The last days have been quite exciting as we got the first copy of our book “In High Heels um die Welt“, which includes 3 of my short stories and some of my illustrations, we spent some time planning our launch party, I had a first barbecue with some friends and watched the Eurovision Song Contest and finally went to Carnaval of Cultures. Also Summer hit Berlin with 30°C in the beginning of the week and I got some trips to Sweden, Spain and Austria confirmed for June! Stay tuned!

Tune of the week:

Gestern fand wie jedes Jahr zu Pfingsten der Karneval der Kulturen in Berlin statt. Neben den, über das ganze Wochenende stattfindenden Konzerten schlängelt sich am Sonntag eine bunte Parade aus Tänzern, Musikern, Akrobaten und Sportlern ihren Weg vom Hermannplatz über den Südstern bis zur Yorckstraße. Wie auch beim MyFest, feiern hier verschiedenste Nationalitäten und Kulturen zusammen auf der Straße, tanzen, trinken, probieren sich durch landestypische Köstlichkeiten und freuen sich des Lebens, wenn sie nicht gerade mit Ellbogentaktik den Platz in der ersten Reihe mit guter sicht auf die Parade verteidigen (man könnte ja meinen im Alter sei man gelassener…). Ein paar Eindrücke habe ich in Video- und Fotoform eingefangen. Für die volle HD-Großartigkeit einfach das Video auf Vimeo anschauen.

Like every year, the Carnival of Cultures parade took off yesterday from Hermannplatz to Yorckstraße. Just like MyFest, people are dancing and celebrating in the street, if they aren’t fighting for the best view on the colorful costumes and half naked samba dancers. I editet a quick video and some photos with some impressions of the parade. For the full HD boost please watch the video on vimeo.

Music in the video by Frank Guerrero y Su Grupo Aché

This week my parents were visiting Berlin and we did the whole sight seeing program along with lots of coffee breaks and a little photo booth action. I saw parts of Berlin I haven’t seen before, even after two years of living here. The week ended perfectly with Kanalbier on Saturday, flea market and a concert of my favorite Australian band Husky on Sunday.

PS: For more of my iPhone photos, check out my favourite Instagram travel shots on Travelettes today!

If it looks like art it probably isn’t.

Prague left me with a bad cold and this week was all about fighting it with neighbourhood walks, vitamin boosts, shopping sprees, The Smiths and a good book.

This week in pictures features my very first meetup with Melbourne based Travelette Sophie in 3 years on Monday, MyFest on Tuesday and geek conference Re:publica from Wednesday to Friday, including a Ruhrpott-Reunion with Simon and a speech from German government spokesman Steffen Seibert. Saturday I headed to Prague with a totally great bunch of people to see Woodkid and Whitest Boy Alive at Electronic Beats Festival. More on that soon on Travelettes.

May Day in Berlin is always special. Besides all the protests and riots, there is MyFest, an open air city festival in the streets of Kreuzberg. As the first of May is a working holiday in Germany, everyone is on the streets, enjoying music, good food and celebrating with friends. Unlike last year, where I ended up in the middle of the protests in Neukölln, this year was rather calm and I didn’t see any rioting at all. I took some pictures and shot a short video on the way. This is only a quick edit, but I think it gives a good impression of MyFest.

(Please watch the HD version on the vimeo website, I have problems getting a pro account to embed HD videos here )

EDIT:

Find more great pictures of MyFest at Anchored Paperplane, Urbanoid and Travels of Adam

This week it was kind of hard to choose my favourite instagram shots for my week in pictures. I celebrated St. Jordi and did some shopping, had Sushi by the canal, we did a little roadtrip to Königs Wusterhausen for some quality time at a lake, I’ve been to Iceland (in Berlin) and to my favourite flea market. Every week is a good week when spent with friends and a lot of sun.

Time for another week in pictures! Foursquare meet-ups, dinner dates, lunch in the sun, press days and Sunday walks. The highlight of my week was definintely the concert of French pop duo “Brigitte” on Friday.

 I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.

- Oscar Wilde

A while ago, my Travelettes team mates an me brainstormed about a little giveaway we could create for our friends and beloved readers. When we came across Blurb, a self-publishing service the idea was set: We would create a little book. As I did a book before for my diploma as a graphic designer, which I will tell you more about soon, I knew that making and also finishing a book is not a very easy thing to do. But as I had a full team of creative girls in my back and we already had a whole bunch of content on Travelettes, all I had to do was conception, layout and a little bit of illustration here and there. It was a fun project and I’m really stoked about the effort everybody took for this collaboration. Above you can only see pages featuring my own content such as photos and illustrations. For the full preview of the book check out the slide-show below or my article on Travelettes (where again you can win one of three books). The Travelettes Diary – A short guide to traveling like a Travelette can also be purchased at the Blurb online shop as a softcover or iBook version.

 Von manchen Büchern fällt der Abschied schwer. Man will nicht raus aus der Geschichte, egal ob sie nun schön war oder schrecklich, man will die Welt, in der man zu Gast war, nicht schon wieder verlassen. Ich dachte nach dem Zuklappen daran, gleich ein anderes anzufangen um den Bann zu brechen.

- Thommie Bayer “Fallers große Liebe”