Hello World @goodbyeisland-blog - Tumblr Blog

Morocco

I’ve just come to the realisation that I have never really sorted through my Morocco pictures. I was on a tour for two weeks and shot a few (hundred) pictures. Here are my favourites, hope you like them.

#morocco #photography #landscpape #city #colours #sea #mountains

Ed Fringe - Festival Month

It is done, August has passed and so has the Fringe. Yes, I intended to do weekly blog posts- what was I thinking :D

After having spend hours on end carrying stuff and sticking posters to walls, having shed massive loads of skin and some tears, forgetting what sleep and real food feels like (There was this one time when I had vegetables. It was glorious.) and generally being in full festival mode for a month, I am still standing and I still love events. And that is the most important statement right up front: I still like doing this.

The last blog post ended with me starting my endless stream of night shifts, which I really enjoyed. In the end I had 19 night shifts during the festival. And the cleaners asked me if I am in the venue everynight. And my flatmates. And my parents. And the bar staff wouldn’t sell me alcohol on off-days because they assumed I was on shift and generally everyone always gave me confused glances when I was seen outside of work past 12am. But in the end I guess I really didn’t do more night shifts than anyone else (you may compare) and Josh is still record holder of night shifts and will forever be so.

The work itself was absolutely fun, mainly because we stuck together as a team. Team Main, Team Wank-Bank, Team Bop-It, Main Dream-Team. My lovely colleagues kept me sane (except for Crystal, what a cunt) and I tried not to disturb any naps (which I had one of in my last night; how did you guys sleep on those sofas, they’re unbelievably uncomfortable). Special mentions: Fohbo Jon for not doing any actual work, get-out king Sam, Elisha for doing some actual work, night shift partner Rhomey, Su for all the HobbNobs I stole on night shift, my wonderful lunch mate Jack and I really love everyone else as well but this post should contain more than name listing. Though there will be some more. Just you wait. Here is a picture of all the staff at their best:

Since I was just writing of people: I was so darn lucky with my flatmates! It is known that I am more or less unwilling to share my living space so this was a completely new experience for me. But everyone was so funny and respectful and we took turns destroying and rebuilding the flat (ok, mostly Claire haha) and the girls provided the crazy and the gos and the boys the fab and the gos and the beauty products (lifesafers!). Also Dorine and Elizabeth (and occasionally Jess and Elisha) didn’t snore so that is a massive plus!

(Now follows a paid promotion) Stephen Gabriella Stephens is the most fabulous room-mate of them all and I wouldn’t know what to do without her. Here we are portrayed, us meager humans gathering around her. She won the Fringe Got Talent Award 2016. (Lucy’s face is priceless)

So I had a lot of fun at work and at home. And then there were those three mysterious days where we were released into roughly 24 hours of freedom. Time that we could spend on other things than sleep or blue-tack. Actual time. On our first day off we decided to use them newly built muscles and climb Arthur’s Seat. Now I have a history with that specific mountain seeing that my brother and I tried to reach the summit three years ago and failed. Like ridiculously failed. Like not even half way failed. But turns out not only did I put the two weeks of get-in to good use physically but also there is an easy way to go up that does not require you to be a professional climber. The more you know.

My second day off was the world laziest day, hanging around in Princes Park with Denver, watching shows at C and then continue to watch shows. On Netflix. I know, my life is so exciting. I should write a book. Or a blog post. oh wait.

Off-day number three was spend sleeping, roaming the street’s of Edinburgh and then the spontaneous and slightly dubios acquisition of a Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo ticket (in a telephone box). I then went on to see the Tattoo in the castle and it was all I hoped for and I am very glad I spent 1/6 of my Fringe wage on that ;)

And after the Tattoo I had a fried Mars bar and that was equally satisfying if not life changing. Next to caramel slices probably my favourite snack. Caramel slices are godsent and arguably one of the best things to come out of Scotland (Scotish people aside).

Then there were these few precious hours of free time spent in a place of legends, the C Award winning C Main bar. What it won its award for you ask? Two words: The Playlist ™ ©℗® : every night the DJ would play the same itunes playlist “records” for us to enjoy. But of course you didn’t have to be drinking and dancing to enjoy this. If you were lucky enough to work night shifts at Main you were able to listen to this beautiful composition of the last 30 years of shit songs sprinkled with a few actual good ones for 25 nights in a row. Lucky us. Other night stats: 4x puke, 2x piss, 1x shit, 0 sex incidents. I honestly feel lucky I had to mop up puke and not break up cupboard lovers. (Though that one time just went to far. That was an inhuman amount of puke. Karma will punish you for this anonymous projectile-puker.)

