CYPRUS: The Rise Streetart Hotel in Larnaka – Mural Magic – Interview with Manager CHARBEL CHALFOUN

If you stay in Larnaka you should definitely choose the RISE STREETART HOTEL at Kimonos 1. The whole building is painted with awesome murals from the outside, as well each room is colourfully designed in an individual theme. On the new roof top bar they integrated a huge can styled artwork for Montana. So for both, the spray paint company and as well Tony Montana from Scarface. We spoke with hotel manager CHARBEL CHALFOUN about his idea of this project and how it came together.

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ITALY: Awesome Colourful Accommodation in Verona – The Muraless Art Hotel

The MURALESS ART HOTEL in Verona is the first hotel in Italy entirely dedicated to Streetart. Its role will be that of an accommodation facility but not only, in fact, thanks to its over ninety rooms, common spaces and its external facade entirely painted, tip to be a real 360 ° temple of Streetart, a museum dedicated to Urban Art and its main Italian protagonists. Check out the huge photo archive about this colourful art oasis!

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GREECE: The COLORS Hotel Thessaloniki – Modern style in historic walls

While staying in Thessaloniki we spend a lot of time on going out, having delicious meals and enjoying the vibrant nightlife. During one of these evenings I met Christina Drakopoulou and asked her, if she knows any graffiti artists or recommendable places for streetart. And yes, she knew. Her place: The Colors Hotel. Actually there are three of them. The Colors Hotels are old remodeled buildings with artworks of local sprayers. Again a magic meeting, it could have been fate or it just happened by accident, but of course we made an appointment for a visit. A few days later I met Christina at the building in 13 Tzimski Street, she showed me the place and we recorded an informative interview, as well we made a little movie about the place and some of the artistic rooms.

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LAOS: Basile Morin – Ambigrams on the 4000 Islands

During our Laos Trip last year we didn´t only come across the wonderful toilet graffitis, we encountered as well several other mysteries in the jungle and the Mekong scenery. The river island Don Det is only accessable by boat, there are no cars, but therefore bicycles and scooters. And as well there is the Baba Guesthouse. This nice lodge was our accommodation on the idyllic place, a perfect little paradise for relaxing. Above all it turned out that the owner is a French artist who is occupied with poems, pixel photography and ambigrams. And what´s this now again? We didn´t know the word either, but you could describe it as some kind of geometrical writing art.

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SOUTH AFRICA: Andy’s Camp at the Waterhole – Phalaborwa

Wildlife viewing of the savannah: We made another stop on our safari tour through the northeast of South Africa at Andy’s camp in the Ukhozi Nature Reserve. A cozy lodge with a collection of small tent sheds for a handful of visitors. The great thing about this camp is its location on a hill with a perfect view of a waterhole below. In the morning, at lunchtime and especially in the evening, the entire animal landscape of the area appears alternately there. Everyone has a thirst, especially when it’s so hot.

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JAPAN: Himeji Castle and Shironoshita

Hundreds of castles, fortifications and fortresses are scattered all over Japan, some in very good condition or restored and made accessible to the public. During a trip to Nippon you can not avoid a visit, better you should not miss such an amazing and unique tour. One of the most famous sites is the castle tower complex in Himeji (Japanese 姫 路 城, Himeji-jō) from the 17th century. The Himeji-jō in Hyōgo prefecture is one of Japan’s national treasures and was also recognized by UNESCO in 1993 as a World Heritage Site. On our trip from Osaka to Hiroshima we made a stop in this castle town Himeji (Japanese 姫 路 市, -shi), looked at the Himeji Castle and walked through the Koko-en Garden, which is considered one of the three most beautiful in Japan, especially during the cherry blossom festival Hanami. We wandered through the Engyō-ji Temple, climbed Mount Seppiko and shot a video with Tomohisa Shiroshita about the new Shironoshita Guesthouse.

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JAPAN: Anago No Nedoko – Onomichi

The few but increasingly growing tourists who travel to Japan first of course visit the major cultural centers or high-tech cities such as Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo. But if you have a little more time for your trip to Nippon, you have the opportunity to get to know many other sites in the country. Often the smaller villages are hidden and undervalued delicacies. For example, the fishing town of Onomichi (Japanese: 尾 道 市, -shi) on the southwest coast of Honshū Island.

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JAPAN: DougoyART Paintaction – Artists Baki Baki & Mon

We already stood several days in Matsuyama, we visited and explored all the fantastic sights and the interesting city. Actually we wanted to leave to Ōzu in the south the next day. But our friend Mathew Iannarone from the Sen Guesthouse recommended us definitely to stay another night because he has some secret special insider event. This hostel is a place we can very recommend by the way, but there will be an article about guesthouse owner Mathew and his exciting life in Japan in another article which is in preparation. But back to our special event, which really was worth it to stay. Mathew took us to a livingroom-live-painting session with the graffiti artists BAKI BAKI and MON. The name of the event is DougoyART. It´s an relaxed artistique festivity in an homelike atmosphere which was in the befriended guesthouse of Hisatsugu Shimizu. As well there is audio included and musicians are taking part, this time the band The Sun.

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ALBANIA: Tirana Backpacker Hostel

Tirana is the capital and as well a really cool city for going out, getting delicious food and having a lot of fun. The people are all over the country overfriendly and we didn´t have in any case not even rudimental trouble or anger, we couldn´t even notice some anywhere. In a lot of similar situations in Germany there would have been a crash or fight and not only while driving a car. After our arrival we have been the first two days in the Tirana Backpacker Hostel, which is as well the first Hostel in Albania. They have now quite a lot more.

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VIETNAM: Crazy House – Đà Lạt

The name significates very nicely that the building is kind of wired and crazy. But just only the description „crazy“ isn´t adequately sufficient for this wondrous place. There should be added the terms „fantasy“, „fairy tale“ or „other world“. But well, then the name would be too long. When you step into the Crazy House in the south of Vietnam you literally enter another world. A little magic land. We have a lot of great photographs and a walk around video.

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