Berlin!

in front of the East Side Gallery, a section of the Berlin Wall turned into murals

the Reichstag

the Berliner Dom

the Brandenburger Tor

This weekend was my trip to Berlin with my friend Alessia! Berlin is a wonderful city and we had a great time--we didn't see nearly everything there is to see in two days, but it was a great weekend!

To get there, we chose the cheapest option for transportation--mitfahrgelegenheit. No, it's not gibberish, it's a German website that has been organizing carpools for the past 10 years. We found a ride going from St. Gallen, Switzerland (about an hour away) to Berlin for much less then the train or flying. I was a little worried about what basically amounted to a ride with a stranger, but I picked a driver who had 8 years of good reviews. It turned out that he was driving a minivan and had 4 other passengers riding to Berlin, all about my age, including two Swiss French boys, so we chatted in French for awhile. The ride took over 7 hours--we didn't get to Berlin til 12:30 am (left at 5). Jan, the driver, dropped us off at the S-Bahn, kind of like a subway that runs in a circle around Berlin, and we eventually found our hostel. We got to bed late Thursday night/Friday morning.

Friday morning we woke up excited to see the city! Unfortunately it was raining, but that's kind of just a hazard of travel, especially in Germany this summer...but our hostel was really centrally located so convenient to walk. We spent all of Friday in Mitte, the Berlin tourist attraction district. We started with Potsdamer Platz, Berlin's Times Square, and walked past the striking Memorial for Murdered Jews in Europe--it's really interesting to see and takes up a whole city block. Then we went to the famous Brandenburger Tor, which is really impressive and beautiful, and walked down Unter den Linden, Berlin's main tourist street--full of beautiful buildings, cathedrals, palaces, etc. We stopped at the Berliner Dom, which is a beautiful cathedral on the Musueminsel, or Museum Island. We didn't go to any museums there this time because I wanted to see as many things as possible, but Berlin has about a million museums.

We ate lunch at a delicious Italian restaurant and got warm for awhile (I had gnocchi in butter and sage sauce, mmm!) and then went on to Alexanderplatz, which has 3 landmarks: the TV Tower, a really tall building you can go up to the top of (we didn't because of the weather), Marienkirche (the 2nd oldest church in Berlin), and the Rotes Rathaus (red town hall). It was really pretty. Next up was Nikolaiviertel (Nicholas' quarter), an adorable little neighborhood with windy streets. Then on to the Deutscher and Franzoesischer Doms, two cathedrals facing each other, and to the Faussbender and Rauch chocolate store, where several Berlin landmarks are reproduced in chocolate. We were soaked by this time so we took a break in Dunkin Donuts (yes, I was excited to have a donut) for some hot cocoa. Our last stop of the day was the Neue Synagoge, which is modeled after the Alhambra and survived being burned in Kristallnacht.

Saturday, unfortunately, was also rainy. We hopped around the city a bit more instead of sticking to Mitte. Our first stop was the Reichstag, or German Parliament building. They had just made a new rule that you need a reservation to go inside, so we didn't go in, but the outside was beautiful! Next up was the East Side Gallery. This is the longest preserved stretch of the Berlin Wall, turned into a series of murals by various artists. Looking at all the different murals and reading the words was really cool! Next up was the Jewish Museum in Kreuzberg. It was really interesting and informative--the building was beautiful and the architecture inside was really interesting. We tried to go to the Schloss (Castle) Charlottenburg but unfortunately unannounced metro construction made it too hard to get there--next time! Instead we walked to the Gedaichtnis Kirche. It's a famous church nicknamed the "hollow tooth" because it was bombed during WWII and its spire was damaged. I was sad to find out that they were reconstructing the spire and had covered it up--the pictures looked so cool! Our final stop of the weekend was KaDeWe, the Berlin answer to Harrod's. It was really cool, plus they had a section of American groceries, which was exciting for me--I got to show Alessia all my favorite foods!

