St. Pauli and the Reeperbahn

Hamburg

Came to Hamburg to experience the beatiful city and to meet my gymnasium Deutch-klasse exchange student . It was fun to see again, talk about everything what happened after - I was happy to see her again and that she offered to be my host again (thank you facebook!).She was happy to show me the different parts of city where we couldn´t go with our teachers when we were 16 years old! And, about the fact my things in life are pretty much better than exactly 5 years ago when she visited.

We visited Planten un Blumen -park and just walked around - there´s many intresting places in Hamburg, more than I remembered!

She made me a luch at her place and then she took me a couple of more intresting places.

 

  It was raining heavily so I didn´t took any pictures about the tivoli which was there - we were walking to the clubbing area, Kiez, when I only saw narcomans and punkrockers in every corner of the street and every second bar was toppless- or tabledance-bar... When I noticed the S-bahn station sign called "Reeperbahn", I understood.

 

Then we took the S-bahn to Sternschanze, where are to coolest bars to hang out  and, which I found the most intresting area of Hamburg! Indiebars, cute café´s, lovely shops I really did wish I´d had time to visit!

 

We went bed early because I had early morning - and I needed that sleep. To have energy to go to Copenhagen next morning.

PS. I love Germany. I wish I´d had more time to Berlin and Hamburg.

Swear of a gipsywoman

So, the interrail.

 why a cup of coffee says "HUHTAMAKI" in a München-Verona -train?

I had a plan to meet my Finnish friend at Verona and start interrail there. We weren´t planning anything else - not booking hostel or anything - we just wanted to see each other so badly that we met in Verona, although we knew it doesn´t really make sense.

So we met. And talked. And planned to book a hostel. I opened my laptop and the gipsywoman came, asked money but we didn´t gave anything. Then she sweared us maybe 5 minutes.

So we didn´t have any hostel left because there was some kind of Opera-Festival. We waited six hours in the trainstation and tryed to get the night train but there wasn´t any space. So there wasn´t any other option left than sleep at the train station....

 So now I can say I´ve been in Verona but can´t say that I have seen anything else than trainstation...

Next day we went to Munich, wash laundry, went to the Volksfest, had fun time and sad final goodbyes to part of my Munich friends.(And, were happy about the fact we had a warm, safety room and soft beds to sleep!) I was sad leaving Munich, but exited about going to Berlin!

At Sunday, when we arrived to our huge Generator -hostel, we just took our backpacks to our room and then decided to have a look to the hostel-bar. And what we found! My best aupair-friends from Munich! That must have been faith!

But the Monday. My Finnish friend was having so irritating flue that our only option was going to the hospital. We had to wait 5 hours there - luckily we didn´t have any schedule for Monday. But my friend wasn´t having anything else than a basic flue, and the doctor was hot. The doctor also sad that my friend should just rest a few days. In a middle of interrail? Yeah, right....

My friend was sleeping the rest of the day and I just took a walk around with my aupair-friends.

Tuesday we just walked around, lost couple times - just enough to found some beatiful bohemian place and intresting mexican restaurant called Frida Kahlo.  They had also old man playing quitar like a rock star - and this little boy was his biggest fan!

At Wednesday morning my friend stayed at Berlin and I took a train to Hamburg.

At home. Busy but happy.

Came home 16 days ago. Felt first just weird, then I surprised myself to remembering how much I love this place where I am now. Feels good to have so much to do with studies - little pressure just feels good. My summerwork didn´t felt like a work at all. I am happy that my summer was so great and I met so many people, I learned better German and English, now I have places to stay at UK and Canada. And great friends there!

           in Berlin they know how to cut grass
 
Part of me miss Munich very much. I miss speaking German, holding a Mass in my hand, Dirndls and Lederhosens, Jäger´s hostel, family-kids, great friends... But mostly I feel I am in the right place now. Studying, student-theatre, being a mentor, all the friends here - making sushi together, going around fleamarkets, having sauna-evenings! 

I am sure that this wasn´t my last time working, or spending time abroad. Exprerience was so great, and I have now more self-considence about what I can do. I mean, it´s not about what I can do anymore. It´s about what I want.

And, the interrail was... wow. Well, I have some things to say about it. Posting is coming.

1-2-3-4 GO!

So much happening and going to happen that I really haven´t much time to do postings.. 


- I lost my phone in the biggest night-club area of Europe - I have been searching that about a week and don´t think I will find it anymore.

-That happened while my friend was visiting for me for one weekend - we also visited Schloss Schleissheim at Saturday and Pinakothek der Moderne at Sunday

-Family left me. We had long conversations with the mom and I got my best reference ever. 6-year-old asked, if he could come to my birthdayparty to Finland, and gave me his favorite football-card "because you always had time to play with us and we could play football with you". Well I was being sensitive, too...

