Welcome to Edinbrraaaah

I actually thought I would never make it to the airport in time as we were stuck in traffic for over an hour. I was getting slightly nervous but I made it to check in very last minute. I said goodbye to my Mom and Grandpa and then I was off to my new adventure: Scotland.

I met my friend Sophie at London Heathrow. We were on the same flight to Edinburgh and she is also one of my flatmates. Once we arrived in Edinburgh’s city center we decided to get a taxi to our new place and were greeted by our Italian flatmate who offered to carry our luggage all the way up to the top floor. What a gent 😉

this is our new place from outside 🙂

wine and our fave TV show “I am a celeb – get me out of here”

As I am a theatre addict I was obliged to go out check out one of my new fave theatres in Edinburgh on our first day in the city. I already ordered tickets to go see a show there last year. My fave show of all times is touring the UK and will stop in Edinburgh in March. It is all about fun songs, awesomeness and bling bling…of course I had to get tickets in advance 😉

Left: posing with my fave musical actor(who will be singing and dancing in heels and garter belts in Edinburgh soon!) Right: posing with my fave musical Priscilla. 

Edinburgh Old Town in the back

We noticed quite early that Scottish people have a slight tendency to pronounce their words a bit..let’s call it “different”. So communicating with real Scotsman is always a pleasure haha!

view from the Scott Monument

view from Scott Monument

Sophie and me with our first Scottish friend 😉

Talking about friends…I will be studying with 6 of my other crazy friends from Germany in Edinburgh. We are all doing a double degree at the Edinburgh Napier University.

free donuts for all of us 🙂

more Edinburgh

Sophie and me in the theatre

We went to see our first theatre show last night. It was called New Jersey Nights and was all about the music of the Four Seasons which I absolutely love! It was a great show and we laughed so much! We were all dancing, singing and clapping in the end!

the boys singing “who loves you”

Our friend Kathi arrived last night so we met up today and went up Calton Hill. We had a beautiful view!

up on Calton Hill

I can’t wait to explore more of the city! Uni starts tomorrow and once we get our schedule I can start planning trips. So excited! 🙂

Best of 2o12

I admit. I have not been very good at keeping up with my blog last year. One of my resolutions for 2013 is to blog a bit more often. I am sure I will have enough to tell 😉

The previous year has probably been one of the most challenging years so far so I will start my 2013 blog by listing my favorite things of 2012. So here it goes:

March…Having a great time at the English Theatre in Frankfurt watching “The Who’s Tommy” and enjoying some sparkly “refreshments” 😉

 

My colorful birthday party. I do remember lots of booze and even more laughter. Great times!

 

Having a fun night out with the girls. We went to an after-work party in Frankfurt and partied among important business people cuz that’s how we roll 😉

My favorite Dutchie Fleur came to visit in May and we enjoyed some hangovers, lotsa laughter and the first sunbeams 🙂

 

Another reunion! I went to Munich. For the first time in my life. Yes, I am that kinda German 😉 I visited my friend Marian and she convinced me that Munich is an awesome place. And now, I am even willing to go back there.

 

 

My two lovely Finns Isa and Kata came to visit me in May as well. I haven’t seen the girls since I moved back to Germany last August so it felt really good to see them again as I have missed my Finnish entourage 😉

I love my house mates in Gießen! We decided to stop traffic and do our own version of Abbey Road. Fun moments.

 

We had quite  big house party in June. About 100 people and the police came to party with us. The police must have liked it as they came back after a while 😉

 

My inner teenager was so happy in June! I flew to Dublin to see Westlife in concert. It was their farewell tour and I met a few friends and we all went to see it together. It was in Croke Park, the big stadium in Dublin and it was packed!

We sang, danced, laughed and cried. Awesome concert. Awesome time. Farewell, Westlife ♥

 

Made a quick trip to Hamburg in July to reunite with these two lovely ladies! ♥

 

Oh summer how I loved you and how I loved the bbq/wig parties on our roof terrace with my house mates.

Another summer night. Another roof terrace. Another bbq party.

 

Even though I do not really follow soccer, it was great to experience the atmosphere in the stadium. As I was working there I could catch everything for free. I liked. But I am still not a big soccer fan 😉

I loved the wine and musical evenings with my friend Kathi. We made ourselves comfy on my bed, drank wine and watched musicals…until we fell asleep.

