Hamburgers in Hamburg

Hello everybody! I hope you had a great week this last week, cause I know I did. The week had a start that was filled with homework, packing, and last minute planning. We had to use our time to prepare for our first long travel break which we began on Wednesday, so I'll just jump to that.

On Wednesday, after German class, we entered the Haupt Bahnhof to catch our train that was headed for Hamburg, Germany. It was everything a train ride should be. Easy, quick, relaxing, and beautiful. We arrived just before the sun went down, and made it to our hostel while there was still light outside. Once we were settled in, we met up with one of our German mentors, as she lives in Hamburg and was on semester break. She took us to a pig themed restaurant on the other side of town (so exciting), and while we were out walking about the Altona region with her, it began to snow heavily (even for German standards). We returned a few hours later, shook off the snow on our jackets, and went to sleep.

Red train in German countryside

Hamburg harbor at night

Hamburg Rathaus in night

The next morning, we woke up ready to explore the town on our own. We stopped at a fancy cafe for breakfast, that had a killer strawberry jam. After, we visited the art museum that had a majority under construction. The art we saw was gorgeous, but because so much of the museum was closed, a bit limited. We left then for the Warehouse district of Hamburg, which is an old and small peninsula in the harbor that has rows upon rows of red brick buildings that used to be designated (and some still are) for imported goods. Within this strip, we found the Miniatur Wunderland. The Miniatur Wunderland is a multi-story building that is comprised of hundreds upon hundreds of professional dioramas of real world places. While I was expecting to have a good time, I was certainly not expecting to be blown away by it. The sheer amount of man-hours required to make a place like that was stunning. Finally on Thursday, we saw the German version of Love Never Dies. Hamburg is Germany's "musical city", which we could see from the large amount of advertising for musicals throughout the city.

From Hamburg art museum

Warehouse district

Bridge in Warehouse district

Soccer stadium in Minatur Wunderland

Tiny festival

Miniature Castle 

Real life giant building a town

Las Vegas at night

Outside our German operahouse

On Friday we met back up with our German friend, Jojo, and we walked to the Harbor with her. The harbor in Hamburg was the location I was looking forward to most, mostly because I wanted to ride the ferry. And ride a ferry we did. It was a short trip, but being on a boat was simply fantastic. We visited St. Michael's church, and ended the long day of walking the harbor by eating at a fantastic burger restaurant, Hans im Gluck.

Harbor on a normal day (too dreary and misty to see anything)

FERRY RIDE!

A good ol' boat

Hamburg Philharmonic

Random submarine

Urban music art

Grand Organ in Michael church

View from the top of Michael church

Sweet, sweet burgers

Our final day in Hamburg was quite the exciting one. We went to the a local waffle house called Happy Waffel, and had delicious waffle sandwiches. We then walked through the Botanical park in Hamburg, and though everything was dead because of winter, we were able to have fun by using the outdoor ice skating rink. Soon after, we packed up our bags and left for the train station. Our train came right on time, and left right on time. It seemed like everything was going to go smoothly until we stopped about 30 minutes into our journey. It seemed like an odd place to stop, and when I asked an employee why we were stopped on a bridge in the middle of nowhere, he told me that the train was defective. Announcement after announcement came over the loudspeaker, though we understood none of it, as they were all in German. The entire train had to debark in a small train station in the dark, rainy, middle of nowhere, and stand around waiting for another train. 40 minutes later, our second train showed up that was stuffed to the brim with people. We sat in the luggage area in the very back of the train for two hours to get to Berlin, where we had to get back off to get on a connection train to make it to Leipzig. End of story, 110 minutes later than expected, we arrived in Leipzig tired but unharmed.

Happy Waffle from Happy Waffel!

Blurry ice skating picture

Blurry ice skating picture where someone fell down

Waiting for a non-broken train

Us in the Luggage section

Before I end this post, I want to have a small disclaimer. I am enjoying my time in Germany, truly, fully, and intensely. This is a time of my life I will never forget. However, all of Germany's big churches and tasty foods are nothing compared to the people that we left behind in America. My family, friends, church family, teachers, the list goes on. You all (all 3.5 of you reading) are in my thoughts all the time, and to be honest, I miss you all. I will still continue to have fun and explore, but just remember that I am thinking of you, and am excited to share so many stories I couldn't include with you when I return in the Summer.

Keep it fresh.

