Why the best days are never workdays

You really wonder why? You can't get drunk on workdays! Yesterday I had a day off from work and went to Innsbruck for a little christmas shopping. The city is beautiful...if you ignore the exorbitant parking fees and the fact that everybody speaks Austrian German (I hardly understand anything.... anyways, the people here are all very nice!)
The first thing I went for when I arrived in the city was coffee! I sooooo needed a good coffee and of course came to the right country. Other than the Danish Austrians have coffee culture! When I went to Innsbruck for breakfast last week I parked my car in an underground carpark under the Rathaus Galerien and now I remembered that there was also a cafe on the top floor of the building called Cafe 360° where they serve not only really good coffee but also wine and you have a great view over the city from there.
Another good place for coffee is the Coffeeshop Company. They have a shop in the Shopping Mall Tyrol where now during christmas time they serve a totally delicious Christmas Moccacino! The mall itself is a good place for christmas shopping. I got a new iPod ;) but considering Christmas time, there's another great place to visit in Innsbruck: the Christmas market! Yes, that's where the photo on top was taken! And here we come to the most important fact why the best days are never workdays: You can drink tons of Glühwein! The cheapest offer for Glühwein here you find in the backyard of a pizza restaurant in the old city. Just follow the signs saying 'Glühwein 1,50€' and you can get drunk every day from 5 to 10.30 pm. I of course happily accepted the offer! :)
If you wanna visit the little traditional Christkindlmarkt I recommend to park the car in the underground carpark right in the old city. You can also reach the more modern Christmas market on Maria-Theresia-Strasse in just a few minutes walking distance.
And look what I got in one of the shoe stores around:

Aren't they cute?
That's all for now but I hope to discover a lot more the next time I visit Innsbruck! I'll definitely keep you updated!

xoxo --Anni

Look at this Winter-Wonderland!

Isn't it beautiful? The first photo was taken from the balcony of my apartment. The second shows the view from the street that leads to the hotel I work at.
I arrived here in Fiss/Tyrol/Austria on wednesday this week and finally have time to write a few words about how nice it is here. Started working on thursday. My work shifts this week started at 1:30 pm till 9:30 pm (late shift) and next week I will work on the early shift. No problem to stand up early when the view is that great, hm? I'll post more photos as soon as I have time to take some.

Winter!!!

Hey everyone,

I'm back in winter-mode! Stayed at my parents place the last few weeks and now I'm finally ready to leave again! Me and my family together in one place just doesn't work well for longer than 4 weeks and I've been here now for more than 6 weeks. I definitely need more than 500 km between me and them.
Good for me, my new destination is about 760 km from here...I'll be in Austria the whole winter. Got a job at a ski resort and I hope that everything goes well there so I can stay a little longer considering that Croatia is nearer and the sailing season 2012 is already planned of course!
I wonder what other sailors do in the winter when there are no jobs in sailing except if you go somewhere at the other side of the world... What are you doing, people?

I uploaded a new video to my youtube channel! We made the vid at Hanseatische Yachtschule this summer. You can find it here Sailing HYS 2011 It was filmed with my little casio exilim and therefore has not the quality I wanted, but my videos I made with my other HD cam I can't convert to a format that iMovie would accept. I converted them to *.MOV so they can be played with Quicktime and that works but I can still not import the files to iMovie. Did the same with my videos I made with the casio cam and had no problems importing them to iMovie. Does anyone know how to solve the problem?
I just wanna upload the videos I made in Croatia this year to my youtube... they (youtube) have a new layout btw. Maybe I'll try it on the sailing channel and you guys just tell me whether you liked it or not? If you do I'd use the new layout for my other channel too. I personally don't like it so far but if you do I'd maybe change my mind about it ;)

Soooo now that there are no storys about sailing to tell (damn winter!) I'd consider writing about my upcoming trip to Austria.
For direct updates on the crazy life of Anni S. you can also follow me on Twitter

Have a nice weekend y'all!

When Winter comes...

Summer definitely has come to an end. No big deal in the real world, but as you know, I'm not really living in the real world. The sailing academy is kind of like an island under a cheese cover. When you're inside, you never care about things on the outside. It's a completely different life. Most of us at HYS only stay for a few weeks during the season and for them their stay here is like a vacation. They go back into their real life and live on as if nothing happened. They just continue doing what they did before they came here. Go back to their ordinary jobs, studies, school.

