It is always nice to take a few pretty memory pieces home from vacation, but let’s be honest – at some point you have more shot glasses than event to drink, your shelfs are overflowing with frippery and you were anyways never really into fridge magnets. Especially during short tourist trips it can be difficult …
How to plan a sustainable and ethical wedding
“Green” weddings are becoming more and more of a thing, but it was still extremely difficult for us to find some information online last year. Let’s hope this will really become a sincere trend! Because unlike common believe, even an eco-wedding can be fun.
The personal (knitting) is political
When I started knitting a year ago, little did I know just how political that would be. Here I was, just looking for a nice, quiet hobby for after all my mind-wrecking thinking about the state of the world. I was wrong (and frankly, I should have known better, because, uh, everything is about politics). And just as I am, I don’t ignore politics when they come up.
Political mobilization on the agenda: national teachers’ strike in Poland
Since Monday, thousands of teachers are on strike in Poland and a wave of solidarity covers the country. Read this article about the background of this strike, its meaning for the political culture of Poland and about solidarity.
The avant-garde of queer culture on the rise: drag in North Macedonia
Four courageous young people fight their creative battle for an open-minded society in one of the most homophobic countries of Europe. An interview with the drag queens from Skopje.
Thinking inside the box: the Balkans as construction
“I can’t stand it anymore”, I hear a friend complain, “This constant need to label us as the Balkans , whatever that’s supposed to mean.” And she is right to grumble, because somehow everyone is talking about it and at the same time nobody: The Balkans. The term brings back memories of the Balkan Wars and not often it …
I don’t think it’s love: Skopje and me
Before I packed my bags in the beginning of the year to live a few weeks in Skopje, I was suddenly in the grip of a grand fear. A thoroughly irrational, panicky part of me was to 100% certain that I would not be able to live and work in Skopje without this leading to …
Back in Skopje or: the continuing astonishment about my free choice to live in “the East”
Oops, I did it again – I am back. For five short weeks I live – again – in Skopje, capital of Macedonia (the Republic of North Macedonia as of most recent). This time the country is not neck deep in state capture and national crises (read more on my blog about the deadlock in …
Smog Wawelski – smoggy sights in Krakow (part 1)
[Original Version: GERMAN] It’s this time of the year again: I wake up in the mornings feeling a little chilly, and have a first look out of the window, only to ask myself, frowning: “Is this fog – or is this smog?”
Krakow by bike
Since early September I am the proud owner of a bike in Krakow and since the day I bought it I am wondering how I was able to enjoy Krakow without a bike. To thank me for this climate-friendly investment the Krakow weather rewards me with summer-like sunny days and golden shimmering, autumnal parks to re-discover the …