Because Karma’s a bitch and the Deutsche Bahn does not know how operate without any delays, I missed ALL of my train connnections and therefore my entire schedule was messed up and I had to make several detours until I finally arrived in Gießen; my new place of residence for at least one year.
I was pretty exhausted when I arrived at my new appartment. I’m living together with 2 other girls in one of the prettiest streets of Gießen…at least that’s what I’ve been told. I did not have that much time to check out the city yet but from what I’ve seen so far I can say that I will definitely survive the next year.And I think I might even have fun doing that
We already had my first party and I totally forgot how cheap alcohol and going out in Germany is.Fatal mistake. And also having a Döner kebab for breakfast does not make it any better. Good golly did I feel sick yesterday. I guess I have to get used to that feeling again. Being a student (again) really is not as easy as it sounds!
fresh flowers in the kitchen
mhh cheesecake and iced chocolate
me and an old friend and former Lufthansa colleague
Especially if it involves too much stuff, too many too heavy suitcases, too long train rides and too many train connections. Let’s see if I get to do productive things during those 7 hours. Like having a Two and a Half Men marathon. Or annoying the other people on the train by singing Kumba-Ya with my angel’s voice.
My summer 2011 was indeed very special. Besides enjoying the nice weather with great company, I was fortunate enough to attend three fairytale weddings in three countries and meet lotsa friends again I haven’t seen for a while.
The day was just perfect for a wedding, which was held on Suomenlinna – one of Helsinki’s islands. The sun was shining and everybody was happy and excited. Oh, and there was a dresscode as well: Boys – Ocean’s Eleven; Girls – Sex and the City.
The priest was quite funny and even sang during the ceremony. Two of Alina’s friends sang Ronan Keating’s “When you say nothing at all” in church and I guess 80% of the female guests cried during the song. (I was one of them, of course). It was soo beautiful!
The party afterwards was fun! The venue had a medieval touch but it was still very romantic with all the candles, flowers and accessories. The wedding dance was very traditional but right before the newlyweds wanted to kiss, the bride was kidnapped. After a while the bride returned in her party dress and it was relieving to see that almost all of the girls,who did not wear flats, took of their shoes for the wild party dancing. So I had some barefoot friends
Unlike in Finland, the weather in the Netherlands was horrible but I don’t think anybody cared that day. After we all met up at the Tulip Inn in Amsterdam we all were taken to Maarssen where our boat was parked. Yes, our boat. The entire wedding took place on a boat. Quite new experience for me. After the ceremony the boat took off going along the canal all the way to Amsterdam. This took a few hours and we surely knew how to use that time The wedding dance was very surprising.It started very traditional but then it changed to David Guetta & Rihanna’s “Who’s that chick” and the bride and groom showed off a hilarious choreography. And after that the party got even wilder!
getting ready in the hotel
just married on the boat
some footy entertainment
The fun table with our lucky balloons
lucky balloons up in the sky
party animals
the newlyweds
Thriller-riffic
3rd: Anja & Micha – 03 Sep 2011
Location: Waren & Klink, Germany
Here the sun was shining again. For a change, this wedding took place in my hometown in Germany. The ceremony was lotsa fun but also quite emotional. The priest was very cool and the gospel singer made everyone shiver and every girl cry. After the ceremony we all walked to Waren’s harbor to get on a boat which took us to Klink, a little village outside Waren. The party took place in Klink’s castle. At this wedding the wedding dance was also very special. It started off traditionally but then it switched to the Sugarhill Gang’s “Apache (Jump On It)” made famous by the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air over to MJ’s “Thriller” and many more. I laughed so so much!
Oh happy day ♫♪
on the way from Waren to Klink
love is in the air
some traditional German wedding game
almost like in old High School days
Klink’s castle
“Apache (Jump On It)”
some more games
I loved seeing my friends getting married and the countless blisters on me feet were totally worth it
Usually we only make trips to the Netherlands in the deepest winter so the roadtrip turns into an adventure. But this year we squeezed a summer roadtrip into our busy schedule. We were hoping for lotsa sunshine during the 9 hour trip but all we got was gray clouds and lotsa rain.
This year’s first stop was Heemskerk. A little town our navigation system did not know and therefore, it took us quite a while until we actually found the right way to that magic place where the sun was actually shining. My favorite Dutchie, Fleur, already welcomed us and we decided to go to the beach to enjoy the nice weather after dinner.
