Augustissima Venetorum urbs quae una hodie libertatis ac pacis, et iustititiae domus est...

Hey folks!

Today I'm going to show you some long overdue pictures from my journey to Venice last year in August. For those who read Latin, I hope you recognised the hymn on Venice by Petrarch where I nicked the title of this post from. That being said, I think that he's well right in expressing his fascination for the lagoon city- once you've been there, it's not a place you'll easily forget. I'm still impressed with the magical beauty that floats around in the city, it's just not from this world... But enough with the rambling, on to the pictures now!

 View of the city from the Canal Grande

 Strolling around on St Mark's Square

 Impressive sculptures at Arsenale

 A view of Murano

The Ducal Palace

View of a canal 

 Casually matching the flowers near the Università Ca Foscari

A little shrine for the Virgin Mary on the wall of a house 

The gorgeous interior of the Basilica di San Marco 

 Having fun at the beach in Lido

An amazing glass sculpture in Murano, next to a belltower 

A small street with private houses 

Modern installation by Heinz Mack near the church of San Giorgio Maggiore 

"The sky over nine columns" installation by Heinz Mack, architecture biennial 2014

Now I'm asking you: Are you feeling the magic?

Random: Fencing problems

This is actually cross-posted from my Tumblr, but I found it quite funny, so I decided to share it with you. These are some of the 'problems' I've come across during my 5 months of fencing foil. Of course, those are not real problems, but only funny tidbits of things that happened to me during training. Enjoy them with a grain of salt and lots of humour: 

- being afraid of breaking your blade

- finally making the perfect plan and then getting fucked over by your opponent

- freaking out even if you know you shouldn't (Why am I running away again? Okay, okay, I got this... OMG holy shit! Nevermind, let's just escape...!) 

- not flinching even if someone comes lunging at you (Why am I so confident in my parries but not in actually hitting them?)

- opponent and you both missing target about ten times until they finally score

- this sentence: "Oh, I didn't realise you were left-handed..." #thankyouverymuchmotherfucker 

- people having trouble shaking your hand after a fight (Jeez, just give me your left hand while I give you my right hand- this is chuffin' easy: NOT THE HAND WITH THE GLOVE! )

- being sure you hit them but the light didn't go off

- involuntarily doing a split and then not being able to walk properly for days (Stairs, I fucking hate you...)

- having bruises all over your body and people wondering how the hell you got them

I guess that's all... 

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Rosen Schwert!
After a long time of consideration, I decided to give blogging another go. I can't promise I'm going to post regularly, but I'll definitely try my best. 
So, what is Rosen Schwert about? Basically everything which I find interesting. It can be random ramblings about my daily life, university and fencing (my one big obsession), fashion, art, travel reports and much more. Don't expect me to make sense though, I usually don't. After I've warned you about the oddities that may affect this blog, let's get to who's hiding behind the ominous title "Rosen Schwert".
Who's ショウ? Well, Captain obvious here, me. I'm a 23-year old History of Art & German literature student, currently studying abroad in the beautiful city of York, UK. I'm obsessed with fencing, visual kei bands, rock concerts and all things beautiful. I do 男装 (dansou: females/genderneutral/trans people dressing in Japanese mens' fashion) most of the time, so quite a fair part of this blog will also be dedicated to my outfits. 
I guess that's it. Enjoy your stay and don't get lost!