Heidelberg and Sloth

These last few weeks have been spent stretched out on the grass by the Lahn drinking beer or wine, listening to music, and just talking with people. The weather has been abnormally great (in the 70's and 80's) so everyone in Marburg tends to bee line to the Lahn when done with classes. I wish Salt Lake City had something like the Lahn where people could go down by the river and just hang on the grass for hours grilling, drinking, playing music and games, swimming, going out on paddle boats. It is such a great way to unwind from everything. Basically the last few weeks have gone on like this with all-day Lahn parties and then bonfires that go until dawn. Would you believe that I am still actually getting my homework done? Some of the strange miracles of Marburg, my friends.

Yesterday, Chelsea and I decided to take a day trip to Heidelberg (which is just outside of Hessen, but Deutsche Bahn still let's us travel there for free, YAY). Simply amazing weather to be on a train because you pass by all of these huge green fields and large ponds where you can see people boating and water-skiing, not to mention you have a clear view of the castles in each town that you pass by. Simply an amazing country, Germany. When we arrived in Heidelberg we grabbed a map and then headed straight for the castle. You'd think it would be easy to find the castle because it's on the top of a hill, alas... it is the best defended castle in history simply because there is no way to find a way up. Eventually we did, and I wont mention how long it took us because it is embarrassing, and I lugged three liters of wine all the way up where we found a bench to sit on in the middle of the ruins in the shade. There is simply an incredible view from up top:

We sat there for hours just talking, talking, talking about everything that could really possibly be discussed. We people watched and then started reading out loud from books and drank to our heart's content.

As we finished up the last of our boxes, we decided it was time to pack it in and see the rest of the city before catching the last train back to Marburg.

It was such a perfect day that I honestly have no complaints. Not even about the little gremlin saplings that screamed and cried on the train ride back. It was one of those days that just makes you feel complete.

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.

The City Nobody Wanted to Leave: Dresden

We arrived in Dresden around three in the afternoon to sunny weather with a temperature in the late 70's early 80's. I haven't felt this weather since last Oktober. Needless to say, we all got a little crazy because Marburg had been so cold and rainy. The hostel room was better than I had anticipated. It had large windows and a balcony (keyword here being balcony). The view looked out over Dresden, but I didn't take much time to scope it out because we decided to run down to the Elbe (river through Dresden).

As you can tell, it was a bright clear day and the air was humid and warm. When I stepped off the bus, I was reminded of a quote by Jack Kerouac: “The air was so sweet in New Orleans it seemed to come in soft bandannas; and you could smell the river and really smell the people, and mud, and molasses, and every kind of tropical exhaltation with your nose suddenly removed from the dry ices of a Northern Winter.” A bunch of us ran down to the grass by the river (some with a Maß beer, some with glasses of wine) and sprawled out on the long grass in a way that looked like we were photosynthesizing. As I dug my heels and hands into the grass laying on my back propped up by my elbows, I looked out at this amazing panoramic and couldn't help but smile. When the bells of the dozens of cathedrals went off and the steam boats rolled by, it seemed as though every happy feeling i've ever had, every beautiful thing i've ever seen pulsated under my skin and then exploded from every pore. It was a feeling beyond that of non-belief, it was one of those feelings where you just know that you exist. Life didn't pause, it didn't go slowly, it kept with natural time and it was perfect. I felt each blade of grass, each cool breeze, every cathedral bell that rang and every blow from the steamboats resonated in my chest. In those few moments, I found myself in my own little european pari-nirvana. After we managed to pull ourselves off the grass (you can imagine what a difficult task that was), we headed for the Altstadt to look around. Everywhere I looked there was landscape of some unbelievable baroque marvel. We stopped and watched a band of hippies perform some kind of artsy-musical piece and then continued onward through a large gateway into the Altstadt where a huge May market was going on. Flowers and flowers and more flowers throwing up everywhere. In the center of the market was a large colorful May pole surrounded by elaborately carved wooden stands selling all kinds of food, clothes, and knick knacks. We all got some kind of variation of a Bratwurst and sat down to watch the market at work. Some people were bustling along buying things left and right while others sat at long, colorful tables drinking beer and smoking. Having had a long day, we decided to go back to the hostel. On the way, we stopped for ice cream. I got my classic favorite of chocolate and lemon and walked down the street a ways to where a gypsy was hard at work plucking keys and pushing and pulling her accordion. We continued down the street and under this long arch-tunnel where an opera singer stood singing Ave Maria. We stopped to listen and then continued on our way back to the hostel where we spent a good night inside drinking tea and simply talking. That night I went out on the balcony with a book and sat there watching fireworks shoot across the Dresden skyline. The next day we were scheduled for a city tour, so we all jumped out of bed eager to see more of the city. The first half of the tour was spent, to my dislike, on a bus where we drove around the suburbs of Dresden and then came back to the Altstadt where we filed out and separated into groups. The next half of the tour was on the Dresdner Zwinger.

