David Grajal

I visited Beijing for a week last chrismas with Ann. When I was a kid and I hated travelling, Beijing was known as Pekin and I only knew about it because I liked to read Tintin comic books. Pekin was an exotic city on the other side of the world where lots of Chinese people lived and they were all day smoking opium. I finally went there 20 years later, and yes, there is a lot of people but no opium anymore.

Jumping on Tiananmen gate

Beijing’s airport, avenues and Chinese national buildings are built for giants. Beijing’s buildings look like the ones you can find on any other asian big city but the main avenues are wider so you don’t feel tiny sorrounded by tall buildings the way you do in Seoul or Tokio.

Lots of people live on this city. Really a lot. But Beijing’s winter is cold. Really cold. Maybe that’s why the amount of people on the streets was not overwhelmed: Chinese people stayed warm at home! Ann felt the same way, she even said that seems like there are more Chinese people in Toronto!

New year's eve 2009! Ann and I had dinner with some Couch Surfers followed with party on 798 district of Beijing.

The city is very easy to navigate for foreigners, all signs are written at least on Chinese and English. The people speaks basic English but they have a very thick accent. Ann had serious problems with it and I could barely understand anything!

This was my first weekend with Spanish people since I’m living in Germany! Clérigo was hosting Antonio and Raquel for a weekend and we decided to go on a cultural road trip together. The plan was to visit Weimar, an important touristic city that neither of us had never visited. The five of us met together on Fulda.

Jumping@Fulda with random Germans

We chose the most exciting day because Fulda was hosting a concentration of right wing political parties and the entire city was dominated by police. We just ignored all the creepy Nazi and anti-Nazi people and focused on the city itself. The cathedral and the residence was interesting and we saw the most beautiful-baroque-style statue in Germany.

Weimar is considered the cultural hearth of Germany and the place where Goethe and Schiller lived. Goethe for Germans is as important as Shakespeare for English people or Cervantes for Spanish people. The city is full of museums and places dedicated to those two important guys that lived here. We visited the (boring) Goethe’s house and we walk all around the city.

On our way back, we all visited Würzburg. It was my first time as host in my city but we didn’t have a time to stroll on the city so we just went directly to Marienberg Fortress to have a general view of the city.

All the cities in Germany are full of parks and gardens. Late fall is the best time to visit them because everything is covered with yellow leaves and the trees have beautiful colors. Würzburg is even better because the vineyards that surround the city become yellowish and the city radiates a different, warmer light.

I liked Fulda and Weimar but I’ve living here enough time to realize that all German cities on the south look the same. I will not visit more German cities in this area because I don’t enjoy them anymore.