I know, I know... it's been a month since i've been to Prague and i'm just barely writing this. Things just caught up with me like helping people move out of dorms and making a few trips to Frankfurt. Then I found myself in one of those, "too lazy to really do anything at all" moods that follows when you finish a semester. It wasn't until I finished my marathon of Xena: Warrior Princess that I decided I should probably, you know, DO something.
Alright then, shall we begin?
Nicole, Katie, and I took a train from Frankfurt to Nürnberg where we then caught a bus that would take us to Prague. The journey itself was only about 5 or so hours and I slept most of the way. When I woke up on the bus I found myself driving through the countryside of the Czech Republic. The trees were lighter and more feathery than the trees i'm used to in Marburg, and the grass was yellow and matted (kind of like dreadlocks). It was a raw beauty that I've never seen in a landscape. As we rolled into Prague my first thought was, "Huh... this looks a lot like East Berlin." Everything was made out of stone and tightly packed. As we arrived at the main train station a computer voice said, "Please remain seated until we come to a complete stop." And without missing a beat Mamma Nicole says, "i'mma stand up." Perhaps it was one of those, you had to be there moments.
We made our way into the Metro where I met the LARGEST ESCALATOR I HAVE EVER SEEN. It was so steep and so long that I didn't dare try to walk down it. After slaughtering the pronunciation of every street name, we found our hostel. Even though we arrived in Prague around 19.00, we were incredibly exhausted and not willing to go creeping around after sunset. In our hostel, we encountered the first television set we've seen in four months. We went to the grocery store not far away and brought back our food and situated ourselves on our beds. We ended up watching some Asian News program that was in English. I had a bit of a funny thought when I realized we were watching an Asian News program about Europe, in English, with an Indian anchorman, while in Prague. Multiculturalism.
As we sat there becoming the physical representation of sloth, we started hearing loud booms coming from outside. I went out the hostel and down the street a bit where I saw the most amazing display of fireworks I've ever seen. I do not know what the occasion was, but i'm sure it was Prague welcoming me. They heard of the Great Maddie, and wanted to wish her welcome to their fine city. *cough*
The next day we set out to the Old Town where we were going to take a free tour of the city. As I saw Prague for the first time in the daylight I thought, "How am I ever going to describe this?" That is another reason why i've prolonged writing this particular post because I am having extreme difficulty using my words when relating to Prague. The best way I can describe it, is that it looks like a box of Christmas chocolates. You open the box and every chocolate is elaborately colored and decorated with each looking completely different from the other. And so were the buildings of Prague. Everywhere you looked you wanted to take a picture because everything was beautiful. I didn't know how it could get any better, until we reached the Old Town. CATHEDRAL EXPLOSION. There are little churches and giant Cathedrals all over the place, and I didn't know what to do with myself.
While on the tour I was anticipating when we would arrive at a certain location, this location being on my bucket list, this location being the hypocenter of my Mozart-loving life. And then we finally arrived to The Estates Theatre. It is the only theatre in the world (still standing) where Mozart performed, and the debut spot of Don Giovanni. I made all sorts of spaztic noises that scared a few of the people in our group (my apologies to you, fellow travelers). Not willing to continue the 3 hour tour, we left and had lunch at Subway (a little taste of home, and it was cheap). Katie went back to the hostel to rest while I dragged Nicole to a torture museum. The torture museum was soooo great. You accessed it by descending this really narrow spiral staircase while the sounds of screams echoed up from below. The whole museum was set up like a little medieval village with lifesize mannequins placed among certain torture devices. It was dark and musty and full of over 225 torture devices, completely satisfying my fascination. I loved it so much that when we reached the end, I forced Nicole to go back with me and go through again. She wasn't very happy about this, I think it was the atmosphere that made her uncomfortable... can't imagine why.
Afterwards, Nicole and I walked back to the Hostel to get Katie so we could all go to the Christmas Market together, but something else drew my attention. ANOTHER TORTURE MUSEUM. So, Nicole and I went into this one and I must say I was a bit disappointed. It was a normal museum with torture devices behind glass cases. Siiiigh. When we walked in, Nicole said with much enthusiasm, "Now THIS is my kind of torture museum! Not like that creeper one you pulled me into." I dragged my feet behind, but was soon cheered up by the dozens of etchings and engravings of the Spanish Inquisition.
We met up with Katie and went to the Christmas Market. It was set up just like the dozens we've been to in Germany, but the food was to DIE for. It was absolutely incredible. I ordered some ham and this man took a machete and sliced a chunk right off a roasting pig, put it on a plate, shoved a fork into it, and gave it to me. Then we got trdelník's and Grog. Trdelník's is a type of cake made of rolled dough which is wrapped around a stick and then grilled and topped with sugar and walnut mix. Grog was one of the oddest drinks i've ever had. It was hot and golden and smelt like butterscotch, but tasted like whiskey. I was happy to sit there all night eating Trdelník's and drinking Grog. We sat around the square for a majority of the evening after walking around looking at all the booths and the GIANT christmas tree. I got a chocolate covered apple and we all went on our merry way back to the hostel. On our way we passed by a bar and decided to go in and try some Czech beer. I ordered a Kozel (black beer) and I expected it to be similar to an oatmeal stout. I was completely wrong. It was rich and dark but went down smoothly and was strangely sweet. I was an instant fan.
The next day we decided to walk around and take a peek inside all of those cathedrals and chapels we had passed the day before. We started with The Church of Our Lady then went to St. Nicholas', and then made it St. Clements where we walked in during the Eucharist. It was one of those, "wow" moments. The priest was singing as everyone was going to the altar to take communion, and the air was thick with incense. It was one of those times where you feel like you've been zapped back a few hundred years. I also realized that I had never been to a Catholic service before, what a better place to be introduced to it? Next we set off across St. Charles' Bridge and up to the St. Vitus Cathedral (one that I have studied many times in school). The top of the hill could only be accessed by this EVIL EVIL EVIL, I say it again, EVIL staircase of DEATH. It was halfway up that I became grateful for my few months in Marburg with all of its hills and stairs. The cathedral was larger than I had anticipated and was completely packed with people, it was almost like a Catholic mosh pit.
Katie left to warm up in the hostel while I, yet again, dragged Nicole on a haunted underground tour (though of course I did not tell her it was supposed to be haunted until we were back in Marburg, she about killed me). I'd like to say that I was thrilled with the whole thing, but I can honestly say that I met my match down in those catacombs. You were given a map and they sent you down ANOTHER creepy looking narrow spiral staircase that had noises coming up from the bottom. Being the excited one, I went down first and almost stepped on the hand of a headless plastic mannequin situated at the bottom of the staircase (covered in "blood" for drama). Nicole hesitantly came down after me and held on to me with each hands on my shoulders (I figured this was some what of a survival instinct so that if anything pops out, she can push me at it and run). We started edging along and realized that we were the only ones down there, well... the only LIVING ones down there. ;) Nicole decided she needed to pump herself up before continuing and we went back up the spiral staircase. I convinced her to go back down, and we did. We made it a bit farther and then Nicole retreated back up the staircase. After desperate pleas, we went back down and I said, "Okay... we'll just go through this quickly without stopping." So we started speed walking and passed all kinds of creepy looking mannequins and weird dark alleyways and then... Maddie met her match. I turned a corner and found myself facing a 7 ft tall hooded figure that we could not bypass and that's when I said, "NOPE" and we went speed walking back up the staircase. Pathetic, indeed... but I kind of drew the line at 7ft tall hooded things.
There was no chance of Nicole going back down there. I wanted to go back down, but I didn't want to pass by that hooded thing by myself in case my life turned into a horror movie. We saw a group of people come in (with a little kid) and waited for them to go down the staircase before we entered... for the fourth time. I faced that 7ft tall hooded guy and when I got close enough, I realized it was a priest wearing a cloak. We got out of there after about 20 minutes and returned to the world of Christmas Markets. It was really fun in retrospect. We got a 14 inch crepes and sat down to watch the Christmas Market at work. Then we returned to meet up with Katie and get another round of Kozel beer.
The next day we were set to leave at 13.38 and check out was at 10, so we decided to drop our bags off and let the hostel lady know that we will be back for them at 13.00 after she informed us that she has a 2 hour lunch break from 11.00-13.00. We went back to the Christmas Market and got trdelník's and hot chocolate and returned precisely at 13.00. Hostel lady was not there. After much drama of the hostel lady being 23 minutes late, we ran to the trainstation so we could catch our bus (this running also included running up that really really large escalator). We missed the bus, but luckily there was another one leaving 20 minutes later so we had to buy another reservation and take the later bus causing a train reaction with all of our other travel plans. We made it back to Marburg around 22.00 and got a burger at Fiona's just to conclude our little adventure.
Overall Prague was a surreal experience. I need to go back so I can go to the Kafka museums and other art galleries. Even with that short trip, many things were crossed off ye ole bucket list.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Of Kilts and Haunted Vaults
The trip to Edinburgh, Scotland and Dublin, Ireland creeped up on me like an itch.
Thursday afternoon we (Nicole, Alyssa, and Katie) made our way to the Marburg Hauptbahnhof where we took a train to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, then paid an annoying fee of 13 euro to take a 2 hour long bus ride to the Frankfurt Hahn airport.
RyanAir was not necessarily as terrifying as I have heard. In fact, take off was smooth and the entire flight was smooth until the landing where the wings of the plane resembled the wings of a frantic hummingbird.
Stepping out of the plane I was greeted by a huge gust of Scottish wind that nearly knocked me over. It's hard to describe the smell because it was one of the best smells my dear nose has ever had the pleasure of having. Even though it was airport air, it was SCOTTISH airport air. The warm air was a welcome change of pace after shivering to my skivvies in Marburg for the last few weeks.
We got off the bus towards the bottom of the South Bridge (though, at that time I had no idea what that meant). We were entirely lost. We started walking towards the castle seeing as how all that we knew of the Hostel's location was that it was near the castle. We ran into a group of Scotsmen and asked them for directions. They were drunk so it took a while to get any sort of information out of them. I figured that four girls asking about where the hostel was at the same time was one American too many, so I sort of stepped aside and looked around Edinburgh. Unfortunately there wasn't much to see because it was night time and street lamps are scarce. The wind picked up. No, that is too soft a term... the wind WENT CRAZY AND WANTED TO KILL US. It was very entertaining to say the least. I stood and leaned forward as much I could and got to almost a 45 degree angle thanks to the pressure of the wind. Alyssa was nearly dragged down a hill with her suitcase acting like a sail, while the rest of us were nearly blown down after her. We would have looked like four tumbleweeds screaming and giggling back down the South Bridge doomed to land in the Nor' Loch.
Suffice to say, the drunk Scotsmen were no help. We found a policeman and he told us that it would be simpler for him to just drive us to our hostel instead of attempting to tell us how to get there. I didn't understand what he meant until we started our drive and took who knows how many turns. We rolled up to the hostel with our police escort and hopped out thanking him with a few of the hostel residents for an audience. A part of me wishes he would have handcuffed us just for extra show. We got to our room (shared with fourteen other people) and made our beds. By this time it was 3 a.m. and were more than happy to sleep anywhere with a pillow. As I settled in and waited for sleep to descend, I noticed that a symphony was playing.
An orchestra of humans playing the age old Symphony of Snores. It started with the baritones (the men of the room, plus Nicole) moving in a rhythmic pace with the tenors following on their heels as to not let one nano-second of silence permeate the room. Somewhere in the 2nd movement of the symphony, the nice gentleman to my left began his great aria. An aria filled with so much gusto it could out due Pavarotti and Placido Domingo combined. The Aria of Phlegm hacked up and down with whizzing arpeggios and long drawn out notes that I never thought were humanly possible. I fell asleep somewhere between the third and fourth movements.
