What I got for Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody!

I hope you have great holidays full of joy and love aaaaand food.


I know that Christmas isn't about receiving presents but about giving and spending time with your loved ones but I do like to see what others got for Christmas.

These are my three favourite gifts:

The shoes are from Tom Tailor and they don't just look cute but are also very warm.
These scented candles are by a company called "Heart & Home". The gift set includes "Waiting for Santa" and "Christmas Cupcakes".
And last but not least I've got a new watch by "Cluse". (it was good timing cuz my old one is broken)


I just want to say that I'm very grateful to be able to spend my holidays with my family and so far I had some great holidays.

I hope you all have Happy Holidays and a great start to the new year. xxx

Love, Steff xx

December Haul

Hello everybody,

last Friday I went to Dresden to do some (Christmas) Shopping. It was quite successful.

I can't believe December is pretty much over already. Where has the past year gone?

Anyway here's what I got.

Kiko:

-unlimited foundation (warm rose 01) and skin tone concealer (03)
-round foundation brush (05) and the "ARCTIC HOLIDAY" travel brush kit

-Skincare
        >pure clean cleansing cream

        >pure clean essence revitalizing & hydrating lotion

        >pure clean eyes& lips make up remover

Primark:
-grey quote t-shirt and wintery/Christmassy pants

-plain white grey jumper and Harry Potter themed jumper with a hood

-"Mandarin & Basil" eau de parfume and 60 hair ties

Last but not least I've bought a light blue with darker blue stars onesie.





The last shop I went to was Lush:
-Candy Mountain (Bath Bomb)
-Christmas Eve (Bath Bomb)
-Big Blue (Bath Bomb/MY FAVE)
-Shoot for the Stars (Bath Bomb)
-Happy Hippy (Shower Gel)
-Baked Alaska (Soap Bar)
-BB Seaweed (Mask)

Have you been successful with your Christmas shopping?

Do you still need to do it?

Love, Steff xx

Black Friday Haul

Hello everybody,

how is it the 11th December already?! Where has time gone?!

Even though Black Friday happened quite a while ago I still enjoy reading and watching hauls so this is mine.
Everything will be linked right underneath (as far as I can find the links).

I shopped at Zalando, Asos and of course Amazon and this is what I purchased.

Asos:

I grabbed myself a nice and cosy Christmas jumper. It has a gingerbread man on it and is dark green which reminded me of a tree.
Christmas Jumper

Zalando:

I needed a new handbag which wasn't too big but also not too small. It was such a mare to find one as I've been looking for one for months but I found a nice black handbag by Anna Field. 
Handbag (You can also get it in many different colours too)

I decided to wear more dresses this winter and I found a pretty knitted black dress
knitted dress

Another very beautiful dress that I bought was this black off the shoulder one by Dorothy Perkins. It has a lace strip at the bottom and top and it is sooo beautiful. 😍😍😍😍😍
black jersey dress

Accessoires wise I've bought some really cool gold hexagon hoops.
hexagon hoops

A set of 4 normal hoops, also in gold.
gold hoops set

And a silver infinity necklace with matching earrings
Infinity set

Amazon: (I've deffo bought the most stuff here)

First of all, I preordered High Society. I went to the cinema with Tate and I fell in love with that film.
High Society

I've been using this hair growth serum for a while now but I couldn't find it in stores anymore so I had a look on Amazon. I'm soo happy I can finally change a new bottle.
hair growth serum

As we are talking about hair anyway... I've also bought myself a curl wand from Remington.
Remington curl wand

Even though I wouldn't have needed another advent calendar I bought one anyway. I love Teekanne tea it's just the best brand for tea in Germany. (I'm going to be reviewing all my calendars at the end of the month)
Tea advent calendar

My speakers recently broke and I can't live without music in my life so I had to act quickly. I found this cute little Bluetooth speaker which also has an aux-cable and sd or micro sd (not too sure) slot. And it's rose gold, can it get even better?!
Speaker

I've been using these insoles for a while now but it gets really annoying to change them to the shoes I need them in, that's why I've bought a third pair. The way you walk with them is like you're walking on clouds (similar to wearing AirMax I feel like).
Scholl insoles

Last but not least I've bought two books.
Dash & Lilly's Book of Dares fits perfectly to December it's very Christmassy and romantic.
Dash & Lilly's Book of Dares

As you may or may not know I'm obsessed with Hamilton and I'm going to watch it in February but when I saw this popping up there was no way I could not not buy it.
Hamilton: The Revolution Book


What have you bought on Black Friday?

