Exchange in Bremerhaven

Möödunud on rohkem kui kuu sellest kui mina ja Marie alustasime oma vahetusõpilase perioodiga Saksamaal, Bremerhavenis. Loodan et selle ajaga olen kogunud piisavalt informatsiooni et midagi siia blogisse kirjutada. Kui märkasite, siis pidin ka blogi nime muutma, enam ei ole siiski sobiv "Mariell Hollandis". 

Bremerhaven on üsna väike sadamalinn Saksamaa põhjaosas, üldsegi mitte kaugel Leeuwardenist, kus ma enne õppisin. Inimesi elab siin umbes 108 000, ikka samamoodi nagu Leeuwardenis. Tundub et miskipärast tõmbavad meid ikka pigem väikelinnad. Kuigi kui inimesed küsivad, et miks me just siia otsustasime tulla vahetusõpilaseks, siis rohkem väga midagi teha pole kui käsi laiutada. Vahest mainin, et tulin mere pärast, aga tegelikult on see minu "meri" siin hoopiski jõgi, ja kui meie ikka ütleme et lähme jalutame mere ääres, siis kõik teised nimetavad seda siiski jõe-äärseks.  

Siin veedetud ajaga on meile mitmed inimesed öelnud et Bremenhaven on kõige vaesem linn Saksamaal. Kui rohkem hoolega ringi vaadata siis näeb seda nii mõningast suletud poodidest ja tühjadest majadest, aga üldpildil pole häda midagi. Kui linna googeldada siis leiab palju pilte Bremerhaveni turistiosast, kus on rohkem modernsed majad ning shopingukohad, mille kõrval on ka meie kool. Mida kaugemale aga minna kesklinnast, seda väidetavalt vaesemaks ja odavamaks linn läheb ning majad on pigem vanemat sorti, mida kohalikele meeldib väga rõõmsasti värviliseks värvida. 

Nüüd mõned päevad tagasi kui meil olid natukeseks ajaks paremad ilmad (vahepeal lausa 20 kraadi), käis meil juba ka Mirell külas, kuna ta siit ainult paar linna edasi, Hamburgis elab. Ta tegi enda külaskäigust postituse, mille saate leida siit. Mõningad pildid võivad küll natuke korduda, kuid see postitus väärib kindlasti tsekkamist, kuna see räägib rohkem mis me siin teinud oleme, samas kui minu postitus on hetkel lihtsalt üldiselt Bremerhavenist. 

It has been over a month since Marie and I started with our Exchange in Germany, Bremerhaven. I hope that with that time I have already gathered enough information to write about something. 

Bremerhaven is a pretty small harbour city in the Northern Germany, not that far at all from Leeuwarden, the city where I studied in before. The population in here is around 108 000 people, the same as in Leeuwarden. Seems like we are rather drawn to the smaller cities for some reason. When people ask us why exactly did we choose Bremerhaven, we dont really have a lot else to do than spread our hands (it is not really a saying in English, is it). Sometimes I say that I chose it because I wanted to be next to the sea, but that "sea" is actually river, and when Marie and I say that we should take a walk by the sea, everyone else still calls it the riverside. 

During our time here plenty of people have already said to us that Bremerhaven is the poorest city in Germany. You can see it when you pay more attention while looking around, as there are quite some closed stores and empty houses. However, the overall picture is not bad. When you google the city what you see is just the more modern touristic area of Bremerhaven, with shopping centres and such. But apparently the more and more you go further away from the city centre, the poorer and cheaper the city will be. The houses in that kind of Bremerhaven are older and it seems like the local people love to paint them in fun colours. 

My sister Mirell, who lives only a couple cities away in Hamburg, visited us some days ago when we had better weather (some days we had even 20 degrees). She also wrote a blog about what we did when she visited, which can be found from here. The blog is in Estonian, but there are a lot of pictures that are pretty self-explanatory and give a really nice overview of what we have been doing in here, while my post is more about Bremerhaven in general. Totally worth checking it out. 

Modernsem osa Bremenhavenist / The modern part of Bremerhaven

Modernsem osa teiselt poolt / The same modern part, from the other side

Hotell, mille katusel olevale platvormile me ka läksime koos Mirelliga / A hotel that has a viewing platform on top of it - we went up there with Mirell

Vasakul on jõgi mis kauguses läheb edasi mereks. Vasakul punase katusega maja taga on loomaaed. Kanalist otse edasi kaugemal on suur kaubasadam. Mina elan pildil paremal kuskil seal kus on palju punaseid katuseid.

On the left there is the river that in the distance turns into the sea. On the left behind the building wth the red roof you can see the zoo. Straight onwards from the canal in the back is the bigger cargo harbour. I am living on the right on this picture, somewhere where all those red roofs can be seen. 

Loomaia kõrval olev plats, mis on kaetud suute kaladega, millest on siiski parem aru saada hotelli platvormilt / A square next to the zoo, covered with big fishes. A better place to see them from is the already mentioned platform.  

Loomaaias käisime ka Mirelliga, see oli väga lahe kogemus. Eriti kuna see loomamaed oli tehtud nii huvitavaks nii loomadele kui ka inimestele (loomade koha pealt nii tundus, ega ma enda pead selle eest ei anna et nemadki arvaksid et see lahe on). Pildil on näha ka jääkaru.