The next morning I was absolutely overflowing with excitement to see my Motherland. We found a breakfast and sat down to be greeted by a cheery waitress (something we were not used to living in Marburg). Alyssa got the American Breakfast, Nicole the Traditional Scottish Breakfast (complete with haggis and blood sausage), while Katie and I got pancakes. Both of us don't get very hungry when we are traveling. It was at this restaurant where I had my first taste of Scottish Breakfast tea. The tea and I were instantly in love. After breakfast, the girls left to go shower off the travel while I went up to the castle where I would meet them later. I circumnavigated Castle Hill and went up the switch-backed way. I got up to the top and found that I had completely lost my breath. Not only because of the horrendous climb, but by the view. I had never seen anything like this before. Everything was so expansive, yet so tightly packed together. It made me think of dominos closely placed edge-to-edge in tight rows. I honestly wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. Here I was, standing in a spot I had always wanted to go to since I was a wee little creature. And at that moment I was a full-fledged gremlin fulfilling a lifelong wish.
I walked down the Royal Mile and studied the architecture. It was the oddest yet most beautiful layout I had ever seen in my life. I got down to St. Giles' Cathedral and went inside. Again, I found that my breath had left me. The stained glass in that building was more beautiful than any I have seen thus far in my travels. I could help but take photographs, though NONE of them do justice. I walked back up to the Castle and met with the ladies. We all walked down the Royal Mile together where I found a new love in my life: Closes. For those who do not know, a "close" is a narrow street leading off from the Royal Mile. Each are named and each are dark and so... so... me.
We would be walking down the Royal Mile and the group would notice that they lost me. They would look around and see the tails of my long black coat as I bolted down a close. I must have gone down almost every close on the Royal Mile. My favorite close name was, Fleshmarket Close. It used to be a street for butcher shops, but was now vacant. I just love the name of it. It was very strange to be walking around and here/read everything in English. None of us were used to that and I felt particularly uncomfortable knowing where everything was. After these few months in Germany, I had somehow come to the conclusion that everything is difficult down to the smallest thing like buying stamps.
That day we walked around and talked about how excited we were to visit the Edinburgh Vaults that night. While in a shop at the castle there was a place where an assistant could look up family history. So I went up to the man and gave him my last name. It pulled up my coat of arms and history of my little Scottish clan. He turns to me and says, "You're from America, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Ah, well... welcome home little sister!" All in his cute lil Scottish accent.
The warm fuzzies from that exchange got a bit too unbearable and I had to bail. It is a nice memory though. :)
We all went back to the hostel to rest. While the ladies took a nap, I walked around and met some Spanish people who were staying at the same hostel as myself. I exercised my much depleted Spanish while they communicated in broken English. Charades. That was the name of the game.
The Edinburgh Vaults/The South Bridge Vaults are a series of chambers (connected by closes) formed in the 19 arches of the South Bridge. Completion of these were somewhere in the late 18th century. They were used for shops, but eventually became the epicenter of scum and villainy. It was said that the atmosphere in the vaults became so vile that the police stopped going there and it is also said that one could walk down a close and slit throats while walking by without anyone even noticing. Each of the vaults became inhabited by the poorest of the poor. Each vault held from 12 to 34 people. Due to the fact that the only plumbing in each vault was a corner, diseases began to spring up that nobody could (or can at present) really put a name to them. Not only were these vaults the center of disease, but murder, rape, bodysnatching, and other brutal crimes were a familiar event. The particular vaults we were to enter were used for Witch Trials (if you are familiar with how Scotland did Witch Trials, you can only imagine the energy displaced in those vaults). In short, Witch Trials consisted of brutal days of agonizing torture complete with ballbusters, thumb-screws, and who knows what else. First, those holding the trial would nail the suspect's right hand to his/her left knee and the left hand to the right knee. Then it was a few nights of horrible torture until a "confession."
At 10.00 at night, we made our way to the Royal Mile where we were to meet our tour guide to go on, "The Haunted Tour of Edinburgh's Vaults." Katie and I were absolutely ecstatic about this evening while Nicole and Alyssa were about to pee their pants. Nevertheless, we were all very excited... in our own ways. The tour began with a walk around the South Bridge as the guide explained to our group (around 15-20 people) the history of the bridge and the conditions in which these people lived. Then it was time for the vaults. We entered a big black door that lead us to a dimly lit room full of metal objects behind class cases. Each of these objects were legitimate torture devices used in the witch trials. I was absolutely elated. You should know, one of my morbid obsessions is the study of torture devices from the Medieval times/Spanish Inquisition. You know, the light and cheery stuff!
Next we were lead down a long and winding stone staircase. Down and down and down until we reached the bottom where the air was thick and old. I absolutely loved the smell. It was so thick it was like I was breathing history itself. The close was long, narrow, and dark with only a few torches lit here and there. As we stood in this dark passage, the tour guide introduced us to the story of one of the Vault's ghosts: The Watcher.
The Watcher is a man with long hair wearing a top hat and a long dark cloak. This particular ghost has no face and is quick to move. He moves from vault to vault blissfully unaware of anyone else present. Our tour guide told us a story of how he was leading a group down and saw someone go into a vault. He followed after the person to tell them that they shouldn't wander off by themselves. When he reached the vault, nobody was there. It was completely empty.
The next ghost is one they call, Maggie. She was once a prostitute in these slums and reported acts of violent physical abuse against her. The police never replied to her requests and her butchered corpse was found a few days later sprawled on the steps we stood on at that moment. She is more of a trickster and is very fond of playing jokes on men. There is a story where a man in the back of the tour felt a cold hand go down his pants. He thought how lucky he was that his wife decided to warm her hand in an ideal spot, but as he turned to look at his wife... she was not there. In fact, there was nobody around him. Awkward.
We then proceeded into a vault that had a large collection of stone slabs all arranged in a circle. This particular place is heralded by the strange phenomenon known as "cold spots." Patches of ice were found in the vault though the temperature was mildly warm. There is a story about a woman named Anne Cooper who was on the same tour. She stood at the back and listened to the story being told. All of a sudden she started sobbing uncontrollably. She was kneeling in the vault clutching her head. She was taken to an ambulance and she told them that she suddenly became freezing cold and something had grabbed the back of her head and forced her body down to her knees. This is not the first time this has happened, other reported cases include people feeling icy fingers in their hair. Once a ten-year-old boy was carried unconscious from the vaults after complaining that something cold was holding on to his head.
When the vault was first open, George Cameron decided to locate his pagan temple there. After all sorts of unexplainable happenings, it creeped even the Wickens out. George Cameron decided to spend a night in his vault all alone to confront the entities. Just after midnight, George heard something crawling through the blackness. Too afraid to turn on his flashlight, he began to chant protective incantations and the intruder receded. Next, the sound of a sobbing woman slunked about George from within the vault. Then, more biting, scratching, and sobbing noises began to permeate the darkness. The next morning, George placed the stone slabs in the vault and cast a spell to constrict all demons to that spot. Mind you, we were being told this story as we stood in the room. I was totally enthralled.
The last and final vault is said to be one of the most haunted places out of THE most haunted places in the world. Before we entered, the tour guide separated us by gender and lead the women to the right side of the vault and the men to the left side of the vault. The reason being that all of the attacks in the past seemed to happen to women while they were on the left side of the vault. People have walked from those vaults with scratches all over their bodies. Apparently it is a regular visiting place for the paramedics of Edinburgh. The tour guide turned off his flashlight in the vault and began to tell us the story:
The story of this vault is gruesome and sad. Back in the 18th century there was a large fire that set all of Edinburgh in flames. The people (some 35 bodies or so) thought that they would be safe inside the vault because it was made of stone. They locked themselves in and were completely trapped. The fire burned in the houses above them and the stone gradually began to heat up and the air thickened. The vault turned into a giant oven slowly baking the 35 people trapped inside for days. When the fire was over and workers broke into the vault to clean up the damage, they found a mass of mangled corpses. Mothers still clutching to their children, fingernail marks grooved deep in the stone walls. The workers took hold of an arm, but the flesh slid off from the bone like overcooked meat. Nicole clung to my arm as we listened to this story.
As the tour guide was wrapping up his dark tale someone let out an awful scream. This was followed by the screams of other women. Next thing I knew, half of my body was dragged to the ground as Nicole went straight to fetal position with Alyssa on her other side. Katie and I were simply annoyed that we couldn't (and wouldn't) hear the rest of the story. For the tour was over. The Tour Guide had taken advantage of the situation and grazed the arm of a girl in the tour with his walking stick. Well played, sir. We were led up and out and were given a drink voucher for our troubles. YAY! So we sat at the Banshee Bar and discussed what had just happened and previous hauntings we've all encountered in our life time. The rest of the night was full of drinking and goodwill towards your fellow Scotsman, but I could not get the vaults out of my brain. Something nasty had awoken inside me. I had found... a new obsession.
The next day we each got a traditional Scottish breakfast (full of meat and full of beans). We split off and went on our own little adventures. Katie and Alyssa ran off to look at shops and ended up finding a weird art gallery and a christmas store. Nicole and I found ourselves going into Mary King's Close. Nicole, at first, was not very excited about venturing back down into the dark regions of Edinburgh to explore more vaults and more death. But, I assured her that the tour was indeed not haunted. Or, at least, not meant to scare you. I don't think she believed me until she saw that a little boy was going on the tour as well. In any case, we had some time before the tour so we got FISH N CHIPSSSSSS. I say that with much gusto because it's one of my favorite meals on this planet. We also got a Gaelic Coffee (Scotch, coffee, and whipped cream). My tastebuds about exploded with glee.
The tour of Mary King's Close was guided by a buxom and robust Scottish woman dressed in an 18th century maid costume. She led us down the close and I was so happy to smell that familiar smell and breathe in that familiar old air. She took us into various rooms and told us about what had happened there and the living conditions of the people. Then she took us to a room that had a few mannequins set up to look like a plague doctor was visiting a plague-infected home. One more thing, I have always been OBSESSED with the plague doctor's uniform. I don't know why, but I think it's entrancing. The guide told a tale of how the plague came about. When she reached the part about rats she squeezed a little rat toy that made a squeaking noise that gave Nicole a start and she grabbed the sleeve of the guy in front of us. After our AWESOME tour of Mary King's Close, we had to head back to the Hostel to meet up with Katie and Alyssa so that we could get to the airport and shove off to Dublin.
As I walked up the outside steps to enter the airplane, I took a long and deep inhale of good Scottish air. I didn't/don't know when I will return there and I want to keep that memory fresh. Now I have a little saying in my head (thanks to Scotland): whenever I think of all my regrets and negative whatevers... I "Gardy Loo" it out my window and flush it down to the Nor' Loch.
Next Blog: Of Guinness and Irishmen. (Ireland)
Thursday afternoon we (Nicole, Alyssa, and Katie) made our way to the Marburg Hauptbahnhof where we took a train to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, then paid an annoying fee of 13 euro to take a 2 hour long bus ride to the Frankfurt Hahn airport.
RyanAir was not necessarily as terrifying as I have heard. In fact, take off was smooth and the entire flight was smooth until the landing where the wings of the plane resembled the wings of a frantic hummingbird.
Stepping out of the plane I was greeted by a huge gust of Scottish wind that nearly knocked me over. It's hard to describe the smell because it was one of the best smells my dear nose has ever had the pleasure of having. Even though it was airport air, it was SCOTTISH airport air. The warm air was a welcome change of pace after shivering to my skivvies in Marburg for the last few weeks.
We got off the bus towards the bottom of the South Bridge (though, at that time I had no idea what that meant). We were entirely lost. We started walking towards the castle seeing as how all that we knew of the Hostel's location was that it was near the castle. We ran into a group of Scotsmen and asked them for directions. They were drunk so it took a while to get any sort of information out of them. I figured that four girls asking about where the hostel was at the same time was one American too many, so I sort of stepped aside and looked around Edinburgh. Unfortunately there wasn't much to see because it was night time and street lamps are scarce. The wind picked up. No, that is too soft a term... the wind WENT CRAZY AND WANTED TO KILL US. It was very entertaining to say the least. I stood and leaned forward as much I could and got to almost a 45 degree angle thanks to the pressure of the wind. Alyssa was nearly dragged down a hill with her suitcase acting like a sail, while the rest of us were nearly blown down after her. We would have looked like four tumbleweeds screaming and giggling back down the South Bridge doomed to land in the Nor' Loch.
