Too... Too Many Books.

Last night Rabea, Chelsea, Mimi, and I went to Hinkelstein (the dungeon-looking bar) to watch the Ukraine vs. Sweden game (Euro cup 2012 is going on right now for those of you who do not know). I'm usually not a big football fan, but I like to get into the games and it's an excuse to yell and be belligerent.

Mimi and I cheered for Ukraine while Rabea and Chelsea cheered for Sweden, and I can't deny that the slow motion shots were... wonderful. They have some beautiful men on this side of the planet. After UKRAINE WON (muahaha), we all went back home and I went back to cleaning out my room. I went to bed at 3 a.m. and then woke up at 9 a.m. to finish cleaning before my terrifying Haus Frau came to check me out of my room. After I was checked out I picked up my backpack and- no... that's an understatement... I had to FORKLIFT my backpack onto my back and then use a crane to get my suitcase down the hill and onto the bus. I didn't realize just how many books I had gotten while here and how difficult it would be to get everything back to the US.

I now had my Laufzettel and could make my way down to the Studentenwerk where I would get my €150,00 deposit. My Haus Frau told me that she took off €30,00 for cleaning (which they usually always do with everyone), so I was looking forward to having at least €100,00. This is where I had my last brush with German bureaucracy. I had to take my Laufzettel to an office in the Studentenwerk and get  it notarized or something, take that form and another to the accounting department and let them figure out the rest.

When I walked into the first office I didn't exactly know where I was going, this lady at the front desk (who was missing an arm) looked up and saw that I was a bit lost. There in that space where her other arm should be was a little finger-looking appendage that she used to point at a door next to me and say, "um die Ecke!" A little taken aback at what happened, I stumbled over to the door around the corner and went into the other office where I awkwardly announced what I was there for. A plump rosy-cheeked woman motioned over to me and without a word snatched my form and began typing, writing, and calculating and then had me sign a couple forms (which could very well have said that I would give them my first born child) and then told me to go to the accounting office. I walked around the corner and the appendage lady motioned to the exit. I walked into the accounting office and this tall regal blonde german lady came rushing over to me and offered me a seat and a candy (I took five, I was very nervous). She grabbed my form and started stamping things, writing things down, typing something on her computer, and brought out a giant accounting calculator and started plucking away on the keys like a lady with a mission. She then turned to me and said (in German), "You owe us €23,63." i was so taken aback by the fact that I walked in with the expectations of receiving over €100 and instead OWEING them money I said (in English), "WHAT?" And she proceeded to say it again, but in english and I said (in German), "No no no... I understand what you said, I just don't see how that could have happened." She looked down at the form and then back at her calculator and realized she had made a mistake... she reworked everything and turns out I only get €12,00 back. I didn't care as long as I didn't owe them money, I still got worked by the German Accounting Dep. though.
I walked out of that office and down to the second floor where Rabea's brother was watching my awfully heavy suitcase for me. Rabea went and turned my uCard in and I got at least €15,00 for that.

Now it was Goodbye Time. A few months ago Chelsea and I decided not to tell each other when we were leaving to go back to the US. I was able to keep it a secret, but somehow she had discovered that I was on the top floor of Studentenwerk and the only reason anybody goes up there is to get their room deposits back. So, she came up and waited while I went through that mess I had just described. When we rejoined Rabea's brother and Mimi downstairs, Chelsea took one look at my bags and the emotions started flooding, so she and I went outside and sat on a bench. I faced that castle and looked up at it thinking of all the times I had sat on this one particular bench just taking it all in. Chelsea and I sat there in almost complete silence, neither of us knowing what to say or how to even deal with this kind of situation. It was strange because she and I usually can't shut up when we are together, but this time it was just silence, and that's when you can tell when things are bad. We went back up to join the others where there was another 20 minutes of just awkward silence. Then I decided that I just had to go. I was feeling nauseous again from this whole farewell thing and I just needed to get moving. So, I said goodbye to Mimi and then Rabea plowed into me giving me a good old fashioned german bear hug. It was definitely really sweet. Chelsea and I just kind of stood there staring at each other.

