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Thursday 26 March 2015

My yield from Paris and 1. Golden Rhenania meet-up

Except of the cold I got in Paris, I also brought some clothes with me.
Two blouses in ivory and creme. A darkblue trenchcoat and a beautiful black high-waist OP.
The trenchcoat doesn't look that spectacular on a hanger but worn with a petti it's really pretty. I'm still waiting for the weather to get warmer so I can wear it. But spring will not come...
The black dress, I want to wear it at least at the wedding of my friend in September, but I hope to get a chance to wear it previously. I'm waiting for a good opportunity to come.
But I already got the chance to wear the two blouses. The one with long arms in creme, I wore to the 1. Golden Rhenania meet-up in Krefeld at Burg Linn.
© Phantom of light
I forgot, that my hair looks better if I pull out some longer hair from my braid, so my face doesn't look that strange. And the shoes with 10 cm heel killed me. But nevermind. The location was beautiful. :)

Friday 20 March 2015

Lolita-Shooting: Nordkirchen

Like I told you in my last post, I got stuck with Natalie before. It was at a meetup at castle Nordkirchen, which is called the Versailles of Westphalia.
Nordkirchen is a village north of the Ruhrgebiet. You can get there by train, but the castle is about 7 km away from the train station. We got there by bus, which wasn't a problem, as the bus waits for the train. We met up with the other Lolitas at the castle. 
Though the days before it had been raining a lot, it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, but we thought something fishy was going on. We suspected that it was going to rain later that day.
The castle itself is really pretty from the outside and the garden is small but impressive, as you don't see french parks here a lot. Sadly the castle was bought by Nordrheinwestphalia in the early 20th century and converted into a buisiness school. Therefore the inside is rather renovated than what it used to be. In the rooms there are blackboards in front of the open fireplaces and it doesn't feel like you're in a castle. Some rooms are made to look old, though.
As we expected rain Natalie and I decieded after the guided tour through the castle to rather take pictures before sitting down and eat. So we headed to the park infront of the castle and had a really funny shoot. The pictures also turned out to be very good. Though it would have been better with professional photographer equiment like a better camera or a reflector.


 Just after Natalie shot this picture, she came up to tell me, theres a grandma in the background with an electric wheel chair. Brrrrrm. Also the one next to me is my new buddy ;-)





When we were finished, we sat down to eat something. The others had already finished eating. But we didn't want to hurry. We ordered something and chatted a bit. But when we look at the time, it was getting late. The busses in Nordkirchen don't run until the evening especially on weekends. But theres a bus that you must call and then it will pick you up at a certain bus stop.
We called the bus, but like I already said, this wasn't the end of the story. First we named a wrong bus stop, not the one we got out but the stop before that one, so we had to walk quiet a bit. Second: The waitress didn't hesitated to come to our table so we could pay. We waited over 15 minutes, before we just laid the money on the table and left.
Though we made our way to the bus stop fast, we missed the bus. The next one was sceduled to run 90 Minutes later. We didn't want to wait that long. We had been tired and exhausted from the day.
So we thought of diffrent ways to get to the train station.
First thought: taxi. It's the easiest way to go somewhere without busses. But not in the countryside!
The first taxi company we called told me, that their taxi was just on the way to Münster. Yes, their one and only taxi!
The second taxi company, which was locaed in the next village 15 km away from Nordkirchen. They wanted 25 Euro just for driving to Nordkirchen... That was way too much.
So we had to think of diffrent options: Hitchhiking!
We streched out out finger and tried to find someone who could take us with him.
It didn't work, so I said our only way was to walk to the train station. That wasn't easy in Lolita clothes and in Lolita shoes and it would have been quiet a long walk, if we didn't have the luck to find someone who picked us up after 500 meters.
It was an middleaged woman, who just came back from an art exhibition at the casle where she worked. She was really intereseted in our clothes and said it wasn't a problem to take us to the trainstation as it was on her way.
We thanked her a lot and she didn't even wanted some money afterwards. I have to thank her again for saving us from a long walk and beeing so kind.
We were at the train station too early but that we were there on time and got the next train home.
It was succesfull day. Not only we made cool photos, we also hitchhiked in Lolita clothing and saw a beautiful castle.

