New Year at the Baltic Sea

Today, I slept way better than yesterday, waking up at 11am. I guess that's the result of around 19.000 footsteps. My parents arrived shortly afterwards, bringing us some breakfast rolls and blocking our bathroom. As if they didn't have one at the hotel...
After breakfast, my parents and I went back to the beach whilst my sister went back to bed. Yesterday's forest walk was too much fresh air, I suppose. As the Neujahrsgarten was already open, my Mom decided she wanted to try Glögg, the Swedish version of Glühwein with raisins and almonds inside. I shrugged and said, I'd share with her. It was a hot but sweet little drink that tasted quite alright and warmed up quite a bit. Then, Aluna and I should have started our stroll along the beach while Mom and Dad went back into the hotel. However, Luni wanted to go with Mom and followed her from the beach over the promenade up to the hotel. I had to catch and line her up, dragging her back to the beach. She was resistant until she met the first dog she could play with. Afterwards, Mom was forgotten and we could move along without her hesitance. We had another long walk around the beach and then back to Dad's flat, where we had our usual cleaning and a quick nap, as tonight would be a long night.
Waking up, as good as new, we made our way to my parents, to go have dinner at the Köstlich restaurant. It was packed, but luckily, my dad has reserved a table in advance. The waitress was cheerful as one could only dream of, and the food was quite alright. A Chinese luck cookie was on the table for each of us. Mine read "Gratefulness is like wine. Come on, drink up!" which I found quite fitting.
Later, we went back to the hotel and watched Dinner for One together, a beloved, funny tradition. Then we made our way up to the shut down restaurant "Über den Wolken" (translating to Over the Clouds). It's been closed for ages now as the customers lift to it (it's in the 33rd floor of the Maritim, 115m above sea level) was broken and the costs for fixing it in the millions. However, the employees lift was still running and as my dad is one of the most important ones at the Maritim, we sneaked up there.
The restaurant is a dream come true for Aluna as there is all carpet and lots of space to run. The old chairs, tables and lamps, all left in their last positions. The air felt eerie and cool. I loved it up here. We had an amazing view!
When the clock turned midnight, we "Cheers" -ed and viewed the hundreds of fire works going in the air. It was quite the experience!Read more