Love, Steff xx

GNI - Ideas

Hello everybody,

I know that my posts were lacking in the past weeks and they will be all over the place for the next weeks too but my term is ending in 3 weeks so every teacher just realises we haven't got enough grades.

Two weeks ago I had a long weekend so our girl group used that time to have a GNI (Girls Night In). And we haven't done one in a long time.
This post is about stuff we did and other things you can do.

Food:

• order a real dirty pizza
• different snack options
• cookies
• muffins
• brownies
• crisps/chips
• chocolate
• cheese or chocolate fondue
• baguette or breadsticks and dip them in Camembert with honey
• fruits
• have a bake-off or bake together
• throw a dinner party  (you can change houses each time)

Drinks:

• Somersby (I love this drink soo much!) (!Disclaimer: Don't drink underage!)
• create some new C/Mocktails or stick with to the recipe
• don't forget the lemonade

Films:

• A GNI is not a GNI if you don't watch a film together that you all love or haven't seen. I think the best genres are rom-coms, horror or just something really girly like teen films, Fifty Shades of Grey or as we did a film about strippers (Magic Mike XXL).

Games/Activities:

• build a den to watch the film inside/sleep
• gossip (I mean we are all girls and we love it even if you won't admit it)
• karaoke
• twister
• photoshoots
• truth or dare (we always play the extreme version)

Or have a themed GNI, for example, a Halloween one on Halloween or something Christmassy in December.

So these are some ideas but in general, don't forget to take as many silly pics as possible and film short vids because if you are feeling down these will cheer you up again.

What special things do you do at GNIs?

Love, Steff xx

What I've been up to

Hello everybody,

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything last week but I was quite ill.

Last Friday I went to the theatre and watched "Measure for Measure" by Shakespeare.

Tbh it wasn't really something I would want to watch and by that, I mean that I really did not like it at all.

I've grown a new TV show obsession.

I've been obsessed with White Collar for a long time. I've watched it like 7 times. But it gradually changed to Pretty Little Liars and OMFG I'm really obsessed.

I know I'm a bit late to the party and I wanted to watch it for so long but I either wasn't feeling for that kind of show or I was really busy or I was obsessed with a different show.

I even started to watch it a few years ago but I wasn't feeling it but now nothing can take it away from me.

I'm glad I had a lot canceled classes last week so I was able to watch it during that time.

I also had some rehearsals for the musical at our school before I went to the theatre.

Luckily this week is very short so I have a very long weekend where I've got some activities planned.

I'm going to visit a friend of mine who I haven't seen in so long. I've got an orthodontist appointment #annoying and a GNI (Girls Night In) with my squad/gang/clique whatever you wanna call it. Besides that, I've got a lot of homework like reading Maria Stuart and of course watching Pretty Little Liars. Even though I wanted to do some sorting out it doesn't seem like I will manage to do so.

What have you been up to last week?

Do you have a long weekend coming up? What are your plans?

Love, Steff xx

October Haul

Hello everybody,

I wanted to do something different, posting-wise.

I buy a lot of things over a month so I picked out some of those to show you.

This shirt is from Orsay. It is so soft and I really like the colour grey during autumn/winter. It has 3/4-sleeves and is a bit flowy. The thing that made me buy it was the pearl collar.




















Next up we've got shoes. I love them and I'm quite obsessed with shoes. On the left, you can see some really cute sneakers by "Young Spirit" with black and grey pompons. The minute I saw these I needed them. They are just the cutest thing.
On the right, you can see some silver slippers that are grey lined. They are from Tchibo and soooo cosy







These books by S. Fitzek are amazing. My friend Bridgette pointed one of them out to me ages ago and I remember I started reading one of them and I just thought it was amazing but I never continued or bought them but I found them again recently but I couldn't remember which one it was I started reading so I bought both of them. "Der Augenjäger" and "Der Augensammler" are both German thrillers.

