Stranded in Karlsruhe/ Zaglavili u Karlsruhe

Today, we handed over the keys to our apartment. We were also supposed to leave Karlsruhe and travel to Frankfurt. Stay there in a hotel and fly to New York tomorrow… Ada and Adrian were supposed to have a fare well party in the kindergarten today and get their gifts and say hi and bye. Instead Ada got sick and we had to go to the doctor. It turned out to be otitis so everything we planned was cancelled. Instead we landed in a hotel in Karlsruhe and now we are waiting for Ada to get well to continue our trip…

Such a mess/ Koji haos!

Danas smo predali ključeve od stana. Plan je bio da danas završimo sa Karlsruhe i odemo u Frankfurt. Tamo bi prespavali u hotelu i sutra bi krenuli avionom za New York…
Ada i Adrian su trebali da imaju oproštajno danas, da prime poklončiće i da kažu ćao…međutim to se sve promijenilo kad je Ada postala bolesna. Pokazalo se da je upala ušiju i sve što smo planirali je sad pomjereno.
A mi zaglavismo u hotelu u Karlsruhe dok čekamo da se Ada oporavi i da nastavimo naš put…

Room service when kids refuse to eat / Sobna usluga kad ti djeca hoće kući jesti trahane…

After a long day I went to the wellness center resting and “meditating ” …After sitting in the sauna I started wonder…why do people in Germany have the need to stay naked in the sauna? When they are finished they go to the shower room and have separated dressing cabines?
So it turns out it is ok for women to look at mens hanging things but when they shower they should cover themselves and keep away from the other women?? or how am I supposed to get it?’

Good night and over!

Nakon dugog dana otišla sam u wellness centar odmoriti i “meditirati”….Nakon nekog sjedenja u sauni upitala sam se zasto svi ljudi hodaju goli po saunama? I onda nakon toga se obicno tusiraju u tus sobi gdje su postoje posebne kabine za tuširanje i presvlačenje (barem kod žena). Šta to treba da znači?
Ispadne ok da gledamo golotinju po sauni a kad se treba tuširati onda treba da se sakrijemo jedna od druge…ili kako to drugačije da protumačim?
Pozdrav!

Count down…3 days left

Today we are closing our chapter in Karlsruhe. It feels sad and in the same time exciting.
Our stuff in the apartment is all packed and we are sleeping in a hotel for the next few nights. The kids are overexcited and couldn’t sleep until 21.30h :/
Tomorrow comes the container and the things will then be shipped to US. It will take 5-6 weeks before we get our furniture and stuff meaning we will first live in a hotel for a couple of days.

During these days the team will get temporary living package in the house meaning a company brings all the things you need for living until your stuff arrives with the ship. Honestly, I didn’t even know companies like this exist…

It was hard to see how the kids reacted on leaving the apartment and going to the hotel. After a while they wanted to “go home”.
Me myself I am sad because it takes a looooot of energy to move and start a new existence even if it will be just for 2-3 years but I’m also exited. Somehow, I like moving around :/

A surprised girl asking where all the things are 🙂

Danas zatvaramo knjigu u Karlsruhe. Osjeća se i žalosno ali istovremeno i uzbudljivo. Naše stvari su sve spakovane i spavaćemo u hotelu slijedeći par noćiju. (Tu moram samo reći ako idete negdje kao expat i treba vam američka firma nešto da sredi onda morate bukvalno njima reći da moraju bukirati x kreveta. Nama naručiše jedan bračni krevet i jedan dodatni krevet, tako da sam ja sa djecom na bračnom spavala i nadala se da nećemo skliznuti sa kreveta, dok je Ensar mora ona dodatnom spavati.)
Djeca nisu mogla do 21.30h zaspati jer su preuzbuđeni. 
Sutra dolazi kontejner i sve stvari će prebaciti u Ameriku. Trebaće nekih 5-6 sedmica brodom dok ne dobijemo naš namještaj i stvari tako da ćemo prvih par dana u hotelu biti. Najbitnije stvari za djecu (igračke) smo putem aviona poslali i one će stići za 2 sedmice.
Dok smo u hotelu plan je da se kuća u kojoj trebamo živjeti sredi i okreči. Isto tako ćemo iznajmiti namještaj tzv. Temporary living package u prevodu ”privremeni paket za življenje” od neke firme i oni sve srede dok ne dođe naš namještaj. Nisam ni znala da takve firme postoje.
Bilo mi je teško gledati reakciju od djece kad su napustili stan i išli u hotel. Nakon nekog vremena su htjeli ići kući. Ipak je to jedini dom za koji oni znaju.
Ja sam tužna jer znam da treba takooo puuuno energije da se novi život započne iako samo za 2-3 godine… (imam iskustvo sa Hamburgom, Minhenom i Karlsruhe), ali isto tako sam uzbuđena jer ipak nemam mir da budem na jednom mjestu :/