 

In October I got to see my little Prince again. I love my nephew. A lot.

 

Another highlight in 2012 was my trip to Portugal. My friend Isa was on exchange in Lisbon and we decided on a little reunion over there. Best of all: My friend Henna (who I have not seen for over a year) flew in from England and we all spent a lovely, crazy and fantastic extended weekend in this beautiful city. I seriously cannot wait for the next reunion!

 

My friend Jess, who I don’t get to see very often, came to visit me in November. Besides shopping, sightseeing, eating out and seeing the Musical “Sweet Charity”, we were in tears laughing…as always. 🙂

 

 

Another trip to Hamburg in Decemeber where I tried to see as many friends as possible. Simone is always one of my fave person to meet there! We were known as “Team Awesome” back in Helsinki…and are probably remembered as “Team Retard” in Hamburg 😉

The main reason for my Hamburg trip was a big themed birthday party. The theme: Musicals! What else did you expect? 😉 I decided to dress up as Charleston girl from the musical “Chicago” pretty last minute and had a great time…according to the pictures. Haha!

Playing Laser Tag with my house mates was another highlight! To regain our energy we had some hot wine at the Christmas market in Frankfurt afterwards.It was the last fun night out before I moved and I really enjoyed it.

Last reunion with my crazy work colleagues who surprised me that night!

I will never forget the day I could submit one of my worst nightmares ever….116 pages of sweat, tears and pain.

Christmas with the family…and a very happy nephew 😉

In late December, I got to spend a fun day out with my sister. Haven’t done this for years as both of us are usually very busy. We went to Rostock for some shoppping and then we had “Dinner in the Dark” where you are served food in the dark. You do not know what the blind waitors are serving you….you just need to use your remaining senses. It was such a weird but also great experience. Best of all: I did not spill any food…onto my clothes at least 😉

Cannot wait to see what 2013 brings along! I am hoping for a lot of laughter, fun times and glitter! 😉

 

A route of flowers,pancakes,moustaches and other cheesy business.

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… 🙂

Netherlands: the country of reunions, awesome parking and broken cameras

It’s all over again. Time was running so fast…or maybe we were just so busy…busy meeting up with old friends, busy eating too much(junk food), busy drinking quite a lot (of wine), busy avoiding getting hit by cars or bikes, busy trashing my camera, busy trashing Jess’ camera. As you can see, our trip was quite eventful. Thank God for camera phones…otherwise this blog entry would consist of boring text only.

the obligatory picture

reunion no.1 : Jess, Todor and I

After dragging up our suitcases 4 entire stairways (of course our hotel room was on the top floor of the entire building), we had some yummy Italian food and good laughs. Amsterdam is so pretty and sparkly at night…and my heart smiled, when I saw the “bling-building” again:

the very last picture before my beloved camera died 😦

Yeah, my camera died. Quite unfair considered the fact that I was 100% sober and did not even drop it myself. It was the wind. True story. Note to self: don’t try self-timed pictures when it’s windy outside….Well, at least now I know what Santa can get me for Christmas.

A day later, Jess’ camera broke as well. Come on, what are the odds?? This is the point where camera phones come in handy:

Amsterdam at night

 

legendary parking skills in front of our hotel

beautiful

wooden tulips

 

the coolest bike I’ve ever seen

having a drink with Santa and Rudolph

 

reunion no.2: Fleur and I…just like in old times

When we were not too busy drinking wine and eating Bitterballen and Kaastangel, Fleur taught us how to pronounce “Heerhugowaard” the right way. Funny name for a city. We went there the next day to see Urinetown(Zeikstad)…the mjuuuuuuuuuuuuuuusical ;-). Boring city but great show! Can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed so much!

reunion no.3. Jess, Renée and I

The next day we got up early to go to Den Haag (The Hague) to see Mary Poppins. The weather sucked and for that reason we decided to skip the sightseeing and go see a movie instead. We saw Rapunzel in 3D…it was a great and funny movie even though I honestly managed to fall asleep during the loudest scene of the entire movie. Pure awesomeness, I’m telling you! 😉

Kurhaus in Scheveningen

indoor sightseeing

the wind kinda played with us…Mary Poppins-style

 

Mary Christmas 😉

reunion no.4: Jess, Erwin and I

Th next day we were surprised by quite a lot of snow and pretty heavy traffic on the streets so that it took us over 14 hours to get home. Meanwhile, we were stuck on the highway for hours where I honestly thought I was gonna die cuz I had to pee so badly and there was no toilet in sight (not even bushes)…but eventually the traffic started to move (way too sloooow) and I got to use a toilet and survived 😉

To sum up: We had a great week in the “land of cheese” and I am already looking forward to next year’s winter roadtrip.

