Miserable May

When May presented itself to me I thought we would at least have Spring by now. I think all this miserable weather should just stay away and give us some sunshine already. Until then, I have found some sunny summery delights that I would love to wear and dress my house up with. Notice a theme?

From top left, clockwise: Fashion Yellow check shirt// Blue and white lace dress// Blink, Beach Shack & Plume Nails// White polka dot blouse

From top right, clockwise: Home Emmie Land// Scalloped Vase// Evelyn cushion// Biscuit barrel// Tumbler// Tall jug// Yellow tealight// Blue tealight

Berlin: Day Two

After a much needed sleep in our cosy little cabin, we got ready and dressed for the day and headed to the hotel canteen to fill our stomachs. Whilst snacking on rye bread salad sandwiches, chocolate pastries and tea, Alix and I planned our day.

We hopped on the Underground to visit the East side gallery of the Berlin Wall. Whilst sitting on the train, we noticed that yesterday's littered streets of the Labour Day party were mostly cleared away of it's rubbish. There were shopkeeper's scrubbing their doorways and volunteers picking up squashed plastic cups. This city is perfect.

We arrived at the Berlin wall and had a browse at each artwork. The whole wall is so colourful and bright. It was so interesting.

I loved some of the pieces there. The Picasso-esque piece, the hand prints, the portraits, the writings.

Looking at these made me really miss art college. I miss drawing and painting and the research. Some of these pieces are fantastic. I came home wanting to get my paintbrushes out and paint!

It was so inspiring. So much so that are tummies needed filling again. So we strolled down the main road on the hunt to Burgermeister (again!) turns out we passed it about five times yesterday without realising! Oops.
But first I persuaded Alix to hop in a Photoautomat with me to have our snaps done.

We found some amazing little boutiques on the way. A wonderful stationery/book shop where I accidently spent fifteen euros on some Map-patterned washi tape, notebooks and postcards.

We also stumbled into a wonderful clothes store where we found the owner/designer sitting at her sewing machine creating one of her masterpieces. It was such a lovely place with white marker graffiti on the windows and neutral classic shaped garments with neon trimmings. If only we had Euros.

So after all the sad faces due to lack of cents we hurried on to Burgermeister where we would finally fill our empty hungry insides with their infamous burgers. We arrived at the old public lavatory-now burger stand and ordered our cheeseburger with fries. After being given a number, we took a 'seat' on the old bike poles and waited impatiently for our number to shine in lights. Oh but once we were greeted with our delightful lunch... it was all so worth it. The huge search for it last night and the short wait after handing over our money. It was so tasty!

After feeling completely satisfyingly full, we headed to the Bauhaus Archive to realise that it was already closed. So we got our bearings and decided to head to the Botanischer Garten Und Botanisches Museum.

After the long walk from the underground stop, and the beautiful rich German houses, we arrived at the gardens and got lost in it's beauty. A perfect view, pretty flowers and amazing glass architecture.

 Luckily we got our tickets for half the price. We didn't even need to pretend to be students.

We strolled in and out of conservatories filled with beautiful flowers and wonderful plants. It was so warm but so pretty. Alix was in her element with her love for flowers.

We wandered into the Mexican lands of the garden. Amazing and scary and pretty and spiky Cacti.

The gardens were so beautiful too. I loved the symmetry of everything. Rows of pansies and symmetrical trees and pastel pink roses and large ponds with statues. It was incredible.

We walked our merry away back to the underground in search for food.
This evening was supposed to be for Haim, but due to their selfish cancelling we went to a stylish food market instead. Weltrestaurant Markthalle was filled with good-looking Hipsters sipping on cocktails, live Jazz music, a huge selection of different foods, and overpriced fancy Teas.

After having several walks around the market trying to pick something to eat from the wide selection, we settled on a delightful breadcrumbed ball of goodness. It was filled with rice, ragu and beef and a chocolate smothered waffle for afters. We washed it down with a super strong Brooklyn Punch cocktail.

After a long eventful day, we travelled back to the cabin and passed out. We really are adventurers.

Happy Birthday Blog: 5 Years

Wow, so it has been FIVE years since I started writing here at The Tea Drinking English Rose. Those five years seem both ages ago and just the other day! I was in my second year of University when I discovered this side of the internet and I was researching for a project for my Fashion Design degree, I stumbled upon the amazing Clothes Horse. I was fascinated. So much so that I ran into my friend's room down the hall and told her about what I had just discovered. 

That was the night I started my very own blog.

My very first blog posts are here and here. How far I have come since then! I struggled my way through my course and fought against homesickness, parent's divorce, boyfriend breakups right at the beginning of my third year!! (I still regret not ending it first!) I have graduated (nearly four years ago folks! Scary!), I found my prince-now-fiance, we moved in together, had two different jobs... each. I have cried, laughed, loved, smiled. I have been happy, I have been sad... and well I am just generally an emotional old thing.