Simply a Baroque masterpiece. After the tour, we walked around the May market again and got more wurst. Then we met up with some other people and we went to heaven the Museum of Fine Art. And it is there, that I died and was reborn multiple times. I saw so many paintings that i've spent years and years looking at and studying in textbooks including a couple that I wrote very large essays on (Raphael's Sistine Madonna, and Nicolas Poussin's Realm of Flora). I also saw tons of work by Rubens, Rembrandt, Füssli, Claude Lorraine, Coreggio, and the list runs on and on. When I left that museum, there was nothing that could pull me down, I was freakishly happy. After the museum we went back to the hostel, put some things down, and then went to dinner. I also did some walking around behind the hostel in an area I decided to call, "Hippyland." And it was just that. Streets and streets of no cars and just bicycles, naked people walking around, dreadlocks, cotton clothes, multiple instruments, everyone sitting down on patches of grass or walls playing music or talking. The oldest person in this neighborhood was probably 35. It seemed to be all the students living in one massive area. I sat down on a wall and ended up talking to a few art students from Holland and Germany. We had a great time talking about nerdy philosophical stuff and geeking out about the museum of fine art. After a couple beers, I said farewell to them and went back to the hostel to find friends and wine. When my roommates went to bed I was still on a museum-high and went to the balcony below me to visit some friends there where we drank more wine and they let me ramble on and on (more passionately than normal) about all of the works of art I saw in the museum and why I loved them. After they went to sleep, I went down yet another floor to another group of people and spent some time with them. I then returned to my room and grabbed my book and went outside once more to enjoy the cool night air. The next morning we all shuffled into a bus and were swept off to the Elbe River & Sandstone Mountains. The drive there, alone, was MAGNIFICENT. We passed through fields and fields of bright yellow canola flowers.

We arrived at the summer residence of August the Strong (king of Saxony/Poland from way back when). Three GIANT and elaborately decorated mansions surrounded a large courtyard of tightly organized flowers. It was a little too mindblowingly colorful. We then proceeded into what was called, "The English Gardens." It was basically a forest with a gravel path cut through the center of it. In any case, it was simply gorgeous. Tall light green trees surrounded by long grass, multiple kinds of bright flowers, and red squirrels with long ears and colorful ducks scampering all over the place. There was a point in our tour when we walked by a bunch of lilac trees, without hesitation it seemed like half the group purposefully faceplanted into the lilac trees and for a minute all you could hear were the deep inhales of jazzed students. The Sandstone Mountains is also named, "Little Switzerland" because of the nature, and I believe it. Everything looks a lot different than most places i've seen in Germany. We went out to this look out point and could see for miles. Not far away, we could see the Czech border. We then continued on through more canola fields to an old fortress situated on the top of a giant plateau. After all of this we made our way back to the city where we all spread off, many going back to the Elbe, and others itching to take a nap in their beds. I went off by myself and walked around the city and Hippyland a bit more just enjoying what I was seeing and enjoying everything that had happened that day. I sat on a bench in the middle of a giant park and pulled out my book. After a couple hours I went back to the hostel for tea, and then went and sat on my balcony overlooking Dresden. I sat there for another hour or so listening to music and drawing. I then left to hang out with people and check out a jazz/blues bar a couple blocks away. I sat in the bar moving my head to the beat of the music, and when more and more people arrived it got louder and louder and everyone started clapping and cheering as the horns blew up and down creating insane scales and jumping from high note to low note with ease. I sat with a couple young kids from southern France and another old couple from Belgium. We all clapped along, drank, and laughed as the music escalated and eventually quieted down. I returned to the hostel with my head in a daze. I could either spend the rest of my life here or I couldn't stand how utterly perfect it was. The next day, everyone sluggishly moved around due to the madness that had been the night before. We all had to leave the city by noon and nobody seemed particularly happy about having to leave so soon. I know that I, for one, was not. Before we left there was a giant steamboat parade (for May Day) on the Elbe and tons of parades and protests around the city. I'm sad that we had to leave that day... I would have liked to see more of what May Day in Dresden produces. The ride back to Marburg went by quickly with my book and the fantastic scenery of zillions and zillions of canola flower fields. I came back to find Marburg in the full swing of Spring. All of the trees were tall and the leaves poured out of the branches mixing with one another to the point that I couldn't tell which branches and leaves belonged to which trees. Many of the trees were so full that they bent into each other creating large green archways over the dirt paths of the forest. I was happy to come back from Dresden with such wonderful weather in Marburg, it made returning a lot easier. Then again, the next day we were pelted with golfball-sized hailstones......... doesn't matter. Marburg has character. I swear i'll get around to writing the post about Estonia and Finland. I just found it a lot easier to write about Dresden because I was just there and for a shorter amount of time.