And I was being truely kindergartenteacher at some point. Months in Turkish, German, Finnish

-Tomorrow we are having a goodbyeparty. 6 of us are going back to the home country for studies. We are going first to Jäger´s and then some Australian place for Karaoke. I now it´s gonna be bad but I am pretty sure we are gonna sing Spice Girls - Goodbye my friends


-I am also buying my interrail ticket and starting my trip to home.

- I knew it all the time and I still don´t get it. I am BACKPACKING.

-to HOME!

Minne katosi päivät?

Only one week working anymore. Then family leaves to Turkey for their summerholidays, and I have only couple of days here left.


Where did this summer went? First I missed my home - mostly people, now I wouldn´t want to leave this place anymore. I mean, of course I want to see all the people in Finland I have missed talking and being with, I can´t say I don´t, but really - this summer has been crazy. Work - mostly babysitting - doesn´t feel like work. Family has been great. Children and the mother of the family had became very close to me. I have met great people all over the world and learned many things about them and from myself - even things from Finland and Finnish people.


Many Germans are fans of Finnish school system. Many Americans and even Europeans don´t know which country Finland is from the "Scandinavians". Many people keep wondering why we have to pay so high taxes and why prices are so high - but I keep wondering tuitions - my tuitions for whole year in Turku  University costs something around 100 euros and my friend who studies in Yale, States, pays 8000 US dollars (near 6200 euros)  for a year.


Of course I miss my friends. But going back to Finland means so many things: So, the higher prices of everything ( exept tuitions), no more doing weekend-trips all over Europe (well, if you see the map, Munich actually is the central point of Europe), no more evenings at Jaeger´s hostell meeting some random backpackers all over the world (last Friday boys from my upper secondary high school too!), no more making kids happy with playing football and drawing pink kittens.


Goin back means something like going back to the reality. I have to force myself study harder that first year in Uni - I have been working in insurance company, played in student theatre, lead some dance lessons and well - partying  having fun with my friends, so... I have made only seventy per sent of all I should have done in first year. So - I have promised myself that I will say "no" for any job exept that one week tutoring new students before I have made all the undone first year -stuff.


All this feels... contradictory. Good and bad. Leaving this place feels bad, but I know when I reach my home, it actually feels like home.

Prague

One weekend in Prague is a way too short time to visit there. We took a train from Munich to Prague and it took 6 hours to get there - Friday was a funny thing because we girls founded free beer random Bachelor-party in a train and somehow they could speak some Finnish too!

So, Saturday we just walked around in the Old Town, and took a free tour. It was raining at some point but we didn´t mind that.

There were Absint -places everywhere. Prague is full of art, bohemians and history.

I don´t have pictures about the Saturday-night - we went to the Pub Crawl, whic means paying 15 euros for entry, drinking free drinks (absinthe, wine, beer, vodka) one hour, having t-shirt and lot of fun in that 5 -floors bar and hoping remembering something in the next morning.

So, Sunday we crossed the Charles Bridge and went to the Medieval church and that was amazing thing.

 We saw a lot - of things - but only a tiny bit of the place. There is so many museums and art-exhibitions, kubik-things, art-deco and well, the Old Town just is wonderful.

I can recommend Prague for anyone!

Just wanted to say

that Prague was amazing and one weekend was really too short time visiting.

But. Now my family is visiting and I am posting about that lovely weekend another time!

Cockeli-DU

Title is the name of one German drinking-game we learned at Wednesday.

Crepes. Finnland - Alcohol nach Wohl (alcohol by your own choice) + Zucker

The picture is actually from Tollwood festival. Tollwood is happening two times a year, in the summer and in the winter. It´s a 30-day long festival and it´s for free - only some of the gigs are having acces fee, if there´s performing someone like Norah Jones, Pet Shop Boys, Michael Bolton etc. Music isn´t the only thing - there are lots of dance workshops, theater, different kind of performances, like circus... anything.

But about the Wednesday. I had such a great night - met charming people at the bar, waited S-bahn which wasn´t running because the renovation, strolled around for first to find working S-bahn -station and then just looking for a open bar.

So we found a way to Pimpernel, formerly gay- and lesbian bar which owner has changed and the bar has turned very straight-friendly. It´s open until 10 am!


So, home at 7 am after expensive taxi-drive and happily fall asleep after having so much fun and meetind such a great people.

And, waking up at 1.pm, noticing my black notebook is missing. It´s the one with all the details, all the contacts, all the memories I have been collecting about this summer. And I can´t say which taxi-firm it was.

Feeling a little bit sad about that fact.

