Day 35

We  got up early on Saturday to head to the famous Fish Market. We had talked about it in my German class last semester, and apparently it’s the coolest thing to see in Hamburg. Unfortunately it always closes at 9:30 and it was all the way across town. Undeterred we set our alarm clocks and made the trek only to discover an empty parking lots with the faint sent of fish. Juliann’s Hamburg friend was confused when we mentioned it later, and we blamed it on Easter weekend. Upon further research at home, however, i learned that the Fischmarkt is only open on Sunday mornings. Oops.

At this point we were up early with nothing really planned. We were wandering around checking out old buildings when we stumbled upon the Miniature Wonderland. I suggested we check it out, and it ended up being pretty cheap so we went in. It was so cool! Maybe not very “Hamburg” but still very cool.

They had areas to represent Hamburg, middle Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, the Alps, the US, and an imaginary city Knuffingen with the world’s largest model airport.

Everything was so detailed, and there were little jokes everywhere.

I think Knuffingen was my favorite because there were so many stories in all of the little people.

This was shot through a hotel window.

Las Vegas at sunset

All over the Wonderland they had little buttons you could push that would make stuff happen. They had one that ran a car wash, one that made the prison lights and siren go off, etc. By far the best button was next to the Lindt factory that made a real peace of chocolate for free! I had to wait in a long line of little kids to get this, but it was so worth it!

After the Wonderland, we went to look at some more old buildings before we were supposed to meet Juliann’s friend.

This one was my favorite. It’s the Nikolaikirche and it’s been left in ruins from WWII with a war memorial in the basement. There is also a glass elevator that will take you to the top of the remaining spire for a view of the city. I loved the Gothic architecture and how it complemented the haunting feeling of the war memorials.

“Angel on Earth” Take my hand and let me lead you back to yourself.
Edith Breckwoldt – Bronze 2003

After walking around for awhile we met up with Juliann’s friend and went to the park. It was really pretty and you could climb the astronomy tower for a good view of the city skyline.

After the park it was time to catch our train back to Bamberg. Before we left, though, i had to try one of the fish sandwiches they were selling everywhere, and i must say that i like döners a lot better.

And thus concludes my Easter travels. Stay tuned for future adventures =)

 

Day 34

We took the morning train to Hamburg on Friday, and arrived rather exhausted. We took a short walk around the main square area and ate a döner at a little cafe. We were both really tired, though, so we decided it was pointless to push on when we weren’t really enjoying it, and headed back to the hotel for a nap and some chill time on the internet.

Forty thousand sons of the city gave their lives for you. 1914-1918

The Old City Hall

Day 33

Thursday morning we woke up in Berlin! Now i know Berlin is super famous and historical, but the main attraction i was looking forward to was its world famous zoo. The zoo opened in 1844, and you still get some of that old school feel to it when you view the numerous species of deer and chickens. Of course with knowledge and technology, the zoo expanded and now they also have numerous exotic animals such as giant pandas, grey wolves, and the famous polar bear, Knut. In addition to all the animals, the park is also beautifully landscaped and definitely worth a visit.

Yeah they call him “king” for a reason.

The monkeys are definitely one of my favorites.

But they’re not all cute bundles of fur. No wonder the Wicked Witch was such a fan.

Oh yeah, check out that “come hither” look! Or maybe it’s a “you’d better not mess with me look”? Animal expressions are kind of hard to read…

I guess public urination goes beyond teenagers in the park in this country lol.

After the zoo we wandered through the tiergarten in the rough direction of the gate.

This is Goldelse, or more properly the Victory Column (Siegessäule). It was originally designed in celebration of a Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, but by the time it was completed they had also beaten Austria and France, so they added the golden statue of Victoria for good measure.

This is the Bellevue Palace, and as far as i know this is all you’re allowed to see. Maybe there’s somewhere you can pay to take a tour, but i didn’t see any groups. In any case it was a nice lawn.

The Reichstag! We wanted to walk around the glass dome and watch the government people work, but apparently you had to have a reservation.

The Brandenburg Gate

and a World War II memorial.

This is the Berliner Dom. Unfortunately it was closed when we got there, so we headed to Museum Island hoping to actually be able to go inside something since we had heard that students got in free on Thursday nights.

