Dearest Followers,
Sorry I've been away for so long! The school year is winding down, but the craziness is not. Anyway, I'm going to do a little recap of my life so far...
World Cup Update: Since I know very little about "football", I'm making predictions blindly, à la Paul the Octopus. So far, at the time of posting, I'm 4 for 6 (alas, I picked Uruguay over Costa Rica and England over Italy). David said that my results are not statistically significant, but what would he know, he's just a physics major. I hope you guys are enjoying the World Cup too!
Anyway....
Thüringen Adventure!
Before I got bronchitis, but shortly after the disastrous haircut (which is now growing out nicely), Cathy and I decided to visit Chelsea in Erfurt, which is in Saxony's sister state, Thuringia, which is easier to say in German than in English.
Erfurt is the capital of Thuringia and not too far from the city of Weimar (which is the only place that matters to German majors other than Wittenberg and Berlin). Erfurt is really adorable and it reminded me a lot Tübingen - and by that, I mean, it looks like a stereotypical image of Germany unlike the rebuilt parts of the East.
Random tidbit: Erfurt is also where lots of children's shows from the German kid's channel Ki.Ka are filmed and produced, so they have statues of figures everywhere. Including my favorites from Sendung Mit der Maus (my favorite character is Elefant) as well as Bernd das Brot (yes, "Bernd the piece of bread"), who is literally the most terrifying kids' show character.
And I've seen lots of terrible kids' programming.
(If you really want to be terrified, watch this episode of Bernd and then take a moment to think about the fact that this plays on a loop starting at 9pm until about 7am on Ki.Ka. Also the amount of blatant copyright infringement in this video is hilarious.)
Anyway, we toured Erfurt with Chelsea...
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| St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Severus' Church |
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| A view to the Altstadt |
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| Inside St. Mary's |
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| Germans love them some plaques: This one commemorates Pope Benedict's visit in 2011. |
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| The famous Krämerbrücke, which features half-timbered houses, where people still live, but it also functions as a bridge with passages you can walk through. |
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| Graffiti |
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| Germans LOVE plaques, especially when Goethe or Schiller are involved, but this one takes the cake: "Schiller and Goethe walked into this house and then walked back out." According to the local legend, the dynamic duo were on their way to a city function and got lost. Therefore, plaque for the building they mistook for the one they wanted. |
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| Downtown Erfurt has many gorgeous old facades. |
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| We got the first taste of summer in Erfurt! We stopped for ice cream after our hike up and down from the cathedral. (Photo Credit to Cathy!) |
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| Cathy and Yours Truly, looking a little more fluffy than usual. (Photo Credit: Chelsea) |
The city is adorable and very walkable, so we enjoyed the first moments of summer during our day trip. We didn't go into any museums, so I can't tell you German Lit lovers what there is to offer, but here's a statue of the famous bros in Germany...
The ride back home was eventful - in short, I fought the Deutsche Bahn and the Deutsche Bahn won.
This past weekend, two Fulbrighters stationed near Düsseldorf, Emma and Sophia, came to visit! Emma was my first Fulbright friend - we shared a hostel room in Köln - and we both met Sophia one evening during orientation.
We met up in Leipzig on Saturday morning! Interestingly, we in Leipzig for the annual Wave-Gothik-Treffen, which as the name suggests is a huge goth music festival. Some of the outfits were typical goth fare, all black with lots of chains and piercings, but others were elaborate and even gorgeous historical costumes, ranging from medieval to Victorian to fantastical steampunk.
Nevertheless, last weekend was not a good time to be dressed in all black or with lots of layers and petticoats! It was gorgeous, sunny, and hot on Saturday. Emma and Sophia had already toured the city a bit, so we banded together with Claire and friend of Claire's, Lilah, who was also visiting Leipzig, and we headed off to one of Leipzig's parks. We hung out, ate ice cream, and played some badminton and frisbee.
We packed up reluctantly in the late afternoon to head back to Chemnitz. We did the Saturday evening-before-a-long-holiday-weekend-shuffle at the grocery store and filled up the fridge. I took my East-side newbies out for dinner and beer at the Turmbrauhaus by the Chemnitz Rathaus.
