I am still here in Prague. Now working at a Czech company programing short term academic trips. In my department, we cover the Americas, and at the moment I have three programs to North, Central and South America. Sounds good? It is!
Three weeks ago I finally started to take Czech lessons. Not easy! One thing is to have more than 30 variations of the verb in Spanish, something else is to have countless variations of the verb, noun and adjective depending on God knows what in Czech. But, so far, so so. The first sentence means "hello, how are you".
Berlin
Over a month ago I spent a weekend in Berlin, and it was awesome! I was also doing some work, so didn't get to go out that much in the four days I was there. Still, I got to explore the city a little bit. Very big... more than I had thought.
The architecture of the city is impressive. There are the old buildings with huge and very real looking sculptures, and there are the new buildings with futuristic designs. There are different points in the city where the architecture changes dramatically. I like that. Walk a few minutes and see something totally different from a few blocks away. Well, it is not exactly like that, but I felt it this way.
What I like the most about the city is the cultural diversity. There are many people from all walks of life, and many neighborhoods with distinctive characters. Recently I went back to attend a Salsa congress, and the place I stayed at was in what I think is a Turkish quarter, near the Yorckstraße metro station.
One day, seating at a cafe, I could see more foreign faces than Germans on the street in the two hours I was there. Then, on Saturday, there is a Turkish farmers market, and I was like a kid in a candy store - wide open eyes for all the goodies around me. I set my mind on buying food to cook later, and ended up with lots of food and no idea of what I was actually gonna prepare. It was like being in a Central American market or at the Bazaar in Istanbul - sellers shouting products and prices, and people bumping into each other on the norrow alleys while walking around empty boxes and tomatoes, lettuce leaves, and papers on the floor. Awesome!
Salsa Congress
I had never seen that many people dancing salsa all together... over 1000 at one point!
The Berlin Salsa Congress was the second one I attended. The first one was in New York last year. I had more fun in this one. It was three days of Hell, Heaven and Paradise. This was an interesting concept as we all dressed in black and/or red on the first day and white on the second. There were also many presentations by dancers from a large number of countries during the evening, and workshops during the day. Very impressive!
Aside from Salsa, I had more opportunities to explore the city at night, and other places I had not seen on the first trip. Plus, the cultural experience much more intense this time. See, Berlin is known for this, but appears to be it takes some time to actually feel it. This, I come to realize makes the city even more interesting, and for sure I am gonna go back.
The walking sign
Ok. I am gonna leave it here, and post more next time, with pics and the whole mambo jambo.
But, before, gotta show you the green walking guy. This is a pedestrian light, very distinctive of Berlin. Really cool sign!