We also went to the zoo when Mirell visited and it was a really awesome experience. Especially because the zoo was built in the way that it was really interesting to both people and animals (at least it seemed like it could be more fun for animals than in the regular zoo, won't bet my life on whether the animals also think so). On the picture you can also see a polar bear. 

Hotelli taga olev oa/sõõriku kujuline maja on kliimamaja, kus saab kogeda kolme erinevat kliimat (vihmametsa, antartika ja kõrbe), nende kohta teadmisi koguda jne. Pole ise sinna veel jõudnud, kuid tundub huvitav ja kindlasti tahan minna. Kliimamaja kõrval on kaubanduskeskus Mediterraneo. Pildil näeb ka silda, mis üle kanali selle kabanduskeskuse ja ühe teise kaubanduskeskuse ühendab.

Behind the hotel there is the bean/donut shaped building. It is the climate house where you can experience three different climates (rainforest, Antarctica, desert), learn about them etc. I have not visited that place yet, but it sounds interesting so I wanna do it one day. On the picture you can also see a bridge that connects two shopping centres on the other sides of the canal. 

See samune sild/tunnel seest / The same mentioned bridge/tunnel from the inside

Kliimamaja ja kaubanduskeskust ühendav kena ja valgusrikas osa, kus on mõnus vahepeal jalga puhata kui suuremal shopingutuuril oled. / This area connects the climate house and the shopping centre, making it a nice and light-filled place where you could rest your legs during a longer shopping day. 

Mediterraneo kabanduskeskus ise, kus poed on kujundatad kui väikesed majakesed kuskil vahemere ääres. /  The Mediterraneo shopping centre, where the shops are decorated as little houses somewhere around the Mediterranean sea, as the name implies. 

Kõik see jõeäärne ala on väga hea koht chillimiseks. / The area next to the river is the perfect place for chilling. 

Teiselpool jõge on näha suuremat tehast, mis mõne inimese arust vaadet rikub. Igapäevaselt sõidavad mööda ka suuremad kaubalaevad. / On the other side of the river you can see a bigger factory, which is rather ruining the view for some people. There are also bigger containerships driving past every day. 

Chillida saab nii eelneval pildil oleval kivist alal kui ka murul / It is possible to chill on the solid area that was seen on the last picture, but also on the grass. 

Oleme siiski rahul, et meil siin peaaegu meri on. / We are still pretty satisfied that we have our 'almost sea' in here. 

Mõned majad minu koolist. Kool koosneb kaheksast majast, mis on tähistatud erinevate tähtedega. / Some houses that are part of the university - it consists of 8 houses, marked with different letters. 

Vaade neile samadele koolimajadele majast kus mul enamus tunnid on. / The view on the same houses from the school house that I have most of my lessons in. 

Kooli minnes ja vahest ka koolis sees on vaade sellisele tornile. Torne ja muid sarnaseid on siin mitmeidki. / On the way to school and also sometimes from the school I have the view to that tower. There are plenty of towers and similar things in this city.   

Ka siin on tänavakunst üpriski moes (võib-olla meenub, et tegin päris ammu ka Leeuwardenis olles sellest postituse) / Seems like street art is also pretty popular in here (I made a post about street art in Leeuwarden a long time ago) 

Bremenhavenis on muuseum Saksa väljarändurite kohta. Ei tea kuhu nad siis rändasid ja miks, aga siin on sellele pühendatud kuju. / There is a museum of German emigrants in Bremerhaven. Don't know where did they go and why, but here is a statue dedicated to that.  

Nagu ma mainisin, meeldib inimestele siin maju kenasti värviliseks värvida. Näiteks siin on meie pubitänav. / Like I already mentioned before, people like to colour their houses in this city. For example here is our pubstreet. 

Üheks näiteks värvilistest majadest on ka minu maja, milleks on see roheline seal. / Another example can be my own house, which is the green one in here. 

Kirik ja mingi tähtsama väljanägemisega maja minu bussipeatuse juures. / Church and a more important looking house next to my bus-stop. 

Kui juba bussipeatusi mainida, siis millegi pärast peavad nad siin vajalikuks panna bussipeatused tagurpidi, klaas tee poole, et kenasti bussi ei saaks. / As I already mentioned bus-stops, I should also mention that for some reason they like to put the bus-stops the other way around on the streets. With the glass facing the street, so you could not go to the bus easily. 

Käisime Mirelliga ka ühes suuremas pargis siin, mis oli peaaegu et mets nii mõningaski kohas. Seda on tore teada, arvestades et meie jaoks oli alati probleem see kui vähe me metsa nägime kõik see aeg Hollandis elades. / We also visited a bigger park in here that was more like an actual forest. That is really good to know as all that time we lived in the Netherlands it really bothered us how less forest we saw. 

Blogipostituse oleks paslik lõpetada sellise vähe muhedama pildiga / This picture seemed like a suitable way to end that blog post. 

Mõistsin just et kuna see postitus annab päris hea ülevaate Bremerhavenist, pole enam kellegil vaja meile külla tulla :D / I just realised that now that I have given the overview of Bremerhaven, no one really needs to visit us anymore :D