Bucketlisting and Berlin 3.0

This last weekend the group took a weekend trip to Berlin. We took a bus ride that I didn't really time, but I managed to make it through Der Fliegende Holländer and Madama Butterfly with time to spare before we arrived so i'm going to guess it was about 6 or so hours. We arrived at our hostel situated on the edge of Kreuzberg (not the sketch part, the better part down the street from Potsdamer Platz). I went into the hostel, dropped my stuff off, called Emily and went straight to get me a giant plate of currywurst.

After eating by the Brandenburger Tor, Emily and I went for a walk around the Holocaust Memorial and Friedrichstrasse seeing as how she will be leaving Germany in a couple weeks and wanted to revisit a few places. Afterwards we met up with Matt and headed towards Checkpoint Charlie to Erin and Niko's new apartment stopping by an outdoor book sale across the street from Humboldt where I snagged myself a DDR children's book. We sat around Erin and Niko's place drinking wine and champagne with them, Lina from Dusseldorf, and their new pet turtle Spencer. We then went out for cocktails and then ended up at some burger place built by the gods. Matt and I ended up leaving and had a long walk back home in the rain and ended up chilling in the lobby of the hostel for some time.

The next day I slept in until 13.30 and went for a long bookstore hunt with Matt and then met up with Emily. We went to her place in Zehlendorf where her host mom once again made the best damn pizza i've ever had. We couldn't stay long because we had an opera we had to get to.

When we arrived at the opera house I hung outside for a little bit just to people watch. I saw a tall slender man wearing a tuxedo with tails and his date wearing a backless floor-length red gown and a complicated looking bun. They were both smoking cigarettes with long black cigarette-holders. It was a perfect image and I wish I could have gotten a picture. It was interesting to see how everyone was dressed. It ranged from Tuxedo's and gowns to jeans and sneakers. Nobody really minded what the other was wearing, it was kind of a dress-how-you-feel kind of atmosphere. Everyone was there just to have a great time at the opera. The last few weeks I had been feeling absolutely miserable with the idea of my own personal, "impending doom." AKA the reality that i'm going to have to leave Germany and go back to Utah very soon. I got a knot in my stomach every time I thought about it, but for those few hours as I sat there watching La Traviata, the knot loosened and my entire body surrendered itself to my greatest weakness: a good opera. Sounds lame, I know... but it is true. The super titles were all in German and I really didn't find it a problem understanding everything, however when the plot would twist naturally the singing got faster which means that the super titles went faster resulting in my ultimate confusion. I found myself thinking, "The hell? They were just in love and now they hate each other? WAIT A MINUTE WHO JUST DIED? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!" Eventually Emily and I decided to just kick back and enjoy the music. After the opera we grabbed some beer and chilled in the hostel with a bunch of other people until the wee hours of the morning and we all went to bed.

The next day I went out with Lyndsey and Claire to the Jewish Museum. The architecture of the building was in a zig-zag formation with the hallways slightly slanting up or down creating a Willy Wonka effect where people at the end of the hallway would seem tiny while others seemed like giants. After the museum we went to an Easter Carnival in Alexanderplatz and ate some good old fashioned Bratwurst. Lyndsey and I then went into the Berliner Dom where we were greeted with a rehearsal performance of Handel's Messiah. It was ethereal music in a breath-taking building and a place I could have spent all day in. We went to the top of the Dom for an awesome view of Berlin and then down down down into the crypts where the minivan-sized coffins of who knows how many famous dead royals are placed. It was a bit shocking to see all of the coffins for dead royal babies... incest really doesn't pay, eh?

We then left for the hostel and I gave Lyndsey a foot massage in payment for making her go all the way up to the Dome and then down in the Crypts. My preconception that I was awful at foot massages was once again proven true. But hey... I tried.
Then we went to dinner at some "mexican" restaurant and then went back to the hostel for a relaxed night before we left the next morning.

