Happy New Year!

This year has been very eventful and I have seen a lot of places, more places than any year before 2010 actually. 8 countries on 3 continents. That’s what I call a good year. Now of course, I don’t escape rating the best memories of 2010, but, as expected, this is not the easiest of task.

Best City I've lived in: Berlin. This city has charmed me in any possible way and the three months that I lived there were just incredible. I found there all I needed: an international crowd; many cafés, bars, chill-out places, clubs; nature; beautiful buildings; modern areas; art, loads and loads of art and coffee shops, where I can rest and write. I know I will come back.

Best Place I've visited: Ireland. Even if we were there only for a short week, the country has left an indelible impression on me. The scenery, the people and the atmosphere bewitched me and I want to see more of it!

One place I absolutely want to go: Italy! Italy! Italy! I haven’t met many people who haven’t been there, and above all I have met so many Italians and Neapolitans in Granada but somehow, in all my back and fourth across Europe, I have never managed to go there and I am very ashamed! So hopefully next summer it will be my time to throw a coin into the Trevi fountain and eat a Pizza in Naples!

Let 2011 be for all of us a year of adventure and discovery! I wish you all the best and I hope that you are happy, joyful and in good health!

Happy New Year! Bonne Année! Frohes neues Jahr! Prospero año nuevo! Felice anno nuovo! Un An Nou Fericit! Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku! Gott nytt år! Щастлива Нова Година! 新年おめでとうございます ! ! سنة سعي Onnellista uutta vuotta! Gott nýggjár! Próspero aninovo!

(can you guess all the languages? ;) )

And in Uzbek, because I like how it looks: Yangi yilingiz bilan! :D

Berlin: Take 3... Bis Bald!

This is it. It's the last night. I just got home from some casual drinks with my friends and there is nothing left to do but to say goodbye. The luggages are ready, I sent some packages off and I have 4 hours to sleep.


To describe the time I have spent in Berlin, I would need many more words in many more languages than I know. I regret not a single second of it... or maybe just that one time where I told this (probably German) guy to go back to his stupid country... I got (slightly) carried away, because he was being incredibly rude.

Whenever it's the end of something, I can't help to have flashbacks of memories that have made that something. I still remember vividly my first day in Berlin, without a real plan where to live the next couple of days. I see the afternoons we spent at the lake, the hours we gossiped in the sun, the coffees we had in Friedrichshain, the drinks at the Que Pasa, the dinners at Tempo box and of course the incredible times I have spent with the ICD guys! I also remember the strange places I have discovered in Berlin, the strange people I have seen (ask me about an adult-rated story in the tube ) and it just makes me realise how much I love this city.

I will miss it, but as most of my friends here are leaving as well and as Spain is calling, it is time to move on. Tomorrow I'll hopefully take the first car to Frankfurt and then the day after that another car will leave with me and my big luggage to Andalucia.


Indeed...I have miles to go before I sleep.

More on Berlin: Take 1 and Take 2.

Berlin: Take 2

Now I have been in Berlin for a while I am able to count the days that are left more easily than the days that I have been here. Time has flown by and the city has become my cosy home. It is a funny process indeed. You arrive in a place, everything is new, you discover small things, curious things maybe boring things, but everywhere you go, you keep on discovering. However one day you wake up and you go out and you look at things and they are familiar. The same U-bahn station, the same guy selling the homeless people's magazine, the same kind of people on the train, the same street corners and so on.  Of course I keep seeing new things but a homyness has set in my Berlin. I think it's a pity to have lived and not to have called Berlin your home at least once. I know when I'll leave it won't be a farewell but an 'Au revoir'.

I'll stop all this embarassing melancholy and tell you more about the odds and ends of the city, or maybe just about some mainstream experiences...

I can't help but compare Berlin to London or Paris, which are my capital references. Although these two metropoles are both unique it their genre, they have many common points they don't share with Berlin. When you get on the Tube or the Metro, or simply when you walk on the street, you should stop and look at how fast people are walking. When you arrive in these cities, you adapt to the rhythm, and as everybody seems to be in a hurry, so are you, even if you are not going anywhere precise, all you know is that you should walk fast. This is totally different in Berlin. The genral pace is calm. Everybody is relaxed and walks with tranquility. You would think people don't get stressed here. Well I don't and I love it.

