We leave for the airport in four hours, but I'm blogging. Smart.

We definitely made the most of our last day in Germany! This morning, we took a regional train to the extreme Eastern German town (Gorlitz) that borders Poland. We walked around Gorlitz and saw the Peterkirche and Frauenkirche before heading into Poland via the historic walking bridge. It was depressing that no one was there to stamp our passports or anything, but we were definitely in Poland...and let me tell you: it was bland. Unfortunately, I think we just encountered a not-so-bustling bordertown at noon. I'm sure all of Poland isn't this way. We walked probably a good half mile and only encountered two (presumably) Polish living beings. Some of the others walked back to Gorlitz for lunch, but Kathleen and I decided to eat a meal in Poland, and I'm glad we did! We both had a sesame seed encrusted chicken breast covered in a gouda-ish cheese sauce. It was served with fried potatoes, carrot slivers, and a slice of watermelon. When we got the bill, and saw it was 70 zloty (Polish currency), we had absolutely no idea how much that would be in euros, but luckily it was only 20 euros total (and that included an appetizer)! Afterwards, we ventured back into Gorlitz and just barely made it back to the Hauptbahnhof in time for our train due to an unfortunate time mix-up by yours truly. We made it with six minutes to spare, though, so I guess that's just another blessing.

Once back in Dresden, most of us had seperate agendas: packing, buying last minute necessities, visiting stores for a last time, etc. I decided to go to the MusikSchubert (Schubert Music Store...it's just a name, not everything there was written by Franz or anything) and poke around one last time. After I told the MusikSchubert auf wiedersehn, I headed to Pragerstrase to (surprise) TJ Maxx to get an extra small rolling suitcase. I had to pay a good bit extra on the way to Germany because my bag was 10 lbs overweight (the limit is 50 lbs), but this time, I'll only pay $25 to check an extra bag (Haha, TSA. Take that!). Shortly after that, I arrived back at the dorm and we headed to our farewell dinner. We were all served schnitzel, pommes (fries), and a salad. It was a perfect German last supper. The group parted ways, but most of us went to Albertplatz/Neustadt Market to get one last kugel (scoop of ice cream) before we left! It was kind of sad walking through Theatreplatz and Old town knowing I wouldn't be seeing them tomorow, and to know that the automated streetcar lady's voice would no longer make us laugh, but I know everyone's had a great time and this blog will help me remember more of my trip! It's about 1 a.m. Dresden time, and I'm going to take a nap until four or so. It's a strategy. I'm hoping to make myself super sleepy for the long plane ride, and if by noon I've still only had three hours of sleep, I'm bound to tucker out on the plane and fall asleep. Pray for us to have a safe flight! We leave (from Frankfurt) at about 6 a.m. central time/noon Frankfurt time, and should land in ATL at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. If you just feel like tossing up a prayer, we have a bunch of anxious folks ready to get home, so I'm sure everyone would appreciate it: I know I would! It's time for my nap, though. I've had a great time this month, and I'm sure to post one last time once I'm in the states!

Gutenacht the last time from the Deutschland!

The day before the day before we leave (I know, it looks funny).

Today was a pretty gloomy (apparently more European), rainy Sunday in Dresden. Those of us not enrolled in the class didn't have to attend the last lecture at 10:00, but those enrolled did. We decided to kind of hang around and wait on the studious ones before making plans for the day. I think around 2 or so we grabbed lunch at the Hauptbahnhof, and I made a few last minute sweeps of stores looking for cheaply priced luggage (for a more economical price on checked luggage for the return trip) and little last minute souvenirs. Afterwards, I packed...and I mean PACKED. Everything light (or relatively light) is currently in my gigantic bag, anything heavy will be put in the smaller checked luggage when I purchase it tomorrow (most stores are closed all day Sunday).