The hard thing by moving is that we have to sort a lot of things out. It is hard but also a relief to get rid of so many things.
One of the things I was missing was my golden bracelet that Ada had lost. I had been looking for it for ages and a guy from the packing company found it…in the place where we keep sweets… Who would come to the idea to check if the bracelet is there?

Naporna stvar sa selidbom je što moram sortirati mnogo stvari. Naporno je ali isto tako olakšavajući kad se riješim svega što mi ne treba. 
Jedna stvar koja mi je davala glavobolju je moja narukvica koju je Ada izgubila. Zlatna koju sam dobila za svoj 40-i rođendan. Tražim je već danima i nisam je mogla naći. I kad su došli ljudi za pakovanje stvari nađu je među bombonama 😀 Ko bi došao na ideju tamo tražiti narukvice?


Another hard thing when moving like we are now is the economical aspect. It is expensive to move!
It is is hard to grasp how much money things loose in value. The kitchen and the car is an economical suicide. In the end I feel the best things to buy that keep value are jewels and branded expensive bags. My next bag will be a Hermes 😛

Maybe this one 😛 / Možda ovu? 😛

Još jedna naporna stvar sa selidbama je kad je gledaš sa ekonomske strane. Jako je skupo seliti se. Tek kad hoćeš prodati stvari koje ti ne trebaju vidiš koliko stvari gube u vrijednost. Kuhinja i auto su ekonomsko samoubistvo. Na kraju sam dobila osjećaj da je bolje kupovati nakit i brendirane ekskluzivne tašne koje ne padaju u cijenu. Slijedeća će mi tašna da bude Hermes 😛

1.st of May

First of all happy 1.st of May. Wish you safe and well payed jobs 🙂 we were thinking of going to a demo bit decided that the kids are not in shape for that. Instead the kids wanted to barbecue. Ada is lately really fascinated by cake making so I agreed we’d make a cake together. So this morning she got up early to bake the cake. She had the honour to decorate the cake and she did:)

Next thing was going out for playing but after a while the kids where such a mess that we decided to go home for a rest.

In the mean time I continued my 100 days challenge of biking 30 min and until now I am keeping up the last two weeks. yes!!!

For the barbecue we had the perfect weather and the perfect barbecue master;)



After the barbecue we went again out to the playground. This time with happy kids….or not but at least the weather was perfect ?

Spring festival Karlsruhe / Proljetni festival u Karlsruhe

Frühlingsfest or spring party is a nice happening in Karlsruhe when THE one and only ferris wheel comes in town and my kids pass it by every time we go to the kindergarten. I promised them we will go there…of course. At last we went three times and enjoyed the different carousels. I also noticed how different children’s perception is in comparison to grown ups. My daughter loved the duck fishing where you pick up ducks with a rod. Every duck symbolises some points and the more points the better “gift” you get. I found it complete waste of money and time…while she loved it.

Proljetni festival je jedan lijep događaj u Karlsruhe kada u grad stigne i ringispil i cak i onaj tocak. moja djeca svaki put kad idemo u vrtic prolaze ringispil i naravno da sam morala obecati da ćemo ići tamo … . Na kraj smo otišli tri puta i uživali u različitim vrtuljcima. Primijetila sam isto kako je različita percepcija djece u odnosu na odrasle. Za mene potpuni gubitak i novca i vremena a mojoj kcerci se najvise svidjelo pecanje pataka. Svaka patka vrijedi neki broj bodova i što više bodova upecate dobijate bolji poklon. Ali sta se sve ne radi za djeciji osmjeh 🙂

Some of my impressions in US

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I went to US for a house hunting trip. I have some prejudices about US so it was quite interesting to go there with the goal to find a place for living.