I also want to report from a little trip I undertook last weekend. We went to Rostock and Warnemünde in the North, about two and a half hours by car. I'm an absolute sea-lover and when we crossed the dunes, looked the kind of wide horizon you only get over the sea, I realised how much I had missed it. Swimming in the sea, running in the sand, watching the sun set, I don't know what else you need for a perfect weekend. The bad weather the next day only made the sea look rough and deep, ok who am I kidding, as my experienced guide Alex explained it, the average depth of the Baltic Sea is about 55m.

But the place is terribly perfect if you want to get away from the crowd in Berlin. Tourist are a recurrent infection there as well, but you can actually find some air to breathe and some space to be.

But let's go back to urbanity...

There is one thing you have to do, if you want to be a real hype Berlin-visitor, you go for brunch on weekends. Indeed the cafés and restaurants of the famous Simon-Dach-Str in Friedrichshain are overcrowded with people enjoying open buffets for less than 10 Euros. When you say Brunch in Germany, they actually mean breakfast and lunch, so that the varieties of food include english breakfast, sweet puddings, fruits, waffle dough (up to you to make the waffles), bread roles, all sorts of salads and to my big astonishment, actual dishes, may it be pasta, curry or some potato bake.

Another thing that makes a stay in Berlin a really enjoyable experience, is the proximity of many lakes. Apart from the famous Wannsee, you can take a swim in the Müggelsee, the Schlachtensee, the Weißensee and many more. You can reach all these very easily with public transport and in certain places you even find sand beaches! It's probably the best option on days when the temperatures rise up to 37°C... we've seen that.

I will go back to enjoying the moments I have left to spend in Berlin, as I have miles to go before I sleep...

More on Berlin: Take 1 and Take 3.

Berlin: Take 1

Yes, I landed in Berlin. Now the summer could begin. And indeed an incredible heat welcomed me.

I first crashed at my aunt's place, and I actually mean crash with my 40 kg of luggage (don't judge, I'm a girl!). It was now time to find a flat... in Berlin, people don't look for a flatmate, no, they look for a friend. I didn't quite grasp that concept when I visited the first flat. Indeed, I found ten people crowding around me asking me not only about my studies, my hobbies, my kind of music or my origins, but also about the situation in the Middle East and its future outcomes. I was slightly taken aback. Obviously this one hadn't gone that well... It took a few attempts until I found a nice flat, with a guy from Chile in the East of Berlin. It might be far from my work place, but the flat, my flatmate and his frequent guests are awesome. So I don't mind the many hours I spend on the S-and U-bahn.

My variable working shifts allow me to do quite a bit of sight-seeing as well as to have good nights out. And I haven't found a more amazing sensation than coming out of a club in daylight. Maybe for most of you this is not such uncommon a thing, but for us, doomed to party life in the UK, this was an extraordinary feeling. In Berlin every night is special and unique in its genre: be it a Russian Disco, Latino moves in La Havanna, a Balkan Party or some mainstream in an old factory building, you know you can have fun anywhere. I have as yet avoided the ultimate tourist experience, called The Weekend, situated on a high building, showing off a terrace with view on the famous TV Tower... the shameless price, the electro music and the fairly arrogant party-goers have kept me away from that place and hopefully will do so in the future.

In my weeks here, I have realised one thing about Berlin. It's all about making new from old, about recycling... and I don't mean the nearly maniac German habit of sorting the rubbish. So many places here have served as other things before. Let me quote some examples. The Kulturbrauerei used to be a huge brewery, now there are loads of bars, a few clubs and all sorts of things in there. Tempelhof used to be an airport, it now is an enormous park. Old factory buildings are frequently used as clubs, such as Postbahnhof and other places around Warschauer Straße. The old Mail Building has become a museum for contemporary art. Berlin's most famous squat Tacheles used to be part of a huge Shopping Mall. I am discovering more and more examples every day. I love this feeling that something has had a different function before, it gives places and buildings a soul...

...

These were my first impressions of Berlin, but as you know: I have miles to go before I sleep...

More on Berlin: Take 2 and Take 3.