Why, you ask? Well, my home university has an amazing Chorale, who were coming to Germany. In their ranks is one of my best friends ever and my first college friend, Randi. I wasn't going to pass up this chance to see her, but I wasn't going to go alone to Leipzig and I was going to need moral support before the LSAT...so I brought backup.
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| He was the only one available. |
At this point, if you're a loyal reader of this (or even if you aren't), you probably know that this plan wasn't going to end well. At least I can say that we made it to Stuttgart okay.
It was everything that happened after Stuttgart that was the problem.
We were driving (or should I say, training?) along when suddenly our train slowed down and then came to a full stop. They announced that there was "something on the tracks". Our conductors pulled on neon vests and walked along the rails. After 30 minutes, they came back on the train and announced that "they had found nothing on the tracks - they had probably run it over". And to top it off, we had blown out our emergency brakes, so we had to travel slower than usual. But it looked like we could still, just maybe, make our connection on time.
Our train kept rolling, we picked up some angry looking passengers and then we stopped again. For an hour. Jake and I sat there, looking at our watches, thinking about our connecting train:
Apparently, there had been an accident on the tracks.
The only thing that made the trip bearable was this woman in one of the sleeping compartments who was having a meltdown, shrieking and crying in broken, terrible German. At one point she was throwing things against the wall of the compartment. It was really sad, but because we had reached our breaking points, it was really funny. And kind of terrifying.
By the time we got to Nürnberg, we had missed our train and the last, slow night train. What were we going to do?!
Luckily, Deutsche Bahn was more than happy to help out - they were going to pay for a train ride and then a taxi to Leipzig. And we didn't even have to fight them on it!
Except for the fact that it was a 4 hour long taxi ride.
Taxi rides always seem so glamorous on television and in movies. But when it's 1 a.m. and you're falling asleep in a taxi, it's not so glamorous. We finally arrived in Leipzig at our hostel around 3 a.m. The taxi ride would have cost us 400 Euros! We stumbled half-asleep into the hostel, where the nice people at the desk gave us sheets and towels for free, and somehow we made it upstairs and into our beds, but I honestly don't remember half of it.
And that's how we got to Leipzig.
We were driving (or should I say, training?) along when suddenly our train slowed down and then came to a full stop. They announced that there was "something on the tracks". Our conductors pulled on neon vests and walked along the rails. After 30 minutes, they came back on the train and announced that "they had found nothing on the tracks - they had probably run it over". And to top it off, we had blown out our emergency brakes, so we had to travel slower than usual. But it looked like we could still, just maybe, make our connection on time.
Our train kept rolling, we picked up some angry looking passengers and then we stopped again. For an hour. Jake and I sat there, looking at our watches, thinking about our connecting train:
Apparently, there had been an accident on the tracks.
The only thing that made the trip bearable was this woman in one of the sleeping compartments who was having a meltdown, shrieking and crying in broken, terrible German. At one point she was throwing things against the wall of the compartment. It was really sad, but because we had reached our breaking points, it was really funny. And kind of terrifying.
By the time we got to Nürnberg, we had missed our train and the last, slow night train. What were we going to do?!
Luckily, Deutsche Bahn was more than happy to help out - they were going to pay for a train ride and then a taxi to Leipzig. And we didn't even have to fight them on it!
Sounds sweet, right?
Except for the fact that it was a 4 hour long taxi ride.
Taxi rides always seem so glamorous on television and in movies. But when it's 1 a.m. and you're falling asleep in a taxi, it's not so glamorous. We finally arrived in Leipzig at our hostel around 3 a.m. The taxi ride would have cost us 400 Euros! We stumbled half-asleep into the hostel, where the nice people at the desk gave us sheets and towels for free, and somehow we made it upstairs and into our beds, but I honestly don't remember half of it.
And that's how we got to Leipzig.
Leipzig Day One
Unsurprisingly, we slept in. We woke up, got ready, and went in search of food. We crossed over the ring street and the tram tracks and found ourselves in the city center. Leipzig is almost like a mini-Vienna...if Vienna had ever had to endure a Russian Communist regime. Parts of Leipzig are rundown and scuzzy, but the Altstadt is very pretty! We got breakfast and wandered around for a bit. We had the perfect day for it!