One thing I got surprised about was that the standard of the houses is so bad. Ok, the houses are huge in comparison to the German and Swedish houses BUT the standard of the building and especially the bathrooms is much lower. For me it is difficult to understand the need of a palace with 10 rooms, 5 bathrooms and kitchens that are perfect for a Michelin chef (except that the fridge and freezer is worn out) instead of keeping it smaller but with higher quality.

The food in restaurants is excellent however every where we ate it costed around 100(!!) dollars for 2 people. This was some dynamite shrimp. It was deeeelicious.

Environment and Sustainibility

The use of plastic is everywhere, even in places one could avoid it. The mentality I feel is that “no matter what we do there is no environmental problem with our garbage.”

The car…
The use of car is essential. Without one car per person you are completely cut off from the society. The whole way of living is around the car. There are no or hardly any pavements for a walk. To take a bike would probably be considered suicidal:/

Bad drivers!

What I saw the Americans are really bad drivers (or I had bad luck). They were very aggressive and egoistic drivers introducing tons of dangerous situations.

The highways are really bad…at least where we were driving. I find the ways in Bosnia are better than the highways in NY and CT (except in US the ways are broader). There are literally huge holes in the highway that are life threatening when driving faster.
Then the absolute culture chock
At the high way they take over from both left and right side ending very often in very bad accidents. We were there 4 days and every day I saw one bad accident.

The flight

I was in US just for four days so the jet lag was an issue but I have to say that travelling business class made my days so much easier.

It was my first time flying business and it was an another dimension from my previous flights. All the space and the possibility to lay down and stretch out the legs…priceless (if you can afford the ticket) 🙂
The food was great in the business class, and one could watch movies and sleep. I am not a fan of flying so I took a beer to calm my nerves…

And the best thing is …we found a house 🙂

Visitors from Sweden visiting

Last week my sister and her kids visited us. It was so much fun. I really miss them a lot when they aren’t here around.
Ada didn’t know that her cousins where coming so she was exploding of feelings when she saw them. From that moment until they left the kids where inseparable. We went to the city, to the hair dresser, to Strasbourg, to the Zoo and enjoyed every moment.

Ada celebrated her birthday with a cake that her grandmother Suada did. Ada and Princess Zoe then decorated the cake and it was really fun to see how much effort they invested to have it the way they wanted to.

We went for shopping also and the girls decided they wanted the blue and the pink boots for me AND they wanted to play Elsa and Anna from Frost. I bought the boots because they were surprisingly comfortable and well I loved the colors 😉

We enjoyed the time and we were lucky to see many impressive things at the Zoo for example. The bears where playing harsh, we saw the small kangaroo looking out from its mothers pocket. We saw monkeys breastfeeding their young ones. ..It is amazing to see how similar we are to the monkeys 😛

Cheese, our wonderful company at the zoo 🙂


Kangaroo baby looking out?
See the frogs?

A different way to use Läkerol…but it worked 🙂

One of the oldest (if not the oldest) carousel in the world in Strasbourg. It is beautiful as well as fun 🙂

Until next time 🙂

Mito i korupcija

Kako otići u Bosnu a da ne sretnem ljude koje sve neuspjehe svaljuju na mitu i korupciji? Prosto je nemoguće.
Ne kažem da ne postoji, naravno da postoji. I to svugdje. U Bosni je rijedak slučaj da baš nikad nije proslijedio novčić da baš njemu/ njoj ne bude bolje, barem u tom momentu.
Za sutra je parola ko živ a ko mrtav!
Samim tim nemam visoko mišljenje o dostojanstvu i ponosu na Balkanu. Spašavaju ga jedino pojedinci koji se svaki dan bore na svoj način.
A da ne pričam o formiranju jedne države na takav mentalitet ljudi…

Ali… objektivno me zanima taj fenomen.
Zanimljivo mi je kad osoba kuka kako nema posla jer je sve mito i korupcija a sjedi 15h na dan igra igrice, “pije kafice” na socijalnim medijama i.t.d. a da ne napiše jedan normalno kvalitetan cv ili da se bar educira na neki način da svoje kvalifikacije povisi onda moram reći da u većini slučaja koje sam ja srela je mito i korupcija jedan savršen izgovor za vlastitu lijenost.
Nisam ni jednu nezaposlenu osobu vidjela da se nešto aktivno bavi politikom. Mislim ako je već toliko s-e, a nemaš posla pa najmanje što možeš uraditi je baviti se politikom, nevladine organizacije ili tako to. Na taj način barem nešto možeš promijeniti.