EDIT: I forgot to mention the infamous staple incident. I managed to staple my thumb. That’s it. Continue.

(Unlike portrayed in this picture the bar was actually crammed with people most nights)

After the actual Fringe Festival there was of course the get-out. Four intense nights and days of demolishing everything we had built so beautifully in the get-in. Tacking down posters, lights and steel-deck alike, carrying 436 chairs (yes I had to count them) and the hardest thing of them all: saying goodbye to my main bitches who will forever be remembered. Mainly for their weird habbits and failures but nobody’s perfect right. Love you all :)

(This is the get-out team + Su. Look at our bronze colour and our biceps. I refuse to acknowledge the full C Main team picture because I still haven’t been photoshoped into it. Jack is missing in this picture because he took it. The sacrifices of Mr. Jack Steel.)

But now, after all is said and done and reflected upon I can say that the Fringe was the best time ever. Not only did I get to live in Edinburgh and meet people from all over the UK and the world I also spent a month working with and on my talents and that is a chance not everybody is given in life. August 2016 could have been the worst month of my life. But it wasn’t and that is down to this festival and to everyone involved in it and now my life. And my arm. THX.

(And now that you have read of all my adventures I can only advise you to click this link to see more pictures. I know you want it.)

#fringe #festival #edinburgh #report #blog #me #tattoo #scotland

The ultimate Finge picture show. You’re welcome.

#fringe #festival #edinburgh #scotland #photos #collection #staff

Ed Fringe - Week One

I’ve been living in Edinburgh for a week now. I’ve been living in Edinburgh for a week now. This is madness!

For those of you who don’t know, I moved to Edinburgh to work for C Venues for the duration of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a major art/theater festival in the world’s most beautiful city. I arrived on Tuesday, 19/07, and so much has happened since then.

Mainly, for the first two weeks, me and my wonderful co-workers (who- like me- flew in from all over the world) have to build theatre spaces in which the festival will happen in August. For that we walk to our buildings every day and build, drill, paint, tape, skim, rig, sweep, carpent, paint a little more... and generally create venues out of nowhere.

I work at C Main/Adam House, an Edinburgh University building that we are currently turning into a venue with three theatre halls and two bars. My job (as of yesterday) is Deputy Technical Manager, or in other words: If shit goes down the drain, I must find a way to keep things running/make sure nobody dies. I love it already and the festival hasn’t even started yet! We work in twelve hour shifts that can either feel like they passed in a blink of an eye or lasted for days, depending on the day’s tasks. From today on I will be working night shifts, let’s see how that goes... :D I am very glad that I work at Main, it is a beautiful building, the people are wonderful and it will be very busy during the festival. What more could I want?

So far I have spent every free minute during the day in the National Museum of Scotland. I love that place so much, it is a massive museum, a beautiful building, it has a great rooftop terrace and you can spend your whole life in there without ever having to leave. So far I have seen everything in the -1 floor. It has seven floors. That tells you everything you need to know about the size of it haha

At night I mostly stay home because I have a cold but I could not not go to the Scottish Ceilidh that one of my co-workers had organised last week. A ceilidh is basically a celebratory dance, either Scottish or Irish. So we danced. And it was the most straining thing we had done all week. Dancing is hard :D

Here you can find a video of us dancing: http://goodbyeisland.tumblr.com/post/148041274776

We also had a movie night in our flat on Sunday because my flatmates are awsome and we all love each other! They are English, Irish, French, American, Kenian and what not and I could not hope to life with a better bunch of people.

So this is what my first week has been like. I hope that with the future night shifts I will be able to walk around Edinburgh during the day, take some pictures and generally soak in the beauty that is this city.

Edinburgh, I love you with all my heart!

#edinburgh #scotland #life

LA Adventures

I kept telling people that Hamburg is my least favourite airport in the world. To be honest, I don’t even know why. Admittedly there was this one time where they nearly arrested me because they thought my polaroid camera was a bomb but other than that it doesn’t really piss me off that much. Better safe than sorry, right?

This time around the staff was friendly and fast-working and it was a generally nice experience (as per usual) so maybe I should give Hamburg more credit. So here it is: Hamburg, you are officially not my least favourite airport anymore. (But which one takes the crown this time around? Find out later!).

The flight from Hamburg to Munich was short, I always enjoy Munich Airport, never any troubles there. The flight from Munich to Los Angeles was freakishly long but also super scenic and I managed to watch four movies so that’s something. My favourite thing about it by far was flying over Greenland and Canada (one could also say “ice for hours on end”).