For me it's different. I don't have a home outside the sailing academy, so the end of the sailing season is pretty important to me 'cause I won't have a job or a home afterwards.
I thought I could find work somewhere in a winter sports area but that turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be. In two weeks I'll have to leave and I still don't know where to go. Maybe a life in my car is not made for the long term. I could go back to university and study something...I think I'd like that! But for studying you also need money which means you need a job and BOOM! - there's the old problem. The idea is good, but to make it work it takes more than enthusiasm.

This morning I searched for jobs on the internet. As a waitress or something. Unfortunately in Germany you need a paper for everything! Even for a job as a waitress. Seems to be not enough that I finished school, speak two languages, studied engineering and trained my social skills while working with our sailing course participants. I also need a paper that says I'd be able to take a tablet with beer from here to there.
Since I somewhat fell in love, it's more difficult, 'cause I don't know if I wanna live this life of constant inconstancy any more. But what I also don't know is, if this maybe-relationship lasts. If I knew that, I would put more effort in trying to get a job in the city he lives in.

Anyway, today is sunny but cold and it's getting colder every day. Two weeks ago it was sunny and warm and I got a bit of my beautiful tan back. Tomorrow we'll make a day trip to Denmark and I hope that it'll cheer me up a bit.
Till then....have a beautiful day, world!

Sailing school, housewifes and the gravity of a honeypot

Today I have a day off from work. Yes, I'm back at Hanseatische Yachtschule again. Almost 6 weeks passed since I arrived here, one of teaching kids on optimist dinghies, one basic course on Folkboats and a course called Ladies Sailing Week. I've been called to the principal's office one morning during that course because some of those ladies thought I wasn't patient enough.... housewifes... on board they started a discussion about why I won't teach them the safety maneuvre instead of courses (regarding to wind direction) and tacking and jibing. How come women don't understand why they have to go step by step learning the basics first before trying new things? Anyway I got the day off and went to the beach of a nature reserve near Holnis, stared at all the yachts sailing in and out of the inner fjord. On the other side of the fjord one can see the coast of Denmark. It was sunny and warm and the place somehow reminded me of my time in Croatia. I wish I could sail out of the fjord into the Baltic, round Denmark, through the north sea down Biscay over Gibraltar back into the Mediterranean.
Season is almost over and I need to find a job for the winter, which is pretty difficult these days considering that I have no permanent internet connection here and time goes by too fast. My roommate Dorothée left last weekend and I miss her totally. We used to talk about everything! Especially the honeypot thing ;) (honeypot -> a man)
It's really not that easy with those honeypots. Once you find one you always think about him, wondering why he never calls, writes or thinks of you. But sailing helps a lot to distract me from thoughts like that.
This week we had strong winds from SE and I had a day off (again :) ) because going out sailing with our 13 years course participants was too dangerous. I went to Holnis again instead but stayed in my car on the backseat with my guitar. The gusts of wind shook my car while I was playing some Taylor Swift songs and thinking of another honeypot.
Having a crush on someone is a crazy thing! One wants to know what the other one is thinking about oneself, is totally insecure about if he likes one or not and then suddenly there is a second one and one has the same thoughts and insecurities about him also. What's all the love and relationship stuff worth? You end up alone anyway...
We (some of my colleagues and me) participated in a sailing regatta this weekend and now I'm pretty tired! It was my first regatta ever and I found out I still have a lot to learn. I hope I can participate in events like this more often.

Molat, Veli Iz and the search for Grill Papa

Finally I have a free internet connection! We arrived in Mali Losinj on Saturday. Unfortunately it was too late to get my mobile internet account recharged, so I had no internet access for three long days! On Sunday we sailed down to Molat where I planned to have a good dinner at Grill Papa. But what happened to him? No Grill Papa - no dinner! We cooked noodles instead... but the sunset was beautiful as you can see above ;)
Yesterday we sailed further down the islands to Veli Iz. This small town has a really good marina with everything you can wish for as a sailor including free internet! I can finally answer my emails, recharge the yacht's batteries and have a shower...

We'll stay here till tomorrow. All this free stuff, good restaurants and nice people must be enjoyed as long as possible ;)
A propos nice people. They're not only nice, they're also pretty chatty when it comes to navigationally important topics like the weather! Yesterday they apparently thought the world would collapse within the next few hours. The doomsday scenario was heavily discussed...with thunderstorms and everything you need for a good world's end party. Of course nothing happened...

