My Birthday and Vacations in Madrid and Toledo

Well.. I have been travelling for a lot lately... and i found yet another opportunity to cheer and travel more: My Birthday... juupi.
Normally you don't go to Madrid on August... because it's really warm, but for me... it was just the right decision.
I arrived there on Thursday and used my first afternoon to explore the city. I was surprised to see the amount of south Americans there, it was like being at home =)
Like a typical german... i brought with me a Guidebook, it was one of the best things i could have done.

From Madrid

Throught this marvellous book (written with all the detail that characterize germans) i found a place that could make a good business of me: The Chocolateria San Ginés. Man... After that friday... i was thinking everyday to go there again.. and the best of all: they have open almos 7/24 ! I was caught in the pic eating my delicious "Churros con Chocolate" there.!
This place is really recommendable!

This day... (on friday) i walk throught Gran Via, Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor and headed then to the museo of the Prado.
I'm not the museum typ of guys... but i should say.. i enjoyed to see this museo.. as well as the Reina Sofia (the next day).. they are gigant Museums and they were really cheap. I went out this day as well.. in the night, i wanted to know how is the night life of Madrid like. I did't get disappointed... many salsa discos, trans, people walking everywhere at 1am. Just great! I like this kind of energy... the feeling of life!

From Madrid

The best thing of the saturday was the Guernica... a paiting of Pablo Picasso and one of the most known paintings of him.
German-Spain relationships were not always the best. The paiting is huge and you can see in every detail how the painter did it. Each part of it has a meaning ... although the whole could be seen as funny or messy.. it's not.

And what else? .. oh yeah.. i got hungry.. what does my book say? ... hungry? then go for tapas! For Tapas i went! Near to Puerta del Sol! They are not that expensive but actually i havent bought them that day.. i thought they would be too small for me. Wrong! :P anyways... i ordered beef(or bullock?) it was fun, you get it to fry yourself on the table. The waiter : Someone from Peru. hehe. He was nice and i got discount. Too tired this night to party.

Sunday. Well for sunday there is just one important thing to do... the flea market. It's really huge! But well... It looks just a little like colombian flea markets. It was funny thou... i bought some boxers and a bag. Hehe. now i remember.. i walked like 800mts or more with 4 pieces of bread and something like squid, prawns and other kind of meat on
top of it.. to the El Retiro park. The people in the street were drooling after my dinner. It looked so tasty.

Monday was just the day to rest... i walked in the afternoon through some of the fanciest streets of Madrid.. i found then: The Plaza Duke Salamanca! :). Since i planned to go to Toledo the next day.. today was the day to sleep early. night. ! :P

From Madrid

Tuesday 26!!!! Happy birthday Mr. Let's go to Toledo.. beautiful day... sun.. everything nice. In toledo i tried to change my driver's license ... coz well, Spain is the only european country that has an agreement with Colombia to do those things. It was only a try, coz well... i dont really live there. Didn't work. Doesnt matter.
Toledo was nice. I walked everywhere and bought me and my people in germany some candies. Black spot: I couldnt get to speak with my mother... nor my brother. :( Anyways... i came back to Madrid and had a romantic afternoon at the Temple of Debod (see pic) and then i traveled with the funicular. =)

Wednesday... i should start my trip back to Germany... i take with me great memories thou... i'll do trips for my Birthday every year!.

Poem - Part 2 - For an Exile

So full of emotion and compresion... it feels so wonderful to be understood and receive sweet words and hope.

When you dream, it is always home.
You are there among your own,
The rhythm of their voices rising like song
Your blood would sing through any dark.

Then you awake to find yourself listening
To the sound of traffic in another land.
For a moment, your whole body recoils
At the strange emptiness of where you are.

This country is cold to your voice.
It is still a place without echoes.
Nothing of yours has happened here.

No one knows you,
The language slows you,
The thick accent smothers your presence.

You sound foreign to yourself;
Their eyes reflect how strange you seem
When seen across of cold distance
That has no bridge to carry
The charisma in which your friends
Delight at home.

Though your work here is hard,
It brings relief, helps your mind
In returning to the small
Bounties of your absence.

Evening is without protection;
Your room waits,
Ready to take your
Back like some convict
Who is afraid
Of the life outside.

The things you brought from home
Look back at you; out of place here
They take on lonely power.

You cringe at the thought
That someone from home
Might see you now here,
In this unsheltered room.

Now is the time to hold faithful
To your dream, to understand
That this is an interim time
Full of awkward disconnection.