Overall Berlin 3.0 was a fantastic trip that crossed off some things on my bucket list. The next to be crossed off is, "travel to some random country you know nothing about." That will be crossed off on the 19th when I head off to Estonia. Excitement Excitement.

Sloth an der Lahn

The days since my last post seemed to have slipped by rather quickly (to my dismay).
Someone pointed out to me the other day that the amount of time I have left here can be counted easily in weeks. I think it's 11 or 12 weeks left now and that just sounds AWFUL to me.

I haven't really noticed time slipping by so quickly, but I think that happens when you get so comfortable in one place that it becomes home and everything that was once exciting is now normal. It was fun to watch the new people in the program come in and experience Germany and Marburg for the first time. It kind of got me back into exploring this small town and looking even closer at things that I see every day. The whole last month has made me take a step back and appreciate where I am and what I do every day.

The language classes started earlier this month and i'm in a much higher level than I was last semester (which is excellent). I love my class because it is incredibly easy with just a few challenges to keep me busy. What's really excellent about this semester is that I only have to do the language class and NOT the culture class. Which means that I get to leave at 12.30 while everyone else has to come back from lunch at 14.00 and stay until 16.00 for the culture class. Believe it or not, those few hours make a big difference in the day. I have more time to walk home, do homework, and read a bit.

The weather has been absolutely AMAZING the last couple weeks. Last Thursday or Friday (I don't remember) everyone passed out on the grass by the Lahn and just went catatonic. This weekend pretty much consisted of everyone getting together and grilling Bratwurst, drinking beer, playing Frisbee, listening to music, and taking naps. Friday night we had a bonfire in Studentendorf with food and alcohol (duh). There were a TON of people there and we had an awesome time and then went off to Schwarz-Weiss to hang out some more. Saturday night was my "birthday party night."
Friend/Twin Chelsea brought over a bottle of champagne, two bottles of wine, and a bottle of rum to split. Emily was visiting from Berlin and kindly offered to help us "empty" the bottles. I don't really drink a lot. I mean, it may seem like I do, but really it's one or two beers every time I go out to drink. I figured since it was my birthday night, I could let my usual facade slide. And boy did I.
The night turned a little hazy with all of the people I ran into and all of the places I went, but I remember being sung "Happy Birthday" to in a ton of different languages.

My actual birthday, yesterday, was very very chill. I went out in the early afternoon to go join the others sitting by the Lahn. After 4 quick hours there, I left to walk around Marburg and ran into some other people on their way to dinner. I joined them and had a really relaxing meal outside in Oberstadt. After walking around the city a bit more I went home and took a nap. Afterwards, I went to Lyndsey's (Mama Aussie) and had tea which ended up just being us drinking tea and watching cat videos. No complaints there.

The rest of the week will probably be filled with more slothful events with the coming of even better weather.

Of Aachen and Berlin 2.0

This blog is gathering cobwebs, so I suppose I should write something, yeah?

Almost a month ago I decided to go visit my friend Erin and her boyfriend Niko up in Aachen (right on the border of Germany and Belgium). As I sat in the Frankfurt Hbf waiting for a train that came 40 minutes late, I ended up meeting a musician from Belgium. He looked about in his 60's and had a well-sized Belgium belly and a big bushy mustache. Turns out he plays the stand up bass for a jazz band and teaches at a music conservatory in Brussels. We talked a lot about jazz and Big Band music and their influence on modern artists. I probably shouldn't say modern because the only musicians we could really trace direct routes from jazz and Big Band at the time were from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. We ended up sitting together on the train and passed the time talking about different instruments we've played and he got a good laugh when I told him I played the stand up bass when I was 13 and had to stand on a chair because I was so short. It was fun to watch him grade the sheet music of some of his pupils. He seemed a little excited to be using his red pen... I don't know if his students will favor him quite as much when they get their homework back.

When we pulled into Cologne, he pointed out the cathedral to me and we ended up in a long discussion about architecture which lead to Prague which lead to Mozart which lead back to jazz music which somehow lead to different flavors of toothpaste. When we reached the Aachen Hbf, we shook hands and exchanged email addresses for a possible visit to Brussels in the spring time. At this time i'd like to thank good old Jean-Louis for making that 5 hour train ride seem like nothing at all.