The next day, we leisurely ate breakfast, packed a lunch, and headed off to Dresden! Little did we know that we would be wandering around the city on the record-breaking hottest Pentecost weekend in Germany. The train we took to Dresden had no air-conditioning, which was hellish and sweaty, but Deutsche Bahn got their act together for the rest of weekend and began using their double-decker, air conditioned trains for all the regional trains. It was around 97 degrees during the hottest part of the day and most of our sightseeing centered around finding shade, water, and ice cream!
We also made it across the river to the Dresden Neustadt, which is the unrepentantly hip, cool, and hipster part of Dresden. We sought out the Kunsthofpassagen which is a series of interconnected courtyards that house speciality shops and cafes. Each courtyard has its own theme, such as animals or the four elements. It was a shame that it was Sunday and the shops were closed, but probably a good thing for my bank account!
We ended our day back in Chemnitz for some last photoshoots!
On Monday, which was another holiday, Emma headed off to Prague to visit a friend, while Sophia and I headed up into the Sächsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland) to see the Königstein Fortress.
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| I like how Goethe has his hand protectively over Schiller, as if to say, "I like him, even though he's poor". |
My favorite part was by far our little walk through the enormous park in the city. We walked to Goethe's summer home, which really wasn't that far from Goethe's actual home...
And then we stopped for a photo shoot in the space underneath one of the bridges!
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| Chelsea! (Photo Credit: Cathy) |
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| Hey hey. |
And I had to cough up 40 Euros for apparently Schwarzfahring (riding the train illegally without a ticket) even though I had one. (It's a long story and it makes me angry just thinking about it.)
If there was a moment where I regretted not playing the "stupid American" card, it was that one.
But all in all, Erfurt and Weimar are both charming cities and I really enjoyed seeing them. I wish I could have stayed longer and seen more of Thuringia, aka "The Green Heart of Germany".
Bautzen Day Trip
One weekend, the group of us decided to head out to some little cities near to Dresden. We had planned to visit Meißen (yes, the blue and white plates) as well, but the weather was cold and miserable, so we had to content ourselves with just a trip to Bautzen.
Bautzen is a charming little city, but it has a complicated past.
Part of the city was used as sub-camp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp during the Nazi era. The city's prison was converted during the Soviet era as a prison for "prisoners of conscience", which also included Nazi members.
On the other hand, Bautzen is also the cultural hub of the Sorbs, ethnic Western Slavs who have lived in Germany since Bronze Age. The Sorbs are one of the specifically named protected minority groups in the German constitution. Interestingly, during WWII, the Nazis regarded the Sorbs as "true Germans" and sought to bring them into the Nazi fold.
We visited the Sorbian museum while we were there. We learned about the history and cultural of the Sorbs, including music and clothing. We also got to try our hand at reading and speaking some Sorbian, which was a lot of fun! One of the exhibits detailed how the schools in Bautzen and the surrounding area are bilingual schools in order to preserve Sorbian.
Anyway, here are the pictures!
Philip's Going Away Party!
All good things must come to an end, and Philip was leaving Germany before us.
Since we had been crashing at Philip's for a lot of our weekend adventures, it was only right that we join in for a final celebration. Despite the drizzle, we had a little grill-out with Philip's host family/landlords, who are adorable, yet stereotypically German in their party throwing ways...which means they tried to drink us all under the table.
The favorite line of the night came when Herr Hoffman tried to ply Melody with more whiskey, which she tried to turn down gently by saying she couldn't drink anymore. The response: "Mach's nichts" ("That doesn't matter").
Huzzah for German Gastgabers!
Prague Adventure!
At the end of May, I also had to say goodbye to two other teaching assistants. One was Virginie, the French assistant my school and my ice cream buddy. The other was Sarika, one of the British assistants, who worked in Stollberg.
As a last hurrah before Sarika left for London, we decided that we should go to Prague, since Sarika had never been! We only had a day to see the city, so we booked it out of Chemnitz early to catch our bus in Dresden and we found ourselves in Prague around noon! It was a warm, summery day and luckily, there weren't too many tourists.
If Vienna was my city of choice from Tübingen year, then Prague is my new favorite.