Austria - Flachau

I'm finally on my way back to Croatia! Stopped in Flachau for the night. The view out of the window of my hotel room is just great! The whole hotel is great. Check it out at www.wieseneck.at ! Five minutes and I'm on the road again...

See ya

Cold and grey...

... seems Germany to me these days, although the weather is partly sunny but compared to Croatia... yes, it's definitely cold and grey!
Hard to believe that it's only a week since I came back. To me it feels like a month. I totally miss Rovinj and count the days till I'll be back in Cro (soooo looking forward to it!) for sailing. Bought a new camera last week so I can finally put up some new sailing videos on my YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/TheSkipperGirl)!
My arrival in Dortmund wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. Came home just to find out that I have no home any more. I don't really care 'bout that 'cause I never planned on staying longer than two weeks anyway. After my sailing trip in Croatia I'll work as an instructor at Hanseatische Yachtschule again (check them out at www.dhh.de/hys_portrait.html) till season ends. What I'm gonna do afterwards I still don't know. I had a few crazy ideas but haven't worked out any plans regarding those ideas as they popped up in my mind while my brain sailed the cocktail seas, but considering that I use to have my best ideas when I'm drunk, that might be worth a second thought.
A few weeks ago I was out at this restaurant 'Pastrik' (if you should ever visit Rovinj you just have to go there: www.pastrik.hr) and met this man with the yacht charter company (www.charter-rovinj.com). He told me something 'bout open up my own charter company. Somehow this idea stayed somewhere in a corner of my mind (even if (or even because) I had way to much sparkling wine/warm vodka/cuba libre/pelinkovac this night and woke up on a boat at the marina, completely not knowing what exactly happened the night).
If I would wanna open up my own company, what would I need? Except the idea... I have nothing... In fact, I'm just a dreamer with an idea thousands of people had before... what do I need to make this idea become reality... profitable reality...?
Okay...enough for now! My last bottle of good Croatian wine is empty... I should sleep... but hey, feel free to tell me if my idea may be worth a third thought ;)

xoxo --Anni

Dreamin' big...

...is a good thing! It feels good. That may be the biggest problem about dreaming big: it feels too good to be real.
Somewhere in the past I lost my ability to dream big, 'cause too many people told me all the things I can't do. The pessimistic world totally got me. The result was simple: I was depressed... I used to be a happy, outgoing person before. What happened to this person?
I thought of the time I tried to follow my dreams, how good it felt and how adventurous it was, how much I liked it and what it made of me. It never brought me financial security and as this is very important to most of us, everyone told me that those times are nothing worth. Would you agree?
I don't.

Trying to swim with the flow, to just struggle for financial freedom didn't satisfy me. I felt as if I'd lost something. Something important. And then I realized that this important thing was me. I lost myself and I ran away from the people, from this life that stole it from me, 'cause they made me a totally different person. They made me to someone I didn't wanna be. Someone without ideals, without dreams, someone who didn't have a permission to have dreams. Knowing that you are not allowed to dream - I believe - will kill you sooner or later.

By the time I decided to go to Croatia - without a plan, without money, without a valid work contract, only with the will to be a sailing instructor there - this changed. I dream again. Even if I got fired (yes, I got fired! And I'm more then happy about that!) Right now I'm on my way back to Germany. Happy that I don't need to work for this ... nice Austrian guy any more, but sad that I had to leave Rovinj. This city is sooooo damn beautiful! One should definitely visit it!
For me I know that I'll come back there some day and maybe next time I have a plan, money and a new dream (circumnavigating the world is still on top of the list^^)! With this in mind I'm not too sad any more. And hey, Hanseatische Yachtschule will have me back again for now ;)

Still alive!

Yeah! After more than a week I'm finally back online again! Thought that'd never gonna happen again... I recharged my mobile internet account balance last week but something went wrong and I couldn't go online until now.... DAMN i need the internet so much! My life is definitely online. Even if I'm living in paradise right now. Paradise is beginning to bore me btw. What happened? I don't know. My colleagues still don't wanna go out with me (same old spaghetti thing...), Nina hates me (I have no proof, but I think she does...) and the guy I wanna go out with still didn't ask me for a date... maybe he's just not that into me.

