Travelog for: Marawarpina

Hello world,

today was my first day in Edinburgh!!
Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and it is a wonderful city!! Full of history and great architecture, even though everything looks quite gloomy because of the stone buildings  The services here are much better than in Germany, the people are very polite and try to help wherever they can.

Well, I'll start at the beginning.. I had to get up very early because the departure from Cologne-Bonn Airport was at 11:00am. The flight was without any turbulences and I enjoyed the time above the clouds


After our arrival in the centre of Edinburgh we got totally lost. We couldn't find our hotel and came to a dead end. Somehow it was horrible and hilarious at the same time At some point we finally managed to find our hotel and took a little time out from the stressfull morning...
Afterwards we took a walk through the city for the first time, to be exact through "Old Town".
Edinburgh is divided into "Old Town" and "New Town". The Old Town is the oldest part of the city, where e.g. the Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile are located. Everything looks very rough and there are loads of buildings which are very very old.

During the walk through Old Town we passed the Royal Mile. This Mile is a street that stretches from the Holyrood Palace (the official residence of the british monarch - The Queen - in Scotland) to the Edinburgh Castle. This castle is located on the Castle Rock - the remain of a volcanic pipe - and it's very high.
This is the castle:


The weather here ist just beautiful!! It's relatively warm and the sun is shining 

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of our tour through Old Town today, but I will take more pictures in the following days!!

Read you next time!
Marawarpina

Latha math!
Ciamar a tha thu? Tha gu math, tapadh leat!

This is what I learned today. You might wonder what it means. Well, this is scottish gaelic and means something like "Hello, how are you? I am fine, thank you!" In Scotland, the people speak both english and scottish gaelic, but most of them speak english all day.

My day started at "Calton Hill". It's a very high hill in New Town from where you have a view over the whole city. It was a bit cloudy and utterly windy up there!!
There are several iconic monuments and buildings like the City Observatory, the National Monument and many more.
This is the view over New Town:


This is almost on the top of the hill, on the left you can see the Observatory:


This is the National Monument, it is a memorial to the scottish soldiers and sailors who died fighting in the Napoleonic Wars.
Front and back:



This is the view over "Old Town". On the left you can see the Dugald Stewart Monument, a memorial to a scottish philosopher called Dugald Stewart. It's a superb view, isn't it?


After spending some time on the hill, the other TV's and me continued to explore Old Town. It's very exhausting to walk through the town because there are loads of ups and downs. Most of the streets ascend steeply!!
Here are some streets:



This is the amazing Holyrood Palace, the residence of the Queen. I told you about it yesterday. It is at the beginning of the Royal Mile and you can walk to the castle straight on from there - uphill of course.


So here I am in front of the Edinburgh Playhouse, which is near the hotel. It is a former cinema but now it hosts concerts and touring musicals. The musical which is shown this week is called "Spamalot". You know it, Mum Unfortunately I didn't meet Adam there  


I did a "Double Dead Tour" tonight!! It was a tour through the vaults of Old Town (many people lived from 1788 until about 1822 in the underground without any light or water) and the Greyfriars Kirkyard. It is a very old graveyard which is known to be haunted by a Poltergeist called "Mackenzie Poltergeist". It was spooky and the guide told us many things about paranormal activities in the vaults and about the Poltergeist. We actually got into the Covenanter's Prison and the "Black Mausoleum" where most of the attacks of the Poltergeist take place.
Both the vaults and the mausoleum aren't publicly accessible, not everyone can visit these places so it's quite cool

I visited many awesome places today but I couldn't take pictures at every place, it would have been too much... sorry! 
Tomorrow will be a tough day, we'll take a tour through Scotland by bus which takes 12 hours!!  We will drive through the Highlands and we will stop at Loch Ness. I'm so excited!!

Beannachd leat! ("Bye-bye!")
Marawarpina

Hey there

Well, I already told you about the plan to take a trip by bus through Scotland, so the day started really early and the trip actually took 12 hours!! We drove through the Highlands and stopped at Loch Ness

This is in Kilmahog:
Here you can see a Highland cattle in the small town "Kilmahog". It's located somewhere between Edinburgh and Glencoe.
In the background you can see our bus, it's the white one.


