Off to Germany again!

I'm heading back to Germany this summer. Since it's a longer trip this go, I'll be chronicling my adventures (or lack thereof) on a separate blog: armeamerikanerin.blogspot.com

Home again...

Jetway

Pardon the tardiness of this post. Yesterday, I flew back to the US, Parent City* to be exact. It was a looooong trip and I had no energy left with which to blog.

The trip itself was fairly uneventful. I flew from Berlin to Frankfurt, then to Philadelphia, then here. My first flight was delayed and security checks for international flights into the US have become more complex since the last time I was out of the country, so I had to make the fastest Duty Free shopping trip ever. It was a required stop, though, as I probably would've had to sleep on the streets if I'd come back without chocolate!

The chocolate and I made it back in one piece and quite tired. Sleep time!


*Euphemism

Berlin 3

There was no Internet at the last hotel, so this update is late.
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I need to learn how to pronounce unknown words in German. Last night, I confused a waiter because I ordered a drink in two languages, neither of which was German. (It had the word "Brazil" in the name, so I went for Portuguese...it's really closer to English, on the other end of the pronunciation spectrum.) Tonight, I got a Coke when I said "grog" in English -- no idea how to pronounce it in German. Of course, I can't understand German with an Italian accent to well, so I guess we're even! I'll hit the bar across the (cute little suburban) street for my goodbye Germany drink. It really should be a beer, anyway!

Twenty minutes later...even better than a beer, beer plus banana juice! I'd heard about these beer concoctions, but not seen one made with draft beer. Tada, there's one here! It's actually pretty decent, even.

Fernsehturm (TV Tower) in the rain

So today. Got up, checked out of my sleepingplace, and went out into the rain. I was going to do a lot of wandering outside today, but that idea was put on hold. I got off the S-Bahn at Alexanderplatz and walked to Nicholaiviertel. This is a rebuilt, scenic area of the city. The Nicholaikirche was first built before Berlin had it's city charter and has subsequently been built and rebuilt over the centuries. It moved from Catholic to Lutheran during the Reformation and was packed with history. The church was destroyed during a WWII bombing raid on the city and further damage was done during the final battle for Berlin. It was rebuilt during the 1980s and now serves as a museum. It was also the site of the first assembly of reunited Germany's parliament. The building is set in it's medieval style, painted using fragments found during an archaeological dig before rebuilding. Concerts are held there, as well, and the organ is apparently magnificent. The quarter was also lovely.

Government buildings

On my way to the DDR Museum, I walked by an ad for a river sightseeing trip that was only €5 with my handy city card. I've been wanting to do one of these in all the places I've visited with rivers, so I went for it. The trip was also only an hour and it was even dry(ish) by the time it was over! Nice little cruise, through areas I'd seen and some I didn't have time to visit. The operator said everything in English and German -- not too surprising for Berlin, really.

Still raining

It was time for the DDR Museum after the boat. Interesting place, giving more of a sense of Alltag (daily life), something not seen too much in the other museums I've visited. The fairly small museum is in the midst of expanding. Will be interesting to see what they add.

This is the famous side :)

I went to the Bode-Museum next, the third place I wanted to visit on Museumsinsel. It houses the sculpture collection. Again, an amazing building -- it's not difficult to see why the island is a World Heritage Site. I quite like sculpture, especially the older stuff, so was quite happy with this museum.

Back to get my luggage and head to my new hotel, the first place to actually earn the title of a full hotel instead of a combination hostel/Pension/hotel/etc. The room is by far the nicest, with a larger-than-twin bed, a TV, a minibar, and it's own bathroom with a sit-in shower. Swank! I had followed A.'s advice and booked a hotel with an airport shuttle, since I have to be there at eight tomorrow morning...except this place doesn't have an airport shuttle. Okay, fine, I'm taking a taxi instead. Oh well! The hotel has breakfast starting at 6:30, which is great for my taxi time of quarter to eight.

I both do and don't want to head back. I got a lot done, in terms of research ideas and in terms of language training. I need to do a lot more in the next few weeks, of course, but it's a good start. It will also be nice to be able to speak in complex sentences again.

Berlin, part two

I'm sitting in the wind with a shawl over my head right now -- it got super windy about an hour ago, just in time for me to meet a friend...whose train is late. Oh, my life!

So, blogging to use up the time (out of tea). It's been a busy day, with a timed entrance at the Neues Museum. I was anxious about getting there on time, so ended up arriving over an hour early. Time for breakfast! As mentioned earlier, I've developed a mild fixation on the East German Ampelmann signs. Holy crap, I found an Ampelmann-themed restaurant! The "small" breakfast was more than enough for little me, and also quite good. Plus, Ampelmann on everything!

Neues Museum

Pergamonmuseum

It was finally time to go into the museum. The city card that I have is worth the price just for Museumsinsel, where I get into all of the €10 museums for free. I made it through two today, the Neues Museum and the Pergamonmuseum. Both were great, full of interesting artifacts in well-planned exhibits. The Pergamonmuseum is especially impressive, with its (plundered?) recreations of buildings from Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. It's simply amazing to see how big they are.

Sadly, they had no copies
of this poster for sale

It was halfway through the museum-day by this point, so I decided to put off other Museumsinsel sights until finished with the history museums. They're a big reason for this trip, after all. I went to the Deutsches Historiches Museum, which was also first-rate. In a way, it was more of the same, but it was also unique in a number of ways. The museum seemed to be a bit more even with the historical time-periods, something across which I hadn't yet come. The special exhibit on Deutsche Wiedervereinigung (German Reunification) was pretty neat, as well.

