lassie_fury_flipper

LassieFuryFlipper moved to wordpress

2011-08-25T07:57:00.001-07:00

Hej there,
please find me here:
http://lassiefuryflipper.wordpress.com/

Rijeka, Rijeka

2011-08-24T00:58:00.000-07:00

as you may have noticed, I am lagging behind poating about all the trips to the sea side, but in Rijeka so much has happened that I just gonna jump right here.
THe first festival is comming up and everything is going well so far, we just had the posters up around town and they look fantastic, Tunred out that one of my current flatmates is the graphic designer of it. Small world.
I have overcome my initial exhaustion and dragged myself to the bars and cafes of the city at night, which are still rather unpopulated, but slowly people are coming back to town. I got to know a lot of wonderful people, checked out some clubs, cafés and beach bars and had some quality time with the little cat and the dog that live in my apartment.

*apparently, Blogger has a limited quota for uploading fotos. So I will move the blog somewhere else and let you know.*

a day on land - Kosljun

2011-08-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

Since Kim had been on a boat every single day, we decided to give the island a try. Unfortunately, Kim stayed in a tiny village that was close to the dive basis, but kind of cut off from the everything else. So we checked out everything Dunat had to offer (a medieval church that looked like a pizza oven) and then hitchhiked to the next bigger Hamlet, Punat (ha, what a confusing pun).

In Punat, there was not much more to do, so we took a boat to go to Kosljun, a picturesque Franciscan monastery.

Krk Town

2011-08-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

The night before going to the boat trip, we met in Krk for dinner, since Kim was staying in a very small village, that had one tiny supermarket. Krk town is soemwhat bigger and boasts a rich nightlife, but we went back to Kornic quite early to get enough beauty sleep.

The Krk diveboat daytrip

2011-08-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

As I said, I went to visit Kim on Krk on the first weekend in Rijeka. We went on a daytrip with the diveboat, also I did not dive this time. But it was wonderful be on the water and jump in while the real divers struggeld witha ll their gear... I did not take that many pictures, so here jsut a few glimpses at the blue...

the empty beach in the early morning

the full beach when we came back

on Ilovik, the island of flowers

2011-08-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

or so it's called. Two excursion boats dropped off their load onto this picturesque island, that was lying still in its beauty sleep....

brief look at Cres

2011-08-14T04:52:00.000-07:00

I noticed that the blog is way behind reality, I have arrived in Rijeka last week already, spent the first days working and trying to settle in, while only now people start to come back from their holidys...
Kim spend 10days on the island of Krk, Croatias biggest island close to Rijeka, where she did not spent much time out of the water or on its surface. I visited her twice and went diving too, but sadly she had to return to a rainy cold Cologne yesterday.

But you sitll don't knwo anything about our pedal boat adventures on Cres!
From Mali Losinj we took a bus to the Island of Cres, another picturesque place a bit further up North (and thus closer to my final destination, Rijeka). Unfortunately, the lady in the Hotel in Mali Losinj failed to give me back my ID, which we discovered when we checked in in Cres. So I took the next bus back there, and traveled the same route three times in a row. So I can say I do know Cres almost by heart now. When I got back it was too late to rent a scooter as we planned to, and also renting things there was not a matter of spontaneity, so all we could get was a pedal boat. Sounds lame, but, hey, look at the pictures!

at night we headed out for a yummy dinner with fresh fish after checking the web at our aperitivo... ;-)

Dreiinselausflug/threeislandexcursion

2011-08-08T05:16:00.000-07:00

From Mali Losinj, there are plenty of boats that take you to the nearby islands - you can hop into the water and get freshly grilled food on board.

breakfast, in matching colours

our boat, home for the day

swimming in turquois waters....

to Mali Losinj and around there

2011-08-08T03:22:00.000-07:00

on the ferry boat, lounging and reading for 6 hours

fooooood: Cevapi (not so good at the coast), Pag cheese, fish and beer of course

harbour views

we actualyl rented bikes for an hour and drove to the other side of the island. I was lucky to snap a picture without any bathing people in it, since there were the big hotels and a campsite.

sunset

off to the islands...

2011-08-05T04:59:00.000-07:00

First Stop in Zadar...

sunrise somewhere on the road by the sea after Split

very first early morning coffee (i think it was around 8am), with already way too many tourists around

sort of self portrait in the mirror of a EUFOR car from Bosnia. The text is actually quite funny...

Sarajevo tramways

2011-08-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

organic vegan food in Bosnia

2011-08-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

yes, there is something like that!

Wim and me

2011-07-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

Wim Wenders presented his Film PINA about Wuppertaler choreographer Pina Bausch here in Sarajevo. The 3D screening was in a the old socialist Youth House in Skenderija, and had its very own atmosphere to it.

we sat quite close to Wim (and I did not use the zoom):

They even had spotlights...

more fotos here

apart from all the circus, Sarajevans keep down to earth

(laundry hanging right opposite the entrance to one of the cinemas)

dogs in space

2011-07-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

on my way into the city, usually some of the dogs that live at the place I am staying follow me. Yesterday they were enough to attract the attention of these fellas:

and this is Mala, the mother of the puppies, here peacefully asleep on the kitchen floor. Usually she wakes up at 5 in the morning and demands some sort of affection by forcibly opening the doors between her and any human being.

come film, come rain

2011-07-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

Just in time for the start of the filmfestival heavy rainclouds arrivedthat have constantly drained their freight onto the city for the last two days now. Perfect weather for watching films.

heralding future weather conditions

2011-07-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

the reason for the "s" in sunsets...