Tuesday 10 March 2015

La vie en rose Paris - Sunday

Sunday was sightseeing day and day of the "Baby the stars shine bright" tea party. I didn't buy a ticket because it was 50 euros and that was too much for me at the time. Now thinking about it, it maybe was a wrong decision because I heared the tea party was great. But not 50 euros great.

As we didn't managed to go to the supermarket the other day, we got up early. It was a lovely day. It was sunny, quiet dry but cold. Most supermarkets in Paris are also open on Sundays. So we stopped at the supermarket, then headed to Sacre Coeur. It a famous basilika that was only about one kilometer away from our appartment - on the map. What we didn't know was, that it was build on a hill.
Around our appartment everything was rather flat, but after most of the way the hill begann. The last few meters were the worst. I may had seen some stairs on the map, but not these kind of stairs. They were higher than normal stairs and very long. But we were so happy when we finally arrived on the top of the hill and saw the basilika.
The first stairs Photo©Natalie
The second stairs... Photo©Natalie

We finallly made it! Photo©Natalie

It was really impressive, like all monuments in Paris: big, old, and tourist everywhere. I was glad we approached the building from the "wrong" side, the side where less tourists went there and had time to look at the basilika.
Basilika
I instantly imagined how it would be to live in there. Like in a castle. But unfortunately it is a curch. You don't have to pay to get in there but you can donate money every 2 meteres.
We also visited the catacombs, where there are two more chapels under the curch. There were windows but it was rather dark, as the catacombs are below the wall that sourrounds the basilika.
Back in the daylight we made our way back to our appartment.

The tea party was about to begin at 2 p.m. so Natalie got ready and I had a nap, then we started our second tour for the day.
The venue of the tea party was next to the Panteon. So I also saw that.
Panteon
I met up with friend of mine that also didn't attend the tea party. There were also two more people that wanetd to do a little bit of sightseeing that day: one other girl from Germany and a guy from Sweden. They had no fixed programm from the day, so we first went to the Louvre. We got out of the metro one station away from the Louvre so we could see the Obelisk.  
Obelisk
This thing in the middle is the Obelisk

And the walk trough the park toward the Louvre. The Louvre is locaed in a former kings palace. So it is a beautiful building and like always: huge! The pyramid in the middle of the inner yard is boring compared to the old building. It is also strange to see the modern pyramid and artificial modern water installations between the houses of a former palace. And for sure: There were lots of people everywhere. 
Park in front of the Louvre

We have one in Berlin that's even bigger

As it would have taken us hours to get into the Louvre and hours to see everything inside we decieded to not go in there and instead have a closer look at the building itself.  
Louvre  
Strange contrast between the pyramid and the palace
After so much of sightseeing we were hungry and frist had some coffee in the second café we found. But it was very expensive. Nearly five euros for a cappucino. The prices for the cake were even higher. So we were left hugry and changed the café. 
A few houses next to the café we found a pizzaria. The prices were modest compared to the other restaurants. I paid 11,50 euros for a toast with salad. But it was huge. It took nearly half of the plates space. It seems everything in Paris that is good, is huge. Do they want to tell me something? Or do they have to compensate something?
Nevertheless the foog was great and we were restored to head to our next stop. The Eifel Tower.
My firend hadn't seen it yet and we didn't wanted her to leave Paris without having seen it. 
By day there are far more people at the Eifel tower. Especially as we approached it from a very popular spot.  
Eifel tower

People everywhere!
Home feeling <3

It was less beautiful at daylight than it was at night, but I still love the steel construction. Home feeling.

We also did some hilarious group selfies that day but I don't show them as I can't ask the people first, whether it is okay that I will put them on the internet. So I will just look at them by myself thinking what a funny day that was.

A peek on the watch, told us that it was nearly 6 p.m. and the tea party was going to end soon. So we quickly headed to the next metro station, that is not as near as it could be and drove back to the Pantheon.
There we met the others again. Natalie and Leo who both attended the tea party told me that in the evening there would be a after party. They said they wanted to go there.
This was a good idea but I wasn't dressed in any way lolitaish and we also wanted to the Notre Dame.
So we first went by metro to Notre Dame, then back to our appartment.
But Notre Dame wasn't that easy to find. It was getting dark and from the metro there were no sign at all. So we managed to choose the way directly going into the wrong direction. But I would say, it was rather Natalie's decision. I had nothing to do with it and so it was definitly not my fault that we had to go one time round the isle to finally found Notre Dame. But we had a great view on the Seine and some old houses.  
Notre Dame

Some old building across the Seine
Notre Dame. Finally!
Still have to work on this...