Life goes on....in a good manner

Saturday

The best thing about livin' here is the fact that I'm really living in paradise. The sun shines every day. I can go sailing every day. This damn great view from my apartement to the center of Rovinj! Okay, it's summer now...in the winter it will probably be a little boring here but hey, maybe possibly I won't be here that long. I still haven't got a work visa but for me I decided that I don't care as long as I can stay and don't run out of money ('cause I can't work).

A good reason for staying is also that my mom couldn't call me every day! In Germany I got bothered by her every day....with things I just didn't wanna hear. So welcome to the dragon-free zone! But I miss my sister. Right now I'm chatting with her on facebook. We're bitching about her ex boyfriend... apropos boyfriend, beeing here totally helped me getting over this guy I wrote the song for. That doesn't mean I completely forgot him, I still know he exists somewhere. Anyway he must be an idiot leaving me for a job in god knows where.... The song will be on YouTube soon (promise!). It's called '1^st Thought'. Maybe someday he -let's call him 'Mr. 17'- watches the video and thinks of me :)

This morning I found out Nina (the tennis coach) is back. Yesterday I wondered who moved in into the other room where the two volleyball coaches lived before. Nina and I get along perfectly! We were out in the city together today and had a lot of fun shopping! I'm the proud owner of two brand new handbags, Prada sunglasses (got the CSI Miami view now^^) and the new Britney Spears album 'Femme Fatale' now. Also I bought a new dress for the Springbreak festival. Wanna look good for David Guetta ;)

A few coffees afterwards Nina left to meet a friend and I went back to our apartment. Have a tough decision to make: Learning Croatian or playing guitar?

Sunday

I should try to earn money as a prophet! I knew that I wouldn't really learn Croatian and end up playing guitar! I knew it!!!

Anyway we had a totally interesting night at our apartment. My colleague Pavel and I were sleeping peacefully 'till a strange noise woke me up. Suddenly Nina burst into the room – screaming. What had happened? Thoughts about burglars and fire crossed my mind... Nina, still screaming with panic in her eyes forced me out of my bed. I should go into her room and get her things out. Why? Because she „saw“ a giant scorpion right beneath her bed! (The more often she told us about the scorpion later on, the bigger it got...) So I went in and got all her things out. When I lifted her travelling bag, a really small scorpion tried to escape into the dark.

Nina called a friend to pick her up (it was 01:15 am) and when he arrived he also didn't find a giant scorpion in this room. But Nina moved out again.

Monday

The week started chaotic! One of the boats lost its rudder, the boat we brought to the base on saturday wasn't ready yet and I was totally stressed.

Friday

The week went on like that – chaotic – and I was really happy when our guests said goodbye on friday.

Pavel left for a surfing competition and Steffen (my other colleague) didn't want to go out so I called Nina, who now lives in a nice little apartment near the center of Rovinj, to ask if she had any plans on going out. We met at the Havana bar and had Mojitos, later we had the idea of winning tons of money at the casino...unfortunately I lost 25 HKN first, but then we won and decided to spend the money on a good dinner some other night. Went to her apartment afterwards and there her friend invited us to a glass of really good red wine.

Saturday

I woke up in Nina's apartment (couldn't drive home after the wine)and left before anyone woke up. Back at our own apartment I had breakfast (I love this croatian cereals!) and then I drove back into the center to buy some running shoes! I need to get in shape again! Now all I need to do is getting myself motivated to go jogging every morning!

At the base we began with the preparations for the big Springbreak festival. I'm sooooo looking forward to it!

The Ocean....

...I could sit here, doing nothing more than watching the ocean forever! I love the ocean whether it is sunny with light winds or stormy with heavy rain. The ocean never disappoints me. It's just beautiful.It shows every shade of blue. So many fascinating creatures live in and with it. I see dolphins every now and then. A few days ago a moray swam in our little harbor. I didn't want to go swimming with it. Two years ago  one of it's colleagues scared me totally while I was diving at Pasman. Anyway I enjoyed watching it. If I'd stayed in Germany maybe I'd never got to see a moray. Or a dolphin. I've seen dolphins several times during my sailing trips, but they still fascinate me. They are curious, friendly and intelligent. I wonder what they may think about us?
A few days ago someone told me that on the island near our watersports base there was a dead giant squid. We had no wind for sailing and had to occupy our students somehow, so we took some kayaks and went to the island to search for the squid. Found it and since then I ask myself how it could've ended up there, because giant squids usually live in the deep sea and not in the adriatic I guess...
Do you get a clue on why I love the ocean that much? Things that fascinate us are more likely to be loved than things we're not fascinated by. It's not the things we're completely familiar with that wake our interest. It's always something that's different from what we already know. Same with men btw ;)

Enjoying the sunshine....