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| The main shopping street. |
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| Even the banks look classy! |
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| The Rathaus plus a giant screen where they project the performances for the Bach festival. |
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| The Old Stock Exchange |
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| A cafe, missing part of the building on the left. |
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| Just a cute German name for a street! It means "Little Salt Lane" |
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| Jake was having a great time, since it reminded him of Vienna, his favorite European city. |
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| The Spire of the Nikolaikirche |
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| A square behind the Nikolaikirche. |
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| The church still serves as place for political discussion, they bring in speakers for monthly talks |
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| Oh, and it's really pretty inside! |
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| Amazing! |
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| From there we wandered into a indoor shopping mall! |
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| We also ran into a group of "Jesus Saves" evangelicals! I haven't seen any for about 11 months! |
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| Without a doubt, they were converting souls by the University of Leipzig. Heathens. |
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| Speaking of the devil... Leipzig is home to Auerbach'sKeller, where Goethe wrote Faust I. |
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| According to Goethe, this restaurant/bar
is the first place Mephistopheles takes
Faust after they become bffs.
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| We were going to go in and eat, but the prices were hellish too. |
From there we wandered to the Thomaskirche, the home of Johann Sebastian Bach in life and death (yep, he's buried there).
And guess who we found there?!
The Chorale, finishing up rehearsal before their concert in the afternoon. And I found Randi too!
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| First College Friends! |
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| Randi! |
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| New friends! |
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| Randi and Your Humble Blogger! |
Even better was the concert by the Chorale, which was amazingly beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a video of them singing, so here's a promo video from my home university for the Chorale tour. You can also visit their tour blog - Randi wrote a couple of cute posts them!
It was sad to say goodbye Randi right after the concert, but they had a plane to catch and I still had the LSAT looming ever closer. Luckily, it's only about a month until we can see each other almost every day, Randi and I living down the hall from each other next semester!
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| After the concert, we wandered around a bit more. |
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| This is the old Rathaus, which still looks pretty intense. |
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| Hey Jake. |
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| Your Humble Blogger |
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| What a dork. We'll keep him anyway. |
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| It was a quiet Saturday. |
Jake and I wrapped up the day by getting a hearty German meal - yep, it's still asparagus season and I'm eating all the dishes with it. (FYI, asparagus with citrus hollandaise sauce, it really good.) We also watched one of the first German round-robin soccer matches of the EuroCup at a local bar. It was intense! We had a lot of fun.
Leipzig Day Two
Our second day in Leipzig was less exciting. We both had trains to catch that afternoon - I was headed to Munich; Jake was headed home to Tübingen. But before we left, we wanted to explore some more and also get a glimpse into Leipzig's darker history.
We found ourselves touring the Stasi museum. The Stasi, the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), aka the East Germany secret police, were founded 1950 and held an iron grip on intelligence and the people of East Germany until the wall fell in 1990. They were an equal cruel, ruthless, and amoral government group as the Nazis they had replaced. They stalked dissents, recorded hours of audio tapes from wire tapped letters, opened and read letters, and they also murdered dissenters or those seen as "Pro-Western".
The museum was in equal parts terrifying and shocking. After the Wall fell, the Stasi attempted to destroy all their machines, files, and documents. Luckily, citizens of Leipzig stopped them and their files, information, and propaganda are now on display.
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| Televisions used for spying on citizens. |
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| The coat of arms for the Stasi. |
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| Propaganda for schools: "This is how the Enemy will hurt and destroy us" I especially liked how they included "Western Music" with a picture of one of Iron Maiden's albums. |
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| "Imperialism - the Number One Enemy of Socialism: Our Enemy, Your Enemy" |
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| One of the offices, reconstructed by witness testimony. |
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| One of the many machines used to open letters without damaging the letter or leaving evidence that it had been opened. |
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| One of many filing cabinet drawers full of letters that never made it to the recipient. |
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| Stamps used to counterfeit post mark stamps. You would never know that your letter had arrived several months earlier. |
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| Scary! |
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| Stasi members were trained as spies and given tool kits to blend in with any crowd. |
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| The museum in "the round corner" is open to visitors almost every day of the week, so people can learn about the all-too recent history of Leipzig. |
After this disheartening morning, we had to say goodbye to Leipzig and we made our way back to the train station. Leipzig is (supposedly) the biggest train station in Europe, although Emily claims that she heard it Hamburg was the biggest...so I'll just say that Leipzig's train station is huge. There are 3 floors of a shopping mall below the train tracks - almost like an American mall! After a year in Germany, this mall was very overwhelming!