Erin and Niko came to meet me at the Hbf and pretended to not recognize me because I wasn't wearing my red moccasins (for those of you not in the know, they are a defining item in the cartoon character that is my physical appearance). Unfortunately, due to the weather, I had to lay my moccasins aside for a little while. You'd think i'd be able to wear them, holes and all, in the snow... but my hobbit feet simply aren't as tough as they used to be. Anyway, we went out for dinner and cocktails and then went to their apartment to sleep, seeing as how it was late at night by this time. The next morning, Niko went off to study for his exams while Erin and I chilled in the apartment and caught up on all of the random nothings we had both been doing.

We set off to check out the Aachener Dom (another one of those jaw-dropping buildings). We sat down inside and just talked about what young folk in their twenties talk about. After a bit more walking outside we met up with Niko to take a breather and drink some tea. Erin and I went out for some awesomely greasy Turkish food and then went back to the apartment to make sure everything was in order for Niko's surprise birthday party. The birthday party was definitely something to behold... it was a small group of about ten of us. The next morning we took inventory of the alcohol to find that together we had consumed 52 bottles of beer and 3 bottles of champagne. I can tell you now that I only contributed to a bottle and a half of champagne and 3 beers. It's safe to blame the rest on the German men.

The next day Erin and I did a bit more wandering and we ended up in a bookstore (yeah, great... more clothes i'll have to throw out of my suitcase when I pack to come home). I was in one of those moods where I wanted everything so I honestly couldn't decide. I wasn't walking out of that store with nothing, though. I am physically and mentally incapable of doing such a thing. I decided to randomly pick a genre (plays) and was going to work from there. Then the thought occurred to me that I would love to read the works by Euripides in German. Sadly, I couldn't find anything by him so I settled with getting a volume of plays by Aeschylus. We all took our findings up to the cafe on the third floor and sat around talking about linguistics, anthropology, and all of that other bookstore talk. We went back to the apartment and had dinner and settled on the couch to read our new books and drink tea. Niko had to go to bed early so he could get up and study in the morning, so I went out on the balcony and spent some quality self time looking out at the fantastic view of the Aachen skyline.

I took a seat with my ipod and turned on some Bulgarian folk music (if you don't know this by now, I have a very strange repertoire of folk music from around the world). As I sat there and looked up at the stars (something I hadn't done for a long time given the constant clowdy appearance of Marburg), I had one of those moments where you find yourself completely satisfied. I realized completely that I love being in Germany, and that I don't want to be anywhere else at this time in my life. The next morning I went back to Marburg.

Deutsche Bahn Fail:

I've honestly never had too many problems with traveling by train here in Germany. I've had trains be late by 5 or 10 minutes, honestly nothing quite too damaging to the travel arrangements..... however, getting to Berlin was a nightmare.
I worked up three travel plans just in case the train was late or I missed a connection.

Plan A:

Marburg -> Kassel -> Hannover (meet up with Erin) -> Berlin Hbf (meet Emily).

Plan A required that everything be exactly on time, but we ended up stopping on the tracks for 10 minutes, so it was to be Plan B.

Plan B:

Marburg -> Kassel -> Berlin Hbf -> Berlin Suedkreuz (meet Emily).

Plan B ended up getting scratched out as well because the train decided to stop for 30 minutes outside of Kassel. Hurray.

Plan C:

Wait in Kassel for 43 minutes in negative degree temperatures -> Berlin Spandau (meet Emily).

Plan C ended up working perfectly. Though I was not a happy camper, but Karma decided to bless me with a table seat all to myself (a rare item) so I turned on Patti Smith and enjoyed the ride. I was writing in my journal as I traveled and here are some excerpts EXACTLY how they were written:

(15.20): There is a lady staring at me. She has been for the last 5 minutes.
(15.35): Staring lady is still keeping her gaze, I feel like I should throw my pen cap at her to see if she is even alive.
(15.55): SUCCESS! The sun is in Staring Lady's eyes now and she can stare no more! Muahahahahahahaha!!!
(16.11): OH MY GOD SHAGGY BABY COWS RUNNING OUTSIDE THE TRAIN!!!
(16.18): Staring lady resumed staring at me because the sun has set. Damn.
(17.00): The train just stopped because a beer truck tipped over next to the tracks. I can imagine the dialogue of the driver and his co-workers, "STOP ZE TRAIN! A BEER TRUCK HAS TIPPED OVER! WE MUST MOVE AT A STEADY 1 KM PER HOUR WIZ OCCASIONAL STOP TO MOURN ZE LOSS OF ZE BEER!" I wonder how many people fell when they slammed on the breaks. I think the Fates don't want me to get to Berlin judging from today's events.