....and still lovin' it! Even though I already have a sunburn. Right now I'm sitting in a restaurant called 'Pastrik', having an ice cold beer and trying to pick something delicious from the menu.
The waiters are so damn nice, last time I went here (I think I told you...) I just couldn't go until I was so drunk that I could be happy that one of these nice guys brought me back home.

Yesterday the sailing instructor at the watersport station totally made me freak out. I'm soooooo glad that today is friday! That means I can avoid his presence for two days! Yay!

My menu: Cordon bleu. I had calamari fritti last time and grilled calamari the time before. I could live of calamari but hey, one should always try new things^^
Did I tell you that my flatmates normally eat spaghetti every day? The guy I share the room with changed to cevapcici so there's a bit of variety now... He is a pro surfer! Since I saw him windsurfing, I wanna learn it too! Maybe I get the chance later this summer...

Soooo....what else happened during the week? Sunshine....wind starts at 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. every day...Oh yes! I'm in love.... ;)

xoxo -Anni

I love sailing! ... and Rovinj...and springbreak is coming up!

Heeeeey, look at this view I'm enjoying every day here! Made the photo from my work place ;)
Today I went sailing with a bunch of beginners. Best weather conditions so far. Perfect wind! After a rainy sunday four of my colleagues and me spent in Pula yesterday (no, we had no fun...just rain, tons of coffee and McDonald's^^) this morning started sunny again. I went to the center to buy some vegetables (for some unknown reason my flatmates cook spaghetti every day) and found out that no one knows where to buy nautical charts in Rovinj. Our new sailing students arrived at 2 p.m. and we had a lot of fun sailing till 7 p.m.
Besides the sailing stuff I'm totally looking forward to the Springbreak Europe Festival (www.springbreakeurope.at) at the beginning of June! David Guetta will be there, R.I.O. and Culcha Candela. I'll organize tickets tomorrow. Anyone else going? I better not tell you about the last time I was out for partying/drinking/enjoying myself...that was saturday and my colleagues didn't wanna go out for dinner with me (...the spaghetti thing, you know...) so I went to the center alone, found a nice restaurant and drank beer all night with some Croatian guys. One of them had to take me home with my car 'cause I wasn't able to drive anymore...

 I'll have one last pivo (beer) now...
See ya,

xoxo -Anni

Rovinj!

Monday:

After another 4 hours car drive I finally found my destination – Rovinj!

Do you know how it feels like when you know you have to be somewhere and you know this 'somewhere' is somewhere nearby but you can't find it? When I passed the sign saying 'Rovinj' I felt totally lost!

I had no address of the sailing school I should start working at, just a vague hint where it might be and finding some place you have no address of in a city that's totally alien to you is definitely not easy! My Garmin was no help, it couldn't even find Ljubljana when I started yesterday morning in Villach. Eventually I found the sailing school between a hotel and a campsite.

My boss thought that I would arrive on monday and so I had no place to stay till this morning. I decided to stay at the campsite 'cause I was tired, hungry (I hadn't had breakfast) and not willing to search endlessly for an affordable hotel room. It should be mentioned that I love camping! Before I started my journey in Germany, I packed all my camping gear in case I'd need it, so I felt pretty comfortable in my tent ;)

After a delicious meal and ice cream (for less more than 10�!) I slept till I got woken up by the wind. It was hot and sunny before, suddenly the weather changed from 'Paradise' to 'Siberia'. 't was a cold night!

When I woke up this morning it was sunny again. The rain had gone and I was glad it did so I could stow a dry tent back into my car!

I moved into a nice apartement afterwards. The view from my balcony is just amazing! I can see the whole city of Rovinj!