I know this doesn't quite fit to thrillers but I've bought two of my favourite Christmas films "Polar Express" and "The Grinch".











I think I buy candles all the time but these are mostly Christmas themed. The tealights smell like "Caramel Apples" and the candle number 3 is called "Cinnamon Stick". 
Number 7 is "Clean Cotton".

Decoration wise I also kept it Christmassy. I saw this snowglobe with a tree inside (I know it looks leaned but it's actually not) and the tealight holder saying "Merry Christmas" at "Depot" a shop I adore for its decoration.
The candy cane pencil was more of a joke but why not pimp your stationery to a Christmas level.






As the end of 2017 is coming closer and closer it was time to get some new calendars. I always have five hanging/standing around my flat. I love Sherlock and when I saw the calendar I had to get it. Every month you get a quote from the series. Now the pug calendar is a big bold but it also is just the cutest thing you will ever see.
I love to have a calendar with funny quotes that you can actually reuse for postcards. And the silver one is a DIY one. Every year my mum and I (now just me on my own) made calendars for your family and as I continue doing this I always make one for myself too.










Apart from the things I showed you in this post I've bought some fruit tea, an umbrella, a collage and some flowers.

But that's not all I've been booking flights, hotels, train tickets and tickets to events like a mad person for our upcoming family holidays in London and Italy.

But the thing I'm most excited for is seeing Hamilton in London! (Soz Bridgette😉)
If you don't know what Hamilton is it's a musical with such an amazing soundtrack and a great storyline. It was so hard to get tickets to it I actualy can't believe I got some but I do and there is nothing better.

Have you got any holidays planned for next year?
What are you most excited for?

Love, Steff xx

My Favourite Playlist

Hello everybody,

today I thought why don't you share the playlist you love the most rn and that is exactly what I'm gonna do.

So I created this playlist about a month ago but I've been listening to those songs way longer.
I also don't have a name for it yet but I was thinking maybe something like "Autumn 2017".

The songs of this playlist are a mix of film soundtracks, musicals, and tv show soundtracks.
It contains the films/tv show La La Land, Magic Mike XXL, and Glee as well as the musical Hamilton.

1. Hungry Like the Wolf / Rio (Glee Cast)
2. Somebody That I Used to Know (Glee Cast)
3. What Comes Next (Jonathan Groff)
4. I Know Him (Jonathan Groff)
5. You'll Be Back (Jonathan Groff & Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton)
6. Mia & Sebastian's Theme (Justing Hurwitz)
7. Another Day of Sun (La La Land Cast)
8. Dear Theodosia (Leslie Odom Jr. & Lin-Manuel Miranda)
9. It's Quiet Uptown (Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton)
10. That Would Be Enough (Phillipa Soo & Lin-Manuel Miranda)
11. Your Obedient Servant (Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton)
12. Wait for it (Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton)
13. Satisfied (Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton)
14. The Room Where It Happens (Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton)
15. Alexander Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton)
16. My Shot (Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton)
17. Untitled (How Does It Feel) (Matt Bomer)
18. Heaven (Matt Bomer)
19. The Story of Tonight (Orginal Broadway Cast of Hamilton)
20. The Schuyler Sisters (Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton)

I love these songs so much I have been listening to them every day which rarely happens and still, I love them.

They really helped me get through this past month. Just singing them out loud makes me so happy and cheers me.

What songs are on your favourite playlist right now?
Do you know any of these songs? What do you think of them?

Love, Steff xx

Why I haven't posted in a while

Hello everybody,

I'm sorry I haven't been here for so long but school just took over my entire life.

I had and still have so much stuff to do like homework and studying...but also helping to organise our Abiball and more.

