Leipzig und Dresden (Ostdeutschland, ehemalige DDR)

Alrighty, so the problem was that I hadn't downloaded the most recent security update. Everything's taken care of. PLUS I have internet on campus now! No more stupid trips to McDonald's!

But on to the more interesting stuff.

After Berlin we traveled to Leipzig. This was possibly my favorite city. It's hard to say, tho, because Germany in general is so freaking awesome.

First thing we did when we got there was to buy a day pass for the buses. It cost €11. IDIOT idea. Leipzig is so small that you just walk everywhere. Plus it's so pretty that you should even if it were big.


Next up was the Nikolai Kirche (above). It was where the East Germans first started plotting their democratic rebellion. Entrance was free. ***


Then we went to the cathedral where Bach used to play and is buried. Above is a photo of his organ! (free entrance, again) ***


just kind of a cool shot (of Leipzig)


After that we walked to the Stasi Museum. The museum was pretty sweet. It was an outpost that was kept basically the same as it was during the GDR period. ***


then my favorite part! THE ZOO
The Leipzig Zoo is amazing. It cost, I think, €7 for entrance (I'm not positive), but it rocked hard core. Some of the animals (for example, the above monkey) were freilaufend, meaning they could wander around wherever they wanted. This monkey walked right by us.

And the best part of the zoo was the great ape exhibits. This was unlike anything I'd ever seen. We actually went to the zoo for this reason, because I was reading this book called The First Word, on the origin of language, and it mentioned several times the linguistic research on apes done at the Leipzig Zoo. *****


The apes have free roam between an outside area (pictured above) and an inside enclosure (below).




Here's a bonobo using a tool (a twig to dig out insects)! And just a few decades ago no one thought animals could use tools!

Nota bene, it's not just apes and monkeys at the zoo, tho. They're just what particularly interested me.

next up: Dresden


me being stupid (surprise) at our hostel in Dresden
We stayed at another A+O. This time it was a lot nicer of a room, but the roommate was crappy. He snored like no other. It was like an earthquake. Plus he went to bed at 8:30 and got up (loudly) at 7. Other than that, it was pretty nice, we had our own bathroom, and it cost only €13/bed. ****


We walked around the city. Again, you have no need for the bus.


Dreden is beautiful.


This is where I ate lunch.


Then we went to the botanical gardens at the university there. Apparently they're famous. They're really cool. Chrissy thought it might rain when we went into the Tropenhaus, but it didn't.


I have no idea what this is, but I thought it looked cool.

Oh yeah, botanical gardens=cool and free. ****


And what better proof that Dresden is sweet than the fact that it has an IBIS!

Tomorrow I'll post about Paris. Bis bald, alle!

Paris

I'm in Paris, and it's not letting me look at my blog. This is just a test.

Berlin, Hauptstadt Deutschlands

Right now I'm sitting in my hostel in Dresden, but before I get to that: BERLIN!

So the best thing about Berlin was that I got to meet up with about a thousand friends of mine. We Constancers stayed in A+O Hostel with Sara Thatcher and Erik Davis (my roomie from way back in the USA). The hostel was, mmm, the worst so far, but still decent. It was €13/bed and right next to one of the train stations, but it was filled with screaming high schoolers, who woke up at sunrise every morning and made animal noises. The shower doors were transparent and were across from sinks with mirrors, so it was like you were part of a (naked) art exhibit every morning. Plus breakfast was overpriced (€6), so we didn't get it. Location=very good, rooms=okay, living conditions=poor. I'd give it **.

But anyway, on to way too many photos:


Another one of my friends we met in Berlin was Katie Henly. She was a tour guide last summer in Berlin, so she offered to take all of us around the city. She was insanely enthusiastic. I give her tour *****, 5 stars!
Also, tho, if you don't have a friend who professionally gives tours of Berlin, you can check out Katie's previous employer, Sandeman's. Tours are free, and you see lots of the city!


on the tour, Gendarmenplatz, with a statue of Schiller in the foreground


Oh! And you might remember from my Russian blog that the mullet has hit the Russian scene. Well fear no more! Germany has also joined the fashion revolution. Teenage boys all over the country are screaming "Business in the front, party in the back!"


The next day (we spent three nights in Berlin) we went to the Jewish Museum. It was bizarre. I wasn't a big fan. It was €2,50 to get in, plus we paid an extra €1 to see the special exhibit. Some of it was artsy and fun, but a lot of it was just eclectic. One room seriously had a bunch of mounted fish. No one knows why. I give it **, just to be nice.

But don't worry; we went to several other Jewish/Holocaust things in Berlin. There's a very cool Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is free, and just out along the street (****).

And just below this monument is a museum to the Jewish Holocaust victims. This is also cool and free. It supposedly follows the stories of 6 Jewish people or Jewish families or something thru the Nazi period, but I haven't the foggiest idea how. Nonetheless, it was quality (esp. for the price), so ***.