Well we walked around to all the museums and asked what the price was for students. It turns out student entry wasn’t free, so that was a fail. We still had a couple hours of daylight though, so we decided to stop by the Gedächtniskirche (Memorial Church) and the wall on the way back to our hotel.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was built in at the end of the 19th century. It was destroyed in a World War II air raid, and they built the new version around the remains. The new buildings have been nicknamed “Lippenstift und Puderdose” because they look like lipstick and a powder box.

And because we were in Berlin, we had to stop by the wall. It really wasn’t very exciting, but hey, i touched history!

Day 32

Dresden! Today i have many many pictures for you because Dresden is just gorgeous. We began our day by walking into the old city. At the crosswalks i noticed the “walk” and “don’t walk” signs were way cooler than in Bamberg. Juliann told me it was the famous Ampel Man (Ampel just means traffic light in German). When Germany was divided East Germany developed these really sweet traffic lights, and after reunification the government was going to take them all down and replace them with the regular traffic lights that were in West Germany. Well the people were not happy about that so they did huge protests, especially in Berlin and they saved the Ampel Man. Now Germany makes all kinds of money from the toursits with cool Ampel Man paraphernalia.

They also had an Ampel Woman!

When we crossed the bridge we got another great view of the city.

The Hofkirche

The Academy of Arts

Our first stop in the city was the Frauenkirche. Outside of the church was a youth choir group and their horse drawn carriage.

After that we just wandered around admiring the buildings and walking into anything that looked cool and free.

The Procession of Princes representing the history of Saxony's ruling family, the Wettins.

The Semper Opera House

This is the Hofkirche again where they were having an organ concert. The sign said you weren’t allowed to take pictures, but i managed to sneak one in without getting thrown out.

The Zwinger

After the Zwinger we came across this rather scary looking fountain. I thought the lizards were cool though.

By now it was after lunch time, so we went on the hunt for food. Now of course there were the classic “Imbiss” stands

which are super good and mostly what i eat if i don’t feel like cooking in Bamberg. Dresden is was bigger than Bamberg, though, and for the past several weeks i had been craving KFC, thinking that i would have to wait until i returned to the US.  When we were walking back to the hostel yesterday, however, we walked past a giant KFC sign and learned that there was one on Trompeter Str! We found Trompeter Str, but there was definitely no KFC, so we asked some lady taking a smoke break. She had no idea. We were next to a little coffee shop, and Juliann wanted to check the prices on something so we went in. After she had ordered, we asked the lady about KFC and she actually knew what we were talking about. Apparently Trompeter Str. has two sides that don’t really connect (imagine how confusing Bull St and Main St in Columbia must be for people out of town) so she directed us to the other side and we found it!

America tastes so good! After lunch we moseyed back toward the hostel. We stopped at the Yenidze “tobacco mosque” which used to be an old tobacco factory, but is now a collection of offices and stores. We didn’t realize its function had been so altered so we ended up walking into some business foyer wondering where all the tobacco was. We only found that one door, but apparently there are also a lot of stores you can enter.

We stopped by the Japanese Palace again with hopes that the inside would be more excited, but these guys holding up the building were the only really “Japanese” feature of the building which now holds a deep sea museum.

Seriously shiny Augustus the Strong

We also stopped by the Dreikönigskirche again hoping to get inside. This church was actually really cool because, except for the tower, the outside is really modern looking. The inside was similar with only the alter belonging to the old ornate style. We were trying to read the panels about the history of the church when i realized the lady next to me was translated the text into English for her husband. I asked her something about what the panel said and we started talking. The couple lived in Hamburg and they had met while the man was on tour with the US Navy. The woman did some translating for us, and we learned that, like the majority of Dresden, it had been pretty much flattened in the WWII bombing. Only the tower was left standing, and they had removed the alter before the bombing so it was also saved. After the war the church was used to store rubble for several years until they finally got it cleared out. They didn’t have enough money to really restore the church, so they just built it in a simple style but keeping the tower and the alter.

The Dreikönigskirche concluded our tour of Dresden, so we hopped on a train to spend the night in Berlin!

Day 31

We had two weeks off around Easter between the intro course and the beginning of the semester, so Juliann and i decided to do some city hopping. Our first stop was Dresden! It was about a six hour train ride, and we didn’t start at the crack of dawn so it was almost dinner time when we arrived. We went straight to our hostel to drop off our bags (the wonderful kangaroo stop as suggested by Kathryn) before taking on the town. Dresden’s river cuts the city into the north and south parts. We were staying on the north which is the more modern side while the historic buildings line the south bank. Since we didn’t have a lot of time left in the day, we decided to explore the north half and take on the south half the next day.

