Thoughts about London

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Let me try to write down some thoughts and feelings about London before they vanish into thin air :)

The first thing that comes to my mind are the cosy little houses of West Kensington. The place where Elli and Lukas used to live and where I stayed for four days. Just follow this link to make a litte Street View Tour. I just love these little roofs over the windows of the first floor :) and the chimneys!! I already noticed these typical chimneys when the plain was on its landing approach and they reminded me somehow of «Karlson vom Dach» – a film based upon the novel of the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren that I used to watch when I was child.

In London there are many different worlds hitting each other. And through my London friends I was able to come into contact with some of these worlds. On one hand there was West Kensington, a residential district where you didn’t really feel like you’re in a metropolis because the houses are really small and there is a quiet and relaxed atmosphere. The scent of flowers growing in the front yards is sweetening the air and you can see mothers taking their children home from school.

Then you have East London / Shoreditch – where I did this Street Art Tour I already wrote about. An area that reminds me of Ehrenfeld here in Cologne. Everything is a bit more rundown and you have a lot of hip Clubs and Bars. Many house facades serve as canvas for Street Artists. In some areas – like around Brick Lane – you feel like you’re in a huge open air gallery!

And I also experienced what it feels like to go on parties of the upper-class. On the first evening when I went to WTA Pre-Wimbledon Party and on Saturday when Fredrik took us to this new Club called Press Club. The food, the drinks, the atmosphere at Kensington Roof Garden (location of the Pre-Wimbledon Party) was just amazing! And the music at Press Club with these live drummers emphasizing the beats of the music – that was pretty cool as well. BUT. ^^ But I realized again that this is not really MY world. I prefer wearing sneakers instead of High Heels, I prefer places where I can be more myself where I don’t have to dress up or behave in a certain way.

But nevertheless I’m grateful to Lukas and Fredrik for having this opportunity to gain an insight into this world. Because this is what I love: Get to know different people, different places, different worlds!

London atmosphere

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Covent Garten surroundings

As I love to wander around with my camera trying to catch some of the hidden treasures of a city, of its atmosphere I decided to do at least a bit of Sightseeing when I was in London. I walked along the Themse through South Bank, passed the OXO Tower, had a look into Tate Modern where I visited a little exhibition about «Poetry and Dreams» and on my way to «The Shard» I came across this wonderful food market:

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London Street Art Tour

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ROA Crane

Last Saturday I attended a Street Art Tour through East London (Shoreditch) with Elli and Filipe.

Our Guide: a small, sporty woman with a French accent, husky voice, dark hair, black eyes and a quiet nice tattoo on her neck (two f-holes like you can find them on violin instruments) that just appeared when she was turning her head and when her plait flew aside. She told us a lot about the different artists and street art techniques.

Here are some of my favorite ones (I show you not only pictures from this Street Art Tour but also from a tour through Brick Lane and surroundings I did on my own two years ago):

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Happy Father’s Day

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Schön, dass es dich gibt, liebes Väterchen! ;)

Auf das wir noch viele gemeinsame Reisen zusammen erleben! Sei es nach Holland ans Meer, an einen anderen schönen Ort auf dieser Welt oder gedanklicher Art. Es ist nämlich immer wieder schön und bereichernd mit dir über das Leben zu philosophieren, lecker essen zu gehen oder Ausflüge ins Museum oder in die Natur zu wagen. So wie den letzten in die Kölner Flora:

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Freilingen – Eifelleben

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My Mum’s Place.

Freilingen ist für mich ein Ort, an dem ich zur Ruhe kommen kann. Ein Ort des Unperfekten. Dadurch, dass hier vieles so unperfekt ist, fällt es mir leichter auch selbst in meiner Unperfektheit den Tag zu verleben. Mir keine Gedanken darüber zu machen, wie ich aussehe. Einfach ich selbst sein. Über alles reden, was mich gerade beschäftigt. So entstehen schöne, intensive, manchmal auch schmerzhafte Dialoge, in denen sich Dinge klären können.

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Dance project across New York

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I wanna tell you about a wonderful dance project called «Girl Walk // All Day» that I came across some years ago. As the intention and the feeling of the project is described the best way on their website I will just quote it:

«Girl Walk // All Day is a feature-length dance music video and tale of urban exploration that follows three dancers across New York City. They turn the city’s sidewalks, parks and architecture into an evolving stage as they spread their joy of movement.

This film is a story about self-discovery and love, and it’s a tale about finding community and vitality in shared public spaces. The idea for the project emerged from our desire to expand the boundaries of the single-track music video, to an epic musical film.» (source)

The whole film is divided into 12 video-episodes. Here is one of my favorite ones:

Watch all episodes here.
You can download the whole epic Remix here.

WE ARE CITY

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I already mentioned the inspiring website/community WE ARE CITY in one of my last posts about Berlin. At that time I had no idea that one day I would be part of the «WAC-family» ;) But now I am a so called «Stadtfreund» which means «city mate» with my own profile.

WE ARE CITY is an unconventional city guide. A platform where locals share their favorite places to enable travelers to discover the city in an authentic way. As I love traveling and getting in touch with locals myself I clearly wanted to support this project!