2011-07-24T02:24:00.000-07:00

... is this, only blogger.com had some problems ubloading...

sevda music

2011-07-23T07:08:00.000-07:00

Sarajevo Sunsets: view from the window

2011-07-22T02:16:00.000-07:00

the first night alone in over a week was accompanied by some internetting and reading next to the open living room window gazing out on the nightly town...

Sarajevo sunsets

2011-07-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

The week in Stuttgart came and went in a blaze, so many wonderful new colleagues from all over the Balkans, so much information, and more than 7kg of books and papers to read and study... my luggage is bursting! Luckily, the bus ride to Sarajevo went super smooth and I even had two seats for myself, which made it all more comfortable.

The first day in Sarajevo was spent with my host Salih and some friends in a mountain cabin on the way to the waterfalls, where I went hiking the last time I was here. We drove up in a car and had wonderful food and wine, and an amazing sunset in haystacks.

on an island without a vowel close to the river

2011-06-27T09:21:00.000-07:00


Landart? gegenüber war Lidl-Werbung

yes, we went to Krk too. But only to the nearest village, had coffee, laid in the sun (some dipped into the water - not me), strolled over the antique fair and enjoyed ourselves.

Rovinj...

2011-06-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

Instead of working on my long due tax declaration, I set out to the equally important task of cleaning up my computer and backing up my data. Flipping through the fotos I realized that you have no clue how Rijeka and the surroundings look like. so have a look.

Please note that August and September are already fully booked.

We took a boat trip to a close-by island

The water was really cold, really!

self-portray

rose petals from a wedding (we got cake)

Drama sunset

Rijeka, the dreamy apartment

2011-06-26T02:39:00.000-07:00

Sarajevo!

2011-05-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few pictures a photographer took I befriended while in Sarajevo. I have way too many myself to present them all here. These are from a walk up to the old k.- und k. Kaserene overlooking the city from one of the hills.

all photos courtesy of Branimir Prijak.

Jajce - this time for real

2011-05-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

Like everything, also our language course had to come to an end. Some of us headed on to Sarajevo, and this time we deciced to actually take the right direction and stop over in Jajce. Which we did, and I was even happier we got to see Bihac too. In Jajce traces of the war were even more visible and the aura of despair clung to the city.

peace doves on the wall of the former (=socialist) youth centre

the destroyed kiosk next to the waterfall park, a potential tourist attraction

in the AVNOJ Museum*

Jajce, once upon a time

Franciscan church

the last picture my camera took before the batteries died

the tower above stari grad

2011-05-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

when we went up to the old town, we noticed an old tower even furhter up the mountain. The locals said, it would take at least 3hrs to get up there, but in disbelieve we set out to hike up there one day after class. It took us about an hour and a half, and we were rewarded with a stunning view and red wine in the sunset.

the omnipresent bulletholes

walking around the old (and only) factory

2011-05-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

Kljuc prides itself in having beautiful and clean nature all around, the honey is produced organically. This, of course, is the one side of the medal. The other is the immense and widespread unemployment due to the lack of any industry. The old timber factory is supposedly fully functional, but since the war there is disagreement about the ownership. Thus, the factory is just sitting there, slowly decaying in her own tragic beauty...

in and around Kljuc

2011-05-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

the city museum ...

ancient tools, hands on policy

dusty....

Tito

the mosque in Kljuc

a present from the Saudis (it even says so on the carpets)

that sign we did not pass when we ended up in Bihac

on the Catholic cemetery

the Muslim cemetery

Jajce - ähm, Bihac

2011-05-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

Some other day we wanted to explore the surroundings of Kljuc and agreed to take a trip to Jajce, the town where Bosnias medieval kings were crowned. We took off in two cars, unfortunately our well travelled posse took the wrong direction, which we discovered a fews ks ahead of Bihac (which is in the opposite direction). We made teh best of it and payed this town a visit, that made it into the news as one of teh heavily fought about enclave of moslems in the serbian territory.

Ruins of a church, destroyed already in the second World War

Bullethole in the window of the city museum (closed)

the Una river in the city centre

"We are Europeans"

touristically friendly

the mosque, the adjacent buildings pecked with bulletholes

entrance of the post office

cevapi at the river banks

Rockparade am Frauentag

2011-05-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

A socialist remnant is the celebration of the Womens Day, which was celebrated on march 8th. The whole course went out to a bar that night, and all the girls wore skirts.

snow on the retreat

2011-04-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

As the image hints at, the sun slowly made its way through the grey clouds and did a good job on the snow...

stari grad in snow

2011-04-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

probably because the organizers knew about the lacking quality of their language instructions, the fed us very well to keep the spirits up. And because we were only eating and sitting all day, we tried to get some exercise whenever we could. One day some youngsters we met through our teacher took us up the hill to stari grad, which translates to "old town", but means an old fortress overlooking the village, either used to protect or to besiege its inhabitants.

an old tower and the grave of an Ottoman nobleman

Livia, Conny, Yan

our "boys" and Conny


the first Muslim cemetry we could get used to

Bonjour Tristesse: Kljuc

2011-04-15T02:24:00.000-07:00

The weather had a great impact on our perception of the village of Kljuc. You can see how this changed later on...

a sign that will gain momentum later on... ;-)

Preminger is a local beer brewed in Bihac

our "bunker"

omnipresent cemetry, right in front of the "bunker"


merging seasons

Zvončići, Zvončići: On the way to Ključ

2011-04-15T01:24:00.000-07:00

We left Teslić in the morning to leave for our final destination: Ključ, where we were supposed to have our language course.


