At the beginning of the year I went to Dominican Republic to learn how a cigar is made. I saw the tobacco manufacture of the Kelner family, who produces Davidoff cigars, starting on the fields in Jicomé in the North of the island and Villa Gonzalez, where the cigars are rolled. You can read the story (only in German) here on MERIAN.de
… is one of the German states in the east part of the country. I went there a couple of times to portrait some wonderful people along the “Rennsteig”, a very beautiful hiking trail and also the main topic of one of the articles for Thüringen Magazin 2015. I met Heu-Heinrich, a young guy who makes in hay. And Peter Arends, a really funny and entertaining man, who runs a hostel for hikers in Eisenach, guides people to the most wonderful scenic places in the forests and also acts at the “Kerkertheater” right next to his hostel. Rita Worm showed me how they still produce glas in the traditional way in Lauscha. Also I had the chance to portrait Christian Hempfe – chef of the renowned SCALA in Jena – for a culinary story. You can see some pictures here or order the magazine for free.
.. is a beautiful place to be. In february this year I went on a press trip to Oregon and spent some extra days in Portland. The trip was organized by Travel Oregon and Travel Portland and I was with a group of other European journalists, which was a lot of fun. I went to a punk show at Star Bar Portland to see Poison Idea together with Jens from Copenhagen. Joyce from the Netherlands was the best and I got a picture together with her touching Turbo, the octopus at Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. We visited some brewery’s like Double Mountain Brewery in Hood River and Roque Brewery in Newport. Roque Brewery founder John Maier gets yeast for one of his beers out of his beard. It’s also called ‘beard beer’ and really tasty. Because it was a culinary press trip, we also had a lot of food. Like a five course dinner at the Joel Palmer House in Dayton – every course had truffel in it and it was really delicious.
Also I had the best tacos ever at a food cart in Downtown Portland. And a super tasty whiskey sour at Multnomah Whiskey Library, cheers!
Really amazing to me was the sound of the mighty Pacific Ocean – we stayed at the Whale Cove Inn, a mile south from Depoe Bay. Everyone of us had an own suite with outdoor Jacuzzi on a private deck. I sat outside at night, just listening to the surge. I would like to thank all those wonderful people I met in Oregon, especially Laura, Kieron and Petra.
I went to Estonia at the end of june and loved it so much, that I had to go back again in september. In Tallinn I found some interesting walls.
Estonia is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever been to. All I want to say about the people, the landscape, the dramatically changing light, the intact nature, the old heritage and everything else I experienced in Estonia – it’s a really inspiring and lovely place to be! Everyone must go! Period.
This was kind of a road movie! I have a crazy relationship to Norway. Actually I have relatives there! But found out pretty late, which is a long story… I’ve been there only once before, more than ten years ago. This time I could go there for work. I flew into Bergen first, where my cousin picked me up from the airport. This city is just beautiful. And I really love my aunt Helena!
We spent just short time together, but my cousin Bror, his girlfriend Gunel and Gunel’s brother Behram, who lives in Oslo, took me to a little village outside of Bergen still in Hordaland, which is called Havretunet. It’s really pretty. I left Bergen to drive along the coast all the way up to Oslo. I stopped at some points in between and spent a night in a cabin at Lofthus Camping right next to the Hardangerfjord. It’s amazingly beautiful. From Lofthus I made it to Stavanger, where a friend of mine ended up somehow. Crazy things like love, you know … We used to party together 15 years ago. She is a doctor now. I have never been there before, but it’s a really charming little town. Mira and I ended up at some bars, that’s all I have to tell.
I saw sheep all over the landscape. Some of them escaped, when I stopped to take pictures, but one crowd came yelling at me! Actually those lovely guys in the picture. Read my story about Norway @ Marco Polo travel magazine soon.
I always wanted to see, where Ötzi was found. Unfortunately I just made it close – let’s say VERY close – to that place. But I had the chance to experience something very special instead. On wednesday I traveled to Ötztal, Austria to write an article about a night at an igloo hotel for our travel magazine. 
You can get there very easily by public transportation. Go to Ötz first and then take the cableway up to the mountains. It’s amazing. Just 8 minutes later you find yourself at an altitude of 2000 meters. It’s just a five minutes walk to the snow village with the igloos. In the first picture you can see the view from the cableway station to the igloo hotel. In the background the awesome Austrian Alps! 
Guide Ingo was already awaiting me and showed me around in the small village. All igloos are made of snow. The igloos are built by using big balloons they bury under tons of snow before removing the balloons again. Et voilà, a snow house is built! Of course, it’s not that simple, but a lot of work, I guess. You can visit the igloo hotel from the end of december till the beginning of april. They build all that stuff new every year. Ingos dog Lestat – named after the vampire – was also around. He looks like a wolf, as you can see in the next picture. The only guests were Laura and Marcel, a couple from Switzerland. We had lots of fun enjoying fondue and chatting at the campfire. 