Gradually, you will come to find
Your way to friends who will open
Doors into a new belonging.

Your heart will brighten
With new discovery,
Your presence will unclench
And find ease,
Letting your substance
And promise be seen.

Slowly, a new world will open for you.
The eyes of your heart, refined
By this desert time, will be free
To see and celebrate the new life
For which you have sacrificed so much.

Poem - Part 1 - RASG (ME!!)

Another foreing face of Hispanic tone,
Strong dark eyes piercing with intensity.
Glowing, gushing disposition
A different brand, a rhythm
oozing energy, oughtness, interest.

Connected to a wide abyss
of seeming diverse incongruities.
Braided by a vision of latitude
embracing innovation, universality,
openness to life.

Blessed with eyes to see beyond the immediate.
Xraying the heart of close encounters.
Beaming goodness in abundance,
evoking like-minded repositories to
sail forth in choppy waters
reinvigorated, renewed, redeemed.


Beneath that solid, granite, smiling face.
Lies vicissitudes of experiences
Some of success and smile,
Some not so.

The umbilical cord of mother-son enduring.
A place of sustenance and delight
Not withstanding the remove of distance
Forever glowing in understanding.
Not so with the absence of another
Forever vacant in memory when
Wished or longed for.

On a pathway of discovery,
The glowing ember within in budding forth,
The heart evoked,
The spirit enjoined with Transfiguration.
Prose, poetry and philosophy come together.
Life is enhanced, identity is chiselled.
The true self is nearer,
and so much dearer.

POEMS OF MY GREAT FRIEND GER.

In Ireland... i got to know a great person... which i'm now very honored to call friend: Ger Slattery.
At the end of my internship there he gave me one of the best presents i have ever got.
I was keeping it for myself, proud of this marvelous treasure. However, this work is sooo good that i have to share it at least with the people i love... and the best medium to do it is here.
The rights are of course reserved, so for publications, prices, job offers, etc for the artist (Ger) please ask me for his contact information. :P.
Ger, I'm so grateful with life for giving me the pleasure of knowing you.
Errata: Ger wrote only the poem called RASG... the others were written by friends and other known people.

For each poem... see under the post POEMS - Part X - Title

Stag night

Oh yeah...
It seems that i will not be allowed to live the healthy that i want. :P
Yesterday i was invited to a Stag night.
It was amazing thou. We made the party in a Irish Pub (which i knew already coz i went to see a rugby Match there one week ago) near to Hackescher Markt - a party area of Berlin which is full of Pubs.
The party was to be exact... a Karaoke party and since the place was full of irish people the spirit of the place was much much funnier that in a normal german place. So funny and relaxing... that i decided to sing for my first time in life... to the amusement of my friends and knownpeople.

It could have been the moment to be pushed throught the sky and become an star *g* if i wouldn't have chosen such a complicated song: El Niagara en Bicicleta, from Juan Luis Guerra. Well.. at least they will keep laughing at least two weeks. Juan Luis Guerra sings like a crazy man... too fast.



PS: Some friend took a pic of me and a friend on stage!! "I dedicate this moment of Glory to my mother... *g*"

Beginning.....

Today is the day...
I will post here everything i remember of at least the last 12 months, because well.. .those were really very exciting and i'll remember them easily than the months before.

So... don't get surprised if you find in a week soemthing written that happened 1 year ago.

Greets,
Raul.

Marseille Vacations -- Fourth day

I went out today not that late... coz today it's time to visit the Calanque. Some rock formations near to Marseille that i was told are great. After a quick breakfast (with eggs...:P ) i walked to the Obelisco to take the bus that is going to leave me near to the park. There is a Patisserie on my way to the Obelisco that i have seen with sweet eyes the last days ... and today i buy there the dessert that it's going to be my favorite food from Marseille: "Créme Brulée" See : Créme Brulée. I take it with me and decided to eat it in the park.... a nice place was soon found and there i enjoy one of the best desserts i have ever tasted. Great!! The calanques are also very interesting and i spend my entire day walking through... i even dare to swimm 5 mins, because i saw some people enjoying the water in a lonely beach... agg.. if i should have known that the water was so cold, i wouldnt have think for a min about swimming. It was my shortest swimming ever... after that.. i'm ready to swim near to the polar circle. Everything is nice today... i walk day and night and take all the pics i could. My mother would have loved this spectacular views. At least now i have the camera with me. Kisses mother.