Haight Ashbury

Hey guys!


I have been in San Francisco last year at this time, that's why I thought it's appropriate to blog about San Fran ;-)
Actually I will tell you a little bit about a district of SF named Haight Ashbury. It's an intersection of one street called Haight and the other one's name is Ashbury. The neighborhood is famous for its history of the hippie culture.

Acts like the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix grew up in or near the intersection. I even bought a shirt in the house where Jimi Hendrix himself grew up. Many colourful vintage shops were located there. In fact, every building and every store was painted in various colours. 

When we were walking through the streets we saw people doing drugs everywhere and even offering us some. That was the only sad thing about this amazing place though.

You can find tourists hanging out in exaggerated hippie-style souvenir shops and there are many good restaurants. 

While I was strolling down the streets I developed love for this astonishing place. One of the most exhilariating stores I came across was Amoeba Records. 

Vinyls are just few of the treasures you'll find there. I could have spent hours looking through all the CDs, DVDs, books and posters. 

There are many reasons why people come to this area: whether it is the history, the colourful ancient buildings or the laid-back people.

I had the chance to talk to many inhabitants or shop owners about how life was in the early 70s in San Francisco. Everyone I spoke to was extremely friendly and that's why I am excited to go back and visit this amazing place once again.

Sculpture by the sea, Sydney

Sculpture by the sea is an open-air exhibition in Sydney, Australia. It takes place every year during October to November and in 2013 I was lucky enough to accidentally be in Sydney at this time. It is said to be one of the world's largest free public events and it is held in three places: Bondi, Cottesloe and Aarhus. I saw it in Bondi Beach :-)

There are some pictures of the sculptures themselves:

 Stairway to Heaven ;)

This sculpture totally amazed me!

I really enjoyed this exhibition because I had no idea what it was all about when I found it. 
The exhibition was situated along the coast in Bondi Beach and the venue was perfect for the event. We got on a small trail along the coast and after fifteen minutes walking you could glimpse an impressive row of sculptures. While I was soaking up the surrounding atmosphere I took many pictures of all the amazing pieces of sculpture. 
So many different people were participating and the it seemed like everyone was in a good mood. 

I'm a hippie

Hey guys!

Deep in my heart I have always been kind of a hippie. Well, I have to admit that I do not dress like one but I love their laid-back attitude to life and their open-minded opinion towards others. I believe that they accepted the people - as well as the other ones - how they were, without any prejudices. 

Sometimes I wish I would have been born earlier so that I could have joined the woodstock festival which is known worldwide for the most famous music festival of all time. 

The whole story is incredible.

The festival was meant to be a "small" one: No more than 50.000 people were expected to be there. However, over 500.000 people showed up for the concert.

Because there were so many people coming traffic was backed up for miles and even some of the performers were unable to make it as they were stuck. 

Woodstock was strongly opposed by the older generation at this time because they thought that it will break out in violence and riots. In fact, Woodstock was seen as one of the most peaceful festivals ever.

Of course the producers of Woodstock were not prepared for so many people so they lacked food, water, medical service and space.  

The performers included well-known artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Canned Heat, ...

After the concert the owner of the site of the event spoke about how nearly half a million people filled with potentiol for disaster, riot and violence spent three days with music and peace on their minds. He stated, "If we join them, we can turn those adversities that are the problems of America today into a hope for a brighter and more peaceful future..."

Afterwards many documentations and movies appeared about the fesitval. To give you a quick view I will upload a video at the bottom of this post :)

1 album I can't stop listening to

I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music. 
- Billy Joel


Here is one album that has been providing the soundtrack to my life lately. 


Crystal Fighters, Cave Rave

I fell in love with the Crystal Fighters four years ago when I first saw then live on stage at the Frequency Festival in Austria. I immediately started to listen to their first album "Star of Love" on which song I fell hard for. It's called "Earth Island" and I continued to go to their concerts or at least to festivals where they played. 

Only one year later they released their second album "Cave Rave" which I am listening to right now. My favourite track on that album is definitely "These Nights" because it always reminds me of that tiny festival called 'Acoustic Lakeside Festival' in a very small town in the middle of nowwhere in Carinthia. I was there two years ago with my boyfriend and when they played this song it seemed like the people were at peace with the world. Suddenly it started to rain and we were dancing like there was no one watching. In fact, no one really cared about the rain. It was a very special moment for all of us and it will always be remembered. 

I have been anticipating new music form them ever since. When you first listen to them it may sound like musical chaos but it suddenly makes sense when you listen through the whole album. 

