Tripping through tunes
This month marks one year in Berlin. Contrary to what most people believe, my start in Berlin wasn’t very easy. I’d given up a life of freedom and excitement for a permanent place. It felt more permanent than anything I’d ever done before and it scared me. I’d moved to…
One week before crazy
I am sooooo lucky! In the first week of March I made it over to Les Arcs in France for a second ski week this winter. Corona was coming up, but at this time we had no idea what it would turn into. I was outside doing one of my…
The oldest hostel I’ve stayed in
In Europe we are quite used to history being intertwined with our present and future. We shop in heritage buildings, visit towns with ancient city walls and don’t always take the time to appreciate it. It isn’t until we visit a place that’s missing this history that we realise what…
An extraordinary traffic jam
After a beautiful morning exploring the ruins of Persepolis, we were filling our bellies and processing all the beauty at local buffet restaurant. We had just finished our after-lunch tea when our tour leader said it was time to go. Whereas we were usually pretty relaxed since we had a…
Keeping up
The last 2 – 3 months have been a rush. I’ve been flying all over Europe, rushing from one place to the next, barely sleeping in my own bed. At the end of October I was in Romania for Halloween, straight through to Greece for work. Then after one night…
Persepolis still manages to impress
Around 550BC Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire. He first defeated the Medes and from there the empire grew conquest by conquest. It became larger than any empire had been before. Cyrus himself built a palace at Pasargadae. His successors preferred other locations. Darius I founded a new capital…
To the roots of religion
Zoroastrianism is a religion I had never heard of until I went to Iran. And yet it influenced many of the worlds main religions, like Islam, Judaism and Christianity. It is one of the oldest religions still practised and the oldest one believing in one god: Ahura Mazda. It became…
Arriving in Iran
Before our plane landed, a warning sounded over the speakers: “We strongly recommend you to wear a head scarf before exiting the plane.” I felt uncomfortable, constantly checking if it was still on my head as I walked to the terminal. I as nervous because I didn’t have a visa…
Teufelsberg: where history turned into art
After the second world war Berlin was a mess. There was rubble everywhere and the people, a lot of them women, started to clean up the streets. This resulted in some rubble hills, that are now the highest points in the city and are often surrounded by park. The 120…