She said, "I can feel my heartbeat in my fingers."
To which I replied, "Yeah... I think i'm going to puke."
"Yeah, me too."

Then she asked if we could have one of those awkward side-hugs and we did, but it was really painful. I took one last look at everyone and just turned right on my heel and headed for the Hauptbahnhof. As I walked out the doors I thought I could hear that little group laughing. Whether they were laughing about me or at me, I didn't care because that's exactly how I want to remember them: laughing.

As I was on the train watching the castle I loved so dearly slowly disappear into the distance, I didn't really feel nauseous anymore. I felt that weird bitter-sweet feeling when you leave somewhere that has so many wonderful things tied to it. In reality it was kind of like a strange sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, like I came, I saw, and I conquered. Though I still would have liked more time, it wasn't quite as painful as I had thought. I think it's the people I left that is really getting to me.

I wish someone had filmed me trying to get onto the train with my suitcase... at one point I was wedged in the door way with really know way out until by some miracle from the gods, I squeezed onto the train. Getting off the train in Frankfurt was a bit easier, I just kind of flopped down onto the platform like a whale, flopped around a bit, gasped for air, and then continued on like nothing had happened. I found my way to my hostel which is in the heart of Frankfurt's Red Light District. The hostel really isn't bad at all, it's situated between a couple really fine family-friendly places called, "American Pussy" and "Turkish Delight." Across the street is a lovely looking place with a creative name. It's called, "SEX SEX SEX." After a dropped all my stuff off in my room, I ran off to the spring market outside the Hauptbahnhof and got a Wurst and some Apfelwein, then I went into the Hauptbahnhof and sat down on a bench at Gleis 15 (the platform that usually goes in the direction of Marburg). An RE train was leaving to go to Marburg and I saw a few people I knew and played with the club-footed pigeons that were scuttling around on the floor. After another nice little walk I came back to my room to find another person in there snoring away. This kid is out like a rock. The hostel is having a BBQ and watching more Euro Cup games, so i'm going to go down there and join them. Not a bad way to spend my last night in Deutschland.

Now I just have to figure out how my book-laden back is going to survive tomorrow.

Tschüß!

I Can See Helsinki From My House

The following account of my trip to Estonia/Finland is put together with scattered memory and a few notes I had written down while I was there. Enjoy: Having been a bit desensitized to the "wonders" of flying, I spent the 2 hour flight just reading my book. Though it got a little distracting because halfway there, the plane started sounding like a Tuvan Throat singer. As the plane started to descend, Lincoln and I looked out the window at the empty, murky, marsh-looking land of Estonia. I turned to him and said, "I don't think anyone lives here..." to which he replied, "Honestly, I think you're right." Then we saw Tallinn. Not a gigantic city, but also not a hamlet. By this time it had gotten pretty dark and the vast wilderness of Estonia was a single black sheet stretched out beneath us. When we landed, we figured out the bus situation and were off to our hostel. It was only about 15 minutes and we climbed out of the bus and walked around a sketch-looking park and up a couple of alleyways until we found our destination which was shoved between a sex shop and a hookah bar. Everything that night in Tallinn was dark with the exception of the many many many neon signs. Our hostel, The Monks Bunk, was being run by a group of hilarious Western Australians from Perth. All of the red-faced, bearded, and excited to see new people. After a few cheap Estonian beers, Lincoln, Chris, and I set off to find a grocery store. We walked passed the grocery store the Aussie's had recommended twice because it was hidden behind yet another sex shop. My mouth dropped at some of the prices of the food items there (i.e. I got a loaf of bread for 25 cents and a jar of Nutella for 75 cents). That night was spent shaking off the grogginess of traveling by drinking a few beers and talking with the Aussie's. The next morning we set out to discover where we were. Turns out Estonia was a good choice. Right around the corner from our hostel we had a perfect view of the Old Town. It was definitely a skyline I had never seen before. Dominating the view was a tall building with 6 or 7 black onion domes with gold trimming. The rest of the buildings poked out in random places, each of them having their own elaborate design. We started walking in that direction and found a giant medieval wall with a ton of towers that we decided to explore.

