Urban Daddy {travel apps}

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I would like to introduce y'all to my favorite app when I am in the States- UrbanDaddy.

Whenever you don't know where to go eat or drink you just pop in a couple details and it will give you amazing recommendations for bars or restaurants in your city. The funny thing (and my favorite bit) is that you can add extra information, for example that you are with your friends or your boyfriend or whoever really! The search bar is like you see in the picture, so you can add what you want (drinks, food, burgers, sushi.. and a lot more choices) and answer one more question: And what else..?. That could be 'I am broke', 'somewhere with a view', 'someplace where famous people hang'... and so on, I think you get the drift. 
First of all it's really fun and instead of just wandering around the city searching for a good restaurant, you get really good recommendations instantly.
I have used it various times and every time (!) we found a place that was really. good.

It is a US only app so far, but should you be over there, download it and try it!
It's amaazing and you don't feel like a tourist who doesn't know where to eat out- yay!

A little update. {with an unrelated picture}

 

I cannot believe we are already in the sixth week of this semester and bla bla, it's almost winter. To be honest, I am ready to skip this so called "fall" and go right in to Christmas mode. Just bring it on and get it over with. Anyway, I feel like I haven't done a proper update since America so here we go:

• Starting 7th January 2014 this will all turn a little Texan over here. I cannot wait for a little less winter and all of the other adventures waiting for me!
• I have a new job! You might remember how I worked in a call centre last year during the semester. It is a tough job because people yell at you and thinking that you are selling hoovers to them or something like that (the fact you are not doesn't even matter to them). So I was looking for other jobs but it's really hard to find a job here when you haven't got experience in retail or waitressing... And then all of a sudden this job at a dentist fell in to my lap. I was supposed to do secretary work but when they saw my CV, I was suddenly promoted to their sort of PR and Marketing advisor. Haha, can you believe it?
• Julia and I are doing a video for a hotel here in Edinburgh and they give us free nights and whatnot as a 'reward'. I am super excited when it's finally finished!
• Speaking of making videos, I am very much in the mood for making something cool about our life here, so me and my flatmates are going to do a sort of 30 day video challenge. We will see how that's gonna turn out, but I am very very very eager to do it!

 

My Halloween costume {drumroll please}

There are so many characters in the Narnia series, but we were looking for a group of three costume- and there are four kids going to Narnia, so that didn't really work. Instead, we decided to go as
The Lion, The Witch and The Warderobe- Haha!
Not too obvious, a bit ridiculous, and super fun to do!

So think of something like this as the warderobe costume and of course the lion is a bit easier to dress as, with big hair and cat eyes... and then me as the white witch...And then all of us together in our Narnia-looking-flat, aaaah I get goosebumps when I think of it!

As soon as I have all parts of my costume I of course gonna share it on here, aaah so so excited!

I'd rather go to Narnia / our Halloween theme!

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Not the most innovative, but certainly not the worst! Our flat is going to be Narnia land, with a photo booth, a scary Halloween room and loads of other fun stuff... I seriously cannot wait! I am actually just looking forward to having a great time with our friends but the rest is gonna be so fun! We are going to have some sort of Narnia like entrance of course, walking through coats etc.. then a lot of snow, a christmas tree, turkish delight.. oh and a lamp post!!!!

SOSOSO excited! Just wait for our costumes!

My top 3 travel destinations during my semester abroad

So I seem to finally be an official student at St. Edward's University, yibbie! Now all the hassle starts with lovely bafög, visa procedures, booking flights, I even need to get a vaccination for Texas! 

The many things I am looking forward to is being super in the centre of the States and being so conveniently located! Here are my three top places I wanna go to during my semester abroad:

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 Meeeeexicoooo!!!! Ooooh yes, so exciting!!!!

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Vancouver- mostly to visit some special people, but also because it just looks amazing!

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And Cuba. Right now there are only a few airports that are allowed to fly in to Cuba (from the US) and Dallas is one of them, so yay!

