Catching Smiles around the Globe

Traveling is about the people you meet

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Christin hatte sich vor über drei Jahren mal in Berlin verknallt. "Ich hatte ein Hammerwochenende hier erlebt - schöne Tage und tolle spannende Nächte. Nach dem Heimfahren bin ich gar nicht mehr runter gekommen. Ich habe nicht mehr aus dem Kopf gekriegt, dass ich unbedingt wieder nach Berlin muss, so dass ich einfach das darauffolgende Wochenende wieder hergefahren bin. Sogar allein und ohne dass ich hier jemanden kannte und ich hatte einfach noch mal ein total geniales Wochenende, so dass ich mir dann einfach spontan eine Wohnung genommen habe und vier Wochen später umgezogen bin." #digitalnomad #smiles for the #freedom to #live #anywhere Als ich Christin im April auf dem Tempelhofer Feld traf, lebte sie schon länger nicht mehr in Berlin und überlegte gerade wieder herzuziehen. Das passierte nicht. Momentan lebt sie, glaube ich, im Süden Spaniens. (en Tempelhofer Feld)

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Peter übernachtet mit über 70 immer noch gern in Hostels. “Schon als junger Mann habe ich mir die Frage gestellt: Willst du eine Familie gründen und Kinder haben? Dann kannst du nicht so leben, wie ich leben wollte. Ich habe das Reisen und das ‘Nur mir selbst gegenüber verantwortlich sein’ vorgezogen. Wenn ich ein Kind habe, dann habe ich eine Verantwortung für den Wurm und für die Familie. Ich hatte über 9 Jahre eine Beziehung. Gott sei Dank waren wir auf der gleichen Wellenlänge und haben viele Reisen zusammen gemacht. Danach jemanden zu finden, der das Gleiche mitmacht und nicht mit dem Hartschalenkoffer unterwegs ist, das ist schwierig.” #german #travelblogger #smiles for #independence and his #travellife in #berlin #germany * Was Peter auf seinen Reisen erlebt, kannst du hier entdecken @peterstravel (en Prinzessinnengärten)

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Karin first met Michael at a local party in Västerbotten (Sweden) at a time when she was still recovering from cancer. “I felt ‘Wow!’. I have never seen this man before and he was so nice. I didn’t have my glasses on in the evening. And he showed fotos of all his children. He has 4 children plus a bonus child. So I tried to see them all. What I learned about him that night was that he has lost his wife to cancer one year before. I had heard about a woman with 5 children that had more serious cancer than I had and that did not make it and I thought: how terrible! She was only 32. Why did I make it and she didn’t?’ If I had known that he was her fiancée, I don’t think that I would have had the guts to talk to him at all. Instead it was, that we really understood each other. We knew about worry, sorrow and facing things that we had not done before. It was so relaxing. So we started dating not telling anything to our 9 children and it felt like he healed me and may be I healed him. Then we slowly started meeting our children. We both love children and we said that it must work and we can not just think about ourselves. And then everything went so smoothly. His youngest child was only eight. They loved me from the beginning and I never tried to be their new mother. I said I’m Karin. I’m a grown up and they really missed a grown up woman. They said: “Our father is so good, but he’s not a woman. We can not talk to him about everything. So we became very close. When I had my 50th birthday, that was the first time we brought all our children together. We went to a hotel and we spent the weekend there. It was a cool feeling, when we all sat together. All eleven. At the same table on my 50th bithday. I felt rich." #swedish #couple #smiles for #eachother and their 9 #children in #goldoflapland #sweden. #visitsweden (en Swedish Lapland)

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Swedish Karin already had four kids of her own, when she separated in 2010. “I was going to take it easy, but a year after I separated, I got cancer, so I had to pull the hand brake in my life and take one year off going through all the treatment. After that year, I was very tired and was planning to do things that get my strength back. I was not thinking of love at that time. I was 48 then and I was thinking: maybe I would never see somebody again. After I got my strength back, one of my colleagues asked: ‘Do you want to go out to that local party’ ‘No I don’t have anybody to go there with and I usually don’t go out in my hometown, because I’m not looking for anybody anyway.’ So she said: ‘We can just have a few glasses of wine. She came over and we drank a lot of wine. So we were very happy, when we went out. It was a very fun night. And at the end of the evening, I saw this guy looking at me, with very happy eyes. He pointed at me and said: ‘Come here. Who are you?’ And the night ended so quickly after that, so he said: ‘Can I buy you a hamburger, I want to talk to you more. It was in August on a very warm night and we sat outside talking till about 4 o’clock in the morning.” (Part 1/2) #hopeful #swedish #woman #smiles in #goldoflapland #sweden. #visitsweden (en Granö Beckasin)

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Mikael is a Sami. Lapland is his home. "I have a strong connection with nature. Since young years, I have been out with the reindeers and hunting and fishing. When I got out of school in 9th grade I started to work with reindeers fulltime. We have them home like dogs. Of course we don’t want them in, but we have them outside. It’s tough now. All the people want a car and good money. So it’s a tough decision for young Samis to make, because there is not so much money in the reindeer business. You need to go out when it’s raining and when it’s cold. It’s a lot of work and there’s no glamour. #sami #smiles for working with #nature and #reindeers in #goldoflapland #sweden. #visitsweden (en Sweden)