I know this isn't an excuse because all of us have to go through this...it is just that I haven't been feeling that great mentally either for the past month. 
My anxiety really pulled me down and I can't say that I'm feeling better already.
Speaking of this, things happened around me that also pulled me down too...let's just say it was a rough month with many inner fights and stuff on my shoulders to carry.


I want everything to get back to normal and me having more time and I do have posts planned ahead.

Let's hope this phase ends here and I will be back to my regular schedule next week.

Thanks.

Love, Steff xx

Hans Zimmer Live

Hello everybody,

as you may have seen on my Twitter I watched Hans Zimmer Live in Cinema yesterday.
They broadcasted his concert from Prague. 
It was incredible. I was speechless seeing this genie performing. My mouth was open 90% of the time, I held my breath without noticing and my eyes were caught on the screen. Feeling what I felt gave me about an idea on what the feeling must be like actually sitting there and not just watch on a screen. 

For those of you who don't know who Hans Zimmer is, well first how could you and second he is one of the best film score composers of our time. And the best german one.

He's done the music for so many films it's unbelievable. For example The Davinci Code, Gladiator, The Lion King, Interstellar, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, The Dark Knight and so much more.

He is an absolute genius. I have no idea how he does that and I do have a lot of respect for that.

If you ever get the chance to see him perform go and watch it may sound a bit boring but it was honestly one of the best things I have ever seen in my life.

What is your favourite song of him? Have you seen him perform live before?

Love, Steff xx

One Year driving licence anniversary

Hello everybody,

exactly one year ago I passed my driving test so it's obvious to celebrate that.
During that time I deffo went thru all weather conditions possible here. There was sunshine, fog, rain, icy roads...
The funny thing was when I had driving lessons I used to be so nervous whilst driving but now I'm a lot calmer and I really enjoy driving.
Although in November last year there was a little incident that is quite awkward. We have this sign on one side of your driveway and whilst I was about to drive out onto the street I smashed one of the side windows and scratched another one. It wasn't that dramatic but we still needed a new window. Luckily I wasn't the first one to hit it (my grandfather did it a few months before me). But since then nothing has happened.

I really do love driving and I love being in the car. Since I was 4 years old we always went on holidays by car even as far away as for example Spain, Croatia, Bulgaria, Italy... We probably drove more than half a million kilometres so I was quite used to it and I couldn't wait to be able to drive on my own. Fun fact motorway driving is one of my fav things to do even tho a lot of people hate it but I find it quite relaxing. The thing I hate the most is parking. I just can't-do it. The only places I can park perfectly is our driveway the parking area at my mum's hotel and I can do parallel parking but anything else I'm shit at. I'm such a cliche...blonde, a woman that can't park.

I can't imagine not to learn how to drive or doing it later than. Probably because I live in a village with pretty much no bus connection.
When I was really young my parents used to sat me on their lap in the car so I could "drive". It was only in our driveway for parking and they did all the work but I remember it so vividly and I loved it so bloody much it's obvious that I cannot not love driving.

That's only one of many pictures.

As I only got eighteen the other week and now can drive completely on my own just about sank in my head. I was so used to have someone sitting next to me that it felt a bit wrong not to. So to make it something special I went to McDonald's to grab some dinner. I was really nervous like I was back in driving school but everything went fine and I'm a lot calmer now.


How was your first time driving? Are you learning how to drive right now?
What part of driving do you love the most and which one do you hate the most?

Love, Steff xx

Friendships

Hello, everybody!

Friendships are one of the most important parts of my life. Without my friends, I probably wouldn't do half of the things I do and I'm so thankful that they make me do these things because only this way I can see whether I like them or not.
My friends are encouraging, trustful, inspiring, patient, loving, honest, funny, and caring (and much more things). And I want to be the same to them as they are to me. Speaking of my friends now I couldn't ask for anyone better. My friends are these things and more, they are family for me.

To be completely honest I had friendships before that were toxic of fake or only existed 'cuz we saw each other five days a week in school but I also had good even best friends and those friendships broke apart because someone new came into the group. I still sometimes have trust issues because of that and I also do miss some of these friends even if they were toxic but I know that I'm better off without them.

