What a lovely ride...

What a lovely ride...

Hey guys!

I already mentioned that traveling is one of my biggest passions. One thing I really like about traveling is going long distances by car. Most people are pretty happy when they do not have to use their car while being on holiday, as many of them already have to drive to work every day. It‘s different for me. My holiday already starts when I‘m sitting behind the steering wheel of my van and starting the engine, no matter how far the journey will take me.

Last Saturday I went to Croatia with my friends Shirin, Lisa and Julia. We hit the road from my place and it was a pleasure for me right from the start. We were all in such a good mood – also thanks to Shirin being a wonderful co-pilot and DJane – and so it didn‘t even matter that we were stuck in a traffic jam in Slovenia. In fact, our way from my home town to Opatja, Croatia – a drive which is usually done in three hours and a half – took us more than five hours. We had the windows down, a great mix of Florence and The Machine, Pink, Lady Gaga and a lot more on, the volume turned up very high, us dancing, clapping and singing loudly. I am wondering if we cheered up the people in the dozens of other cars or if they were just hoping that the jam would get moving soon. No, I am sure they liked it, if they didn‘t they probably don‘t know what‘s good!

Finally, we arrived in Opatja and spent some great time there. The hotel was nice and we even had a room with sea view. There was a buffet in the morning and in the evening plus free beer and wine (yeah). Well, the wine was free, yet undrinkable... Therefore, we bought some bottles of wine in the „Konzum“ supermarket, cookies and crisps, grabbed the wool blankets from our rooms and made our way over to the beach and stayed there until late at night.

On the third day we got in the car again and drove to picturesque Mošćenička Draga. There we had a delicious meal: a warming tomato soup, spaghetti with sea food and mussels, a nice steak for Shirin and ice cream and Baklava for dessert. Yummy!

On our last day (Tuesday) we checked out of the hotel with the intention to go to that nice little village again. As driving down the coast was so relaxing and enjoyable for our souls we spontaneously decided to go a little farther until we got to a place called Brseć. It was pretty adventurous moving our car through the narrow alleys, down a bad pathway to a romantic  bay. The water of the sea was freezing cold but we got in anyway just to say we were in the sea. Great! We spent our time reading or having a little nap. To round this experience off we went back to Mošćenička Draga to have another mouth-watering meal. At about five o‘clock we made our way home and now guess what...

...at a motorway service area – shortly before Maribor – we stopped to relax a bit and there it happened: our marvelous English teacher Fiona stood right in front of our car. What a lucky coincidence! She and her boyfriend were also on her way back from their holiday. It really is a small world! Meeting Fiona and her boyfriend was just the icing on the cake of our awesome trip to Croatia!

The Sweetest Thing

After having been to the movies watching "Deine Schönheit ist nichts wert" we were all really down because of the sad and disturbing story of Veysel. So, Lisa, Shirin and I went to a nice restaurant to have a nice and filling meal and some wine while discussing the plot of the movie. Lisa and I actually had to tell Shirin the end of the movie because she went out earlier. We were also talking about a friend of mine of whom I was afraid of maybe facing the same fate. After our dinner we went to our apartment and opened a bottle of red wine. We just wanted to drown our sorrow...

... and we wanted to cheer us up a bit. Not only with wine. Of course not. What are you thinking about us? We were also talking about other movies and we found out that one of my favorite comedy movies is actually also Shirin's favorite one: The Sweetest Thing. To be honest, I probably watch it once a year with my brothers and we are always holding our bellies down from laughing! So, we four – Lisa, Shirin,  Alex and Mustafa – were lying in bed watching The Sweetest Thing starring Cameron Diaz – my favorite – Christina Applegate and Selma Blair.

This movie is the most hilarious one I know. Yet I don't see the point in giving the plot away – you just have to watch the movie. I can really recommend watching it, especially because of the hilarious scenes taking place during the protagonists' road trip. For example, there's this great scene in the men's restroom of a motorway service area or – my favorite one – when they are driving in their car and Cameron is bending of Christina to ... and then a biker sees that and ...
It's just great, really. The best, however, is "The Penis Song" they perform in a restaurant. I think most of you have already heard of it since Shirin and I kept singing it in university, in class, before the Progress Check, at the BBQ. Those who don't know it yet, here it goes and those who do know ... well, can't stop watching it over and over again:

Deine Schönheit ist nichts wert

Last Saturday I watched a pretty sad but realistic movie with my best friends Kathy, Lisa, Shirin and Gudi in the KIZ Royal cinema. I was made aware of the movie by the info-screen in the tramway. The movie is called "Deine Schönheit ist nichts wert". It is an Austrian production directed by Hüseyin Tabak. The movie is set in Vienna and depicts the difficult life of a Kurdish-Turkish immigrant family, which has to struggle with a bunch of problems: The 12-year-old Veysel is a weak student who does not know German very well, because his family has been in Austria for a couple of months only. His older brother Mazlum (18) runs away from home because he has problems accepting that his father spent years in Turkish mountains as a Kurdish freedom fighter. In addition to that, the family is about to be deported because the Austrian asylum authority rejects their application for political asylum – even though the family would suffer from persecution in case they were sent back to Turkey. Meanwhile Veysel falls in love with his school friend Ana, who he wants to charm by reciting a Turkish poem. To do so, he needs to translate it into German and learn it by heart.

At this point I stop telling you about the plot, my dear readers, because I really do not want to give to much away. The movie is absolutely worth watching as it is very well made. I usually watch movies that evoke emotions while watching – "Deine Schönheit ist nichts wert" is such a movie. My friends and I ended up crying our eyes out! (So I do recommend taking a box of Kleenex with you...) And you cannot do anything against it, because it shows the ugly truth without whitewashing anything. The actors play their roles with so much passion and honesty that you really believe the story is happening in front of you.