I know it may sound a little odd, but I have this thing for history during the era in which half of Europe was ruled by communism. It's not like I have any sympathy for Stalin, on the contrary! It fascinates me how Europe could have been so divided and it makes even more impact when I think that it was only 22 years ago the Berlin Wall fell.
Yes, I admit it's especially Germany's position I'm interested in. Unlike many other students, German was one of my favourite subjects at highschool and German grammar has the same impact on me as solving a sudoku. I also have this weak spot for Kafka; who is not German, I know, but he wrote in German and that's what counts for now. But what caught my interest the most, is how one of the most powerful countries of Europe could turn into two countries, controlled by other states.
This Summer, I was in Berlin for the first time and it surely had an impact on me. Seeing how the wall cut Berlin literally in half was so strange; it just felt somewhat surreal, even though I knew it was true.
Remains of a divided Berlin
Everything I saw, reminded me of the movie Goodbye Lenin, that tells the story of Alexander, who is an adolescent at the time the wall falls, but has to pretend the wall is still there every time he's near his mother, because she had been in a coma and wasn't allowed to get shocked by anything because of that. Such a wonderful movie, that's incredibly funny, yet tragical.
The typical humourof Goodbye Lenin
The atmosphere throughout the whole movie is wonderful, and not in the last place because of the music of the wonderful Yann Tiersen, whose piano pieces are stuck in the heads of every fan of the European film industry.
I even like this movie better than the very tragical movie Das Leben der Anderen. That movie shows us how a Stasi agent spies on a writer and his wife and knows and reports everything they say and do. In the DDR, everyone could be your enemy and you always had to be careful with what you said and what you did.
The trailer of Das Leben der Anderen
This is surely is a good movie too, and if you are more into dramatical movies than into comedies, you should absolutely watch this one. I just know that I like Goodbye Lenin more, because of its humour, and German humour is my absolute favourite humour in the world. (But I love British humour too.)
I've been wearing practically the same outfit throughout the whole weekend and have taken some pictures of it with my sister's camera that's at least five years old, hence the quality. I absolutely love the combination of black and white and have hardly worn any colours for the last seven years, though I intend to add some more colourful pieces to my garderobe.
This will be one of last weekends that allows me to dress in a way like this, because the cold weather will arrive soon. I honestly hate both Autumn and Winter; whereas other people associate these seasons with coloured trees and fairytale-like snowy scenes, I think of rain, exploded hair and falling off your bike and breaking your leg because of the frozen roads. I also like Summer fashion much better than Winter fashion and have this tendency to wear my Summer outfits during Winter too, by adding more layers. But Winter hasn't arrived yet, so let's stay optimistic just for now!
It is a beautiful white blouse from the 1950s in perfect condition! I bought it on Etsy from Aya, the woman behind Strawberrykoi.com, one of my favourite websites around. On her blog, I saw the picture of this blouse and I immediately knew it should be mine. It's my first piece from the 1950s and I love it. Too bad the season for wearing short sleeved blouses is over, but I think it would look great with a nice cardigan as well. Stay tuned and you might see it more often on this weblog.
I am still browsing Etsy for great finds all the time; I have currently fallen in love with a 1960s wool coat and 1940s oxford shoes and might order some other items along. Whatever it'll be, you'll see it appear on this site sooner or later.
And that's not the only thing that's new! I also created a layout that satisfies me for this blog, and have officially finished it today, now the header is up too. I've been working for several days on this particular header, and it just didn't look right until today. I know it's rather simple, but I love it nevertheless, especially because it is quite an achievement for someone with photoshop skills as poor as mine.
After searching for quite a while on google for the right pictures, I finally chose Marilyn Monroe (before she was the way we usually her - blond and possibly the biggest sex symbol of all time) and Bette Davis, whose left arm had to be made invisible, because it looked rather awkward without the original black background.
