11th September: Lola

In the past years I had lots of photoshootings with Lola, but usually she'd be the photographer. Last Tuesday, I finally took photos of her. Our location was the rooftop of a parking deck. Lola had various outfits that I liked a lot. Sadly, since it started raining too much we had to finish our shooting before getting the chance to use all the different outfits :( But we already have ideas for our next shootings together so this surely isn't the last time you'll be seeing Lola on my blog!

Berlin: Night life

This is my second and already last entry about my Berlin trip - and it's going to focus on the night life. Friday I met with SiSeN, Bambi, Nici & Maike to finally see the band Angelspit. I've been waiting for an opportunity to see them for quite a while now since I always heard that they're a great live band. I totally agree now! Angelspit are a great band, live and on CD. And the members are very nice too! (Some random info: My blog title "shiny wrapping, empty box" is the lyrics of one of their songs ♥)

Berlin has some really nice clubs and discos, I'm sure. But what I found a lot more interesting than the big clubs was the place I went to on Friday after the Angelspit concert and again on Saturday night for the Japaranoia event - Neu West Berlin.

It's a big, old building where many artists have designed different things. I've never been to a place that's quite like this before and I loved it there! My photos don't do the location justice, it's a lot cooler when you're actually there.

This was my favourite room!

Great artwork on the wall!

And I'd like to finish this post by sharing some of the awesome party guests and DJs of the Japaranoia event! :)

Bambi

Maike in her awesome outfit!

VJ Chuu & Yoshiki 

Me with dear Gsus

Performance by Shimo

Chuu, Taishi & Shimo

SiSeN

During these three days I met friends I hadn't seen for long, I saw friends I won't be able to see for one year, I got to know a lot of new people and new places.. long story short: My weekend in Berlin was awesome! :) I can't wait to visit the city again, I'll hopefully be back sooner than last time. Thanks everyone for this great weekend.

Berlin: 7th - 9th September

Last weekend I made a very spontaneous trip to Berlin. I've visited this city many times before, but I never quite took my time to just walk around and see the various things it has to offer. This time it was different! I got to see many interesting places - and thus the city I didn't think of too highly before turned into a place I could even imagine moving to. I love Hamburg a lot. But Berlin does have a charm of its own too :)

I want to start with the East Side Gallery: A long open-air kind of art gallery where artists from all over the world have drawn on the Berlin Wall. I visited the East Side Gallery on Saturday with Chiaki, Nanoha & Yohan.

After the East Side Gallery, we went to the Alexanderplatz to get some food. But before we stopped to watch an interesting and funny break dance performance on the street.

Before driving back home on Sunday, I walked around a lot eventhough I was dead tired. But I didn't want to leave Berlin without seeing the Reichstag, Brandenburger Tor & Museumsinsel! (Tho I have to admit that I spent at least one or two hours just laying in a park, listening to some music and taking a nap haha)

Summer School: Hamburg Tour

As most of you already know (it's impossible to not-know if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook), I've spent my whole August with the Summer School. The Summer School is an exchange program of the University of Hamburg with Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Around 120 students of these countries visited Hamburg for one month to learn German.

During this month, we had various trips and events. I carried my camera with me almost every day because we went to many places even I hadn't visited yet (although I've been living in Hamburg for 21 years, shame on me!).

My first entry is about our first big tour through Hamburg. We started with a harbour boat trip. First it looked like it was going to rain for the whole day but as soon as we arrived at the harbour, luckily the rain stopped too! :)

After the boat tour we took a short break and enjoyed some delicious Nordsee food. Next, we went to the St. Michaelis church. Since I was too lazy to go the 453 steps by foot, we waited for the elevator to take us up the tower. The view up there is amazing! I just wish the weather would have been better that day.

After the Michel, we went to the Stadthausbrücke and moved on to the Jungfernstieg. It was really crowded thanks to the Christopher Street Day - an event for gay, lesbian, bi & transgender people. We also visited the Rathausmarkt but sadly the Rathaus was closed already, so we couldn't take a look inside. But all in all it was a great tour and even if it started raining sometimes, I think it was a good first impression on Hamburg :) At least I really enjoy it, haha!