Being a part of the blogging world has really changed my life. I have met some wonderful people. I have made plans to meet some amazing people. I have made friends... for life. I am so very grateful to ALL my followers, friends, readers, commenters. You lovely lot have made me who I am today, you have cheered me up, you have given me great advice. Well you are just pretty darn amazing! Thank you!
Whilst I just grab the tissues (told you I was emotional!) and a nice hot cup of tea, I hope you will stick with me and let's do the next five years together. Married? Children? House? Tea room? Let's find out.

Love you all. Hugs.

Berlin: Day One

It has been a whole week since I was in Berlin with my lovely adventure buddy Alix. I miss it so much. Berlin is such a beautiful and trendy city and I was constantly thinking how 'cool' everyone was. The place is filled with bright coloured graffiti and well dressed hipsters.

After no sleep at all Tuesday evening, we got up ridiculously early, and ridiculously sleepy and went on our merry way to the Airport. We found a delightful milkshake stall where we purchased some yummy drinks and blueberry muffins to wake our zombie-like state. The run to the gate helped that too.

We arrived in pretty Berlin and after quickly working out the ticket system, we hopped on the underground to find our hotel. When we got to our stop, a Dunkin' Donuts greeted us with their delicious frosted treats. Obviously we had to top up our sugar levels and hungry selves.

We strolled to our hotel, with our heavy bags and full bladders, and such 'cool'ness welcomed us. We stayed at THIS wonderful place. An old vacuum factory converted into a hotel, with an 'outside-inside' feel. It had retro caravans or little wooden cabins to stay in, with some lovely touches, vintage globes, old books, record player, wafer dispenser, cloud-shaped cushions, twinkly fairy lights wrapped around indoor branches. 

It was just so amazing.

We slept in this little wooden cabin with Scandinavian print curtains and I definitely felt like I was on holiday.

After being in total awe of everything in the hotel and the courtyard with swinging chairs, hammocks and a bathtub filled with flowers, we decided to explore. 

On the way to the underground, we just kept finding lots of pretty and crazy graffiti. This city was turning into the most colourful places I've visited so far.

We made our way to Alexanderplatz, where we found the television tower amongst other beautiful buildings and gardens.

The farther we followed the road around, the closer we got to some of the famous tourist spots. The Neptunbrunnen, a wonderful fountain of the Roman god Neptune. It was so detailed and pretty, and the water was rather inviting after carrying our heavy bags (and eyes) around earlier that morning.

We walked a little further and came across some more beautiful architecture and Berlin cathedral. I think I stopped and stared at this beauty for too long. The details were so amazing. The gold elements were so shiny and bright against the green copper roof. After staring at the pictures even more, I really wished I'd gone inside. It would have been just stunning.

We then passed the Altes Museum and gardens. Without sounding boring and old-lady ish, I was pretty wow-ed by the impressive architecture here. They are all so intricately detailed, with gold touches. England really is nothing like this. I also loved how all of these wonderful and well-respected buildings had not a spray of paint. It was just mind-blowing. --Old-lady moment over.

We walked into a lovely German market where we picked up a Bratwurst/Bockwurst and purchased some handmade gifts and postcards for our loved ones and ourselves.

We then took the turning down a very long road to the Holocaust Memorial.

After having a little walk through the memorial, to cheer ourselves up we wandered over to the Brandenburg Gate to find a little street festival with live music. We bought ourselves a naughty midday cocktail and some ridiculously expensive sweets and found a little corner to take it all in.

We had heard about this amazing place where you can get your passport stamped. Checkpoint Charlie. I just HAD to go. It has been so long since my passport had been stamped, it is kind of a novelty. Also, my childhood friends call me Charlie so obviously I really needed to go!

Checkpoint Charlie was the crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin in the cold war.

After giving our passports another look, trying on some military hats, and getting our snaps done in an Automat, we ambled round to the Jewish Museum. Basically Alix will marry a hot Jewish guy one day. So we had to brush up on our Jewish knowledge and fake our way in as a student.

Getting in for 3 euros instead of 6 was even more of a good thing after we realised we missed a whole floor! Doh. How silly of us.

After the Jewish museum, we headed to Kreuzberg to find 'Burgermeister' which was one of the "must sees's" on my 'cool places to visit in Berlin' map. We walked down one of the main streets which was cornered off by the police, to find a huge pack of cool kids with their face painted and their hands holding beer. We walked into the direction they were coming from to see what we were missing out on.
It was the biggest, and longest, street party I had ever seen. Live music every 200 yards, stalls selling fresh food and drinks. It was crazy! Turns out it was Labour day! The streets were littered with rubbish.
After gripping on to eachother trying to survive the crowds, we made it out alive and carried on with our mission to Burgermeister. We did not succeed. Our stomachs gave in and settled for a Schnitzel in some Hipster canteen underneath the trainline.

Highlight of the day, other than getting my passport stamped a billion times, was having my very first Bockwurst. It was so delicious. I wanted another straight away... I didn't though.