August in Berlin

Charming summer, really charming! Had lots of lovely thunder storms - truly amazing - and lots of rain. There even might have been some sunny days :-) And of those I really took advantage! Last weekend, Maria, Magda and I went to Köpenick, a district close to a lake and somewhat not citied. I've also been enjoying long walks in the city and celebrating my one year old habitation in Berlin.

And look who's made it to Europe: Damian has got to go to Cambridge for a training - all the way from South Africa to Europe! :-)
Damian was one of the crazy foreigners in Siberia in winter 2004/05. Lots of fun memories. But it is really cool to see you here in Berlin, Damian!

Update

Loads of stuff's happened; life in Berlin is just so busy. I also got into www.facebook.com and quite distracted from blogger ;-)
Just love it! Found so many people who hadn't been in touch with for a long time. Like I had to realize that my "kids" are grown-ups now... ;-) Right, 10 years have passed since I was an aupair.

Major events:

Kirstie and Brenda in Berlin
So, the two girls living in Barcelona made it to Berlin and brought the summer along :-) We had a great time getting sunburnt (especially me...), doing sightseeing and going out. Hope to see you soon again, ladies!

Anna's turned 30
No gray hairs yet, only might have lost some brain cells from partying too much. Now that I'm 30 I decided it's time to party again. Work's super busy, distraction is needed.
Thanks to my dear AIESEC friends I've seen quite a lot of bars and even a club recently.

My birthday week I spent in Göttingen where Chen-Yu is growing a lot ;-), in Braunschweig with my mom and last but not least - in Berlin.

Chenita looking at her new home - a really nice suitcase :-)










Brunch with Arne, Magda, Srini, Maria and Pohan at Tesoro


Hope you are having a brilliant time! ;-)
Read Harry Potter yet?

Summer - Party Time

This is what my days at ThinPrint look like: Sitting on the top floor of the builing with doors wide open to the terrace

Just one recent highlight of summer in Berlin: my colleague Dani's house warming party. Quite a number of ThinPrinter went to the party and we had a great time - as you might be able to tell by the vast amount of beer...






However, sometime in the morning we decided to go home - and got stuck in the elevator. Certainly a "compulsory" experience! Time went by fast and the fire department rescued us after 1,5 hours...

Hotel Anna

Hotel Anna is busy! And I'm happy about all the visitors/friends stopping by :-)

Greetings to India, to Srini who was living in my apartment for a week, because his landlady had decided to move out and left only his bed in the department...
Srini, hope you are doing great!

Last weekend Stefan and Burghardt from Bremen stopped by and we did all the touristy stuff like taking bus 100 and 200 :-) We also went into a bunker - very interesting! I didn't know that all the hills/mountains in the city are actually debris from World War II!

Also my dad was in town and we met for a lovely coffee break :-)

Yesterday Igor stopped by on his way to Helsinki. Remember my dear friend Igor from St. Petersburg and the trip to Siberia?
Well, I'm not a very romantic type ;-) but I WAS really flattered when I got home today and found a really nice bunch of flowers on the kitchen table. Many thanks, Igor! Have a fun time in Helsinki and see you Wednesday!

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 :-)
Read more!
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 :-)