But can´t feel too sad, because tomorrow I am going to Prague!

Kindergärtnerin

I visited in the Kindergarten last Monday - just because I was intrested how different it is from Finlands. The kindergarten teachers were pleased I wanted to come and invited me - not only for a visitor, one of the teachers had a day-off  - so I found myself actually working.

There are couple of big differences from Finland:

1.  There aren´t any age-groups. Three to six -year-olds are in the same group, so the older children learn to give a hand for the youngers when needed and if a kid doesn´t have any brothers or sisters, he/she can still experience what it feels like to be with older and younger kids. The children have still their own "pedagogic time" between 9-13 o´clock in age-groups, and in that time it is not allowed to bring them there or pick them up.
2. The Kindergartens are not established from cityes or towns. Different institutions, like Catolic church or Red Cross (like this one I visited) form them.
3. Only 3-6 year olds go to kindergarten, younger ones go to a "Krippe" (grip), if that exist near and there is space or them. Mothers usually stay home until kids turn to 3 years old.
4. Lunch is served for kids, but if they have any allergies or have some conviction, they must bring their own food. For example, my host-familys son have lactose intolerance, so he must bring his own food everyday with him.

Monday we celebrated one girls 5-year birthday and five to six years olds had their own "Rhytmik" -musical moment. All the children weren´t there, because it costs 25 euros for a year, having "rhytmik" in every monday. In Finland this wouldn´t exist - I mean, of course we have music "lessons"  too, but usually it´s not allowed to do anything you have to pay.

In Germany most people are big fans of Finlands school system - PISA results are high, elementary school takes 9 years, not 4 years, so children doesn´t have to focus on school so hardly in very early age in Finland.

But there is a special thing called "Hort", which we Finnnish people could learn a lot. Hort isn´t kindergarten, it´s for kids in the age of 7-10, and it´s like afternoon club after school for the kids whose both parents are working. So when the 7-years olds schoolday is over at 11pm but parents are doing 8-hour work day and maybe home at four-five pm, children can go to Hort to do their homework and play with other kids, maybe eating dinner. Here Hort is open daily at 10-18.30 o´clock and what´s more important, it´s open in school holidays too. Many parents in Finland found it hard that children have so long summer holiday, 2 and half months, and employers usually give holiday for o month only.

Why don´t we have Hort in Finland, too?

Breathe more, my darling. The air is fresh and there´s lots of it.

 

Balcony in the morning

My host-family haves friends everywhere around the Europe. When they asked me if I wanted to go to Northern Italy, "Südtirol", to see their familyfriends, for a little village St. Martin, just between the Alps, I couldn´t say anything else than "yes".

 

The mother of the family of living here moved away because she wanted to experience the world - and she studied in Salzburg and moved to Istanbul for a work - just like the mother of my host-family - and came back here were she was born. After seeing this pure, original thing, I truely understand why she wanted to come back.

 

 nevermind where I go, I will always have the countrygirls heart

We arrived there lately in Friday night and weren´t doing anything special at Saturday. Just going to the pool (It´s fine when you can see the mountains everywhere) and playing with the kids, little walking around and going for a original Italian pizzeria. But I wouldn´t even wanted to do anything else than breathe fresh air and keep on wondering.

At Sunday we went for a bunch up to the hill and enjoyed the wiew.

 

...and made a little walk.

 

Do you know the feeling you get when you have seen the real thing? 

Mountains were so high and big and... everything. I felt myself like a little girl with too big thoughts. 

I want will go there again.

Another after-weekend -post

It´s still +35 degrees outside - is this the third or fourth week? I can not remember anymore...

I love:
-laying at the beach
-having picnic in the Englisher Garten

you can swim in the river if lake is too far away!

-Jaeger´s   
-the fact that football wm is over - but it was fun though!

 free entry at Odeonsplatz 


-The amazing S- and U-bahn system here. Why don´t we have that in Finland, too? Yes, there´s a metro in Helsinki and surrounding area, but not any elsewhere.

-Sunday entry´s for 1 euro (normally 7 euros) at the Neue Pinakothek  and couple of other museums
  
- Surrounding area of the University - I found a street full of bookstores!
-Crazy, funny, extrovert, open people

I am waiting:
 - trips to Südtirol, which is a small village between the Alps in the northern Italy and Prag!
  -going to hairdresser for 9 euros
  - going to wach Sex and the City 2 auf Deutch
- lovely visitors from Finland! First my family, then great friends :)


I am also:
 -enjoying every moment

Dachau concentration camp

On Sunday we visited this Dauchau concentration camp.

Impressive, unforgettable, making every of us feeling sensitive.