Each of the towers had long spiraling staircases that seemed to go on forever. Despite the loads of pigeon poo covering every inch of everything, that damp and musty smell of age that I love so much was everywhere.

Afterwards, we walked around and found our way to the onion-dome building which I named, "St. Basil Jr" and other parts of the old town. I found the look of Tallinn really really strange. Every other building was in complete shambles, while the buildings next to it looked completely fresh. Some buildings were brown and dreary, while others were completely covered with broadly painted strokes of green, pink, yellow, and blue. The cobblestones are probably some of the worst i've ever walked on and have probably never been changed since their original placement in the 12th century.

After wandering around for a few more hours we found our way to the old town square and went into a restaurant called, "The Olde Hansa" where I ate dried Elk meat while others had giant platters of duck, mushroom soup, different breads, vegetables, and a number of other things I can't even begin to describe. We each got a giant medieval-style mug of Dark Honey beer that thickly slid down our throats leaving an incredibly sweet taste on our tongues. That night, the boys went out while I stayed in (not wanted to spend all my money) and drank a few beers with Poncho from Perth. He was tall and just big boned with a giant beard that wrapped around his red face like a sloth. He had a deep guttural laugh that echoed around the lobby. It was fun to watch him strum his beer and flick his cigarette to the beat of the music while he told me all about his home town and how he had ended up in Estonia. The next day started late as we shuffled out of the hostel and took a trolley out to a giant park that had the old summer palace of Pyotr the Great, The National Museum of Art, and the Presidential Palace. The sun was shining and birds and people were running around everywhere trying to enjoy as much as possible before the wrath of the eastern european gods would crack open the skies and pour more heavy rain down on the city. The National Museum of Art was loads of fun. I am not familiar with Eastern European art at all, so it was wonderful to see hundreds of works completely different from what I am used to (Western European). The group was split during the museum trip because Lincoln and I spent quite a bit of time in there. He and I ended up wandering through the park and found our way to the beach where I saw the Baltic Sea for the first time. I strode out onto the sand and jumped up on a pile of seaweed and kind of laughed to myself about how cool it was that I was on a beach touching the Baltic Sea. I bent down and scooped shells out of the water and wrote my name in the sand only to watch it disappear. Lincoln and I took a seat in the sand and talked about traveling and other places as we watched the giant ferries puff away in the distance headed for Finland and Sweden.

We got a trolley back to the hostel where we sat and played a couple rounds of chess waiting for the others to get back so we could see what everyone is up to. The other boys were taking part in a beer pong tournament against the freshly arrived Yorkshire tenants, so Lincoln and I stayed around to watch and then shoved off to the Old Town. We ended up in a tiny, candle-lit, medieval-themed tavern where we grabbed a couple Dark Honey beers along with a couple apple pies and sat in the corner just loving the atmosphere. After an hour or so we decided to go for a walk, but then ended up back in the same little tavern. There were all kinds of options when it came to pies: you could have any kind of meat pies, cabbage pie, apple pie, spinach pie, carrot pie, and so on. We got a couple mugs of Lingonberry juice, apple pies, and a spinach pie and sat down and talked about everything. The next day was complete insanity (in a good way). Josh has a friend, Maksim, who is Estonian and was kind enough to rent a van and take us out to the Estonian countryside. It didn't take long to get out of the city and to suddenly be surrounded by vast tan fields. As we continued on we stopped a giant cliffs that plunged down into the Baltic. The more we went along the thicker the forest got until all of a sudden we were submerged into a giant forest that just seemed ancient. The van twisted and turned around thick walls of green until at last Maksim parked the car and we got out and took a walk through the forest until we got to what we will call, "The Estonian Niagra Falls."