Our journey home was eventful! We had to struggle through waking up at 6am for our early morning bus. But the real struggle began when we left the hostel to catch the metro to the bus depot! I only had paper korunas on me and Sarika had nothing but a 10 koruna coin. The tickets were 24 korunas each (which for those of you playing at home, is about $1.18) but there were no machines there or shops open to break my 100 koruna note.
One weekend, the group of us decided to head out to some little cities near to Dresden. We had planned to visit Meißen (yes, the blue and white plates) as well, but the weather was cold and miserable, so we had to content ourselves with just a trip to Bautzen.
Bautzen is a charming little city, but it has a complicated past.
Part of the city was used as sub-camp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp during the Nazi era. The city's prison was converted during the Soviet era as a prison for "prisoners of conscience", which also included Nazi members.
On the other hand, Bautzen is also the cultural hub of the Sorbs, ethnic Western Slavs who have lived in Germany since Bronze Age. The Sorbs are one of the specifically named protected minority groups in the German constitution. Interestingly, during WWII, the Nazis regarded the Sorbs as "true Germans" and sought to bring them into the Nazi fold.
We visited the Sorbian museum while we were there. We learned about the history and cultural of the Sorbs, including music and clothing. We also got to try our hand at reading and speaking some Sorbian, which was a lot of fun! One of the exhibits detailed how the schools in Bautzen and the surrounding area are bilingual schools in order to preserve Sorbian.
Anyway, here are the pictures!
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| The Reichenturm, Germany's leaning tower. |
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| A water tower behind the ruins of a bombed out church. |
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| The "witch's house". |
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| My posse. From left to right: Doria, Philip, David, and Chelsea |
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| No comment. |
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| Flowers in bloom! |
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| Detailing on an old building. |
All good things must come to an end, and Philip was leaving Germany before us.
Since we had been crashing at Philip's for a lot of our weekend adventures, it was only right that we join in for a final celebration. Despite the drizzle, we had a little grill-out with Philip's host family/landlords, who are adorable, yet stereotypically German in their party throwing ways...which means they tried to drink us all under the table.
The favorite line of the night came when Herr Hoffman tried to ply Melody with more whiskey, which she tried to turn down gently by saying she couldn't drink anymore. The response: "Mach's nichts" ("That doesn't matter").
Huzzah for German Gastgabers!
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| All of us, before the food and the copious amounts of drinks. |
At the end of May, I also had to say goodbye to two other teaching assistants. One was Virginie, the French assistant my school and my ice cream buddy. The other was Sarika, one of the British assistants, who worked in Stollberg.
As a last hurrah before Sarika left for London, we decided that we should go to Prague, since Sarika had never been! We only had a day to see the city, so we booked it out of Chemnitz early to catch our bus in Dresden and we found ourselves in Prague around noon! It was a warm, summery day and luckily, there weren't too many tourists.
If Vienna was my city of choice from Tübingen year, then Prague is my new favorite.
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| Just look at this city! |
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| St. Charles Bridge |
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| Old Town Square |
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| The summer sky |
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| There was also a festival in the square celebrating minority ethnic groups in the Czech Republic. |
We spent the day wandering around the city and doing some shopping. Sarika bought a gorgeous pair of garnet earrings for less than 30 Euros! I managed to snag a Mucha poster for my future kitchen in the US. We also snapped up some cheap tickets to see Swan Lake in the evening. We ate some lunch at this great Italian place and we soaked up the summer sun while we had our Kaffee und Kuchen (the Germans have trained us well).
Of course, Murphy's Law had to apply to our trip, because everything was going so well (and because it's my life, the comedy of errors that it is), Sarika discovered when we got to the theater that she had lost her camera!
After frantically searching through her purse multiple times, while at the same time trying to kindly refuse handouts from the singing Hare Krishnas (Which, not to slight any Hare Krishna readers, is actually still a thing?!). We then realized, to our dread, that most of shops were being to close by then, even if we could remember all the places we had gone.
We sadly resigned ourselves to getting in line for our seats to the ballet. As we stood in line, the ticket manager came up and asked if the camera in his hand was in fact one of our cameras! (Good thing I had taken a picture of Sarika on the St. Charles Bridge with her camera earlier that day!) Yippee! So thank you, ticket manager of the ballet - you're awesome!
