With Work to Berlin - August 2008

I got to spend close to a week in Berlin when I was sent there for a major trading card game event that I helped organize. Still, I managed to find some time to sneak away and do some sightseeing. Our hotel was very close to Checkpoint Charlie, so on day one I went to the museum. The streets outside the museum re-create the scene from the East/West checkpoint (minus the wall of course).


The museum had exhibitions of all the crazy methods people used to escape the Eastern Bloc. One family even built their own hot-air balloon; they weren't specialists in the field of aerodynamics either, just a group of amateurs.
Random Berlin art.
And the purpose of my visit...

Our hotel was in Postdamer Platz, an ultra modern square that looked really cool at night.
Also close to the Brandenburg Gate...

One night I went out with a colleague to explore some of the city's nightlife. We took the metro which actually dropped us off above ground, above a busy intersection. As we walked down the steps we saw that there was a newspaper stand called Akuna Matata with a DJ spinning from it. It was cool but we wandered off to find food and a club. The first club we went to was odd... It was full of 30 somethings so it was older than we expected, and everyone was having an awesome time dancing to really lame music. On top of it, there was a huge mural with David Hasselhof's head... I later found out from a local German that such clubs are typical in Berlin. After about an hour we decided to head back, but when we got to Akuna Matata we saw a full party had started. It was awesome because we were outside, the drinks from the paper stand were cheap, and we were surrounded by cars and had trains going over our heads. We partied on.

I also had a couple of free hours the morning we were leaving Berlin, so I took the metro to see a few more sights, most importantly the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall.

The Fernsehturm Berlin, Berlin's famous TV tower visible from most parts of the city... This kind of reminded me of Toronto.

Unfortunately I had very little time so I just ran around the city the last day, but still managed to see some nice sites. Berlin is a city that really juxtaposes the old with the new, and from what I saw there is a lot to explore.

Since I'm writing this blog a year after this trip, I can tell you about a small-world syndrome. I met a colleague from the US who will turn out to be a long time gaming friend of my future boyfriend. Nerd Herd!

From Italy to Barcelona - July 2008 cont.

The very same week we came back from Italy we flew off to Barcelona. Dani showed us around the city and we stayed in the suburbs with his parents.

No visit to Barcelona is complete without Gaudi, so we saw a few of his houses. This is the Casa Batllo (1905-07).


The attic of the house looked like the inside of a whale, but the architectural features made air ventilation excellent and provided a great facility for laundry drying to the residents.

This was the main lobby stairwell/elevator...


Barcelona is full of funky buildings, not all Gaudi related.

Casa Mila... Didn't go in because the line was too long and it was too hot, but Batllo is more impressive our local Spaniard informed us.

The Sagrada Familia was started in 1882 and not scheduled to be completed until 2026. Gaudi wasn't the original architect of the building but took over only after a year when the first architect resigned. He then proceeded to redesign it completely.






After the Sagrada Familia we wandered the streets of Barcelona and had a drink in this square.

After dark Spiderman and Batman emerged from hiding.

Barcelona after dark is a very lively city, and we had drinks in local bars and even went dancing. The mood in the city changes after dark, and the worn out buildings look beautiful.

The next day we were off to a late start, and took a local bus to Gaudi's Park Guell. On the way we passed a lot of graffiti.

The Park Guell is a garden complex designed by Gaudi between 1900 and 1914. It's now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Along this square is the world's longest bench, and you can run around below it amongst the columns.

This wave is also supporting it.


At the very busy main entrance to the Park.

Port in Barcelona.

After a couple of busy days in Barcelona we went to Dani's seaside house. On the way to the beach we passed through this very picturesque fishing village. Now the huts are transformed into summer houses, but it's easy to imagine what it would have looked like when it served its original purpose.

In the background you can see the beautiful beach we spent our days on. It was surrounded by forest and only one food vendor was around. It was great to be on a relatively wild beach away from industry and tourism. There were even architectural sites around (like this one), so the area has a lot of history.


We left Spain early on July 30, my 25th birthday. When we got back to Amsterdam I went straight to work, with luggage and all. It was more than rough.