I remember when I was younger I never believed my mum when she told me that this or that friend is toxic but she was right....every time. So listen to your parents they just want your best. ANd they spot toxic/bad/fake friends before you do.

If I'm speaking on my behalf right know I don't have any of these bad friends (touch wood) but I know there still will come some more I just need to get rid of them at the right time.

I love this quote:

We have three types of friends in life: Friends for a reason, friends for a season and friends for a lifetime.

And I don't think there is any better way to say it.

Love, Steff xx

Dinner at "Schwerelos"

Hello everybody,

a few weeks ago I went to a restaurant called "Schwerelos". It's a roller-coaster restaurant, as far as I know, there are only two in Germany. One is in Hamburg and the other one in Dresden.

So how does it work, you may ask?
That's easy to tell you! You basically go there, get seated, your menu is a tablet. There you choose drinks, food, how many of them, any extras like dips, veggies or other sides and what course you want it to be so main or starter or dessert and that's it. 
You have plates, cutlery, glasses, napkins, bottle openers and ketchup and mustard at your table and the rest arrives via roller coaster (except for your bill and hot beverages). Some tracks also have loopings.
Your drinks and food get put into "Schlitten" (=sleighs) in the kitchen the people there put it on a flat conveyor which leads to a sorting station. It's quite high up so nothing gets stuck in between there and your table. At the sorting station people take those "Schlitten" with your food and drinks and push them down the right track.....and there you go.
Apropos your drink is still in the bottle and your food comes in pots.

You can also visit the kitchen and watch the chefs make your food.

I think it is such a good type of restaurant and I think we need more of these.

So if you ever visit Dresden or Hamburg you should definitely go there.
I have been there a few times already but this was the last time I have.

Now here are some pictures! (sorry these are only the ones I took this time I couldn't find the others)

Love, Steff xx

My 18th Birthday

Hello everybody,

my birthday was on Saturday and it was the best birthday I've ever had.
As you've seen from the title I became 18 so I'm pretty much an adult now.

First thing in the morning I wasn't allowed to get up because not everyone was ready at that time so I stayed in bed and opened my first present of the day from one of my best but also oldest friends. I can't describe you how I felt...all I can say is I cried (of happiness of course).
She wrote me a lovely letter and send a book with pictures of us over the years.
Then I was allowed to come downstairs to have breakfast. We had some Champagne with it as it was my special wish for the day. Later I got some presents from my family and beautiful flowers.
Afterwards, i got ready for my party. I wore a cute kinda beige dress with zip up sleeves from Apricot, plain black leggings and my black heels with rose gold zippers from Magic. I curled my hair and put it in a half up do. I invited my friends Six, Tate, Bridgette and Lou.They were quite surprised as I didn't tell them it wouldn't be just the 5 of us.

We had some coffee and cake first and sparkling wine too. We had a "Benjamin Blümchentorte" (it was my fav in my childhood and I hadn't had it in such a long time), a "Maulwurfkuchen" (basically choco cake with banana), 2 "Mohnschecken" (the best cake my mum can make it was a poppy-seed cake mixed with Eierschecke) and a Chocolate cake (recipe by BuzzFeed it's the Tres Leches Chocolate cake).

The day went on and then I unpacked all my presents. I'm so super grateful to have such lovely friends and family.

But the best part (of the official stuff for everyone) was dinner. We had a caterer who made such amazing food... I was in heaven. It was kinda Asian food so Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Indian. I loved the sweet potato mash with pumpkins and the dessert was foodgasm!!! Chocolate mousse with cherries and mango caviar.

After everyone left...except for my family.... my friends and I went upstairs to play some truth or dare (extreme....so it got quite sexual) it was hilarious and sooo much fun. Unfortunately, Lou had to leave early but Six, Tate and Bridgette stayed for a sleepover. 

So some of my birthday presents were:
Orchids, Pandora Charms, many books, DVDs, a trenchcoat, a hairdryer, a gift card for the escape room near me and many more things.

It really was the best day this year, I had such a great time with my friends and family and got so many lovely presents. I can't imagine it any better!

