3 Inspiring bits by Love from Berlin

3 inspiring bits, the series

We are starting today a new series that will run all year long where we are going to feature “3 inspiring bits” from the people that daily inspires us, which I just realize as I’m writing that it’s a little bit of a tongue-twister! We are asking our favorite talented people to share with us the 3 moments that were more special for them during this last 12 months & the story behind that makes it a precious memory. During May we are going to feature 3 dear bloggers that have been so kind to join us helping us sing happy birthday and kick-off the series. We are going to contact lots of you for the rest of months, so be warned! ha!

Without further ado I leave you with the uber gorgeous Rae from Love from Berlin!

Hey there! My name is Rae and I am a 20-something-year-old living and working as a UX/UI designer, photographer and blogger in Berlin. I am so excited to be participating in The Cat you and Us’ anniversary guest post series. It was a really fun experience going through old posts on LFB while trying to pick my three favourite posts from this past year. Although LFB’s content is very varied – including recipes, visual inspiration, fashion, etc. – I decided to focus only on posts that directly had to do with my life in the last year. Thanks so much, Dani, Juno, and Damaris!

Visiting Fuerteventura last month was the first time in my life that I had taken a holiday completely on my own. The experience was invaluable, and although there were bouts of loneliness, the trip was a resounding success. Travelling alone was something that I had wanted to do my entire life, and my thirst for solo travel had increased dramatically in the last few months. I wanted to experience what it felt like to be truly self-reliant, and being in a foreign country, navigating foreign laws, and creating new experiences all on my own was a great way to experience independence away from my daily comforts. Even things as mundane as renting a car or navigating a map to reach the hotel forced me to leave my comfort zone and grow. I learned a lot about myself during the trip and would definitely travel alone again. It was also an incredible opportunity to focus on really seeing a place without any distractions and trying to translate what I saw through photography.

The Baltic Sea is a popular travel spot in Germany, because it’s relatively easy to get to (from Berlin, it’s just a few hours away) and offers a quick reprieve from daily life. I’ve been to the Baltic sea several times during my time here in Germany – I swear, German men just love to take their new girlfriends on road trips to the Baltic sea. (Well, at least the ones I’ve dated!). But it makes total sense – it’s the perfect mini holiday to take when you only have a long weekend and escaping into nature along the beach beach is basically the perfect kind of romantic trip for a new couple (or old couple for that matter!).

I love how rustic the area is. Yes, there are hotels along the waterfront, but I’ve always gone camping when visiting the Baltic Sea. The area is very popular destination for camping amongst the Germans, but even so, at the height of travel it’s extremely hard to find camp ground. I had previously stayed in campers, but this was the first camping trip at the Baltic Sea where we (my boyfriend and I) stayed in a tent the whole time. The last time I had been camping was probably over 10 years ago! So it was great to get reacquainted with nature in such an intimate way and leave the distractions of technology behind for a bit.

My photography experience has mainly been rooted in documentary photography, which means that I haven’t spent as much time cultivating my portraiture work. I decided to start focusing on photographing people last summer not only because people make for incredibly dynamic subject matter, but because I also wanted to grow my portfolio and range as a photographer. The very first portraits I ever shot were photographs of my friend Marita, and they still remain some of my favourite portraits after all this time. I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of this shoot, and the entire day was a such a blast. A mutual friend tagged along to assist with equipment, so in addition to creating some beautiful photos we just had a great day hanging out and enjoying each otter’s company.

Photo & text credits for this post: Love from Berlin