Being in Hannover as residents for the very last time we tried and still try to fill those almost two months with more than the administrative crap and work - we try to spend a lot of time with our families, as well. Eat together at least once a day, have some wine in the evenings, talk, laugh, hug and do other fun stuff. Like going to the lake for a swim, bake together or, the classic, hike. Last Sunday we drove to beautiful national park ‘Harz’ and spent a day out in the woods, crossing rivers, resting at a beautiful lake and afterwards had a nice dinner out on the porch of some mountain hut with bestest strawberry lemonade and caramelised waffles. It’s been an amazing day with perfect weather, warm and breezy. We hiked through the forest, had good conversations and quite a few laughs, made plans for the future, talked life and holidays and outdoor sports. It’s been one of those days where everything makes perfect sense and you feel utterly happy. A day that you wouldn’t want to forget. So, like always, we took a lot of pictures. The kind of photos you take because you want to look at them whenever you feel blue. When we miss our old home and want to go over all those amazing memories we've collected here. Pictures of moments that will forever remind us of how easy life can be sometimes, how effortlessly beautiful. With us arriving back in Hannover we finally held the HP Sprocket in our hands when we walked through the door three weeks ago. This is the very first time we made use of it. Back home, we picked our fav pictures and printed them - as perfect little reminders for a beautiful summer day. They will be put up in our office in Iceland (which we have yet to find, but whatever). They also will be part of a massive ‘Germany’ album in which we will collect pictures of beloved moments we had - and still are going to have - in our country of origin.

Spending more than a month in Germany comes with a crazy mix of emotions. It’s all the memories, the incredible warmth but most of all… the smells. While Iceland smells pure, fresh, clean and like a new beginning, Germany smells like flowers, sunscreen and nostalgia. Yes, nostalgia has a scent and it’s a blend of humid air on the porch and the lakes we used to swim in, years ago. Germany smells like our youth. It feels like our youth. It sounds like our youth. And being here, saying goodbye for good, is bittersweet. We cleaned out our rooms these past two weeks and next to packing six (!) moving boxes with clothes and shoes to put up for sale we filled even more of those with kitchen utensils, books, accessories, unused beauty products and more clothes for donation which is all being picked up by a local help-organisation next week. We rearranged the furniture so our old stay can now be used as guest rooms. And that was it. A few administrational things and our past life is almost ‘erased’ here in Hannover. While going through old boxes and drawers we found tons of stuff from back in school. Letters of long gone friendships and drawings, poems, stories written back in the day. A whole chapter of both our lives resurfaced and even though we had a GOOD laugh about most of the crap we found - some letters moved us deeply.

When we stopped blogging, Caro began to write a book, Linda started writing concepts and we began working as freelance writers. With that came more free time. Weekends. Public holidays. And faded memories of all the stuff we once used to love. Hiking. Biking. Climbing. Canoeing. CAMPING. How we freaking loved camping. Writing stories. Telling jokes. Picnics in the woods. Rays of sunlight between tree tops. Coffee in the morning when there was fog over the lakes and the air still crisp before the heat of the day started rising. The smell of nature after rain. Sitting on summits eating a cheese sandwich overlooking what felt like the entire world. Morning dips. With all that free time on our hands we started to go on hikes, again. On bike trips. We browsed for opportunities to sea-kayak in Iceland. To go climbing. To learn how to surf. For the first time in three years that we now live in this incredible country we actually started to engage with it the way we would have back in the days. Got trail maps and a camping card. Took all our old equipment out from under the beds and into some of the most frequented shelves in our closets. After browsing through all the stuff we already own we realised that there isn’t much missing in order to have an amazing camping season. Tents, mats, sleeping bags - all still waiting for us to finally FINALLY bring it back out. So with the necessities sorted we found ourselves asking the most important question: how do we get some amazing coffee in the morning?

2238 kilometres or 1390 miles or 1208 nautical miles - that is the exact distance between Reykjavik and Hannover. The exact distance between us and our families. The walking distance would be around four million steps. 3.730.000 - look at that number. If you consider every kilometre a heartbeat then we are speaking of approximately 32 hours of heartbeats. Since there is no measure for the amount of how much you miss someone this is the best insight we can give into how hard it is sometimes. 2238. We never, not one day, regretted or doubted our decision to settle down north. No 3°C in spring, no hail, no storm, no limited selection of cheese (it can be a drag, though) and no lack of sunlight in winter had us ever question this move. But let’s face it - all of this doesn’t keep us from missing our families. Our loved ones. Our old homes. The places we grew up at. The memories we made. The hot summer days, the melon lemonades, the strawberries, the BBQs on the porch, the laughter. We miss it. We miss it a lot. Building a bridge between two countries isn’t as hard this day and age as it used to be. We talk on the phone at least once a week, we send cellphone pictures back and forth, we text, we communicate via email. We try to still share as much with each other as possible. A room tour video through the new home, the fresh flowers on the breakfast table, the blooming roses in the garden, the nieces riding their first little bikes, selfies taken on a hike or proof of the snow we’re having beginning of May. Since literally everyone in the family has a soft spot for Iceland we share as many pictures of the country we love so dearly, as we can. We zoom in to the icy crystals on the ground, film seabirds circling over the ocean, we try to capture the light in all it’s incredible variety - when the sun rises, sets and the golden hours in between. And yet, it of course is not the same as actually sharing the moment.

So we moved apart. Not just into two different apartments but also two different parts of the south western island. While Einar and I are already done moving, Caro and Logi are still waiting for their newly bought home to be free, with their moving date being around first of July. When they have left our old house and successfully moved into their new home a 20 minute drive will separate us. It's the first time after more than five years that we are not sharing an apartment. It broke my heart in the first place but after the several sleeps in my new home a certain understanding dawned up on me: this is actually gonna do a lot for our friendship. With us living together and working together the past few years our conversations slowly grew into 'nothing-but-work' talks and whenever we headed out for adventures we took the camera with us to take pictures for the website. Just now we realised how that actually stole real and honest friendship time. We want to go to cafés together, ride bicycles together, travel together, have our long chats and massive laughs - without work being any part of it. Just two friends that share dreams and hopes and plans for life, not projects to work on. We have always been radical in our decisions, moving apart is yet another one of them. We both need some time to reconnect with our creativity, to get out of the shallow waters of routine and jump back into the deep end of unlimited possibilities.

Ever so often, we get questions about what clothes to bring to Iceland. Which jackets would be best to protect against heavy rain, what to wear during the harsh and cold winter, or storm season. But above all and most reoccurring: what kind of shoes we would suggest. Well, of course that depends on the season. And on what exactly you have in mind for your Iceland trip. Hiking? Sightseeing? Exploring Reykjavik and dive into the rich culture and food scene? All of it? In winter, hiking is barely possible so we sincerely recommend thick padded boots with massive profile. In spring, summer and autumn we would suggest to bring at least two pair of boots, three if possible. High rain boots, light and waterproof hiking boots with a good profile and, if you want to blend in with the locals, some fancier shoes for dinners and theater. Icelanders dress up whenever they can so you will very obviously be detected as a tourist if you visit a chic restaurant in hiking boots and outdoor jacket (not that anyone would care, though!) If you are backpacking or only traveling with hand luggage and three pairs of shoes are not possible then definitely go for the light, comfortable and waterproof outdoor boot! Since we do get so many questions, we thought that today is a good day to recommend a perfect hiking boot: the TEVA Arrowood Lux Mid - the perfect blend of sneaker and outdoor shoe. Great breathability, light weighted, water and slip-resistent. Especially when hiking for a long time it's super important to have a boot that does not weight much and leaves you blister-free.