Fleur and my new furry buddy Max
we enjoyed the sunset and a few drinks
Jess, Fleur and Max(under the table) at the beach bar
The next day we were off to Zaanse Schans, a collection of windmills. It was a pretty fun and very Dutch day.
having a seat in a gigantic (and pretty wet) wooden shoe
showing off my new dancing shoes
the girls in the wooden shoe souvenir shop
the windmills
We went into a “sawmill” where windpower is used in order to saw wood.Pretty cool but also pretty dusty.
Jess, Fleur and me on the “terrace” of the sawmill
in the Netherlands shoes are not only made for walking
On the way back to Heemskerk we saw one of the coolest buildings ever. It is a hotel and if it would not be in the middle of nowhere, I would definitely spend a night or two in there.
coolest building ever!
The next day we drove to Amsterdam where I was off for a wedding (blog about this summer’s weddings will follow shortly) and Jess spent too much money during a successful shopping trip. We also visited our famous Aunt Mary in Den Haag. It was her last day in town and of course we did not wanna miss that
Mary Poppins
One of our friends got us tickets for the show and we could enjoy Mary Poppins from amazing seats! It was kinda sad that it was the last show but the atmosphere in the theater was awesome! We had lotsa fun especially during scenes where lotsa (hot) sweeping was going on. (Sorry, that is an inside joke )
the view from our seats
the final curtain call
When we left the theater we noticed something quite weird: They changed the theater decorations during the show. They took down Mary Poppins and put up the posters for the new show so once you left the theater, the Mary Poppins feeling was taken away and replaced by a green witch who we actually did not plan on seeing before the winter.
Wicked is next
After the show we only had a quick reunion with Erwin and then we quickly checked out the beach and pier before it started raining again.
it was a bit windy though
The next day, we met some friends and we finally made something happen that I have planned on doing four Amsterdam trips ago: visiting the Anne Frank House. I loved Anne Frank’s diary and it was a weird feeling to finally be in the place where she and her family were hiding from the Nazis for such a long time. Kinda creepy feeling but still very fascinating. At the end we got to see the real Oscar the Anne Frank movie won in 1959. Actually, it belonged to Shelley Winters who won it for her role in the Anne Frank movie.
a very shiny and very real Academy Award.
The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. We enjoyed (too much) yummy food, went to the Kaaskelder and tasted (and bought) lotsa cheese, went to the flower market, played tourist, had more food and once it stopped raining we could actually enjoy a few minutes of sunshine.
yum!
cheeeeeeeeeeeeese
posing at the I amsterdam sign
having one of the biggest (and yummiest) pancakes ever…the stomach ache afterwards was totally worth it!
We ate so much that we decided to walk to our hotel and lose a few of those 17639284 calories we consumed that day. On the way we passed a few funny stores…this one below was my favorite. I love moustaches but only if you can take them off again at the end of the day. If you are not retarded or don’t work in porn, don’t even consider growing a moustache or I will make fun of you!
I totally dig the Sunday style!
The Carré theater. Looking forward to the day when I finally get to sit in there!
This trip was actually the Dutchest one of all of our trips to the Netherlands even though I did not get the chance to eat my beloved Bitterballen and Kaasstangels. But that’s gonna be on my menu this winter…together with a freshly baked stroopwafel. Oh I can already feel upcoming stomach ache…
After living in Finland for 4 years, I moved back to Germany last week.It was such a weird feeling and I actually shed one or two tears on the plane. I know I am such a crybaby. I have been pretty emotional during the last few weeks as well as I had to start saying goodbye to my beloved friends. I had a great 4 years living in the land of snow and vodka and my friends made my last Finnish summer very special…and very Finnish
me and Henna (who moved away from Helsinki) got a sweet farewell t-shirt from a friend
i <3 my friends!
On my flight to Frankfurt I even met an old friend on the plane which was kinda funny but then the turbulences started and took all the fun away…at once. The flight back to Berlin was more fun (as much fun you can get when you’re scared of flying). I did not expect so many people to greet me at the airport. And also my mom decorated the house with a big “welcome back” banner. Very cute! But soon it’s time to move again…(more details about that later!)
unpacking all my stuff from Finland.Moving countries is no fun, I’m telling you!
Oslo, Norway.Home of gnomes and trolls.And probably one of the most amazing (and expensive) places I have ever been to and I am definitely going back there!(Just need to make sure I win the lottery before going there the next time or somebody else just needs to pay the trip).
Tuesday evening. We all met up for dinner until somebody came up with the magic question: “what should we do this weekend?”. After discussing this subject for a while, we had a perfect plan: “Let’s go to Koli!” Sure thing. So we booked a cottage and started our roadtrip there on Saturday around 5am. It was quite a trip…and of course we made a lot of stops for the smokers and people with tiny bladders amongst us.
