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Propeller Island City Lodge

Luxist alerts us to a cool find on the Berlin hotel scene: the Propeller Island City Lodge. Each of its 30 rooms were designed by eccentric artist Lars Stroschen. All have themes, and aim to keep things unique:

The Flying Bed room (above) has a slanted floor and a bed which appears to float in mid-air. The diamond-shaped Mirror Room has almost every surface covered in mirrors.

Prices start around $80 a night, a very good deal no matter which theme you're into.

Related Stories:
·   Propeller Island City Lodge: Live in a Work of Art [Luxist]

Festivals / → All Tags

World Beard & Moustache Championships

This past Saturday the hairest, unshaven men in the world gathered for the World Beard and Moustache Championships in Berlin.  More then 230 of them competed in 17 categories, from 'partial hair' to 'freestyle'. The winner was a German who literally wove mini German flags into his beard, he also took home top prize last year.

Questions: what is their preferred style product of choice? Aquanet? Do they train their hair everyday? Or just do it up for the big event? Do they comb through that mess everyday? Anyone with copious facial care, feel free to educate us!

Related Stories:
·   Photo Highlights from World Beard and Moustache Championships [AFP via Yahoo]
·   The Beard Team USA blog [Blogger]

Hotels / → All Tags

The 'All-Female' Hotel Experience

As London's five-star Grange City Hotel prepares to open its 'women-only wing' on Sept. 1st (the rooms will feature extra perks like make-up mirrors, lighted closets, sunken bathtubs---and the wing will have no men), The Guardian's super witty Jenny Colgan ventures to Artemisia Hotel in Berlin (above), the first all-female hotel in the world, and finds exactly what one might expect.

She instantly wonders where all the chocolate, full-sized shampoo bottles and three-speed hair dryers are....

My husband calls and asks: "How's your lesbonic hotel?"

"It's not lesbonic," I say doubtfully, looking at the double bed. "Though there doesn't seem to be any shampoo."

"That's because they all have short hair," he responds.

She resorts to staying the evening and succumbing to what's available:

the spotless rooms are bare of needless feminine fripperies, such as coffee, tea, shampoo, wine, curtains, etc. It does, however, have MTV, where I am delighted to see that the top German boy band of the moment is called Ass 5.

Jenny manages to make it through the night only to be awakened by a man with a "loosely tied" bathrobe screaming down the block in the morning. Seems the true women's-only hotel is a dying breed....

Related Stories:
·   Where's the bubble bath? [Guardian Unlimited]