In Banja Luka

First stop in Bosnia: Teslić

2011-04-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Teslić is a smalltown in the Serbian part of Bosnia, the Republika Srpska. It used to be an industrial centre, but is now merely known for Banja Vrucica with its hot springs and a spa. We stayed in a hotel that apparently survived the war and the post-war-times unchanged... it looked eeryly liek in the 60s, and teh fact that we were among the only guests this time of year made it a perfect setting for a horro movie. I slept quite well though... ;-)

snowsprinkled Zagreb in early march

2011-04-14T14:59:00.000-07:00


Mala Kavana, the famous café from our language book

Ban Jelacic statue


w/ TIna who happende to be in town for work


Cathedral

"Kunu", akuzativ of "kuna", the Croatian currency

me next to the statue of the first female journalist


a knight fighting the dragon


Diesel add poster in the hostel kitchen

na putu - on the road

2011-04-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

ok, I know it is a bit late to blog about the Balkan Trip now, but soem say better late than never. And althoug I have returned to Berlin for about two weeks now, I only now have the time to post some pictures here and recollect the time that already feels ages ago - because places, people and habits became so familiar that they are somewhat missed by now... but let's start with our first stop: Zagreb!

last foto before we hit the road... in Munich it was still sunny, but that was soon to change...

Austria

Slovenia

das war München...

2011-03-02T01:08:00.000-08:00

auf nach Zagreb

Ihr könnt nicht sagen, wir hätten von nichts gewußt

2011-02-24T13:03:00.000-08:00

Terrorwarnung, Vorratsdatenspeicherung und das Kaufen von illegal erworbenen Bankdaten aus der Schweiz - 1984 nähert sich schleichend doch mit großenb Schritten. Neuester Clou: die Kriminalisierung der Uni-Protest-Bewegung in Wien:
http://fm4.orf.at/stories/1676765/

Warum ich beim Nacktscanner am Flughafen an meine Krankenversicherung denken muss, steht bei Juli Zeh in Corpus Delicti.

introducing: untranslatable words

2011-02-22T00:55:00.000-08:00

Did you ever come across a word that expressed perfectly what you want to utter - only in a different language? And when you start to explain you notice different connotations concepts have and how much of the fine details change when translating. A group of artists have made the effort to collect untranslateable words and describe what they mean and how to use them, thus we can broaden our vocabulary and score some extra eloqunece points at the next dinner party.

Check out the online version of the book, where you can also download it:
http://www.untranslatables.net/

My favourite word for today: Fika

"You can say “let’s fika!” to someone when you want to take a break from work, or even when you want to go on a date."

Trieste

2011-02-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

zu hause im Winter....

2011-01-09T07:33:00.000-08:00

sweet dreams are made of this

2010-10-24T12:45:00.000-07:00

As you know, I moved house and spent quite some time setting it up and decorating.
It took a while to get some pictures up, but now I finally wanna share at least my room with you.

the bless of hosting friends

2010-10-24T02:53:00.000-07:00

Munching away on my cornlakes, I realized that is already a week the reason how I ended up with cornflakes, which I usually rarely eat.
The attentive longtime reader of this blog might remember my stay in Australia - OMG, already sooo long ago. I went to a surf camp to finally learn how to master them goddam waves. With a group of people, we were taken up the coast all the way from Sydney to Byron Bay, stopping at various places to be dipped into the sea. Although it felt a bit like a schooltrip without teachers (we had a massive party on the rolling bus with people saltoing in the aisle), there were some nice people I was actually to meet again thanks to facebook.
One of them payed am a visit in Berlin last weekend. Ciaran, a police officer now living in Perth was on home duty in Ireland for a family affair and hopped over here for a few days. City Slicker as I am , I wasn't quite prepared or the veggie-denying meat-only attitude towards food of real men. I hope it was rather out of curiosity than pure despair, Ciaran bought his brekky favs and thus left me with cornflakes, eggs and cheese. Thank you, Ciaran!
I really hate giving the tourist tour, mainly because most of the Berlin sights are located in Mitte where I hardly ever go if I don't have to. I might do this part of town wrong, but Berlin looks like any capital with its sights there and not at all what it is loved for.
Apart from freshing up my memories of Berlins sights, Ciaran made me another wonderful gift I cannot thank him enough for: he tuned my guitar! Turns out he plays a bit himslef and I seized the chance and got mine from her hiding place on the wardrobe. Now she actually sounds like a guitar again and not liek some torture instrument. I also found my note sheet and practised some yesterday. One step towards fulfilling my new years resolution ;-)

breakfast at home

2010-09-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

On tuesdays, I usually work from hoem and ahve time to endulge in home made breakfast goodies (like chocolate-zucchini-cake and a massive milky coffee)

summer rain

2010-09-13T14:06:00.001-07:00

now that summer is over and autumn has officially cast its wet shadow, time to post the first heavy rain of the end of summer...
early august, sonnenallee.

