Baumbluetenfest

Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to Werder (Havel) each and every year to celebrate the "Blossom Festival". It's a 30 min ride on the train, just a little further than Potsdam from Berlin.

What you can do there? Well, it's basically about drinking wine :-) There is an amazing variety of fruit wines. I tried "strawberry + rhubarb" and "plum" and it was really good! The festival is the second largest after Oktoberfest in Munich... Can you imagine? :-)


There are also fun fairs and since the weather was really good - to the point of being too hot - my dear friends convinced me to go on the water slide / water roller coaster. Of course we got all wet :-(

Right, gotta take care of my sunburn now...

Spain 2007

My favorite place in the world

I've worked it out, this is my favorite place in the world: La plaza del Pilar. This square is magic! I remember bumping into this place on my very first Erasmus day 8 years ago. I had had no idea that Zaragoza had such a basilica and this huge square!

I had arrived the night before and had gone exploring the city quite aimless. All of a sudden I stood on this square and thought, "Yep, here I'm right. It was a good idea to come here". So I had an awesome and very intensive year.

Now, 7 years later it was time to go back :-)
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Barcelona
I left a very sunny Berlin and arrived in rainy Barcelona - great! :-( But I had a good time walking around and taking in Spanish air and the touristy atmosphere...


However, the best of Barcelona was Kirstie - a very good friend from my Erasmus year. Kirstie hasn't changed a bit and although 6 years have passed since I saw her last, it was just normal to hang out - as if we hadn't met for only a week or so :-)

Of course, we went out! Both of us announced that we are not capable of going out all night long anymore... Yeah right! Don't know where the time went, but we got home at 6 in the morning. Good job! I can't wait for Kirstie's visit in July - para irnos de juerga :-)




Zaragoza
It was really strange to be back in Zaragoza. It felt like I used a time machine and went back in time. I felt trapped in memories and emotions... It was a really intensive year there!



Much has changed, but actually nothing :-) La plaza del Pilar is still the same.

My favorite bar, Maremagnum, is not there anymore... Instead there is a shoe shop now - the only shoe shop in town where I found shoes that I like AND in the right size :-)

It was great to meet old friends again. I was staying with Roberto and Tsveti. They are, in fact, one of the cutest couples I have ever met. They really seem to be made for each other and it felt really good to be around them!
Thank you very much for making me feel home! :-) I hope to see you soon in Berlin!!!


Going out with Roberto and Abel.


Tsveti and me playing with Easter eggs - a tradictional Bulgarian game. Needless to say that expert Tsveti won ;-)

Here another incident to prove that the world is a village: There is a cosmetic called "Chenyu" - like my dear friend Chen-Yu. It only exists in Spain and whenever I go to Spain I try to get her something. So, I walk into "El Corte Inglés" in Zaragoza (it is a really huge shopping center, like Karstadt in Germany, only a bit more expensive) searching for "Chenyu". A shop assistent asks me if she can help me. I explain her that I have a friend with the name Chen-Yu etc. She looks at me and says, "some time ago there was a young men who also had a friend with that name. We prepared a nice package..." blabla... It must have been Sergio at least 5 years ago - since he hasn't been to Germany ever since (or at least don't know about it). I remember how he came back to Germany with a nice package of Chenyu cosmetics :-)


Leaving Zaragoza... I hope it won't take another 6 years to go back ;-)
Thanks again to Kirstie, Roberto, Tsveti and Abel for everything! You guys made my vacation rock! :-(

Easter 2007 - A trip back to the roots

Hope you had a happy Easter time!

Since I completely missed Easter last year because of different calendars, this year it was a real family event. Well, within the range of "family" that is possible ;-)

You might have heard of the famous Harz region - famous cause I might have told you that I from that tiny part of Germany :-) My mom and I met there on Good Friday and spent the weekend hiking and discover familiar and unfamiliar places.

We were staying in Wernigerode, a stunning town in the north of the Harz.

The typical timbered houses in my home region. This is a particular small one :-) Don't worry, people aren't super small in the Harz - though I might have caused that impression...

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On Saturday we hiked up to the Brocken - the highest mountain in the north of Germany. It's only 1142 m high, but it surely is hard work to get up there. I still have sore muscles (I'm ignoring the fact that my 65-year-old mother has no sore muscles at all...)




On Sunday we went to Quedlinburg, also a nice town on the north of the Eastern part of the Harz. I was born there, went there a million of times - every time we had visitors we would go there - and I learned driving there.

Since this is my very home region, I expected to run into familiar people. But I only ran into a friend from school who actually lives in Sweden now :-) Argh, those tourists!

And then we went to Neudorf - the small village where I grew up. We visited waterfalls - I really climb over it once (must have had less water!!!) and we tiptoed around our old house and admired the changes. So, now you know why I'm so difficult :-) I had an entire floor to myself and absolute silence and darkness at night. That's why I have trouble sleeping now :-(

And of course, we visited our ex-cat Nicki. She stayed with neighbors when my parents moved away. She was really angry at us the weeks after we had left and would turn her back to us. But now she's a happy cat and recognized us :-) Well, she is a really spoiled and bitchy cat! Still love her!!!

Hope you are having a good time!
What's next? Going to Spain on Thursday :-)

Weekend

Hope you had a nice weekend! It's been so warm and sunny :-)

Went to the Staatsoper to see "The Bajadere" on Friday - had never heard of it before. It was stunning! Perfect stage setting and awesome dancing. And finally a happy end :-)
However, it was Friday night and I didn't feel like going home... So, I went to join "Stammtisch" - with the intention of going home at midnight. Yep, such plans are tricky... We ended up dancing salsa till 3 am.

Summer is coming and of course we girls want to be in "bikini-shape"... so we went swimming which was great fun and felt really good.

Today we went to Lehnitz to enjoy nature. And for some part we did... But my dear friends were far more interested in German houses, cars and newly asphalted streets :-)