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| Not even a half of the station! |
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| You have no idea how long this picture took. Jake couldn't get the timer to work, which is why he looks so desperate in the photo. |
After hopping off the train and checking into my hostel, I had an existential crisis. I had two more days until the test, I was alone in a huge city...What would I do? Luckily, it was about dinner time when I finally arrived in Munich (do you really even need this link?), so I set out to find some food. But first I found my way to the city center, the Marienplatz. The buildings were gorgeous and luckily, there were also lots of tourists, so my touristy behavior was perfectly okay.
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| Old City Gates |
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| Typically German building with window flowers... behind it the spires of the Frauenkirche (The Church of Our Lady) |
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| Unfortunately, one of the spires was being reconstructed! |
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| Vertigo! |
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| A shot down the main shopping street. Luckily, it wasn't very busy! |
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| The New Rathaus (Town Hall) |
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| It has a really cool Glockenspiel that plays on the hour. |
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| Around the Marienplatz |
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| This golden statue of the Virgin Mary gives the town square its name! |
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| An unusual instrument choice for a street performer! (He was actually quite good!) |
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| You can see the Glockenspiel and the little figurines above. |
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| Symbols of Bayern (Bavaria) adorn the door. |
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| Weirdly enough, this is the Old Rathaus! |
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| One of many baroque churches in the town. |
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| Munich's sister city is Verona and in Munich's Shakespeareplatz, there is a statue to Juliet (yes, the one from Romeo and Juliet). Apparently, you can either rub the statue or leave flowers to receive the gift of undying love from Jules. Ironic. |
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| An empty street corner by Shakespeareplatz. |
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| Just wandering around...Stores, Starbucks, and... |
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| Another baroque church? |
I was lost on what to do at night. I didn't want to be that person who goes to bed at 10 p.m, but on the other hand, Munich's beer gardens had no appeal for me since: a) I hate beer and b) what kind of sad loser goes to a beer garden by themselves?!
So I went to the movies! Unfortunately, there weren't many German film offerings (and I did not want to watch a documentary about filming Germany from a plane) so I had to settle for an American movie dubbed into German. Almost all foreign movies that come to Germany are dubbed - unlike the French, the Germans don't want to deal with lame subtitles. So I went up the the counter and got my ticket for one (the desk guy gave me a pitying look) for Snow White and the Huntsman.
The trailer is in German, be warned.
The movie was decent - it was vastly improved by the fact that I didn't have to endure Kristen Stewart's annoying voice. Hurrah for dubbing! The costumes were gorgeous, but the weird fairy things creeped me out. Also, I will never believe that KStew is "fairer" than Charlize Theron. At least Thor, I mean Chris Hemsworth was in it!
I was really excited, since this movie theater was the first one in Germany I'd been to that was actually like a modern American movie theater - tiered seating with comfy seats with giant popcorn and soda available. They also had about 25 minutes of previews...one of which was:
The whole time I wanted to squeal and fan-girl at someone...but I was all alone.
The only thing about German movie that is strange is that they do assigned seating, like in an actual theater. The guy asked me where I wanted to sit - "Middle back, middle middle, or middle front". And I said "Oh middle front! I love to break my neck while watching a movie!" Haha, no, I said middle middle.
Oh! I almost forgot: the guy working concessions asked me to choose between Sweet or Salty popcorn.
What? Sweet popcorn?!
As in Kettlecorn?!
What? Sweet popcorn?!
As in Kettlecorn?!
What an abomination to serve that in a movie theater and even worse, they just assumed that was what I wanted. I'm shuddering just remembering it.
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And that was day one...Oh wait! One more story.
Around 4 a.m. a drunk American got into a screaming match and then a fist fight with a drunk Australian outside my hostel. It woke up everyone in our hostel room. I half-rolled over and said very loudly to everyone in my room (none of whom were American): "I apologize on behalf of America." I then rolled over and went back to sleep.
Munich Day Two
It was my last full day before the LSAT and I took the day off from studying. Munich has some awesome art museums and since it was kind of a gray, rainy day, I headed in that direction. Even better, my testing center (the appropriately named "Amerika Haus") was along the way there, so I could time how long it took to get there!