Berlin im August

2010-09-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

sky in the colour of strawberry icecream

home at last

2010-08-08T02:20:00.000-07:00

phew, with a long week of work and the big move behind me, I settled into decorating. The new place is wonderful, and becomes more and more my home with every postcard I put on the wall.
The move went smoothly, althoug I underestimated the exhaustion Ikea-Shopping causes. But now, I finally have a bed again after sleeping on a matrass on the floor for the last half year. I even painted a wall ight grey, which I am quite proud of.

This morning I received a sign from heaven. Remember "my friend Elvis"? I was just working on the decoration of the hallway, some neighbour played the best of Elvis tunes loud and clear, supposedly from vinyl. Guess that means I arrived - for now.

summer food: GP

2010-07-25T02:50:00.000-07:00

the other day at a friends place a food craving overcame us and we had chilled gazpacho, which is basically blended salad. I never new that it was made from raw veggies and ever since fell addicted to it. It is easy to make, you don't need to stand at the stove in 35° heat and gives you a vitamin boost.
I was super excited, made heaps and took it with me to work for my lunch break. Unfortunately, I put a lot of garlic in it and smelled really bad for the rest of the day.. ;-)

good people drive old cars

2010-07-25T02:17:00.000-07:00

... at least so I assume.
foudn this one in front of a supermarket in Neukölln, Weserstr a few weeks ago when looking for apartments.

fields of gold in the summer heat

2010-07-25T01:31:00.000-07:00

last time going back to Berlin, I could not help but snap a few pictures from the train window.

l'ufficio

2010-07-20T03:00:00.000-07:00

what a pleasant suprise to find orginal Mulino Bianco cookies in the kitchen this morning at work...

Anne, Fußball und Musik

2010-06-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

Das Gute an Berlin ist, dass einen alle besuchen kommen wollen. So auch Anne letztes Wochende, das extra ihr zu Ehren in der Fete de la Musique mündete. Wir sahen viel Sonne, Fußball unter freiem Himmel,

Currywurst,

Singer-Songwriter,

Latin-Ska nach dem Chile-Spiel,

eine Bigband mit Swingmusik und ein paar Grillwürstchen, und zum krönenden Abschluss das Adriano-Celentano-Gebäckorchester, seitdem ich einen Ohrwurm und Textkenntnisse von "Azzuro" habe.

Biennale, Baby

2010-06-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

Wir sind ja nicht nur Papst, alle Lena und nun auch im 8tel Finale, was mir eigentlich herzlich egal ist. Aber gekuckt habe ich trotzdem, weil es bei der Biennale so langweilig und eh keiner da war.
Lustig ist, dass dort der Großteil der wie ich in lila American Apparel T-shirts gewandeten nicht Deutsch ist und sich so immer wieder interessante Fan-Konstellationen ergeben. Und da der Betrieb eher mäßig ist, ist ein Schwätzchen immer sehr willkommen und Fußball ein guter Aufhänger.
Leider bekommt die Biennale nciht die besten kritiken (und ich habe den gesamten Presse-Ordner durchgelesen!), was ich allerdings auch verstehen kann. Aber da sie mir geld geben, will ich mich hier nicht weiter kritisch auslassen. Kommt und shet selber!

Hercules, not Pegasus

2010-06-16T05:45:00.000-07:00

the other when I was riding my bike around Neukölln in search for a new apartment, I was so scared that my bike would finally break down. Damn you, ebay! So I stopped at one of those all so berlinese famous junk shops, usually run by fellow citizens with a migrant background. There were two beautiful old bikes outside, and after some barganinig, one of them was mine.

Now, after cleaning it, I really feel I was out of my mind yesterday.

my new favourite: the Turkish Market

2010-06-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago a freind took me to the turkish market, held every Tuesday and Friday along the canal at Maybachufer. Ever since then I am in love with the atmosphere, especially in summer you crwal your way through masses of old turkish mamas, locals, tourists and just all those Berliners who do not need to work and can spend a whole day browsing through the fresh fruits and veggies. As did we, actually the first we bought so much fruit that we could not even eat it all and my went bad pretty soon. But, it was cheap and we had a marvellous picnic at a canal terrace with dried tomatoes, cream cheese, turkish bread and other goodies.
Usually, there are also bands playing and it is a wonderful crowd and is at the top of my Berlin to-dos.

And, almost equally good as food, they also sell fabric for a mere 2€ a meter! Yay! I stocked up on some dark blue cotton that would have cost me 15€/m in the fabric store. Sewing machine, here we go!

time has passed

2010-06-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

...since the last blog entry. well, it has seen a new job, a baking spree (zucchini chocolate and carrot yogurt cake, most of all), new projects, people, hobbies, changes, changes, changes.
And it keeps going.
two new jobs, one at the Berlin Biennale, and signs are set for moving house.
I will try to keep you updated... anyway :-)

Pflaumenkuchen!

2010-04-10T05:19:00.000-07:00

Always concerned about a healthy diet and in an attempt to eat more and more diverse fruit, I bought a bag of plums at my local Lidl. Unofortunately, they were so sour, the I could not eat them. So wht do you make of plums...? Cake!

all wholewheatflour and sweetened with honey - how healthy! ;-)

Tristans Housewarming

2010-03-28T11:49:00.001-07:00

Ok, I know I have not been keeping up with this Blog, but nevertheless I wanted to share some pix of our new flatmate from Sydnee, Tristan. Although I miss Jessica a lot of course, who went to Barcelona for a few months, it is nice to hear an Aussie accent at home - just how it should be ;-)
So here a few pix of his housewarming:

food

Tristan and Christoph, Nadins boyfriend and Nadin herself

Johannes, a German who studied in Sydney and some girl

Tristans better half Luke trying to open a beer the German way

Spring is here...

