Day tripping || Potsdam

This awesome toilet was decorated with pages from manga comics. 

I stayed in there for an age...

way too long.

Heading into my favourite area of Potsdam, 

the Dutch quarter.

Dammit Marie, they're MINERALS!

When we get visitors we tend to go out and explore a lot more than usual. 

This year we ended up travelling just outside Berlin,

to a little place called Potsdam. 

It's seeped in history, to quote my dad,

"it got the shit bombed out of it during the war".

Eloquent as always. 

Which war he is talking about, i'm not sure.

It took about 50 minutes to get there on a train.

We had lovely weather and every intention to get the water taxi around the city,

BUT,

someone was too cold and needed to buy a jumper,

so we missed to first taxi, 

then spent the rest of the day chasing another one.

[my feet!]

My favourite area was the old Amsterdam quarter.

The houses were beautiful,

i've still not been to Amsterdam, but i want to go even more now!

I would have loved to sit outside a cafe and had a cherry beer,

watch the afternoon slowly go by.

There is even a Brandenburg gate here, 

which was bizarre!

One of the main places it is recommended to visit here is 

Sansoucci Park.

It was beautiful,

but that's another story for another day!

Sunday Summary

1.  Camera photo-shoot  2. Real english sausages!  3. The biggest face wipe i've ever used

4. Goat  5. Homemade iced coffee  6. Fancy tomato  7. Days in the park

8. Pizzaah  9. Twisted  10. Dog beast  11. Eating out  12. Froyo with heidelbeeren 

Well after a pretty on/off week weather-wise

the sun finally decided to show it's big round face!

So much so that i got me a bit of sun burn.

Ooops.

I'm getting the sunburn chills now.

Despite feeling rotton i've had a really nice weekend!

We visited Mauerpark both days,

had some frozen yogurt and bought some vinyl.

[Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, and Iron Maiden...

if you're interested]

We indulged ourselves with vegan burgers 

and an impromptu trip to Gaudy Café for lunch midweek. 

 Finally broke into the english sausage supply for a tasty fat breakfast.

[Germany only has bratwurst, or bockwurst.]

[and no bacon.]

[not cool Deutschland, not cool.]

Gobbled up fancy flowery tomatoes and made us some pizza.

I had a camera photo shoot so i can share my collection.

Yep. I'm the girl who takes pictures of pictures, 

and cameras.

I am that cool people.

The boyfriend had fun making himself a million iced coffees.

His secret, coffee ice cubes.

Shh, don't say i told. 

While he was doing this i was marvelling at the size of the new face wipes i bought.

They are HUGE!

They cover my whole face.

Amazing.

I'm trying to not use wipes all the time, 

chemicals etc,

but sometimes you just need to wipe, am i right?

>.<

I also found a new way to wear my hair.

So much fun.

I love it.

I didn't think it would hold to be honest, 

was pretty dubious.

The trick is though, twist the hair pieces first,

then twist them around each other.

Marvellous.

Oh excellent news for you hockey fans....

My bruins got through to the final woo!

Because it's the playoffs most of the guys grow beards.

Seriously, hockey players with beards.

Seriously.

And finally,

last episode of Game of Thrones tomorrow.

*sadface*

After last weeks explosive episode, 

i'm excited about how they're going to end it.

My guess is the final scene will be something to do with fire.

Series 1 ended with Dani [fire],

Series 2 ended with the white walkers [ice].

So i'm thinking fire, maybe something to do with the red god?

Bit supernatural/magic like the last two finales...

We'll see, 

very much looking forward to it.

Hope everyone has had a good week!

I'm going to see Bad Religion on thursday

so my week is already looking amazing!

Monday's Sunday Summary

A bit late i know, but i didn't get a chance to get on the laptop last night!

1.  New phone & bag  2.  Back in Berlin!  3.  Excess luggage

4.  Picnic in the park  5.  Mauerpark  6.  Vegetarian bibimbap  7.  Dogs yay!

So i have been back in Berlin for a whole week.

The day after i got home i got ill.

Ugh. Snotty cold.

Which means this week was pretty much a bust.

I couldn't move around too much because i felt my head was going to explode!

The day before going home i got a new phone, yay.

It took my dad and me 13 minutes to park up, get to the o2 shop, and sign a new contract.

That is what i call skill.

Only when i got home did i realise my new phone is a touch and type phone.

GAH!

Now i'm on edge waiting for it to break.

[i don't trust technology...]

Whilst home i also got a new bag.

Man i love bags!

This beauty is from good old Dotty P's and was £7.

It's much sturdier and roomier than your average tote, and the fabric is so nice.

My flight went ok coming home.

We landed at sunset and it was deliciously warm.

The only thing was our usual train, the S9, wasn't running.

It's our favourite train, it takes us right to Schönhauser allee, no changes.

This trip however we had to travel 6 stops, catch a bus 3 stops, then jump on the ring 4 stops before finally getting home to a broken boiler and dying plants!

But hey, we were home and it was warm and dry.

A few days later my excess luggage parcel arrived.

I always buy things that i can't fit into my bag.

So i pack a box and send it to myself to arrive after i get home.

Hey, it's cheaper and less hassle than paying extra at the airport for more bags!

This box was stuffed with new clothes [asda sale, thank you], beauty products, and my Things & Ink bundle.

So happy.

If you guys like tattoos, strong women, and excellent articles, go check it out!

I'll be doing a blog post on the magazines soon so keep you eyes peeled.

As a result of being ill this week all i could be bothered to do was read.