Kathleen had a great idea to head to Sunday evening church at the Frauenkirche (the reconstructed Protestant church from the Dresden bombings in Old Town that sparked my *probably lame* introspective rant about bombing an unarmed city). They have a 9:30 service and a 6:00 service, so we had plenty of time to make the latter. We entered, and they gave us Orders of Worship/Bulletins and I immediately noticed how well planned they were! The bulletins included the scanned hymn from the hymnal (complete with German text), and all of the German liturgy in order. A little old German man (who clearly was a member of the church...he had a name tag) sat down directly to my left (also, Europeans sit really close. If one has personal space issues, one might not want to sit publicly with them) and I kind of mimicked my actions to his. It was easier to follow when he stood up and sat down than decipher the German notes in the bulletin. The entire service was in German, and it was really neat to sing a Gloria and Kyrie (parts of the Ordinary of the Mass in Catholicism...although, this is a non-denominational Protestant church) printed from the bulletin along with three hymns. Kathleen and I kind of chuckled at ourselves. We just sang the printed music on an 'oo' syllable, because our German diction is so terrible, but it did allow us to listen to everyone singing German around us (a really REALLY cool phenomenon...to hear others worshiping in another language). Another difference I noticed was that during the organ prelude and postlude there was absolutely NO talking. Every single person in the room was sitting quietly, most staring at the gigantic (surely) multi-million dollar gold-encrusted organ. In the bulletin, it even said in English for the postlude, "Please do not leave your seats until the organ postlude is complete." Think of how quickly we rush out from chuch when that postlude starts to play! It's just a different respect of music. The sermon was the most difficult part with which to connect. Although, Kathleen and I figured out it was the sermon of the 'mustard seed.' The pastor kept saying 'senf,' and at first I think we both thought we misheard him (senf is delicious German mustard!), but finally it was paired with 'kleine' (small) enough that we decided our assumptions were correct (we kind of chuckled about that, too, though).

After the service, we recreated a typical German evening for our group and got a bratwurst, ate near local street musicians, got a kugel of ice cream, and wandered around! Later on, we came back to the dorm and watched Taken and Mamma Mia with Katie while Adam did homework and Kathleen periodically packed. This evening has been a GIANT success; I think the church service is definitely in the top 3 of my experiences here. Tomorrow, on our last full day, we're taking a day trip to Poland! I'm so excited, but it's time for sleep! Gutenacht!

Giant Prague Post!

It’s really hard to blog about Prague after the fact (it’s early Sunday morning, and we got home Friday around 4). I can try, though! The train ride to and from Prague was pretty amazing. It’s very pretty German and Czech countryside. Most of our trip followed the Elbe river, and the kind of swoopy German mountains at which we all love to look! We got to Prague, checked into the hostel, and pretty soon it was time for our walking tour. We followed our tour guide, a sweet younger Czech girl, around the Republic Square, the Astronomical Clock (from the 15th century), the palace and corresponding church, new-town of Prague (the NEW town is still from the 14th century, so you can only imagine how old old-town is), and the Charles bridge (largest bridge in Prague, build in the 15th century). We covered a lot of ground, but I think I enjoyed this walking tour more than Leipzig and Berlin.

Prague just had a different architectural appeal. The Czech Republic, on the other hand, is interesting all on its own. We’d been warned about the abundance of expert pick-pocketers in Prague, and so most of the group was a little paranoid about anyone or anything touching his or her bags/pockets/wallets/etc. On several occasions, people from our group walking closely to me on the sidewalk accidentally bumped my backpack purse (which is already incredibly difficult to open when in use as I’d already discovered) and I’d turn around and hold up a hand (what was I going to do? Backhand or karate chop the offender?) or clutch my purse to my back only to discover it was an accidental bump from a friend (not an imaginary foe). The Czech Republic seemed a bit less pristine (cleanliness-wise) than Germany (which is still not quite as pristine in SOME PLACES as the U.S. Although the U.S. can be gross, too). It’s always a bit dirtier in large cities, though, and Prague is by FAR Czech’s largest city. The Czech currency was pretty interesting, too! They use krones (crowns), and there are currently 25 crowns to a U.S. dollar. This exchange TRICKS you into thinking things are good deals, however. I found myself buying a bottle of water for 50 crowns thinking it was a steal (it wasn’t). It’s strange to see a price tag on a McDonald’s Royal (I know, weird) Meal that says 100 krones. I kept switching between thinking it was a great exchange like pesos and momentarily forgetting and thinking, “_____ euros?! That’s insane!” Enough about the Czech differences; back to the itinerary.