2010-03-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

Spreeblick vom Radialsystem

... my bike fixed, my thighs shaping up and Berlin gets better and better!
Work is wonderful (not only do we have the best coffee machine in the whole wide world in the office), but we conducted a lot of amazingly interesting interviews with some of Berlins creatives, my own side project about Balkan music and its influence on the Balkan image is slowly taking shape , but fingers crossed I might not even need to create my own job anymore...there are prospects ahead ;-)
so far, have a lovely week and enjoy the sunshine!

How to be creative

2010-03-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

Hints For Better Living from Mike Afsa on Vimeo.

blood in my dancing shoes

2010-03-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

it took along long time, but I finally got my ass up to dive into Berlin Swing Dance Scene. This weekend, I took a workshop which meant 3hrs of sweat, pain and tears (and smelly dancing partners) each day. I did it at Bebop Berlin, and have to say it was wonderful! so next time you spot me on a dancefloor I'll be doing this

well, sorta

but to really make my feet bleed, there was the balkan beats party on last night and after checking out the opening ot the 11mm football filmfestival, me and Ioana, a Balkan music crazy friend from Romania I worked with for interfilm went right there.
After having danced to the to the well known and deeply loved sounds of Dj Robert Sokol, there was a live act from Switzreland, the Gypsy Sound System who put on an amazing show!

"This is a whisper of life that uses wild winds to reach every heart which wants to be free "

bald mehr...

2010-03-08T16:04:00.000-08:00

hierüber

meet my bike

2010-03-07T15:45:00.000-08:00

I bough a bike on ebay, but unfortunately, it does not seem to work... I brought to a bike store near the office, but they could not fix it yet... but this how it looks like:

not too bad, you say. Exactly what I thought. Untill I pedalled my legs off to get to work because the third gear is not working... I hoped they'd fix by the weekend, but then the weather got bad again and so I do not mind too much...

me and my Ranga

2010-03-07T08:56:00.001-08:00

eastern fever: Ljubljana

2010-02-25T14:46:00.000-08:00

Jugendstil

a small art festival just was just over

in a book shop

faculty of arts

streetart (there is a separate post waiting)

Olympics!

Slovenia on the way back

The idea of a tour d'est has been dozing in the back of my mind ever since I first heard about what was soon to become the former Yugoslavia. Follow the highway of brotherhood an unity from Ljubljana to Zagreb, pass Jasenovac, watch the concrete turn into a gravel piste until you enter the endless dark grey outskirts of Belgrade, the city that is white no more but grey. From there to Belagertessarajewo, follow the wind towards the sea then head into the mountains to Podgorica, Pristina, Skopje...
Well, Ljubljanas gentle cool breeze tickelt this idea and woke it up, now it is stretching and groaning as I do when I am getting up...

berlinale is over...

2010-02-21T08:48:00.001-08:00

... my visitors left and I finally get back to a still unstable working routine. Browsingsthrought he pictures I took in Ljubljana, I feel my Fernweh comming up again... ;-)
more pictures soon to come...

Venice in Winter

2010-02-21T07:52:00.000-08:00

On my way back I felw out of Venice /Treviso airport and luckily, the cheapest flight back to Cologne was around 7pm, so I had a full day wandering Venice - right in time before teh Carnival and with a little less tourists... after a weekend of greyish snowish dizziness, Venice presented itself in the most magnificent sunshine...

Miramar Castle

2010-02-21T07:47:00.003-08:00

Close to Trieste is Miramar Castle, errected for Kaiser Maximilian von Österreich..

Berlinale!

2010-02-15T15:12:00.003-08:00

Film festival, full house, cool job (not related!)
yay!

Österreich am Meer

2010-02-15T15:12:00.001-08:00

Now that winters grip on Berlin loosens, the thick layers of ice on the sidewalks start melting and become even more hazardous, the sunshine inspires me to share a few impressions from Trieste...at least now I don't need to fear your hatred caused by envy of the sunshine... :-)

out of office

2010-02-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

sorry for the lack of posts, I have been busy at the filmfestival Trieste, spend a wonderful time there, in Slovenia and Venice and am back in Berlin now, where I start a new job soon and the Berlinale is comming up - so it might take a while till I get back to posting...

Kölsch in Berlin....

2010-01-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

... scheint kein großer Verkaufsschlager zu sein.

So gesehen beim Späti nextdoor. aber Früh schmeckt ja auch scheiße, ehrlich gesagt.

long time no blog

2010-01-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

I know, I knwo, it's been a while - quite a long while, my apologies!
Christmas finally came and wet, it was sooooo much better in the cold, with a bit of dirt white snow around, the whole family together, cooking, eating, drinking, chatting the time away... beautiful.
And finally it felt like a new year lay ahead, with temperatures dropping way below zero and thick white snow for days and weeks. New years was my last party with Claudi in Berlin for a while, she is on her way back to Vienna.
Then Lauren, the friend of a friend from Melbourne came over to stay with me for a while and brought with her some Melbourne air. I got to knoew Berlin a lot better, doing the tourist thing for the first time since I live there. We discovered a lot of new places, went to an Aussie concert, a bar in a squat, had Russian food and got to check out some truly genuine street art.
Although I registered as unemployed, jobwise 2010 started quite pomising, and I hope things will develop from there on.
Now back at my parents place for a week to clean out my grandmas house delving in olden treasures, I enjoy a lot of family time, cooking and bonding with Andi the dog.
Next week I will finally leave Germany again for the first time since I got back and head down to Italy to volunteer for the Trieste Filmfestival. Exciting times ahead, 2010 here we go!