Which birthday of yours was the best one, yet? 
What was the best present you received?

Love, Steff xx

(Disclaimer: all the names used aren't their real ones)

PS: here are some pictures of that day

Living with someone who's disabled

Hello everybody,

I don't know yet where I'm going to go with this post but I feel like this is something that I just need to say. These particular thoughts keep crossing my mind for so long now and I want to get them out...not just spoken but written as this feels it has more of a meaning.

Just to have said this, I'm not seeking any attention with this post these are just my thoughts about my situation and I do want to write about them as this is why I have started this blog in the first place. Maybe you can relate to some of these things maybe not, either way, it's okay.

My grandmother is severely disabled since I was 2 years old that means I don't remember her not being disabled. She had a brain bleeding in 2001 which led to her left side being paralyzed. She was able to do most of everyday tasks such as cleaning and tidying her flat, getting dressed, cooking for herself, going outside, walking around in general. And I was used to her this way because it has never been any different. But in 2014 she had a stroke but she didn't get a treatment right away. The doctors in our local hospital send her home again. The next day she went to the hospital again, the doctors still were convinced she had nothing as it's not that rare that someone who had a brain bleeding can't do much anymore but with everything it differs from case to case but anyway long story short it took them 2 days to finally realise what was going on. Now fast-forward to today she had multiple rehabs but most of them made it worse, she also had multiple other strokes that stayed undiagnosed for quite some time.
Now my grandmother can't walk anymore, she can barely eat by herself and talk.

Most people would take them to a special-care home (nothing wrong with that I don't judge anyone for doing that) but my grandfather and me but mostly he cares for her at home. And seeing this every day of the week for years does shape you and I really do admire my grandfather for doing everything that he does for my grandmother because most people won't do that and I think this just shows how true and much he loves her that he sticks through all of this with her. 
Believe me when I say this but it is hard and you'll be devasted if things get worse or might not work at first it really is and it will break you at the end not just physically but also mentally. It's so much that you carry with you but not everyone sees it.

It's not like I see my grandparents like once a month or so...  I do see them 24/7, I live with them and you cannot, not see how they have changed over the years.
Everbody does change during their time but not that dramatically especially if they are older. I remember my grandfather always having a smile on his face, being energized doing so many things...now he doesn't smile that often anymore, he does not have the energy to do many other things than caring for my grandmother.

An old teacher of mine, who knows about my situation recently said to me that I had to grow up earlier than most people do. I never thought about this that way but she is right I have more responsibilities than other people in my age have and as I thought about that I've realised that when I hear some of the people in school talking, who are the same age as me, the way they talk about things and how 'hard' it is for them to cope with school work I can't always understand them. Another thing they worry about is how to get to every party they want to go to. When they come back on Monday morning all they talk about is how wasted they have gotten and about their hangovers. 
I mean yeah it is cool to have fun and stuff but getting wasted every weekend whilst still being under age is not really the ideal life, is it?
Anyway, I'm flying off the tangent.
 I do love them a lot and I care for them so this is especially hard but I wouldn't change my situation...okay I do wish that some days would be better than they actually are but who doesn't?

I hope this post may be an eye-opener for some of you. Although it is really miss-matched. 
Do you have any family members or close friends who are disabled?

Love, Steff xx

First School Week

Hello everybody,

it still hasn't settled in that this is my last and most important year at school!

Even tho the first week has passed and we've got told most of the important exams it is so surreal.
Last year it took me the first week to realise it but not so this time. 
It may settle in when I've got my first test maybe even my first "Klausur" or it may take until my big exams. I don't know yet, the only thing I do know is that I'm not ready to leave school after this year.
Sure everyone says how much they hate school and believe me I'm that sort of person too but the next time I start summer holidays I won't see the majority of the people anymore and I won't come back which is weird I'm not gonna lie.
And I do tend to believe those people now who always said to me that school was great and they wish they were still there because nobody wants to be an adult as soon as they realise how exhausting it is.

Like most of your future is unsure. You don't know where you're going to be this time next year...so much out of our control can happen.
That's it, why people are so scared of the future nothing is predictable...at least most things aren't.

