Rain can be annoying Rain can mean an end to an activity, or event you were looking forward to. Rain can force you to stay inside, when you were just about to leave the house. All that, rain can be to some people. A negative aspect of life. Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards. – Vladimir Nabokov Rain can destroy Rain can destroy a whole…
A Balinese “baby shower” – Ceremony for the Baby 42 Days after Birth
How Balinese Hindus celebrate the birth and development of a new family member Religion is very much integrated in Balinese society. In no other country in the world than in Indonesia so many religions live side by side. All the world’s major religions are represented – some more than others: Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims celebrate and pray daily in churches, temples and mosques. Space for prayer and meditation can be found anywhere in Bali.…
Our first week of travel in South East Asia
We have finally started our trip. After we hitchhiked home from Portugal, we took a bit more time home planning stuff than we expected. Our first stop: Bali, Indonesia. After a long flight, we finally landed in Jakarta. It was quite a relief to leave the European winter weather behind and to land in warm Indonesia. We just had one more flight to Bali, just 2 hours away. Before we even left the airport, we…
What we learned about the traffic on Bali’s streets and how it feels to be part of it
I am walking along an endless street close to Kuta. Indonesian streets and walking don’t go well together is the first that an Indonesian would tell you. On the local streets, the motorized traffic makes the rules and that is mainly the scooters. They can be divided into caring drivers vs. I-don’t-give-a-shit drivers. For those who want to walk – or have to walk, as Indonesians would say it – because walking is equal to…
Germans: a peculiar folk
Everywhere we go, seeing and meeting new people in a new culture, we notice differences. Every nation has its own stereotypes and awkward manners. After living among the Lisbonese for several months, we stayed in Germany for over a month. This blog post is dedicated to the Germans. We stayed in Germany for over a month but Tina already has been living there her whole life. In this post, we share what we think are…
15 Things To Do in Mannheim and Heidelberg in Autumn
Article published October 2015 and updated April 2024. Mannheim² Leben im Quadrat – Life. Squared Mannheim is a city located in the South-West of Germany, about an hour from Frankfurt. It´s mostly known for its grid layout translating every street into a coordinate. e.g. F2. This chessboard structure is why Mannheim is referred to as the “Quadratestadt” (square city). Internationally speaking Mannheim is not that well-known – and neither in Germany it is – however…