In Learning German 2003, Europe On  09/08/2003  One comment

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...

In Learning German 2003, Europe On  08/08/2003  One comment

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...

In Spain, Traveled places, Cycling & Diving in Catalonia 2003 On  13/07/2003  2 comments

Liked the experience of a weekend by the beach that I decided to repeat, this time I went to Palamós . I left Barcelona early in the morning and as soon as I got in Palamos I went straight to the dive center. We arranged the equipment and went by boat to “Cuevas del Eden Rock”, a dive site with caves. We went into 3 different caves. For me it was good that in the caves we could see the way out. Since I am claustrophobic that it is very important. It gives me the ideas I am not tied up. As I know myself I didn’t stay too long inside the caves, I went into and out to the other site pretty fast, small places really bother me.

After the dive I had lunch, went to the hotel to leave my stuff and went to
the beach to take a nap. Great! I slept with the sounds of the sea. By the end of the afternoon I walked by the beach. I stopped to see a huge group of men and women dancing “Sardana”, the typical dance from Catalonia.

It impressed me a lot here is the huge number of seniors...

In Traveled places, Cycling & Diving in Catalonia 2003 On  09/06/2003  One comment

Lately I have been missing the ocean so much. I’ve watched on TV a documentary about whales and I got a incredible desire for diving. In a bookstore, getting some books for the university, I bought a book by Garcia  Marquez called “The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor”. I got home, sat down the sofa and just left when I had finished the book. It was really good, I could feel the sea.

In order to satiate this will of being in the water I decide to spend some  weekends diving in Costa Brava. The first place was Lloret de Mar. I got a bus early in the morning to get there with time to do two immersions the same day.

From the bus station I went straight to the dive center. There I met 3 Portuguese guys from   Porto. We went on a boat to a dive site called Bolets. The sea was calm and the water cold. The visibility was “sort of” good. We saw many small fishes and a lobster...

In Adventure, Cycling tour, Europe, Cycling & Diving in Catalonia 2003 On  27/04/2003  No comments

Friday we got a train from Barcelona to Nonaspe where a part of the group stayed camping. As i didn’t have a tend I continued with two more friends to sleep in a hostel in Caspe (Aragon). Next morning we got the first train back. We got together with the group at Nonaspe train station to start the tour organized by Abert (Gata and amics de la bici). We biked towards Batea where we stopped to visit the village, the small streets, the church… We had a break, a snack before lunch. From there we continued to Caseres. We stopped a few times. Once to fix the chain of a girl’s bike. Then to look at the map, we were a little lost.  Since we had to go up many times, my knee started hurting. I had already felt some pain on my last bike tour…

When we get to Caseres stated raining so we had a long lunch break.  The way from there was beautiful, many fruit trees. By then, I couldn’t enjoy the tour anymore, my knee was hurting a lot. I couldn’t move it...

In Adventure, Cycling tour, Spain, Europe, Cycling & Diving in Catalonia 2003 On  06/04/2003  No comments

We left Barcelona on a two hour trip to Cervera where we met other people and Lluis, who was organizing the tour. We started visiting the town, its interesting center with some narrow streets. I really liked the street of the
witches where there is a tunnel through the houses.

From Cervera we continued to Bellpuig through a former trail from Sant Jaume de Montserrat to Santiago. It was a pleasant trip because the whole itinerary was flat and we could go relaxed appreciating the landscape. We passed through some small towns and stopped for picnic by some irrigation water canals. They were beautiful because they looked like small rivers.

In Bellpuig we slept in a hostel from the municipal district (it was clean and organized). Dinner time I end up trying the snail, typical food from the region. The feeling was horrible. The idea of getting a stick and digging out the nasty animal from its shell and eating didn’t attract me. I tried one, the taste wasn’t that bad...

In Adventure, Cycling tour, Europe, Cycling & Diving in Catalonia 2003 On  23/03/2003  One comment

I decided to go on a bike tour organized by Carles from amics de la bici. We left Barcelona on a Saturday morning. We took the train to Ripoll where we started the journey. By the arrival at the train station in Ripoll, Albert was waiting for us with some white cloth meant to do flags for peace. We did the flags and placed them on the bikes.
The trail was constructed on some old train tracks. After about 10km we stopped at the old train station from Sant Joan de les Abadesses in order to keep the group together. We went in town to visit the historic center and have some coca (sweet bread typical from the region). A few kilometers later we stopped for lunch. Picnic on the grass. Awesome!

After lunch we continue to Olot stopping a few times in order to keep the group together. There was some way up, way down and flat paths. Sometimes there was no effort, it was only to sit on the bike and observe the landscape. By arrival at Olot we stopped to visit an area of an old volcano...

In + More..., Errante and tour guides On  18/03/2003  One comment

In Aparados da Serra 2002, Hiking/Trekking On  30/12/2002  No comments

Sorry, this entry is only available in Português.

In Eastern Europe 2002 On  27/12/2002  No comments

Veja abaixo os posts da viagem pelo leste da Europa em 2002

• A chegada em São Petesburgo
• São Petersburgo e Peterhof
• Moscou
• Sergiev Posad
• Klin – Museu do Tchaykovsky
• Trem de Moscou – Varsóvia passando por Belarussia
• Varsóvia
• Berlim
• Praga
• Viena
• Bratislava
• Budapeste