After much consideration i settled on Catching Fire.

Halfway through, forgot almost everything that happened!

Anyway, talking about it is making me itch to read it, so i'm gonna go, speak soon.

Don't forget you can follow me on twitter!

@1kleinemaus

I might be weird, but if you like my blog, you might like my tweets :D

Neon shelves D.I.Y

After 3 years of on and off living in Berlin, 12 months ago we finally took the plunge and rented our own place.

We're into the industrial, urban, design type look when it comes to interiors i guess.

That's what my sister said anyway, lol, we just find things and like them.

One of the things we found and liked was a set of shelves for the kitchen.

They had neon green wall attachments, and simple wooden shelves.

Checked the price tag....€180.

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY EUROS.

Now, we're not skinflints or anything, but paying that much for 3 shelves that will hold ketchup, no.

Too much.

So we decided to make our own.

After a small trip to our local d.i.y shop and spray paint shop,

[yes, it exists, we are in Berlin, home of graffiti],

 we were ready.

We bought this standard office shelving unit, which i swear, is exactly what the expensive shelves were made out of.

It cost us around €12.

Then we chose a neon orange can of spray paint for €4.

Lovely boyfriend spraypainted the unit and we left it to dry overnight.

Next day we fixed it to the wall, attached our ikea shelves.

Et Voila!

It looks even better than the expensive designer one!

This is our shelf the week we moved in, we now have a separate 'hot sauce shelf',

a condiment crate, and these shelves are full of pasta jars and flour.

It may have taken a day or two for things to dry etc, but this was well worth it.

It looks so different as well, people really love it.

Enjoy your weekend guys, i'm full of a cold so plan on watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Yep.

I am awesome.

My hair. A journey in pictures.

While i was home last week we looked through a lot, A LOT, of old photos.

One thing that struck me was that i can never just stick with a hair style.

If i have it long, i want to cut it.

If it's short, i want to grow it.

If it's pink, i want green.

There are just so many options!

Luckily i have been pretty blessed in that my hair has only once given up on me. 

An unfortunate bleaching was the catalyst for the ultimate pixie cut.

More stories below :)

Ah. Starting my hair history as any good German girl would. 

With hair that inspired the 'boy in a dress' nickname from my class in kindergarten. 

Followed by a mullet. I think my face says it all.

Thanks parents.

I'll repay the favour when you're old and can't stop me >.<

Now we have a big jump to late teens/early 20's.

All my primary school and high school era photos are back in England.

Oh no. How awful. Now you'll never see them. Darn it.

So as i got older, and got a boyfriend, i was introduced to a lot of music i'd never heard before.

When you spend the first 8 years of your life in Germany, and your parents aren't big music listeners anyway, this is not something i'm really ashamed of.

I got into punk pretty heavily. 

Rancid. Bad Religion. The Distillers. The Clash.

To name but a few early favourites.

My boyfriend was in a band also, which opened my eyes to a whole new lifestyle.

After first experimenting with pink streaks, and bleached hair, i branched out and cut me a mohawk.

I just did it one day. It was awesome.

The only annoying thing was styling it up. It always flopped.

So i tied it back, then when it got long i had dreads put in.

After punk i developed a rockabilly style. 

Bright red, longer hair with quiffs and cutesy hair clips.

Occasionally i'd chop it all off after deciding to grow it, get bored, then bleach and colour it. 

I'm an introvert, but i love nothing more than people noticing my hair. 

Weird. 

This followed the rockabilly, i'd curl it like Marilyn or any other pin up.

I never tried the victory rolls, just went for a curly sue kinda look.

I love my make up on here, i just can't recreate it.

It looks so easy aswel! I think it's the eyeliner i keep messing up...

So one day a couple of years ago i went home to go to Rebellion in Blackpool.

It's a punk festival, some of my favourite bands were playing, why not.

While there i was struck by how many of the girls had white blonde hair. 

It made me remember mine and i got a bit nostalgic, decided i wanted to go white again.

Bleached it. 

No problem. Gave it a week or so, bleached it again.

Now...i've done this before and never had any problems. Maybe my diet had messed me up?

Either way, i screwed up.

When i woke up the next day, the ends of my hair were still wet.

Whaaaat? 

I went to the hairdresser, she basically said all the minerals had been stripped and my hair was clinging onto any moisture it could. 

I had a trim, went back to Berlin, and looked after my hair.

It grew, and, inevitably, i got bored, decided to get a shorter style cut in.

Nothing drastic, just a style that would replenish my hair, didn't need much fuss etc.....

This is how long it got, the longest it's been for years. 

Then this happened. 

I'll just let it sink in.

...

I said i'd like a short rockabilly style fringe, just a few inches off etc etc. 

She seemingly interpreted that as 'please give me a barely there fringe, and leave only a couple of inches all over, thanks'.

Can you tell i'd been crying in the photo above?! 

Then i realised i was being silly and acting like the girl who says she's ok with getting her hair cut on ANTM, then cries the whole time she is getting a tiny trim or fringe cut in. 

It eventually grew out.

It actually really helped my hair, and, after the initial shock, i started to like it.

After this photo i found a guy from south america [i think] who did house calls and who had trained at Vidal Sassoon. 

I told him i needed a style cut in, but that i wanted to grow it. 

He gave me a really subtle long bob, a tiny bit shorter at the back, and i love it. 

 So there you have it.

A tiny snippet of my hair history. 

Hope you enjoyed the embarrassing myspace-esque early photos ha :D