After the tour, we headed to a local place near our hostel to get some grub (I believe we had Czech pizza and potatoes and such) and hit the hay.

The next morning, we visited the small, but pretty interesting, Smetana museum. Smetana was one of two really influential composers from (what was at the time Bohemia, but now) the Czech Republic. Probably his most famous nationalistic work was the Moldau, about the river than runs through most of Czech (and of course in Prague). Interestingly enough, the Moldau is almost all that’s visible from inside the museum’s windows, it’s practically floating on the river. After exploring the modest little museum, we headed back up the hundreds of stairs to the palace to see the changing of the guards. Afterwards, we ate the O Krale Brabantllebo which is a pub that has existed in the same location in Prague since medieval times (I think the first time it was mentioned was in the 12th century or something insane like that). It was really expensive, so we only had their homemade bread and cokes, but the atmosphere was too good to pass up. It seemed like we were eating inside a cave in the dark, just how I’d imagine people from medieval times (ha)! Then we wandered around, and eventually headed back to the hostel to change into nice clothes for our dinner cruise on (you guessed it) the Moldau! It was a really neat experience. We had to go through a system of locks to cruise further down the Moldau, and the scenery was pretty impressive throughout. We were served drinks, we ate from a (packed) buffet, and we played spades at my table. All in all, a successful river ride down the historic Moldau!

Friday morning, we headed in the rain (once again…it rained on our last day of a short trip) to the Dvorak museum! It was definitely worth getting damp to go. We got to see hundreds of pictures, lots of handwritten scores (my personal favorite of course was seeing a few handwritten pages from The New World Symphony that we played the final movement of in Wind Ensemble not too long ago), and even a (yet again creepy) cast of Dvorak’s hand (made post-humous). After the Dvorak museum, just about everybody on the trip took the time to do something we’ve all neglected: souvenir shopping. Prague is a MUCH more conducive area for shopping than Dresden, and it’s the first place I’ve actually been able to successfully ‘haggle’ for something (although, some items weren’t open for open price discussions). After our souvenir venture, we headed back to the hostel, grabbed our luggage, and headed back to Dresden. Upon arriving in Dresden, we had probably the most delicious Chinese food I’ve ever eaten (I even ate all the vegetables cooked in…even cucumbers and such. That’s a big deal for me!), and we went back to the dorm to sleep!

Today was a slow day while the sun was out. I slept until 11, we had class at 1:30 (Kathleen and I had a successful postcard adventure followed by an unsuccessful Mensa adventure and a forced McDonalds run prior to this), we wandered around Dresden a bit, then had a Subway supper (yes, subway like the sandwiches. We’re missing American food!) and headed back to the dorms. About 45 minutes or so after getting to the dorms, Adam and Katie barged into my room grinning from ear to ear. Katie said to me and Lyn, “What have y’all been up to?” we replied with something lame, and apparently didn’t ask in return because she finally exclaimed, “Well, we’ve been busy getting engaged!” Adam and Katie have been dating for three years, and a couple of people had suspected they might get engaged while in Dresden. I was so excited for them that I even creepily followed them to take pictures while Katie called her parents to tell them! We all celebrated and played every card game we knew (because it’s Adam and Katie’s favorite pastime). It’s been a great night here in Dresden after a sleepy, rainy day. I’m going to miss it so much!

Our adventurous trip to Lubeck and Travemunde!