The water was this strange golden color and nobody really knew why, but what did it matter? It was gorgeous. I watched the river flood down into the depths of the forest, it looked like a single golden ribbon cutting through and flowing around the deep trees. After this we drove on to probably one of the most impressive cliffs i've seen. I'm happy my friend was able to catch a picture of me checking it out:

After this we ran off to the Cisternian Paradise Monastery. It's this giant abandoned monastery from the 13th century that is probably one of the coolest places i've ever visited.

There were all kinds of crazy twisting passageways that would go down and then suddenly swing up again and completely turn you around. It was a labyrinth of epic proportions and I was in love. We excitedly went down into the creepiest of creepy-looking places where we found piles of animal bones and other doorways leading into darker places (which, of course, we went to). Then we ended up in the old chapel which was beautifully eery.

I looked around at the high vaulted ceilings and imagined the chants of the monks echoing from the walls, the desperate prayers, the people who ran here for safety during times of war, everything that could have possibly happened here. These walls witnessed the rule of Eric V of Denmark, and then the conquering by the Teutonic Knights, and then it was partially burnt down with 28 monks trapped inside, rebuilt, and then witnessed the Livonian War, then the occupation of Sweden, and later the Russians. And now it was rubble and tourists were running around taking photos. We all agreed that we could have spent a whole day in there, but we had to get going back to Tallinn. When we arrived back in Tallinn, we went to a little restaurant in the former factory (now art student occupied) district. I had a giant chicken salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and I don't even remember what. Only that it was amazing. That night was the hostel beer pong championship which some of our group were in, so while that was going on, Lincoln and I ran back up to our little Medieval tavern to eat more pies and drink more beer/juice. The next day we were shoving off bright and early to get to Helsinki, Finland.

There's a picture of Lincoln on the back of the ferry as we go across the Baltic Sea. Actually, I don't know if I want to call that thing a "ferry." It was a FREAKING HUGE SHIP. I'm kind of new to this whole boat-travel thing. So I was in awe that this thing with 8 floors, a grocery store, a casino, and 37 restaurants and bars could FLOAT. When we landed in Helsinki and got off the boat, we had to take a bus into the center of town. When we got off the bus we were suddenly surrounded by dozens of gypsy music groups. Each of them trying to play louder than the next. Helsinki reminded me a lot of Prague in some ways. Many of the buildings were just so elaborately decorated it didn't seem real. We caught another boat that took us to a small island called Suomenlinna where we made our way to the southern tip to check out the old fortress. Needless to say, it was simply epic. We found creepy places to crawl and giant cannons to play on. Here is a photo of the whole group (minus Lincoln who was taking the photo) in one of the underground passageways:

We made our way back to Helsinki where we just walked around and looked at the city. It had some pretty incredible things.

We caught a 21.30 boat back to Tallinn and were happy to leave Helsinki. It wasn't a place you wanted to spend a whole day in, maybe half a day. That, and we kind of missed Tallinn. As the boat pushed out of the harbor, I went and stood on the back of the boat and decided I would stand there and watch Helsinki disappear. Lincoln came out and joined me and pretty soon we were freezing, but we had made a commitment to watch Helsinki disappear so we were going to do it. Didn't matter that it started raining and the wind was going to rip my face off... I was going to do this. It actually turned out to be a LOT of fun. First of all, I love the wind, and I love fog. We passed another smaller ferry and Lincoln and I started pretending to order commands to shoot missiles at it (doing all of this in Russian accents). "Zey take up zpaze in vater. Shoot mizzles zo zey know who zey try to raze." It's hard to write it... but you get the idea. We stood there and watched Helsinki disappear into the fog, and then walked down to the bar to join the other guys where we sat and talked until we heard the big foghorn indicated that we were arriving in Tallinn. I forgot to add one picture of Estonia that's probably one of my favorites:

Tallinn was a home away from home away from home and felt good to be back. Unfortunately we left bright and early the next day and made it back to Marburg at around 16.00. It was a very fulfilling trip and one that I needed to take badly. I hope to see Estonia again at some point, and perhaps Latvia and Lithuania as well. Actually, I just hope to see the rest of Eastern Europe and so on and so forth.

Prague Blog and Grog

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.