We walked down to the river past some cool sculptures

the Dreikönigskirche (which was unfortunately closed)

and the Japanese Palace (which basically just looks like an ordinary museum from the outside.

There was a really nice park area along the river and a view of the old city.

On the way back to the hostel we passed one of the many trees that had been decorated for Easter.

After our short tour of the north side, we went to the Bautzner Tor which was recommended for its very East German food. Of course we had no idea what was quintessentially East German so i just picked something randomly off the menu and ended up with some sort of sausage,  go figure. After a couple minutes some Germans joined our table because the place was pretty full. We pretty much kept to ourselves at the beginning, but after we had eaten some we started to chat and it was super entertaining. There were two late 30’s guys and an older man. The two younger guys spoke English pretty well, but we nice enough to help us practice our German. They thought US doorknobs were dumb, but we told them putting push bars on pull doors was more dumb lol. After we finished our drinks and paid, we bid farewell and had a decently early bed time for an early start the next day.

Day 20

Our weekend trip this week was to Pottenstein and Gößweinstein. In Pottenstein we had the choice of going on a cave tour or to the toboggan park. Since we had just spent yesterday walking around in cold dark caves it wasn’t really a difficult choice. The tobogganing was sort of like a self-driven single-car roller coaster. Everyone got in their own little carts with a break lever that should be left alone, and we went flying down the mountain.

One of the girls in front of us seemed to think this was a leisurely photo tour instead of a thrill ride. While we were stuck waiting on her, i took a picture of Kathryn and you can better see the cart.

Because our first ride was so slow, we decided to go again and it was awesome! I’m glad they don’t let tourists drive the roller coasters at Six Flags.

An awesome multi-lingual sign!

After Pottenstein we took the bus next door to Gößweinstein. It had a super cool basilica! And some really good pizza =)

Then we ended the afternoon with a 6ish kilometer walk back to Pottenstein to meet the bus. I don’t think any of the students really understood why we were walking back when the bus had dropped us off to begin with, but the countryside was pretty so aside from being really dehydrated (dehydration is a normal part of German travel because anything to drink is expensive and if you can find a toilet you’ll probably have to pay to use it) it was cool.

Day 19

On Friday we had a cave tour as part of the intro program. They called it a cave tour, but it was really a series of tunnels dung underneath the city. They were originally dug as cellars for storing beer, but over time they were enlarged and connected into an awesome pitch black labyrinth. The tour was entirely in German, so i was mostly zoned out and didn’t learn a whole lot. There was one part, though, where we were led to an area that had a couple bones in the corner so i actually paid attention. It turns out there was some point where the whole city was holed up in the tunnels. The place where we were standing was the “grocery store” and the bones were from a cow. After that we were led into a room with lots of beer barrels and i got distracted taking pictures.

 

David trying to blind us all with his flashlight.

Our guide explaining that all the black on the ceiling was caused by smoke from the fires people burned while they lived down here.

A giant beer barrel!

More beer!!

Day 13

On Saturday the University had organized a trip to Munich as part of the intro course. After a three hour bus ride we were dropped off in front of the Opera house and told to be back by 6:30. There was supposed to be an English tour of the city at 2, so we just decided to look around for a bit until then. Our first stop was Marienplatz with the famous Glockenspiel on the “new” city hall. The hall was completed in 1908 but there’s another one in town that’s from the 1300’s.

The Glockenspiel is basically a really awesome cuckoo clock that only goes off at 11 (plus noon and five when the tourist season gets big). The top half plays out a jousting match for Duke Wilhelm V’s wedding. Bavaria always wins of course, and then the bottom half goes off. It depicts the barrel makers who were the first to go out into the streets after a plague and did a dance to show everyone it was ok.

On the side of the City Hall there was also this really sweet dragon!

And of course lots of tourists taking photos. I guess this guy was trying to get a picture doing karate with the Glockenspiel. I thought it was funny that his friend had a pink cover for his iPhone though.

Anyway after we’d looked at the building for awhile, we decided that it was time for lunch so we headed towards the Hofbräuhaus. Unfortunately we let Kathryn lead the way, so we ended up at the Frauenkirche. Luckily we’d wanted to go there anyway, so we stayed to look around.