This morning we got up super early to take the train for 9 hours, and got home this afternoon....thoughts on Berlin as a whole: I really liked it! It reminded me of Paris in that it seemed that there was always more to see and do. I feel like there was a lot I didn't see. Two days barely scratched the surface. I was surprised at how few tourists there were, how early things closed, and how empty the city seemed in general. New York would have been super crowded on a weekend in July. Maybe the weather, or maybe everyone was on August vacation early? I liked the architecture a lot as well, and all the history in the city. I would love to go back. A lot of things in Berlin seem new or almost new--I guess it's all post-war and post-fall of the Wall. The Hauptbahnhof (main station) especially looked really futuristic.

Thoughts on Germany after seeing most of the country by car and train: I saw sooo many wind turbines and solar panels. I'm so impressed with Germany's alternative energy commitment. The Autobahn was not as scary as I expected. By train today, I got to see Frankfurt (looked a lot like New York, with all the skyscrapers) and the Black Forest (Schwarzwald--really scenic). Why is the Black Forest called the Black Forest, I wonder? Throughout the entire car and train rides it always seemed like there was a castle up on a hill somewhere not too far away. I think all of rural Germany is just full of castles.

So in other news, last week was pretty quiet except for a surprise visit from my friend Tony last weekend! He is stationed in Bavaria and drove over to see me before deploying to Afghanistan Monday. He probably won't have time to read this but good luck and stay safe!!!

I am about 110 pages into my German copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It's teaching me so many new words! One new idiom: jemanden auf die Palme bringen: literally, drive someone up the palm tree, or in English, drive someone crazy!

Ludwigsburg and Kreuzlingen

This week I didn't have too much going on, just some short trips! On Wednesday I went to Ludwigsburg, a suburb of Stuttgart, for my research. Ludwigsburg is home to the Deutsch-Franzoesisch Institut, or German-French Institute. It is a library devoted to the studies of Germany, France, and their relationship--full of books, periodicals, and a press archive. I was told it would be helpful to my research and it definitely was. I saw very clearly why my professors told me it was so important to learn German---if you know German, there are a lot more resources available to you than if you only speak English. Nearly everything in the Institute was written in either French or German. So for the last month I am here, I'm going to work really hard to make my German reading comprehension better before I go home!

Thursday Ulf and I went to Kreuzlingen, the Swiss town that Konstanz borders. After seeing it, I'm really glad I live in Konstanz! The town is not nearly as pretty, or as big, and obviously because it's Switzerland everything is more expensive. In KN a scoop of ice cream never costs more than 80 or 90 euro cents--in Kreuzlingen it was 2 francs and 50 cents for one scoop! Their harbor was nice, though--they had some pretty chairs and a tower you could climb to look out over the lake! I also learned some more about "die Daumen drucken", the German expression for "fingers crossed", that literally means "to press the thumb". Apparently the gesture for it is more like a closed fist, and Germans only cross their fingers when they are lying! haha. Context is very important for things like that, I guess.

I've been listening to some more of my German language course podcasts--they're getting interesting. One of them features an elf (ein cobalt) who honestly sounds exactly like Elmo. Every podcast also includes a "musical interlude" with what I'm pretty sure are only German/Austrian composers! So I guess it's cultural lessons, too.

I keep hearing about how it's really hot at home--well, in Konstanz it's been around 60-65 degrees and rainy most of the last two weeks. To me, perfect summer weather! Hope everyone at home is staying cool in the AC!

Plans for next week: thinking of taking a day trip to Heidelberg and Mannheim on Tuesday since the rain is supposed to stop, and Thursday night Alessia and I leave for our weekend in Berlin!

some German words I've learned recently:

jemanden zur Schnecke machen: literally means "to make someone into a snail". figuratively, means to embarrass or humiliate someone by yelling at them. Learned that one from reading Harry Potter.

ein cobalt: elf or goblin

der Fremde: stranger

Harry Potter and Seehasenfest

I have now seen Harry Potter 7 part 2 in German and in English! I enjoyed it a lot, even though they left out a lot as usual. Seeing it in German (and going to a German movie theater) was really interesting. German movie theaters have assigned seats, you choose your seat when you buy your ticket. The theater was carpeted (no sticky linoleum floor) and full of big red plush seats. There were even two person seats for couples. I got popcorn, because it's something I miss from America, and got to choose between sweet or salty. I understood almost everything in the previews, but the movie was a bit harder. I would say overall I probably got about half of it. But I did learn a bunch of new words, some of which are below. It helped that I knew the story and one or two of the better-known lines already. It was interesting seeing it in German, though! I'm glad I did. It's weird that something that started being important to me at age eleven is now over. (Thanks Aunt Ro for buying me that first book!)