We went to a body of water that’s technically a SEA (Baltic, y’all)!
This morning, four of us had planned (well, Adam had planned) a trip to Lubeck (Northeast Germany) and Travemunde (THE BALTIC SEA-TOWN!) and we all headed out on less than three hours of sleep. When we left the Hauptbahnhof at 5:54, we might have been a little bit delirious. Everything was funny for a couple of hours, but eventually we all started to doze (quite unsuccessfully), and pretty soon four hours had passed and it was time for our first train exchange. We knew it was a quick exchange (11 minutes) and we were going to arrive at platform 40 and need to run to platform 141. We all joked about how ridiculous it would be if somehow the numbers 40 and 141 were close: they were literally one platform away (the number sequencing for that gate was 1, 40, 41, 140, 141. Go figure). We were confused about which train to board (there were two right beside each other) and the Lord must have smiled on us, because this (also) confused woman saw the conductor hanging out of the first train and said, “Lubeck?!” approximately ten times, and he nodded every single one. We had a quick 45 minute jaunt to Lubeck, and upon arrival Adam and Katie bought a tiny map and off we went! Lubeck is super-compact and ridiculously easy to navigate, so we were in luck. We dubbed Lubeck Church Tour 2010 because of the probably ten places we visited, eight or so were churches (two dating back to the 13th century, two dating back to the 14th century, and a few from the 16th century and beyond and we even visited an original structure castle from the 15th century)! I think my FAVORITE part about Lubeck was the Marzipan shop. Lubeck was the creating city of Marzipan (crushed almonds, sugar, etc) and they are SERIOUS about selling it. All four of us cramped into a store with about forty other people or so to buy Marzipan goods/souvenirs, but we ended up with some really neat trinkets and such. I really think I enjoyed our mini-tour of Lubeck more than Berlin, but it was probably just because I (we all) felt so independent finding our own way in a super-historical German city! We took a short twenty minute regional train to Travemunde, the closest German Baltic Sea town, and it is definitely no Panama City Beach, Florida. The architecture was mostly white, and kind of reminded me of a beachy Greek theme, and even what would have been labeled the “strip” of the beach was quaint, cute, and not overly populated! From our stop, you could practically see the water (another blessing that it wasn’t very far away). We changed into swimsuits and mostly laid on blankets and such to people-watch. German beach-wear is super sketchy, and I think we’ll just leave it at that. The Baltic Sea was a very beautiful deep, dark blue and it smelled a little bit more salty, but less sea-weedy than the Gulf. We picked a great beach day at a breezy 83 degrees and not a cloud in the sky; we did pick up on that, though, because the beach was packed with families (even on a Monday). We all dozed on the beach, people watched, and of course waded in the Baltic for about two hours, then headed back to our stop. We took a nauseatingly hot and off-balance bus back to the Lubeck Hauptbahnhof (the low point of the trip, and even it wasn’t that bad), then took our short train and had quite a layover in a tiny little train station in some city that starts with a B. I am clearly tired. Anyway, we had about an hour layover in a train station with eight tracks, no restrooms or restaurants, so we played card games (Spades and ERS, just in case you were wondering: Katie and I were losing pretty badly to Adam and Kathleen).Then we boarded our train for a fairly uneventful five-hour trip home (DB trains are weird. One direction can be a different duration than the next) and here I am…awake…for the past eighteen hours…living on three hours of sleep. Aaaaannnd goodnight!

