Berlin Day One

I Like Berlin

And it's not because it's particularly beautiful, it's not. It's not because it's particularly cheap, though it is by European standards. I think it's just because it's got a good atmosphere and a fascinating (and very recent) history.
It's a real mixing-pot and has a very cosmopolitan feel. The architecture shows little evidence of being particularly pompous or over done. It is what it is. And I like that.

In terms of history, if I was here when I was six and did the same thing that I've done today I would have crossed the Iron Curtain about 5 times. INCREDIBLE!!! There are endless stories of the division of the city, the Berlin Wall (or "Anti-Fascist Protection Wall") and it's fall, and so on. Then just a few years before that all began, there was this guy in Berlin called Adolf and many bombs were aimed at him (90% of the inner city was destroyed), not long before that was an Emperor and another war... and so on and so forth...

Going to explore the city further tomorrow and Wednesday before heading back to Freiburg on Thursday (flying... a nice change).

Ostersonntag und frohe Ostern

Frohe Ostern...

I went to mass in the inner city of Prague where I understood nothing! Well ok, the readings were read in Czech then English (there really ARE that many tourists in Prague), so I understood the latter. (Random Note: I spoke mostly English in Prague, including with Astrid which is strange as I know her in German - it's a little like talking to a completely different person!)
Then I returned to the hostel from where we departed for the train station - destination Berlin.

We took the train to just across the German border (Bad Schandau) from where we bought a Schönes Wochenende Ticket (Good Weekend Ticket) with which, for 30€ five people can travel as far as they like in Germany in one (weekend) day using only regional trains (not the faster inter-city or express trains). We got off to a good started taking the wrong train to Dresden which meant we arrived in Berlin an hour later. In any case outside of Mass my easter was spent on the train looking out at the German coutryside and wanting to be in Freiburg.

... but one of them

Easter Saturday and things began to turn around.

The weather was beautiful. Prague was beautiful. I saw the rest of the Prague castle, the largest castle complex in the world, I went into the beautiful church of St Nicholas, saw the old building and gardens of the Prague Senate, climbed the Eiffel tower replica town for a great view of greater Prague before finally exhausting myself with a walk back into the city along the Hunger Wall.

Prague is indeed a beautiful city with a character of it's own not found in western cities. It's well worth a visit, but I maintain that it's not the most beautiful city in the world!

In the evening I went with Astrid and some of her Danish friends who had also come to Prague for the weekend to a genuine Czech pub. Whereas English and German are widely spoken elsewhere in Prague here they spoke none. I was quite pround of myself at making myself understood with Russian. We didn't stay long however and headed back to the hostel for sleep.

(Not) the most beautiful city in the world

Today I saw a little of what's not the most beautiful city in the world. Since my trip to Russia four years ago I've spoken to many people about travel in Europe, fully intending to return in the not-too-distant future. From the dribs and drabs that I heard, Prague was recommended by many, some as the most beautiful city they'd seen. Admittedly I'm in Prague at a bad time (Good Friday), and it rained for most of the day, but... anything out of the inner city itself is most probably ugly, (Got interrupted here - I'm now writing from Berlin so everything is now in retrospect) the ground is dirty and it's a bit of a shock after the impeccably maintained German cities. It was not particularly pleasant though to wade through swamps of people thick as mud to see over-rated attractions in the rain. In fact, the only thing that lightened my mood and kept me interested in Prague on this Good Friday were the similarities I found there with Moscow. Prague, like Moscow, has yet to develop to the level of a western European city and this is always evident, especially outside of the city-centre. I drank in the rough-and-ready Soviet-style functionality of the city - so many things built cheap out of necessity but also practical - ugly buildings - but which house many people, out-dated buses and stations but better public transport services than you would find in most western cities, an old-style cafe with simple dishes at simple prices. Then of course there were the linguistic similarities between Czech and Russian...

In spite of these things however I returned to the hostel on Good Friday evening with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

Deutschland People (not german people) - Party #B769 bei Magi

Peace...















The girls (Sorry Frederick)















The cooks: Stefano (Italia), Michelle (The US of A) and Maria Giulia (Magi - Italia)















A bite to eat?


























