Saarbrücken or Honululu?

Aloha DailyBloggers and especially Nicholas from Honululu,
of all possible places Saarbrücken might look like, this seems to be the most unlikely one, but today I really had the impression it looks like Honululu, since the "Saar beach" was opened.
It's the first weekend that PotatoIsland, a little beach along the river Saar (with cocktail bars), will be accessible to visitors and party-people again (for the second year).

PS: Like Eric, I also had a private moment with Tom Cruise today... So salut to Paris as well! =)


PPS: Today is a theme day for our CityDailyPhoto-community. We were supposed to show something that refers to or looks like another city. =)

Cocktail Bar Impression

Here's a picture from yesterday night (or rather today in the morning =) .
I've been to the Home cocktail bar with some friends.

They have some cool decorations in there, significant are the red panels that are light up from behind.
The Home bar is right next to the river Saar, and was voted one of the best 200 nightlife-placed in Germany by Playboy.

The cocktails are expensive (for a colada you pay 8 Euros, Mojito 7 Euros) but excellent and worth the money.
There's usually a DJ in the bar playing house music. Lots of young people go there to "warm up" for the long disco night that will follow.

Football Madness

I told you, after the hidden garden gnome in my post yesterday, I knew what to take a picture of today.

This is an advertisement of our local beer brewery, Karlsberg (no, not Carlsberg).
They always have funny posters... and since Germany is going nuts for the FIFA World Cup that our country will host in 41 days, you can see football-related things everywhere.
The gnome is called Hansi by the way, so the caption "Hansi Ball UrPils?" is a pronounciation joke for "Haben Sie bald UrPils?" (Do you have UrPils yet?) referring to letters you can find in the crown caps of the bottles. Once you have collected all of them, you will win the limited Hansi football statue (Did you expect tickets? Sorry!). =)

On my Wonderful Weird World blog I'll show you what shopping in SOCGERmany means at the moment... =)
There are just the weirdest products with football logos on them, it's sooo funny.

PS: No, I'm not a football fan. I only put the football blog clock here, because I think it's my obligation at the moment... =)

PPS: Happy first week to me, happy first week to me... =)

Cute Little Shop

This is a shoe shop at St. Johanner Markt.
It's located in a very French-looking street (the Saarland used to be French once) called Fröschengasse in the town centre.
A bit hidden from sight, is this beautiful little part with the French lamplights and the green bushes on the roof.
I'm sure it will look more amazing in summer, when the wall of the house is green with plants, too.

You can also see that I still depend on your wishes for better weather, since it was cloudy and cold all day. =(

PS: I just realised that there's a garden gnome in that picture (Did you find it?)... haha, now I know what to blog tomorrow!


Some trivia about the Saarland (and why it's all so French here =)<:

• The Saarland was mainly German througout its history, but often was under French influence.
  
• After World War I it was lead by the League of Nations, after World War II it was even an autonomous state, though economically lead by France.
• Both of these times the people of Saarland had to vote if they would like to be French or German. The results showed both times that the inhabitants want to stay with Germany.
• Since 1957 it's the official 10th federal state of Germany.
  

Sports...

Today the weather wasn't nice at all.
It was raining and there were clouds all day, so I didn't take a picture outside.

Therefore, I sneaked into the fencing class. Students were practicing their skills next to our dancing class in the gymnasium.
I don't know much about fencing to be honest, but I like the grace of that sport. Also, my boyfriend fences, and I'm sure he's happy to see the picture here.

So there's not much more to say except for: Please wish me some good weather, I want to organise a picnic with friends from work on Saturday. (Wishing me nice weather grants you some nice outside pictures! =)

Green University

Did you know that about one third of the Saarland (of which Saarbrücken is the capital) is covered with mixed forests?
Since the deciduous trees are turning greener and greener every day now, I decided that's it's time for you to have a look at the nice countryside around the university.
The campus is located outside the city centre in the middle of the "Staatsforst" (state forest).

It's very nice, when you have a break between lectures or a lunch break from work (I can have both, I'm studying and working here =), you just have to walk a few steps and you're in the middle of a wood where you can enjoy the singing birds and discover nice plants... or simply go for a walk.

Let's see where that path leads us... =)


Some more trivia about the Saarland university:

• There are around 15.500 students
• It was founded in 1948 in collaboration with France (that's why it always had and still has an international orientation, the Europa-Institut is also located here)
• The main research area of the university is Computer Science, that's probably why we have two Max-Planck-Institutes (Computer Science and Software Systems), the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Europe on Campus
  

Golden Gate

What I really love about taking pictures is that you see things that you've never realised before, because you never REALLY looked.
Like this one, for example... I've never seen the little garden right next to the Johanneskirche.
And therefore I've never noticed these golden gates either that are at all of the entrances to the park.
It was a wonderful sunny day (every day seems to get nicer now), and the couple (hard to see behind the bush, I admit) and the reading guy made it look so relaxed, I just wanted to join them there. =)

PS: This picture was taken with the camera of a friend, Sony Cybershot W12.

Town Hall Detail

This is a nice detail of the Saarbrücken Town Hall, the "Ratskeller" is the cellar of the town hall.
I passed it and just loved the blue sky and the red stones.
And speaking of the blue sky - It's a wonderful day today!

Old train

I did an excursion to the area of our train station (I'm not sure how legal this was =), and took this picture of an old, rusty train wagon.

Saarbrücken in spring...

Another day, another DailyPhotoBlog... =)

I simply love the idea of Eric's ParisDailyPhoto-Blog, so I thought that I'll show you some daily pictures of Saarbrücken, too.
It's the capital of the Saarland, the smallest of the federal states of Germany.

Since it's my first day of DailyPhoto-ing, you'll even get two pictures!!!


This is the typical Saarbrücken-inhabitant, wearing a T-Shirt bought in the "Made in Saarbrigge"-shop (Saarbrigge is Saarland slang for Saarbrücken). The capture says "Oh, hann isch die Flemm", which probably could be translated to "Oh, I'm feeling so blue (or annoyed)".
Very cool guy though wearing his headphones and ripped jeans! I saw him close to the train station.

This picture was a nice coincidence, and since I missed my bus to take it, I have to put it on this blog. =)
A couple got married in the town hall this morning, and together with the daffodils and the rising spring fever in all of us, I thought it's the perfect picture for April.

So there you go, first day and first entry done, I really hope you'll like it.

Cheers,
MoonSoleil