-TK

Of Camps and Castles

Happy Valentines everybody! I hope you are all having a fantastic day whether you are in a couple and having a romantic date, or single and eating chocolate and Nutella by the spoonful. Either way, today is a special day.

Last Monday was spent recovering from our exciting weekend by getting up for German class on anywhere from 2-4 hours of sleep thanks to the Super Bowl, and going about our every day life. Needless to say, much of this day was a painful and tiring blur. Tuesday was a much nicer day, as we had a normal night of sleep, but it was spent doing plenty of homework to prepare for the weekend. Wednesday was spent in a similar fashion, as we had to also pack for our trip the next day.

On Thursday we woke up just before the sun to board a train headed to the city of Weimar. Weimar is a small town with the classic small town feel. There were plenty of buildings and shops, but the crowds were sparse, and the cars were rare. It felt quiet and quaint, like if you spoke too loud the whole city would peek through the curtains to see what the ruckus was. However, we did not travel there to simply enjoy the town. Just 20 minutes outside of the city of Wiemar lied the concentration camp Buchenwald, which is where our day's focus laid. Next to Buchenwald is a massive clock tower monument to the dead. Three circles that were used as mass graves line the path, and 13 torches sit along the massive path. After visiting the tower, we turned to the camp.

Buchenwald is an old concentration camp from the Nazi era that is left now as a haunting memory to the monstrous acts committed there. It was used as a work camp, but unlike some other camps, it had no death chambers. This is not to say it was a happy place. Over 50,000 prisoners died in the camp due to overworking and starvation. Even after the Nazi's were defeated it was used by the communist regime in the GDR, causing strife in Weimar again.

Buchenwald is not a place that is easy to describe. For as real as everything is, it is hard to take the stories told by our tour guide, and not simply feel that they were a fairy tale. The atrocities committed on the mountaintop were, without a doubt, some of the worst in human history. They were so terrible that it caused you to want to believe that they weren't real. Being in the camp caused the stories told by prisoners to feel different. Almost like your brain tried to pull itself out of your body if only to not experience what it was.

Mass Grave

Tower from afar

Statue of prisoners

On Friday, we had time in Weimar before leaving for our next stop. We went to a small cafe where I had the best waffles in my life. Two golden brown waffles, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. Neither too heavy, nor to light, they were coated in Nutella and drizzled in white chocolate. On the side of the plate was a huge dollop of whipped cream, and another of vanilla ice cream. All waffles in the future may be inferior by comparison, but I am glad to have had this one.

We boarded the train after breakfast and went to the town of Eisenoch. We took a bus up the mountain right after we arrived, and emerged at the base of Wertberg castle. This castle is remarkable. A massive castle on the mountain top with a peaceful and vital history. The most amazing part of this castle is that it is where Luther translated the Latin bible into German. We got to stand in the actual room where he took 10 weeks translating the new testament. That moment in history is so pivotal that it has affected every aspect of the world that we live in.

Not only was the castle beautiful, the mountain it was on was filled with surprises. In the spare hour before our tour, Reuben, Nevan and I sprinted down the mountain to follow a trail up the other side of the mountain. We encountered a series of massive rocks that were just asking to be climbed. We scaled them, and enjoyed our time on the top of the mountain before running down to join our class again. After returning that night from Eisenoch, we had a movie watch party for Love Never Dies, and Moulin Rouge.

View from the Castle

View of Wartburg

Reuben sprints to climb the rocks.

View from atop the rocks

Epic movie fight scene #2

Epic movie fight scene #1

Nevan climbs a cliff due to sheer willpower

Classic Senior photo pose

Copy of Luther's translated bible

White doves in the castle

We spent early Saturday in the local park playing 4 on 4 basketball and frisbee. Let me tell you though, our professors are tough. I certainly didn't expect to lose to them in basketball, but they proved their talent, and I'll be playing much harder next time. The park is a heavily used city area, and we got so into it, we even caught the local German's attention. If that's good or bad, I'll let you decide.

That's all for now, and it's late here, so I'm going to call it finished. Goodnight to all, and once more...

Happy Valentine's Day

Dresden? Try Dresdone.

Hello once again to everybody! This week has been an awesome and fast paced one, and I have a ton to write about, so I'll just get right into it.

This past Monday was spent in the Neues Rathaus in Leipzig to register with the city, so we can stay longer than the 90 days allotted. Before leaving to get there, however, Tanner and I decided to take the SBahn to get to the city center quicker. We hadn't used it before, and due to a rash decision we ended up leaving the city entirely, going into the outskirts of Leipzig and. I hopped off after one false stop, but Tanner rode it to the end of the line. Eventually we made it back to the city center, and made it into the city hall area that had the same speed as the beloved DMV.