"Yes, thanks" Magi















Hard at work to cook our dinner (I was too busy taking photos!)


























Daniel (Sydney - says it all really)


























Travis (USA - says it all really)















Katie (USA), Some random gate-crasher and Bettina (Chile)


























Stefanissimo in all his glory















Huh? What's goin' on? I had nothing to do with it! (John and Michelle)


























Astrid (Denmark)


























Magi















Deep and meaningful conversations















Andreas (Norway - note trademark pose) and Astrid


























Dylan (attempting to destroy said trademark pose), Andreas and Maarten (Netherlands - always wanting to be a part of the action)


























Art















SMILE - (this photo was not posed) Astrid, John and Michelle


























TM pose















Magi and Astrid















TM Pose, Magi and Michelle















Sing us a song you're the guitar man (Daniel)


























Maarten - part of the action


























Dylan and Magi

A stopover, a film-set and a new stamp

Today Astrid and I traveled from Leipzig to Prague. We met early 9am for another Mitfahrgelegenheit trip to Dresden. In Dresden we took a stopover of about three hours. I have heard quite little from Dresden in the past so it was a bit of a surprise to find a really beautiful city with lots of baroque buildings, the winding Elbe river and even a bit of sunshine. We walked from the "New City" to the "Old City" - as always, both are old by Australian standards. There we had a self-guided tour. I took plenty of photos, especially of the Zwanger, the former royal entertainment centre and the highlight of Dresden. I will upload them when I return to Freiburg.

After a Bratwurst lunch (yummy) we bought a ticket and hopped on the train heading for Prague. (The actual route is Hamburg-Berlin-Dresden-Prague-Bratislava-Budapest!) Here came another pleasant surprise. From Dresden until about 10k's beyond the Czech border the train follows the Elbe river. It is a fantastic scenic trip that I rate better than the Austrian Alps and almost up there with the Ghan (Alice Springs to Adelaide). Heading south we actually traveled through a gorge on the western bank of the river. Along the length of this gorge are beautiful German houses wedged somehow been the steep cliffs and the river itself. Every time a valley came in from the side there would be houses crammed into the valley to form a small village. It really was like nothing I'd even seen and I couldn't help but feel joyous and was beaming inside.

Approaching the Czech border came German and Czech policemen through the train, a form of passport control. They both inspected my Australian passport very closely and I was the only one I saw who received a stamp. (Although it's so easy for Australians to travel in Europe it's even easier for European Union citizens.) I now have evidence in my passport of visiting six countries (although the actually tally is 8).

After continuing the train-trek as much through classic bohemian villages as ugly grey ex-soviet constructions we arrived in Prague, withdrew some Czech crowns from the ATM, and after a slightly geographically displaced round-about trip landed at our hostel from where I now write. I was also pleased to find that I can understand some things (actually very little and only when they are written) from my ex-knowledge of Russian.

Looking forward to exploring the city tomorrow and Sunday and hopefully catching a mass tomorrow morning (Good Friday).

Heidelberg, Baden, not Victoria

Heidelberg Castle, under sun















The Neckar River and the west bank, Heidelberg















Heidelberg City Centre















View of the Cathedral and the Neckar from Heidelberg Castle















View of Heidelberg from Heidelberg Castle















Heidelberg Castle, ruined in war


























Noch Mal, my fellow students


























An amazing building all round

Cold Colmar and Border-town Breisach

A classic European Street, Colmar















In the inner city, Colmar















The former slaughterhouse, Colmar















It´s much more beautiful in photographs when you don´t have to withstand the cold!!
















Little Venice, Colmar

The main Breisach church through the old city gate

The view from the hill, Breisach

Take (his name) the Japanese, bull fighting with the symbol of Europa, Breisach

Mit freundlichen Grüssen aus Leipzig

Hello avid readers...

