too and the two across from me were from Munich and we were talking about all kinds of things. Very nice.
Then I mingled and talked some more with Eliandhra and her husband and at the point where someone pulled out the guitar and started singing “Country Roads” I decided to not join in but leave to keep my sleep deprivation at a level where I wouldn't spontaneously doze off at random times the next day.
My way back to the hotel was nice, I walked a bit in the drizzling rain and took the subway all on my own for the first time.
Today there will be the packing and the getting on the train on time. The Hamburg marathon is going on and quite a few streets are closed off but I'm near the train station anway, it's only 500 meters or so.
And in the afternoon around five I will be home again.
Komm gut nach Hause!