Golden State

Staten Island Ferry

more to come...

The City that never sleeps

From the Empire State Building

Thanksgiving and Brooklyn Apartment

most awesome kitchen ive ever seen

living room

she does love her robot lamp :)

Hello Titty!

Flying Smartly

So during this year I have been asked by many people how I could afford to travel so much all over the world - well this post will hopefully give some simple answers:

Workshops, conferences, business-related trips

I often find workshops, conferences or other business-related trips to which I apply or get invited to, so I do not pay for the flights/trips. This helped me to get to Torino, Zurich, London, Paris, Berlin and other cities. After or before attending the event I would try to see something from the city or even visit some friends in the respective city. 

You should always try to make some free time to actually visit the city besides the actual purpose of the trip. Now I know that not everyone has the chance to just attend these kind of events, but look on the Internet, I am sure that you will find events that 1) are interesting for you and 2) to which you can also apply to and which are on top of it in very cool cities - try and apply, you have nothing to lose!

Scholarships

The second answer I can give is that I was often supported by scholarships that have helped me to pay for bigger trips. I am very thankful for the support. So if you consider doing an internship abroad I would definitely advice you to look for scholarships and mobility scholarships on the Internet. There are a lot of institutions that support stays abroad and internships abroad. - If you need help, email me.

Booking cheap flights and using clever transit

Of course I also rely on cheap flights and train tickets. 

I am still confused how all the airlines and webpages calculate their prices, but I have noticed that flight prices are mostly down during the morning (5-7 am), so I found flights from Germany to New York for around 340€ for 2 weeks from now - which is pretty short notice. 

I would also recommend to check and compare flights in the local currency (e.g. Euro vs. Dollar in that example) and the current exchange rates.

Also make sure to check local flight companies for inner flights as they will be certainly much cheaper!

If I found a cheap flight with a transit, I would make sure that 1. it is via a very cool city and 2. if it's a cool city, try to stay in that city as long as possible.

That is what one of my friend did when we flew to Shanghai. We had to stop in Dubai and he had 10 hours to kill before his flight from Dubai to Shanghai, so he took a cab and discovered Dubai - for no additional flight costs :) So all in all he got to see Dubai and Shanghai for around 500€.

I know this can be very stressful and is probably not something everyone wants to do. But if you want to use every occasion and you don't have the budget to travel all the time for >1000€ - this might be a good option for you.

If you need more tips or more information on the points above, feel free to email me.

So for me the next stop will be Ecuador for four weeks during the Christmas break and using the above I will spend another two days in Miami as I will fly over Miami) and I only paid 550€ YEAH! :) 

some random pics :)

by Sisi

Nightshot session

Hey there,

i did a photography class last night and we did some nightshots in Central Park - it was freezing after a while but anyways it was totally awesome!

Let pictures speak: New York

Fifth Avenue

a lovely coffee/bookstore

Coffee and biscuits place

cupcake store

Knicks vs. Rockets

A coffee habit

As said earlier, I have been traveling quite a bit this year and ever since I discovered my passion for coffee places, the first thing I would do when I got into a new city, was to roam for a nice coffee place I could do my work in.

So in my opinion a nice coffee place has to have at least the following characteristics:

-       Good coffee
-       Free Wi-fi
-       Plugs (!)
-       Capacious tables with an appropriate height to work on
-       Big windows for natural light + lamps for the evening
-       Character.

Screw all Starbucks Cafés – they suck.
Always filled with tourists, same NOT-cozy style everywhere and the coffee is not exceptionally great – in brief Starbucks does not have character.
Starbucks is like McDonald’s. It’s a chain, it’s convenient as you already know their stuff by heart and they are everywhere – but would you ever choose McDonald’s over a nice tasty restaurant if you had the choice?!
In most times you would not (except after partying I suppose). The same with Starbucks. At least for me I only choose Starbucks, if I really do not have better options, but individual coffee shops have grown like mushrooms these years, so I always end up going to a passionate coffee place
–and I am happy :)

So maybe if anyone is going to travel to any of these cities, this list of really awesome nice coffee shops, which fulfill all (or almost all) points above, might help:

Munich:
- Batty Baristas:

Just next to the Technical University of Munich, this was my favorite place to work and hang around back in the days, as it was so close to my university. Especially on sunny days, I can definitely recommend to go there at around 3pm – that’s when the sun shines directly into the coffee shop and when it’s the nicest to sit outside :). Their coffee is good and the atmosphere is cozy although I don't think the interior is that spectacular.

Berlin:
- Buchkantine:

In a quiet but very nice neighborhood in Moabit, Berlin, directly next to the Spree River, this coffee place is integrated in a bookstore, which makes it the perfect place for book and coffee lovers. They also have a terrace, which is nice to sit at during the summer time

-St. Oberholz:

This coffee place is very stylish and is the home of many freelancers and Mac lovers. When you step in, you have the feeling that you are in some high-tech world. You will meet blue-light reflecting "aliens" wearing big headphones, staring back from behind their big laptop screens...This coffee place has everything anyone can dream of of a perfect coffee work place - given that you like the "berlin style" of it and that at peak times you have to share your broad band with tons of other people.

Berlin is a great coffee city - they have a million other cool cafes! Check them out!

Paris:
- Malongo

If you want to taste a great coffee and do not want to feel like being in a parisien brasserie, Malongo is the place to be. The interior has a touch of South America and they sell their South American(?) coffee in the café as well. It is great to enjoy a sunny afternoon in Paris - that's when Malongo is bathed in golden sunlight...

Beijing:
- Sculping in Time Coffee

Copied or not, this time the Chinese did a very excellent work of establishing this coffee chain business. Each Scultping in Time Coffee in Beijing has a different interior but all of them are decorated with taste and love. And as Chinese people are indeed hardworking people, there is really no deficits to be observed. They have plugs, wifis, capacious tables, good coffee, good light and nice ambiance (okay maybe the coffee price was European standard, but that should not count!)

Geneva: 
- Boreal

By far one of the best coffee places I have been so far. Everything was done correctly here. Very good coffee, large tables, wifi, plugs, good lighting conditions. If only they didn't close this early (7pm!) - but this is a typical Suisse thing I guess. Definitely a super super cool place to be creative!

New York:
Sooooo, Big Apple. Unfortunately the Upper West Side does not offer much of really good coffee places and I have not made it to Brooklyn yet to really explore the coffee shop landscape over there, but at least I found a pastry/coffee place on the Upper West Side which is still a nice place to chill. Its called the "Hungarian Pastry Shop". Beside nice pastry and decent coffee, there are so many authors, writers, journalists who enjoy their creative moment there. So this place is pretty nice for people observing :)
They dont have plugs, nor Wifi (which is rare here in NY!) and they do not offer much light - but definitely a nice place to brainstorm and be all creative!

Unfortunately I have not had enough time to find a great coffee place in London (if someone knows of a good one feel free to tell me!), I forgot the name of the nice coffee place in Singapore. 
Bali, Torino, Frankfurt, Shanghai and other cities weren't that interesting coffee place wise (mostly only the starbucks experience...

Some pics of today in the Hungarian Pastry Shop in New York...