We also went to the Topography of Terror, an exhibit near the Berlin Wall. It was free and outside. It probably would not have been very cool (it's just a bunch of posters with about an entire novel written on each one), but it was raining, which made it all the worse. I give it **, just because it was near the Wall, which is interesting to see in person.


This is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was just down the street from our hostel. It is really cool looking. It was bombed out during WWII, and they decided to leave it like that as a monument. I don't think you can get inside it, but it is definitely worth the walk to see it (even if you live on the other side of Berlin, not just on the other side of the street!).


Then the next day, we went to watch Katie run in a marathon. We watched and watched, but didn't see her (tho we actually must have, since we saw everyone run past). So then Sara and I climbed the Victory Tower (Siegessäule) to get a high-up view of the city. It cost €1,50, and there was a museum on the bottom floor. The view was mediocre. I've had enough skyscraper views of big cities for a lifetime, I'm pretty sure. Plus the museum was crap. *.

Then I went to Museum Island and went to the museums (by myself! No one else wanted to go!). A day pass to all of the museums on the island cost €14 I think. It's pretty expensive, but you can see a lot. First I went to the Pergamon.


I saw the Ishtar Gate!
The Pergamon was very cool. I give it ****.


Then I went to the Egyptian Museum. Here I saw the bust of Nefertiti. Beyond that it wasn't that great (and actually, the bust wasn't that great either). Better deal: Go to the University of Chicago. The Egyptian Museum gets **.

And finally I went to the Museum of Antiquities. This museum was better than the Egyptian in my opinion, but it didn't really have anything substantial in it. Plus I kind of had my fill of museums for the day. I give it ***.


Okay, so maybe when you think Berlin, you think of the Wall, the Jewish memorial, the Brandenburg Gate. Well that's idiotic. What you should really think of are these two things: The Berliner Ampelmann (the odd looking East German man on the stop lights) and Knut the polar bear (more info on Knut below).


This is what Berlin actually looks like. It's kind of gross, dirty, full of prostitutes (seriously), and gross (I'm repeating myself here for emphasis).


Finally to end the day, we went to the East Side Gallery, which is an intact section of the Wall that was covered by some pretty sweet graffiti.


East Side Gallery

That evening we went to the Weinerei (wine bar). It was only €2,00 for the glass, and then you could fill it up as many times and with as many different kinds of wine (or juice) as you wanted. An obvious *****.


Erik and Sara looking classy


group of us

Okay, so the last day in Berlin I got my hair cut and went to the zoo. Entrance to the aquarium and the zoo proper was €7. It was overall a very nice zoo, but I just went to the zoo in Leipzig today, and that is one of the best in the world, so I feel a little jaded while writing this. But that's a story for tomorrow. I'm giving the Berlin Zoo ***.


AND I SAW KNUT! Knut is famous all over Germany. He's the star attraction of the Berlin zoo. I'm not really sure why. When he came here, he was just a baby and was apparently very cute, but now he's a grown-up and kind of ferocious. But anyway, they even have a movie about him out in theaters (check out the wicked rad trailer!).

So thanks for sticking with me for this massive post, but Berlin is kind of a massive city.
Tomorrow I'll post about Leipzig and Dresden - and my blog will finally catch up with me in real life again!

Hamburg und Kiel

Hello again! How are you keeping up with all of this rapid-fire posting?

So we were in Bacharach for two nights, then on the third day we took a really dumpy train to Hamburg (through Koblenz). I figured maybe y'all aren't super humans with your German geography (Landeskunde), so I made this map with all of my stops:


So anyway, after Bacharach we ended up in Hamburg. Here we stayed with a friend and fellow Ole, Lennart Brombas, and his family. Lennart met us at the train station and showed us the town. The next day was a more serious tour of the town.


Hamburg

It was pretty chilly. We wandered around most of the city. It was very pretty. We even took a boat out on the river Elbe.


land near Lennart's house


Then the third day (again, we spent two nights in Hamburg), Lennart drove us up to Kiel on the Baltic Sea for the afternoon. The Baltic Sea is spectacular. Pristine. Gorgeous.


perfect


marina

So I don't really have anything to rank, because we didn't spend money on anything. Free housing (not to mention extremely nice hosts!) and free tours always get five stars. For those of you who don't have a Hamburger friend (ha, Hamburger), you can take a guided bus tour of the city for €10. Or you could just grab one of their maps of the tour's stops and walk it yourself.

Right now I'm in Berlin (I've been here for a couple of days now), but tomorrow we're off to Leipzig and Dresden. There I will also have internet, so you can look forward to another post, this time with photos from BERLIN!

Frankfurt und Bacharach

as promised!
So I realize most people probably don't read my blog once a day, but this is the best way I could think of to play catch-up with my trip. So as I mentioned in my last blog, each stint of the "Reise" will get one post. Today I'm posting about my trip thru Frankfurt and Bacharach.

