Arab Idol: Palestine is celebrating!

Tonight the Palestinian Mohammed Assaf won the popular Arabian TV Show Arab Idol. Millions of people watched the final and it was a great success. I was very psyched about this final because I've been watching Arab Idol very enthusiastically, mostly because I don't need to concentrate to understand  as they sing all the time. Nevertheless I feel good about myself afterwards because I did something for my Arabic skills :P

However, I am glad that this young man has won the show. Let me explain: of course, he is a great singer but there is another reason that is more important. Palestine has been a war zone for a long time now, and nothing good ever happens there. Whenever you see or read something about Palestine it is horrendous - another bomb attack, dying kids, peace negotiations that haven't worked out. The list is endless.

This time, you hear some good news about Palestine. Mohammed Assaf brought people together through his singing; every single person in Palestine was watching the final show, crossing their fingers and hoping that their star would win the show. And he did.

Everybody is proud of him and the Palestinians could finally celebrate a peaceful victory. Mohammed Assaf dedicates his music to his nation who has been suffering from war, occupation and conflicts with Israel but with each other as well for many years now. He manages to bring the world together by performing and that's an incredibly important achievement for the Middle East.

Here's a link to an English song he performed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgbAWnA4mw

And another link to a youtube video about him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR5XlPVqlOM

Planning a trip to Australia =)

As some of you already know, I'm going to Australia in September and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm going there with a friend and we are going to visit a friend I got to know when I was living in France and my best friend who is spending 7 months there.

Unfortunately we can only stay for three weeks so we have a huge problem: there are so many things we absolutely want to do and see and there is just not enough time.

I always knew that Australia is huge but I only realized how vast it is when we started planning our trip. There's a nice park next to Melbourne (or at least it seems to be next to Melbourne) but when we looked up how long it would take us to get there it turned out that it was 500km away!!!

The distances are enormous. So it will really really difficult to make the right decision - we certainly don't want to miss a thing from our "must-do-list" but I'm afraid we won't be able to manage to see all the great things.

Here's our current planning:

Melbourne - Yarra Valley - Ocean Road (we've got one week to do all that)

Afterwards we're flying to Brisbane, where we're planning to rent a car and drive to the Great Barrier Reef. There are several magnificent beaches we would love to see but we'll have to drive for about 20 hours just to get to Cairns (where the Great Barrier Reef is). And we only have about 8 days!!

After that we're going to take another plane and fly to Sydney, where we'll spend several days. And that's it!! It's just way too short..

If there's anyone who has already been to Australia I would be glad to hear your experiences and maybe some travel tips and recommendations ;)

I'll keep you up-to-date!!

Berlin Calling!

I was looking for a holiday destination for this year’s Easter break and I decided to take a trip to Germany’s amazing capital. It is a convenient destination as planes leave from Graz and I have a friend there, so I didn’t have to look for a hostel.

The flight went well and I arrived there Sunday evening. We spent a nice evening in a Lebanese restaurant and planned our week. I’ve already been to Berlin 6 years ago but that was only a 3-day-trip and as it was long time ago we decided to visit the most famous tourist attractions again. It took us one day to see the main sights like the Berlin Wall, Brandenburger Tor, Alexanderplatz, the Museum Island or the Siegessäule. 

Victory Column

Brandenburg Gate

Reichstag

Visiting a city with someone who lives there is completely different – eventually we didn’t to that much sightseeing but I got a closer look at places that real inhabitants of the city enjoy.  She took me to nice bars, we went to see a concert of a local musician and she showed me some magnificent parks.  

At the Rittersport shop

We also visited some museums – my favorite one is the Pergamonmuseum. It is divided into three sections: the antiquity collection, the Middle East museum and the museum of Islamic arts. The most impressive piece of art is the reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate, which was a gate to the inner city of Babylon. I also enjoyed the museum for Islamic art very much – probably because I’ve already heard much about Islamic art in Arabic classes but I’ve never had the chance to see some of it up to now. 

Ishtar Gate

Another must-see for Berlin visitors is Sanssouci – a palace located in Potsdam, half an hour from Berlin.  It reminds me a little bit of Versailles as it is built in a very similar style. The park is also beautiful. One can spend a lot of time wandering around there. Unfortunately it was freezing outside when we were there so we could not enjoy it that much. 

Since we were already in Potsdam I insisted on visiting the Babelsberg Film Studio. Many famous films are shot there – German films as well as international productions. It was an amazing experience where we got loads of information about the making of films. What’s even cooler is the fact that we could see the set of GZSZ, a German soap opera. I stopped watching it 10 years ago but it is still funny to see all these places which we know from TV in reality.

Walking in a winter wonderland =)

As one week is I also wanted to see something else than Berlin, so my friend proposed a trip to her hometown, which is situated in Saxony-Anhalt.  We spent two days there – it was quite a change because Thale – her hometown – is a small village that differs very much from the cosmopolitan city Berlin. It is situated in the Harz district, which is one of the most mountainous areas of Germany. Besides it is famous for its legends and sagas that are mostly about witches. 

Werningerode

Quedlinburg

The last night there we went out. Berlin has so many possibilities if you want to go out! It was really hard to reach a decision but eventually we agreed on going to Fritz Club near the East Side Gallery. There were various floors with different kinds of music and we spent a nice evening there. People there are different from Austrians. In my opinion they enjoy dancing much more and they seem more relaxed than the majority of dancing Austrians. 

It was an amazing week but unfortanely time flies when we have fun! I'm already looking forward to my next journey! :)

The most photographed part of the Berlin Wall