A Special Time Creative

Skellig Michael

Ireland is a very beautiful island in the North Atlantic. There are so many great places to visit and one of them is Skellig Michael or Great Skellig, the bigger one of the two Skellig Islands in the North Atlantik in the west of the Iveragh Peninsula of County Kerry. One of the most famous but also hardest to visit Christian Monasteries was founded on Skellig Michael around the 7th century and became an UNESCO Worldheritage Site in 1996.

The monastic site was developed between the 6th and 8th century and was home of the earliest monastic settlements in Ireland. It is located about 600 feet above sea-level and contains six beehive shaped huts, in which the settlements let simple lives, two oratories as well as many stone crosses and slabs. The beehive shaped huts are round on the outside but rectangular on the inside and were carefully built of dry-built corbel so that no drop of water ever entered between the stones. There was a system for collecting and purifying water developed and it has been estimated that no more than twelve monks and one abbot lived there at one time.

The nutrition of the monks was different from that of those living on the mainland. The monks went down the 670 steps for fishing every morning. The rest of the day they were praying in the church, working in their gardens and studying. Because they had less land available to grow grain, the vegetable gardens became very important. The meat and eggs of the birds became staples as well. In the 13th century the monks left the island which than became a place of pilgrimage.

The name of the islands comes from Staint Michael. The site was dedicated to him in 1044, after the death of Aedh of Scelic-Michí was recorded.

To reach the island as tourists there are thirteen boat licences garanted to tour operators each year. The trips are between the summer season from April to October. Because of the rocky, old and steep steps the tripps are not allowed during very wet or windy conditions.

I am very happy that I could visit Skellig Michael the last time I visited Ireland. It was a really great experience and definitely a special time!

Solar Eclipse

The 20th March 2015 was a very special Friday. At this day there was a partial eclipse of the sun.

This type of eclips occurs when the moon partly or fully covers the shape of the sun by passing the sun between the earth. The phenomenon can happen only at new moon. Because the moon is closer to the earth than the sun the shaddow of the moon covers the silhouette of the sun totally or partially.

To get a partial or total eclipse of the sun the orbit of the moon has to be tilted at more than five degree to the orbit of the earth around the sun. The total eclipses of the sun are very rare, because the total covering of the sun exists only along a specific path on the surface of the earth covered by the shadow of the moon.

The solar eclipse in 2015 was not a total eclipse for me, but the sun was covered about 80% so it was really impressive anyway and a special time seeing such a phenomenon of the nature!

30 Seconds to Mars – Festhalle Frankfurt

In November two years ago I went to see “30 Seconds to Mars“.

30 Seconds to Mars are an American alternative rock band that was formed in 1998 in Los Angeles, Carlifornia. The Band consists of the two brothers Jared and Shannon Leto, who both formed the band, as well as Tomislav Miličević. Jared Leto is the lead vocalist, plays guitar, bass and keyboard. Shannon Leto is the drummer of the band and Tomislav Miličević is the lead guitarrist, plays bass, strings, keyboard and other instruments.

Until now they released four studio albums being “30 Seconds to Mars” (2002), “A Beautiful Lie” (2005), “This Is War” (2009), and “Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams” (2013).

The show I went to was part of their Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams Tour which was incredible. They had an amazing show, played a good mix of both older and newer songs, and the atmosphere was energetic and electrifying! It really was a special time seeing them and being part of the ‘echelon family’ as they call their fans!

“The Theory of Everything”

Last week I went to the “Odeon” cinema to watch “The Theory of Everything”, a british romantical drama based on a real story about the british theoretical physicist “Stephen Hawking”, directed by “James Marsh”.

The story is about the relationship between a young couple, Jane and Sthephen, growing old and facing difficult broblems in their lifes. The main characters Stephen Hawking and Jane Wilde Hawking are played by “Eddie Redmayne” and “Felicity Jones” who both did an ingredible job.

The movie is quite realistic and doesn’t need any additional effects to be great. The music by “Jóhann Jóhannsson” is really great, emotional and just right to emphasise the feelings the movie wants to convey. Even though it was actually a quite heavy, profound and sad story, there were also some humorouse and funny moments. It is a movie that makes you think a lot about love, relationships, beeing together and how you would react if you were the characters.

Love is a really personal thing between two people, nothing general and touchable. It is different for everyone and in any situation. There are great times when everything is well, but there are also hard times when it is really hard to stick together and to find a way back to the great times.

The relationship between Stephen and Jane was different from the beginning and both new that there would be a lot of difficulties in their future. One of the reasons was also Stephens diagnose of “motor neuron disease” and his life expectancy of only two more years. Despite all this they married and tried to stick together even in their hardest times. During these hard times Jane seemd to develop feelings for an other man, but she never betrayed her husband and stayed by his side which is really hard, emotionally and physically. Would it be right to blame her for developing feelings for an other man? There might be no right or wrong answer. On the one hand she never really betrayed her husband and was at his side all the time to support him with all her strength, but on the other hand they both changed and seemd to drift apart. Even Stephen seemed to develop feelings for an other woman in the end and it was him who kind of released his wife to leave him and get happy with someone else so both could be happy again.

An other topic to think about in the movie is the discussion of religion and science, if there is a god or something superior or not. At the beginning Stephen is not beliving in any kind of religion, because there would be clushes with science. Jane was always believing in religion. In the end even Stephen is becoming more openminded towards religion, maybe thinking that there might be something more, but he won’t interfer in the belives of science.

The movie is really moving, showing both sad and happy moments, combining a love story with topics such as science and religion. For me the ending also is kind of happy because both Jane and Stephen tried to do their best to stick together, to help eachother and to make eachother happy, even if that means that they have to go seperated ways in the end. Growing old despite getting a diagnose of a life expectancy of only two more years is also a miracle itselfe.
It’s a really beautiful movie, based on a real story, with convincing actors and no big effects added, asking to think about the movie itself and about your own life.

It was a pleasure for me to watch the movie and definitely a special time! I really recomend watching this movie.

"King's College", Cambridge, Uk — “King’s College”, Cambridge, Uk

London NYE

For the celebration of the “New Year’s Eve” 2014 / 2015 I stayed in London.

One of the biggest highlights to celebrate this day was the huge and great firework near the river Thames at South Bank right next to the “London Eye”.

This year it was the first time that you had to afford tickets to get access to the specific areas. There were the South and the North areas, both divided into two parts. The South area was rear the “London Eye”, whereas the North area was again divided into two parts: between the “Westminster bridge” and the “Embankment Station” as well as between the “Embankment Station” and the “Temple Station” where you had a great view on the firework close to the river “Thames”. In one of the areas they also had some live music with artists such as “Queen” or “Adam Lambert”. In the area right in front of the “London Eye” they didn’t have live music, but provided some music from London’s radio station.

It was a great pleasure to watch it and it was definitely a special time!

I want to wish everyone a happy and great new year 2015!