indraspindra

and again a long times has passed since i last spread some news about me through the web. the reasons for my silence are twofold: either i have no time or i have nothing to tell. after all a big part of my life is taken up by my studies and work. however, a rough overview over my past few months will show that not everything was boredom.

thus, i visited my first open air music festival in a hicktown called Preddöhl and let myself be "spirtually healed" - at least this is what the title promised. i'm not sure if the healing was successful, but i sure had fun and hope that it won't have been the last festival of the kind that i went to, though it doesn't always have to be Goa music (sorry, Eike ;))



















furthermore, i spent a weekend in Dresden. it was the first time i went there, although this quite beautiful saxonian city is a mere two-hour-drive away from berlin. the occasion which made me take the trip was my bulgarian friend Christiana's sojourn in the Elbe capital. we spent a wonderful day together in the old part of the city bathing in the sun and eating ice cream. the following day, before returning home, i took the chance to meet a friend of mine again whom i got to know four years ago in lithuania. we had almost lost touch so it was really joyful to renew our friendship.



besides, i have passed many sunny hours at various lakesides in berlin. often with my mother and my siblings. my "little" brother has grown so much that he's already caught up with me and it won't be long before he will be able to look at me from above. similarly, my youngest sister has made a jump ahead from being a child to becoming a young girl. though small in size - and the only one of my siblings who is still shorter than me and will most likely stay so for the rest of our lives - she is getting more and more mature by both, character and appearance. i know it's the normal course of life. still, it is strange to me to realize how my "little" siblings become less and less "little" within a seemingly short time :)

finally, Wuschel and i have invested quite some time into getting ready for our big (though short) trip to india. making sure to have all the necessary vaccinations, getting the visa on time, buying and borrowing the backpacking equipment, booking flight and train tickets within india as well as the first hostel where we'll stay in mumbai....and reading a lot in various travel guides as we wanted to have at least a rough idea of the places we wanna visit :D

here and there

woohoo, finally i've had time to travel again. a bit at least. after having finished my exams and a long but interesting research paper, i had a whole week left of the semster break. that was during the second week of april right around Easter. i didn't hesitate for long and decided to visit two friends of mine - on in Venice and the other in Paris. the roundtrip berlin-venice-paris-berlin actually cost less than some train connections within germany. crazy, isn't it?
anyway, i got my first slight sunburn this year while in venice, where, by the way, i have walked probably some 75% of all streets, alleys and squares existing on that island. after all there is hardly another way to get around. good thing i had Jamie and her boyfriend as a guide most of the time, otherwise i'd have been lost within a few minutes, i suppose.


well, i kinda liked venice in a way. it is a very aesthetic town. however, it is not very inviting. venetians don't seem to like foreigners very much, though probably more than half of them live of tourism there... as for venice being one of europe's romantic capitals - i don't know. Eike wasn't with me as she had to work and with all the crowds there, i'm not sure i'd want to spend my honeymoon in venice. but the ice cream sure is delicious :o)

paris....of paris i only got to know a tiny bit. just two entire days and a half - by far not enough to really see paris. but i did all the obligatory touristy stuff: i saw la tour eiffel, i went to notre dame and entered le musée du louvre. the latter shocked my quite a bit, though. the seem to have no means to control the tourists there, which results in the worst museum experience i have had in my lifetime. too many crowds without a sense for art. in front of Mona Lisa some 60 persons were standing in a big bulk and maybe but 3 of them were actually looking at the painting with their bare eyes. the rest was either taking pictures or even turned the other way to have their picture taken in front of the....well, i am not sure whether the Mona Lisa will even be recognizable in their photos.
besides that paris was pretty cool. unlike venice i'm sure to visit it again, though it will probably pass some time until then. for now, i've gotta go as i'm supposed to go to Geneva - this time not for pleasure, but with a group from uni.
cheers!

ps. liebe grüße an meinen wuschelkuschel :-*








guess, what they are NOT looking at!!! yes, it's the most famous painting in the world... :-O

ein virtuelles winken aus der verschollenheit

ja, mich gibt's noch. hatte in den letzten wochen bloß ein bisschen stress und wenig lust zum schreiben. aber jetzt habe ich erstmal die ganzen semesterabschlussklausuren hinter mich gebracht und......nein, wer jetzt denkt, ich hätte semesterferien, der hat sich geirrt. vorlesungsfreie zeit hat zwar auch was schönes, aber weniger arbeit bedeutet das für mich zumindest nicht. ich darf mich noch bis zum 6. april mit der schönen frage "gibt es ein recht auf humanitäre hilfe und was würde dieses recht umfassen?" beschäftigen. eigentlich ja ganz interessant, aber eben nicht ganz so einfach. sonst wäre es allerdings auch langweilig, oder?
immerhin, nach der abgabe meiner seminararbeit bleibt noch eine woche zeit, bevor die uni, also die vorlesungszeit, wieder beginnt. und in dieser - hoffentlich wunderschönen und sonnigen - aprilwoche werde ich endlich mal wieder in der welt umherschippern. venedig und paris sollen es sein. gleich zwei auf einen streich, schließlich komm ich in letzter zeit so selten zum reisen ;)
also, eigentlich läuft alles bestens. der winter zieht sich momentan auch ein kleines bisschen zurück - zumindest war es heute wunderbar sonnig - und die recherche für meine seminararbeit wird zwar nicht meinen stresspegel senken, aber wenigstens wissenslücken stopfen, die ich tatsächlich füllen möchte. kein unsinn über dingliche surrogationen oder konkret gefährliche generalklauseln....es sollte also tatsächlich auch etwas spaß machen :D