Berlin calling!

Hi my lovely followers!

How was your week? Hope it was more fun than mine... As I'm in the middle of my studies for my exams at semester's end I didn't have a lot of time to do anything except studying... But only for 2 more weeks - then the holidays are finally here!

As I recently found out I really enjoy blogging about different cities and travelling in general in my today's post I want to talk about another great city I've visited a couple of years ago: Berlin!

Even if at our arrival some things didn't go as expected I really enjoyed staying in the capital of Germany. The first thing that annoyed us (my family and me) is, that when we arrived at the airport we had to wait for more than 1 hour for our luggage! And no one didn't even tell us why and how long we would have to wait!
When we finally got our luggage and arrived at the hotel we had booked they told us that because of a booking mistake they made our rooms weren't available and they had to get us to another hotel which was on the other side of the city! But when the hotel turned out to be a brand new luxury hotel with 4+ stars we were satisfied and really looking forward to finally getting to our rooms.

But now enough about things that didn't work out, let's get to some more exciting stuff: sights!
Of course everyone of you knows there are many many things to see in a city like Berlin. So, I just want to mention a few of all we saw.

1. East side gallery
Parts of the Berlin wall which weren't destroyed after the fall of the wall were painted by some famous artists. I think all of the paintings are very thoughtful and want to express something, even if you maybe don't see it at the first sight.























2. Checkpoint Charlie
Back in cold war it was a checkpoint for crossing the boarder between east and west Berlin. Today it is just a sight where people can get photographed with people wearing uniforms like the soldiers did back then.

3. Foundation memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe
Well, the name says everything I guess. But for me the surprising fact was, that walking trough the huge bowlders wasn't even a bit depressing. I had expected to get really depressed by walking trough a memorial for such a cruel action, but it just looked so great that I didn't even have time to think about it.

So, that's enough about World War II and cold war, even if of course there are many more sights of that time, like Gedächtniskirche for example. Maybe I'll do one more post about Berlin some other time, but for now it's enough!

Wish you a nice weekend!

Home, sweet home!

Hi guys!

I already told you a bit about my "second home". So I think it might be interesting for you to know something about my real home too - Bärnbach.

It's a small town in Styria, not too far away from Graz. Some people might say it's boring because it's more of a residential area than a fancy metropole, but I think there are a lot of things to do, for young as for old people, for tourists as for people who live there.

At first I want to tell you about my life here, so the facilities for young people. In summer there are more possibilities as in winter as we have very much nature here. You can take a walk, go jogging or just relax at our beautiful public swimming pool, called "Schlossbad". You can also eat some reeaally  good ice cream at "Corso", a real Italian! As Bärnbach is surrounded by many mountains you can also go hiking (which I don't really like - but my parents do :D).

Schlossbad

In winter you can go ice skating either on an ice rink or on one of the many frozen lakes and ponds (of course just if it's cold enough, not like this year^^).

In the evening you can go to the cinema (yes, we have one in our little city :D) or go out with some friends. Even if meanwhile there is just one bar directly in Bärnbach where you can go, there are some in Köflach and Voitsberg too, which are just 10 minutes away by car.

For your daily life you also need some grocery shops, of course. And you can believe me, we really have many many of those. And they won't stop building new ones! Like if we really need 6 Spar and 4 Billa in a small town!
But we also have another kind of shops which I really like: Fashion shops! As shopping is one of my favourite hobbies I think it's really great that we at least have some here.

But enough about my boring life, let's get to the part about tourism, as this might be more interesting for you tor read. We don't have too many sights around here, but I think for such a small town it still is a lot.

1. Hundertwasser Kirche
For those of you who know Hundertwasser - it's just typical for his style: It's very colourful with many symbols on its facade. The ways around are in a mosaic style and very uneven - so it's hard to walk there with high heels :D.

2. Schloss Alt-Kainach
It's an ancient castle built in the 12th century. Unfortunately I don't know a lot about it myself. So, if you want to know more just go there and find out yourself :D

3. Bundesgestüt Piber
It's the place where world-famous Lipizzaner get bred and trained to be able to get shown at "Spanische Hofreitschule" at vienna.

So, you see, even such a small town as Bärnbach can be really interesting not just to live here but also for tourists. If you ever are around Bärnbach you should really come here and see some of the sights. It's really worth a visit!

Let's bake a cake!

Hi everyone!

As my blog is called it's all about Lena, here's another fact about me: I love baking! Doesn't matter if it's cakes or cookies or any other kind of dessert. Maybe that's because of my mum. She makes the best sweets I know and since I was little I always helped her in the kitchen. Especially at the time before christmas she has a lot to do as she wants to give all our friends and of course our family her cookies as a christmas gift. This year she made 20 different kinds of cookies! So, you can imagine she's really happy if my sister and I help her :)

But as christmas is over, today I want to tell you about a recipe I really like. Not just because it's really easy to make, but also because it's one of my favourite cakes. It's a chocolate cake:


ingredients:  

• 4 eggs
• 10 dag water
• 10 dag oil
• 23 dag flour
• 23 dag sugar
• baking powder
• vanilla sugar
• rum
• cacao

The recipe is, as I said before, very easy: You just put everything in a big bowl and mix it up. Then you fill it into a baking pan and bake it for about 10-15 minutes. That's all, you don't have to do anything else :D

If you want you can add chocolate sauce, made of 250g margarine and 400g chocolate, and marmalade on it, which tastes reeaaally good! 