London Wrap-up

Long overdue but finally available…the summary of my London trip, which almost never happened as I was stuck on the train for over 5 hours thanks to suicide, vandalism and theft of train contact wire on my way to the airport. Thank God my flight was delayed otherwise i would not have made it to the airport in time. The flight had a total delay of 2,5 hours but thankfully Jess decided to entertain me via phone. Was actually nice to catch up again 😉

Susi was so nice to wait for me at the airport in London and we proceeded to our hotel together in the middle of the night. Funnily, the tubes close at a bit after midnight (on a FRIDAY!!!!) so we had to take a nightbus to our hotel which took longer than expected. I think we went to bed around 4 am or something.

Here are some pictures that summarize the quite legendary and very muscial trip.

the 2 princesses in front of Buckingham Palace

Susi and I on the bus

view from the Tate Modern balcony

on Tower Bridge

Thriller Live! An amazing show and homage to the King of Pop.

(At that point I thought this would be the only show we’re gonna see as I always thought Susi was not that into musicals/shows. But boy was I wrong 😉 )

The second after I saw the movie, I wanted to see the West-End production. I was so surprised or maybe even shocked that Susi agreed to go see it with me. There were 2 drag queens with leaflets running around on Leicester Square. Once you got a leaflet you automatically got a discount for the tickets to the show.

not knowing that this lovely “queen” was a member of the Priscilla West End cast

So our leaflet got us 2 premium seats for a third of the original price. I was so happy about that (and the fact that I was finally gonna see the show) that Susi decided to give me the ticket as a late bday gift. I was thrilled!!

happy Jule 🙂

Here’s the Trailer to the show:

Could see it again and again. Love the story, songs, characters, costumes and glitter!!!

Susi had a date with Harry Potter…but we missed the Hogwarts Express 😦

weird dude in the back wanted to be part of the group…

Tower bridge at night

And then the impossible happened….Susi was up to see a third show!!! She choose Wicked. And because awesome people only deserve awesome seats, we lined up for 2 of the 25-30 day seats the theater sells each morning on the day of the show. We were there a little after 8 am (the theater box office opened at 10!) and there were already a few people in front of us.

Never expected the line to be thaaaaaat long. Unfortunately not everybody was as lucky as we were and got front row seats for £25…

After the show: jazzhand-high-five!!!

defying gravity…and preparing myself for the trip to Copenhagen

Bling-a-Ling and big thanks to Susi for that thrilling, priscilling and wicked time in London!

a winner in Berlin

I am in beautiful Berlin since yesterday. I love that city! Today was a very special day because I got to see 2 good friends from Hamburg again!!! In addition to that I’ve won a competition a few weeks ago (true awesomeness I’m telling you!). I’ve won a musical ticket for the show “der Schuh des Manitu“.(and the big day was today) It’s a remake of a famous German movie of the same name. I’ve already seen the show twice but even the third time was brilliant! A bit different but surely entertaining. 😉

the winner and her ticket

Afterwards I got the chance to take a look behind the scenes and touch the requisites. I like touching things!…Ok this sounds naughty but people who know me better should know how to take it.(if not,whatever!)  And guys, please be proud of me because I did not break anything (it was kinda close though but nobody needs to find out so shhhhhhhh!!!!!). I deeply appologize for the almost-heart-attacks I’ve given to people 😉

me and the person who made it all possible 🙂

It was very interesting and I am very glad that I finally got to see Thomas as Winnetouch(one of the few muscial actors whose work I actually admire). It was hilarious and cute at the same time. Big thanks to Annika and Beate as well! It was AWESOME to see you again. Should do that way more often!!(but as u know “arbeit nervt…bämdebämbäm” lol)

And what would that day have been without those mandatory and awesome pictures I tend to take? 😉

“Olgas” reunited 😉

the amazing 3 “Ayses” stopped by as well 🙂

Jule in Amsterdam day 4

The day started early-ish and with a hashish smell in our room. It was not us!I swear…I guess our neighbors must have had a little hash party the night before as you could smell it everywhere the next morning.