Some mountains near the town:


Spean Bridge:
This town takes its name from the Highbridge over the river "Spean". It lays in the Great Glen and it's a quite nice town with nice people and a beautiful landscape!!


Loch Ness:
Yay, Loch Ness is a great place, even though I didnt see Nessie, the monster!! "Loch" is the scottish word for "sea". I didn't know that before.
Well, I spent nearly 2 hours at this huge sea. You can't imagine how big it is... The Loch Ness has the biggest volume of water in the whole country!! On the deepest point, the sea has a depth of about 230m  Besides it has a length of 37km, so it's quite long.
On the riverside is the "Urquhart Castle" but there's just a ruin left. It was built in 1230, so it's one of the oldest ruins in Scotland.
I really love this place and I wish I could have spent more time there...
Here are some pictures of the Loch and the castle:






As you can see on the pictures, the weather was beautiful!! Sunshine and blue sky, quite unusual for Scotland... 
But every nice journey comes to an end, so it was time for the return to Edinburgh..

This was in Perthshire, a small town between Inverness and Perth. We stopped there for a last time to get some food..


Yeah, that's it about my travel through the country. It was very exhausting but it was worth every minute!!

Bye-bye!!
Marawarpina

Hey there,

today was already the last full day here in Edinburgh 
We walked over the "Greyfriars Kirkyard" again, but this time in daylight and not by night I already told you about the kirkyard, do you remember?
Well, I guess you know Harry Potter, am I right? Joanne K. Rowling (author) created some characters of the book in Edinburgh and got inspired by some names of the kirkyard!! She loved that kirkyard and an old man who works there told us that she returns to the kirkyard every month.
Perhaps you know the character Tom Riddle (Lord Voldemort), he is named after Thomas Riddell who died in 1806.
Another character - Minerva McGonagall - found its surname in William McGonagall who was a poet and died in 1902.
This is me in front of his headstone:


This is the headstone of Thomas Riddell (without me.. I hope you don't mind but I really wanna to show it to you):


The kirkyard directly adjoins to a school, the George Heriot's School. It was the model for Hogwarts!! Amazing, isn't it? Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures of it because of the kids etc. The teachers came to us and told us to stop taking pictures.. 
The graves of McGonagall and Riddell are near the school.
Later, we passed "The elephant house". It's the Café where Rowling wrote her books. It's known as the "birthplace of Harry Potter"

Well, we spent the rest of the day with some shopping. Afterwards we needed a little rest in the hotel to get some food. We had Chicken Caesar Wraps and some milk


Afterwards we had a night out in a live music bar called "Whistle Binkies". It was very nice!!

Tomorrow will be our last morning in Scotland and we will arrive in Germany about 2pm. I think I won't take any pictures so this will be my last update of my trip to Scotland.

I hope you had a wonderful week!!
Marawarpina

Hey folks

Today was a wonderful day!! Bright sunshine the whole day 
Kate, a friend, me and the other TV's spent the day in Oberhausen at the promenade. We had a lovely time!!


Oberhausen belongs to the Ruhr Area and is known for the big shopping centre "CentrO", the gasometer with its exhibitions and last but not least the "König-Pilsener Arena", a venue for concerts and other shows.
Oh, and of course the "Metronom Theatre"!! It's a theatre which hosts many musicals. "Dirty Dancing" is shown at the moment, in the past there were musicals like "Wicked", "Dance of the Vampires", "Beauty and the Beast" and "Tabaluga".

Well, Kate told us that this was our last full day with HolgiHH because he will go to Heidelberg tomorrow. I don't know him so well because we just spent a bit more than a week together but it's still kinda sad to say goodbye to him.

Read you next time!!
Marawarpina

Hey guys,

sorry for the brief updates the last days. I'm doing well and I just relaxed at home for a few days before the start of my hosts new semester at university tomorrow.
So, today I helped Kate doing the dishes. It wasn't that much but it's still a boring thing..
These are things we had to wash up:


Washing up a plate:


And finally: drying the plate..


Well, that's all for today. I hope that I'll be able to tell you more exciting stuff in the next few days
Marawarpina xx

Hey folks,

today is Good Friday, the sun is shining and birds are singing. Beautiful day 
The Easter holidays started today and I already decorated some stuff for Eastern.