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“I’d rather freeze then be too hot, because I don’t like sweating.” Nikolaus is a Sami. He belongs to the indigenous people that live in northern Skandinavia. “When Samis have a date at 7:30, they come at 8-ish. Like the sami half hour. I don’t stress a lot. Especially when you work with reindeer, you don’t stress them, because then they just do whatever. I don’t wanna be a full time reindeer worker. I’m very into natural sciences. I could show the world: Look Samis are here. I could be the first Sami astronaut.” #young #sami #smiles for becoming an #astronaut in #lapland #sweden. #goldoflapland #visitsweden (en Lapland (Sweden))

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“You wanna ask, if I have experienced racism? Yes. Four years ago, he was told not to talk Sami in the school. People are always afraid of segreggation, that we will keep to ourselves. But how is that even possible? We’ve been living up here for so long with the Swedes and the Finish and different kind of people, so why should we be segreggated now? We’re used to be a multicultural society. It’s nothing new to us, it’s nothing that we have to learn from Stockholm or London or any city were the people are living together. I like to meet people, connect with people, exchange ideas. I think that is the most essential to survive up here. We live in an area, where we have very tough conditions, so we can’t say No to people.” #sami #mother and #son #smile against #racism in #lapland #sweden. #goldoflapland #visitsweden (en Lapland (Sweden))

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“I have lived in Stockholm and worked for the second largest newspaper. I have lived the city live. I have inteviewed ministers and celebrities. But I’m back home, because this is the place, where I want to live.” After 30 years as a journalist, Annika returned to her hometown Granö Beckasin in the Swedish region of Västerbotten. Together with some childhood friends (one of them a very talented architect) she had built her dream hotel. “The people that are coming here from the big cities in Europe, they walk very fast and they have a lot of make up on. After a couple of days they walk slower, they’re more relaxed and the women wear less make up. You can see that the smiles on their faces actually come from within.” #former #journalist #smiles for true #smiles in her #hometown #granöbeckasin #goldoflapland #sweden. @catchingsmiles.net powered by @visitsweden (en Sweden)

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"I come from the 'butthole' of Brazil." Tulio is not proud of his little Brazilian hometown. "It was not so much fun growing up there as a gay man. So I got out of there, as soon as I could. Though I have to say my family was very open, so I can not blame them. It was more of an environmental issue. " Tulio lived in San Francisco, where he worked as a lawyer for several years. Then his company sendt him back to Brazil. To the megacity of São Paulo, where he met his boy friend. Meanwhile, the two live together with their English Bulldog in Berlin Mitte. "We kind of buildt a home there. You can walk home at night and you do not have to worry about being mugged. The freedom that comes with security is super important to us. And we have not driven a car in the last three years. We take our bikes everywhere. Two weeks after we moved here, we decided, we're never leaving." #brazilian #lawyer #smiles for the #freedom of #security and his #bulldog in #berlin. #100fremdelächeln #64 (en Berlin, Germany)

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"We are not here for Germany. We are here for Berlin." Rodrigo and Elissa come from Rio Grande do Sol, the southernmost state of Brazil. From Porto Alegre, a city located 100 kilometers away from the nearest beach which felt too grey for the couple. Rodrigo has German roots: "My 'Oma' used to make me Spätzle. I called my grandmother 'Oma' and my grandfather 'Opa'. They never taught me German, so I don't know how to speak it properly, but I'm used to this cultural thingies: These German histories like the Hameln flood guy and the Bremen musicians." Meanwhile Rodrigo and Elissa live and work in Berlin and document their experiences on their YouTube channel "Alemanizando", which translates to "Germanizing". According to Elissa Berlin will not be their final stop. "I would like to grow old in Iceland. I have been loving Iceland since I was a teenager." #brazilian #couple #smiles for #berlin and #iceland somewhere in the #berlin #kreuzberg #nightlife. #100fremdelächeln #62 #63 (en Franken)

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"I created a social network and sold it one year before Facebook launched, so it was still worth something and one year later Facebook arrived and nobody would have bought it. Even if it was not that much, it was not too late. I was also paid to manage the company I just sold and to stay there. They fired me last year and I liked to stay in Berlin. I'm launching new prototypes of applications with very little money and that's only possible in Berlin. Paris is too much pressure. People expect me to do something. Here I just take my time without the pressure of friends, family and professional contacts. So you can be who you want to be in Berlin. In Paris I'm the one people already know, but not the one I want to be. I tried to be part of Paris but it did not make me happy, whereas here with a much more simple life, zero champagne but some beer, I'm very happy. I hope I will stay young in Berlin." #french #entrepreneur #smiles for #berlin in #berlin without #champagne. #100fremdelächeln #61 (en ImmobilienScout24 Profis)