Part 3

Our last day in Berlin was definitely an eventful one! We headed first to Checkpoint Charlie in the moderately heavy rain. Only a few of us had umbrellas on hand (I did…thanks Mom!) but the others stopped to get umbrellas. In case you can’t imagine it, more than ten people with umbrellas trying to walk in one general direction on a sidewalk is a nuisance to any other traffic that may arise. We also looked like a gigantic group of tourists approaching from afar, I’m sure. Checkpoint Charlie was pretty cool. We got to see original pictures, signs, and stories of those who passed through and worked there. It’s really strange to think that the wall was torn down just months before I was born. Next, we headed to the Berlin Jewish Museum. It was way more massive than I think any of us would have imagined. It had floors upon floors of pictures, info, and hands-on activities, and for once it wasn’t all centered around the Holocaust (NOT trying to say that the Holocaust isn’t important, but I’m sure if I was Jewish, I wouldn’t want my culture to be ONLY associated with the negative). We made a quick trip back by the Hostel for our luggage and headed out to catch the train. Katie, Kathleen, Adam, and I ate at (you shouldn’t guess this…) McDonalds to remember what it feels like to refill a drink, or attain one with ice (neither are common practice ANYWHERE in Germany). We thought we were one of the first groups to arrive at our platform, but suddenly the train was pulling into the station. I had the least amount of luggage, so I decided to scout ahead and reserve a ‘Harry Potter car’ (a private compartment with six seats) for our group (just to let you know, this plan had worked every other time previously to today). I noticed more people than usual were trying to board the car with me (we were boarding the 2nd to last car), but I shoved my way through into a ridiculously tiny hallway outside the ‘Harry Potter car.’ I had just secured a compartment with four available seats (through a raving, hardly moving crowd) only to realize that I didn’t see my group. I panicked for about thirty seconds or so (it was already chaos), but then I saw the tops of their heads. As I was motioning for them to come sit, a young lady approached me and said (in perfect English), “These are reserved compartments. Look outside of the door.” Surely enough, she was right: the sign said reserved. I should have thought it odd that she immediately sat down and motioned to a couple of her friends, but I set out sojourning for another compartment. I met up with Kathleen, and we stayed trapped in the tiny aisle of a moving train trying to make our way back to the ‘un-reserved seats’ for almost thirty minutes. Finally, we made some headway and ran into people headed our direction. At first, we were irritated with these boys making it impossible for us to pass, but I finally asked them if they spoke English (they did) and where they were from (Holland). We talked with them for a few seconds and finally realized that they had come from the extreme front of the train looking for unreserved seats, and we had come from the extreme back of the train looking for unreserved seats. Guess what? None of them were reserved. The signs were just permanent. It was at this moment I wanted to make a tiny voo-doo doll of that wretched girl who sent me away from the first compartment and poke it in the knee with a pushpin, but it was too late: she’d been sitting in that compartment for half an hour by this time. We left the Hollanders and headed further towards the front where we knew the rest of our group resided. We had a lot of issues passing through aisles filled with suitcases and people, but we eventually made it and sat down. It was a miracle, because I had envisioned us standing in a tiny cramped aisle with hundreds of people for the entire two hour train ride. Once we got back to Dresden, we went and got picnic materials and headed to our Phillip Glass Kronos Quartet/Dracula viewing. The quartet played music to accompany the (ENGLISH!) movie! It was pretty impressive, and super entertaining. Now I’m tired of typing, though, and it’s time for sleep.

