Trip Berlin-London
Straight from the choir camp I had to go to Berlin to take part in one training and then I went to London for one seminar. I really enjoyed Berlin, having arrived there with quite biased mind, I’m now almost a fan of that city. I was in Berlin with one colleague Elina (I think I already wrote about our similar family names). Here are some recollections of that trip: The Gates, new holocaust monument, city, a piece of The Wall, Elina & the city, dinner vol 1, dinner vol 2, almost like a postcard.
On Friday (Oct 14) I flew to London to take part in one seminar that took place on Oct 17-18. So, I had a whole week-end to be there on my own. There was just one but - on Thursday I had forgotten my camera to one of the busses that we had a tour with and I couldn’t take any pictures (fortunatelly, I got my camera back). Actually, I quite liked this situation of not having the burden to play a Japanese tourist.
Well, what do I remember from this trip then? Well, my first impression was "wait a minute…" London seemed really-really-really big and busy. Gradually I got almost used to that, but still, the first impressions were quite frightening. When I walked around, I visited quite a lot of touristy places. Yes, I walked - I decided not to use the public transport in principle - so, both on Saturday and Sunday I walked at least 10 km both days. In evenings taking a bath was a real enjoyment.
One morning (I think it was Sunday) when I got out from the hotel, an old chap stopped me and asked if I wanted to buy any photos from him - he had a camera in his hand and before he stopped me he was imitating taking pictures :) Well, that was a good idea to earn some living, but not with my money.
One day, there was a big event on Trafalgar square - lots and lots of people and most of them Hindus - there was a special event for this ethnic group. Somehow, I didn’t quite feel myself comfortable there…
On Saturday I was going to meet Anna-Liisa - the violinist whom I had met 20 years ago. We decided to meet just besides the national museum. However, there were some problems with the tube and we changed the meeting place to Covent garden. So, as I was just starting to head for the Covent garden I heard a gun shot behind me… Well, it wasn’t very close to me, but definitely felt so.
With Anna-Liisa we went shopping - I wanted to get some presents for my sister’s kids - in one toy-store, there were couple of magicians, who promoted their stuff. That was simply incredible - making 5×20 pennies dissapear and transforming them into one euro coin… on your own hand…
Anything else… well, not really, the seminar was an interesting one - met many people I knew before, got some new contacts and so on.