Beforehand, Thorin and I tried out a cheap Thai restaurant I found, which was delicious, so now I'm completely thrilled. Every place I live needs to have an affordable Thai restaurant nearby.

Saturday I went to Seehasenfest in the nearby town of Friedrichshafen with my friends Alessia and Tobi! Seehasenfest (literally meaning sea hare festival) began after WW2. Friedrichshafen is not on the Swiss border like KN, and was almost totally destroyed in the war, so the city council wanted to do something to get the people's spirits up, especially the kids. So they began holding the fair, and there's a guy dressed as a hare who runs around the whole time. Apparently that originates from the fact that the people who live around Lake Konstanz are referred to as sea hares? All this background info is from Thorin/German Wikipedia.

The fair itself was fun! It made it feel more like summer, although it was definitely a German fair. Everything looks the same as home until you start looking more closely at the food stands, and everyone is selling currywurst! They did have an American specialties stand with corn dogs, though. haha. Tobi drove to the fair from Konstanz because it's impossible to get home late at night in KN. So we took the car ferry to Meersburg, drove to Friedrichshafen, and parked at Tobi's friend's house. We met her and her family later, and they were all so nice! I got to practice some German with her mom while we waited for everyone to go on some of the rides. I did ride the Ferris wheel though :-) It was beautiful--Friedrichshafen is on the other side of the lake from KN, so seeing it from 50 m (about 150-200 ft) in the air was amazing. The big attraction of Saturday night at the fair was the fireworks! They were really nice, kind of made up for missing the 4th of July at home! We got home very late but it was a very fun night :-) The best part was not having to pay admission--it was free for kids under 18 and Tobi and I decided we looked young enough to pretend we didn't speak German and say we were 17, and it worked...multiple times at the various checkpoints we went through...saved 4 euros but damaged my self-esteem haha.

Something else I find funny--I often ask Alessia about Italian words or foods or other things that I know from my family and our traditions--she says it is very amusing because I pronounce everything in dialect (which is how I learned the few words I know) and sometimes she doesn't understand what I mean until I describe it. :-) I was happy to find out that mozzarella in carrozza is a real Italian recipe, as are rice balls!

So, here are some words I learned from watching Harry Potter auf Deutsch!

muttig--brave

der Stab--wand

die schlampe--bitch

tod/tode--dead, death

wirklich--really

German band in the biergarten--loved their outfits :-)

Friedrichshafen and the Bodensee from the Ferris wheel

fireworks!

Tobi, me, and Alessia on the Ferris wheel

Liechtenstein

So today Thorin and I ventured to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein is a teeny tiny country (61 square miles with a population of 35,000) sandwiched in between Switzerland and Austria. There's almost nothing to see there but hey, it's country #10 for me, and it was only 90 minutes away by train!

So the trip there involved 4 short train rides (on the way, we learned exactly how huge Lake Konstanz/the Bodensee is, because we were following it the whole way) to the Swiss-Liech. border, where we then took a bus through Schaan and Vaduz, the two biggest cities. We stopped in Vaduz (pop. 5,000?), where we got a souvenir passport stamp from the tourist office (major highlight of the trip). Liechtenstein is essentially a principality of Switzerland, so they use Swiss francs and speak German. Since they use Swiss francs (although euros are accepted pretty much everywhere), everything is accordingly expensive. We found a fairly cheap place for lunch and enjoyed the nice weather.

