Berlin - May 2013

 

Berlin again. Not even four months after my last visit, Berlin again. My choir friends love to travel together, and last year we started to visit (former) members of the choir who moved to interesting places. So now, after Paris in 2012, it was Berlin. Actually I was not so sure what to think about this short trip, especially because we'd decided to travel by train (which takes an awful 6 hours and turned out to be ok for the way there and hugely annoying on the way back, when we arrived home after midnight). But in the end we had a great time. We stayed at Die Fabrik in Kreuzberg, a really special place I would recommend if you'd like to stay in a cool location and don't mind a short trip with the bahn to the city centre.

Kreuzberg is a part of Berlin I didn't know very well before, I have visited the East Side Gallery right after the restoration in 2009, but otherwise I spent most of my time in Berlin so far in Mitte and Friedrichshain because my friends live there. Anyway, I had the possiblity to get to know Kreuzberg a bit and I liked it right away, it is a very lively, colourful and buzzing place. I'm not so much into nightlife, but according to my friends this is also one of Kreuzberg's assets. 

What I like better: walking around, taking pictures, having coffee and checking out nice restaurants, flee markets (I've visited the one at Boxhagener Platz this time, it's really nice), and watching clouds. When it comes to cafés and restaurants, Kreuzberg offers an overwhelming number of possibilities. We had the chance to test some of them for brunch and dinner. I liked them all, we've had brunch at Salon Schmück, see the pictures above, it was truly fantastic - and at Kantina von Hugo, which has been a very nice journey through time as they serve grandma's favourite dishes. The best dinner location this time has been Freischwimmer, it's a really cool open-air restaurant and bar directly at the river Spree. And on one evening I took some of my friends to Ruz, my favourite place for tapas in Berlin. They don't have a website at the moment, but it's situated directly opposite the famous Clärchens Ballhaus in Auguststrasse.

Of course we did not only enjoy Berlin's cafés and restaurants, we also gave a concert which has been a nice and exciting experience as always when we sing for an audience that doesn't know us. People at Marienfelde were really welcoming and it was a pleasure to sing for them. 

Again, Berlin has managed to win over a piece of my heart. I see it coming, we'll be friends some day. 

 

Sofia - April 2013

A few months ago, my bulgarian colleague asked me if I'd be interested in leading a workshop in a professional development event they'd hold in April in Sofia. Of course I was interested, but back then I didn't think much about going to Sofia. When the event approached, I bought a guidebook, and interestingly enough I didn't find one on Sofia, but only on Bulgaria, and there was not much information on the capital city in there. I was disappointed, started researching online and started to look very much forward to going there when I read about the architechture and the rich history of Sofia.

The flight was amazing, blue sky and a fantastic view of the alps - see the background image of the blog.
My bulgarian colleague had warned us that the weather might already be quite warm in April, and indeed: from about 10°C in Zurich to about 30°C in Sofia! This caused enough heat-induced confusion in my head to forget my beloved jacket in the taxi that brought us to the hotel. And because I didn't need the jacket in the following days (we walked around in T-Shirts) I only noticed it was missing while packing for the return trip. Oh well. It was my favourite jacket, bought in Berlin two years ago. Not my best memory of Sofia, but all my fault.

On the very first evening, my bulgarian colleague and his girlfriend took our german colleague and me to lake Pancharevo outside Sofia. The lake is a very special place, though slightly creepy - have a look. We had dinner in a restaurant right at the lake and really enjoyed the sunset before returning to the city.

Sofia struck me with its contradictions. We stayed in a very nice hotel - although one with an oldfashioned charme, I felt thrown back in the soviet times.