Scotland on Screen {part I, Edinburgh}

Just for fun, I am going to do a couple of posts about this. Maybe this will get me motivated for my essay, maybe it will just distract me. Oh we will see. So I kept thinking about films shot in Edinburgh and there are (sadly) really not that many films that show Edinburgh in all its glory. A lot of possibilities for more films to come and I am sure a lot will change over the next years. But for now, here it is- Films that are set in Edinburgh. Or feature Edinburgh. 

Filth (2013)- Man what a freaking filthy and bathshit crazy film. Not sure if I should like it, but it is worth seeing just because of James MacAvoy, who is incredibly fantastic. Although I was thinking of Mr Tumnus a bit too much when watching it.

Sunshine on Leith (2013)- Aw yes, I loved loved loved it! It is such a cute little film, beautiful non stop and the ending..cuteezzz!! It also felt very special watching this film here in Edinburgh with what seemed to be a lot of locals- I think everyone enjoyed it!

One Day (2011)- I must say I enjoyed the books more than the film and Edinburgh is only featured for a tiny bit, but it is still lovely.  

Trainspotting(1996)- I have to admit I haven't seen it yet (it's on the endless list of films I need to see) but it is the prime example of Edinburgh on screen.And Kevin McKidd is in there, one more reason to see it sooooon.


(There are obviously more film than this and you can read about them here , for example)

Me and my flatmates.

These past weeks have been just sort of settling back in to my life here. Over the summer I was living in this flat by myself mostly and it has been so different. I really forgot how much I love living with Margaux and Mona- when I am in a bad mood, I just go home and I know that they will cheer me up. We have a ritual of watching series together (like all of them), going through the funniest YouTube videos, talk about anything and nothing, cuddle up on the coach together because our flat it so cold, dance offs, bake offs and whatnot. We wear the weirdest granny clothes in the flat, binge eat through our cupboards, share our shirts, shoes and jackets. I really can't imagine living with people you couldn't do these things with.

I am really sad that I will miss out on so much when I am in Texas.
(But we are planning to go to Turkey at the end of next summer so yay!)

It's that time of the year again {Halloween}

Well I think we all know that I love Halloween to bits- dressing up is my favorite part but it's even more fun to see all the great costumes and ideas that people had (go hard or go home).

 

Now I love Breaking Bad and would love to dress up as one of the guys, but my flat decided to do a group costume (much more fun!!) so I had to let it go. Also I am not sure how I would look with a bold mask on... mhh..

2 Broke Girls is just so distinctive and easy to do, but again there are only 2 Broke Girls and not three. So this one is out as well-

I am not sure if you have seen that stupid 'what does the fox say' video and it follows that whole Harlem Shake path, so meh... but I am sure a lot of people will dress up like this. I was already asked if they could borrow my fox onesie.

However, Mona Margaux and I are going to have a sort of group costume. I am not gonna say what it is yet, but I am soo excited!!! It's nothing new but still pretty cool I think.

 Of course it's movie related, that's just one hint.

 We are also having a Halloween party at our flat which goes along with our costumes (haha) and I hope it's gonna be amazing.

So this is definitely not the last Halloween related post (¬‿¬)

What are you dressing up as this year?

Sunshine on Leith {movie tip}

Edinburgh and Scotland definitely don't get their deserved share of spotlight in films, so I love it when they do- this film comes out today and I will try and see it as soon as I can because it just looks amazing!

Long distance friendship

I think everyone who moved to another country for an unspecific or longer time has thought about this. It's not like the discussion you might have with your boyfriend: If he is coming with you or not. If you stay together or not. Friends are not moving with you, most of the time.
You are also not breaking up with your friends.