Along the way, I ran into all kinds of museums...
I settled on going to the Neue Pinakothek, the New Art museum. It holds European art from the 18th and 19th centuries, which roughly translates to: less religious art (there are only so many you can see before you go crazy), less modern art (we have already discussed why I hate modern art), and more awesome stuff! YAY! I had a great time in there - there weren't many people, just lots of serious and seriously bored security guards.
After seeing the art museum, I wandered around the downtown a bit...I got Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) like a good German, although I opted for a Chai Tea Latte, at a small, unknown cafe called Starbucks or something like that. Don't give me that look - they have free wifi.
Night From Hell
I was already at my wit's end - after studying for this stupid test for 6 months, I was ready to just take the thing already and be done with it. I desperately wanted to sleep. And I did sleep for about 2 or 3 hours, until about midnight, when my rude roommates came back and turned on the overhead lights (despite having individual bed lights). I rolled over, offended, and tried to drift back to sleep.
Ten minutes later, I heard someone come into the room. It was an older woman (umm...hello...it's a youth hostel, go to a hotel!). And older, American woman. Who took it upon herself to cross-examine the boys in my room about travel tips around midnight. She kept asking, "Did you go to Dachau? How was it?" Part of me wanted to roll over and say, "Oh, you know, it's a barrel of laughs, you really should go if you want to have fun." (I actually did go to the Dachau concentration camp around Christmas time with a group; I didn't take any photos nor did I really want to blog about it since I spent the whole time crying.)
I was forced to listen to their inane chatter for about an hour.
They kept talking until 1 am where I politely, but forcefully, told them to please shut off the lights. And then I fell asleep again. And everything was perfect.
Until I woke up again at 3 am.
To the sound of violent snoring coming from the bed of the American woman. If normal people snoring is called "sawing logs", then she was logging an entire forest. It was loud. Unbelievably loud. Add to that sleep apnea, which meant the snoring would stop for 2 seconds before starting over, this time a different pattern, even louder.
I stuck my head under the pillow.
Still there.
I put in my headphones and turned on some music.
Still there.
I put on my wavemaker app.
Still there.
I turned my wavemaker app up to 100% volume.
THE SNORING WAS STILL THERE.
As I lay awake for a full hour, willing myself to sleep, praying for sleep, I seriously contemplated murder.
What is the social etiquette for dealing with a snoring hostel roommate?! Is it okay to poke someone awake and tell them to roll over? Should you wait until your alarm goes off at 6:30 am and then wake them up too, yelling something along the lines of "HOW DO YOU LIKE IT NOW?!"
Emily Post, why had you abandoned me?!
I spent the next hour and a half on an emotional roller coaster fueled by sleep deprived and stress induced rage-sobbing (although I was too stressed to even summon tears). It was a level of desperation I was not prepared for.
This was my spectrum of emotion then:
The LSAT
I got to the test center on time and everything went smoothly. There were some international students - although none of them spoke German - and a couple of American soldiers there to take the test as well. My proctor looked like the friendly version of the villain from The Rescuers.
The test went well, and I get my score this week. Although I can't say anything about the actual test, since men in black from the LSAC will come and take me away, I will say that I am glad I practiced with my window open in my room. The other test takers freaked out when an ambulance went by and I was able to tune it out since at least 4 go by per day.
Munich Day Two
It was my last full day before the LSAT and I took the day off from studying. Munich has some awesome art museums and since it was kind of a gray, rainy day, I headed in that direction. Even better, my testing center (the appropriately named "Amerika Haus") was along the way there, so I could time how long it took to get there!
Along the way, I ran into all kinds of museums...
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| Ancient Art Museum |
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| Natural History? I don't even remember anymore... |
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| Gah...more art! |
Here are some of my top picks:
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| Albert Schleich: "The Bed of Isar Near Munich With a View of the Alps" |
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| Oh! And I kept running into these school groups with adorable German kids who were learning about art. |
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| Caspar David Friedrich: "Garden Bower" |
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| Karl Schinkel: "Cathedral Over Town" |
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| Johan C. Dahl: "Morning After a Stormy Night" |
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| Joseph Stieler's famous painting of Goethe! |
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| Gustav Klimt's "Music" |
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| A Monet Waterlilies - much prettier than the one in the Tate Modern! |
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| They had a fantastic collection of pointillism, which I just love. |
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| And of course, they had some Van Goghs. |
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| Sunflowers - for Emily! |
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| Look how caked on the paint is...it's almost 3D! |
From there, I visited Hugendubel, Munich's biggest bookstore, which was 5 stories of books. Good times.
