When being away from your home country for a long time you’ll always carry a bit of homesickness within your heart, no matter where in the world you are.

Of course I can only speak for myself here, maybe others feel completely different.

I truly do miss Germany (or just Europe in general) all the time after not having been there for almost 14 months now. This doesn’t mean I’m miserable all day long thinking about how much I miss Germany, I don’t even feel sad about not being in Germany. Yes, sometimes when I look through photos from Germany, see others post about Germany etc. and I’m a bit in an emotional mood anyway, I might feel a bit sad. However, most of the time it’s just a bit of an underlying feeling which is just always there. Imagine you’re in a long-distance relationship for example. Yes, you certainly miss the other person, that feeling is always somewhere within you, but it doesn’t mean you can’t happily live your life anyway while being away from that person. Maybe that’s not a good comparison, I don’t know.. but you get the idea, I hope.

Feel free to share your experiences with being far away from home for a long time.

So, what do I miss about Germany in particular? The list is long..

➳ The weather and the seasons! After having lived in Bali and Australia for the past months I feel like being trapped in an endless summer. Yes, it’s winter in Australia now and it actually does get cold but winter in the outback Australia is just not the same as winter in Germany. I just miss the coziness I always feel during winter and autumn in Germany. And the colors! No white snow or colorful autumn leaves here.. or well yes, I’ve seen a few autumn trees but it doesn’t compare.

➳ I absolutely miss having a „real“ Christmas. Christmas time has always been my favourite time of the year with Christmas markets, baking cookies, getting cozy etc. Last Christmas has been the first one I spent outside of Germany plus in a country where it’s summer during Christmas time and well, I absolutely don’t like it. I tried to get myself into Christmas mood with Chirstmas songs, baking, mulled wine,.. but in over 40° heat it’s just hopeless. I’m actually more in Christmas mood now in July than I’d been in December.

➳ I’d be lying if I said that I miss friends and family back in Germany like crazy.. tbh I feel I never miss people as much as I probably should (except for partners) but of course I DO miss them anyway. Sometimes I just wanna sit in the kitchen and talk to my mom, go out to a concert with friends, attend picknicks and meet-ups,.. I definitely do miss all these social activities with people in Germany and I do miss people who I’ve known for years and who I still feel very close to even with being so far away.

➳ The forest is something I miss a lot as well and just having a lot of green around me. Everytime I travel to another country which is rather dry and then come back to Germany, I realize how green it is there and how lucky I am to live in an environment like that.

➳ I miss all the cute and historical old towns in Germany. I just love old buildings and the atmosphere in old towns, it’s just amazing to think about all that’s happened there hundreds of years ago. My small hometown is a typical medieval town with a castle. Australia just doesn’t really have that, it’s such a young country, all the architecture is just too modern for my liking. Not saying, it’s not beautiful, it’s just.. different.

➳ As unimportant as it may sound: food! There are just certain German foods that I absolutely miss when travelling. Most of all I miss good German bread and pretzels. (achja: nur schwäbische Laugenbrezeln sind echte Brezeln für mich.. nur, dass wir uns richtig verstehn)

➳ Talking about bread: I absolutely miss bakeries. Here in Australia I feel they just don’t exist? At least not what I’d consider a bakery anyway. Fair enough, in the cities you probably can find them, I’ve once been to a German bakery at the Sunshine Coast but out here where I live? No chance. I also miss certain shops such as DM (Germans will understand me with this one..) and the typical German health food stores.

➳ I miss having the opportunity of going to concerts and see my favourite bands live. Even if I didn’t live in the middle of nowhere – the cities in Australia aren’t too much better for that, I feel. Most of my favourite bands come from Europe and as you can imagine, it’s a bit too far for them to tour around Australia a lot, some of them have never played here at all. I’m a big music lover so yes, that’s a bit of a bummer for me.

I could go on and on but I end it here with saying that there definitely also are aspects about Germany I don’t miss at all. For example people being so negative, always complaining, always stressing, everything always has to be efficient, everything is just so.. correct. If you’ve ever lived in Germany, you get what I mean. Speaking from my own experience, I found the people in every other country I’ve been to so far to be more positive, relaxed and friendly. Especially here in Australia it’s unreal how friendly, helpful, welcoming and laid-back people are, something I really appreciate. <3