Kathas World
Katha Turbostern
Deutsch
"Träume nicht Dein Leben, sondern lebe Deine Träume!"
So abgedroschen diese Empfehlung auch klingen mag, ich habe sie mir zu Herzen genommen. Ich lebe meinen großen Traum vom Fliegen.
Schon als kleines Mädchen habe ich vom Fliegen geträumt, eigentlich, seit ich mich erinnern kann. Einfach abzuheben und alles hinter mir zu lassen. Hoch oben über der Welt dahinzugleiten.
Irgendwann habe ich den ersten Drachenflieger am Himmel gesehen. Und wusste sofort, dass ich das auch mal machen möchte. Damals war ich noch nicht in der Schule. Warum es bis jetzt gedauert hat, dass ich aus dem Traum Wirklichkeit gemacht habe, kann ich nicht sagen.
Ich weiß nur, dass mein erster Tandemflug all meine Erwartungen übertroffen hat. Spätestens als mein erster Alleinflug kam, war es um mich geschehen, seither bin ich eigentlich gar nicht mehr gelandet.
Das Gefühl beim Fliegen ist schon unbeschreiblich. Drachenfliegen ist aber noch viel mehr als einfach nur Fliegen. Da oben ist man weit weg von allem, geht beinahe schon eine Synthese mit der Natur ein, lernt sich selbst noch einmal anders kennen. Und irgendwie sehe ich vieles gelassener, seit ich fliege.
Ich bin mir sicher, dass ich gefunden habe, wonach ich mein ganzes Leben lang gesucht habe. Kann es denn etwas Schöneres geben?
English
"Live your dreams."
As trite as it may sound, I took it to heart. I live my great dream of flying.
I have always been dreaming of flying. Of getting my feet off the ground and leaving everything behind. Of gliding along high above the ground.
I still remember seeing a hangglider in the air for the very first time. I knew straight away that this was the thing I wanted to do one day. Hanggliding. I wasn't even in school yet at that time. It took me a while to get started, I don't even know why, but I always knew I would eventually do it.
My first tandem flight exceeded all my expectations. And after my first solo flight, I was caught, I think I never acutally landed after that.
The feelings I have when I fly are almost indescribable. But hanggliding is even more than just flying. Up there, you are far away from everything, you almost contract a synthesis with nature, you get to know yourself in a new way. And somehow, flying made me look at things more serenely.
I am convinced that I have found what I had been looking for my whole life. Can there be anything more beautiful in the world?
Travel Blog Posts
March 8th 2012
Las Vegas is probably the craziest place I’ve ever been to. But leaving the city can be even crazier. I arrived there on Monday afternoon, but let me start this post with my leaving the city on Tuesday. It was a nightmare. The whole day had been extremely windy. The palm trees were anything but straight, various objects were blown around, and the whole city was underneath a canopy of sand. When I caught the shuttle bus to the airport, we were joking that our driver would fly us to the airport instead of driving us. I was going to catch a plane to Los Angeles in the afternoon, from where I would fly back to Germany the next day. When I arrived at the airport, I could not find my flight on the screens. I ... read more
March 7th 2012
When I arrived in Flagstaff from Phoenix, I went straight to the Lowell Observatory on Mars Hill, right above the town. It was founded in the 19thcentury by Perceval Lowell, an astronomer, because there was not hardly any pollution by light in the area, and it was at a high altitude. A number of important research projects have been going on at the observatory during the last century. When the observatory was founded, Percival Lowell did research on canyon on Mars. The background of this research was the idea that if there was water, there could also be life on the Red Planet. Later on, researchers at the observatory started looking for the ninth planet because the movements of Uranus pointed to the fact that there was another planet beyond Neptune. When they eventually found it, ... read more
March 4th 2012
On Thursday at noon, I arrived at Flagstaff airport. The airport is very small, and within no time I had picked up my suitcase and my rental car. It was a beautiful, but cold and windy day. My first visit took me up to the Lowell Observatory up on Mars Hill, just above Flagstaff. I will write more on this little trip soon, but now I will start with one of the most spectacular places I have ever been to: the Grand Canyon. It is located about 1.5 hours north of Flagstaff. You drive through the San Francisco Mountains, then a plain opens up, and suddenly, almost out of nothing, the ground drops 1,500 metres in front of you. I had arrived at the Grand Canyon. The canyon is enormous. It is over 400 km long, ... read more
March 2nd 2012