Mislim dalje (moje iskustvo) da u Bosni vlada prilično veliko neznanje o politici u drugim državama.
U Bosni a ma baš ništa ne valja i sve je bolje vani.
Vani ljudi imaju servirane poslove, plate basnonosne. Mogu da vozaju skupa auta i žive u kućama od 250 kvm.
U Bosni će šefici lajati kad im kaže da će dobiti otkaz ako još jednom dođe na posao dugih lakiranih noktiju…a da radi kao (medicinska) sestrica. U Njemačkoj (ili Švedskoj) joj ne bi palo na pamet da dođe na posao takva…a da šefici prolaje pa to ne postoji. I kažu sređena država…

Koliko ih u Bosni uopšte zna nešto o politici u Švedskoj, Njemačkoj ili drugim državama.
Imam osjećaj da ih većina pojma nema da se u zadnje vrijeme Švedska trese jer je glavna šefica od Svenska Kraftnät, institucija koja je glavna za švedske električne mreže, dalekovode itd. zaposlila “prijatelja” da radi kod nje…sigurno nije džabe radio.
Ili onaj skandal u divnoj Švedskoj gdje su preko veze dolazili do organa.
A od starog ministerpredsjednika Bayerna (Njemačka) -Stoiber je kćerci oduzeta doktorska titula jer je kopirala dijelove iz tuđih radova.
Pa da ne pričamo o tome što je Stoiber pola familije zaposlio da rade kod njega.
Ili onaj skandal gdje CDU zvijezda Guttenberg ostaje bez posla kao ministar odbrane Njemačke i bez doktorske titule jer kopirao čitav doktorski rad.
A da ne pišem koliko još ima skandala… ali ipak niko ne bi došao na ideju da kaže da vladaju mito i korupcija i da zbog toga ne mogu naći posao…

Picture by By James Rickwood – By James RickwoodFlickr: P*ssed again!, CC BY 2.0, Link

Moja top lista zemalja što se tiče hrane!

Kako sam bila u Bosni ne mogu da se ne nerviram oko nekih stvari ali isto tako uvijek kukam kako su svi negativni i tako odlučih da (dok ne napišem post sa konstruktivnom kritikom :P) zapišem dobre stvari.

Mnogo mjesta i država sam prošla i posjetila i samo su mi par, zbog hrane, ostale u sjećanju a to su Island, Tajland, Italija, Rusija i (da ne povjeruješ) Bosna!

U Islandu smo probali kitove i islandskog konja. Meso od kita je bilo od neke vrste što nije (još) ugrožena. Jeli smo fantastičan dezert. I sve to platili toliko da ko poželi ići u Island slobodno može na vrijeme pripremiti poseban budžet za hranu. Gdje smo god jeli hrana je bila izvrsna.

 U Tajlandu isto tako.
Najbolja hrana je bila u najobičnijim restoranima da ne kažem po uličnim štandovima. Samo sam jedan put otišla u “eksluzivni” restoran da proslavim svoj 25.i rođendan da bi eksluzivno zaglavila (srećom brzo prošlo) da izvinete na šolju.  Tu sam isto prvo put vidjela da na meniju stoji jelo od vjeverice. Nisam se smjela osuditi da jedem vjevericu. Otvorena jesam što se tiče hrane, ali…nije to za mene…

 Nekad se bilo mlado 😀

Kad sam otišla u St. Petersburg imala sam neku čudnu sliku o Rusiji, pogotovo što se tiče hrane. Probala sam njihov specijalitet – boršč. Supa od cikle! Nisam mislila da će nešto posebno šmekati ali je bila stvarno ukusna. Što me najviše začudilo je da su obožavatelji palaćinaka i samim tim su imali predobre palaćinke. Slane i slatke 🙂
Isto nisam nigdje jela bolju mozzarella salatu što me začudilo jer nema toliko sastoja u toj salati da je baš toliko teško napraviti…Ali bila je izvrsna…Možda doduše zato što smo jeli u ekskluzivnom Four seasons hotelu (bar jednom u životu).