Scrolling through my facebook pictures from the past years makes me so sad and happy at the same time- I went to so many different places with different people, made great friends... And it's pretty safe to say that all of my friends from all over the world will probably never be in the same spot at the same time (unless I fly them all in for my wedding). 
It makes me sad to think about it this way, because it means I miss so many people all the time. I miss being in certain places with them, I miss being with them in particular, I miss their presence in my life. It's something I really wish I could avoid.

I know for a fact that I will not be in touch with a lot of my "friends" from University when we finish our course. I guess that is okay- some are just not meant to be in for the long run.
It's not just that- some of my friends know everything about me, some only know tiny bits. Sometimes we became friends for a certain reason, sometimes for no reason at all.
Some friends I meet all the time, some I only see once a year. All of this has nothing to do with the depth of each friendship and I love that.
I was a very different person at summer camp than I am here in Edinburgh. Let alone at home in Germany- which is why my friends are as different as the places I met them in and I appreciate that so much- we bonded over the weirdest things and people from home will probably not understand the friendships I made in camp. How could they?
There are times when it tears me apart that I am stuck in one place, that the world is so huge and that there are so many places to live. I want to live close to all of my friends, but that will never be possible.

So what can we do about all of this?
Nothing really. Be happy with the amazing friends that we have, make an effort. Book flights and travel whenever we can to see each other.
But be okay with it when you can't see each other that much.

Because true friendship isn't being inseparable, it's being seperated, and nothing changes.

Las Vegas trip {summary}

We stayed in the Luxor hotel, which is the big pyramid at the end of the Strip. We had a nice view of the pool and mountains outside Vegas. It was a good hotel but if you compare it to Caesar's Palace (where we stayed last time)- phew.... that hotel deserved its 5 stars!

So I don't really remember what we did every day, it all blurrssss in to one big day somehow. So this is a little mix up of what we were up to:

A little trip to Caesar's Palace to gamble, get a little drunk on funny drinks in funny containers... and the lovely Eiffel tower at night...

Oh yes, Vegas is definitely better at night..

More funny drinks in funny cups. This time at the pool (with the big pyramid behind me!).

Jeez, that lift was horrible! You could hear it rattle which does not make you feel good about being in a lift.

You can't see it but I am playing a Hangover slot machine and it was SO much fun, I am still sad because I ran out of money. Dang it.

I already wanted to see the tigers last time we were there. I don't know if you are familiar with Siegfried and Roy, but they were the biggest stars of Vegas with their magic show and tigers, until Roy got injured by his tiger in 2003.
I think my expectations were a bit different and also I don't know if those were the actual 'cats' that used to be in the show... but it was a bit sad to see- I like zoos when you see happy animals and this did not feel like that sort of place...and as much as I ADORE dolphins, I am never sure what to think of all of this.

but they were SO cute.

sleepy lion.
So yeah. I didn't take that many pictures with my big camera and a lot of the Iphone pictures are just... food haha. There will be another post about Vegas, but this was the big picture post- stay tight!

Why Vegas// {Las Vegas trip}

So yeah, why Vegas?
Haha good question. After everything I posted about our road trip, going to Rhode Island etc...we flew across the continent...and landed in Sin City.

Well. Renting a car is easier when you are 25, that's for sure. If you are not, they charge you all sorts of crazy shit money. So our car would have been really expensive. I don't know, that combined with the fact that Miriam is a little bit crazy and it somehow felt right saying 'Vegas baby', we ditched our old plans and just booked Vegas.
I struggled a bit more with the decision, but then it was a fat case of #YOLO, so I just stopped thinking about my credit card and went for it. So what, I am young (now that my credit card statement came I did feel a bit older though).

The thing about our Vegas trip is that it was really cheap- I will tell you more about that, but let me tell you- flights with a good airline and a good hotel for little money- we were in! Also we booked it only a couple days before our departure, so we were really happy. What's not so cheap of course is Vegas itself obviously but I think we made the best out of it. We knew Vegas already so we didn't go crazy and just took it for what it was.

5 days of sun in a crazy city that is made for holidays.

 

More pictures tomorrowwww x