Nonetheless, pure luxury, as were the expensive shops in this central part of the city. But when you walk a while and turn into one of the narrow alleys - all of a sudden you find yourself in a different city, with people begging in the streets and lots of garbage in the yards and on the pavements.
Discussing with the bulgarian colleagues, I learnt that young, well educated bulgarians often leave their country because they don't see much of a future for themselves there. But on the other hand, at least in Sofia, you can find many innovative ideas and business models, for example cafès and special shops like Zona Urbana (where I spent a lot of my leva!). They sell amazing things made from recycling material, for example from sheet music, maps or newspapers, milk cartons and similar things: very nice iPad sleeves (I could have sold mine several times to friends!), wallets, lamps, bags, stuffed animals and other toys as well as really cool bracelets and earrings. I could have spent hours in their shop, looking at their products and chatting to them about where they've got the material - even newspapers from the Thirties, from Switzerland!

Well, the contradictions are nothing I wouldn't know from other big cities, but it all seems to be a bit more extreme in Sofia. And it was my very first time in a place where I couldn't read all the street signs, as they are mostly in Cyrillic script and only in the very centre of the city also in latin letters, so I got lost several times. Asking someone for the way is not that easy, most people are very friendly but don't speak English. This makes even buying stamps for my postcards a little adventure.

But Sofia is beautiful. Alexander Nevsky cathedral is a fantastic sight from the plane when closing in on Sofia, it's a huge church, impressively decorated both in- and outside.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Market in front of Alexander Nevsky cathedral

The russian orthodox church

Ivan Vazov National Theatre

Sedmochislenitsi Church

Banya Bashi Mosque

On our last evening in Sofia, we went to a traditional bulgarian restaurant for dinner, a very nice experience. I didn't take pictures of the food (it was great!) but of the dancers! I love taking pictures of people doing what they really like to do.

When you walk through Sofias's parks in springtime, you will see red-white strings and tassels knotted to the branches of the blossoming trees. We wondered what this might mean and finally asked our city tour guide - and he actually gave such a red-white bracelet to everyone of us, explaining that it's a bulgarian tradition. People give the Martenitsa to friends and family, wishing good health, on the first of March, they wear it around their wrists or pinned to their clothes until they see the first stork. Then they tie it to a blossoming tree for luck. I like this tradition a lot and still wear my Martenitsa, I had already seen a stork in Switzerland before I travelled to Bulgaria in the end of April. This is one of the nicest memories of Sofia - the red-white bracelets all over the trees.

 

Lisbon - March 2013

I first visited Lisbon in 2008, a city trip with a friend. We decided to go there because so many of our friends went to Barcelona and we wanted to do something else. I think it was a good idea, I loved Lisbon right away and we had a great time. Now, five years later, work brought me back there for a few days and as always I tried to find some hours to walk around, usually all on my own, just enjoying the feeling of being thrown into a city, experiencing it without any plans or the help of a guidebook.

 

We stayed in a very luxurious hotel outside the city centre, and my room was on the 16th floor. The view in the evening was quite impressive. 

 

Lisbon has changed since 2008, the crisis has hit Portugal hard, and it shows. It makes me sad to see all the beautiful buildings in such a bad state, the closed shops, so many people begging on the streets. But Lisbon in spring is still stunning, especially when coming from a very cold wintery March in Switzerland. I really enjoyed being there again, walking through the streets with their mosaic pavement, climbing the hills, drinking port wine and eating delicious fish. I love exploring the narrow alleys in the Alfama quarter and sitting in one of the nice cafés having coffee and Pasteis de nata.

 

  

On the last evening of our conference, we had dinner at an old palace, and there was a really cool band called "Impossibly Funky" playing for us. The singer is absolutely great, and I couldn't stop taking pictures of her, hoping to catch some of her charisma.

One of my favourite places in Lisbon (no secret place though, all the tourists are brought up there, too) is the viewpoint Miradouro Santa Luzia. In march and with grey weather it's not the same as I remember it from our sunny September visit in 2008, but nonetheless I enjoyed the view over the river Tejo.

Five years ago, on our very first day in Lisbon, we went up the Elevador de Santa Justa to see the city from above, a fantastic start. This time, I enjoyed the wonderful view on my last evening in Lisbon, and the illuminated city at night is just as amazing a view as in bright daylight.

 I'll be back, Lisbon. Hopefully in better times than these.