Holy Shit - Shopping!

2009-12-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

Chrismas is comming closer and with it the need for presents. This year seems to be a tough one - everyone seems to have everything and it is really hard to come up with good, affordable ideas.
Enter Holy Shit Shopping, a fancy design Christmas market under the protecting roof of the Postbahnhof. heaps of stalls from designers, crafters, labels, publishers, artists for the cool kids (and their kids).

unfortunately, some stallholders were reluctant to have their picture taken, so I had to steal all theier ideas in my head only. But I got ome nice input for a future craft session ;-)

Training for Christmas

2009-12-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

After our massive cooky-bake-session in out kitchen the other day, Claudi and I decided to train our stomachs for chrismas. Because we botha lready had too much coffee, we decided to give Kuchentraum, a sweet cafe here in Friedrichshain a try.
the had this little treat:

cheesecake with Spekulatius cookies in it! very wintery! and a good idea! yum!

b*day goodies #3

2009-12-13T12:57:00.000-08:00

Kristofer Aströhm!!!
was a bit boring with shallow lyrics and a horrible sound system, which I blame on the technicians at Magnet Club. But nice swedish pop music, a couple of beers and a chilly night out with my lovely flatmates...

b*day goodies #2

2009-12-13T12:48:00.000-08:00

I passed a wonderful birthday with yummy sushi

and Claudi at the Christmas market at Gendarmenmarkt in the inner city

which was a bit too posh and expensive, so we went to the Lucia Christmas Market at the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauerberg, which was much nicer. We had Maroni and Bratwurst and finnish hot wine... delicious!

tehn we went to Claudis place to meet up with her flatmate and some freinds of hers, who wanted to do a job-finding seminar by themselves. Turns out they are gonna pay a job consultant because we had fun but could not really help each other. But it was fun none the less.

b*day goodies

2009-12-07T05:45:00.000-08:00

it is my birthday once again and as you might know I am not particulrarly fond of this date. But there are people who make it wonderful: my flatmates suprised me with a candle lit cake and some Sekt at midnight, we sat in the kitchen and drank and talked. And we are gonna go to a concert of Kristofer Aström, tomorrow night! Yay!
Today I met Claudi for coffee, one more chance to get you another coffee-newspaper-pic

Plus, I made myself some presents of my own... a goregeous vintage dress with red flowers that looks heaps better than on this picture

I found it in a vintage store in Kreuzberg a while ago, and it was relatively cheap considering Berlins exorbitant prices for Vintage clothes. It was missing a button and smelled a bit, so I fixed it and took it to the dry cleaner - and picked it up today, so it counts as a birthdaypresent.
Also some time ago I stumbled upon this lovely booklet with Elvis punch outs (yay yay!!):

Later on we are heading to one of the many chrismas markets to get some mulled wine. Yay yay yay!

ps. it is kinda scary how many internet services remebered my birthday - the picture in the header is taken from my Germanwings email... uahh, wa too much information about me on the net!

thank god I'm outta there

2009-12-05T04:38:00.002-08:00

In Perugia, a trial came to its close that has shook not only Italy but the whole world. Perugia, the little sleepy mountian town tucked away in the central Italian mountains has till that day been a haven for foreign students, until British Meredith Kercher was murdered by her American flatmate Amanda Knox with the help of her then boyfriend, Italian Rafffaele Sollecito. Both have been condmmed to long sentences.
read the articles here
in German
in Italian
it even made it to Australia

hooked up on SEE

2009-12-05T04:38:00.001-08:00

by chance I stumbled upon a conference held here in Berlin by the Heinz Schwarzkopf Stiftung. The title "After the wars - the Western Balkans facing the European Union" promised an interesting day of various panels with interesting speakers - and it was even more so! The audence was high class aswell: Ambassadors, Scientists, Politicians plus me and three other students. It was awesome though and perfect to get back on track with my studies.

After a day of presentations and discussions, they drove us in a bus to the Kino Babylon to see Storm, a film about a prosecutor at the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia). A great and moving film, that gives insights not only into the crimes committed (although fictional), but foremost into the practices of a criminal court and the moral problems arising from the quest for justice and for peace. After the film there was a Q&A with the director, a judge from the ICTY and the director of the Berlinale, Mr. Kosslik. The latter was mostly annoying, being ill prepared, talking about other films unknown to the audience and not using his microphone properly. Plus, his English was horrible!
Speaking of which, another thing I was really ashamed of: all of the Southeast European speakers were perfectly fluent in English, able to articulate themselves in an understandable way - enter the Germans: apart from a few exemptions, most of teh Germans English was a pain in the ear and almost incomprehensible. And we are in Europe!

Ja, Panik!

