Long time no see! I don’t want to let my blog die, and actually I want to post more regularly, so in this post, I wanted to do a little review of my year 2023.
The year started with a trip to Denmark. Originally, our Denmark friend group vacation was only in the summer, but in recent years, we have added a winter trip too, and it seems like it’s here to stay.1 This time, we were 16 people in a pretty small house, and as we obviously spent more time inside (compared to the summer trip), it was a bit much at times. However, it was still a pretty epic trip, with lots of board games, nice walks, and of course some cold water swimming.
In mid February, I went to visit my friends in Norway again. Another winter tradition! I was there for three and a half weeks, though my friends both got pretty sick right at the start and we spent lots of time doing jigsaw puzzles instead of nice outdoor activities. However, I did end up doing lots of cold water ocean plunges (most of them alone), we did spend a few days at the cabin going cross-country skiing, and Helmut and I went snowboarding a few times too. So in the end, it was another fantastic Norway trip!
2023 was also my first full year of doing strength training at the gym, and I supplemented that with yoga and bouldering/climbing. There were times when I exercised every single day, and I think I was able to really solidify this more active way of living. Now, even if I take a few weeks off (during traveling or when I’m sick), I always get back into it right away as soon as I can. Pretty proud about that, especially watching my body transform over time.
In May, I went on a work trip to Innsbruck, Austria. I was only there for two nights, but ended up regretting not staying longer! What a nice city!
May also had lots of nice weather2, and with that comes ICE CREAM! Göttingen has some great ice cream places, but my favorite by far is a small one called Smiles. My friends and I like it so much that we went there pretty much every day (when the weather was good), and I can’t remember a month where I’ve spent THIS much money on ice cream.
In June, there was yet another Norway trip! This cabin trip with a smaller group of friends (usually around eight people) is another staple event in my year, and it’s hard to describe how great it was. We had the best luck possible with the weather3 (though after a few days of around 23ºC, we kinda attracted lots of mosquitoes which sucked, literally), and to point out one specific thing, which is possibly the most epic thing I’ve done in my life: We found a field of snow going downhill ending in a small snow water lake, and we took our “ass sliders”4 and sled down the snow into the water. It was simply epic! Just amazing.
In July, I spent six days in Vienna visiting a friend. Originally, our other friend was supposed to join as well, but she got sick right before and couldn’t come. 😢 We made the best of it though and enjoyed our time!
On Sunday, 30 July 2023, we did a thing. My friends Helmut, Nick, and I did another attempt at walking 100,000 steps in a day. You might remember that Helmut and I tried this already in 2021 and failed, and this was going to be our redemption. While Helmut unfortunately didn’t make it (it was a pretty sunny day and he probably got a sunstroke or something like that), Nick and I finished it at 11:29 p.m., with only half an hour to spare until midnight. 🥳 I couldn’t have done it without Nick who is such a bundle of energy, I don’t know how he does it. And we definitely couldn’t have done it without Johanna (Helmut’s fiancée), who supported us by preparing meals all day and accompanying us for part of the way (she ended up walking well over 50,000 steps herself).
Not even a week later, we went on our yearly summer Denmark trip. It was the biggest group we’ve ever had, with 33 adults and 3 children. Absolutely insane! There were some issues, like miscalculated meal sizes and stuff like that, but all in all everything worked out really well, and I was very happy about that!
The rest of the year after that was fairly calm. There were some LAN parties5, some Berlin trips, and a trip to Konstanz visiting friends.
The year ended as it started - in Denmark again! This time, we stayed there over New Year’s, and it was a lovely little trip (with 20 people!).
It’s hard to express how grateful I am, one for having all these amazing friends to enjoy my time with, and two for being able to afford (both in time and money) to go on this many trips every year. I feel like not many people can do that, though I also think that I have other priorities compared to most people. At least at this point, I don’t have a family to provide for, I have neither a car nor a house, and no intention to buy either. That makes a big difference. It might change at some point, though I can already say that this particular part of my life hasn’t changed much in 2024 yet. 😉
We’re already almost halfway through 2024, so I’m quite late with this, but I think it would be a nice thing to have for every year. Please hold me to it and feel free to bother me when I haven’t posted a 2024 post in mid 2025. 😅
I hope all of you are doing well! Feel free to leave a comment below6 and tell me how you are doing. ☺️ You can also say Hello via other means. ❤️ Thanks for reading!
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Although as of May 2024, we haven’t decided on anything for next winter, so who knows. 🙈 ↩
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Climate change, yay… ↩
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More climate change… ↩
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Small sleds that only fit your butt. We started using a direct translation of the informal German name for those. ↩
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I’m not much of a gamer anymore, but every year, usually twice a year, I go to these mostly Nintendo-focused LAN parties here in Germany. Of course I’m playing lots of games there, but for me it’s mostly about the people. I’ve known some of those people for over 15 years now! And most of them I only meet at these events. ↩
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Note that I’ve decided to enable a comment moderation queue, meaning that I’ll have to approve each comment manually before it shows up. Also note that while you can see your own comment already right after submission, it will be gone - until I approve it - when you refresh or leave the page. ↩
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