When I was planning my trip to the USA, I definitely wanted to go and see the Grand Canyon after the congress. As I did not know what the roads from Palm Springs to the Grand Canyon would be like, I decided to fly into Flagstaff, just 1.5 hours south of the Grand Canyon Village, and rent a car there. When I checked the flights from Palm Springs to Flagstaff, I found that they all went through Phoenix, and that I would have a stopover of three hours or more. I had not been to Phoenix before, so I decided to spend an afternoon there to get an impression of the city and continue to Flagstaff the next morning. I arrived in Phoenix in the afternoon and knew that I would not have much time to ... read more
The congress in Palm Springs
Published: March 1st 2012North America » United States » California » Palm Springs
March 1st 2012
On Sunday afternoon, the Association of Test Publishers Congress started. It was held at the Westin Missions Resort & Spa in Palm Springs (or in Rancho Mirage, to be exact). The congress is held once a year especially for test publishers and their (future) customers. We had submitted a paper for an oral presentation and had expected it to be the usual 20 minute time slot (as normally at such congresses). When we received the notification of acceptance, we were told that our time slot was an hour. Wow! That’s a long time. But there was a lot that we could share with our listeners. The Westin Missions Resort & Spa is a huge golf resort. There is a hotel, and there are a lot of time share apartments of various sizes. I was given a ... read more
In the Southern Californian desert
Published: February 28th 2012North America » United States » California » Cathedral City
February 28th 2012
About 150 km east of Los Angeles, there is an oasis, and there are a number of cities that actually form one big city. Belinda and Davis are staying in Cathedral City at the moment, which is right next to the more well-known city of Palm Springs, known as the place where all the Hollywood stars go when they want to recover from the big city. Belinda and Davis had invited me to stay with them for a couple of days, so I had my first experience of the Southern Californian desert. Belinda and I went to the Joshua Tree National Park on Thursday. The park owes its name to the Joshua Trees that are in it, and their name most likely comes from their shape: they look like Joshua raising his arms towards the sky ... read more
Los Angeles
Published: February 25th 2012North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » Beverly Hills
February 25th 2012
It’s been a long time since my last post, but here I am again with a new adventure. I am currently staying at the OzReport World Headquarter with Belinda and Davis at Cathedral City, California. But let me tell you how I got here. Next week, there will be a congress in Palm Springs, California, at which I will be presenting a number of studies with one of our MDs, Andreas. I decided to extend the stay a bit before and after the conference. Belinda invited me to spend some time with her and Davis before the congress, so I booked a flight to Los Angeles for the 20th of February. The journey was kind of exciting because I was going to fly from Hamburg via Frankfurt to Los Angeles, and the air traffic controllers had ... read more
September 4th 2011
Last Sunday, I participated in my second triathlon, which took place in Wilhelmshaven, about two hours from Hamburg. This time, there were no minor catastrophes. I found the place right away, checked my bike in, prepared all my gear and made sure I knew which way I would have to run and cycle, and how many rounds there were to do. Then I just had to wait. I did not get excited until I listened to one announcement they were repeating a couple of times: All the short distance triathletes were supposed to meet fifteen minutes before the start for a briefing, and they told us to bring our neoprene suits because we would start right after the briefing. I did not have a neoprene suit, and I hadn’t even worried about it. The swimming part ... read more
August 7th 2011
My homepage is online! I've been owning the domain www.katharinalochner.com for more than three years now, but I never managed to write something for it. Now, finally, you can find some information about myself, my work, and my hanggliding and triathlon experiences there. Feedback is welcome!... read more
The HG Worlds 2011 at Monte Cucco – All roads lead to Rome
Published: August 1st 2011Europe » Italy » Lazio » Rome
August 1st 2011
On Saturday morning, we had the prize giving ceremony. It started off with a traditional flag dance in which the dancers performed all kinds of tricks with the flags, accompanied by music. Have a look at the video to get an impression. After the show, we moved to a little park in the centre of the village, where the prizes were given to the athletes. There was a lot of cheering and many happy faces. Special trophies were given to the only three girls in the competition, Julia Kucherenko, Natalia Petrova and Evgenia Laritskaya from Russia. Amazing performance to keep up with over 100 men, well done! Then, the official trophies were given to the winners Alex Ploner (ITA), Christian Ciech (ITA), and Primoz Gricar (SLO) as well a to the Italian, French, and Austrian teams. ... read more
Austria 
Italy 
Australia 
France 
Germany 
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