London in July. From looking at the photos it might seem like a massive food orgy but it wasn’t, really. I had a pretty fun and relaxing time, from a nice day-trip to Cambridge to nights out in the park, Apparat live, Amy Winehouse memorial drinks at The Hawley Arms after the news broke, a music performance in a squattet church right in the city centre, a car park in the South with the best view over the city and cans and cans of cider.
Mia and me went to the West and back, I found a lovely shirt which I decided not to buy in the end and if I ever get my second disposable camera back which I forgot to pick back up from a club, there will be even more photos.
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It’s Easter which means I’m having four days off in a row, it’s the best April weather you can imagine and I spent most of my weekend outside. Last night Karen Sofie, Sigrid, Conor and me went up Teufelsberg to hang out and watch the sunset over Berlin. I can’t believe I hadn’t done this before, it’s such a beautiful place (and I mean beautiful in a totally non-cheesy way, I’m probaby the least romantic person you’ll ever meet, or maybe that’s an exaggeration) and probably one of the coolest things I’ve seen and done in a long time. So simple yet really amazing. It feels like the entire city is coming out of hibernation at the moment, there’s always something happening and it’s just nice to go out and do things. I feel like I haven’t been this relaxed in a long long time.
It’s been a while since I last posted photos, or anything actually. Spring has arrived, kind of, so here are some random shots from Berlin and Cologne, including Karneval of course.
Julia, Tine, Paul, Linus and me on the train to Cologne. We’re off to celebrate Karneval, we all have the most amazing costumes and it’s gonna be lots of fun! I’m not patriotic really but oh how I have missed it…
Photos from nights & mornings in Berlin and my trip to Sweden last month, balcony parties, watching the sunrise at the Spree and from the ferry shortly before arriving in Trelleborg & shopping in the candy store.
I‘m writing this from the train to Rostock from where I’ll take the ferry to Sweden in a few hours to go to Way Out West Festival in Göteburg. It’s been a pretty last-minute decision, planned within 2 hours including phonecalls & a taxi (decadence at its best) rushing me to the station. Packed my bag in 3 minutes – new record, definitely – and will spend this night sleeping on the floor of a ferry. It will be worth it, though, I’ve never been to Sweden before, I’m going to see fucking Iggy Pop for free, my friends are gonna be there djing, it’s Jasmin’s birthday celebrations & will finally be travelling again, something that I’ve missed a lot since moving to Berlin in February.
I only have one pair of shoes but four spare films for my camera which I’m planning on finishing, so expect lots of photos. I’m completely high on travelling adrenaline right now and it’s so funny considering I went to work this morning thinking it’d be an average work day followed by a quiet night in with food & evening telly. And now I’m on my way to catch the ferry to Sweden, woop woop!
Last week we went dumpster diving. For those of you who are not familiar with it, you basically find a supermarket, sneak onto their backyard at night, find the big bins where they throw away all sorts of food and well, take it. I know people who do it because they don’t have enough money to actually buy food and there’s people who do it out of a political motivation to protest against the enormous waste of food in the first world countries. Whatever your motivation is, I think it was shocking to see this huge amount of perfectly eatable food in a dumpster. And this is probably the amount of bread they throw away every single day.
Photos by Sara
Once again, I’m off to Melt! Festival. We already picked up our wristbands at the warm-up party last night so the festival feeling is already there, even if we’re still at home. This time we’re even more organised than ever before, especially compared to the last three years (I can’t believe this is our fourth time already!). I’m a bit scared of the heat and despite the fact that I stayed out till late and haven’t slept a lot (which is probably not the best start into a three-day festival weekend) I’m really looking forward to it.
As usual, Franzi will be taking lots of pictures and we’ll both twitter live here. If you’re there as well, come and say hi! I’m off now to finish packing & listening to this song which pretty much gets me in the mood for anything.
It’s getting so sunny and nice here, I love it. Yesterday Vero and me went to Mauerpark, I had my very first Chai Latte ever and we sat down, took photos and enjoyed the sun. After some salmon pizza, white wine and the latest South Park episode we headed for Kim Bar in Mitte to celebrate Josie’s birthday with loads of people, Shoegaze music, chocolate cake and sparkling wine. Good times!
I haven’t been home for 24 hours or so and I’m not sure if I’ll get there within the next 12, but I don’t care. Amazing weather and a shakling up your daily routines work wonders!
Ima got her laptop fixed and uploaded some photos from New Years Eve. Amsterdam with the Dutch and the Slovenians and a party on a rooftop.
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(Jasmin as a sailor, Mikey as a Scotsman aka. himself and me as a cowgirl.)
I do admit it, Karneval is a pretty weird event. If you, like me, grew up with it you barely question it and it makes perfect sense: Once a year you dress up, party on the streets for five days in a row, dance to party songs, go to parades where people throw candy and just genrally follow a mad tradition without really knowing where it actually came from. It doesn’t matter anyway. As a child you love it, as a teenager you are annoyed by it and as you get older you fall in love with it again because it reminds you of home and good times. You can sing along to every song and you feel how it connects everybody on the streets, just like that. In terms of these things, Cologne is probably the most open-minded city I know. Karneval connects us all and even though we like to deny it, deep inside we’re all patriotic as fuck. I can’t wait to hit the town tomorrow and celebrate!
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I‘m back from Amsterdam and the few days felt like a movie. You know the feeling when you experience things and all of a sudden you realise that it’s so amazing, yet very cliché and just like one of these film scenes that are totally fascinating but still seem pretty unreal, simply because they’re so brilliant and cool? I’ve probably said that before but I think that might even be the point when you actually start living.