Suffice to say, the drunk Scotsmen were no help. We found a policeman and he told us that it would be simpler for him to just drive us to our hostel instead of attempting to tell us how to get there. I didn't understand what he meant until we started our drive and took who knows how many turns. We rolled up to the hostel with our police escort and hopped out thanking him with a few of the hostel residents for an audience. A part of me wishes he would have handcuffed us just for extra show. We got to our room (shared with fourteen other people) and made our beds. By this time it was 3 a.m. and were more than happy to sleep anywhere with a pillow. As I settled in and waited for sleep to descend, I noticed that a symphony was playing.
An orchestra of humans playing the age old Symphony of Snores. It started with the baritones (the men of the room, plus Nicole) moving in a rhythmic pace with the tenors following on their heels as to not let one nano-second of silence permeate the room. Somewhere in the 2nd movement of the symphony, the nice gentleman to my left began his great aria. An aria filled with so much gusto it could out due Pavarotti and Placido Domingo combined. The Aria of Phlegm hacked up and down with whizzing arpeggios and long drawn out notes that I never thought were humanly possible. I fell asleep somewhere between the third and fourth movements.
The next morning I was absolutely overflowing with excitement to see my Motherland. We found a breakfast and sat down to be greeted by a cheery waitress (something we were not used to living in Marburg). Alyssa got the American Breakfast, Nicole the Traditional Scottish Breakfast (complete with haggis and blood sausage), while Katie and I got pancakes. Both of us don't get very hungry when we are traveling. It was at this restaurant where I had my first taste of Scottish Breakfast tea. The tea and I were instantly in love. After breakfast, the girls left to go shower off the travel while I went up to the castle where I would meet them later. I circumnavigated Castle Hill and went up the switch-backed way. I got up to the top and found that I had completely lost my breath. Not only because of the horrendous climb, but by the view. I had never seen anything like this before. Everything was so expansive, yet so tightly packed together. It made me think of dominos closely placed edge-to-edge in tight rows. I honestly wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. Here I was, standing in a spot I had always wanted to go to since I was a wee little creature. And at that moment I was a full-fledged gremlin fulfilling a lifelong wish.
I walked down the Royal Mile and studied the architecture. It was the oddest yet most beautiful layout I had ever seen in my life. I got down to St. Giles' Cathedral and went inside. Again, I found that my breath had left me. The stained glass in that building was more beautiful than any I have seen thus far in my travels. I could help but take photographs, though NONE of them do justice. I walked back up to the Castle and met with the ladies. We all walked down the Royal Mile together where I found a new love in my life: Closes. For those who do not know, a "close" is a narrow street leading off from the Royal Mile. Each are named and each are dark and so... so... me.
We would be walking down the Royal Mile and the group would notice that they lost me. They would look around and see the tails of my long black coat as I bolted down a close. I must have gone down almost every close on the Royal Mile. My favorite close name was, Fleshmarket Close. It used to be a street for butcher shops, but was now vacant. I just love the name of it. It was very strange to be walking around and here/read everything in English. None of us were used to that and I felt particularly uncomfortable knowing where everything was. After these few months in Germany, I had somehow come to the conclusion that everything is difficult down to the smallest thing like buying stamps.
That day we walked around and talked about how excited we were to visit the Edinburgh Vaults that night. While in a shop at the castle there was a place where an assistant could look up family history. So I went up to the man and gave him my last name. It pulled up my coat of arms and history of my little Scottish clan. He turns to me and says, "You're from America, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Ah, well... welcome home little sister!" All in his cute lil Scottish accent.
The warm fuzzies from that exchange got a bit too unbearable and I had to bail. It is a nice memory though. :)
We all went back to the hostel to rest. While the ladies took a nap, I walked around and met some Spanish people who were staying at the same hostel as myself. I exercised my much depleted Spanish while they communicated in broken English. Charades. That was the name of the game.
The Edinburgh Vaults/The South Bridge Vaults are a series of chambers (connected by closes) formed in the 19 arches of the South Bridge. Completion of these were somewhere in the late 18th century. They were used for shops, but eventually became the epicenter of scum and villainy. It was said that the atmosphere in the vaults became so vile that the police stopped going there and it is also said that one could walk down a close and slit throats while walking by without anyone even noticing. Each of the vaults became inhabited by the poorest of the poor. Each vault held from 12 to 34 people. Due to the fact that the only plumbing in each vault was a corner, diseases began to spring up that nobody could (or can at present) really put a name to them. Not only were these vaults the center of disease, but murder, rape, bodysnatching, and other brutal crimes were a familiar event. The particular vaults we were to enter were used for Witch Trials (if you are familiar with how Scotland did Witch Trials, you can only imagine the energy displaced in those vaults). In short, Witch Trials consisted of brutal days of agonizing torture complete with ballbusters, thumb-screws, and who knows what else. First, those holding the trial would nail the suspect's right hand to his/her left knee and the left hand to the right knee. Then it was a few nights of horrible torture until a "confession."
At 10.00 at night, we made our way to the Royal Mile where we were to meet our tour guide to go on, "The Haunted Tour of Edinburgh's Vaults." Katie and I were absolutely ecstatic about this evening while Nicole and Alyssa were about to pee their pants. Nevertheless, we were all very excited... in our own ways. The tour began with a walk around the South Bridge as the guide explained to our group (around 15-20 people) the history of the bridge and the conditions in which these people lived. Then it was time for the vaults. We entered a big black door that lead us to a dimly lit room full of metal objects behind class cases. Each of these objects were legitimate torture devices used in the witch trials. I was absolutely elated. You should know, one of my morbid obsessions is the study of torture devices from the Medieval times/Spanish Inquisition. You know, the light and cheery stuff!
Next we were lead down a long and winding stone staircase. Down and down and down until we reached the bottom where the air was thick and old. I absolutely loved the smell. It was so thick it was like I was breathing history itself. The close was long, narrow, and dark with only a few torches lit here and there. As we stood in this dark passage, the tour guide introduced us to the story of one of the Vault's ghosts: The Watcher.
The Watcher is a man with long hair wearing a top hat and a long dark cloak. This particular ghost has no face and is quick to move. He moves from vault to vault blissfully unaware of anyone else present. Our tour guide told us a story of how he was leading a group down and saw someone go into a vault. He followed after the person to tell them that they shouldn't wander off by themselves. When he reached the vault, nobody was there. It was completely empty.
The next ghost is one they call, Maggie. She was once a prostitute in these slums and reported acts of violent physical abuse against her. The police never replied to her requests and her butchered corpse was found a few days later sprawled on the steps we stood on at that moment. She is more of a trickster and is very fond of playing jokes on men. There is a story where a man in the back of the tour felt a cold hand go down his pants. He thought how lucky he was that his wife decided to warm her hand in an ideal spot, but as he turned to look at his wife... she was not there. In fact, there was nobody around him. Awkward.
We then proceeded into a vault that had a large collection of stone slabs all arranged in a circle. This particular place is heralded by the strange phenomenon known as "cold spots." Patches of ice were found in the vault though the temperature was mildly warm. There is a story about a woman named Anne Cooper who was on the same tour. She stood at the back and listened to the story being told. All of a sudden she started sobbing uncontrollably. She was kneeling in the vault clutching her head. She was taken to an ambulance and she told them that she suddenly became freezing cold and something had grabbed the back of her head and forced her body down to her knees. This is not the first time this has happened, other reported cases include people feeling icy fingers in their hair. Once a ten-year-old boy was carried unconscious from the vaults after complaining that something cold was holding on to his head.
When the vault was first open, George Cameron decided to locate his pagan temple there. After all sorts of unexplainable happenings, it creeped even the Wickens out. George Cameron decided to spend a night in his vault all alone to confront the entities. Just after midnight, George heard something crawling through the blackness. Too afraid to turn on his flashlight, he began to chant protective incantations and the intruder receded. Next, the sound of a sobbing woman slunked about George from within the vault. Then, more biting, scratching, and sobbing noises began to permeate the darkness. The next morning, George placed the stone slabs in the vault and cast a spell to constrict all demons to that spot. Mind you, we were being told this story as we stood in the room. I was totally enthralled.
The last and final vault is said to be one of the most haunted places out of THE most haunted places in the world. Before we entered, the tour guide separated us by gender and lead the women to the right side of the vault and the men to the left side of the vault. The reason being that all of the attacks in the past seemed to happen to women while they were on the left side of the vault. People have walked from those vaults with scratches all over their bodies. Apparently it is a regular visiting place for the paramedics of Edinburgh. The tour guide turned off his flashlight in the vault and began to tell us the story:
The story of this vault is gruesome and sad. Back in the 18th century there was a large fire that set all of Edinburgh in flames. The people (some 35 bodies or so) thought that they would be safe inside the vault because it was made of stone. They locked themselves in and were completely trapped. The fire burned in the houses above them and the stone gradually began to heat up and the air thickened. The vault turned into a giant oven slowly baking the 35 people trapped inside for days. When the fire was over and workers broke into the vault to clean up the damage, they found a mass of mangled corpses. Mothers still clutching to their children, fingernail marks grooved deep in the stone walls. The workers took hold of an arm, but the flesh slid off from the bone like overcooked meat. Nicole clung to my arm as we listened to this story.
As the tour guide was wrapping up his dark tale someone let out an awful scream. This was followed by the screams of other women. Next thing I knew, half of my body was dragged to the ground as Nicole went straight to fetal position with Alyssa on her other side. Katie and I were simply annoyed that we couldn't (and wouldn't) hear the rest of the story. For the tour was over. The Tour Guide had taken advantage of the situation and grazed the arm of a girl in the tour with his walking stick. Well played, sir. We were led up and out and were given a drink voucher for our troubles. YAY! So we sat at the Banshee Bar and discussed what had just happened and previous hauntings we've all encountered in our life time. The rest of the night was full of drinking and goodwill towards your fellow Scotsman, but I could not get the vaults out of my brain. Something nasty had awoken inside me. I had found... a new obsession.
The next day we each got a traditional Scottish breakfast (full of meat and full of beans). We split off and went on our own little adventures. Katie and Alyssa ran off to look at shops and ended up finding a weird art gallery and a christmas store. Nicole and I found ourselves going into Mary King's Close. Nicole, at first, was not very excited about venturing back down into the dark regions of Edinburgh to explore more vaults and more death. But, I assured her that the tour was indeed not haunted. Or, at least, not meant to scare you. I don't think she believed me until she saw that a little boy was going on the tour as well. In any case, we had some time before the tour so we got FISH N CHIPSSSSSS. I say that with much gusto because it's one of my favorite meals on this planet. We also got a Gaelic Coffee (Scotch, coffee, and whipped cream). My tastebuds about exploded with glee.
The tour of Mary King's Close was guided by a buxom and robust Scottish woman dressed in an 18th century maid costume. She led us down the close and I was so happy to smell that familiar smell and breathe in that familiar old air. She took us into various rooms and told us about what had happened there and the living conditions of the people. Then she took us to a room that had a few mannequins set up to look like a plague doctor was visiting a plague-infected home. One more thing, I have always been OBSESSED with the plague doctor's uniform. I don't know why, but I think it's entrancing. The guide told a tale of how the plague came about. When she reached the part about rats she squeezed a little rat toy that made a squeaking noise that gave Nicole a start and she grabbed the sleeve of the guy in front of us. After our AWESOME tour of Mary King's Close, we had to head back to the Hostel to meet up with Katie and Alyssa so that we could get to the airport and shove off to Dublin.
As I walked up the outside steps to enter the airplane, I took a long and deep inhale of good Scottish air. I didn't/don't know when I will return there and I want to keep that memory fresh. Now I have a little saying in my head (thanks to Scotland): whenever I think of all my regrets and negative whatevers... I "Gardy Loo" it out my window and flush it down to the Nor' Loch.