(so this is what Canada looks like... I should visit Canada some time)

Arriving at LAX was about as stressful as I would have imagined which had probably a lot more to do with my sleep deprivation than their... “rules and regulations”. Well let’s say 50/50, shall we?

After finally being allowed in we waited for our parents to pick us up and we stepped into our Airbnb which was located so wonderfully that I couldn’t have wished for more. I’m talking record store meets vegan restaurant meets Sunset Blvd here.

It being late and all the first day mainly consisted of unpacking and the scenic view over LA close to the Griffith. It looked somewhat like that:

And of course walking down Hollywood Blvd for the first time which was all kinds of crazy.

Starting early the next day (no jetlag, whoo) we hiked our way up Runyon Canyon alongside runners and hikers and what felt like every person that is fitter than me (which of course is a terrible lie since nearly every person in the world is fitter than me). I had at least twenty Edinburgh Arthur’s Seat flashbacks where I was only able to hike up halfway (oh the shame) but we actually made it this time! And by “it” I mean the short hike. But up is up!

Admittedly LA looks more classy at night but the sheer size of it is super impressive at day time. The skyscrapers in the background form #dtla... well at least on Instagram. Downtown LA was our next stop as well, where we had food (food is damn expensive in LA) and smoothies (even more expensive...). If you ever go to LA and don’t know what to expect yet: better smash that piggy bank!

Downtown has a lot of famous buildings including the Walt Disney Concert Hall but it also includes the historic old town. Then again “historic” of course means something completely different to Americans than to Europeans, doesn’t it?

That evening we actually made it to the Griffith Observatory which was nearly as packed as the day before but patience is the main thing you need when travelling to LA anyway.

From the Griffith we had a spectacular view over LA that kind of resembles the one in the picture from day one (how unexpected), so have a little zoom now:

Back at the Airbnb I remembered that being in the States meant a complete new level of possibilities on Netflix so that caused me a late night (can anyone explain why the new season of House Of Cards is on Amazon in Germany and not on Netflix? )

On day three we drove to Malibu. But not the ten minutes way down the Blvd but through the Santa Monica Mountains and the Malibu Creek State Park. I nearly died for Instagrams three times on this trip but it was so worth it!

Fun fact: LA has the only Hindu Temple in the States. It looks like this:

After surviving the mountains we arrived in Malibu, more specifically Pacific Cove, that is claiming to be the most beautiful beach in the world. Having grown up on the most beautiful island I of course have to defend my home but I give Malibu a good runner up position (I might be joking)

We ended the day checking out the Pacific Palisades arriving right on time for sunset (oh the instagram mission is strong with this one).

It’s all less text more pictures with LA, because -as it always is- you can’t really describe the beauty. Not even photos are really doing it justice in most cases. I personally ended the night with Netflix (House Of Cards is so gooood, fix it, german Netflix).

Day four was Beverly Hills/Venice day. First of: I “talked” to Harry Stiles while he was running (with his personal trainer, not away from me, just to be clear). I stepped out of his way, he said “Thank you”, I said “Sure” and if that doesn’t count as a vacation highlight than I don’t know what does. I’m still freaking out and I’m not even a... Directioner.

Other than that Beverly Hills is the neighbourhood for rich kids but they are definitely one or two playgrounds short. Socialise, dammit,

Venice on the other hand is one massive playground for the cool kids. You have to be there to really get it but I’ll just throw in some words to to kickstart your imagination: skate park, dancers, musicians, weed, more weed, some people who are way past weed, more skating, surfing, biking... Everyone who is a little bit crazy and enjoys the sun.

Venice beach itself is the most massive beach I have ever seen and I’ve seen quite a few.

After we had spend the day amongst the beach goers and their baywatch life guards we made our way to the Santa Monica Pier to watch the sunset that definitely takes the top spot in the endless collection of sunsets. I know now why people at the west coast are applauding the set sun. it’s just doing an impressive job.

Not only did the day end with this sunset but also our LA adventure. I’ve been to a lot of places over the past two or three years. LA is one of those cities that just stick with you (I would name Amsterdam, Edinburgh and London as one of those as well) and I surely will be back one day.

To answer the initial question: We traveled back with a stop in Frankfurt Am Main and since it was again a shitty experience (three out of four times now) Frankfurt takes the crown as worst airport I have ever been to. But let’s be real here, coming back from LA I was so relaxed and had in a way taken on that laid-back lifestyle that I couldn’t even get angry about it.

Thank you Los Angeles, it has been an honour.