So, if you want to bake something and don''t have a lot of time or aren't very good at baking, I guarantee this recipe is perfect for you. If you don't tell anyone how easy it is I'm sure everybody will be impressed by your baking skills :D

Wish you a nice day!

"LOL"

Hi guys!

In one of my last posts I talked about a movie which, in my opinion, was really bad. So today I want to do the opposite and talk about my favourite movie ever! Many of you might know it as it is a very famous one and also was on at the cinema some years ago. It's the movie "LOL".

Those of you who don't know the movie might wonder about the name, "LOL", what a stupid name. Doesn't say anything about the movie... But I have to say that the name fits the movie perfectly. I couldn't think of any better name for it! You'll understand why after I've explained the plot to you:

Maël and Lola

The movie is set in the Paris of today. It is about a group of teenagers going to school and doing stuff teenagers do: going out, falling in love and NOT studying a lot. The main character is called Lola, but all her friends call her just Lol (that's where the name comes from ;)). When she falls in love with her best friend , Maël, who also is best friends with Lola's ex-boyfriend, chaos starts. During all those struggles with love her mother and her father, who live separately,  get back together and make everything even more complicated for the sixteen year old girl. Of course that kind of movies has to have a happy end and so all the problems disappear and everybody is just happy in the end. 

Another aspect which makes the film so great to watch is the music. As some guys in the movie, including Maël, have a band music takes a very important place. Here's my favourite song of the movie: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC4jGi1ckXE

I like that movie so much because it just shows how life really is. It doesn't give a prettifying view on love and definitely not show just the beautiful sides of life. For me this is just the perfect example of how a good movie looks like. You can really imagine being in all of those situations exactly like they are shown.

You'll here more from me soon! Wish you the best for your day!

Happy Birthday, little sister!

Hey all!
What's up? How was your weekend? Mine was great! It was the birthday of my little sister and we celebrated the whole weekend :D

Maybe you're wondering why I want to write a whole blog post about my sister's birthday. To answer your question - because I love her! She's the best sister you can imagine. Since we were little we got on reeeeaaaally well. As she is only 2 years younger than me (so it was her 17th birthday yesterday) we always did stuff together. When we were little we used to play with our barbie dolls and as we grew up our interests changed and we went out together, did some shopping or met some friends, as of course we still do now :D Of course we don't have the same friends but that doesn't matter. I get on with her friends very well and so does she with mine. Whenever time is right we all meet and it doesn't matter if it's her friends or mine, we always have a great time!

Of course we also fight sometimes, just like siblings do. But I still love her and am soooo happy to have her! I couldn't imagine life without her. When I moved to Graz last October we both just managed not to get too sad because Graz is only 1 hour by train and we still see each other at least twice a week, every Tuesday and at the weekend.

Birthdays Party :D

Still Party - later that evening :D

Saying farewell isn't really our strength. Whenever one of us leaves without the other one, even if it's just for a week, both of us cry a lot :D A couple of years ago when she left for Rovinj with her class we stood in the middle of the bus, hugging and just crying so hard that even her friends started crying!

So, you see, the thing with us is really biiiiiig love! And because I love her so much, I want everybody to know that it was her birthday and congratulate for one last time this year! :D

Cambridge, lovely Cambridge!

Hey everyone!

How you're doing?
Today I want to tell you a bit about a great experience I made: my week at Cambridge! I went there a couple of years ago with my school. What made this experience so great is that we didn't stay in a hotel all together, but with host families together with just one friend. In that way we really got to know how people live there and a lot about there everyday lives.

street where our host family lived :)

But that wasn't the only reason why I learned a lot on this trip. We also visited a language school for 5 days, which gave me the chance to improve my English (especially spoken English) a lot!

Of course we didn't just study and stay with our host families, we also saw some really great sights round the city. On our first day we had a city tour where a guide showed us all the important buildings at the city.

atrium of King's College

(one of Cambridge's most famous colleges)

chapel of King's College

one more of Cambridge's many many colleges
(don't remember the name :D)

I think I don't have to mention that a university city like Cambridge also has many shopping centres, where we spend most of our spare time :D My favourite one was called "Cambridge Arcades". I liked it so much because there where many of my favourite shops like "New Look" or "Top Shop", which we don't have in Austria :( 

Arcades

We also did some other great activities like punting or seeing a performance of "Stomp". Maybe I'll have time to tell you about those some other time. But for now, this has to be enough! 

Wish you a nice weekend!

My Second Home

Hi guys!

Sorry i haven't posted for such a long time, but to be honest I didn't find the time to blog in my holidays. I always had something else to do :D Hope you had nice holidays too!

Whatever. As promised in my last post I'll start blogging about travelling right NOW! I want to tell you something about a place which means really a lot to me: Präbichl. Many of you might not know where it is or ask themselves what can be so interesting about it.
For those who don't know where it is, it's between Vordernberg and Eisenerz :D  Noooo, it's in Styria, not too far from Graz. It's a mountainous place which also has a really nice skiing area in winter.

We go there at least twice a year as we own a little cabin :) When I was a kid, we used to stay there for three weeks in summer and for another two in winter and sometimes also during easter and semester holidays. So you see, I've spent reeeeaaally a lot of time there, so it's kind of my second home :D

But why is this place so special for me?
To be honest - I don't know. It's just that overtime we arrive time seems to be standing still. You suddenly have soon much time to read or to play with your family. When we were little, my sister and I used to play in the wood - in summer as in winter. We also went down the hill on which the house is built on sleds and took the time :D We always had a great time doing so!
So, I think this place is so special for me because of the memories!

our cabin in winter :)

 You'll hear from me soon! Till then - enjoy your week :)