Letter to Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, August 10, 1895

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Berlin, den 10. August 1895

I do not know whether you received my last letter which I sent from here about a week ago. I will repeat my address, just in case: Berlin, Moabit, Flensburgerstrasse, 12^II (bei Frau Kurreick) Herrn W. Ulianoff.

I am fixed up here very well—a few steps away from me is the Tiergarten (a splendid park, the best and biggest in Berlin), the Spree, where I bathe every day, and a station of the urban railway. There is a railway here that traverses the whole town (above the streets). The trains run every five minutes, so it is easy for me to go “to town” (Moabit, where I am living, is actually considered a suburb).

The only bad thing is the language—I understand far less conversational German than French. The pronunciation of the Germans is so unlike what I am accustomed to that I do not even understand public speeches, although in France I understood practically everything in such speeches from the very outset. The day before yesterday I was at the theatre; they played Hauptmann’s The Weavers. Although I had read the whole play beforehand in order to be able to follow it, I could not catch all the phrases. Still, I am not discouraged and only regret that I have too little time to study the language thoroughly.

Regards to all,

Yours,

V. U.

If you have already sent me some money, please write and let me know immediately; if not, send it here.

I have had no letters from you for such a long time, probably because they (the letters) are following me around in my wanderings.