When I stepped off the train in Spandau and was greeted by the smell of vomit, piss, and weed I realized I was back in Berlin. Mind you, not all of Berlin smells like this... but Spandau after dark definitely does. I met up with Emily and Erin and we went to Emily's host home in Zehlendorf. Her host mom has a Turkish name that I wont even begin to guess how to spell, so we'll call her Hostmom... either way, she's adorable. She made us a few different kinds of pizza: Veggie pizza, Tuna fish pizza, and a pizza topped with eggs. Every single one was SO GOOD. My mouth still waters when I think about the tuna fish pizza, it was made by the hands of the gods, I tell you. After dinner we headed out to a very relaxed bar in Kreuzberg with high ceilings and vintage photographs all over the place.

The next morning we woke up around 11.00 and were greeted by an elaborate German breakfast: A million kinds of bread, a variety of cheeses and meats, olives, oranges, honey, butter, nutella, black tea, and strong Turkish coffee. Next thing I knew it was well passed 13.00 and we had to leave to see an apartment for Erin. We reached the apartment just after 14.00, but the guy was not there so we waited an hour or so and then left. We then left to East Berlin to check out another apartment in a former DDR building. We were in and out pretty quick (mostly because we were shockingly hungry even after that large breakfast) so we went to Alexanderplatz to find food. After lunch we went to get coffee where I broke my Starbucks-virginity. I really didn't want to, but it was so Arschkalt that I caved in and got a coffee. Nothing special, really. Emily had to leave at 18.00 to meet up with a group for a tour of the Bundeskanzleramt, and Erin and I had to go see a guy about another apartment. At around 20.00, Erin and I met up with Emily and went back to a bar we had been to during our previous visit to Berlin. After a couple beers we headed out to go to Kreuzberg again, but for some reason (I don't remember why) we decided to find a place in Charlottenburg. This bar was apparently a 1920's type place that was closer to Zehlendorf. That place ended up being closed for a private birthday party, so we went to a different place in Steglitz. By the time we got home it was well passed 4 in the morning... I don't know how that happened. Aaah the mysteries of youth.

The next morning we were greeted, yet again, by another incredible German breakfast that lasted until around 13.30. After a few apartment searches we went to the Kaethe Kollwitz museum (which I was sooooo excited about). It was simply amazing. I was completely in love with her "Death" series. When exited the museum to find a blizzard (naturally on the one day I think it's safe to wear my moccasins). Erin and Emily were doing some freaky things driven by their craving for Sushi, so we satisfied their needs at a place we had gone in September with Erin's friend Nina. We were originally going to go to this "Lange Nacht" event where you pay a set price and get unlimited access to museums for a few hours, but it was so cold we decided to just pick up some beer and head back home. We sat at the kitchen table drinking beer with Hostmom and Veronica (another resident from Slovakia) until around midnight and then went to bed.

We went to bed so early because we had to get up in the wee hours of the day to go to another apartment appointment for Erin. After that, Erin headed back to Aachen and Emily and I decided to go to the Pergamon museum. It was great to see things that I find pasted in every single Art History book. We had to rush a bit unfortunately because of the time restraint, so we went to the Hbf and got currywurst. To my delight, the train ride back to Marburg was flawless and I managed to see a lot of German countryside that i've never seen before until the sun set. Though the weather is awful to be outside in, it does some incredible things to the landscape. Everything is covered in a blue/grey fog with a little bit of frost icing each tree. One thing about German nature... when you look at a landscape, you feel like you are looking at something with infinite detail.


When I came back to my dorm room in Marburg, I found that I was no longer alone. Mold had decided to take up residency around my windows and on parts of the surrounding wall. At first we were scared of each other, but then we became great friends. Eventually it began to crawl down onto my bed as I slept and whisper sweet nothings into my ear. All seemed well, but not all relationships are meant to be forever. The mold had to go. After a terrifying visit with the intimidating Haus Frau, I took some bleach to the wall and scrubbed the bugger out. When I approached the mold with my gloves and bleach it growled at me. Our parting was full of everything but "sweet sorrows." It didn't take the mold long to find someone new. I saw three other people wrote that they had a mold problem on the maintenance list... rebounds can be nasty.

As for me now... I finished watching Xena: Die Kriegerprinzessin (auf Deutsch of course) and I am not just kind of wandering around inside my own head. Poking at things with a stick, watching those weird little eye-floaties, reading here and there, drinking tea, drawing. Doing whatever it is that I do, and doing it well.

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.