Summer recap
I haven't posted anything about my holidays yet. Shame on me.
Let's start with Vienna: it's a beautiful city and I'm happy I decided to spend a whole week there, there's really a lot to see, especially for a Klimt/Art Nouveau lover like myself (OMG the Secessionsgebäude! The Beethovenfries! T_T). I visited a lot of museums and discovered an artist who's quickly become a favourite of mine: Franz Von Stuck.
I also managed to squeeze in a visit to Bratislava: it's just an hour away, either by train or by boat along the Danube - I chose the boat. It's a lovely city with one of the most peculiar churches I've ever seen: St. Elizabeth Church (or Blue Church), which looks like a wedding cake. XD And, right in front of it on the other side of the road, there was a very Soviet-looking abandoned school. Ah, Eastern Europe.
And then Berlin. Unsurprisingly, I cried. I almost cried on my very first day, when I got off the bus that took me from Tegel airport to Hauptbahnhof, but I managed to stop the tears. But then, the next day, I had the brilliant idea of visiting my old Kiez and when I walked past the building where I used to live and saw the door was open... And I got a glimpse of the stairs... I lost it.
Also, like it often happens whenever I go to Berlin, on the first day, as I was about to buy a bus ticket at the airport, a girl just gave me her 3-day-ticket, saying she was leaving and didn't need it any more. I still remember clearly the first time I've gone to Berlin on my own the same thing happened, only that time it was a Buddhist monk giving me his ticket!
Anyway, I walked around a lot, met old friends and my former flatmate, visited "old haunts" and discovered new places (Gärten der Welt in Marzahn, Insel der Jugend in Treptow, a rooftop bar in Neukölln, a club in Prenzlauerberg). Two things made me a bit sad, though: discovering that the Fan-Tastic shop in Kreuzberg doesn't exist any more and that City Music (the music shop that features in "Richy Guitar") has moved to the Europa Centre, because the building where it once was is being completely renovated. Also, there's a brand new skyscraper right next to it.
In general, it looks like some places never change, whereas the gentrification process of other areas seems unstoppable. And while constant change is one of the peculiarities of Berlin, it's sad to see places you know and that you are tied to just disappearing to make room for luxury apartments or office spaces.
At the end of the day, though, I'm happy I went, I hadn't visited since I moved back to Italy in *GASP* 2010. It was high time.
I took hundreds of pictures and published a few on instagram, here's a few more:
VIENNA
Belvedere
Magic shop sign
Stephansdom
Secession T___T
Schönbrunn
Neptunbrunnen at Schönbrunn
BRATISLAVA
Castle
St. Martin Cathedral
Michael's Gate
St. Elizabeth Church
Old commie school
BERLIN
Arabic garden at Gärten der Welt
Chinese garden at Gärten der Welt
Japanese garden at Gärten der Welt
Korean garden at Gärten der Welt
Insel der Jugend
Gedächtniskirche
Aaand a great classic: a Trabi!
Let's start with Vienna: it's a beautiful city and I'm happy I decided to spend a whole week there, there's really a lot to see, especially for a Klimt/Art Nouveau lover like myself (OMG the Secessionsgebäude! The Beethovenfries! T_T). I visited a lot of museums and discovered an artist who's quickly become a favourite of mine: Franz Von Stuck.
I also managed to squeeze in a visit to Bratislava: it's just an hour away, either by train or by boat along the Danube - I chose the boat. It's a lovely city with one of the most peculiar churches I've ever seen: St. Elizabeth Church (or Blue Church), which looks like a wedding cake. XD And, right in front of it on the other side of the road, there was a very Soviet-looking abandoned school. Ah, Eastern Europe.
And then Berlin. Unsurprisingly, I cried. I almost cried on my very first day, when I got off the bus that took me from Tegel airport to Hauptbahnhof, but I managed to stop the tears. But then, the next day, I had the brilliant idea of visiting my old Kiez and when I walked past the building where I used to live and saw the door was open... And I got a glimpse of the stairs... I lost it.
Also, like it often happens whenever I go to Berlin, on the first day, as I was about to buy a bus ticket at the airport, a girl just gave me her 3-day-ticket, saying she was leaving and didn't need it any more. I still remember clearly the first time I've gone to Berlin on my own the same thing happened, only that time it was a Buddhist monk giving me his ticket!
Anyway, I walked around a lot, met old friends and my former flatmate, visited "old haunts" and discovered new places (Gärten der Welt in Marzahn, Insel der Jugend in Treptow, a rooftop bar in Neukölln, a club in Prenzlauerberg). Two things made me a bit sad, though: discovering that the Fan-Tastic shop in Kreuzberg doesn't exist any more and that City Music (the music shop that features in "Richy Guitar") has moved to the Europa Centre, because the building where it once was is being completely renovated. Also, there's a brand new skyscraper right next to it.
In general, it looks like some places never change, whereas the gentrification process of other areas seems unstoppable. And while constant change is one of the peculiarities of Berlin, it's sad to see places you know and that you are tied to just disappearing to make room for luxury apartments or office spaces.
At the end of the day, though, I'm happy I went, I hadn't visited since I moved back to Italy in *GASP* 2010. It was high time.
I took hundreds of pictures and published a few on instagram, here's a few more:
VIENNA
Belvedere
Magic shop sign
Stephansdom
Secession T___T
Schönbrunn
Neptunbrunnen at Schönbrunn
BRATISLAVA
Castle
St. Martin Cathedral
Michael's Gate
St. Elizabeth Church
Old commie school
BERLIN
Arabic garden at Gärten der Welt
Chinese garden at Gärten der Welt
Japanese garden at Gärten der Welt
Korean garden at Gärten der Welt
Insel der Jugend
Gedächtniskirche
Aaand a great classic: a Trabi!