Anyway, I stayed in a nice house with my Dutch friends and a three guys and two girls from Slovenia who came over for New Year’s as well and were a pretty cool bunch of people. On New Years Eve we first hung out at our place drinking and playing silly games and I ate my very first oliebollen (Ima: “You have to eat it, otherwise you’ll have a bad 2010!”), it’s some Dutch speciality and it actually tasted pretty nice.
Shortly before midnight we went to a private house party on the other side of the road, it took place in a big building, a former squat and now gallery or something. The best part of it was that it had a roof terrace from where you had a 360° view over Amsterdam. It was amazing. We went upstairs and watched the fireworks while a band was playing on the roof. The fireworks, the people, the music, the atmosphere, it just blew me away.
We stayed up all night, it was great. Not such a bad start into 2010 and quite promising actually.
Frank Turner, Monopoly with friends in Berlin, Christmas with the family & Amsterdam with the Dutch and the Slovenians.
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A new year means as much to me as my own birthday (practically nothing) but then again, it’s a nice frame for a part of your life and a good opportunity to start things. I always need events to change things. Or at least try to. I’m not saying I constantly make changes, it’s so hard to change things about yourself, even if you want to, but having an event makes it easier. Next year everything will get better – I keep saying that to myself all the time.
I spent New Year’s 2007/2008 in London, we stayed with a friend and went out in Shoreditch that night, missed midnight and saw no fireworks so we went home and joined the house party. 2008/2009 I was at home in Cologne. I had just moved houses and I was pretty down and depressed that day so I was planning on staying in. Friends eventually convinced me to come to theirs where we had sparkling wine and German New Year’s Eve traditions, we later went to a club and it turned out to be a pretty strange night out. At least we had fireworks.
This year I will go to Amsterdam, hang out with our Dutch people, relax, have fun and just let everything pass. Even the new year. It’s two thousand and ten already and it feels weird, I still remember the “Millenium” ten years ago – people wearing funny 2000 glasses and Robbie Williams singing on TV. Now another decade has passed.
Fucking hell.
Some older photos from Berlin and Cologne about two weeks ago. The boys getting ready for their gig:
(I have no clue who took this photo of me and I look well scared. The girl in the picture above is Josie who I met for some nice Berlin breakfast, picture below is The Cinematics in Cologne.)
Got my photos from Paris developed. I accidentally switched my camera to panorama mode at some point but they still turned out quite nice.
(This is Zazou, my friend’s brother. He’s only 9 but he’s already a ladykiller and he will have the world at his feet one day. Above you also see some shots from our pool party, the amazing Galeries Lafayette at night and the big wheel in the city centre.)
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In Paris the sky is never black. It’s sometimes grey, sometimes purple or blue-ish but in the city of light it’s always bright and you can barely see the stars at night. I went to Paris this weekend to celebrate a friend’s birthday. We stayed in a huge loft flat in a house that used to be a factory, it’s so beautiful and unique that it’s sometimes used as a set for films. The photo studio that was located downstairs had a big pool where we had a pool party with delicious food and Pina Coladas, we all jumped in the pool shortly before midnight and sang French birthday songs.
Paris is an utterly beautiful city, we spent hours just walking through the city, seeing big touristy places, small alleys with tiny shops, homeless people in their tents, cafés, the Seine and huge buildings. I’d love to come back soon, see some more, get an idea of the night life, maybe improve my French as well. I don’t speak any French, all I can do is introduce myself which isn’t that helpful if you are trying to order food, ask for the way or have a proper conversation with your friend’s friends who don’t speak English. But it all worked out somehow, people get very creative when it comes to communication. We use our hands, our whole bodies, all existing languages that we know, because, quite frankly, all we want is to be understood.
We went home tonight and I’m back in my flat – back to normal, but inspired and pretty tired.
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Last weekend Sina and me went to Berlin. She had the vacation planned for quite a while, asked me to come along and I said yes. I mean, why not, it’s not really that I’ve got anything better to do and Berlin is often a highlight. When I’m over I usually stay with friends but this time we booked a nice hostel, the most amazing hostel there is in Berlin. It’s cheap, modern, comfy and open all night - what more can you ask for?
I’ve never really stayed in a hostel before (if you don’t count that one drunken time when we crashed that room in Munich with 6 beds for 8 people) but I loved it and it again made me realise that – if I ever want to live together with people, which I do – need to quit some of my habits, like talking in my sleep or walking around the house half-naked.
The first night we went out and saw The Paddingtons *, kinda nostalgic for me considering I’ve seen them on pretty much every gig of their tour when I was about 16. They’re not a particularly good band and their music is not exactly brilliant, it’s more something to bawl along when you’re wasted.
The next day we went second hand shopping and spent the day in town. Lots of plans were made for the night but we eventually ended up at the BEAT!BEAT!BEAT! gig and then all took taxis to Bang Bang where the guys from The Cinematics were DJing downstairs. It was nice to see everyone again and we drowned all occuring drama in cider.
Now I’m back home, back to work, back to uni and I wonder what’s next. Amsterdam maybe. And I got invited to a birthday party in Paris next week (fucking Parissssss! I’ve never been there and I don’t speak a single word of French, but it’s gonna be fun!).
* They were supported by Johann van der Smut by the way, you should really check these guys out and buy their EP.