Tuesday

The day started with a big disappointment! I went to the police station (remember, I called the consulate to ask for the work visa...) for my work visa and they told me that they don't give out visas for jobs like mine. Without a valid work visa I can't stay in Croatia longer than 3 month and (and that's the worse thing) I am not allowed to work here! I talked to my boss that we need to find a solution for this problem...we'll see what happens...

Until then I enjoy the sunny life here ;)

Wedneyday

...I can't really remember. Beer is cheap, I'm totally relaxed and everything feels like livin' in paradise. We (the other instructors (for sailing, surfing, tennis, beach volleyball and kayak) and me) had a barbecue this evening (a cheap one compared to the prices for meat, beer and vegetables in Germany). There was so much meat left, that we planned to have another barbecue tomorrow...

Thursday

Sunny life again. There was no wind (→ no sailing) and I drank coffee most of the day getting tanned and dreaming about naked men serving me chilled Mojitos ;)

Later on I saw a dolphin and took this as a good sign for my adventures as a sailing instructor in Croatia. Hopefully I'll be one (legally!) soon. There's a party at the beginning of june. David Guetta is coming and monday I told my croatian colleague that I wanted tickets but didn't get some. He said we'd manage but today he told me that he also couldn't get tickets anywhere.

We had another barbecue in the evening and two of my colleagues and me decided to go out tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it 'cause I always enjoy a good night out!

Friday

What a day! Starting sunny and with coffee again I'm still looking forward to the night out. Hey, it's friday! Like party-friday, like drinking beer, dancing, looking good and partying all night long!

I'll keep you informed about everything, I promise!

Xoxo -Anni

Long way to Villach, Couchsurfing and a lot of fun with the international students...

Finally after 11 hours of driving, several traffic jams and tons of coffee I eventually arrived in Villach/Carinthia/Austria yesterday. I'm staying with a nice girl from Lithuania who studies in Villach. Found her over the Couchsurfing network (couchsurfing.org) and we had a really good day today! Went to the Ossiacher See for some swimming. The water was still cold but I absolutely wanted to go swimming and the weather was just great! I was already tanned and now I have a sunburn on my back but we had soooooo much fun!

One of the other international students celebrated his birthday this evening and Indre (the girl I'm staying with) was invited and took me with her on that party, which took place outside at the Drau. We played Volleyball, had a campfire and later on Indre played guitar. Unfortunately I was so tired then that I couldn't play guitar any more and the singing...well...I'm not a good singer I guess even if I'm not tired ;)

I'll be leaving Villach very early tomorrow and heading for Rovinj. Hopefully I'll find it, 'cause my navigation system only works within the EU. Anyway I totally enjoyed my stay in Austria, meeting old and new friends and having fun!

Greetings,
Anni

Great sailing days, a new course and my sad departure

Back from the 'Nautical Educational Institute' as my lovely colleague would say and again in the chaos of my move to Croatia! The last two weeks have been as great as expected and according to that my departure was so sad but I couldn't stay any longer.
The new course which started one week ago was much better than the one before! We were again a team of three trainers but unlike last time we really were a team. My two new colleagues - a girl I shared my room with and the guy who's favorite saying was the nautical educational institute thing - and I got along perfectly. That made the whole training thing a lot easier! We took the folk boats instead of the Hanseaten Keel Dinghys this time and the weather conditions couldn't have been better.

At the end of the week we got more guests because a few seminars for trainers took place and suddenly I had lots of reasons to be jealous! The nice colleague turned into a nice ignoring me completely colleague and I can't help but think that this happened because one of my not so nice female colleagues stayed for the weekend and when she is somewhere around she does everything to exclude me from everything. I should've known that 'cause I know her for more than a year now and she did the same last year but last year I didn't care because I didn't like the guy she was after. Consequently I did not care what the last year guy thought about me but I liked the this year guy! Whatever she told him (and this girl talks bad about everyone who might stand in her way during her achieving personal goals) he stopped spending time with me. Damn, I hate her! As if that wasn't enough my ex boyfriend e-mailed me. I can't stand him and always feel completely bothered by his presence, may it be virtual or personal. So I found that as a good reason for me to get completely drunk again... not a good idea. Yesterday it took me the whole day to recover to my normal walking/talking/working condition, but things can only get better now that I'm back home (no beer/rum anywhere) and preparing to leave for Croatia on friday.

xoxo -Anni

HYS or what beer has to do with sailing...