This is the famous Devil’s Footprint in the church foyer. The legend is that while the church was being built the devil came to destroy it, but when he stood in the foyer it looked at though there weren’t any windows (the columns block them). He thought to himself, “This is great. Without any windows the church will be dark and damp with rats and other foul creatures and people will come here to worship me instead of God.” So he made a deal with the builder that he would help build the church as long as no windows were added. After the church was built the devil came back to check out his handiwork and was astonished to find the church filled with light. He realized he had been tricked, but the church had already been consecrated so all he could do was angrily stomp his foot leaving this imprint.

After checking out the Frauenkirche we took the map away from Kathryn and found our way to the Hofbräuhaus. It was pretty much a tourist trap, but then we were being tourists for the day and it really was a lot of fun.

The pretty menus which we read in German unlike the American tourists that sat down next to us. We did help them translate a little bit until they found some English menus though.

Prost! This is Samantha, Kathryn, Juliann, and Nastia’s beer lol.

After going to the Hofbräuhaus, we met up for the English tour. As part of the tour we went to Augustiner am Platzl because Augustiner beer is apparently the Pope’s favorite beer and thereby the best beer in the world. Unfortunately i’d already had as much beer as i wanted for the day, so i passed it up with just a small taste. The tour also told us more about the Frauenkirche, the old city hall, and Hitler’s beginnings.

Then we walked down the most expensive street in Europe. I bet they don’t give out these pens at your bank.

Yes, this watch is six figures, and no, the first figure is not a one.

This is a statue of Juliet which was a gift to the city from Verona. Young men are supposed to give her a rose and touch her breast to find their undying love, and from the looks of it, a lot of young men have been looking for love. 😉

All throughout the city there are these subtle memorials of World War II. They are kind of off the beaten track and only in German, which some people think is wrong. Others, however, think it’s their subtlety that makes them more powerful. This one says, “Here stood the Ulfelder store until year 1938.” It was one of the largest department stores in Munich at the time, but it was destroyed on Kristallnacht.

After all our touring we were looking for some famous Munich Weißwurst for dinner. We got it from this great little butcher shop/Imbiss stand and it was amazing! It was by far the best German food i’ve had, such that i even bought some at the grocery store to make at home. It was served with sweet mustard and a pretzel.

After dinner we went to the English Gardens and just relaxed by the river for awhile. Back at the Opera House Maximilian Joseph was there to greet us. Apparently he hated this statue because he thought he looked like he was waving for a waiter at a cafe. It’s hard to keep people from putting up statues after you’re dead, though, and his son liked it just fine.

Day 10

Laundry Day

Yesterday i managed to get a hold of the landlord in order to buy tokens for the laundry machines, so today was the big day. The landlord had given some instructions and basically what i got out of it was that you were supposed to turn the token thing after every token and it would take 2-3 tokens per load per machine. I also learned where the machines were, so i packed up my clothes and my soap and headed down the stairs. This is what the room looked like:

So i walked over to the washing machine and saw this sign posted above it. It looked pretty important, but it seemed to just say that you were supposed to leave the door open when you were done washing.

Then i turned my attention to the token machine:

which made me think i’d get 20 minutes for each token i put in. Forty minutes should be plenty for washing, so i put in two tokens and then tried to figure out the washing machine.

Of course it wasn’t lit up or anything when i was looking at it. Someone had come in after me by the time i actually took the pictures. On the left is a key that explains what all the symbols mean that show you where the machine is in the cycle and also what the letters mean for the various cycles mean. It was on C when i got there and i figured most clothes are synthetic so maybe that’s what i wanted? (Later with a translator i found out that A is cottons/machine wash and the word in front of synthetic means fine, so i probably really wanted A) I had no idea what the numbers by the letters were for, except that near A it said °C (yeah i realize now that numbers like 90 don’t make any sense as °C, but i was just trying to get my clothes washed) so i just left everything where it was and hit start. The little light up number only said 20 though so i didn’t think my second token had worked. Instead of putting in more money i just decided to come back in 20 minutes and see what it was doing.

