To Oberhausen and back

I started writing this post yesterday, thinking maybe blogging would cheer me up, but it didn't and i never finished it.
I still don't feel like i should be blogging right now, cause my Monday blues, which came on a Tuesday, has stubbornly followed me well into Wednesday and it doesn't seem willing to let go of me any time soon.
But instead of waiting around for inspiration or a better mood, i'm just gonna post my iPhone pictures and the part of the post i wrote yesterday.
It's pretty much one of those "and then this happened, and then after that, this other thing happened"-posts that i hate so much, so feel free to skip down to the pictures... actually they aren't great, so feel free to ship this post altogether and wait for better pictures and a a better Amalie!

Ok, so from yesterday:

We left Copenhagen on Thursday afternoon, after spending hours carefully bubble wrapping paintings, and packing them into our tiny car.
Due to the delay, and because half the people we were going to see in Hamburg were sick, we decided to skip that part, and instead we stayed the night in the country with my parents.
The next morning we got up at 6.30 to get a good start to the day, and start our epically long drive to the gallery early.
We switched cars to my parents more roomy and dependable red van, and left Jean-Luc with a neighbor of my parents who had agreed to fix that not so attractive rust patch that keeps getting bigger and bigger!

The drive down was good. I was on some anti motion sickness medication, which made driving bearable for once. The only really sucky thing was the broken stereo my dad had failed to mention, and there were times i would have killed for some music, any music, but we somehow managed without it. We took the ferry, made some stops here and there to get snacks, stretch our legs and walk the dog, and even though it was a long-ass drive, we made it to the gallery in good time and only mildly car-lagged (yes, it's a thing!)

The gallery space was great, and the owners didn't mind us doing our own thing, so we started hanging paintings pretty much right away, and with the way our pseudo-twin brain works after 10 years of marriage, we had it looking pretty awesome in no time.
The rest of the night was spent talking, getting pizza, and settling into our small hotel/apartment a short drive from the gallery.

Germany was hot, like, almost summer hot, the next day.
We went for a walk to find a supermarket and get some breakfast, and although Oberhausen is not a pretty town (sorry, but it just isn't) it was nice being out without a huge coat or even a scarf!
We found an Aldi, did our shopping, but of course their machines wouldn't accept our Danish Visa card, so we ended up taking a very long walk to the nearest ATM, which wasn't near at all, and back to pick up our bag of groceries.
But it was nice. It felt like having a day off almost, and Lucifer appreciated the exercise after spending a whole day driving (something he handled remarkably well, by the way).
We ate our breakfast, took a bath (cause there was a bathtub, and we felt like we needed to take advantage of that!) and went to the gallery to rearrange the last few paintings, and get stuff ready for the opening.

In the afternoon our friends Sascha and Daniel arrived from Hamburg, and later Sarah came down from Berlin. Since the town didn't have a single café, we ended up hanging out outside a gas station with bad coffee and pizzas! Yup, we felt pretty cool, i tell ya...

The opening party was good, but those things are always so weird.
We only knew our friends (and one of Eckel's clients who'd come straight down after getting tattooed in Copenhagen for three days straight... thanks dude!) and being the socially awkward creatures that we are, we were, well, awkward.
But Allan talked to some people and got to see his paintings and photographs hang on walls and look awesome, so that was totally worth the last few (many) weeks of stress from hell!


Ready to take Jean-Luc to Bisserup
 

Leaving Copenhagen

We got to the country just in time to catch a lovely sunset

On the ferry the next day

The weather was so great, it felt wrong to have to get back in the car afterwards

I got comfy

And so did Lucifer

Our almost double bed at the rental apartment (but not really, not at all)


 A good, German breakfast

What we came there for: Allan's paintings at the gallery!
 

Me and Sascha, hiding in a corner (as you can see, i didn't overdress as much as i'd originally planned to, thank god)

Don't mind us!

Lucifer was such a little champ, lying in his basket all night and hardly ever barking at people entering the gallery

Me and Sarah trying to look good after a long night, and almost succeeding... almost!

Sweet present from our sweet blog reader Sandra who knows how much we love getting presents... especially presents that are chocolate

They were so good, we ate three that night!*


I took a bunch of analog pictures too, so i hope some of them turned out a little better than these, cause damn...

Anyway, the next day we had another nice German breakfast with Sarah at her hotel. We were all feeling super tired, which was probably because we got up at 8.30 which was actually, in reality, 7.30 because of friggin daylight savings time. Ugh.
After saying bye to Sarah we went back the the apartment and packed, and then met Igor and Meike from the gallery for a cup of coffee at an Italian restaurant, because, well, Oberhausen has no cafés, remember?
We ended up getting on the road pretty late, and the drive back felt a lot longer than the drive down there, and now that i think about it, it actually was! We had to drive to my parents house, an hour and a half from the ferry, and then, after switching cars from the red van back to Jean-Luc, we had to drive another hour and a half back to Copenhagen. But the last part wasn't so bad, since we had our crappy car stereo and an iPod with iTrip to keep us company. After hours and hours of no music, we rocked the fuck out!
And being locked in a car with the ones you love and a bunch of snacks isn't too bad. We had some good talks and some great laughs, and i'm already thinking of planning another road trip. Maybe to somewhere a little closer, but still!

Monday was exactly what i'd been dreaming of for weeks.
A day off with my husband, and nothing to do.
We had a great breakfast, hung out at the café, i started breaking in my Lita boots, we went to the city for a pizza slice and ate it in the park, and i had popcorn for dinner! We watched movies and tv shows and we even took a nap together on the couch.
Basically it was like a dream!


Monday at the park


Ok, that post wasn't as awful as expected, was it?
I hope not.
I'll try to get back to being my usual cheerful self (ha!) soon... and post some, ahem, better pictures from our trip. I hope.


*Feeling jealous cause you don't have a sweet yellow chocolate mustache lollipop too? Well don't be, just go to Tati's and Sandra's etsy store and buy your own!

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