Next Blog: Of Guinness and Irishmen. (Ireland)
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Language Barrier Charades
In our program we have an option of having a "tandem partner."
A tandem partner is a native German speaker looking to improve his/her English, so they get paired up with a native English speaker hoping to improve his/her German. Basically you meet for 2 hours and speak 1 hour in English and 1 hour in German. Due to some oddities I landed myself with 2 tandem partners.
The Tale of Tandem 1:
The most awkward phase of meeting up with the tandem partner is arriving at the set location and staring down every person walking by as if to communicate telpathically:
"Are you the German I'm looking for?"
It's funny how these things just have a way of working themselves out, but I still hold fast to my belief that all Germans are telepathic. I don't know how to describe the evidence I have to support this assertion, but I believe myself to be correct.
Anyway, I meet up with Tandem 1 and we find a place to sit in the Mensa. Not an ideal location for someone not fluent in German because it is quite loud. We start in English and do the usual introductions such as, "I come from blah, this is what it's like, blah blah blah."
We got on the topic of the scale of the United States. Tandem 1 couldn't quite understand just how large Utah is. I told her, "Utah is almost as large as Germany." To which she replied with a confusing look. So I drew it for her and her eyes widened. "You tell me ffat (that) one ov your states is almost as large as my COUNTREEE?!"
Topics ranged from the size of streets in the Western United States, to the mountains, to contemporary immigration to the USA. Needless to say, both of us continued to land ourselves in conversations that were way above our vocabulary levels. Apparently she is in a class about Mexican immigration to the USA and how that parallels the Turkish immigration to Germany.
I also clarified for her the proper use of "a.m." and "p.m." when trying to communicate a specific time. When we were emailing to meet up she would write (in English), "we meet before Mensa from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m.?" I found that ridiculous and assumed she meant p.m. My assumption was verified when she then asked if, "2 a.m. on Monday" would be better.
The Tale of Tandem 2:
More awkward attempts at German telepathy. I think I am getting the hang of this because I found this partner much quicker than the last. This time we sat by the Lahn where it was pretty quiet. Tandem 2's English was definitely not that great. It boiled down to us speaking in our own languages to each other with the occasional phrase in the other language. When we couldn't find an easy way of explaining things (which was often) we ended up playing charades. It must have been a sight.
We spoke mostly of holidays and the differences between the German school system and the American school system (for instance, when one semester starts and ends). The conversation didn't flow quite as easily as with Tandem 1. The reason I think is because Tandem 1 is an English major and wants to teach it so she has a lot of enthusiasm. Tandem 2 is studying Geography and is improving her English for traveling.
Thus ends this little tale.
I don't know if it shows, but right now I am having a difficult time piecing sentences together. I spent the last 2 hours reading Lord of the Rings in German and I found it a bit difficult to suddenly switch to writing full sentences in English. I'll be sure to take a breather before I do that again.
Tschuess from Marburg!
A tandem partner is a native German speaker looking to improve his/her English, so they get paired up with a native English speaker hoping to improve his/her German. Basically you meet for 2 hours and speak 1 hour in English and 1 hour in German. Due to some oddities I landed myself with 2 tandem partners.
The Tale of Tandem 1:
The most awkward phase of meeting up with the tandem partner is arriving at the set location and staring down every person walking by as if to communicate telpathically:
"Are you the German I'm looking for?"
It's funny how these things just have a way of working themselves out, but I still hold fast to my belief that all Germans are telepathic. I don't know how to describe the evidence I have to support this assertion, but I believe myself to be correct.
Anyway, I meet up with Tandem 1 and we find a place to sit in the Mensa. Not an ideal location for someone not fluent in German because it is quite loud. We start in English and do the usual introductions such as, "I come from blah, this is what it's like, blah blah blah."
We got on the topic of the scale of the United States. Tandem 1 couldn't quite understand just how large Utah is. I told her, "Utah is almost as large as Germany." To which she replied with a confusing look. So I drew it for her and her eyes widened. "You tell me ffat (that) one ov your states is almost as large as my COUNTREEE?!"
Topics ranged from the size of streets in the Western United States, to the mountains, to contemporary immigration to the USA. Needless to say, both of us continued to land ourselves in conversations that were way above our vocabulary levels. Apparently she is in a class about Mexican immigration to the USA and how that parallels the Turkish immigration to Germany.
I also clarified for her the proper use of "a.m." and "p.m." when trying to communicate a specific time. When we were emailing to meet up she would write (in English), "we meet before Mensa from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m.?" I found that ridiculous and assumed she meant p.m. My assumption was verified when she then asked if, "2 a.m. on Monday" would be better.
The Tale of Tandem 2:
More awkward attempts at German telepathy. I think I am getting the hang of this because I found this partner much quicker than the last. This time we sat by the Lahn where it was pretty quiet. Tandem 2's English was definitely not that great. It boiled down to us speaking in our own languages to each other with the occasional phrase in the other language. When we couldn't find an easy way of explaining things (which was often) we ended up playing charades. It must have been a sight.
We spoke mostly of holidays and the differences between the German school system and the American school system (for instance, when one semester starts and ends). The conversation didn't flow quite as easily as with Tandem 1. The reason I think is because Tandem 1 is an English major and wants to teach it so she has a lot of enthusiasm. Tandem 2 is studying Geography and is improving her English for traveling.
Thus ends this little tale.
I don't know if it shows, but right now I am having a difficult time piecing sentences together. I spent the last 2 hours reading Lord of the Rings in German and I found it a bit difficult to suddenly switch to writing full sentences in English. I'll be sure to take a breather before I do that again.
Tschuess from Marburg!
Friday, October 14, 2011
Of Weimar and Other Things
Another fantastic IUSP excursion.
It's been a while since I went to Weimar now, but I haven't found the time to write about it. Hopefully I can remember all of the important things.
Thankfully it was only a 2 hour bus ride instead of the 5 brutal hours to Berlin. When we arrived, we checked into our hostel and went right out to a city tour. Weimar, like Marburg, seems to be almost completely unscathed by WWII and the events that followed it. The city seems to be trapped in the age of Weimar Classicism, which seems reasonable given that Weimar Classicism is what they capitalize on.
The tour took us to all of the "important" places like the Weimar Marketplace (location of the Hotel Elephant), J.S. Bach's residence, the Franz Liszt School of Music, Goethe's Garden House, Franz Liszt's house, Bauhaus Universitaet, Schiller's house, and the Weimar Theatre.
When we were in the Weimar Marketplace, I couldn't help but feel like I had been there before. Everything looked strangely familiar and my mind just could not figure it out. And then: EPIPHANY. I realized as I looked up at the balcony of the Hotel Elephant that I was standing in the same place the Nazi's stood to hear Hiter speak. Not just that, I was looking directly at the SPOT where Hitler stood many many many times and addressed the people. I looked around the Marketplace again and my vision went from color to black and white with each blink. I realized that one of the reasons I had not recognized this place was because it wasn't draped in Nazi flags. At that moment, the Market Place was full of shops, venders, and outdoor cafe's like the 1930's/40's had never happened. It completely blew my mind.
After the tour, we were free for the afternoon and night. Erin, Niko, Spencer, Niki and I wandered into a Bier Garten called, "The Shakespeare Cafe," and Maddie had some of the BEST Schnitzel of her life as she sat and watched a cat experience a life or death situation as it attempted to jump from a tree onto a fence. Later we all went to a tavern-type bar where Goethe and Schiller (allegedly) hung out. The bar played nothing but disco and it was warmly welcomed at the "Ami-table."
The next morning we made our way to the Buchenwald Concentration camp. The tour was fantastic, and there were a few parts that were a bit unnerving. Honestly, it was a much different experience than I had had when I visited Dachau in 2007. The impressions were not quite as deep this time around. Perhaps it's because Dachau was an actual Death Camp and Buchenwald was a Work Camp. I don't know, but it was still a great visit. The monument (big big big big big white tower looking over the valley) was incredible and the view was breathtaking.
The rest of the day was left at our disposal. Niki and I went to multiple book shops (Where I finally found The Tin Drum auf Deutsch!), and then we got lots of ice cream and walked around der Ilm Park. I don't even know if it does it justice to call it a "park." The place was a city of trees, fields, flowers, streams, and a few Classical houses crammed into various places. It would have been impossible to see the entire thing in one day by foot or bicycle.
The next morning a bunch of us set off to see the Anna Amalia Bibliothek. By far... one of the most BEAUTIFUL things I have ever seen in my entire life thus far. Unfortunately, they would not allow cameras on the inside, so I am left with mental pictures (which are fading every day to my disappointment). The rest of the day was full of silly nothings.
Back in Marburg
I have now completed 6 weeks of German Language and Culture classes. And now they are sending me on my merry little way. The actual semester begins on Monday and I definitely have those before-school jitters. I have two classes: Interface Culture and Sacred Buildings in Religion. Both of which are in German, but they luckily have tutorials in Englisch. The only thing I am worried about is that I have not heard from my tutor for the Sacred Buildings class. I have no way of contacting this person, and I am the only person in the program that is in this class. So, this means that I will be going it alone for the first day... maybe two days. I am scared out of my mind, but I will just have to put on my grown up pants and try not to stutter too much when attempting to speak German.
As for right now I find myself completely relaxed. Just a few moments ago I was sitting on the dorm balcony with a cup of tea and Mozart watching the red and orange sunset do its thing. Tomorrow I am off to Frankfurt for the Occupy Frankfurt protest. We'll see what goes down.
Tschuess from Marburg!
It's been a while since I went to Weimar now, but I haven't found the time to write about it. Hopefully I can remember all of the important things.
Thankfully it was only a 2 hour bus ride instead of the 5 brutal hours to Berlin. When we arrived, we checked into our hostel and went right out to a city tour. Weimar, like Marburg, seems to be almost completely unscathed by WWII and the events that followed it. The city seems to be trapped in the age of Weimar Classicism, which seems reasonable given that Weimar Classicism is what they capitalize on.
The tour took us to all of the "important" places like the Weimar Marketplace (location of the Hotel Elephant), J.S. Bach's residence, the Franz Liszt School of Music, Goethe's Garden House, Franz Liszt's house, Bauhaus Universitaet, Schiller's house, and the Weimar Theatre.
When we were in the Weimar Marketplace, I couldn't help but feel like I had been there before. Everything looked strangely familiar and my mind just could not figure it out. And then: EPIPHANY. I realized as I looked up at the balcony of the Hotel Elephant that I was standing in the same place the Nazi's stood to hear Hiter speak. Not just that, I was looking directly at the SPOT where Hitler stood many many many times and addressed the people. I looked around the Marketplace again and my vision went from color to black and white with each blink. I realized that one of the reasons I had not recognized this place was because it wasn't draped in Nazi flags. At that moment, the Market Place was full of shops, venders, and outdoor cafe's like the 1930's/40's had never happened. It completely blew my mind.
After the tour, we were free for the afternoon and night. Erin, Niko, Spencer, Niki and I wandered into a Bier Garten called, "The Shakespeare Cafe," and Maddie had some of the BEST Schnitzel of her life as she sat and watched a cat experience a life or death situation as it attempted to jump from a tree onto a fence. Later we all went to a tavern-type bar where Goethe and Schiller (allegedly) hung out. The bar played nothing but disco and it was warmly welcomed at the "Ami-table."
The next morning we made our way to the Buchenwald Concentration camp. The tour was fantastic, and there were a few parts that were a bit unnerving. Honestly, it was a much different experience than I had had when I visited Dachau in 2007. The impressions were not quite as deep this time around. Perhaps it's because Dachau was an actual Death Camp and Buchenwald was a Work Camp. I don't know, but it was still a great visit. The monument (big big big big big white tower looking over the valley) was incredible and the view was breathtaking.
The rest of the day was left at our disposal. Niki and I went to multiple book shops (Where I finally found The Tin Drum auf Deutsch!), and then we got lots of ice cream and walked around der Ilm Park. I don't even know if it does it justice to call it a "park." The place was a city of trees, fields, flowers, streams, and a few Classical houses crammed into various places. It would have been impossible to see the entire thing in one day by foot or bicycle.
