Ferien

Today is my last day of Herbstferien so it's about time I wrote a little about what I've been up to for the last two weeks.

On Wednesday I met Linda in Spremberg's City Center and we got yummy baked goods and hot chocolate in a Bäckerei. I can't properly pronounce or spell the name of the one that I ate, but you can see photos on SmugMug. That's daniellesmith.smugmug.com, in case anyone is wondering. We also walked around town, did a little window shopping, and headed over to the city park, which is home to a lot of trees and also mounments for the victims of fascism and the Holocaust. There's also a cemetery for Russian soldiers that died in World War II, and the Bismarck Tower. The lighting of the sun on the leaves was totally beautiful, so I took lots of photos and generally made a tourist of myself. It was quite fun.

The next day, Maria and I went to Cottbus. We nommed some really delicious Indian food (I had Chana Masala, if anyone is wondering) and I bought some warm clothes at H&M. Germans are generally in love with H&M, and I've become a fan as well. I also got some warm boots for the extremely cold winter that is supposedly ahead. The radio has been saying it will be the coldest winter here in 2000 years. 2000 years is Quatsch (nonsense), but it will definitely be cold. I hope it's a snowy one.

I spent Friday night at Yasmin's house with a bunch of other girls including Olga, Daniela, Vanni, and Ewa, and some other girls I didn't know. We made pizza, I made Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for them to try, and we played lots of Wii. We all pretty much failed at Wii Tennis, but I ended up being really good at Wii Trivial Pursuit, despite the questions being in German, since most a lot of them were about American pop culture. We also spent a while watching funny youtube videos, going on Chat Roulette, and talking about boys of course (this was a sleepover after all). The whole night was so much fun and I just had one of those perfect moments of clarity where I can understand almost everything that is being said and I forget that I'm even in a foreign country. I'm pretty sure I dreamt in German that night too, and at breakfast Yasmin's mom said she thought I had been here for at least 5 or 6 months based on my German (!!!!). Another highlight included Daniela kissing my cheek goodbye when she left, saying that now I'm an official real friend (she reads my blog... hi Daniela!). Olga and Yasmin did the same :)

On Saturday, the four of us (Jörg, Ramona, Maria, and I) drove to Berlin. I'm really, really not used to driving 180 kilometers per hour (roughly 110 miles per hour) on the Autobahn (and in the rain, no less). But, that is Germany... and despite slight carsickness I made it to Berlin in one piece. Once at the apartment that Jörg and Maria inhabit during the week, we did a little grocry shopping for breakfast the next morning and then we were off for some sightseeing. The weather was really awful, cold and horribly rainy, but we made do. We saw a WWII/Holocaust memorial... unfortunately we didn't have enough time for me to read the whole thing (even with English translations, it was an incredibly large museum-like display), but maybe next time. Then we got Sushi at Potsdamer Platz for dinner. Unfortunately I wasn't a fan, but afterwards I got a delicious tomato/mozerella/basil bagel. Tomato/mozerella/basil is probably my favorite combination of flavors ever, so I was pretty pleased. After dinner we headed over to the Brandenburg Gate and various other pretty buildings, along with the US embassy (which is not pretty and actually looks somewhat scary). That week was a special event in Berlin called the Festival of Lights, so most of the fancy buildings we saw had special lights and projectors on them so it was even cooler than usual. Despite the weather being awful, I managed to get a few decent photos. From there we walked and walked some more and stopped into a chocolate shop which had chocolate models of various famous Berlin attractions (see SmugMug for photos). At this point my feet hurt and I was cold and it was still rainy so we went back to the car and drove back to the apartment for some good sleep.

The next morning, after a breakfast of Brötchen and cheese and marmalade, we headed to the Reichstag, which is Germany's most important political building. I'm struggling to come up with an American equivalent, because it's not like the White House since Angela Merkel doesn't live there... So maybe it's like the Capitol Building? I'm still not entirely sure. But anyway, they give tours and people stand in line for hours to go up to the glass dome on top of it. We didn't have enough time to stand in line, so I'll have to do that on another day. Instead we just took some photos and saw more memorials for the victims of the Nazis and those who died trying to cross the Berlin Wall. Afterwards we headed back to Potsdamer Platz, where we met Martin and Jezzy. It was Martin's birthday, so we went to a Mexican (!!!!) restaurant in the area. I had a burrito for the first time in a month and it was epic and delicious. I also tried rum and wasn't a big fan (surprise surprise). After lunch we went to a cafè for some coffee and hot chocolate. We gave Martin his gifts and then drove back to Spremberg. I haven't exactly figured out the customs here surrounding birthdays and giftgiving... a meal in a restaurant seems to be tradition but Martin didn't open his presents in front of us and neither did Oma. I'm not sure if this is the norm or just a coincidence.