New German book in hand, I set out for the English Gardens. The gardens are huge and I certainly didn't even see half of it. I also managed to avoid (through no effort of my own) one part that is (in)famously used for nude sunbathing - although I think it was a bit chilly to do that on the day I was there!
I hopped into bed early, since the test was going to start at 8:30. And I closed my eyes...
The gardens were a perfect way to relax before dinner and then packing.
And I had to pack this too:
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| My LSAT conquering kit! |
Ha, you didn't think my life would go that smoothly, did you?!
Night From Hell
I was already at my wit's end - after studying for this stupid test for 6 months, I was ready to just take the thing already and be done with it. I desperately wanted to sleep. And I did sleep for about 2 or 3 hours, until about midnight, when my rude roommates came back and turned on the overhead lights (despite having individual bed lights). I rolled over, offended, and tried to drift back to sleep.
Ten minutes later, I heard someone come into the room. It was an older woman (umm...hello...it's a youth hostel, go to a hotel!). And older, American woman. Who took it upon herself to cross-examine the boys in my room about travel tips around midnight. She kept asking, "Did you go to Dachau? How was it?" Part of me wanted to roll over and say, "Oh, you know, it's a barrel of laughs, you really should go if you want to have fun." (I actually did go to the Dachau concentration camp around Christmas time with a group; I didn't take any photos nor did I really want to blog about it since I spent the whole time crying.)
I was forced to listen to their inane chatter for about an hour.
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| I was not in the mood for it. |
Until I woke up again at 3 am.
To the sound of violent snoring coming from the bed of the American woman. If normal people snoring is called "sawing logs", then she was logging an entire forest. It was loud. Unbelievably loud. Add to that sleep apnea, which meant the snoring would stop for 2 seconds before starting over, this time a different pattern, even louder.
I stuck my head under the pillow.
Still there.
I put in my headphones and turned on some music.
Still there.
I put on my wavemaker app.
Still there.
I turned my wavemaker app up to 100% volume.
THE SNORING WAS STILL THERE.
As I lay awake for a full hour, willing myself to sleep, praying for sleep, I seriously contemplated murder.
What is the social etiquette for dealing with a snoring hostel roommate?! Is it okay to poke someone awake and tell them to roll over? Should you wait until your alarm goes off at 6:30 am and then wake them up too, yelling something along the lines of "HOW DO YOU LIKE IT NOW?!"
Emily Post, why had you abandoned me?!
I spent the next hour and a half on an emotional roller coaster fueled by sleep deprived and stress induced rage-sobbing (although I was too stressed to even summon tears). It was a level of desperation I was not prepared for.
This was my spectrum of emotion then:
Around 4:30am I composed this note mentally:
Dear Law School Admission Council (LSAC),
Sorry I did so badly on the test. I didn't get to sleep last night because this snoring woman in my room.
I have sent you a copy of my scantron form with her severed head.
Please let me go to law school despite having murdered someone. I was doing a public service.
Lots of Love,
Me
Luckily for me and for her, I managed to tire myself out with my murderous rage and I drifted off to sleep, only to wake a few hours later.
The LSAT
I got to the test center on time and everything went smoothly. There were some international students - although none of them spoke German - and a couple of American soldiers there to take the test as well. My proctor looked like the friendly version of the villain from The Rescuers.
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| Much friendlier! |
Anyway, my score comes in later this week - so wish me luck, retroactively!
Also, you want to see an awesome post about Tübingen's Stocherkahn Race, check out Emily's blog!
UP NEXT: There is one month (can you believe it?!) of my year here and I'm going to start my great countdown! Oh, and I'm going to Venice this weekend! Italy, here I come!
Also, you want to see an awesome post about Tübingen's Stocherkahn Race, check out Emily's blog!
UP NEXT: There is one month (can you believe it?!) of my year here and I'm going to start my great countdown! Oh, and I'm going to Venice this weekend! Italy, here I come!
1 comment:
Hannah, I miss you. And our crazy adventures galavanting around Europe, trying to explain our confusion/incompetence in broken German, while taking copiously excessive amounts of touristy pictures.
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