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"I had absolutely no idea of ​​China and when I was there, I thought: Wow! What a country. So diverse! So much going on! Meanwhile my view of China has changed. Working with them was difficult. It's OK if my boss tells me what I have to do, but they have this master student concept in their minds. if you have studied for 5 years, and gained some experince but get told again and again: 'you are worth nothing and don't make any decisions.' It's not fun." Nevertheless, Thea, who had traveled and worked in China during her East Asian studies, would recommend everyone to visit. "That sounds corny, but through these differences, you learn much about yourself ... and your own tolerance limit. It's simply a land of extremes. I had the best time of my life there and the worst." #rebelious #german #travelette #smiles 😊for #extreme #experiences in #China 🇨🇳from her #berlin # neukölln #rooftop

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"It is the mission of an artist to connect with the audience, to generate a positive response and to convey an emotion." Jorge from Chile came to Berlin to sing and to perfect his singing technique. "I want to work in an opera here in Germany. It's also possible in Chile, but it is much more difficult. In Chile there is only one opera. Here in Germany there are 80 operas. It is 80 times more likely to find a job. My parents support me in my dream. I am the youngest of four siblings. My mother misses me very much and we speak every day on Skype. My professional dream is here in Germany, but my emotional dream is in my country." #opera #singer from #chile 🇨🇱 #smiles 😃 for #classic #music and #positive #feedback 👏 at #berlin #alexanderplatz #100fremdelächeln #59 (en Berlin Alexanderplatz)

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“Ich fühle mich eigentlich fremd in Berlin. Immer mehr Leute, die ich kennen lerne, kommen nicht aus Berlin, kennen aber tausend Sachen mehr aus Berlin als du selber. Wenn du hier geboren bist, fährst du halt nicht rum und schaust dir alles an, sondern du bleibst in deinem Bezirk, wo du zur Schule und in den Kindergarten gehst. Wenn du zur Uni gehst, kommst du schon etwas weiter raus. Aber es gibt so viele Sachen, die ich nie gemacht habe und nicht kenne und dann kommt man sich irgendwann fremd in der eigenen Stadt vor. In der Uni war es immer so: ‘Wie du kommst wirklich aus Berlin?’’Ja.’‘Und du warst nie irgendwo anders?’ ‘Nein, ich war leider irgendwie immer in Berlin.’ Dann bist du fast ein Außenseiter. Vielleicht verlass’ ich Berlin auch bald. Mal gucken. Wohin weiß ich eben nicht. Wenn ich es wüsste, wäre ich schon weg. … Vielleicht merke ich erst, wenn ich woanders bin, dass ich mich hier zu Hause fühle. #echteberlinerin #lächelt für ein #alternatives #zuhause in #berlin #neukölln. #100fremdelächeln in #deutschland #58 (en Berlin Neukoelln)

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Johannes und seine Freundin sind schon eine Weile Reiseblogger. Seit kurzem sind sie auch Eltern. Zeit jetzt die Schönheiten Deutschlands zu entdecken? "In Zukunft sind normale Reisen geplant. Jetzt halt als Familie. Wir werden im Winter zwei Monate nach Thailand fahren und von dort aus dann weiter arbeiten. Wir haben auch sonst jede Menge Reisen geplant. Natürlich jetzt nicht die extremsten Ziele. Nach Somalia würde ich nicht reisen wollen. Das wäre mir dann doch zu schwierig. Aber wo eine gute Krankenversorgung für das Kind gewährleistet ist, da gibt's kein Problem. Der Fokus liegt jetzt auf dem Kind. Wenn's dem Kind schlecht geht, geht's dir selber auch nicht gut." #german #travelblogger #smiles for his #daughter in #berlin #schöneberg @catchingsmiles.net lächelt mit Johannes von @reisedepeschen (en Mattea B.)

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“I’m kind of the opposite of a city person. I need a lot of space and where I live, I have a lot of space.” Gregor has his own forest in Swedish Lapland. It’s about 16 hectar (=160000m²) in size, filled with trees, some swamps and grass land. “Some part of it used to be a farm, so I could have a couple of sheep if I wanted to, which I might at some point. Right now I’m not there so much and if you have animals you have to be there the whole time.” In the summer he works in the Swedish region called ‘Gold of Lapland’ and takes tourists on log rafts down the Umea river. In the Winter, he works with sled dogs up in Spitsbergen. Places Gregor has lived in the last 15 years include: Sweden, Norway, Canada and Madagascar. “I’m usually just a couple of months in one place. I’m not a very stable person. Except for having this place there. #guy with #german #passport #smiles for his #forest on the #umea #river in #goldoflapland #sweden @catchingsmiles.net doing a smile partnership with #visitsweden (en Granö Beckasin)

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“I will be the one that survives on an island.” When Swedish Thea was 15 years old, her school offered a class where she learned how to cook her own food on an open fire and other practical survival skills for the vast wilderness of Swedish Lapland. “It was called ‘outdoor life and leadership’ and they told us how to survive outdors in every nature and with every weather. Even if you have a snow storm coming and you have to dig yourself within a pile of snow.” #swedish #woman #smiles for #independent #outdoor #survival in #goldoflapland 💛#sweden🇸🇪 *and since you asked, the “Aurora Borealis” in her hair is created with pigmented conditioner 💙💜😮 @catchingsmiles.net in a smile partnership with @visitsweden (en Granö)