I´m writing today from Leipzig, the Stadt der Helden or City of Heroes in the former German Democratic Republic GDR (East Germany). We came here on Sunday evening with a Mitfahrgelegenheit which is where people advertise on the internet that they´re going somewhere and have seats free. You can call them up a pay a small fee to go with them. It was around $25 for 300kms (and much faster than the train or cars in Australia - thanks to the world famous German Autobahn). I´m staying here, as I did in Bamberg, with friends of Astrid (my travel partner) from Denmark. It´s been very nice to have been shown such good hospitality.

Leipzig is the City of Heroes because, in the home city of the former Stasi (East Germany´s equivalent of the KGB), in 1989 the people held demonstrations under the slogan "Wir sind das Volk" (We are the people). 600 socialist party members were sent to one of these demonstrations to break it up but ended up listening then joining in! The demonstration slogan later changed to "Wir sind ein Volk" (We are one people) around the time of the fall of the Berlin wall and Germany´s (re)unification.

I have seen the old Stasi headquarters as well as a GDR Museum covering from the end of WWII to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Very interesting stuff. I´ve also been to the 1913 monument celebrating the defeat of Napoleon in Leipzig by the Prussian, Austrian, Russian and Swedish armies.

Europe is amazing for it´s rich history, and Germany especially because of it´s such rich recent history. Many of the things I´ve seen in the GDR Museum took place in my lifetime!! It´s amazing to think that some people lived such extraordinarily different lives than what I´ve ever experienced.

I´m heading to Prague tomorrow, looking forward to it.

I wish you all a very Happy Easter, in whatever you may be doing.

Post-coursum

After the course things began to change of course. We have all together around four weeks break between the end of language course 29.03 and the start of semester 24.04. Many went home or traveling in the first few days after the course. I had to move out of my room into the Evangelischer Studentenwohnheim. However I had to move out on a Friday and I couldn't move in until Monday. Luckily Søren Kristian, one of my Danish friends here, went home to Denmark and had a spare key. I was able to stay in his room for the weekend.

I moved successfully on Monday, and although my new residents seems like a good community, it's very hard to get a realistic impression of it as it's pretty much empty at the moment.
On Wednesday my Laptop hard-drive decided it was a good time to die. As such I lost all my photos from Singapore bar those that are in this Blog, half of my music and all my files (ok, they're in Australia but I no longer have them here). I was, still am,disappointedd. I also had to fork out $100 for a new hard drive!

On Friday I embarked on a trip around Germany. It was originally going to be a few of ustravelingg, but in the end turned out to be me and Astrid, another Dane. I'm writing now from Bamberg, a university city almost untouched by the destructive bombing raids of WWII. The entire old city is UNESCO World Heritage and very beautiful. It's divided in two parts, the religious part and the citizens part with the border being the river. The town hall, originally desired to be built in the religious part but not permitted by the bishop, is located right in the middle of the river and forms the middle of a two arch bridge.

After Bamberg we're heading to Leipzig, the former home of the Stasi, East-German secret police, for a few days, followed by Prague for three days then Berlin for four. Then flying back to Freiburg to catch the last half of the international students orientation week.

Sprachkurs, Excursionen, Freundschaft und Deutsch

It's been far too long since last time I entered something here... so much has happened that it's now difficult to know where to begin...

A bit about the language course: (Sprachkurs)

The language course lasted a little over three weeks. I met people and made friends very quickly. I now have friends from Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland and Chile as well as more from England, the USA, Australia and Italy.

We settled quickly into a daily routine of language tuition from nine till twelve every day followed by lunch in the Mensa (university lunch house) then 45 minutes in Sprachlabor (language lab) then lectures or seminars in the afternoon about a variety of topics deutsch related. I took a lecture on German geography and a seminar on Germany and Europe.

In the evenings we had German films on Tuesday and Thursday and found ourselves going out to eat or for drinks almost every night. A group of us (we meaning those doing the language course - until now I'm yet to make German friends, although I have met a few) began a tradition in the first week of getting together, and cooking together. This happened at least once a week during the language course.