U Italiji sam jela najgoru pizzu u životu u nekom malom selu Bertinoro.
Ali zato sam fantastičnu hranu jela u Milanu. I nigdje nisam pila bolji cappuccino i jela bolji sladoled nego u Milanu. Hranu koju smo jele je isto bila fantastična ali i poskupa tako da kad toliko platim i onda očekujem doobru hranu.

I onda ova naša Bosna. Za ovu razklimanu državu gdje svi uvijek pričaju kako ništa ne valja trebaš biti maher u lošoj sreći ako nađeš negdje lošu hranu. Hrana nam je blago rečeno fantastična u poređenju sa drugim državama. Isto tako i kolači. Ovaj put sam dodala novi “tojač” (kolač kako kaže Adrian) dževrek u listi favorit kolača 😀


Imate li vi neko mjesto što vam je ostalo u sjećanju zbog hrane?

Visit from Sweden / Posjeta iz Švedske

Last week I had visit from Sweden. My mom, my niece and my nephew came for a visit. We visited a couple of places and a couple of highlights where the Halloween
the visit in the Naturmuseum / Posjeta u muzeju prirode

Baumwimpelpfad (and especially the slide) in Bad Wildbad/ Šetnja kroz krošnje (i pogotovo tobogan)
The Karlsruher Zoo / Karlsruhe Zoološki vrt We had a busy week and enjoyed the time a lot…Having four kids in an apartment is like having a tornado in the house but still moments of silent could appear 😀

Weekend / Vikend

On Saturday we planned to go to Bad Wildbad but instead our friends came to Karlsruhe so that we ended up spending time in the zoo. I wonder if in the future there will be something like video cameras that can actually save the feeling one experiences seeing something for the first time or seeing something that is overwhelming. For example when Adrian saw the small alligator he started to sing “Arne Alligator” and danced while pointing towards the alligator. Ada on the other hand was sticked by a wasp for the first time so she screamed like the girl from the movie American psycho. U subotu smo planirali  da idemo u Bad Wildbad, ali umjesto toga naši prijatelji su došli u Karlsruhe, tako da smo završili provodenje vremena u zoološkom vrtu. Pitam se da li će u budućnosti biti nešto poput video kamere koja u stvari sačuvaju osjećaj kad vidiš nešto prvi put u životu ili kad vidiš nešto što te oduševi . Na primjer, kada je Adrian vidio malog aligatora, počeo je pjevati i plesati “Arne Alligator” dok je prstom pokazivao prema aligatoru. Ada je, s druge strane, bila prvi put obložena ospom, tako da je vrištala kao devojka iz filma američki psiho.

Unfortunately, my kids started coughing like Russian smokers again we decided to go to Bad Wildbad on Sunday. Unfortunately, Adrian got sick so Ada and I ended up going alone to meet up our friends. It was a beautiful day and the landscape is stunning. We saw a paraglider have a crash landing when he touched the tree crowns and first I thought that was it… but the guy was tough and lucky and could walk away in one piece.
The hit of the day for the kids though was to just run and throw the leaves at each other. It is funny how grown ups forget how much fun it is to do such a simple thing…Nažalost, su mi djeca počela kašljati kao ruski pušači, pa smo odlučili da u nedjelju odemo u Bad Wildbad. Nažalost, Adrian se razbolio pa smo Ada i ja same srele naše prijatelje. Bio je divan dan, a pejzaž je zapanjujući. Vidjeli smo čak jednog paraglajdera koji je imao neplansko slijetanje kada je dodirnuo krošnju od drveta pa se razbio pri sletanju … Ipak je imao više sreće od pameti pa se nije teško ozlijedio.
Hit dana za djecu je, da ne povjeruješ, bilo trčanje i bacanje listova jedno na druge. Smiješno je kako odrasli zaborave kako su ponekad jednostavne stvari tako zabavne…