I think it's time to show you the neighbourhood here in Bochum But first I'll tell you something about the district.
Well, I live here in a district called "Grumme". Back in the 12th century, it was called Grumhem, later on it was called Grommen and now it's called Grumme. The waters here in the district were named "Grume", that's why the area was called Grumhem, it means something like "Home of the Grume".
There's a park which goes through the whole district - disconnected by some streets - called "Grummer Teiche" (Grummer ponds) with the waters. There's a summer party once a year
This is the view from the balcony, you can see a small part of the park with one of the ponds:


Near our house is a tavern / restaurant, called "Gasthaus Goeke". The tavern itself is more than 100 years old but the cottage is much older, first records were made in 1547!! Unbelievable, isn't it?



Here's also an catholic church, it was built from 1890 - 1891. I can't tell you how the parish was named back then, but later on it was called "St. Liborius". In 2002, the parish was combined with another parish called "Heilig Kreuz". Now it's a big parish which is named "Seliger Nikolaus Groß".
The building on the left is the primary school ( I know, you can hardly see it). My host went to this school when she was young


This is the main street which goes through the district.


Just a house:


Yeah, that's it about my current residence. Well, at least about the one here in Bochum, I have another one in Dortmund.. 

Read you next time
Marawarpina

Hello there,

how are you today? I hope you're well!!
Tomorrow is Easter Day, so Kate and me decided to paint some eggs
It was good fun!! The results are great, we have some eggs with faces, some with flowers or animals, one with a stave and a melody and so on But see it for yourself!

This is me, trying to finish a face


Almost all painted eggs:


We even have an egg with "Happy Easter" in many different languages, especially for the international ToyVoyagers out there!!


But these eggs are my favourites, haha


Well, that's it for today. The weather isn't really great (it even snowed a little bit this morning!!) so I didn't leave the house.

Bye-bye
Marawarpina

Happy Easter!!!

Hey guys,

I'm wishing you Happy Easter!
I woke up and was full with anticipation, I really couldn't wait for Easter egg hunt! So, early in the morning - about 8am - I started to search the eggs in the whole flat. It wasn't so easy to find them all, but somehow I managed to find them
I found one in a coffee cup:


And another one in a bowl with knick-knacks:


In this drawer was no egg


Look!! I found a present under the armchair!!


No egg in sight..


Oh, look! I found an Easter basket with some delicious candies in a wardrobe!! I wanted to eat them all just at this moment, haha



Well, after searching some more eggs and presents I had a look at the result of the Easter egg hunt. I have to say, I'm very pleased with my work. 


The family of my host came in the afternoon for some coffee and cake. Yeah, that was my Easter Day I really hope that you had a great day, too!

Bye-bye,
Marawarpina

Hey there

Today was a day with typical April weather. The day started with bright sunshine but it began to rain in the afternoon.
I spent some time in the city today and whilst walking through the streets I passed the town hall of Bochum. It was built from 1926 until 1931. There's a bell on the forecourt of the town hall, back in 1867 it was used to sound the bell for the opening of the Paris International Exposition. It was the biggest bell there.



Afterwards I spent some time at the Starlight Express, on my way home I passed the new amusement arcade which is built next to the parking block of the Starlight Halle.
The building is a former IMAX 3D Cinema, but it closed in 2003. After the closing, the building stood empty until 2011. It's fully renovated now



This is the A40, a motorway which leads through the whole Ruhr Area. It's also called "Ruhrschnellweg". Some people call it "the longest parking place of the Ruhr Area" because there are awfully long traffic jams during the rush hours.
In 2010, the complete motorway was closed for a day and there was a huge party on the whole motorway, from Dortmund all the way down to Duisburg. This is at least a way of 60 kilometers!! A highlight was the "longest table of the world", built with 20000 beer tables which were strung together, it was also 60 kilometers long, just as the length of the motorway.
The festival was called "Still-Leben-Ruhrschnellweg" and newspapers and TV Channels all over the world reported about it.



Yeah, that's it for now
Read you next time!!

Marawarpina x

Hi guys,

Me and some others went to the cinema this eve to watch the movie "Russendisko", a german movie with Matthias Schweighöfer and Friedrich Mücke.
The cinema is named "UCI Kinowelt" and is located in the "Ruhr Park Shopping Center". The movie started very late, about 10.45pm, so we took a little walk through the shopping center before we headed to the cinema hall.
On the following pictures you can see a part of the Ruhr Park. I think it looks stunning with the lights and the trees!!