We were only in Stuttgart for one day, unfortunately. We spent the next afternoon in Frankfurt. We stored our luggage in some lockers at the train station for €4,00.


We went up this tower to get a view of the city. It cost about €3,50. Frankfurt isn't very pretty. Although it was kind of cool and surreal to be up so high, it certainly wasn't worth the money. I give it *.


For my schweester! HA!


Then we went to the Goethehaus, where Goethe apparently was born. There's even a "so-called birth room". This is Amelia at a so-called desk. She's being inspired thru osmosis. I can't wait to read her next Goethe-esque novel. Entrance cost a bit over €4.


I took a seminar on Goethe's Faust, and last semester I read The Sorrows of a Young Werther, so I was pretty excited to see this so-called plaque!

Then we went to Bacharach. This city is undoubtedly my favorite stop so far. It's small and basically unknown, but it's beautiful! It's near Cologne (or if you're really good with German topography, only about a half hour train ride from Koblenz).

We stayed in a castle up way on top of this mountain/hill! It was a 20-minute walk up steps with my massive amount of luggage!


gorgeous church/memorial to the Jews on the way up to the castle


The next day Amelia and I hiked up to the top of another mountain. This is on the way up. I like the lines, but you can also see a butterfly on one of the logs. Oh, also the weather was spectacular! Probably about high 70s, but windy enough that it was never hot.


me and my view
That's the Rhine down there, and that itty-bitty town is Bacharach.
We would never have known about Bacharach except that Chrissy had stayed here with a class trip in high school. Three cheers for Chrissy!


blossoms, because it's Spring here!


artsy-fartsy


After sitting up on top of the mountain for hours, Amelia and I decided we had to go down, otherwise we'd explode from exposure to too much beauty.


It was a steep hike down, with not too many steps or handrails. It was also thru a mass of vineyards. (Bacharach gets its name from Bacchus, Roman god of wine.)


And since the region is so well known for its wine, we decided it would be remiss not to partake in a local wine-tasting. It was around €4/person and well worth it. I love wine. I give it a ****: not quite a fiver, because most of the wine was white.


On the hike back up to the castle, we passed a goat farm. (That's Chrissy on the left, not a blond goat.)


view from our castle/hostel the day we left

So as I mentioned about a hundred times, yes we stayed in a castle. It was awesome (except for the heinous trekk up the mountain). It was also really cheap, at about €18-19 a night. It also came with a free all-you-can-eat breakfast. You could also purchase an all-you-can-eat dinner for €6. And on the way down we took a cab. It cost €8. If you can split that up several ways like we could, it is definitely worth it! I give the hostel (Hostel Stahleck) ***** - that's right, five stars!

So what do you have to look forward to in my next post? My travels around Germany continue as I visit the northern cities of Hamburg and Kiel!

um Deutschland reisen

Hello dear blog-readers of mine!
So I've been traveling around Germany for my Spring Break. I thought I'd have more internet access than I've had, but I'm surviving anyway!
Here's my plan for the next several blogs. Each single blog I'm going to discuss one leg of the trip. Assuming (hoping) that some of you readers will visit Germany and want to do some of the things I have done, I'm also going to rank the activities (out of 5 asterisks, *****) and give the approximate price.

And we're off:
Our first stop was Stuttgart, but first we had to get to Singen, a town near Constance, in order to transfer to a different train. However, the railroad in Constance was under construction, so we had to go to a different station near by (we took a bus) and then board the train. Our connecting train in Singen was delayed an hour, so we grabbed coffee.


I'm an idiot. Whatever.
(in Singen)

Then we got to Stuttgart. Oh, and we're using the Eurrail Pass, which so far has been very easy. It cost me about $440, but it's unlimited travel for any 11 days in two months, so not a bad deal at all. We had to get it stamped before we got on our first train, and then we have to fill out the date in these little boxes each day before we travel. I give the Eurrail Pass ****, just because 5 stars is way too much for the first time I rate anything.

Anyway, Stuttgart was surprisingly gorgeous! (Quite possibly largely because the weather was spectacular.) We just wandered around and sat on the lawn near Schlossplatz (right near the two castles). People in Stuttgart were all very well dressed and very attractive. They were also predominantly Mediterraneans-looking, which surprised me.


inside the Evangelical church
very modern, very chic


street musicians, Louis Vuitton, 17th century church


Schlossplatz


Stuttgart=second love of my life, after Constance

In Stuttgart we stayed at Alex 30. It was clean, the staff spoke English (even tho we didn't need it), and decently priced (€22/bed/night, I'm pretty sure). No breakfast, tho, and it's a decent distance from the train station. You can, however, take the street car (€1/trip) directly from the train station to the block where the hostel is located. I give it ***.

So that's all for this post. Expect another tomorrow with photos from Frankfurt and Bacharach!