Germany
I spent about two weeks in Germany. Most of the time I was staying with a family friend, a lady named Inge, who lives in the small town of Borna, which is near Leipzig, in Saxony. With Inge I visited Altenburg, major town of playing cards, and Dresden, the capital of Saxony. Dresden was beautiful, and it was really striking to go home from our day there and look at before and after photos of the bombings of 1945. The city was rubble, and its been almost totally rebuilt - a true example of determination and perseverence. I also spent one afternoon in Leipzig, which wasnt enough! So many interesting things happened in Leipzig! I visited Bach's church, and the church where all the meetings happened which led to the protests which led to the fall of the Berlin wall, but there was so much more I didnt get to see!
Inge and I spent a lot of time visiting, and I also got to meet a lot of her family, but it was hard to not be really busy because, having just left Brittany, I was kind of sad, and needed to be preoccupied. So I decided to go to Berlin for a weekend.
The weekend was lovely, though tiring. I arrived in Berlin at 11 on Friday, and had four hours before meeting Tine, the girl I was staying with, so I wandered from the Hauptbaunhauf (Central Train Station) to Alexanderplatz, the next train station over, while passing through most of the major downtown sights... it was lovely, although i mostly had no idea what i was looking at. Then met Tine, who is a very nice girl, had a bite to eat with her, then walked from her place to the East Side gallery, a stretch of the berlin wall that is covered in graffiti. at various points on the West side of the wall, there were some interesting cafe/bar type places that seemed like cool spots to hang out. but I headed back to Tine's to join her at her friends place to ogle adn admire tiny little week old kittens. they were very cute.
The next day i took a free bike tour, saw most of the same sights as the day before but had a fascinating and theatrical explanation of what they were. i think my favorite was the simple but striking memorial in front of... i cant really remember any names... a library. The square was the sight of the nazi book burnings adn the memorial is just a glass in the ground that lets you look down onto an empty room filled with empty bookshelves... and up at your own reflection in the glass.... its pretty cool. really strikes it home. the 'memorial for the murdered jews of europe' was pretty interesting too.
Then I took a train out to Potsdam to meet Tine and wander through the grounds and palaces of Fredrick the Great, and then play some pool and darts with Tine and her friends. Sunday was too hot to walk so I took buses everywhere.. went to another free outdoor berlin wall exhibition, then the jewish museum, which was interestingly laid out, but which i was too tired to enjoy, and then the train back to Leipzig.
In general, I found Berlin to be fascinating. an incredibly varied history with so much revolutionary sorta stuff in it. I had seen the film La Vie des Autres, (the Life of Others?) i watched it in the cinema with the german students of the lycee. it gave a perspective on East Berlin, and maybe Eastern Germany, that i didnt really see during my visit. which is good, i think.
So that was the condensed version of my trip to Germany!
And now I am home. And sorta kinda working, and sorta kinda applying for things to do next year.
Inge and I spent a lot of time visiting, and I also got to meet a lot of her family, but it was hard to not be really busy because, having just left Brittany, I was kind of sad, and needed to be preoccupied. So I decided to go to Berlin for a weekend.
The weekend was lovely, though tiring. I arrived in Berlin at 11 on Friday, and had four hours before meeting Tine, the girl I was staying with, so I wandered from the Hauptbaunhauf (Central Train Station) to Alexanderplatz, the next train station over, while passing through most of the major downtown sights... it was lovely, although i mostly had no idea what i was looking at. Then met Tine, who is a very nice girl, had a bite to eat with her, then walked from her place to the East Side gallery, a stretch of the berlin wall that is covered in graffiti. at various points on the West side of the wall, there were some interesting cafe/bar type places that seemed like cool spots to hang out. but I headed back to Tine's to join her at her friends place to ogle adn admire tiny little week old kittens. they were very cute.
The next day i took a free bike tour, saw most of the same sights as the day before but had a fascinating and theatrical explanation of what they were. i think my favorite was the simple but striking memorial in front of... i cant really remember any names... a library. The square was the sight of the nazi book burnings adn the memorial is just a glass in the ground that lets you look down onto an empty room filled with empty bookshelves... and up at your own reflection in the glass.... its pretty cool. really strikes it home. the 'memorial for the murdered jews of europe' was pretty interesting too.
Then I took a train out to Potsdam to meet Tine and wander through the grounds and palaces of Fredrick the Great, and then play some pool and darts with Tine and her friends. Sunday was too hot to walk so I took buses everywhere.. went to another free outdoor berlin wall exhibition, then the jewish museum, which was interestingly laid out, but which i was too tired to enjoy, and then the train back to Leipzig.
In general, I found Berlin to be fascinating. an incredibly varied history with so much revolutionary sorta stuff in it. I had seen the film La Vie des Autres, (the Life of Others?) i watched it in the cinema with the german students of the lycee. it gave a perspective on East Berlin, and maybe Eastern Germany, that i didnt really see during my visit. which is good, i think.
So that was the condensed version of my trip to Germany!
And now I am home. And sorta kinda working, and sorta kinda applying for things to do next year.
posted by mrose at 2:13 PM
1 Comments:
Hello sweetheart
I am so glad you are home. I missed you like oxygen.
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