We then went into the showing of Swan Lake, which was lovely, and we left the theater the sun was just started to set, even though it was about 9pm! Don't you just love summer?
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| Pretend the tram lines aren't there. |
We hiked up to the castle as the sun started to set and got some great views of the city, as well as got to see the castle and the cathedral with only a few tourists there! So that's my pro tip for tourists going to Prague: go see the castle when everyone else is eating dinner.
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| Sarika! |
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| Selfie! |
We stood in the abandoned metro for while, deliberating our moral quandary: if we walked back to the hostel to get change, we would miss the only bus heading back to Dresden on Sunday, meaning we would have to pay for another bus ride, another hostel night, and I would miss school on Monday morning.
So...we illegally re-stamped our old metro tickets, whilst planning the whole time, in hushed voices, to play to stupid English speaker card.
It was the most nerve-wracking 15 minute metro ride of my life. Although we made it just in the nick of time onto the bus, I now know that I would: a) make a terrible criminal and b) that if I was going to commit a crime, I shouldn't do it with Sarika, who is plagued with the same guilty conscience that I am.
Oh, and when we crossed over the border into Germany, the bus got pulled over by border control and they came onboard to check all of our passports (thankfully they weren't looking for metro turnstile jumpers!), which was fun. Good thing we both had remembered to bring ours with us!
By the time we got to Dresden, we were ready for breakfast (and some coffee). All in all, despite the minor illegal infraction towards the end, our Prague adventure was a success!
Emma and Sophia's Visit
(Unless noted, all photos below are Sophia's!)This past weekend, two Fulbrighters stationed near Düsseldorf, Emma and Sophia, came to visit! Emma was my first Fulbright friend - we shared a hostel room in Köln - and we both met Sophia one evening during orientation.
We met up in Leipzig on Saturday morning! Interestingly, we in Leipzig for the annual Wave-Gothik-Treffen, which as the name suggests is a huge goth music festival. Some of the outfits were typical goth fare, all black with lots of chains and piercings, but others were elaborate and even gorgeous historical costumes, ranging from medieval to Victorian to fantastical steampunk.
Nevertheless, last weekend was not a good time to be dressed in all black or with lots of layers and petticoats! It was gorgeous, sunny, and hot on Saturday. Emma and Sophia had already toured the city a bit, so we banded together with Claire and friend of Claire's, Lilah, who was also visiting Leipzig, and we headed off to one of Leipzig's parks. We hung out, ate ice cream, and played some badminton and frisbee.
We packed up reluctantly in the late afternoon to head back to Chemnitz. We did the Saturday evening-before-a-long-holiday-weekend-shuffle at the grocery store and filled up the fridge. I took my East-side newbies out for dinner and beer at the Turmbrauhaus by the Chemnitz Rathaus.
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| Emma and Sophia with their Chemnitz beer! |
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| First Fulbright friends! Note: In the shade. |
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| A public drinking fountain? In Germany? Whaaaaa? (Needless to say, we all filled up.) |
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| The gutters move the water down into the courtyard through the musically themed pipes! |
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| I think you can figure it out without me translating! |
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| We visited the penguins... |
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| And Karl. |
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| Also Karl has got his Germany spirit going on! |
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| Thanks Wikipedia! |
We took the train to the city of Königstein and then a bus and a tiny train (think Disneyland ride) up to the mountain and the fortress. The castle itself, as you can see, is hewn from the rock and built on top of the plateau. We took an elevator up to get to the wall and the buildings. We walked around the wall and got some lovely photos of the surrounding area!
Königstein is also home to the second deepest well in Germany (factoid for your day, right there), which we got to see in action. Sophia also had fun trying to listen to the thick Sächsisch accent the well operator spoke with. After we wandered around and saw the exhibits, we headed back down the mountain to the city of Königstein for an ice cream break (a common trend in this post) and then back to Chemnitz.
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| (Photo Credit: Me) |
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| (Photo Credit: Me) |
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| (Photo Credit: Me) |
Although Emma and Sophia weren't here long, I hope they got a feel for the "ostalgie" and East Germany! I enjoyed having them over!
Well guys...I think I covered everything!
I've only got two weeks left, so if you have a question about life in Germany, send me an email!
Lots of Love,
Your Humble Blogger
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