The Berlin museums all have a coat room/lockers that are free of charge for placing your things. They don't want accidental damage to the exhibits and this is quite the smart way around such. My shoulders generally ache from carrying my ladybag for around ten hours a day, so it's been great to have a place to set it for a great portion of that time. Thanks, guys!

After the museums closed at six, I am to meet up with Deutschklasse M. Here I am now!

Later...we ended up at a swanky hotel bar in Alexanderplatz that had free champagne for ladies, a guy playing oldies, and local masseuses who peddled short back and neck massages to the patrons. Normally I would've said no to spending money on a massage when I still have time left on my trip, but boy was it worth it! M. kept accusing me of having "happy massage face." She was probably right.

Late update

My compy isn't connecting to the hotel Internet, even though my phone has no problem. However, that means today's update will be posted later.

To Berlin

Today was a busy day! It started with breakfast at my Leipzig sleepingplace, then packing and hopping an ICE train to Berlin. (I'm going to miss those trains! So nice!) After purchasing a 3-day Welcome Pass and finding my sleepingplace in Berlin, I headed out to see the sights.

Historical

First stop was the Märkisches Museum, which is perhaps a kilometer or so from my sleepingplace. Instead of taking public transit, for which I now have unlimited rides, I decided to walk and see/experience more of the city. This museum focuses on the history of Berlin, from its time as a collection of grass huts through to its founding as a city, usw. It was an interesting place, built specifically to house some of the older artifacts. Then, of course, newer finds were added on top. Nothing too contemporary, but I will get to that in tomorrow's museum plan.

He let a lot of people through

I did take the U-Bahn to my next stop, the Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie. I don't think I've seen so many Americans in one place since my last trip to New York City! It was an interesting place, full of stories of people fleeing the DDR. Very interesting. A bit one-sided, though. And expensive. But, hey, I had a discount on my snazzy city card. Plus, there was a guy standing outside at a checkpoint mock-up! (I heard him speaking with a group of German students...in English, presumably because he was supposed to be American. :) )

From there, I walked to Potsdamer Platz, what is probably the newest neighborhood in the city. It lies on top of where the Mauer stood and has some lovely buildings and pieces of art. The part I walked through was not terribly interesting, though, so I moved on. In retrospect, I probably should've gotten some food there. Oh well!

Purdy!

A bit north is the Brandenburger Tor. Beautiful, and not so covered with tourists as I had thought it would be!

There's some great public art here, as well. I passed a number of examples. I hope to see more tomorrow. Off to bed now, though. I have a date with Queen Nefertiti at 10:30a, so want to be sure that I'm at Museumsinsel and situated well in advance. I only have a half-hour window in which to enter the museum -- it's so popular that they have to stagger entrance!

Leipzig, 2. Tag

This sign is awesome

More DDR history today! I visited the Museum in der Runde Ecke, the Stasi Museum. It's located in the former headquarters and is filled with information on what the Stasi did and how they did it. There were some really neat things in there, such as a disguise kit and a shredding-and-wetting machine for disposing of documents. The mail opening and closing equipment was also quite interesting. On the other side of the building is an additional, temporary exhibit on the Herbst 1989 Friedliche Revolution (Autumn 1989 Peaceful Revolution). It appears that Leipzig was a center for the events that lead to the opening of the Grenze (border) and the reunification of Germany, starting nearly a year before Mauerfall in Berlin.

On a side note, I'm trying to figure out the difference between "Wir sind das Volk" and "Wir sind ein Volk." I've seen both slogans referenced, but only the "das" version in videos and descriptions of Herbst 1989. Perhaps "das" (the) was adjusted to "ein" (one) after Mauerfall and before Reunification? I think a history book is in order to answer this question.

The city crest is on everything here

The former Stasi building also hosts a Schulmuseum (School Museum), which contains mock-ups of classrooms and school materials from the early 20th century, to Nazi times, to the DDR. It appears that they also host groups of children from local schools, as one was there when I visited. (I came back to that section after they left.) It was an interesting look into how similar and different these time periods were in terms of how children were treated. (Remember, how children are treated and how they are taught to become good adults can tell one a lot about a society.)

Adorable check/receipt

I wandered about a bit before stopping at the Arabischen Coffe Baum, a museum in what was long one of the premiere coffee houses in Leipzig. I love coffee, as is common knowledge, so this was a great place for me to visit. The museum gives the history of coffee, starting in Ethiopia (legend has it), moving to the Arab world, and then becoming highly important to the Saxons who, apparently, refused to fight in a battle because they had no coffee. (Aha! I probably [we're not sure from where in Germany the family came] have Saxon blood, so this anecdote is now my excuse for my morning cup.) The fact that Leipzig was the first place to produce porcelain -- and porcelain coffee cups -- apparently didn't hurt the drink's rise in popularity. Of course, I had to stop at the cafe and try one of their special coffee concoctions. I mean, why wouldn't I, really?

Food is down (many) stairs

Finally, after more wandering, I headed to a place I'd seen yesterday for dinner. It appears to be a venue at times, but tonight was just a Kneipe (pub) and Restaurant. Cheap food and cheap beer, nice. It's a neat little place, somewhere I'd frequent if I lived nearby. I sat for a bit after finishing my beer and soaked in the atmosphere. A large group came in a bit later and it was time to head back.

Tomorrow, I head to Berlin, so it's upstairs to pack and then an early night for me!