Miles Away: Shopping, shopping, shopping & shopping!

Just got back home from the railway station once again! I had a lovely weekend with my sister, but the time just flied and tomorrow, on Monday, I really have t get back to work (studying). Anyway, back to this weekend: before my sister arrived her, I asked if she wanted to make a trip to Hamburg, Hanover or Bremen etc and her answer was: "I want to go shopping!" :D Ok, fine by me. And I can't blame her - Germany is so much cheaper than Finland! I mean, of course clothes in chains like H&M are the same price but we have a good outlet here in Göttingen where some brands are sold very cheap and there are some random shops that we don't have at all in Finland where for example leather boots are a lot cheaper. So shopping here is simply a smart thing to do! ;)
Woman-With-Shopping-Bags

My sister arrived pretty late on Thursday so she just grabbed a taxi from the railway station and we went to bed pretty early (well, a little gossiping too of course ;)) to be fresh for shopping the next day :). As we walked to the city center I showed her around at the campus, which by the way is not very beautiful, and then it was time for some shopping! I barely found anything even if there where really good sales (a cool bright yellow skiing/snow boarding jacket from Fischer for only 80e when the original price was 400e! I was crying inside; I didn't need it so I had to let it stay there in the outlet but it was so cool and such a good jacket...!) but my sister did :D She also bought a suitcase to be able to get everything with her back home... She also found a pair of the leather boots I had dreamed of. Well, I guess I just have to hit the gym or start walking with high heels (;)) because it's very depressing when the boots that are advertised as "extra tight" are way too lose from the calves, argh!
We spent the whole day in the city center and then it was time for some dinner at Bullerjahn's, a really nice and beautifully decorated & furnished restaurant under the old city hall. Then some cheese, crackers & wine in the evening :) We were hanging out with my roommates in the living room and went to bed a little too late; we had an early morning because we wanted to catch a train to Hanover the next day.

Oh so smelly but oh so delicious cheese!

This is actually from the previous weekend when my friend visited me, but I thought it fitted in here too :)

We took the early-ish train to Hanover and after a good sleep in the train we headed towards the city center. All of a sudden all the sleepiness was long gone! We spent the whole day in the shops again and well, I have to say the sales were insanely good! Of course the clothes aren't always from good materials and I would never buy clothes from certain materials because I can't stand tuft in the clothes! I never buy anything from Zara for example because the affordable clothes have very bad quality and the more expensive ones aren't just worth the price, because the quality isn't outstandingly good (too bad, because I really like their design - just like the thousands of other Finnish girls :D). Haha, actually me and my friend have always been laughing at textile twins, you know, like a group of friends, mostly girls, who all wear the same white converse, skinny black jeans and the jacket from Zara that everyone has :D Well once again, I am not any better: me and my sister were wearing almost exactly the same kind of clothes: black short jackets (ok, she was also borrowing one of my jackets), skinny jeans, a scarf and black leather boots :D to be honest we were seriously a bit embarrassed of ourselves for being such textile twins and some people even claim that we look so similar from the face (not true btw :D). Well, at least our bodies are almost the opposites of each others' so we bought clothes for different body types. Then again, I always grab the same clothes in a store as my mom does and I always go through her wardrobe while I visiting my parents - just to find at least 2 shirts there that actually belong to me :D Yes, we are even the same size and we used to be exactly equally tall (yes, my dad had to measure us with a bubble level to be sure of the result :D) but then I grew or she shrank (a little bit too late though, since my mom and my godfather had a bet of which one of us that would be taller and at that time I wasn't taller that her yet so my godfather lost a wine bottle :D). Well, I guess I got sidetracked again, so back to the actual theme! Hmm where was I...?
Anyway the day passed very fast in Hanover and all of a sudden it was time for the shops to get closed and for us to go home. Oh, something that I was (negatively) surprised about was how many families that were out there shopping! I do understand that some cultures are more family-oriented than we Finns but seriously it's not pleasant for anyone that you bring either the grandparents, that are sitting in wheelchairs blocking all the small and crowded shops and since you have to show them a little respect everyone can't just ask them to keep moving away all the time, or the whole flock, which consists of tens of kids and their cousins and friends, that is way too inpatient to wait for their mothers to argue with their teenaged siblings of some shirts so the kids aged 2-8 just run around playing hide and seek or fight with each other. Anyway it was a long and successful day, even if our feet were so dead after all the walking and standing. Who says shopping isn't a sport? ;)

I like Hanover city center because it's so white and light :)

The main railway station is seen at the end of this street

Smth I bought. I seem to have an obsession in colours, maybe it's because of this horrible grey Central-European winter that makes me miss colours!

The next day we had only a couple of hours before my sister had to take the train to the airport so since it was a nice and sunny day (yeyy, SUN! Oh, how I've missed you! I am really sick and tired of this super windy, rainy weather) we decided to go out for a nice little Sunday walk :) Well, we walked approximately 10 km and half of it was uphill and I was wearing running shoes and sports clothes so it was a little more than a "little Sunday walk", but it was pleasant anyway! We were not the only once out there in the woods and oh, even the deers were back (a tame herd surrounded by fences). For some reason they were on a break or smth for a couple of months and the area surrounded by fences was all empty. Maybe the deers needed to get away from all the curious people like us trying to persuade them to come closer the fence by trying to feed them. Anyway, now they were back bigger and braver (the fawn had grown and they had a thick and dark fur, not the albinos though :D).

Way too soon we had to turn back, pack my sister's suitcases and head to the railway station, where we had amazingly delicious and cheap Asian food (only 2,90e for a big plate of noodles and veggies in a peanut sauce, namm!!!) at mai mai. Thanks for visiting me, sister's time is always welcome!

Ps. Now it's time to start applying for a summer job, argh every spring the same stressful process, a real pain in the ass that every Finnish student has to face from the age 15/16 til the end of the studies.