Exploring: St.Peter-Ording / Germany (June 2016)

Hello,

lately the weather has been great in the north of Germany and this was a reason why 
I went on quite a spontaneous trip earlier this week. 
The destination was St. Peter-Ording and once again I spend a fantastic day there.

Since last year this is one of my favourit places to be and luckily only about an two hours drive from Hamburg away. 
I am pretty much a person who loves to be at the sea and St. Peter is like a paradise with 
its looong and sandy beaches.

Indeed I was "busy" with being speechless again about how wide everything is.
The seashore nearly seems to be endless.

However, besides that for sure I walked along the ocean, took a sun bath, read a book and took a couple of photos as you will see.

Only for dinner I left the beach and went to my beloved Dii:ke Restaurant.
As usual I chose one of their super delicous Pizza`s and didn`t regret it.

In the following you will gonna have the opportunity to convince yourself of 
St. Peter-Ording`s beauty. 

For more pictures and information feel also free to check out my blog post from last year.

Enjoy the rest of your day and I hope to see you soon on the blog again.

Best wishes.

Mareike

The Beach Motel is a very good choice if you consider to stay overnight in 
St. Peter-Ording but you better book your vacation months in advance as they 
usually are booked out.

Exploring: Streetart in Shoreditch / London (English)

Hello,

I am not telling you something new, if I claim that London is famous for the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace or the Tower Bridge and neither do I want to deny that these spots aren`t worth to see. Personally I think there is just so much more what makes this city 
as special and adorable as it is.

One of this places is Shoreditch what actually is an entire ditsrict and right now one of the most hyped places to visit in London.
In total I went there four times by now and each time I explored something new. 
No wonder, this area is popular for its creative and young inhabitants, which are responsible for the permanent development of their area. 
For those of you who haven`t been there yet, let me describe this part of the city for you with the following words:

Shoreditch is edgy, urban, bustling and above all arty!

Nearly around every corner there is a graffiti to find. Not the typical ones probably most of us are used to such like insignificant words or pictures on walls or train windows but actual pieces of art. In addition there are also funny sculptures to look for here and there. 
The ones I saw are located opposite the old Truman Brewery at Ely`s Yard.
All in all the graffities and sculptures definetely are a great extension to Londons musuems and the pictures of Banksy.
I can only recommend everybody who is into this kind of art and was thinking of going to London anyway to stroll through Shoreditch and convince yourself of this unique area.

But first the pictures of the graffities I saw. Some might not be there anymore but others got so popular that they remain for months if not years.

I hope to see you soon on my blog again.

Best wishes.

Mareike

I moved back to Germany & April summary (English)

Hello everybody,

April just came to an end and I haven`t published a single blog post within the whole
past month. This kind of makes me feel angry with myself as I would have liked to share 
at least two or three entries with you in the last couple of weeks.
I promise May is going to be better as you can already tell from reading this text right now.

Anyhow, I will stop prattling on my bad publishing behaviour and rather talk about all 
the exctiting things that happened in the meantime. 
There are some really good incidents to be announced and I would like to start with this:

I moved back to Hamburg!

Although it was originally planned that I will stay in the UK til July I decided to return earlier due to a couple of reasons. One of them was that I just came to the point, 
where I recognized that I didn`t wanted to be an Au Pair any longer. 
At the end I did this job for a bit more than 7 months and I had a fantastic time while 
I lived in Britain but I am also pleased to be back in my "old" life now.
Even though I never had to complain about working to hard or anything like that in the last bits I more and more missed my freedom as well as my family and friends.
Besides that I spend a lot of my free time in the past months with looking for an apprenticeship and many applications later luckily I also got invitations for job interviews.
To cut a long story short, I realized that it will gonna be a problem for me to continue working in addition to complete all these appointments as my hostfamily was really 
in need of my flexibility. 
Therefore organizational reasons lead into my decision to leave, too.
Furthermore, I knew that a friend of mine wanted to change her hostfamily and she really than took over my former job.

However, since the 6th of April I am in Hamburg again and the next day I already had an interview followed by some more in the days after that. I don´t want to go into details but 
all of them went very good and at the end I also got the apprenticeship I wanted the most.
Not only do I feel happy but also really relieved to finally have the clarity in terms of what 
I will work as from August onwards.
Only one or two months ago I partly felt quite frustrated about not to know what the near future will hold for me but now everything is going into the right direction.