We did some photos of Notre Dame, a seflie, for reasons, and then quickly back into the metro. As it was freezing.

So we got ready for the after party at our appatment. I dressed up quickly: some make up, hair curled an throwed a dress over me. Ready! A quick selfie, then to the metro! And into the party!
The party was in a little bar that was called "Pub Fiction". You could eat burgers there, but we entered late. Over an hour after the party started and all the tables were taken.
But some Austrian and Swiss girl offered us to sit on their table. It was too full to order burger but we wanted to have some drinks.
Next problem: The drinks were so expensive. 7 € for a 0,5 l beer! And I am complaining about 4 € for a 0,4 l Hövels back here.
And I only took 8,50 with me. So I only ordered a small beer or in other words: I sent Natalie to the bar to get one.
It was also very loud in the bar, the music was so loud you could barely talk. But we managed to chat with the other girls, leaning over the table and shouting at each other.
By the time, the party got even better. As the level of alcohol got higher, the more started to dance. Finally nearly everyone was in the space between table and bar and danced. I rather wanted to chat, but in my back was the party of the weekend. It was fun to see all the girls in their beautiful coords just parting as always.
We knew the metro was only driving at least until 1, maybe just till 12. So we left early.

But Leo was still with us and didn't know where the girls from his appartment were, so we wanted to bring him to his appartment. We hoped the girls waited for him there. 
It was close to midnight. All the streets were empty and dark, it even started to rain again, and we were glad that we came with him. but unfortunately the girls weren't in the appartment. We found shelter in the entrance of a chinese restaurant. After waiting a few minutes in the cold, we called them. They told us, they will be there in a short time, so we waited. It took them over half an hour to get there and when they finally came it was almost 1 a.m. and we had been freezing in the cold. 
The girls told us they were just heading to the party when we called them. After midnight! When the metro only runs until 1! And the party started at 8:30 p.m. ...
They thanked us, that we called and they didn't stranded at the party, but now Natalie and I were stranded in Paris. We said goodbye very quick, though the girls offered us their floor (!) for sleeping... and headed to the metro. Closed. Next one. Closed. No Busses, no metro, no RER. 
Only a few people were on the streets. A typical sunday night, but wasn't that a big city? 
We decieded to go to Charles de Gaulle, as we thought on such an important place, there had to be some public transport.
Somehow it was funny to be stranded with Natalie again. We had a really similar problen in Nordkirch. So I complained, why this always happens when I'm with her. She told me the same.
When we finally arrived at Charles de Gaulle, we found only a sign for a night bus, but this one wasn't driving in the right direction.
We finally gave up hope to find public transport and tought about getting a taxi. Together we had 25 euros with us. We hoped that it will be enough to affort a taxi, as everthing in Paris was more expensive than it was in Germany.
As Charles de Gaulles is still an important place, but apparently to on sundays, we found a taxi really quickly. It was standing 10 meters away from us and I asked the taxi driver in bad french mixed with english how much it was, to get to the gare du nord.
He said it was 10-15 euros, what we understood after he wrote it down. But we quickly got into the taxi.
I expected the drive to be like in big cities in Germany. The taxi drivers there speed up to 70 km/h just to break at the next traffic light. But this drive was really relaxed. The driver knew all the traffic lights by heart and managed to get a green wave. After less than 10 minuets we arrived at gare du nord, which is on the other side of the inner city and the screen in the taxi showed a price of: 8,90€. Wow!
We thanked the driver, came some tip and hurried through the cold to our appartment. It was a few minutes before 2 and couldn't have been happier to finally lay down in my warm bed.

I catched a cold that night. On the next day we drove home with me coughing all the time. On tuesday everything got worse and I was sick till thursday. That's what I brought back from Paris: 1 coat, 1 dress, 2 blouses, some Oreos, 1 Orangina, 1 Salami and a cold! <3