Auf ein Neues!

Here we are again... same country, same city, same hostel, and (almost) the same room as 4 months ago. To be precise, 131 days ago...

Let me briefly tell you how it happened and why suddenly Germany, Holland, and Austria were on our travel list. We arrived at the hostel on the evening of May 26th, settled into our cozy little double room, and then went to the bar to plan our next days... well, you can always plan a lot... and Jonas especially hates plans and only plans a maximum of 3 days in advance.

In the middle of the night, I woke up and wanted to go to the bathroom, so I quickly checked the time on my phone. It was only 3 o'clock when I received the message that my godchild Emil was very seriously ill and that things were not looking good for him at that time. Without hesitation, we got up, packed our things, and took a taxi to the airport. The decision was made within seconds, and it didn't take an hour before we were back at the airport. However, finding the right counter at the right terminal in the middle of the night was not an easy task. Moreover, no one among the broken-English-speaking Chinese could help us and just kept sending us elsewhere. After wandering around for ages to find the right terminal, we hurried to the next counter there and booked the next flight to Germany. However, since we both had a limit on our credit card and could only pay for one flight quickly, panic started to set in. Nothing worked anymore... great... Luckily, Jonas remembered at the last moment that we still had our bank account in New Zealand. And to our great surprise, the New Zealand card worked in China as well. We checked in our luggage (10 minutes later, and the counter would have closed), went through security, and went straight to the plane and took off. The whole scenario played out like in a movie, and it was only when we were on the plane that we slowly realized that we were really going home now. Tears were streaming down my face, and Jonas ordered a double Bacardi-Cola in shock.

When we arrived in Germany, we had flown for a total of 33 hours in the last 4 days, waited for several hours at various airports, and slept a maximum of 10 hours in three nights... I have never felt so tired and exhausted in my life.

But the joy of finally being able to hug our loved ones again made us forget all the hardships.

In total, we spent about 4 months back in Germany. Jonas went back to work, and I tried to spend every free minute with Annelie and Emil.

Even though you, Annelie, probably still don't want to believe me, we don't regret for a second that we interrupted our journey. On the contrary, we are glad to have been with you during this time and to have been able to support you. And our little fighter will also make it through the last part. We think of you every day and miss you already!!

So now, it's time again for Chingchangchong Chinese in a box! More will come soon=)