Dense city turned to stop devoid of people

On Tuesday I decided to go into the city center alone to explore the shops around the market. It may have been raining, but that did not stop the masses of people out shopping at the same time. I visited an old bookshop, a flower stand, and listened to a music group on the street. Being surrounded by so many people I didn't know, I was forced to confront the unique sense of fraternity I felt with them. Coming from a suburb in Texas, I grew up with a nice large back and front yard, with a nicely sized house. We would shop at the Tom Thumb, and go to individual locations to have fun, but we never lived in such close proximity with so many people, just because of Texas's size. Leipzig's size and design causes you to see people at all times of the day. You walk next to them, ride the tram with them, listen to street performers with them, and all of this has a great affect on how I see people. There is no us vs. them personality, as it is only us.

Flowers in a pig pot (a la Ali Ryan)

Wednesday passed like a normal day. Get up at 7:30. Walk to class, leave class, do homework, explore a little bit more of the city. Thursday was a special day of class, however. We had our amazing study abroad coordinator Elfi Herman and her boss Briget come in to talk about their time living in East Germany while it was under the control of Russia and the GDR. They talked about how you would have to wait 15 years to get a car, and how an engineer would make the same salary as a teacher. Luxury items were low, and the ones you could buy were expensive. While all of these were negative, they would talk about how they had a good life. Everybody had a job, and the necessities of life were dirt cheap. They said that the number one thing that they miss now is the community formed with their neighbors and friends, which showed me how people will always find a way to be happy, so long as they have those they love around them. Later that night Reuben, Jacob, Nevan, and I all decided to explore the woods near our apartments. It was dark, slightly rainy, and a short distance into the woods had trees so dense that you couldn't see the city beyond the trees. We came upon a junction in the woods where eight different paths met in a perfectly symmetrical octagon. Nevan and I took one path, while Reuben and Jacob took the other. After seeing a mystery man dissapear into the woods, we were all off put by the atmosphere. Reuben and Jacob even found a mysterious set up in the woods that caused them to walk just a little bit quicker to make it out. We still have 5 paths left to explore, and intend on doing so soon.

Mysterious objects probably used by a forest murderer

Friday was by far the busiest day of the week as we spent it in Dresden on a day trip. The train ride was only 1.5 hours, and it was smooth. The old portion of Dresden was a 20 minute walk from the Dresden Haupt Banhof, and when we arrived, we were stunned. The only story I had ever heard about Dresden was how it was flattened in the Dresden firebombing, but if I had not heard it, I would have never known that the city had been attacked. Massive historic structures filled the city. We visited the Procession of Princes memorial, Zwinger palace, Dresden fortress, multiple churches I could not name, and the crown jewel of our trip, the Frauenkirche. The Frauenkirche is a church that was mostly destroyed during the Dresden firebombing, and was left in ruin under the GDR as a war monument. When the wall came down, the German government set to rebuilding the beautiful church in the 1990s. For 5 euros we were allowed to climb to the top of Frauenkirche to look out over the entire town of Dresden. After plenty more adventuring, we turned back to the train station and watched plenty of completely empty ghost trains pull up and leave before we hopped on to head back to Leipzig.

Building in Dresden

Procession of Princes mural

Look through the Zwinger palace

Inside of Dresden Fortress

Zwinger cortyard

Inside of Dresden Fortress

Inside of Dresden Fortress looking out

The main room to Frauenkirche

Further up the church

On top of the Frauenkirche looking over Dresden

People pretending to be ants

Definitely a haunted mansion

Dresden

Who's that handsome person.....

Lectern

Beautiful church

My new best friend

Saturday we went into the town market as the weather was nice, and the shops were calling. Apparently every single one of the 520,838 Leipzigers thought it would be a nice day to shop as well. The streets were packed, but it had a wonderful feel to it.

City center on a perfect weather day

Finally we get to today. Today we met up with our mentors at the Red Bull Arena to see Leipzig's professional soccer team win a match against a west German team. Leipzig's team is currently 1st in the 2nd division, and if they sustain this throughout the season, then they will be able to move up to 1st division which would be incredibly exciting.

Outside and Inside of the Stadium

That's all for this week, and next weekend we will be visiting the concentration camp in Buchenwald. Until next Sunday, have a great week!