After lunch, we wandered around town, which took all of an hour. Sights include some souvenir stores, the St. Florin Church, the Rathaus (town hall), and the Schloss Vaduz. The Schloss Vaduz is high on a hill overlooking the town, and the Liechtenstein royal family still lives there, so you're not allowed to visit (although the climb looks pretty exhausting, so I'm not sure I'd want to). Liechtenstein is one of the remaining monarchies of Europe. There's not much to see in Liechtenstein, but the tiny town/country does inspire a lot of jokes. Thorin ordered a Liechtenstein Brauhaus beer at lunch. The slogan on the label read "Ein Land. Ein Bier." which translates to "One country. One beer." This led to a lot of jokes like "One country. One....noun.", etc.

The trip home got a little complicated due to limited transportation but we made it back! And while we were waiting for the train in Switzerland I even got Ben & Jerry's. yum. So a short day, and I've definitely been to more interesting places in Europe, but the mountains make Liechtenstein quite picturesque.

So, to finish up this post, some fun German idioms I've learned:

der Löffel abgeben: to give up the spoon (English equivalent=to kick the bucket)

Daumen drücken: to press the thumb (English equivalent=cross your fingers)

Eine Jacke, eine hose: jacket or pants (English equivalent= six in one hand, half a dozen in the other)

me in Liechtenstein!

Schloss Vaduz

Random photos

Thought I'd share some photos I took this week in my wanderings :-) next update will tell of my adventures in Liechtenstein planned for Monday!

one of my favorite muraled buildings in KN--can't wait to make it to Stein-am-Rhein and see some more before I leave

an accordionist teaching a tourist how to play--I watched them for a few minutes because it was so entertaining

Ulf showed me the inside of the Rathaus (town hall), office of the Burgermeister (mayor)--the courtyard is absolutely beautiful

Burgermeister! I had to laugh remembering Burgermeister Meisterburger from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"...

4th of July update from your favorite expat

So right now everyone is going crazy over the women's World Cup, which is being played all throughout Germany this month. Germany's team has won its first two games, making for some very excited celebrations in my dorm. The US is also expected to do very well, and are playing today, so go America!

Right after Eric left, it finally started feeling like summer here, unfortunately (I hate hot weather and Europe is not air-conditioned). It hit 90 degrees and up two days in a row. I had no heat in Paris in the winter and I would choose that again over having no AC here when it's 90+. So I went out and bought a fan. The temperature immediately fell 20 degrees. But I'm sure sometime over the next 2 months it will go back up, sadly.

I haven't done too much that's exciting this week...hid from the high temperatures by eating gelati, and been working hard on my German and on my reading. I found some free German podcasts online to help me learn, and I'm trying really hard to work on grammar. The sentence structure and word order is really confusing, it's kind of backwards from English. German also has four grammatical cases which can change the nouns, pronouns, articles, and adjectives, which are driving me insane. But I'm powering through--I'm on page 3 of translating Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and I will be seeing the movie in German in 2 weeks. I am noticing improvements in how much I understand but I'm still not satisfied--I want to understand more of what goes on around me. I keep being told I have unrealistic expectations, however. Well, I have two more months to improve!

My language partner, Ulf, took me to the Bismarck Turm in Konstanz yesterday (Bismarck Tower). Otto von Bismarck was the chancellor of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm, and was instrumental in unifying Germany. The tower is on a hill surrounded by a vineyard, which was cool. Apparently there are Bismarck Turm all over Germany, but according to Wikipedia the one in KN is considered important because it's on a border of the newly unified Germany.

Some of my newest German words:

aufgeregt=excited. you can also say ich freue mich auf (I am looking forward to...)

deibisch=the closest English equivalent would be thieving or thievish. funny word.

gleichweis=likewise. I was really proud of myself because I figured out how to spell the word and what it meant on my own! I wished the lady who took my rent money "Gut Wochenende" (good weekend--I have since found out that you are supposed to say "Schönest Wochenende"), and that was what she responded.

This is the first time I'm spending the 4th of July out of the country--I hope everyone at home is having a great holiday weekend! Wish I could come home and have a hot dog haha.

me standing in Germany and Switzerland at the same time!

view of the vineyard and the lake from the Bismarck tower hill

Bismarck Turm