Wow, been here since saturday and today is the first evening I'm actually sober. Well, not really but enough to post a blog entry!
The Navi-Bar (--> the place to be in Glücksburg^^) has a new barkeeper and since then the prices for beer have been massively lowered and they offer tarte flambée now. Definitely a good reason for staying up late and drinking more than is healthy...anyway I don't know a single sailor who doesn't drink beer.

And there is another very good reason to drink tons of beer: I can't stand my colleaque! He is listed as our head instructor in the sailing course I'm running together with him and another sailmate this week. He totally annoyed me on day one by meeting some friends and having fun while we had to work and he promised to make up for it on that evening shift but that never happened and since then it's only getting worse. Not only that he seems to be very lazy and not willing to work, he is the most incompetent team leader I've ever had. Told him we had to talk about it to solve the problems, but he finds that this is not necessary and that we should just go on like that. I'm so glad the week's almost over! I'm the head instructor for the course next week and I hope I'd be a better one than he is....

I made a lot of new friends among the other instructors and met many old friends and thinking about my friends I'm already missing them although I'm still in Germany and will come back here every now and then to meet them when I live in Croatia. And I'm still missing the guy I wrote the song for. Does anyone know a good method to forget someone? Except for drinking more beer of course...

xoxo- Anni

Health insurance, work permit and a lovesong

Some may think that going abroad is totally easy. I can tell you it's not! Today I went to my insurance agent to ask if I could get a travel health insurance. No problem if you live and work in Germany but if you plan on working somewhere else you can't keep your german health insurance, what leads to the fact that I won't have an insurance till I manage to get one in the country I'm emigrating to. That's weird because here in Germany you are legally bound to have a valid health insurance and no insurance is more expensive that the health insurance. 

The second big point on today's to-do list was calling the Croatian Consulate for my work visa. That was easier than I thought it would be, because EU residents don't need a visa to enter the country and can apply for a work visa at the local police station of the city they're staying in in Croatia. That however could become a problem later on as I need to start working right after my arrival but can't do so without a work permit. But we'll see...

Till then I'm living in a big mess of moving boxes! They're everywhere and every time I'm searching for something it takes hours to find it. I have to pack some things for my trip to Glücksburg on saturday and because all my stuff is packed in moving boxes already I decided to take only really important things with me like the coffee machine (more than important!), sweets (generally important) and some clothes of course. 

But besides all that there's a thought that bothers me constantly: what I leave when I leave. Last time I told you I'm a little heartbroken. Not the general 'life sucks thing'. The problem is - of course - a man. Right, it's always a man.... what else could cause so many problems in a woman's world, hm? He went on a business trip to the other side of the world (-> South America) for some project I know nothing about and when he'll come back, I'll be gone but what's worse is, that he hasn't talked to me since he went off to South America so I had no chance to tell him that I'm emigrating and now I'm afraid of never seeing him again. I tried to write a song about it and how much he means to me. Maybe I post a video with this song on YouTube...

10 minutes and it'll be friday! I can't help but think of Rebecca Black when I think about friday and her squawking voice get's stuck in my head...anyway I wish yall a great friday!

So this is me....

...28 years old, still not wise, trying to emigrate to Croatia, lonely and a bit heartbroken (maybe that's one of the reasons I start a blog....) and I really don't know how to write a first blog entry!
My idea was to start a blog to keep the contact to all my friends 'cause I have to leave them when I leave Germany in a few weeks. Then I thought 'Why not sharing my adventures abroad with the world?' Hopefully there will be adventures! Hm....I guess emigrating is an adventure itself so this will definitely be an interesting blog! But it should not only be all about the emigration stuff even if that might currently play the biggest role in my life, it should also be about me and all the things that occupy me all day long ;) e.g. the reason why I decided to leave my home country and that is .... sailing of course! There are so many more opportunities to sail at the Croatian coast than in North Rhine Westphalia. I'm working as a sailing instructor for Germany's biggest sailing academy in my free time since 2005 but only a few weeks of sailing during the season every year isn't enough. Especially not when you have to drive 474 km to the coast. Anyway I'm going there this saturday and for the next two weeks I'll be teaching kids about what a fantastic sport sailing is. I hope they're as excited as I am.^^ I'll try to keep you informed 'bout what goes on there!

So this is it....
...the first blog entry. I hope you got a clue of what this blog should be about and if not...just ask!

 xoxo- Anni