What else is to tell is that in the middle of the month my mom joined me to return to 
my british ,,hometown" where we spend a few days in a lovely hotel. 
Within this time we also visited my host family to pick up the rest of my stuff which was 
still at their house. Apart from that we went to London to work ourself through my 
London-to-do-list and to the Warner Brother Studios, which was one of the attractions 
I wanted to see as well.
On Tuesday, than another wish of mine came true as our journey should also include 
an overneight stay in Eastbourne. Both Brighton and Eastbourne are located on the southcoast of the UK but somehow it seems as most people only tend to visit Brighton.
In my opinion the two of them are pretty and worth to explore but you can read more about that in an extra blogpost which will deal about my time in Eastbourne.
Anyway, these holidays were really joyful and beyond that also a great way to finish with
my time as an Au Pair. 

Currently I enjoy my life and look forward to spring/summer and all the exciting events which are about to come up.

I hope to see you soon.

Best wishes.

Mareike

Good to be here: Cambridge / Great Britain (English)

Hello everyone,

today I would like to talk about a trip I already did a couple of months ago.
Somehow I didn`t managed to publish this post earlier but now it is time to share 
my impressions from this day with you.
Back in November friends of mine and I decided to set off and explore Cambridge.
On account of the season the weather was quite lousy what for sure is not the best condition to spend the day outside and do some sightseeing. 
Because of this at first we had some scruples whether we should go or not but at the end we fling the fears off and went to Cambridge. In retrospect, I think it was a good decision as I really enjoyed the trip and the fun time with the girls.

However, it is time to start talking about what we did all day long.
Firstly, we were quite surprised that it takes only about an hour to go from London 
to Cambridge by train. During the journey we recognized that we didn`t really had a plan about what we can do in the city.
All we knew was just that there is this famous University, ranked as one of 
the best worldwide. Well, as we should figure out later on, actually there doesn`t exist only one big University but several colleges which are extended over the whole town.
Anyhow, as soon as we arrived in Cambridge we perceived the high among 
of young people around us. From that moment onwards we were constantly asking ourselfs whether this or that person might be one of the lucky and moreover intelligent ones, who are attending this educational institution.
Besides that we were wandering out with the intention to see this popular place.
As we got told that most of the colleges were closed at this time, we ended up doing 
a boat trip to see the sights at least from the outside.
Although there was not much space inside the boat, I have to admit I enjoyed the ride.
The tour guide provided us with information about the buildings along side the river 
and even the sun came out for a while.

Afterwards we just went for dinner and than already headed off towards home.


See you soon.

Best wishes.

Mareike

Exploring: Greenwich & Canary Wharf / London (English)

Hello everybody,

last weekend I finally mangaged to do some more exploring again.
My friend and myself decided to head over to Greenwich, a part of London located 
in the south-east of the city and opposite Canary Wharf and its Skyscrapers.
I had already been there a couple of years ago but only for a short period of time 
and without having seen that much. 
Looking back, it definetely was a good decision to return as Greenwich is a really 
lovely area. You might have heard about it earlier in association with the prime meridian, which is based at the Royal Obervatory in Greenwich. 
The attraction is situated on top of a hill, from there you have a magnificint view 
over London. The hill itself is in the middle of a huge and beautiful park, a perfect place 
to escape the hustle and bustle of Londons town center. 
Besides, that Greenwich offers a variety of very nice shops (well, basically like everythere in London...). I particularly fell in love with a shop called "Oliver Bonas". 
I literally could have bought half of all the things in the shop but unfortunately I haven`t won the lottery yet. They have some more stores all over Britan, so if you are keen on scandinavian design, fun post cards and other cool stuff pay them a visit.
By the way, yesterday I discovered that they are about to open a store in the town 
I am living - what a coincidence!
Anyway, as the Old Royal Naval College and the National Maritime Museum 
are both setted in Greenwich, there is also a shop specialised in selling items with 
a maritime design. You know what? I immediately felt a bit like being home.
I grew up in Hamburg, a city mainly popular for its port and the Elbe river. 
In addition, the North- and Baltic Sea are just like around the corner. 
Therefore, I am used to maritime design and like most stuff with this kind of patterns.
At the end I didn`t bought anyhting in the shop but it was a good feeling to see 
all these things, which reminded me a lot of home.

One of the reasons we actually went to Greenwich was the local food market. 
We arrived there when the market was about to close but it wasn`t such a pity. 
Don`t get me wrong, the market is worth a visit but we couldn`t find the kind of food 
we were searching for like Pizza or Pasta. Well, the good Italian food. 
What else you can get there is mainly tradional food from either Asia or South America.
Beyond that you can treat yourself with some selfmade cupcakes or something completely different such as clothes or a nice piece of art. 
As you can see, there is a variety of stalls. I am sure at the end of the day, you will leave Greenwich with less money. For the ones, who are not afraid of heights and would like to do something special,I have another recommendation for you:

The UK`s only urban cable car! 

