12thingsfor2012

Finally the times for my trips to two of my closest friends are 99% decided. There will be one long weekend full of vino, beach, seafood and (hopefully!) hot Portuguese guys in July and another very long weekend full of Swedish hipness, overpriced beer, stockfish (that’s Swedish, isn’t it?!) and (hopefully) hunky Swedish guys. Obviously both trips will be packed with girl talk, gossip and shopping J

As mentioned before I have never been to either of these cities (well, one could argue I have been to Lisbon or rather the airport of Lisbon on a business trip some time back, but that doesn’t really count…) and even though they were on my “list of places I eventually want to see” they didn’t quite make it to the top. Well, since two of my best friends are living there right now, this obviously changes things.

My “Swedish” friend is actually from Cologne (with a detour via Poland) and we survived an awful lot of Latin lessons together. Somehow we were seated next to each other early in High School and remained “bench friends” until she changed school in 12^th grade. We kinda lost touch after that but reunited a few years back via a chance encounter in the tube. Since then we have been close again, with her visiting me in the Netherlands and London and me sending her care packages to Stockholm (where she moved to after she married a German guy who happened to have a good job in Stockholm – yeah, that’s life…). She is one of the most easy-going, open and adventurous people I know and often I miss her being in Cologne desperately.

I met my “Portuguese” friend in Dubai when we both were invited to an assessment center for the executive track at Hult. We both passed (as did everybody else), spent a day touring Dubai and then met again when the MBA started. Since pretty much day one we grew really close and shared all the ups and downs of school and more importantly guys throughout our time in London and Boston (and Shanghai in her case). Especially our time together in Boston will always be special since we shared a house there and killed many bottles of wine whining and laughing about our life. She is one of the smartest, driven persons I knew with the most contagious laugh.

As you can see both these girls are really special and I am really looking forward to the coming months when I see them (after separations waaay too long) again!

(pics. courtesy to the internet)