Bye Bye Winter Everyday Life – Berlin Escapism in South Tyrol

Bye Bye Winter Everyday Life – Berlin Escapism in South Tyrol

Photo: Hotel Plan Murin

Berliners unfortunately, spent most of the winter either with firmly cemented gray clouds in the sky or with abstruse squalls. The meteorological situation was honestly more desolate than usual. And after two years of lockdown, we felt the desire for a Berlin escapism even more. But where to? So where do you actually have snow, fresh air and almost always good weather? In the Dolomites!

Visit Südtirol invited us to explore the skiing and hiking region, and we have summarized our main highlights for you. 

read more…

The Candella Ball: Devilish Bodies

The Candella Ball: Devilish Bodies

I have a confession to make: Besides my marriage to Berlin, I have an extra-marital affair with Medellin, Colombia. You know, it’s nice to stick your head outside of Berlin every once in a while to see what other cities are up to. And in that spirit, I want to share a party photo set with you I took in Medellin last weekend at the Candela Ball, so you also get to see what the queer party scenes in other major cities in the world look like.

I loved photographing at this drag ball. It was much like in the old days in Berlin when I took party photos regularly. One of the first parties I had to think of was the Blitz party that I captured many times. The costumes, the make-up, and the effort that was put in both by organizers and guests – it’s really something rare to find. This is what I found at the Candela Ball.

(more…)

Discovering new Festivals: Dancing on the Beach at the Mallorca Live Festival

Discovering new Festivals: Dancing on the Beach at the Mallorca Live Festival

Festival Season is back on track after a long covid break. This year we would love to introduce you to some festivals in Europe that might not have been on your bucket list yet. The Mallorca Live-Festival promises beach fun and electronic music highlights far away from the ordinary.

While other years we like to feature festivals around or in Berlin, this year with new travel opportunities we wanted to look a bit further out of our usual geographic radius. That is why we got super excited about the upcoming invitation for the Mallorca Live Festival.

read more…

Waldbaden: A Guide to the Best Nature Hikes in and around Berlin

Waldbaden: A Guide to the Best Nature Hikes in and around Berlin

When it comes to green spaces and parks, we all have to admit Berlin is one of the best big cities in Europe, if not the world. We are blessed with endless amounts of both tiny and large parks scattered around the city, and some forests here and there. As we might know the most popular ones already, there are many places in and around Berlin that are worth seeing and ready to get discovered.

We came across Waldbaben on Instagram, an account that recommends one of the best hiking and cycling routes in Berlin and Brandenburg, and we obviously could not ignore it. The name translates to forest bathing, which has nothing to do with swimming, it’s more a metaphorical description of immersing in the forest. With its motto “Love, Light, Leben”, Waldbaden promises to introduce us to some of the nicest and most secluded hiking and cycling routes that might have fallen off the map. We picked some of our favorite routes for you, but of course, you find many more on  Waldbaben.

read more…

A Fairytale Castle Tour to Babelsberg Palace, Glienicke Park & Peackcock Island

A Fairytale Castle Tour to Babelsberg Palace, Glienicke Park & Peackcock Island

Berliners don’t like to be tourists in their own city. But, conveniently, there are Babelsberg and Potsdam. These towns are Disneyland for all Berliners who want to see a nice castle up close. There are as many castles as there are lakes. And neither seems wrong for a Sunday outing in the first place. A few weeks ago, we decided to check out a few of the highlights for you and write up a little tour for you.

read more…

Take A Break from the City with this Digital Detox & Yoga Retreat

Take A Break from the City with this Digital Detox & Yoga Retreat

photos: Roger Sabaté. 

Back in March, right before the lockdown, I had the opportunity to try out a new retreat concept that brought me to the countryside of Brandenburg to the charming Neuhausen castle.

I haven’t done any retreats so far, so I was curious about this invitation and happy to confirm. One of the key aspects was the digital detox element which meant that for the entire stay all guests had to give up on all of their electronic devices including smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, computers. Considering how attached I usually am to all of these and how I often feel almost enslaved by the connectivity they offer, I felt it was about time for me to try out something like this. It was a test on how strong my addiction to being connected and constantly checking my phone I actually am.

Be Retreats is a project by daughter-mother duo Laura and Kathrin from Berlin who found there to be a great need for stressed-out Berliners to get out of the city and get away from the habit of being glued to their phones. Apparently, we grab the phone on average 200 times and spent 7 hours consuming various types of media per day. That sounds like a lot, but it also sounds pretty realistic.

read more…

8 Amazing Nature Destinations to Escape Berlin for a Weekend

8 Amazing Nature Destinations to Escape Berlin for a Weekend

We get it, Berlin has gotten boring without the clubs, concerts, and festivals that you are usually on to get yourself busy during the summer. Since corona has made us re-appreciate time spend outside and in nature, we thought about quenching your thirst for nature and giving you guys some ideas what to do on your weekends, in order to get out of Berlin and do something new and exciting. Stay tuned!

read more…

A Bike Trip to the Köpenick Castle, New Venice and Müggelsee

A Bike Trip to the Köpenick Castle, New Venice and Müggelsee

Summer is here and we could not be more excited to finally go out again and enjoy what the city has to offer. This year everything is different and we kinda have to rethink the way we spend our time. But we’re up for the challenge and ready to get creative.

Having lived in Berlin for 20 years you would think I’ve been everywhere in town. Well, I have not! And I’m kinda glad Berlin is so large there still remain some places that I hadn’t heard of before or never managed to visit. One of these corners of Berlin is Köpenick. It’s in the B zone, so it’s technically part of the city, but it pretty much feels like a separate little town, much like Potsdam, but smaller. And there are quite a few things there to discover, so a couple of friends and I decided to embark on a bike tour there.

read more…

A Berlin Guide to Local Vacationing

A Berlin Guide to Local Vacationing

Now that Corona has thrown all our annual plans completely over the edge, after an understandable phase of disorientation and a pinch of healthy self-pity, it is time for a new orientation.

Since long trips, festivals and clubbing are canceled for the summer, we have to get creative with what is left for us to do. After endless weeks locked down in our own four walls, most of us are drawn outside into nature, far away from our well-known quarantine station. We want to get away, get out, and experience something new. So we have been thinking about how you can make this year’s weekends a little more exciting.

read more…

Bell Collective: The New Female Travel Photography

Bell Collective: The New Female Travel Photography

photo: Alina Rudya. 

The times when travel photography – or any other field, for that matter – were strictly men’s’ domain are gone. And yet there are still instances when following your passion as a female is synonymous with challenging the status quo. The new photography book by the Bell Collective is a celebration of 14 bold women who are truly carving their own paths across the globe and documenting this journey with pictures on Instagram.

read more…