The next morning a bunch of us set off to see the Anna Amalia Bibliothek. By far... one of the most BEAUTIFUL things I have ever seen in my entire life thus far. Unfortunately, they would not allow cameras on the inside, so I am left with mental pictures (which are fading every day to my disappointment). The rest of the day was full of silly nothings.
Back in Marburg
I have now completed 6 weeks of German Language and Culture classes. And now they are sending me on my merry little way. The actual semester begins on Monday and I definitely have those before-school jitters. I have two classes: Interface Culture and Sacred Buildings in Religion. Both of which are in German, but they luckily have tutorials in Englisch. The only thing I am worried about is that I have not heard from my tutor for the Sacred Buildings class. I have no way of contacting this person, and I am the only person in the program that is in this class. So, this means that I will be going it alone for the first day... maybe two days. I am scared out of my mind, but I will just have to put on my grown up pants and try not to stutter too much when attempting to speak German.
As for right now I find myself completely relaxed. Just a few moments ago I was sitting on the dorm balcony with a cup of tea and Mozart watching the red and orange sunset do its thing. Tomorrow I am off to Frankfurt for the Occupy Frankfurt protest. We'll see what goes down.
Tschuess from Marburg!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Just Follow the Lederhosen
Oktoberfest: Muenchen 2011
Again, this is one of those events where I sit down to write and I think, "Where do I begin?" It is extremely difficult to encapsulate everything that has happened.
First off, Niki and I decided to head down together and stay with her host family that lives in a little town just outside of Munich to cut back on expenses. Our first train from Marburg to Frankfurt got cancelled so we hopped on another one headed in that direction. From there we got on the ICE to go straight to Munich. It was so crowded that we were not able to find any seats in the whole train. So, we ended up having to sit on the rock hard ground by the doors. One of the set backs, besides the lack of butt-cushioning, was that we had to get up every time the train stopped at a different station so others could get on. This meant that we were repeatedly snapped awake by awfully loud alarms indicating that the doors were opening. During this four hour train ride, I was able to make it through Beethoven's 6th Symphony, Schumann's Carnival, and the Sunset Boulevard soundtrack. The rest of the time I was sleeping with my eyes wide open watching the train move from 100 km/h, 200 km/h, 300 km/h.
When we reached the Munich Hauptbahnhof we were greeted by a FLOOD of Lederhosen. The station was completely packed with people dressed to the Bavarian nines. We headed straight to the S-bahn. It smelt like stale Oktoberfest (which, for obvious reasons, does not smell too lovely). We finally made it to Niki's host family's place and when I hit the pillow, I was lost to the world.
OKTOBERFEST
Our day started at 6.00 a.m. We got up, grabbed our things and started the 20 minute walk to the Bahnhof where we caught the next train and made the 20 minute ride to Hackerbruecke. The ride to Hackerbruecke just SCREAMED anticipation. At each stop, the doors would open and a wave of shouts, songs, and lederhosen would flood into the train. The doors would close... silence. Next stop, more waves of shouts, songs, and lederhosen. When we arrived at Hackerbruecke, we had no clue how to get to the biggest festival in Germany. Luckily, everyone else on the train and at the station was headed to the same spot. So, when in doubt... follow the Lederhosen. I felt like I was in a Bavarian Pride parade. Everywhere I looked I saw Lederhosen and Dirndls. And then... behold... WILLKOMMEN ZUM OKTOBERFEST. The festival grounds were nearly void of life except for those of us who arrived early to secure a spot in the tent. The ground was soggy from the intense power-hose cleaning session it had received a few hours before. The only traces of the previous night were found when we were waiting in line for the Augustiner tent. There, we beheld crates... and crates... and crates... and CRATES full of beer empty beer glasses piled next to a conveyer-belt looking washing machine.
(For those of you who do not know, there are multiple "tents" at Oktoberfest that can hold thousands of people.)
Luckily we arrived early enough to be towards the front of the line with thousands of people behind us. The line itself is something I have a difficult time explaining. So much anticipation and excitement... to drink beer. Just to drink beer. In front of me was a herd of Lederhosen and behind me was a group of Italians. By 9.20 in the morning they were letting little spurts of people go in at a time so the line would shuffle a foot or two every now and then. Whenever the line moved I couldn't help but laugh. I got smooshed up against the Lederhosen with the Italians pressed against my back. If I had lifted up my feet, I would have stayed in the same position. We finally got in and the tent was absolutely GIGANTIC. The Augustiner tent holds about 6,000 people. That's a lot of people, and that's a lot of beer. And this isn't even the biggest tent. I was told by some Germans that Augustiner is the best beer in Germany. They were not kidding. It was incredible. By 11 a.m., Niki and I were fully flung into the Oktoberfest spirit. The people, the cheering, the beer, the music... I just can't describe any of it. Just that I've never seen so many happy people in one place at one time. Later in the day and into the night, I'd notice that I have never seen so many "about-to-pass-out" drunk people in one place at one time.
After we left the tent, we went back to the homestead and took a nap. Then we went to downtown Munich for dinner. We ate at a little outdoor restaurant by the Glockenspiel where an outdoor concert was playing. Mozart and Rossini. Life was very good at that moment. After that we went to Hugendubel. It is a GIANT bookstore with 6 or so floors. There, I found a much needed English-German dictionary and... *drum roll* LORD OF THE RINGS IN GERMAN! AAAAAAH SO HAPPY!!! We walked around for a bit longer and then returned to Oktoberfest. This time it was dark out, so the fairgrounds were completely illuminated and Oktoberfest was at its height. The ground was now full of trash, broken steins, broken bottles, food, and so on. There were a ton of overpriced rides so I made my selections carefully. There were about 4 "horror ride-throughs" which were all HILARIOUS. Not going to lie, I screamed like a child. Definitely worth it. We then proceeded to stumble back to the S-bahn. As we were walking, I had the funny thought that in a few hours they would power-hose the festival grounds again and it would be like I had never been there. The next day, some other person would probably have the same thoughts and experience the same emotions I did that day.
The next morning we barely made it to the S-Bahn, and then it was so crowded that it was running slower than usual. This means that we made it to our train out of Munich with 1 minute to spare. It was intense. Again... we could not find a seat, and so we were yet again banished to the floor. This time with the aches and pains from the day before. I read The Lord of the Rings all the way to Frankfurt. We had a good 50 minutes there so we were able to get some food and relax for a couple minutes. When we got on the train from Frankfurt to Marburg, WE FINALLY GOT SEATS! Our butts were so grateful. We got back to Marburg at around 3.50 in the afternoon. The next bus headed to the Studentendorf didn't arrive for 30 minutes, so we sat at Fiona's and had a cup of tea. It was fun and relaxing to just kick back in a familiar place.
Oktoberfest is another one of those landmark events that i've continued to have while being in Germany. I don't know how i'll be able to go back to the States and function after all of this.
Again, this is one of those events where I sit down to write and I think, "Where do I begin?" It is extremely difficult to encapsulate everything that has happened.
First off, Niki and I decided to head down together and stay with her host family that lives in a little town just outside of Munich to cut back on expenses. Our first train from Marburg to Frankfurt got cancelled so we hopped on another one headed in that direction. From there we got on the ICE to go straight to Munich. It was so crowded that we were not able to find any seats in the whole train. So, we ended up having to sit on the rock hard ground by the doors. One of the set backs, besides the lack of butt-cushioning, was that we had to get up every time the train stopped at a different station so others could get on. This meant that we were repeatedly snapped awake by awfully loud alarms indicating that the doors were opening. During this four hour train ride, I was able to make it through Beethoven's 6th Symphony, Schumann's Carnival, and the Sunset Boulevard soundtrack. The rest of the time I was sleeping with my eyes wide open watching the train move from 100 km/h, 200 km/h, 300 km/h.
When we reached the Munich Hauptbahnhof we were greeted by a FLOOD of Lederhosen. The station was completely packed with people dressed to the Bavarian nines. We headed straight to the S-bahn. It smelt like stale Oktoberfest (which, for obvious reasons, does not smell too lovely). We finally made it to Niki's host family's place and when I hit the pillow, I was lost to the world.
OKTOBERFEST
Our day started at 6.00 a.m. We got up, grabbed our things and started the 20 minute walk to the Bahnhof where we caught the next train and made the 20 minute ride to Hackerbruecke. The ride to Hackerbruecke just SCREAMED anticipation. At each stop, the doors would open and a wave of shouts, songs, and lederhosen would flood into the train. The doors would close... silence. Next stop, more waves of shouts, songs, and lederhosen. When we arrived at Hackerbruecke, we had no clue how to get to the biggest festival in Germany. Luckily, everyone else on the train and at the station was headed to the same spot. So, when in doubt... follow the Lederhosen. I felt like I was in a Bavarian Pride parade. Everywhere I looked I saw Lederhosen and Dirndls. And then... behold... WILLKOMMEN ZUM OKTOBERFEST. The festival grounds were nearly void of life except for those of us who arrived early to secure a spot in the tent. The ground was soggy from the intense power-hose cleaning session it had received a few hours before. The only traces of the previous night were found when we were waiting in line for the Augustiner tent. There, we beheld crates... and crates... and crates... and CRATES full of beer empty beer glasses piled next to a conveyer-belt looking washing machine.
(For those of you who do not know, there are multiple "tents" at Oktoberfest that can hold thousands of people.)
Luckily we arrived early enough to be towards the front of the line with thousands of people behind us. The line itself is something I have a difficult time explaining. So much anticipation and excitement... to drink beer. Just to drink beer. In front of me was a herd of Lederhosen and behind me was a group of Italians. By 9.20 in the morning they were letting little spurts of people go in at a time so the line would shuffle a foot or two every now and then. Whenever the line moved I couldn't help but laugh. I got smooshed up against the Lederhosen with the Italians pressed against my back. If I had lifted up my feet, I would have stayed in the same position. We finally got in and the tent was absolutely GIGANTIC. The Augustiner tent holds about 6,000 people. That's a lot of people, and that's a lot of beer. And this isn't even the biggest tent. I was told by some Germans that Augustiner is the best beer in Germany. They were not kidding. It was incredible. By 11 a.m., Niki and I were fully flung into the Oktoberfest spirit. The people, the cheering, the beer, the music... I just can't describe any of it. Just that I've never seen so many happy people in one place at one time. Later in the day and into the night, I'd notice that I have never seen so many "about-to-pass-out" drunk people in one place at one time.
After we left the tent, we went back to the homestead and took a nap. Then we went to downtown Munich for dinner. We ate at a little outdoor restaurant by the Glockenspiel where an outdoor concert was playing. Mozart and Rossini. Life was very good at that moment. After that we went to Hugendubel. It is a GIANT bookstore with 6 or so floors. There, I found a much needed English-German dictionary and... *drum roll* LORD OF THE RINGS IN GERMAN! AAAAAAH SO HAPPY!!! We walked around for a bit longer and then returned to Oktoberfest. This time it was dark out, so the fairgrounds were completely illuminated and Oktoberfest was at its height. The ground was now full of trash, broken steins, broken bottles, food, and so on. There were a ton of overpriced rides so I made my selections carefully. There were about 4 "horror ride-throughs" which were all HILARIOUS. Not going to lie, I screamed like a child. Definitely worth it. We then proceeded to stumble back to the S-bahn. As we were walking, I had the funny thought that in a few hours they would power-hose the festival grounds again and it would be like I had never been there. The next day, some other person would probably have the same thoughts and experience the same emotions I did that day.
The next morning we barely made it to the S-Bahn, and then it was so crowded that it was running slower than usual. This means that we made it to our train out of Munich with 1 minute to spare. It was intense. Again... we could not find a seat, and so we were yet again banished to the floor. This time with the aches and pains from the day before. I read The Lord of the Rings all the way to Frankfurt. We had a good 50 minutes there so we were able to get some food and relax for a couple minutes. When we got on the train from Frankfurt to Marburg, WE FINALLY GOT SEATS! Our butts were so grateful. We got back to Marburg at around 3.50 in the afternoon. The next bus headed to the Studentendorf didn't arrive for 30 minutes, so we sat at Fiona's and had a cup of tea. It was fun and relaxing to just kick back in a familiar place.