20 minutes later i walked back downstairs and the light up number said 23. I watched it for a bit and it seemed to be counting down normally, so i went back upstairs. 25 minutes later i went to check on it and it still had 6 minutes left, but the cycle light was flashing in a way that made me think there was a problem.  Just in case it was supposed to flash like that, i came back again in 10 minutes. The number was still on 6 and the light was still flashing. “Crap i just broke the machine.” It was after office hours, but i knew the landlord lived in my building so i buzzed his apartment:

Hallo?
Hallo, ich denke dass die Waschmachine ist kaputt.
Welche -static- ?
Die Waschmachine? Für die Kleidung?
Welche Waschmachine, welche Wohnung?
Judenstraße?
Welche..
Oh! Acht! Judenstraße acht!
Ok -static mixed with German-
Ok

So i sat down on the steps and assumed he’d come down to fix it, though i wasn’t really sure what he said after i figured out he was asking if i was talking about the washing machine in Judenstraße 2 or 8. After about 10 minutes i started wondering what i would do if he didn’t come, but then a few minutes later he showed up with a little box of tools.

We walked into the room; he took one look at it and was like it’s not broken. Then he motioned for me to put more money in, so i did and it started running again. “Do i always have to use three tokens?” “No…more German with motions toward the number dial i had ignored.” I saw that it was just a little past 40 and everything came together. I apologized for wasting his time, but he seemed in a good mood about the whole thing.

I didn’t even try to figure out the drying machine.

I could find no indication of how long each cycle should take and i didn’t want to spend more than two tokens. There were two choices with times on them: 15 minutes cold air, 20 minutes warm air. I just chose to run the 20 minute cycle twice and then hang up anything that was still damp. Well it all ended up being pretty wet, but i got it all hung up in my room and was proud to have survived my first day of German laundry.

 

PS- The castle post has pictures now since i have my own internet.

Day 8/9

I have internet!!! On Tuesday we rode the bus back out to the internet place, and the guy was actually there. He waited until a small group arrived and then began his pitch. It was all in German, but he spoke slowly with lots of gestures so it wasn’t hard to understand. I also already knew the drill from others. They were offering two packages, one with 5MB internet and the other with 32MB. Of course the guy  wanted everyone to buy the faster package, but from my hours of online research i was pretty certain that 5MB would be plenty fast, and it was only 12.90 EUR/month instead of 19.90.

After the guy did his spiel and everyone had chosen a package, he went around and started filling out the actual contracts. As he went around he wanted a cellphone number for each person, but no one had one. For the six people in front of Juliann and me this was not a problem and he just put down the landlord’s phone number instead, but suddenly when he got to Juliann it was a huge problem. There was a lot of German and a lot of “what the heck, no one else had to have a freaking cell phone,” but it was no use. It was absolutely impossible for Juliann and me to get internet without a phone. I guess our landlord wasn’t cool with the internet company calling him, but i don’t understand why we couldn’t just set up a time then, or go into the other branch to set up a time, or any number of other possibilities, but Germans have their rules and their procedures and they don’t bend them for anything. At the most Juliann and i could share a phone as long as we would be able to let the guys into each other’s rooms if necessary. He was also willing to let us text him the phone number later in the day, so all our effort so far would not be wasted.

So we take the bus back to the city center and go looking for a prepaid phone. Of course there wasn’t anything cheap, so we ended up paying 55 EUR to receive one phone call. On the plus side, now i have a clock.

We received our one phone call around six o’clock and Juliann answered it. Best she could figure they said they would come at eight the next morning to install our internet. Now my impression had been that we would choose a four hour window during which they would come, but it seems as though they never asked when it would be convenient. As it was, if they actually came at eight that would be perfect, but if they came sometime between eight and noon, we would most likely be in class.

Tuesday morning i set my alarm for 7:30 so i would have enough time to be somewhat presentable if they actually came at eight. Of course they didn’t come that early, and i was afraid to take a shower anytime after eight in case i missed them. This situation meant that i spent an hour just kinda chilling, listening to music and wishing i was still asleep. Around nine o’clock i figure they’re not going to come in time, so i start getting ready for class (which starts at nine thirty). At nine ten my door buzzes and i leap from my chair as i frantically try to figure out the phone/door unlocking system to let them in the building. Of course i have no idea if it works, so i run out the the stairwell and sure enough i can see internet looking men climbing up the stairs. I rush back to my room, to try and look nonchalant when they knock on my door.

They came; they set everything up; i tested it briefly, and i was only two minutes late to class!