What school year/grade are you in? Do you have a plan of what your life is going to look like after school?

Love, Steff xx

Travel: Hamburg and Soltau

Hello everybody,

I can't believe school started today!!! Where has time gone?! Those six weeks were way too short.

As school started today this is going to be my last travelling post in a while now as well as the last one I write whilst having no school.

For my last two weeks, I went to Hamburg and Soltau for about a week with some friends. My last week of summer I spent at home, went shopping and went to some birthday parties.

We left on Wednesday morning really early and took the train to Hamburg so we arrived at around lunch time. We first had some coffee and afterwards went to our hostel to check in and leave our suitcases there. We stayed at the A&O Hostel Hamburg City. It is cheap but still secure and clean. We then just went into the city centre. We visited the atrium of the city hall and went up St. Nikolai and visited the museum right underneath it. Later we chilled at the Binnenalster and then went back to our hostel. In the evening we had a Chinese takeaway as we went to Planten un Blomen (it's one of Hamburg's parks). We had some fun at the playground and later watched one of the "Wasserlichtkonzerte" which happen every evening and have different topics as well as they are for free (they play music as the shoot out water at the big lake and colour it with spotlights...I'm really bad at describing things...soz).

The next day we did a sightseeing tour with one of those busses and went through the Old Elbe Tunnel. Afterwards, we went on a quick little shopping spree at Mönckebergstraße. In the evening we just chilled at our room.

On Friday we took the ferry to get to the Docklands. This is a part of the harbour where all the container ships go. You have a really beautiful view over the harbour. Afterwards, we went back to Planten un Blomen. It was a beautiful day but it suddenly started chucking it down luckily we were near the palm house. There were three different climate types with different plants. I'm not really someone who has a lot of plants or who can keep them alive very well but they had so many beautiful ones there I wanted to take them with me. There was a cactus (i don't remember the name of it) that looked like it had green roses on top of it.
As it was our last day we wanted to get to see as much of Hamburg as possible. We went to one of the richer parts called "Blankenese" and had some nice lunch at an Italian place. As the sun came out again we decided to go to the so called "Treppenviertel" this an area where you can only take stairs to your house. You can't go there by car or bus or even bicycle, the only way to get to your house is taking the stairs. We then went to the beach but we had to leave soon because it started raining again. We took the bus back to the harbour and went to the "Miniatur Wunderland". Honestly, I haven't thought it would be this amazing but it actually was one of the coolest things I have done!!! They also simulated day and night and had planes flying around as well as trains driving everywhere. It was so worth it and I recommend it to everyone who's visiting Hamburg.

The next day we left to go to Soltau. We arrived there in the early afternoon and went to our holiday home. The woman who owns it was super nice and very lovely. After settling in a bit we had a food shop which kinda turned out just buying frozen pizza and other frozen stuff. Although we also bought some fruits. During the late afternoon, we decided to go to the thermal bath which had a salt cave. We spent a fun afternoon/early evening there, then headed home and made us some pizza. The only annoying thing was that no matter how often I showered I smelled of salt and chlorine for four days. Whilst dinner we watched Maggie the most unscary horror movie I've ever seen.

On Sunday we went to the "Heide Park". Probably not the best idea to go there on a Sunday as public transportation isn't really a thing on Sundays there but we still made it. As I'm not a crazy ride freak I didn't go on that many but it still was a fun day and I still managed to do one of the craziest things in my life. The "ADAC" (automobile club in Germany) was there and they had a simulator there that showed you how a rollover in a car feels like. I was sooo shocked afterwards it took me fifteen minutes to realise what has happened. It was unbelievably crazy and amazing. In the evening we watched one of the cutest films called Chappie.

The next day we checked out but as our train home only left at 5 pm we were able to leave our suitcases there and went to the town centre. We had some lunch, walked around and bought some things. Our holiday home lady was so nice she even took us back to the train station. 

I really enjoyed myself and spent some quality with my friends. I wish we could've stayed there longer.

Now here are some pictures! 😛

Love, Steff xx