I got a nice seat in the economy class of the car. Lotsa leg room! (The bad side when you’re friends are giants)…
aaahh i seriously did not know what to do with so much leg room
eventually I entertained myself (and other people in the car)
After I-don’t-know-how-many-hours in the car, we finally arrived at our lovely cottage in Koli. It was quite a big house. And we even had a nice little pet, that unfortunately had passed away and nobody has removed it from the patio. Seeing a dead bird on your patio does not really put you in vacation mood. But eventually we learnt how to ignore it. A little hint:booze kinda helps
our cottage
After a bit of relaxing we finally started our tour through the national park (and hills) of Koli. It was actually pretty awesome. It was really what you expect of Finland.
lift
nice view!
it got a bit cloudy later on
hiking professionals!
After we were done with the hiking,we drove back to our cottage and checked out the area around it. We had a lake close by…and a boat.
When we were sitting in the boat, I was about to freak out as the distance between the water surface and the boat was like 10 cm only…maybe even less. I felt like “Titanic” is gonna happen all over again.Just minus the iceberg (although it’s Finland, you can never be too sure about those things )and I had my scary and whiny moments every 5 minutes. And that was exaclty why my friends have not told me that we’ve had a hole in the boat until we were safely back at the shore. Aaww gotta love my friends!
row-boating
After the shock was gone, we had a nice bbq and started our legendary drinking games…can it get any more Finnish??
playing “The Umbrella”
“Drink two”
We actually combined 2 drinking games. “The umbrella” and one of Apple’s drinking games where you have to virtually turn a fortune wheel and if you got lucky, you could take a break or the pesron next to you had to drink….
It did not really get dark at night which was pretty cool.
approx. at 1 am
In the middle of the “night” we decided to walk around the area a bit and get eaten alive by mosquitos. Finnish mosquitos are real beasts btw! While we were wandering around I saw this sign:
no words.
so peaceful
Eventually, we all went to bed and had to get up a few hours later in order to start hour 6-7 hour journey towards Helsinki. It was an amazing but pretty exhausting weekend. I am just not sure what was more exhausting…the lack of sleep or the itching of the mosquito bites…
Hola! Long time no blog. I have been very busy strolling through the streets and unfortunately, I ended up seeing one disaster after another. Something must be in the air this year. Something that keeps people from having a sense of fashion or owning a mirror. Please see below for some of the best street models I’ve seen stomping down the public runway and making my eyes bleed.
Number 1: Miss I’m-too-old-school-for-cool.
Number 2: Miss Could-this-shirt-be-any-tighter
from the side
from the back
I don’t want to be rude but: Seriously? Don’t those people have any friends or mirrors who tell them that they look absolutely ridiculous? I mean of course everybody expresses their own style through fashion but this is actually murder of fashion and an insult to all the people that have an eye for it.
Number 3: The Teletubbies-say-Eh-Oh-romper suit
Nobody should be allowed to wear that as long as they don’t have a TV in their belly, an antenna on their head and go by the name of “Tinky Winky”.
If you are up for a great laugh, go and check out this homepage. I mean this says it all: “I’m wearing a self-made dress as a scarf. It was inspired by seaweed in Iceland.” Wtf??!
Here you got the perfect evidence that too much alcohol destroys Helsinki’s sense of fashion.
I’ve been to Tallinn, Estonia, last weekend. I just love that place. It is so cute and compact. At least the old town which is on the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.And I totally understand why…
view over the old town
view over the old town and a part of the business area in the back(right)
Nevsky Cathedral with a bunch of tourists
Waiter outside the famous medieval restaurant “Olde Hansa“. He was pretty entertaining
enjoying the sun, a refreshing cider and getting funny tan lines on my face(fyi:the latter was not planned)
I’ve only been to Tallinn in the winter before. It looks completely different when the sun is out and the snow is gone. It’s hard to describe. It was actually a little too hot at times. (Not admitting that I might not be used to temperatures over 0°C anymore.)
how cute is that??
lotsa artists on the streets…showing what they got
This year, Tallinn is the European Capital of Culture so there are lotsa events going during the year. Pretty fun actually. I am going back to Tallinn for a short trip in July when my mom and aunt come over for a visit. I cannot wait!
It was time again for the long awaited Eurovision Song Contest 2011.Since Germany won last year (wohoo!!), the competition was held in Düsseldorf, Germany this year. And what did Germany do? They sent the same girl to perform for Germany again this year.Totally against my liking.Totally ridiculous.Totally stupid. Just like last year, click on the names of the countries to listen to the songs and see the performances.
However, here is my review from last nights Eurovision.