 
The main building and museum

four persons were sleeping in only one bed


 Crematorium

 Only one people succesfully escaped


We first had tour and then had time to lootk more around but we only watched 22 minutes film in a cinema and - it was enough. Nodody of us wanted see more.

Shocking enough for make me thinking everything. Mostly why, why this happened. Why people coudn´t see how wrong it was. Feeling happy that part of history is over and feeling bad about so many suffering past - and how many people suffering still - not in the same way, but still.

You have know the history if you want to understand the future... and make it better.

Heute hier, morgen da, aber immer zu Hause.

Last week have been so hot weather that I don´t have nothing mutch to tell about - if it´s over +35 degrees I do not have energy for nothing more than hanging out at the beach.

But the weekend, yeah. Friday we started, of course, in Jaegers - well, international atmosphere, good friend working there and,  Happy Hour between 6pm and 10 pm  - 1 litre Helles-bier (1 big or two 0,5 litre pint) for three euros. After get to knowing some randoms and playing drinking games with our group we desided to go somewhere near Ostbahnhof just because it´s full of clubs. We got free stamps for KOI Kultfabrik -club and were being photographed for one big party -website of Germany, Partygaenger! Somewhere around three am. we wanted to go home - and that´s not the end of the story...

Yeah. Luckily one awesome au-pair -girl lives very near me and we have the same way home with the S-bahn. The way home should take only 20 minutes, but our´s took actually 3 and half hours. That´s because we had both fell asleep in the S-bahn and ended up at the airport.

So, of course there wasn´t rains coming on before 5.30 we had to wait for and hour and were at home at 6.30. You know the feeling, walking home with your heels and yesterdays make-up and people are doing sports? Uhh.

So, yeah. I actually had to work Saturday but luckily not before 1 pm.

Saturday there was big parade after Germany winning Argentina (of course we watched it in Jaeger´s and listened Don´t cry for me Argentina) and I felt so stupid not having camera with me. But I really will have it with me on Wednesday -going to watch Germany - Spain -game on the big screen on Olympiastadion. So, will take lots of photos then!

Zürich

I made a weekend-trip to Zürich in a good company of my host-family, or actually just with the mom and the kids. I took almost four hours to drive from Munich to Zürich, and the kids were turning impatient, but - I could have watch ages these mountains and other landscapes there were outside of the car.

We were invited to the house of the mothers half-sister, whose husband works for one big IT-company, moving once in three years to other place (they have been living for example in Greek, in Saudi-Arabia, now in Switzerland... wow).  It was nearly 8 pm. when we arrived, so we just ate dinner, took the kids sleeping and had nice conversations with wine and cheese.

Saturday I went to the tpwn, experience the atmosphere of money-smelling city (Zürich = zu rich = too rich). I didn´t have much time to find out before where I should go when I had only one day, but when noticing the coffee-museum by Johann Jacobs were closed for whole summer, I decided just do some walking around in the old-town and the famous Bahnhof-strasse, Fraumünster Church and the Kunsthaus - one of the largest and most famous art-museums of Europe.

The Bahnhofstrasse, the most expensive shopping street of Europe, wasn´t actually my favorite - I have seen these luxurious shops (Chanel, Dior, Lous Vuitton, Tiffany´s etc.) and done the window-shopping already in Munich and well, I am just not that interested about these over-priced things. I wish I will never be that rich that I can´t figure out other options to use 6250 frangs (4628,50 Euros)  than a Hermes bag.

But in the end of this street was lovely fleamarket! I found a cute scarf and found out the salepersons mother was from Finland. Weird and funny, talking Finnish with a stranger in the middle of Zürich!

                          local kids swimming at the pool

Fraumünster Church and the windows painted by  Marc Chagall is beautiful. Taking pictures was forbidden, of course.

The Kunsthaus was really worth for visiting. I spent 4 hours watching cool photographies, modern art, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, old masters and other collections.  And an hour in the bookstore also - not bying anything, just wishing there were more space in my luckage and more money in my wallet, remembering my grandpas all the art-books he had and wondering how many of these books I could actually use in my future work in kindergarten.


In the evenig, beautiful wiew in the S-bahn alongside the Zürichsee -lake, and of course having problems with the tickets again. I am not sure, why I had bought the wrong ticket but luckily the conductor realised I was travelling first time there and I at least had bought some ticket and just told me how to buy the ticket and wished me to nice way home - I was so pleased not to be paying the 80 Swiss frangs (60 euros) penalty.

Another evening with good conversations and wine, love them. Sunday was just going to the beach with children and travelling back. Good people, good stuff. Yeah, Zürich was clean, beautiful and sunny, I loved the Kunsthaus, but... this time, it was the good people making a this trip good. Not the other stuff.