This gallery contains 16 photos.
Patarei is an old sea fortress and prison in Tallinn in Estonia. It was built in the 19th century and is a memorial for the victims of the Communist and Nazi rule. I visited this gloomy place in October 2016 … Continue reading
I totally fell in love with Tallinn – a stylish and modern and at the same time historical city. If you have a few days time you can see many very diverse parts of the city. I visited Tallinn in the beginning of October 2016, the weather was erratic but still fine and the city was not too crowded. Let’s start our little photographic tour with the touristy must of the medieval city centre and Toompea Hill with its representative government buildings and churches.
The view from Toompea Hill towards the sea and the harbor.
An idyllic place in the mountains, a lake nested in a green valley between rich vineyards: the Kalterer See in South Tirol. Overlooking the lake is an old castle ruin. A place to dream, to relax and enjoy food, wine and nature.
Many months passed – and many journeys, small and big. Now I finally found the motivation again to sit down, go through all my photos, edit and share them with you. I have to catch up on everything because I travelled a lot since my last blog post. So let’s start our little journey through time and go back one year, to March 2016. I travelled to beautiful Andalusia in Southern Spain and explored the Costa de la Luz.
The bullfight arena in Málaga.
I am determined to do or see these things before I die – or do something that comes as close as possible to what may be unrealistic. 😉
(Side note: I decided very early that I wanted to see the whole world once. So I don’t include countries that I want to visit in general, but only specific locations and activities to shorten the list a little.)
“‘A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies’, said Jojen. ‘The man who never reads lives only one. The singers of the forest had no books. No ink, no parchment, no written language. Instead they had the trees, and the weirwoods above all. When they died, they went into the wood, into leaf and limb and root, and the trees remembered.'” (George R. R. Martin, A Dance With Dragons)
I have a confession to make: I have been a bad blogger. I didn’t write anything for a long time, but one of my good intentions for 2016 is to change that. By the way: Happy New Year 2016! 🙂 Looking back on 2015 I think it was a quite a successful year. I got a job (yay) and started working 40 hours a week (not so yay) – which is basically why I didn’t have time to travel and blog anymore.
I start into the new blogging year with a post that reflects a littly my mood at the moment. I do love Bremen, but right now I feel a littly grinchy about it. And winter in general. Snow may be nice when it is fresh and pure and glistening in the sun. But not after christmas and not in cities…
“I love Bremen” – Part Three: …although it shows the ugly face of winter
This is what happens when they finally get to clear the streets.
Someone rescued the little girl’s cap.
They did this to the tallest christmas tree of Bremen. Murder.
But here’s a wonderful thing about Bremen in winter: The homeless people can use public transportation (trams, busses) for free to warm up.
This is typical German. Everyone has to make sure that the sidewalk in front of his house is clear of snow so that nobody falls. But real Germans take this seriously: They stop right where their property ends.
Don’t you catch a cold… 🙂
Inside one tent of the refugee camp at the University of Bremen.
Now this is something else than what I originally intended with my little “series” about Bremen. But I never had such a good reason to love this city before because it is literally overflowing with helpfulness for the refugees who come here.
“I love Bremen” – Part Two: How Bremen welcomes refugees
Since a few weeks – I think it may be about one month – there is hardly any other topic on the news than the arrival of refugees in Germany. Suddenly they were not in Greece or Italy anymore – they were here, on our doorsteps. They are also in my hometown Bremen.
Breaking News: I finally found the time and courage to start a second blog!! 🙂 A while ago I noticed that some of my more controversial and serious posts don’t really fit into “Wonderland”. Sometimes I like to write down my opinion about politics, media and society, and this blog works best as a photography and travel blog. From now on I will (roughly) split the two topics. So let me introduce you to my new “opinion blog”:
It is written in German because I feel more comfortable to talk about difficult topics in my mother language. I am very sorry to exclude my readers who only speak English, but the decision had to be made. They had to be two entirely different blogs.
Don’t worry, “Wonderland” will stay the same: Photos and travel stories, insights about the life in Bremen and German customs. If an opinion piece fits into this profile, you might find it on both blogs.
I hope you stay with me – and see all the German-speakers at “Schweigen im Walde”! 🙂
Cheers,
Alice
1) The English call everything “pudding” – and it just doesn’t make sense. So the word “pudding” in general means “dessert”, correct? When I was in school the teacher told us about Christmas pudding or plum pudding, which – albeit being a weird dish – still fit into my world view because it was something sweet. But now I went to England again and everything I believed to know about puddings was turned upside down! There is for example also black pudding (not sweet at all, soaked with blood, uuurrrh) or Yorkshire pudding, which is again something entirely different and reminds me a little of a Hungarian Lángos. Even the English people I asked couldn’t explain this mess. Sigh.
2) Driving on the wrong side of the road (the left side) is actually ok. As long as you don’t stop, turn or do other things – we got into the approaching traffic THREE TIMES – but hey, we are still alive!
3) Bristol is a special city. It actually has its own currency, the “Bristol pound”. It just looks like play money, but this is no joke: You can exchange one normal pound for a Bristol pound at some points in the city (like the tourist centre). You can also pay with it – but only in Bristol. And it expires. Erm, yes. 🙂 Bristol is also apparently very proud of “Shaun the Sheep” – the animation studios that produce the serial is seated there, and at the moment they have Shauns in different colors standing everywhere for charity… Kinda cool.
Read more about my trip to London, or have a look at the photos I took in Dartmoor and Wales.
Wonderland 