“Some people pray, I turn up the radio”

I would like to dedicate this post to music due to the fact that the concert I went to last month was one of the best I have ever seen. The band I saw on December 18^th is called Mighty Oaks and consists of three extremely talented men from the US, Italy and England. 

Mighty Oaks: three young men, from three countries, combining three part harmonies, resulting in one unique sound. The Berlin based indie-folk band comprised of Ian Hooper (US), Claudio Donzelli (Italy), and Craig Saunders (UK) writes honest, authentic and emotionally driven songs – acoustic guitars and mandolins at the centre of their sound, layers of electric guitars creating space and depth, rounded off through solid bass lines and the heartbeat of a simple drum. The music sets the perfect scene for the lyrics, which often draw their inspiration from the Pacific Northwest, the birthplace of Hooper. Set amidst these wonderful landscapes come tales of love, loss and the beauty of all that surrounds. In 2010 the band released a self-produced self-titled EP, recorded in Donzelli's apartment, which has since gone on to earn them over 63,000 fans and 370,000 plays on SoundCloud. In the middle of 2012 they shifted their focus fully to the band, and spent the summer recording their first studio production. In a short space of time they've gathered support from both fans and the music industry alike. They've shared the stage with Dry The River, First Aid Kid, toured with Shout Out Louds in Europe, hit the road with Chvrches as part of the INTRODUCING! Tour in Germany, and opened for Kings of Leon at the Waldbühne in Berlin. Their debut studio EP "Just One Day" was released on July 5th.

Music is one of the things I am extremely passionate about. I adore going to music festivals in summer and a huge amount of my money flows into concerts, merchandising items, CDs, tracks and more. 

My friends all have very different tastes in music. When it comes to my taste it gets a little bit more difficult though. I am interested in all kinds of music for example Rock, Pop, Indie-Rock, Alternative, Brit-Pop, Hip-Hop, Rap, Soul, Grunge, R’nB, Reggae, Dubstep, Minimal, and many more. 

Right now I am watching a life concert of "The Passenger" and once again I realise how important is. A famous quote of Johann Wolgang von Goethe says "A human who does not love music does not deserve to be called a human." 

I have seen so many mind-blowing bands, groups as well as dj's in my life and I'm thankful for that. Honestly, I have always prefered unforgettable moments in terms of festivals, concerts, trips and travels to material things.

In the end, all I can say is that music offers us a great escape and I guess that's why it is so important to the people. I would like to end this post with a quote by Bob Marley which I think is very appropriate now:

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry christmas guys!

Last year at this time I was in Oahu, Hawaii for Christmas. It was totally different to all the previous Christmas celebrations I had before.

Since we just celebrated Christmas 2014 a week ago, I would like to tell you a little bit about my adventure last year.

First of all, my friend Flo and I didn't get the so-called "Christmas feeling" as it was overwhelmingly hot. Of course the hawaiian inhabitants hung out of their homes kitchy Christmas decoration but there was no snow and no cold at all. 

So we decided to watch a Christmas parade in Waikiki :-)

I couldn't believe how many people took part in that parade! The whole thing lasted for more than two hours!!

Afterwards we participated in an Oahu Luau which was a very good idea and led to one of the most memorable Christmas' in my entire life! A Luau is a party where you are entertained with Hawaiian music, fire dancers and you can enjoy Hawaiian style food.

Our Luau was called Paradise Cove Luau.

If you don't know how it looked like - imagine a big place next to the sea, lots of stages with people performing and a huge buffet! They offered many different activities to have a good time. You could either join the locals to play games, watch fire shows or get a fake tattoo. 

The food we got was typical Hawaiian food and very delicious! You could eat as much as you want to.

It was a weird feeling not being at home for Christmas but I also really enjoyed it. I guess you have to make that experience at some point anyway, just to appreciate your family, friends and your home.

How to write a good blog

Hey guys! :-)


Our first task is to write a post about blogging itself and what we personally think a good blog is.
In order to write about that topic, I looked at some blogs of prior students from last year. 

In my opinion, a blog becomes successful when you focus on a topic you really enjoy. I try to put a little bit of myself into that blog even if it's a new experience for me. 

Of course a good layout can be important but I think that's the last thing you should worry about. 
The main goal of a blog is to tell the readers what you think about a certain topic and it's not about what the majority of people think; it's about what you as a blogger think. Maybe there are some people out there who get inspired by your posts. 

In addition to that it's essential that you post repeatedly in order to prevent your readers from forgetting to look at your blog or even worse - looking for another one. 

I guess that the more personal things you write about the more interesting does your blog get for your followers.