2009-12-05T04:33:00.000-08:00

Spending more time at home at my beloved computer, I get to listen to my favourite radio station, Viennas fm4. Thatswhy I am more aquainted with teh Austrian music scene right now and have to say it is not the worst. Apart from fm4 being a super good station, with most of its programmes in English presented by NATIVE SPEAKERS (yes, Germany, there are native speakers in Vienna and they can work and enrich the cultural sphere!), Austrain music seems much more innovative to me than most of the German stuff one gets to hear on highly inferior Berlin radio stations.
Anyway, it was there I first encountered up and comming Austrian band "Ja, Panik!". As everyone else, they call themselves indie, sing German lyrics and come across much more sophisticated and intellectual than most German Deutschrockbands they are compared with. As you might have noticed I still have not discovered Berlins lure, but apparently it attracted Ja,Panik!s frontman and the whole band recently moved here. Lucky me, so I could go and see them perform at Festsaal Kreuzberg.

a perfect day: food, art, music

2009-11-28T10:11:00.000-08:00

today was despite the wintery weather a perfect day so far: got up, worked a bit, had a yummy breakfast, went to the museum with my flatmate Jessica. Here you can see her in a reflexion

We spend over 3hrs in the various exhibitions and were pretty beaten by teh time we had seen everything. What a massive museum - there is no better way to spend a grey, rainy afternoon in Berlin!

and where I've been after that ...

2009-11-28T10:04:00.000-08:00

... right after interfilm I took a train south east and ended up in Cottbus, where I worked for the 19. Cottbus Filmfestival. THe festival focuses on Eastern European film, and working as front of house for one of the bigges cinemas, I got to meet a lot of exciting directors and was actually abel to peak into some amazing films. Of course, I liked the Southeastern the best.
Plus, the cinema was gorgeous! One of the oldest purpose-built cinemas in Germany, Europe - the whole world! it has a stunning beaty and a art nouveaux style.

where I´ve been...

2009-11-25T15:41:00.000-08:00

as you might have noticed, I have been hiding for the last couple of weeks...
here is a hint of what I did in early November:

Link:

if you have a closer look and some stamina, you can actually see me ;-)

home sweet home

2009-10-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

due to public demand, I let you into my bedroom (which is also my office and loungeroom)...
My room is rather small, it only has 14sqm, but because it has high ceilings, there is a sort of echo when I speak loud... so I tried to cover the walls in posters, which I try to replace with a bit more grown-up decoration. But hey, I just moved in!

artsy fartsy rock'n'roll

2009-10-25T04:12:00.003-07:00

A night of extraordinary splendor: Jung & Artig, the young supporters of the Berlinische Galerie called to a very special party in the gallery itself.
seldom have I seen so many sooo arsty people in one place, so übercool djs and visuals, giant blow-ups, real rock'n'roll and art, art, art

Thrifting Friedrichshain

2009-10-25T04:12:00.001-07:00

It is sunday again, and due to popular demand I will not tell you about yesterday in Cottbus and last nights extraordinary party at the Berlinische Galerie, but some more about me settling in.
I already told you about the Trödelmarkt here at Boxhagener Platz. I went there today again, which is a very trendy sunday thing to do, as I learned from all these Blogs about living in Berlin I discovered recently. Anyway, here are some impressions from my thrifting experience today:

if you look closely, you might recognize a mirror in my next post...

the women selling these rings made of old key board letters commented on the remark of a shopper on the rather high prices "I neither live nor work in China". true.

a furry rucksack

nationalsocialist literature dating 1944

REKI in Berlin

2009-10-25T04:10:00.001-07:00

I generally don't like facebook. But last week I got an unexpected message I was extremely happy about: Reki, the Japanese flatmate of my good friend Jiyeon in Melbourne stopped in Gerlin on her trip around the world. She had been in Berlin for the last past days already, but could not get on the net to contact me. Then she did, I send her my number and we actually met at the cinema Babylon, where we went to see some interfilm curated shortfilms. It was so great to see her and it was only then that I noticed my heavy Australian accent in my English.
We had a couple of beers and a nice talk about the good old times and suddenly Melbourne did not seem that far away.
She is off to Prague now and then Vienna and Budapest. I wish Reki all the best for her travels and hope to see her again some time.

note to self: get a new camera

2009-10-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

the other day I went home from work and had to wait for the subway, I disocovered an old gas filled balloon under the roof of the station. I loved the theme and tried hard to take a good picture of it which only revealed the short commings of my poor old crappy compact camera...
I feel sorry to say this because she served me so well, but I guess with Christams comming up her days are numbered...

my favourite combination

2009-10-25T03:45:00.000-07:00

Oh gosh, I gotta keep up with this blog! Time is running fast, so here just a short report while on a concert I went to last thursday...
My flatmate Nadin and her German though swedish speaking boyfriend (!!) told me about this guy from Göteborg playing in a nice littel club in Mitte. It is called Schokoladen and I had passed it by with Claudi somewhen. And a place with that name stuck to my memory like sticky melting chocolate to fingers... *yummm*
Anyway, that night there were three bands playing, the first were two guys fooling around with all kind of electronic stuff, a guitar, drums and a xylophone. With one track they were playing ping pong with the ball making sounds when it hit the table. Very funny. Unfortunately, I cannot remeber the name, but will definitely look it up for further concerts!

Then Björn Kleinhenzmann entered the stage, performing good old singer songwriter stuff. He got really pissed because there were so many talking while he was playing, which on the one hand was annoying indeed, but the way he complained made him look pretty arrogant. I liked his music anyway... and his way of mixmatching his socks!