Anyways, we went to Utrecht again in the morning in order to get some tickets for the show. What we didnt know was that it snowed a lot during the night/early morning. Driving was horrible! And I think the Dutch are not used to that much snow as they drove super slow. Sometimes it even felt like you were faster if you were walking. Eventually we made it to Utrecht…a little later than planned but we got tickets for 50% off in row 17. But we spent the entire show in row 1 because we are truly awesome! 😉 It was a great show! The guy who played “Joseph” was much better than the one on Friday.In general the cast was amazing! I don’t know what they took but they were even funnier than last time!

There was quite some snow chaos in Utrecht. Well, actually in whole Holland. it was a pleasure to get all of the snow off the car.

it took us about 30 minutes

The way back to Amsterdam was a bit scary as the highway was very icy and slippery and it took us over 1 hour longer than usual. The night we spent strolling through the city,eating,buying some last souvenirs(again lol) and giving out email addresses to weird Brazilian people. Back in the hotel we enjoyed some drinks(maybe a some more than planned lol)and Vla and listened to some nice music. Tomorrow it’s time to say goodbye…Let’s see for how long! 🙂

bling bling building

beautiful isnt it?

Jule in Amsterdam day 2

As the weather was quite nice today we decided to do a canal cruise. it was so beautiful! Afterwards we went to Dam Square for some shopping and headed back to our hotel room.(we got another one now btw!). Later on we left for Utrecht and got a bit lost on the highway. Dutch highways are too complicated for Jule(especially when there’s construction)!

Anyways, we made it! We saw the show and it was great!Well, the guy who played “Joseph” could have been a bit better in his acting though. But all the others were great! Don’t know what we’re up to tomorrow. Probably the Dungeon or sth like that.

hahaha

finally!

pretty

Beatrix Theater in Utrecht

Guess they knew I was coming  😉

Jule in Amsterdam

Barely back in Germany and already in Amsterdam. I’m on a roadtrip with Jess and it took us looooooong 8 hours to get here. There were like 50 construction sites which slowed down traffic and then the snow camw.Booo! Anyways, we made it. And we were lost only once on those 8 hours!This is like another world record! 😉

Our hotel is very different from what we’re used to…the location is amazing but the room is…well, see yourself:

Tonight,we checked out a few things already…more to come tomorrow!

Bling Bling!!

one day this baby is MINE!!!

Tomorrow afternoon we’re gonna go to Utrecht to go see “Joseph” again. But this time: front row!Wahoo. A bit scary but I bet it’s gonna be fun!Stay tuned!

Summer Highlights

1. It’s Showtime

Some of you might know that I love musicals, shows and theater so I was quite excited to see some shows again this summer. Finland is not a big musical country so I always have to wait until I’m back in Germany again to enjoy some shows…

This summer I got to see:

Ganz oder gar nicht/The Fully Monty & Non(n)sense

Der Schuh des Manitu & The Producers

and Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

2.Traveling

I love getting to know new places and the feeling I have when I’m stepping out of a plane, train or car in another country is just incredible. I know that probably sounds weird but I enjoy discovering the highlights and secrets of a new city.

Rotterdam was the final destination of my summer 2009

3.Friends & Family

I always love it when I see my friends and family outside of Finland again. I remember last summer I was travelling through Germany almost the entire summer to visit my friends…unfortunately this year I don’ have the time to do that 😦 So I did not get to see as many friends as I wanted to…Hamburg,Berlin, Düsseldorf…I miss you!!

4.Barbecues in the garden

I loooove “barbecue-ing”! What’s better than grilled chicken, potato salad, ice cold drinks and great company on a hot summer night?

5.Back to the roots

Although I love (living in) big cities I also enjoy going back to my roots: the life in a small town with lots of nature…Waren/Müritz… This summer I got it all 🙂