Oktoberfest is another one of those landmark events that i've continued to have while being in Germany. I don't know how i'll be able to go back to the States and function after all of this.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The Great Berlin Post
As Led Zeppelin would say in Bron-Y-Aur-Stomp, "My my, Lordy lord." That is all I can think of as I try to start this post. I suppose I should start at the beginning, and when I get to the end... stop.
Friday: We took a tour bus instead of invading the Marburg Hauptbahnhof. It was slower, but we got to see a lot of the countryside surrounding Marburg and Berlin. It's so funny how quickly the landscape changes. Marburg is surrounded by hills and tall dark forests, but as you slowly move north eastward, the landscape changes from a fairytale facade to a pop-up book. Soft and shallow hills with small clusters of trees here and there with castles on every hill top completely surround you. I barely looked away from the window the whole 5 hour bus ride. Being a landscape-junky, it's hard to NOT look out at the incredible German countryside. As we neared Berlin, I could see the landscape gradually becoming flat with clouds of industry popping up all over the place.
The ride into Berlin was strange. And when I say strange, I mean it looked NOTHING like I thought it would. Honestly, I don't know what I was expecting, but going from somewhere like Marburg to Berlin... you may be able to understand why I didn't feel like I was in Germany any more. I suppose it was because everything is so entirely new. I also realized that this was the first time I was visiting a city that was so profoundly impacted by WWII as well as the Soviets.
Our hostel was situated right in the centre of the city on Johannisstrasse between Friedrichstrasse and Universitaetstrasse. The first night was open for us to do whatever we'd like. Erin has a friend who was born and raised in Berlin named Nina. With her, Erin, Nicole, Spencer, Niki, Emily, and myself all headed out to hunt for food and beer. We ate at this place called, Asia Gourmet at one of the stations because it was cheap and actually not that bad. Then we went to a place called, The Pub where Nina used to work. It was a do-it-yourself kind of place. It was here that I discovered I am AWFUL at pouring beer. Absolutely... awful. I can't seem to grasp the 45 degree thing. Goddamn you, Geometry. Anyway, went there and then road the train back to the hostel where we had a few beers. There I met a group of Irish guys, an Australian, two French guys, and a group of pot-smoking Austrians. Twas a great introduction to Berlin and to hostels.
Saturday: Bright and early in the morning we left for the "Classical Tour" of Berlin in 3 hours. During that drive we saw Potsdamer Platz, the Regierungsviertel, Unter den Linden, the Brandenburg Gate, Kurfuerstendamm, Checkpoint Charlie, Galarie Lafayette, the Gendarmenmarkt, the Berlin Wall, and about 500 other awesome places. The next couple days we would get to explore these places more in depth on foot.
Lunch break consisted of us spending 45 minutes trying to find a bathroom. Then we remembered that Nina told us the night before to just use hotel bathrooms. Duh. So we chose the first hotel we saw and went in. You know a hotel is mighty expensive when its staircases are named after classical composers. After we waddled up the Rossini staircase to go to the Leonardo restroom, we found the Puccini toilets and pranced down the Beethoven staircase to exit through the Tchaikovsky doors.
Then we found a Vietnamese Restaurant that was cheap and seemed to fit us a bit better (i.e. no named doors or anything). As we sat and ate, the restaurant started playing Hawaiian music.
Erin: Dudes, why are they playing Hawaiian music?
Me: I don't know, maybe because we're at a Vietnamese restaurant in Berlin.
After that we took a two and a half hour walk through of "Jewish Berlin." We walked down the Spandauer Vorstadt and got to see the famous Hackesche Hoefe. It was incredible to see some of the buildings that were still standing that had bullet holes from WWII covering them. What I thought was quite sad was that outside every Jewish building, the Polizei stood there. Apparently they HAD to because of neo-nazi idiots. There were tons and tons and tons of memorials.
My initial impression of Berlin as a city: it is a city of memorials.
Emily brought up an interesting point that all of these memorials had something to do with absence. And she was right, all of the memorials we ran into had something to do with absence.
Later that night (after a long nap), Erin, Spencer, Niki, Nicole, Katie, and I left to go to an old school Bavarian restaurant. We realized that most of the food we had in Berlin was... Asian. We decided that was blasphemous and searched for German food. Went to a place called Maximillions. Jesus. Christ. The restaurant is set up like a Bavarian Oktoberfest tent with long tables and blue and white decorations littering the entire building, with a live band and all. Turns out they were celebrating the beginning of Oktoberfest. We sat our asses down and ate all the Bratwurst and Sauerkraut that we could. The whole time watching a crowd of people in their 40's and 50's mosh in front of the band. Needless to say, we were the only ones there under the age of 35, but we definitely had a great time. I never thought that when I learned the German song, Ein Prosit, that i'd ever use it. I sang it a good 15 times with the crowd that night. We left that night completely satisfied. I don't know if i've ever felt that kind of satisfaction from an evening before.
Sunday: Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. So. Much. RAIN. We began the day at a soggy Checkpoint Charlie, we then made our way to Brandenburg Gate, Bernauer Strasse, Eastside Gallery, and the Potsdamer Platz. Our awesome tour guide, Wolfgang, lived in East Berlin during the Soviet occupation. He told us a story of when he found out the Berlin wall had been knocked open. That night in November he had a soccer practice and he and his teammates had just finished and got in a car to drive home when the radio turned on and said, "The Wall is open." He said it was nothing but disbelief until they got there. Personally, I can't imagine what kind of emotions would be flooding through a person's body when they see that giant hole in that 155km wall.
At lunchbreak Erin, Spencer, Galen, Nicole, Niki, and I went back to Friedrichstrasse to find Currywurst. It. Is. Amazing. I don't care if it is just meat with curry powder and ketchup. Good LAWDY. After that we headed to the Berlin Hohenschönhausen. It is the site of the main remand prison for people detained by the former East German Ministry of State Security (aka Stasi). It's been a memorial since 1994 and, from 2000 on, has been an independent foundation under public law. Given that it has only been 20 years since this prison was in use, everything is definitely intact. It was almost like it had been (just cleaner). I thought it remarkable that I was standing somewhere that I had read thoroughly about months before. It was surreal to say the least and reminded me a lot of my visit to Dachau.
Later that evening we wanted to go all out seeing as how it was our last night in Berlin. We met up with Nina and took the S-Bahn to Southern Berlin where we went to a cheap Sushi place and then to bar. I had an enormous pina colada that must have been made by the Gods or something. Then we saw this flyer that said we could win a Jack Daniels t-shirt if we drank 2 of these lemonade-type drinks. We had to do it in 30 minutes seeing as how that's when the bar was closing. And we did. Oh... we did.
We hopped back on the S-Bahn and decided to change into our shirts while on the train. That was an experience. Falling over each other and hitting each side of the train and spinning off who knows what way. We got back to the hostel and decided to have a couple more beers. I ended up talking to this guy from France who asked me where in the US I was from and I told him Salt Lake City, Utah. He had a confused look and I told him the 2002 Olympics were there (that usually seems to be the best way for Europeans to know where I'm from). He didn't get it and asked me, "What major city is it near?" Uuuuuh.... I had never been asked that question before. Then I just decided to tell him that it was about 5-7 hours north of Las Vegas. "Ooooh, Vegas! I know, okay this is good!"
Then it was crash time.
Monday: The drive back was full of endless exhaustion. There was absolutely NO way of sleeping on that bus. It just wasn't made for that. So, I reverted back to the landscape. I sat there for hours watching little medieval kingdoms get closer and then pass away. Over and over and over again. Then the trees grew taller and the underbrush became more gnarled and dense: Aaah... we're close to Marburg. In fact we were just 24km's from Marburg at that time. It definitely has a distinct look to it. I found myself elated to be sleeping in my own bed again.
There are so many things from Berlin I wish I could express, but it's really impossible and this was my best shot.
Tschuess from Marburg!
Friday: We took a tour bus instead of invading the Marburg Hauptbahnhof. It was slower, but we got to see a lot of the countryside surrounding Marburg and Berlin. It's so funny how quickly the landscape changes. Marburg is surrounded by hills and tall dark forests, but as you slowly move north eastward, the landscape changes from a fairytale facade to a pop-up book. Soft and shallow hills with small clusters of trees here and there with castles on every hill top completely surround you. I barely looked away from the window the whole 5 hour bus ride. Being a landscape-junky, it's hard to NOT look out at the incredible German countryside. As we neared Berlin, I could see the landscape gradually becoming flat with clouds of industry popping up all over the place.
The ride into Berlin was strange. And when I say strange, I mean it looked NOTHING like I thought it would. Honestly, I don't know what I was expecting, but going from somewhere like Marburg to Berlin... you may be able to understand why I didn't feel like I was in Germany any more. I suppose it was because everything is so entirely new. I also realized that this was the first time I was visiting a city that was so profoundly impacted by WWII as well as the Soviets.
Our hostel was situated right in the centre of the city on Johannisstrasse between Friedrichstrasse and Universitaetstrasse. The first night was open for us to do whatever we'd like. Erin has a friend who was born and raised in Berlin named Nina. With her, Erin, Nicole, Spencer, Niki, Emily, and myself all headed out to hunt for food and beer. We ate at this place called, Asia Gourmet at one of the stations because it was cheap and actually not that bad. Then we went to a place called, The Pub where Nina used to work. It was a do-it-yourself kind of place. It was here that I discovered I am AWFUL at pouring beer. Absolutely... awful. I can't seem to grasp the 45 degree thing. Goddamn you, Geometry. Anyway, went there and then road the train back to the hostel where we had a few beers. There I met a group of Irish guys, an Australian, two French guys, and a group of pot-smoking Austrians. Twas a great introduction to Berlin and to hostels.
Saturday: Bright and early in the morning we left for the "Classical Tour" of Berlin in 3 hours. During that drive we saw Potsdamer Platz, the Regierungsviertel, Unter den Linden, the Brandenburg Gate, Kurfuerstendamm, Checkpoint Charlie, Galarie Lafayette, the Gendarmenmarkt, the Berlin Wall, and about 500 other awesome places. The next couple days we would get to explore these places more in depth on foot.
Lunch break consisted of us spending 45 minutes trying to find a bathroom. Then we remembered that Nina told us the night before to just use hotel bathrooms. Duh. So we chose the first hotel we saw and went in. You know a hotel is mighty expensive when its staircases are named after classical composers. After we waddled up the Rossini staircase to go to the Leonardo restroom, we found the Puccini toilets and pranced down the Beethoven staircase to exit through the Tchaikovsky doors.
Then we found a Vietnamese Restaurant that was cheap and seemed to fit us a bit better (i.e. no named doors or anything). As we sat and ate, the restaurant started playing Hawaiian music.
Erin: Dudes, why are they playing Hawaiian music?
Me: I don't know, maybe because we're at a Vietnamese restaurant in Berlin.
After that we took a two and a half hour walk through of "Jewish Berlin." We walked down the Spandauer Vorstadt and got to see the famous Hackesche Hoefe. It was incredible to see some of the buildings that were still standing that had bullet holes from WWII covering them. What I thought was quite sad was that outside every Jewish building, the Polizei stood there. Apparently they HAD to because of neo-nazi idiots. There were tons and tons and tons of memorials.
My initial impression of Berlin as a city: it is a city of memorials.
Emily brought up an interesting point that all of these memorials had something to do with absence. And she was right, all of the memorials we ran into had something to do with absence.