The last band of the night looked somewhat familiar. They were called "like a stuntman" and after hours of torturing my mind where I had seen them before I simply googled them and guess what? They played back in the days of Skulptur Projekte Münster 07 at Initial! Oh what a small world

Helden

2009-10-20T14:15:00.000-07:00

Heroes are scarce in this world, and ever since superheroes have retired to the screen, we have to make our own heroes.
One of my mine back at uni was Holm Sundhausen, Professor for Southeastern European History at the Freie Universität Berlin. I have probably touched all the books he worked on, I cited him extensively in my Master Thesis and hardly came accross serious contradictions in his work. As with every hero, I idealize this man of course, nevertheless, I feel outright admiration for what he did and still does.
And now guess what: He presented his latest book, "Histroy of Serbia in the 19th and 20th century" at the Südost e.V. the other day! Of course I went there, listened and actually knew what they were talking about. Six years of uni finally made sense after all!

bloody camera...

Brunswick free ride

2009-10-18T14:27:00.001-07:00

All of you who always wanted to get an impression of where I lived the last month in melbs, here is video journey along Lygon Street and Brunswick Road... che nostalgia!

via athousandshipwrecks

Thrifting around Fridrichshain #2: The Trödelmarkt

2009-10-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

den Fernsehturm im Blick auf der Frankfurter Allee

I awoke this morning after a long night out with my flatmate Jessica in Mitte with a smile on my face and a glimpse of sunshine through the curtains: Sunday is fleamarket day! Tere is a big one around the corner here at Boxhagener Str. There was a grocery market yesterday, so I already knew the place and headed there straight away. Since I could not fit any more futniture in the car when I moved here, I had to leave all things chair behind, which is why I am sitting on a cardboard stool right now. But it serves me well, actually.
Anyway, I set out to find a nice and cosy armchair and actually found one! Here it is:
sorry for the bad foto, but it is late and Ulli urged me to post a picture. I promise more shots of my new room, as soon as I am satisfied with it!

Streetartig: F'hain

2009-10-18T13:59:00.001-07:00

While walking through my new 'hood', I could not help but notice all the paint on the walls. Instinctively looking out for familiar tags and figurs, I noticed a striking similarity among Melbourne and Berlin street artists...
here are some from the streets around Friedrichshain

something a bit more artsy

nice try

decoration outside a t-shirt shop

el bocho, whose work we saw in artsy fartsy gallery in Cologne

Thrifting around Fridrichshain #1

2009-10-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday started off slowly with a peek into the closes op shop. Humana at Frankfurter Allee is massive, 4 storey building stuffed with at times highly overprized second hand clothes. The quality is average, the clothes rather boring and apart from a range of large size 70s dresses nothing special. I bought two skirts for a total of 10€, but only because I needed something to go with my thick woolen pullovers. Second hand is a massive trend over here, and most of the shops sell basically crap at prices higher than the new stuff... Oh how I miss Melbourne!

After a few hours I needed a coffee and found this tiny little coffee hole

The latte was reasonably priced and finally big enough (though I did not like the ugly glass it came in), they had a wide range of European newspapers, that were a few days old though and unfortunately no Süddeutsche so I had to read Frankfurter Allgemeine.

WG Leben

2009-10-16T16:24:00.000-07:00

Finally, I am more or less settled in Berlin and after a stressful week at interfilm (I had a major mailout with over 2500 envelopes being printed and filled), we decided to have a nice calm night in with my new flatmates. They are lovely girls and it feels as if I have known them for ages.
Of course, now that it got pretty cold over here, our heating broke down, so we opted for hot food from the oven, to heat up at least the kitchen. The resulting veggie lasagne was delicious, we killed some bottels of wine andof course some chocolate bars, just sat in the kitchen chatting away about books and films and things ... a perfect homely evening

filmfestival count #3

2009-10-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

It is my year of filmfestivals, and I take whatever I can get :-)
Last week, it was the Filmfestival Münster, a week of short nights, long days, popcorn, lovely people, stress, beer and some films...

friendly faces behind the counter: me, Janine and Risna

PR Carsten, intern Daniela, drivers Volker and FLorian ... and guess who! at the festival party

find me here (after the award ceremony)

a substitude for garage sales

2009-09-26T02:44:00.000-07:00

another thing I loved about Melbourne were the garage sales in hidden backlanes, on sunny sundays with a hot coffee in a cardbord cup...
How happy was I to notice a poster announcing a Flohmarkt in Nippes! A Flohmarkt is a like a big garage sale, a flea market, where people have stands and sell pretty much every thing. Of course they are the best places for vintage hunters and of course, there are always more professional stalls that sell well sorted rarities...well, what can I say, I got some more animal jewelry: Beautiful art deco clip earrings

Berlin, Baby!

2009-09-17T15:12:00.002-07:00

besides the internship at the Kulturkirche, I started working for the interfilm shortfilm festival, I head over to the capital whenever I have a few days without off. Thank god, that my good friend Claudi is doing an internship there and gives me shelter every once in a while.
Berlin was said to be a cheap city, one of the cheapest European capitals, but when I trying to find a place to live I was suprised that this is not the case.
Especially compared to Melbourne, rents are similar if not higher, eating out can be cheap, but is not as good as in Melbs and the lattes are larger but cost their dollar prices in euro.
The worst thing about Berlin is the dialect of the locals, though. Claudi, who lives in Vienna and me mock that the most. Charme is realy not a characteristic of Berlinians...