Monthly Archives August 2003

Berlin – 3 more weeks of classes

The following weeks in Berlin I had German classes every morning. Long walks around town in the afternoons, plus museums, parks, zoo, aquarium, cafes, beach, flee market… And the evenings: pubs, movies, orchestra, live music, dance festival… It was a very cultural summer vacation, and in company of good friends.

Second week

Third week

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Dresden


Together with 3 other classmate from Germana classes we got a train to Dresden. We used the Schönes Wochenende Ticket (Happy Weekend Ticket), a very cheap ticket that can be used unlimited times (only on regional trains) to up to 5 people. The trip was fun, we laughed a lot the whole journey. The city reminded me Prague or Budapest, we walked all over downtown. I love cities with rivers or sea.

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Potsdam

A short trip from Berlin is to spend a day in Potsdam visiting palaces and gardens. Our first stop was the Sanssouci Palace (Schloss Sanssouci). We did a tour (in German) in the interior of the palace visiting many rooms. It is like others palaces I have already visited, something unreal for me, exaggerated and exuberant.

From there we walked on the beautiful gardens to the Chinese tea house (Chinesisches Teehaus). Once more; exuberance. The house is surrounded by golden statues. We continued to visit the Roman baths (Römanischer Bäder). It is incredible to imagine how they lived here. Everything it is so pompous that looks like it lacks life, that it is really cold and distant.

We got late to the new palace (Neues Palais), it closes at 5pm. Since I was tired I lay down on a branch in the shade and waited for Lorena. She went walk around the palace to see its architecture.

By dusk we walked to the lake to see the marble palace (Marmorpalais) and the Dutch village...

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Berlin: first week


The first week in Berlin was a sort of getting used to the new routine that it will last for a month. I always liked routines in cities where I don’t live. It is like to have an intimacy with a place for a short period of time.

I started with German classes in the mornings and I had afternoons and evening to know the city, see friends and visit museums. On the first days I met Thomas, Lorena and Kai for a beer in Mitte. Thomas I met in Bolivia in 2001. Lorena is my friend from Barcelona and Kai is her friend. We enjoy the warm Berliner night sitting outside and chatting about travels. The talk was a mixture of Spanish and English with some words in Portuguese and German.

I visited the Wall Museum (Haus am Checkpoint Charlie) with Lorena. I thought it was a little disorganized, there was a great amount of photos and newspaper pages hanged on the wall. By the end one could notice some organization. Great part of the museum was about people who wanted to escape from east into west...

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