Later that night (after a long nap), Erin, Spencer, Niki, Nicole, Katie, and I left to go to an old school Bavarian restaurant. We realized that most of the food we had in Berlin was... Asian. We decided that was blasphemous and searched for German food. Went to a place called Maximillions. Jesus. Christ. The restaurant is set up like a Bavarian Oktoberfest tent with long tables and blue and white decorations littering the entire building, with a live band and all. Turns out they were celebrating the beginning of Oktoberfest. We sat our asses down and ate all the Bratwurst and Sauerkraut that we could. The whole time watching a crowd of people in their 40's and 50's mosh in front of the band. Needless to say, we were the only ones there under the age of 35, but we definitely had a great time. I never thought that when I learned the German song, Ein Prosit, that i'd ever use it. I sang it a good 15 times with the crowd that night. We left that night completely satisfied. I don't know if i've ever felt that kind of satisfaction from an evening before.
Sunday: Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. So. Much. RAIN. We began the day at a soggy Checkpoint Charlie, we then made our way to Brandenburg Gate, Bernauer Strasse, Eastside Gallery, and the Potsdamer Platz. Our awesome tour guide, Wolfgang, lived in East Berlin during the Soviet occupation. He told us a story of when he found out the Berlin wall had been knocked open. That night in November he had a soccer practice and he and his teammates had just finished and got in a car to drive home when the radio turned on and said, "The Wall is open." He said it was nothing but disbelief until they got there. Personally, I can't imagine what kind of emotions would be flooding through a person's body when they see that giant hole in that 155km wall.
At lunchbreak Erin, Spencer, Galen, Nicole, Niki, and I went back to Friedrichstrasse to find Currywurst. It. Is. Amazing. I don't care if it is just meat with curry powder and ketchup. Good LAWDY. After that we headed to the Berlin Hohenschönhausen. It is the site of the main remand prison for people detained by the former East German Ministry of State Security (aka Stasi). It's been a memorial since 1994 and, from 2000 on, has been an independent foundation under public law. Given that it has only been 20 years since this prison was in use, everything is definitely intact. It was almost like it had been (just cleaner). I thought it remarkable that I was standing somewhere that I had read thoroughly about months before. It was surreal to say the least and reminded me a lot of my visit to Dachau.
Later that evening we wanted to go all out seeing as how it was our last night in Berlin. We met up with Nina and took the S-Bahn to Southern Berlin where we went to a cheap Sushi place and then to bar. I had an enormous pina colada that must have been made by the Gods or something. Then we saw this flyer that said we could win a Jack Daniels t-shirt if we drank 2 of these lemonade-type drinks. We had to do it in 30 minutes seeing as how that's when the bar was closing. And we did. Oh... we did.
We hopped back on the S-Bahn and decided to change into our shirts while on the train. That was an experience. Falling over each other and hitting each side of the train and spinning off who knows what way. We got back to the hostel and decided to have a couple more beers. I ended up talking to this guy from France who asked me where in the US I was from and I told him Salt Lake City, Utah. He had a confused look and I told him the 2002 Olympics were there (that usually seems to be the best way for Europeans to know where I'm from). He didn't get it and asked me, "What major city is it near?" Uuuuuh.... I had never been asked that question before. Then I just decided to tell him that it was about 5-7 hours north of Las Vegas. "Ooooh, Vegas! I know, okay this is good!"
Then it was crash time.
Monday: The drive back was full of endless exhaustion. There was absolutely NO way of sleeping on that bus. It just wasn't made for that. So, I reverted back to the landscape. I sat there for hours watching little medieval kingdoms get closer and then pass away. Over and over and over again. Then the trees grew taller and the underbrush became more gnarled and dense: Aaah... we're close to Marburg. In fact we were just 24km's from Marburg at that time. It definitely has a distinct look to it. I found myself elated to be sleeping in my own bed again.
There are so many things from Berlin I wish I could express, but it's really impossible and this was my best shot.
Tschuess from Marburg!
Monday, September 12, 2011
Visa-venture
Today we had classes as usual, but then a group of us had to proceed to the Stadtbüro to finish applying for a Visa. Talk about German dependence on mountains of paperwork...
We are all waiting in a room that seems to be the standard for state buildings (harsh lighting, cheap nasty seats, awkward echos, occasional slamming doors, and stomping of heels). We all sat in chairs facing "The Door." The door that, if opened, you could not see what was behind it until you were in there. We had to go one at a time and as each person came back out they would joke around about being interrogated by a giant squad of Polizei. My turn is up. Deep breaths. Just hold your passport and application. Whoops dropped it. Aight, we cool.
I open The Door and this intimidating looking Frau flags me down to her cubicle. We'll call her Frau Visa for the sake of anonymity. Brown hair, brown eyes, sharp face. Doesn't match her cubicle AT ALL. It's covered in plants. Lots and lots and lots of plants with little stuffed creatures like squirrels and bunnies. I sit down.
"Deutsch oder English?"
I told her it didn't matter.
"Okay, we try English. Pass?"
Hand her my passport. She snatches it and checks that the application fits the passport info.
"Now I collect information."
A few moments of paperwork later...
"Okay, now finger."
Me: Wie bitte?
"Um... how is it called... um... finger... mark?"
Me: Finger print?
"Ja, feengar preent! I am sorry, I use only my school English."
It was at this point I explained to her that she may switch to German because I can understand it just fine. Then her Brumhilda-German side began to melt and all of a sudden she fit her atmosphere. Yes, she became fluffy stuffed squirrels and bunnies.
A few finger prints, a pamphlet all about my elektronische Visa, and a short conversation about German vs. English later... I was out the door and on my way to the next Stadtbüro office where I had to register with the city of Marburg. Lady spoke NO English, which was fine. Lots of "bedeutet's"on my end, but it wasn't too bad at all. The rest of the day was spent doing homework at the Mensa and then going shopping for groceries. Tonight i'm going to get together with some people and watch, "Jesus Camp." Should be a grand old time.
Berlin on Friday!
Tschuess from Marburg!
We are all waiting in a room that seems to be the standard for state buildings (harsh lighting, cheap nasty seats, awkward echos, occasional slamming doors, and stomping of heels). We all sat in chairs facing "The Door." The door that, if opened, you could not see what was behind it until you were in there. We had to go one at a time and as each person came back out they would joke around about being interrogated by a giant squad of Polizei. My turn is up. Deep breaths. Just hold your passport and application. Whoops dropped it. Aight, we cool.
I open The Door and this intimidating looking Frau flags me down to her cubicle. We'll call her Frau Visa for the sake of anonymity. Brown hair, brown eyes, sharp face. Doesn't match her cubicle AT ALL. It's covered in plants. Lots and lots and lots of plants with little stuffed creatures like squirrels and bunnies. I sit down.
"Deutsch oder English?"
I told her it didn't matter.
"Okay, we try English. Pass?"
Hand her my passport. She snatches it and checks that the application fits the passport info.
"Now I collect information."
A few moments of paperwork later...
"Okay, now finger."
Me: Wie bitte?
"Um... how is it called... um... finger... mark?"
Me: Finger print?
"Ja, feengar preent! I am sorry, I use only my school English."
It was at this point I explained to her that she may switch to German because I can understand it just fine. Then her Brumhilda-German side began to melt and all of a sudden she fit her atmosphere. Yes, she became fluffy stuffed squirrels and bunnies.
A few finger prints, a pamphlet all about my elektronische Visa, and a short conversation about German vs. English later... I was out the door and on my way to the next Stadtbüro office where I had to register with the city of Marburg. Lady spoke NO English, which was fine. Lots of "bedeutet's"on my end, but it wasn't too bad at all. The rest of the day was spent doing homework at the Mensa and then going shopping for groceries. Tonight i'm going to get together with some people and watch, "Jesus Camp." Should be a grand old time.
Berlin on Friday!
Tschuess from Marburg!
Friday, September 9, 2011
First Full Week
First full week of being in Marburg is complete!
It went by very very very slowly. In a way, I hope it continues to do so. I find that the city is getting smaller and smaller, but there is still a lot that I have not seen. Classes are pretty fun. There are about 8 of us in the class now, and we've just been covering the basics. Our teacher doesn't seem to speak a lot of English seeing as how she has Google Translator on her laptop and it took Spencer and I forever to try and ask why Germans use sponges instead of erasers to erase words on the chalkboard. We never got an answer. Ah well, one of those mysteries that will perhaps manifest itself in the next year.
It takes going to Germany for me to realize how little German I know, and yet how much I DO know. I'm definitely missing a few key vocabulary words, but those are easily fixed. I can now moderately find my way around town. It's really nice being in Marburg where there are tens of thousands of international students. It's nice because the locals seem to be more patient with my German and they speak slowly enough. It gets frustrating because I can understand about 99.9% of what people are saying, but I am incapable of responding in the way that I would like. I'm sure that will come with time and work as well.
The weekend is definitely welcome. I am excited to sleep in and then be able to walk around the city without having anywhere to be. I'll probably grab my camera and get some shots of places I go a lot for reference (i.e. Mensa, Elizabethskircheschule, Rudolphsplatz). Right now I am at the Mensa so that I can use the internet.
Regarding the internet: Wi Fi does not exist at the Studentendorf. I have to have an Ethernet cable. Finally got a hold of an Internet Tutor, who registered the wrong IP address and then told me that my Ethernet cable is broken. I just bought another one and then hopefully I will have internet in my room. One big problem: only 15 gBytes a month. This means: Hardly any Skype. Facebook chat is a big stretch. This is why Germans are so goddamn smart. They don't spend hours in front of the computer socializing.
Tonight looks like a bunch of us are going out on the town. I'll update if anything worth writing about happens.
Tschuess from Marburg!
It went by very very very slowly. In a way, I hope it continues to do so. I find that the city is getting smaller and smaller, but there is still a lot that I have not seen. Classes are pretty fun. There are about 8 of us in the class now, and we've just been covering the basics. Our teacher doesn't seem to speak a lot of English seeing as how she has Google Translator on her laptop and it took Spencer and I forever to try and ask why Germans use sponges instead of erasers to erase words on the chalkboard. We never got an answer. Ah well, one of those mysteries that will perhaps manifest itself in the next year.
It takes going to Germany for me to realize how little German I know, and yet how much I DO know. I'm definitely missing a few key vocabulary words, but those are easily fixed. I can now moderately find my way around town. It's really nice being in Marburg where there are tens of thousands of international students. It's nice because the locals seem to be more patient with my German and they speak slowly enough. It gets frustrating because I can understand about 99.9% of what people are saying, but I am incapable of responding in the way that I would like. I'm sure that will come with time and work as well.
The weekend is definitely welcome. I am excited to sleep in and then be able to walk around the city without having anywhere to be. I'll probably grab my camera and get some shots of places I go a lot for reference (i.e. Mensa, Elizabethskircheschule, Rudolphsplatz). Right now I am at the Mensa so that I can use the internet.
Regarding the internet: Wi Fi does not exist at the Studentendorf. I have to have an Ethernet cable. Finally got a hold of an Internet Tutor, who registered the wrong IP address and then told me that my Ethernet cable is broken. I just bought another one and then hopefully I will have internet in my room. One big problem: only 15 gBytes a month. This means: Hardly any Skype. Facebook chat is a big stretch. This is why Germans are so goddamn smart. They don't spend hours in front of the computer socializing.
Tonight looks like a bunch of us are going out on the town. I'll update if anything worth writing about happens.
Tschuess from Marburg!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Progress
Yesterday (Sunday, 4th) was our first day without having to do anything. It was so nice not having to be in a hurry or waiting around for something/someone. First order of business was to sleep in. Emily and I met up around 13.00 to walk to town. Here is the main thing: nothing is open in Marburg on a Sunday. The only things that were open were a few bars and restaurants, and I really had no problem with that because I only really wanted to just sit and people watch. I did, however, get a little disappointed to find a couple of my newly found favorite bars to be closed. Bad form.
Majority of the day was spent on the Internet trying to figure out how to activate my prepaid cell phone. This is probably the worst process ever. There is no translation for all of the text, it’s all in German and I had no idea what was going on. I know basic account information, but this was going waaay too in depth. It’s a goddamn prepaid phone, you guys. Seriously. So I think I did everything correctly, now I’m just waiting for my phone to activate (which they said could take 24 hours and right now I’m at about 14/24 hours).