Excursions:
Every weekend we had at least one excursion. This kicked off on the Saturday after the first week with a trip the Black Forest. We had a tour of a monastery, saw heaps of snow (it's was really thick in the mountains of the Black Forest) and visited a few Museums. The Black Forest is full of small businesses that make very specialised technical products. Traditionally one of these was Cuckoo Clocks. One of the Museums that we visited was a Clock museum. Although not the most exciting Museum I've ever visited, it was actually much better than it sounds. After the clock museum we had the best snow fight I've ever been involved it. It lasted half an hour and involved about twenty people. Despite going back inside numerous times to warm my hands up, I couldn't feel them after the fight. We all climbed on the bus a bit wet, quite tired but satisfied. The descent from the mountains was very slow and cautious as it had begun to snow quite heavily. Back in Freiburg we visited a local winery and did a tour with wine tasting... lecker!!

Sunday:
Another day another country!! We took an excursion to Colmar just across the French border - the majority of the way on our regional train ticket. Colmar is a very beautiful city that lies in Elsass a French-German region which has changed hands many times. The people there speak French though I'm told the older people speak German, or at least a dialect. It was richtig cold in Colmar and it was actually painful to stand outside. My photos look nicer than it did at the time simply because it was too cold to enjoy the views!! We sat in cafes for half the day then visited a well-know Museum. Well worth a visit.
On the return leg we visited Breisach (Germany), the highlight of which was the church built high on top of a hill. From there the were great views across Breisach to France, and in the other direction the Black Forest behind Freiburg.

Saturday 19th:
The following weekend we took a trip to Heidelberg. Heidelberg, like Freiburg is a University town in Baden (the region of Germany). The Uni there is about the same age as Freiburg and where Freiburg Uni was a Catholic Theological University, Heidelberg was, at least after the Reformation, Baden's Protestant equivalent.
Heidelberg is also very beautiful (I'm going to stop saying that, because all the cities that I've seen here so far have been!), has a bustling student city feel and was also quite cold. It's a little bit smaller than Freiburg but is set against the Necker river and I noticed that there were more tourist oriented things there than in Freiburg (although I personally find Freiburg a more beautiful city!). The highlight of Heidelberg was the Schloss (palace) which was ruined in some war or other and has since been partially restored so the ruins are maintained. The Schloss was awesome and I always find it amazing in such old buildings to considered the things that have happened there. If walls could talk...

Saturday 26th:
This time we crossed another border and out of the European Union to Basel, Switzerland. We travelled almost all the way there on our regional tickets too. Basel, it's main features being the mighty Rhine and it's exorbitant Swiss prices lies very near the Germany border and is connected with regional ties to Freiburg, Strasbourg and other cities (it's an interesting tri-country regional relationship).
Here I heard Swiss-German for the first time. UNBELIEVABLE! I couldn't understand a word! It really is another language, although most people can also speak high-German. The two highlights for me here were the Rhine, which we crossed in a water-powered boat, and the Cathedral, the tower of which we climbed for fantastic views of the city.

Tuesday 29th:
On the second last day of the Language course, and as part of the Germany and Europe seminar, we took a trip to Strasbourg including the European Parliament. The parliament was our first port of call and, although it was very much empty, also the highlight because when we got the the City centre it rained and we ended up running to the cathedral for a quick look then heading home shortly afterwards.


Through excursions, classes and free time I've made some very good friends and because of them it's been a pleasure to be here. We speak pretty much exclusively German and my German has improved as much because of that as the classes!

German. I never imagined that when I write this, only a month after my arrival in Germany, I would feel so comfortable speaking German. It is now natural to speak German, and although, of course I make many mistakes and have much much more to learn, I can express myself in as much as is necessary. This has also been made easier by the fact that my friends here are all foreigners so we all speak a little slower and sometimes have to think about how to say something. But this has been good in that I haven't been thrown too far into the deep end and as such I now feel comfortable talking to Germans in social situations and I understand the vast majority of what is said.
Just to give you an idea too... everything from the language course was in German, the classes, seminars and lectures as well as excursions and city tours.

It is now often the case that I have to think about the sentence structure or vocabulary in English!!

Sorry this one was so long coming and so long...

Keep the emails coming... it's ALWAYS good to hear from you - no matter where in the world you may be.