Anway, on Monday I was off with Jörg and Ramona to Sachsen (the next federal state). We stayed at a small inn in Thürmsdorf until Wednesday. On Monday we visited Königstein, which is a really old fortress from the years of Sachsen monarchy. We spent the day walking around the huge complex and checking out all the exhibits of old weaponry and the old well and the old horse stall and other old things. Photos can be seen on SmugMug.

On Tuesday the weather was foreboding, so we decided against hiking and instead drove to Dresden. Dresden is very much a modern city, but it has a certain section called the Altstadt where most of the old pretty buildings are located, and it's the tourist center. The most famous building is the Frauenkirche. What's amazing about the Altstadt of Dresden, besides its beauty, is the fact that in WWII it was completely burned to the ground by the United States' fire bomb. Over the last twenty years of united Germany, the old buildings have been completely rebuilt to their exact old specifications, and even with a lot of the original stone. So, when you see pictures of the Frauenkirche, try to imagine what it was like to completely rebuild it from charred sandstone and rubble. Pretty crazy. Fortunately, because of the crappy weather, we were able to actually climb up to the top of the Frauenkirche and also go inside. Normally you have to wait for quite a while because it's the most popular site in Dresden. In the basement of the church there's a whole historical exhibit detailing the reconstruction of the church. It was really quite interesting. We spent the rest of the day just walking around and checking out the buildings, and we also went to the Palace of King Augustus of Dresden. The palace complex is huge, and now they use the buildings for various museum exhibits. Ramona and I checked out Augutus' huge porcelain collection. Over his lifetime he accumulated a TON of porcelain from China and Japan, and also a lot from Meissen, which is a city in Germany that's really well known for porcelain production.

The next day (Wednesday) we drove back to Spremberg, but on the way we stopped at the IKEA in Dresden. Now, we have IKEAs in the US, but in Germany... IKEA is a way of life. I had never been in one before, so it was quite the experience. It was unbelievably huge, with everything you could possibly need for your house inside, along with a children's play place, a restaurant, and a Swedish food market. (IKEA originated in Sweden, just like H&M. Germans are big fans of Sweden). It was like Bed Bath and Beyond plus aspects of Home Depot on steroids. I was pretty blown away.

On Thursday, I met up with Olga and Yasmin at a local bar called Hühnerstall (chicken stall). Maria also met a few of her friends there, so we went together. It was halfprice cocktails night and I truly enjoyed an alcoholic beverage for the first time (mostly because I couldn't taste the alcohol). It was a strawberry margarita - like mother, like daughter, I suppose... hahaha. We just quatsched for a while (quatsch is a noun as well as a verb in German... the verb means to talk about nonsense or to chatter, I love it) and it was really quite nice. Once Olga and Yasmin left, I sat with Maria and her friends for a while, managed to understand almost everything, and was complimented on my German. It was a good night :)

And finally, on Friday, I took the train with Olga and Yasmin to Berlin! We also rode with Olga's sister in her friend. There's something called the Berlin-Brandenburg ticket, where up to five people can buy one ticket for 27 euros (about 35 dollars) to Berlin and back, and it's also valid for all the public transportation in Berlin. That means it cost me 7 dollars for an entire day of trains and subways and street cars in and to Berlin. Pretty sweet deal. Our goal was to do a little sightseeing and little shopping, but it ended up being mostly sightseeing. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Tiergarten, Kürfustendamm, and Alexanderplatz. At Kürfurstendamm, Olga and Yasmin had Starbucks for the first time (actually, it might have been my first time too... I can't remember if I've ever actually bought something there. But anway, it was a big deal to Olga and Yasmin since it's only in big cities in Germany and it's always something celebrities drink). We also popped into H&M. At Alexanderplatz, we checked out the New Yorker (a clothing store) and Media Markt, and I spent way too much money on a German professional cycling magazine. But, it has lots of lovely photos and I swear it's good for my German... We also bought a cheesy girls magazine called Mädchen for entertainment on the train home. The whole day was a lot of fun.

This weekend has been quite lazy, with lots of sleeping, a little bike riding, some work in the garden and some homesicknes. The strangest things trigger homesickness, like raking leaves and cooking vegetables... it's really quite odd. But I'm feeling better today. And tomorrow I will go back to my school routine, which I am looking forward to. That's all for now :)

Bis später,
Dani