Part 2

We had a 7:30 breakfast time at the hostel this a.m., so we headed out around 9 or so to our tour of the former Stasi Prison, Hohenschonhausen. I actually had no idea, but it was also used as a USSR secret service prison after the war, but before the wall was built (1945-1961). We examined the cells from that time frame, and they were awful. All fourteen of us could BARELY fit standing in an empty cell, and apparently the Russians crammed up to 12 people in each damp, moldy, cell with a giant bed consuming one entire half of the room. It was rough to think of the filth those people lived in for weeks on end. Apparently, because of the amount of carbon dioxide being exhaled and the warmth of so many bodies, the ceiling would literally begin to condensate and drip on the already downtrodden prisoners and create growing mold on their clothes and hair. We also toured where the Russians tortured their political prisoners. Forms of waterboarding seemed to be the worst. It was really emotional to walk into a room in which dozens maybe hundreds of people were tortured. I found myself praying for the poor souls who spent time in there, and it almost seemed as if they were still there partially. Now, that sounds sort of crazy as if I was seeing people, but I intended it to mean I could only imagine the amount of suffering wrought in each room. We then entered the Stasi portion of the prison occupied by (of course) the German secret police from 1961-1990. We headed upstairs and met a much more comfy looking cell. It only appeared comfy, though, because we didn’t know what other forms of torture were going on behind the soundproof walls. Each prisoner was given an individual cell with a bed, desk, sink, and toilet. It looked pretty humane to me on the first glance. Then, our awesome tour guide told us about the more subtle psychological torture. The prisoners could not sit or lay anywhere in the room for twelve hours of the day (the daytime), they were referenced only by their cell number. When brought to interrogation, a red-light/green-light system was implemented so that the prisoner never saw another prisoner or more than one guard at a time. The guards did not speak to the prisoners if at all possible. The prisoner wasn’t allowed to sing, hum, speak aloud, or sleep in a position other than on his or her back. Basically, the prisoner was BEGGING to go to interrogation just for human contact. Just the thought of being on my feet for twelve hours a day in solitude only to be awakened later in the evening if I turned over on my side by accident was enough to make me cringe. We then moved on to the padded isolation cells, which were I guess the typical isolation cells: terrible. Lastly, we went to the 100 identical interrogation rooms. The rooms are literally undisturbed, and have kind of 80’sish décor. It was weird to think that so many interrogations could be going on at once and a prisoner would never see or hear another inmate. We went out to the courtyard and saw the rose bushes planted by the Stasi hired staff physician. Apparently, he liked to defy his oath to help those in need of medical care then run out to garden some of the prettiest rose bushes I’ve ever seen. How lovely. After the Stasi tour, we headed to a quick lunch at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof and then to the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche. It was built for the second to last emporer of what is now Germany right before the turn of the 20th century. It was hit by a bomb which hollowed out the steeple and left a gaping, open-air hole in the church in 1943. It remained that way for several years, until they patched in a roof. The lack of a steeple still remains…also a super-creepy semi-mangled Jesus statue. We then saw the new church across the street. It’s where all of the services are now held. Afterwards, we headed to the gigantic mall called the KaDaWe?and spent an hour and a half looking around. It was built by the West Berliners to make the East Berliners jealous (of wealth and freedom, I suppose). Next, we stopped by the dorm to change for the Opera, and headed to Handel’s Orlando. I highly enjoyed it, even though it was a modern adaptation! It’s bedtime, though. ‘Night!

The Gigantic Berlin Post Part 1 (Days 1 and 2)

Most of this I typed the day it happened, so the tenses might be a little iffy at times!

Days 1 and 2

Livin’ it up in the Berl’.
Upon arrival in Berlin yesterday afternoon, we checked into our “hip” BaxPax hostel, and headed out on the town with our tour guide, Klouse! We walked by city hall, the parliament buildings, the West wall, Brandenburg gate (both sides), Fredrickplatz, and the Hotel Adur? (the hotel Michael Jackson dangled his baby, “Blanket,” out of several years ago. I think my favorite part of the tour was the Brandenburg gate. Our tour guide repeated Reagan’s speech there not too terribly long ago, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” which in retrospect I think would have been MUCH cooler if Mr. Gorbachev was there in the flesh to feel the burn of that statement. The walking tour was pretty lengthy, and we were a wee bit tired, but we ended up at a Middle Eastern restaurant on the Spree River at which I had an omelette…go figure. Today was an early day, we ate breakfast at 7:30 and departed at 8 for our train to Potsdam. Potsdam was King Frederick II ‘s summer palace and grounds. We had a pretty sweet guided tour of Sanssouci (his palace) and even got to see his death-chair…yay for terrible morbid moments that surpise you! The Potsdam grounds (not the city itself) are huge! We walked a straight dirt road from the ‘New’ Palace to Sanssouci that was seemingly a short walk. However, it was over a mile long. The ‘New’ Palace appeared like a mirage that kept getting larger, but never any closer. After walking all over creation, we settled on some benches and took a brief nap. We rode the train back to Berlin only to take another short nap at the Hostel and leave for a late dinner. We headed to a sketchier part of Berlin to eat supper (Dr. Hix called it the ‘Harlem of Berlin’), but it ended up being super-delicious and an awesome atmosphere. With fourteen people, it’s usually impossible to sit at one table, so we split into three. I ended up on a ‘date’ with Adam and Katie, but we definitely made the most of our tiny table! Katie and I had summer spaghetti which consisted of spaghetti, feta cheese sauce, and parsley while Adam ate a mushroom/cheese dish that made me wish I liked fungi. We took a brief trip to what looks like Berlin’s space needle (it’s a TV tower), and now we’re back in the Hostel…ready for our SUPER long day tomo