01. Finland: Happy Finland got to perform this year. The guy was a chubby version of James Blunt on sleeping pills and trying to flirt with the camera guy.
02. Bosnia Herzogovina: Since when are pensioners allowed to perform at the Eurovision?Don’t know what was funnier….watching the old guy die onstage or watching his background dancers doing the chicken dance.
03. Denmark: I absolutely ♥ that song! Just makes me happy Sounded pretty familiar though.
04. Lithuania: What was wrong with that dress??Holy Moly!You should never wear such a dress and sing a song that could be featured by Walt Disney.And if you do sign language, do NOT do it while you are singing. First of all, that looks totally ridiculous and second of all, that is just plain rude.Boo!
05. Hungary: The first thing one of my friends asked: “Is that a girl or a boy?” Well, it was a girl.Awful dress but catchy song.(and I loved the ring she was wearing!)
06. Ireland: Where do I start? Those twins just looked like they stole Lady Gaga’s costumes (and drugs).And then they sing about “Lipstick” while giving an aerobics class. Awful, but very catchy…”She’s got her lipstick on, here I come da da dum” ♫♪♫. Dammit!
07. Sweden: So Swedish.So gay.So hot….the song would have been way better if the guys just would have gotten naked.
08. Estonia: I have liked the song since the semi-finals. Mary Poppins meets Eliza Doolittle….”1273 down the Rockefeller Street”♫♪♫
09. Greece: WTF?? The dance?No words. Listening to that song made me feel like eating souvlaki and tzatziki.
10. Russia: The guy looked way too hot to be Russian.But not hot enough to be hot.You know what I’m trying to say here?
11. France: I would like to quote one of my friends again: “oh, look at the background! It looks so nice!!” And she was right.The background was actually pretty nice. But it was not nice enough to distract from that terrible opera song.
13. Switzerland: I loved the bling on her dress. The song was ok too.
14. England: I’ve always loved Blue. But I still cannot forgive them for wearing those outifts.
15. Moldova: How could I describe them? How about: Garden gnomes on LSD?! They also had a lovely fairy-gnomette on a bicycle…I know!! I told you…LSD!!!
16. Germany: Lena just made me wanna drink my wine even faster. Her background dancers looked like Irish dancers wearing latex suits. Thank God we had lotsa Fisu(disgusting Finnish shots) during that performance.Made it more bearable
17. Romania: Nobody was really listening to that performace…The Fisu was still lasting.But still….jazz hands would have made the performance way more interesting
18. Austria: Nice Ballad.I went to the bathroom and had more Fisu though.The girl reminded me of Whitney Houston in glitter.
19. Azerbaijan: Song was ok…I kinda liked the glitter/firework rain in the end.
20. Slovenia: Hooker alert!The outfit did not go with the song AT ALL. And there was too much yelling going on there!
21. Iceland: Sounded pretty good.But then i actually looked at them and suddenly i did not like the song that much anymore.
22. Spain: What a funny, happy and colorful song. I liked the pink outfit of the singer…and her shoes!
23. Ukraine: sandpainting…really?? And her dress looked like she sat down on a dead bird.
24. Serbia: Welcome to the 60′s…scooby dooby dooo!
25. Georgia: the Wicked Witch of the West meets Prodigy/System of a Down/Nightwish. (Thank you for the inspiration Tomi!)
Soo, who did win? Of course none of my favorites (Denmark, Estonia or UK) but…*lame drumroll* Azerbaijan! So it seems like next year’s Eurovision is gonna be in Baku, Azerbaijan.
I’m not gonna post the winning song again but rather the opening of the show cuz I actually liked it. They kinda remixed last years winning song and added a jazz band.(seriously what’s with the jazz this year?). I actually would have LOVED the opening performance if Lena (and about 42 look-alikes) would not have appeared on stage. Well, can’t have everything.
© Tuukka Ervasti Photography
party time!
© Tuukka Ervasti Photography
view from the ferry back to Helsinki city
getting ready in the hotel
just married on the boat
some footy entertainment
The fun table with our lucky balloons
lucky balloons up in the sky
party animals
the newlyweds
Thriller-riffic
Oh happy day ♫♪
on the way from Waren to Klink
love is in the air
some traditional German wedding game
almost like in old High School days
Klink’s castle
“Apache (Jump On It)”
some more games
posing at the I amsterdam sign
view over the old town
view over the old town and a part of the business area in the back(right)
Nevsky Cathedral with a bunch of tourists
Waiter outside the famous medieval restaurant “
enjoying the sun, a refreshing cider and getting funny tan lines on my face(fyi:the latter was not planned)