The Emirates Air Line runs between North Greenwich and the Royal Docks. 
The tickets are not that expensive and while your journey from one side of the thames to 
the other, you can enjoy a brilliant view over London. 
Unfortunately, I haven`t been able to try it myself so far but I would love to do so! 
Preferable to watch the sunset.


picture: 
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/emirates-air-line-cable-car-opening-hours-extended-to-offer-night-flights-10130933.html

Another advise from me for you is to stroll around Canary Wharf.
This is perhabs not the prettiest part of London but if you have some time left,
you could consider to go there. 
In the last decade a lot of modernization took place in this area, what has led into 
the fact that you can now spot some of Londons highest buildings and newest 
train stations around there. 
Subjectively speaking, I had a few moments, where I was greatly impressed by 
the architecture but not only with the newer buildings. 
My friend and myself also discovered some older parts of the disctrict, what we were 
really happy about. It is funny how you could be in the middle of one of Europes 
biggest cities and depending on where you are, it feels like you are in a small town. 
Surrounded by lots of flats and people jogging next to the river, we enjoyed the quiet 
and the view onto the Thames. Only the airplanes, which were about to land at the 
near by London City Airport disturbed the athmosphere from time to time.

However, I assume you can tell that I had a great time while exploring Greenwich 
and Canary Wharf and hope that I could have inspired a few of you to go 
and spend some time there as well.

See you soon.

Best wishes.

Mareike

Musical Recommendation or how I met Leo Stannard

Hello everyone,

the time has come to share my first blog post in this category with you.

The cause for me finally writting a recommendation happened a short while ago.
As you probably know due to the title, this is going to be about music or better saying 
a particular singer, whose music I would highly recommend you to listen to.

I discovered Leo Stannard at the beginning of the year.

I was searching for something on facebook, when I stumbled across his page. 
In the following I listened to his songs on YouTube and added them immediately to 
my playlist. From this day onwards I have been keen on his music, 
what is not really a surprise as I tend to listen to british musicians almost only.
Therefore, Leo is another proof for Britain being a country with lots of talented musicians.
Besides that it is especially his unique voice and the way how he is playing the guitar,
what makes his music absolutely worth to to listen to.
Moreover, he is also writing the lyrics himself!
In terms of the genre, it is quite hard for me to describe it so I think it might be the best, 
if you just get yourself an impression of it.
You are about to find some useful links further down this post but first let me tell you something else and exciting.

I was on facebook again, when I discovered a post of him (or more likely his management). He / they invited everybody to take part in a spontanous competition, 

with the option to win tickets for his sold out concert taking place in London the next day. 
I thought that I had nothing to lose and so I tried my luck.

Although I usually never win anything, this time I had a good feeling. 

Lo and behold, about an hour later I opened my facebook account and indeed I had 
a message, saying that I am one of the lucky ones, who are invited to visit the concert.

Fun fact: I was listening to his music in the moment I read the message.

So the day after that, a friend of mine and myself head off to London.
The venue, where the concert took place was quite small, what I really liked! 
There might have been only about 200 other people and amongst them a surprisingly 
high amount of men, who attended the event.

As Leo doesn`t have so many songs yet, his perfomance wasn`t that long. 
Nevertheless, the concert was fantastic!
Not only is his voice in real life as good as I used to know it from the records 
but he also has a great stage presence. 
It appeared to me that everybody really enjoyed listening to Leo as I noticed 
from the amazing athmosphere in the room and the applause he got after each song.

Subjectively speaking, I felt very lucky to be able attending the concert. 
Leo seems to be an interesting and charming person and I am sure we will hear a lot more of him in the future.

Right now he is still on tour, so it might be worth to have a look, whether he is coming to your town and if there are still tickets left.

To get more impressions from the concert and Leo himself check out these articles:

http://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2014/09/new-noise-leo-stannard/

http://www.coolmusicandthings.co.uk/2016/02/mahogany-show-leo-stannard-23216.html

My favourit songs are these ones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlbL6udXmf4&list=FLJxaGk54nRrBDrTkIKKVwmA&index=22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4h-lIZgaEg&index=3&list=FLJxaGk54nRrBDrTkIKKVwmA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzMDof0WG1s&index=7&list=FLJxaGk54nRrBDrTkIKKVwmA