{"id":16319,"date":"2017-06-16T08:27:58","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T08:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/?p=16319"},"modified":"2017-06-19T10:27:39","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T10:27:39","slug":"no-back-home-munich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/no-back-home-munich\/","title":{"rendered":"No “Back Home” – Munich"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At the weekend…. \u00a0 That short introductory sentence always makes me laugh. \u00a0 Journal writing on a Monday morning with a bunch of 5 year olds can reveal some hilarious stuff, corkers from my children’s weekend journals at a similar age include “At the weekend, we bought a pet snake called Adrian (we hadn’t)” to “At the weekend, Mummy got me a bike from outside someone’s house (well I did, but I had paid for it!)”… \u00a0 Anyway, I digress. \u00a0“At the Weekend” can also be a precursor to something exciting, and last weekend was no exception… \u00a0 At the weekend we went to Munich…<\/p>\n

I say “we”, but in this instance it was just the Small Boy and myself. \u00a0 \u00a0He has probably struggled with the move back the most at times, which is understandable having spent over half his life in Bavaria. \u00a0 \u00a0He currently knows more about Bayern than he does his own country for goodness sake, boasting a lot of local friends as well as the more transient Expat types. \u00a0He prefers sauerkraut to mushy peas, still dishes out a constant stream of FC Bayern updates to anyone listening, and even more annoyingly, likes to correct my “Deutsche sprechen” when I try to make the effort with my new German friend at his school…<\/p>\n

So why, at the risk of upsetting him all over again was I taking him somewhere he so desperately misses? \u00a0 Well, it’s that time of year again in “living abroad land”, and with it comes a huge wave of expat and local friends alike either going “home” or moving onto pastures new<\/a>. \u00a0This year one of his closest friends (we love his entire family too!) will soon return to Seattle. \u00a0 \u00a0With the added bonus of a party, I wanted him to be able to go to the celebrations, but also thought it would serve as a timely reminder that Expat life is usually a transitory one (and not just for his sake, but also for mine I hasten to add)…<\/p>\n

Not wanting to leave the Small Baby for longer than necessary (albeit in the very capable hands of his doting Big Sis and Dad), we had a single night there to bid our friends farewell (for now. \u00a0I am definitely going to Seattle!) in what has to be the flyingest of flying visits known to us…<\/p>\n

Up with the larks at 4.15am, I definitely expected a bit of a struggle to rouse the small boy out of his slumbers, but he was up, dressed, ready and waiting. \u00a0 Our short hop there was quick, uneventful, and gave us a good view of those all too familiar mountains coming in to land. \u00a0 \u00a0 That combined with the slightly strangulated heart feeling I got upon hearing the Small Boy announce that he was “glad to be home” made me blink back a few tears stepping down the rickety Easy Jet steps to say the least…<\/p>\n

I have heard it said that once you have lived abroad for a certain amount of time, you no longer have one home but many, which I totally agree with. \u00a0It’s just that Munich still currently feels<\/em> very much like our main<\/strong> home, which has come as something of a shock being back in the UK, and isn’t exactly something you can really talk about openly to friends and family who haven’t lived abroad themselves, without the risk of upsetting them. \u00a0You should<\/em> be massively happy to be back after all. \u00a0Actually I feel currently feel more like an outsider, and I know this is how the Small Boy feels too.<\/p>\n

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Our friends met us at the airport, and we headed to a favourite and familiar bier garten for a big farewell gathering. \u00a0 Within what seemed like seconds we had all picked up where we had left off. \u00a0The Small Boy, suddenly surrounded by a gang of friends closer than any he has yet to make here, quickly disappeared to play football, whilst I enjoyed the celebrations and caught up with a lot of friends who had no idea we would be there (I hadn’t really mentioned it, as it was such a flying visit). \u00a0 Apologies to those we didn’t see this time, I promise we will catch up soon…<\/p>\n

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Munich airport – face lift<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I remember going back to Copenhagen a few months after we had left and finding it all very surreal. \u00a0Having to take the opposite train to the one I would catch home most days for example, automatically setting out to walk one way, when I needed to walk the other, noticing what seemed like sudden changes to the city in its constant flux of renovation and renewal, and countless other what seemed to me like bizarre scenarios. \u00a0But, I didn’t find it as emotional as I did returning to Munich strangely. \u00a0 I guess five years is a huge amount of time to invest somewhere, and as I sat and chatted, my brain would half forget we were no longer residents and half expected the rest of my family to turn up at any given moment, then we would then make our way back to our Bavarian home where so much of our lives happened. \u00a0 My mind was a complete tangle of memories that afternoon thanks to familiar settings, conversations and well practised German phrases. \u00a0So many scenes replayed in my head, both good, bad, and not all rose-tinted as I remembered the things I also struggled with, the language, the friends moving on, feeling like an outsider once again…<\/p>\n

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obligatory currywurst<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following day we went to the Englischer Gartens, which was also somewhere we obviously spent a lot of time. \u00a0My friend and I enjoyed an afternoon of gossiping, and catching up under its cool canopy of famous chestnut trees, whilst the children skated, scootered, laughed and bickered like they had never been apart. \u00a0Fabulous memories made before they also embark on their own chapter of repatriation and all that comes with it.<\/p>\n

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\"englischer<\/a><\/p>\n

So, although it was a bit of a gamble, I think the Small Boy was able to realise that things move on, as do people, and nothing in this life stays the same forever. \u00a0I overheard clips of conversations as to “so and so, who was leaving” and about who would be left behind, \u00a0and at the end of it all, as we sat on the plane on the way home (another one!), I felt like I had a much happier and more relaxed boy sitting next to me, one who was also able to appreciate that in the grand scheme of things we don’t live all that far away either, and anyway, who knows where we will end up next…<\/p>\n

At the weekend, we put a few ghosts to rest… It was good to be home. And good to be back home again.<\/p>\n

I bought fresh pretzels back with me. \u00a0It should be a law…<\/p>\n

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