This is the sign of the entrance of the "via bartolo", a food concourse:


This is the entrance of the cinema:


We were the only ones in the whole cinema hall who watched this film


After watching the movie we went back to the foyer of the cinema and it was spooky!! There was not a single person, not even staff or employees!!!



Well, read you next time, guys!!
Marawarpina x

Hey there,

a new TV arrived in Dortmund today. His name is Bussi Brownbeard and me welcomed him and we are happy that he's such a nice guy.



He had a quite long travel and needed some fun after beeing wrapped in the envelope for such a long time, so we decided to go to the pool and to the sauna. Both belongs to the host's house here in Dortmund
We played some water polo, it was such fun!!






After having some fun in the water I headed to the sauna to relax a little bit.
This is the entrance of the sauna.. can you find me?



Well, this was my day. It was an awesome day, but it I'm really tired now. I hope that Bussi had a great first day here.

Lots of love,
Marawarpina

Hello mum, hello world!!

The sun shone on my skin when I woke up today, it was beautiful!! I wasn't sure if the rest of the day would be filled with sunshine as well because the last days were very rainy, but it turned out to be a sunny day in the end  Well, there were some clouds from time to time, but it wasn't that bad.
The other TV's and me decided to enjoy the day in Bochum, in a park called "Harpener Teiche" (Harpener ponds). It's a huge area with many ponds. My host told me that the mine drainage water of a nearby mine flows into the these ponds.
The Ruhr Area is popular for its former mining and the mines which are out of service fill up with mine drainage water. This water has to be pumped out because otherwise it would mix up with the groundwater and would make it useless. It's complicated to explain, anyway this process has to be conducted to all eternity.

Anyway, here are some impressions of my day in the park:





Looking out at the pond with my friend Bussi


This is a quite romantic place. You can see a creek and a paddock in the background.


This is one of the inflows of the mine drainage water. I think it looks very nice!!


Well, that was my day. I really needed some sun after these rainy days which lag behind.
I hope you had a great beginning of the week!!

Marawarpina

Hello everybody!!!

I visited the university of my host today, it's called "TU Dortmund". The TU exists since 1968 and has 2 campuses. The northern campus is bigger than the southern campus, but the southern one is more familiar.
At the northern campus are the natural sciences, the humane discipline and everything related to music. At the southern campus is the whole constructing stuff, like architecture, spatial planning and civil engineering.
I just visited the southern campus today, because my hosts studies spatial planning there.

Do want to know how it looks like? Well, on the right you can see building of my hosts faculty. The one in the middle is for the faculty of the civil engineering and the building on the left (kinda hard to see) is for the people who study architecture.


Here you can see some tracks of the H-Bahn (Hochbahn or Hängebahn). The H-Bahn is an overhead track which connects the campuses. Hopefully I will be able to show you a carriage of it when I'm there again.


Well, on the way back home I passed a lovely field


That's it for today. Hope you have a nice day!!
Marawarpina x

Hey guys, hey mum!!

I've been in the city center of Bochum today. There was a festival called "Maiabend Fest" (May evening festival). It is an old traditional festival which is several hundreds of years old. The background of this festival is that back then - a few hundred years ago - young people cut down a tree in a district in Bochum called "Harpen" and carried it to the city center. Since this time, this procedure is beeing held every year.
There is a parade every year where the Maischützen (there's no english word for it) walk from Harpen to the city center, drinking lots of alcohol and making music.
In the city center itself is a big festival with many beer stalls, food stands, a medieval market and a stage with live music. It's quite nice

Here you can see some guys who are a part of the parade:


Alright, what do we need on a festival? Right, some police which keeps and eye on everything. Here you can see me and the others on a police car The "STOP" is mirror-inverted due to the fact that the car drivers can read it when they look in their rearview mirror when the police is behind them. The policeman turned it on especially for us TV's!! Nice guy.



I don't have more pictures of this festival, I'm very sorry!! But maybe you've been there as well, Mum?!

Well, today was also the day of the leaving of Tucker and Lexie. Tucker will go to Remscheid and Lexie will go to Australia. They are both very excited to start their first adventures.


Okay, that's it for today. Hope you have a nice weekend!!
Read you next time,
Marawarpina