We went out for a walk to a mountain where we had this incredible view you can see in the last picture. Ötztal at night. Just wonderful! You can hardly hear any sounds from downhill. The air was fresh and there were millions of stars in the sky. Also, it was a really great experience spending the night in the mountains without any other people around. 
But they came back for skiing next morning, ha! The temperature in the igloo is not that bad – round about 0 degrees Celsius – and they give you a very good and comfy sleeping bag. Also, they have a sauna in the snow village you are free to use before heading to bed. I cannot really manage to sleep in a sleeping bag very well, but it was ok and unexpectedly warm during the night. If you ever get the chance to spend a night in an igloo hotel – take it!
This week has been really awesome so far. I am joining a class for journalistic writing, if that translates. So, on monday we introduced ourselves and started with writing short news. We had a lot of fun finding synonyms for simple verbs like “to walk” or “to eat” and Detlef Kühn – the teacher – has a great sense of humor.
On tuesday we went to “Spicy’s”, a spice museum in Hamburgs HafenCity.
A really inspiring place to be! Did you know, that Safran is called “The laughing dead”? Only ten gram would kill you – having the best time of your life! Also I learned that a big company – well known for it’s brown sugary caffeine soft drink – is the world’s largest consumer of bourbon vanilla. It’s a soft drug, but makes you totally addicted! It’s also an aphrodisiac.
Today I had the chance to do some research for a reportage I had to write. A class member and I went to a church boat. They also have a small boat – called Barkasse – they use to visit all the boat people from all over the world stuck in Hamburg harbor for a while. They offer spiritual support as well as the latest newspaper – even in Czech –, some chocolate and fresh fruits. The guy on the left – Manfred Jahnke – is kind of a priest.
In the picture on the right you can see the two skippers – Henry (69) and Manni (71). They are cute old guys and I really enjoyed their company. Henry sometimes said stuff like “Don’t you know that? You don’t know anything!” though, but I can live with that! I am almost done with my reportage and glad I had the chance to meet those really lovely people!
Last weekend, mysterious ways led me to one of the locations, Nosferatu was filmed long time ago. During my research, I learned that Wismar is a small town which has basically
an intact old historic city center – one of the reasons it was chosen for the setting. It’s also right around the corner from the baltic sea. I had to ride my bike along the baltic sea bike way for twelve hours straight and take pictures for a print magazine. Fortunately, I could recruit two friends of mine as models. The weather was beautiful. 
A perfect day for a bike trip. The area is not so crowded and you can find a lot of small bays you can hang out and relax. Highly recommended!
I just came back from an amazing trip to Mallorca, where I spent a few days for an article about couchsurfing. I arrived late on friday june 29th and headed over to my first host’s place, which is located in the old city center near the cathedral. Asier is a very funny and nice guy and we ended up dancing all night long. Next day he showed me his favorite beach in the very south of the island which was awesome. It’s a little more work to get there, but it was worth it. I spent a great day with my next host, Max.
She took me with her to her sailing class, where I got a free motorboat ride and a lot of nice beach views. Sunday was the night of the European Championship final game and I headed over to Cala Major in the west of Palma de Mallorca. Robert, my next host stayed at a friend’s place and invited me to join them. I actually found out, that this place is the so called “Ghetto” of Palma, which didn’t change anything for me. As you all know-Spain won and it was a great party. We shared the room, that was actually more of a balcony, with a chicken, a rabbit and a turtle and a couple of tomato plants. I watched one of the most beautiful sunsets of my life close to Valldemossa with a nice view on Sa Foradada, which is a rock in the water with a hole inside. 
Next day I spent more time on beautiful beaches taking pictures before meeting up with Mel from Bremen, Germany, who is a diving teacher in Port Andratx. She got me super tasty Mojitos and a great couch to stay for the night. Normally, I wouldn’t have visited so many hosts in such a short time, but for my article, I wanted to meet as many people as possible and it was a great experience.
I just wish, I could have spent more time with every single host. The last day I headed over to Pedro’s place. He’s a funny guy and originally from Asturias in the north of Spain. He made great dinner and we talked about couchsurfing and some other private stuff on his balcony. I had breakfast the last day at the airport and really felt ok about saying goodbye, but it is also strange on the other side. Having entered people’s lives and disappearing almost the same moment. If you like to hear Robert singing, check out the video!
Dance like nobody's watching 
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