After this, Emily and I walked around Universitaet Strasse and found somewhere to go for lunch. Now, Emily and I both were talking to each other about how neither of us have been able to eat an entire meal in Germany yet. Reasons unknown, but we figured it was just nerves. Where we went had the first full meal either of us has eaten so far (and I think you may know where this is going): Doener.
The Doener’s we had were excellent, a little too much cabbage on it though. Other than that, it was absolutely fantastic. There is another burger/doener place called “Mr. King” so tempted to go there just because of the name. I’m doing much better at finding my way around to certain places. It will come with time, I’m sure. It almost seems funny that we could not find our way to the Bahnhof and had to ask those Brazilians. Even though it’s about a day or so later, I know how to find it. Especially after last night’s ventures.
When you want to go to Oberstadt there are two ways in which you can get there: walk up a bunch of hills, or walk for a while and then take a really crowded elevator. Honestly with the amount of walking we’ve been doing, we have been willing to just smoosh ourselves into the elevator with the other Germans and Tourists. What is entertaining about this elevator is how AWKWARD it is. Here you are touching belly button to belly button with the person across from you. You both know that you don’t speak each other’s language very well so you just sit there in silence touching bellybuttons. THEN… there is this voice that comes on the speakers when you reach the top that says, “Oberstadt” in this really high/ stereotypical German voice. It makes us laugh every time. I’ll try to get it on video at some point so that you’ll see what I mean.
On the topic of beer:
On the night of the 3rd a bunch of us (IUSP kids) drank and hung out in Katerina’s dorm balcony. It’s a very pretty location that looks over the city of Marburg (castle and all). By midnight we were all a bit bored and walked to town, beers in hand. Went to a great bar, hung out some more, met a nice girl named Lisa (Lee-zuh), and then went to a 24 hour restaurant where we discussed entropy. Oooof course.
A note on nature: The owls here are absolutely insane. I’m convinced. They sound like wookies and owls who had children that like to dive bomb each other. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen these owls dive bomb each other out of trees. It is funny yet sad, but a little terrifying because the noise they make is so crazy.
The most common bird in Marburg is the Crow. Which makes me really happy considering that Crows are my 2nd favorite kind of bird. They are EVERYWHERE. Pigeon population is minimal (strangely shocking for Europe). One of the guides told me that they have wild hedgehogs and my friend saw one. I NEED ONE RIGHT NOW.
Anyway, not much more to report. Going to sleep for a little bit more because it is 6.45 am and I have to meet a couple people to go down to language classes around 8.00.
Farewell from Marburg!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Marburg: The First Few Days
Basically the flight out to Germany was less than exciting. I slept a little bit on the plane, but not too much. I was due to meet up with another lone traveler at the Regionalbahnhof, but that didn’t happen because my flight out of Philadelphia left about an hour and half late. SO… wittle Maddie was left to fend for herself. Let me tell you this… it wasn’t very graceful. Airports freak me out like none other… German airports are the seventh circle of Dante’s Hell. Everything was also in English, but it will only tell you what is in the other room, so you have to choose a room and hope that you get to a room that leads to the room you need.
German customs: Good. God. Talk about big, bald, intimidating POLIZEI. STAMP “OKAY, GOOD!”
I found where to buy my ticket and walk up to order it and the guy sputters off in German. Here is my face: ?___? I say to him, “Ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch.” Then he says in English, “Oh, I thought you German. That funny!” Yes. Hilarious. So I get my ticket and I walk down the stairs with my suitcase looking oh so conspicuous. I wasn’t sure what platform I was supposed to be on. I checked and rechecked my little notebook that had the recommended directions, but (as things go with me) it all turned into Chinese. I asked, auf Deutsch, this hippy guy if I was on the right platform and showed him my ticket. He responded saying, “Ja! Gleis eins! Nummer neun! Elf minuten!” He didn’t really say that, but that’s all I got out of the gibberish. Luckily it was exactly what I needed. Hippy Guy rolled me a cigarette as a gift and said, “Wilkommen!” Then he proceeded to tell me to wait three stops then get off the train.
So I road the S-Bahn to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. Lost again. Where is Hippy Guy when you need him? I asked some college-age kid about where to go after this and he told me. At least… I THINK he told me. I didn’t really understand anything he said, but I nodded and thanked him and proceeded on my merry little way. I asked this other young looking guy, and he proceeded to tell me. He was understandable enough until at one point he said to me, “Es tut mir leid, ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch.” I looked at him and was like… “English?” And he said, “YES! I’m from London! Good god, you’re American aren’t you? I thought you were a German. That’s funny.” Yes. Hilarious. Again. Turns out I was still downstairs when I needed to be upstairs. I had 5 minutes to catch this train. Launching myself onto the escalators I went up and BEHOLD: FRANKFURT HAUPTBAHNHOF. Giant. Tourist-friendly. Hurray!
The train ride consisted of me slipping in and out of sleep. I fell asleep to Frankfurt passing me by and snapped awake to a bunch of fields with lots of flowers, but mostly farms. Sleep again. Then I woke up at the perfect moment to get my first glimpse of Marburg. It is situated on a hill that seems random, but considering the architecture of the land it makes sense. I just wondered why they chose THIS hill. Anyway, I get off at the Marburg an der Lahn stop and heard some English. Fellow IUSPers! Yay! We make our way to the front where we are greeted by Nora, who takes us to the Studentendorf. Hills. Hills. So many hills. We walk into the student center of the dorms to find other IUSPers exchanging awkward introductions. “What’s your name? Where are you from? Blah blah blah.” (Note, we’re STILL doing this.)
Next item: Paperwork. So. Much. Paperwork. I just wanted to go to my room and sleep. I started having a mini-freak out session in my room, but then I finally got to sleep. Two hours later I snapped awake and went back to the student center where I met up with Emily from Pennsylvania and Micah from Idaho. We were joined by a few others and went out on the town with a guide, which was exactly what I needed to calm my nerves. It is about a 15-20 minute bus ride to town. Our guide showed us where to get groceries, the atm, cheap stores, and a few of the main bars. He then took us up into Oberstadt. HELLO LOVE! When you Google Marburg, and you see those pictures of the old-school German buildings? It’s all that.
Then we went to the grocery store. If you know me, then you know that grocery stores scare me. Now, a GERMAN grocery store?! Yeah I walked out with apples, bananas, febreze (frischehauch), and Nutella. What we all didn’t know is that the buses that day stopped working at 8.09 p.m. It was now 9.00 and we had to walk back to the Studentendorf with whatever we bought. That was about… 35 or so minutes with the lot of us. That is when I had my first introduction to………………. THE HILL. It is evil. Pure. Evil. Steeper than Everest and the buses don’t go up it. And guess what? WE GET TO CLIMB UP IT EVERY DAY!!! Ah well, exercise puhpuhpuhpuh. I basically hit the pillow and was gone to the world.
The next morning I had to get up at 6.30 to take the bus to the Bahnhof. From there we proceeded to this building next to Elizabethskirche where we took a German Language placement exam. The first was a written test with multiple-choice questions and then an essay. The essay showed a picture and we were to describe what might have happened in the picture. It showed two parents with a little girl and a policeman all standing in a wrecked home. It had a lot of objects thrown about the room so that you could list off what might have happened to those objects. Well, I don’t for the life of me remember a lot of German vocabulary. I had to show that I wasn’t completely incapable of writing something in German, so I did a Maddie thing. I’m still wondering if it was the right decision or not. I started writing about how the little girl in the picture was not actually a little girl, but an evil dwarf who cannot stand cleanliness. The second part of the test was speaking and listening. It was held individually in a tiny room. The teacher had a list of questions and a sheet with grades on it. I walked in and we greeted each other in german and had small talk. Then she gave me a few plausible scenarios and asked me how I would react to the situation and what I would say (all in German, of course). It was intimidating to sit there and watch her circle “A, B, B, C.” as I would respond to her questions. I still don’t know what level of German I got into, I will find that out on Monday. The rest of the day we wandered around bits of each campus (German colleges are spread out in the town) and took biometric photos for our Visa’s. What’s funny is that, THEY HAVE TO BE BIOMETRIC! Or as the German’s kept repeating, “MUST BE DEE BIOMETREEK!” Later that night we went to this bar in Oberstadt called, Ginkelstein. It’s like a cavern, basically. It was made in 1519 and definitely looks like it. Low, rounded ceilings, old school place for a fire. Very humid. Very very very cool. After that we had to walk back to the Studentendorf. We got lost on the way, but luckily ran into a couple of really nice Brazilians who were able to show us where to go.
Today (Sept. 3rd) was absolute hell at the beginning. I was due to meet up with a few people around 9.30 so that we wouldn’t get lost going down to the city. I got up at 8.30 like a good child and then decided… oh, I can set my alarm and get a couple more minutes. Next time I wake up: 10.20. We were supposed to be down at the Mensa by 10.00 to fill out our Visa applications. Maddie ran. Maddie afraid. Maddie found her way to the Mensa! Hurrah! Luckily I was not the only late one, there were about 10 other people that had gotten lost on the bus routes including the people I was supposed to meet up with. Visa’d it up and then Sierra, Emma, Jackie, and I took off to explore Marburg because we had the rest of the day free. We decided to go back to Oberstadt and look around. From there we decided to hike up to the castle. It was tiring, but worth it. The view was absolutely incredible. I think I’m going to climb up it again tomorrow, this time with my camera. As we sat at the top, a little quartet came out of the castle and sat down to play. I had no clue what they were playing but it sounded like 16th century German music, which would make sense given the location. A bunch of fancy looking people in evening gowns with champagne glasses came out too and listened. We didn’t feel fancy enough and left to go to this really cool courtyard (which I will take pictures of tomorrow). I could still hear the music from down there so I sat down and listened. A group of 80 year old Bavarians walked up to me and asked directions, luckily enough I knew what they were talking about and was able to help them out. They tried to talk a bit more, but it was beyond me. I don’t know if it was the accent or just me, but I had no clue what they were saying. After this, our little group found our way back to the Biergarten an der Lahn where some sort of festival was going on (at least that’s what the sign said). It was a really mellow occasion. Everyone was just sitting by the Lahn drinking, smoking, and talking. A few people were in the river swimming, in canoes, or on surfboards with a paddle. I went to order a drink and the lady working there asked me what part of Germany I was from. I don’t know if she was being serious or not.
After that we went back to the dorms and here we have been relaxing since then. We are most likely going to go back to the Ginkelstein later this evening.
Tschuess from Marburg!
Friday, September 2, 2011
Greetings from Marburg!
(I know that grammar-savvy people will be reading this, just don't judge me)
There isn't much to say about the flights out to Marburg.
The train ride, however, was really cool. I was incredibly exhausted so I couldn't really keep my eyes open, but I managed to open them at just the right time. It was mostly fields, fields, and more fields. When my head hit the side of the window and I woke up, the train was turning around a corner and at the end of the corner... BAM. Marburg. Some random hill. It honestly looks JUST like the pictures.
First day was awful. Tired. Hungry. Sick. Then later that evening I went bumming around town with some people and felt 100 times better.
Anyway,
I will update more. Right now I am in the computer lab going through an "Internet-tutoren in den Studentenwohnheimen" and then we have to head out for visa application business.
There isn't much to say about the flights out to Marburg.
The train ride, however, was really cool. I was incredibly exhausted so I couldn't really keep my eyes open, but I managed to open them at just the right time. It was mostly fields, fields, and more fields. When my head hit the side of the window and I woke up, the train was turning around a corner and at the end of the corner... BAM. Marburg. Some random hill. It honestly looks JUST like the pictures.
First day was awful. Tired. Hungry. Sick. Then later that evening I went bumming around town with some people and felt 100 times better.
Anyway,
I will update more. Right now I am in the computer lab going through an "Internet-tutoren in den Studentenwohnheimen" and then we have to head out for visa application business.
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