Posting this at the end of January 2025, but whatever, this 2024 deserves a goddamn good review.

The year didn't start especially well. I ended 2023 with a lower back injury doing sports, and some gut imbalance due to excessive antibiotics intake after chaining tonsil infections.

But it also started with a life change: I decided to live abroad, and it's been one of the best decisions in my late twenties. I visited Berlin for a couple of months in November 2023, after a work together event with Hotjar (the company I currently work in). I liked it. So I decided to move here officially in January 2023. I was craving for a change like this in my life for quite some time, so.. warum nicht?

I spent most of the days living in an overpriced (but nice) apartment in Schönhauser Allee, where I met Florian and Jannik (my current flatmates), then later we moved together to Charlottenburg; I learned a lot of Berlin's history, and visited a bunch of museums and galleries; Started german lessons, I quit, I joined again; I swam in Teufelsee, had a picnic in Wannsee, and played Wizard in Flughafensee (see means lake in German); I had my first Berlin club experience at Lockschuppen with Florian, then Renate, Club.OST, Kitkat, Katerblau, and RSO, best summer eves at Else, and Sysyphos. I also queued up more hours than I should in Berghain, to finally get bounced; I biked from west to east Berlin every week to have drum lessons, and the city view change is impressive; joined a nutritionist and put my gut health back on track, but also ate a bunch of Gemüse kebabs at Rüyam, Halloumi makalis, and tons of Speisequark;

(taking a breath to continue)

I visited Malta, had a dinner in La Valleta with my work colleagues, and visited the OG Hotjar offices in St. Julian's; got drunk in Gare des Mines in Paris, and visited Louvre with hangover the day after with Florian; did a 9 hour bus to Warsaw, ate lots of Peroggi, and did 9 more hours back; I slept in a camper in Sächsische Schweiz with Tess, watched a product exhibition in a lost town called Herford, and accidentally broke some facilities in a mini-house in Harz national park; I spent afternoon with my family at Tempelhofer feld and I told them like hundred times how much I like to stare at the Fernsehturm. I also remember leaving Katerblau at 7am with Mario and Ana;

I saw the sunrise with all my friends at Primavera Sound once again, and Foo Fighters while hugging Miquel a thousand times at Hellfest; I sweated like crazy at King Guizzard and the Lizzard Wizard's concert, and I had the gosebumps watching Sleep Token in live; I've even listened "I'm the mountain" from Stoned Jesus live in concert; during summer, the startup I co-founded years ago exited; also spent an incredible summer camping with my friends somewhere in France, hiking and taking night baths in a secret hot spring while eating pizza all at the same time; my brother did his Bio-informatics PhD dissertation, it was incredible even though "protein" is probably the only word I understood from that presentation :'); I walked in snowy Boston with my family, organised a really cool Christmas dinner with them in New York, been in a Jazz club in Brooklin, and ate Philly cheesesteak in a market in Philadelphia.

Probably much more things happened I don't recall anymore.

Ah yes, I am still reading Dune.

On the work side it hasn't been the best year. I experienced a company merge, some working colleagues have been laid off, and a general downgrade of my employee experience. There are still growth opportunities from a professional side though.

What a year, I am really grateful for it.

Until next year ;)