Jumping Over The Wall

Modernism, diversity, and history converge in Berlin. It is New York City, Tijuana, and Rome in one. My kind of city.

I acquired an S-Bahn/U-Bahn (subway, underground, tube) map and it was my close companion for the weekend. As we navigated our way through the city, we managed to get lost only once. You can’t really get lost when you start the day off with no plans. That’s how we explored for three consecutive days.

We got on the S-Bahn in the morning, ate a chocolate croissant at the station, and exited the train where we pleased. Our first day, we landed at the Tiergarten, Berlin’s Central Park. We saw the glass dome of the parliament building and then proceeded to walk into the park.

We happened upon Bradenburg Tor (we had no idea what we were looking at at the time), where we not only saw bronze chariots atop a grand archway that used to stand as a city gate of Berlin, but also a Starbucks and a group of break dancers putting on a show in the center of the square.

Bratwurst stands were in abundance, and we enjoyed our first taste before continuing on around the park. The park was home to monument upon monument, our favorite of which depicted the visages of our good friends Beethoven, Hayden, and Mozart.

We emerged from the shade of the linden trees of the park and reached yards of concrete jutting up from the ground: a memorial to the Holocaust.

The concrete coffins extended as far as the eye could see. As we walked through them, they got higher and higher, until they were well over twice our height, surrounding us on all sides. Standing in the midst of them was sobering. I felt that the designer instilled in me a sense of awe and dread appropriate to an event whose horrors still scar the face of this city. Of this country.

We got a glimpse of the more modern side of Berlin the next day. We sat in Starbucks below the needle of Alexanderplatz and listened to the tones of an aspiring pop artist. Musicians like this are all over Berlin, hoping to be discovered. We had the pleasure of hearing a violinist, an accordionist, and a classical singer situated under a tree, belting out the entirety of Schumann’s Fraueliebe und –leben.

I suppose my companions and I can be counted amongst this group of aspiring musicians; our whole reason for ending up in Berlin this weekend was an audition. For Elisa and I, it was our first of the trip. 

The audition was for an agent, and besides ending up in the middle of a kindergarten when looking for the practice rooms, it was un-traumatic. The agent offered us immediate feedback, but was deterred in offering us anything further due to our age. Figures. Our mettle remains firm and we look forward to more auditions coming up in the near future.

Berlin is home to many more historical buildings and sites, including the Victory Column (commemorating military successes), the Berliner Dom (Berlin's main cathedral, comparative to St. Peter's Basilica), and the Gendarmenmarkt (a large square and the site of the Konzerthaus framed on either side by the mirror images of the French and German Cathedrals).

A picture's worth a thousand words, so rather than explain these sites to you, check out the photos on Photobucket. 

One of our last sites was the Berlin Wall East Side Gallery. Almost one mile long, the remains of this stretch of the Berlin Wall include painted art: over 100 pictures by artists from all over the world. It is the largest open air gallery in the world. The images on its surface are a memorial to freedom, and a reminder to continue working towards a more universal freedom.

"She who wants the world to remain as it is, doesn't want it to remain at all."

Hopp Schwiiz!! (Hopp Liechtenstein?)

I am not good with trains. I am a confident traveler, but I guess we regress in stressful situations. The first time I had to speak German was at the train station, when Elisa and I couldn’t figure out how to buy a ticket using the automated machines and were forced to ask a real live human being. I was about as terrified as I used to be ordering a hamburger from McDonalds, (a highly anxiety-producing situation in my childhood), but I survived the encounter.

The real scare came later, on our journey to Bremen. We prepared to hop on a train in Schaffhausen, but I was having trouble lifting my heavy roller suitcase. All of a sudden, the train lurched forward. In retrospect, it was moving very slowly, but I was sure that it was about to leave Elisa and I behind. I gave up trying to lift my bag and urged Elisa, with her gazillion ton traveller’s backpack, to hop on first. The train was still moving and all I could think was “She’s on that train and it’s moving and I’m not going to make it on! How am I going to get to Bremen?!”

Panic-stricken, I cried, “Elisa, help me!” I think it was the most pathetic phrase I’ve ever uttered, because some random blonde man on the platform came to our aid. I barely noticed him, due to my state of sheer alarm, but between his pushing and Elisa’s pulling, I (and all of my stuff) made it aboard. The train then stopped and waited around in the station for another five minutes before finally departing. I continued to feel ridiculous for several minutes after that.

Luckily, our travels haven’t been limited to train. This past week, we saw a large chunk of Switzerland from Sabine’s car. A resident of the very quiet Büsingen, Sabine was excited to go out and about with us, and we had a blast with her on our two day-trips. On our first trip, we drove from Büsingen through Zurich (we passed a city called Schwamadingen, a very exciting event for Elisa), and then up Der Klausenpass. 

Der Klausenpass is a road that winds through the Swiss countryside. As we headed out of the metropolis of Zurich, we entered another time and place: “Heidi”-land. Any expectations about what Switzerland should look like are not disappointed on Der Klausenpass. The fields are green, the mountains high, and there are countless cows. The cows even have the stereotypical bells at their throats, which help the farmers keep track of them should they wander too far in to the hills. When we reached the highest point on Der Klausenpass, we saw the first bit of snow of the season on the nearby peaks.

            As we descended, we passed through the lake town of Brunnen. The view of Lake Luzern with the backdrop of the Alps settled it: if Elisa or I ever come in to ample amounts of money, we are getting a summer home on a lake in the Alps of Switzerland.

            Our final destination for the day was Luzerne. It is a town rich in history, and beauty. The Reuss River runs down its middle, and connecting the shores is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge). Unfortunately, the bridge was partially burned in a case of arson a few years ago, so many of the religious images painted on the bridge’s interior are dark with soot-stain.

            We walked through Luzern for a while, but we were ravenous. Our wallets couldn’t handle dinner in Switzerland, so we opted to drive back towards Germany for dinner. We stopped in Gottmadingen, where we purchased Turkish kebabs. Anyone that’s been to Germany knows that shaved meat inside a warm pita with various veggies and sauces is a little piece of heaven.

            A few days later, we succeeded in driving through four countries in twelve hours. We started out in Switzerland, of course. We drove up to St. Gallen, which prides itself in being the highest city in Switzerland.  Originally Catholic, St. Gallen houses the Abbey of St. Gallen, inside which is the notable Cathedral St. Gallen.

            Outside of the Abbey stands a Protestant church, which was built there during the Reformation. There remains a part of a wall that was built to separate the two churches when there rivalry spurred a competition to gain the most congregation members. The Protestants won out, because they served beer before every service! 

            Our next country (my favorite) was Liechtenstein! It is 64 square miles and it took us about 10 minutes to walk from one end of its main street to the other. There is a huge, functioning castle up on a hill. We weren’t allowed to go in because it still houses the royal family. Liechtenstein is really more a home for people’s money than for actual people. Several banks are located within the city. Of course we had to get some iced coffee (it was almost 80 degrees that day!) in Liechtenstein. According to Sabine, a country can only be on your list of “Countries I’ve Been To” if you “qualify” it by having coffee or a meal in that country. 

            Austria, on our way back, was not technically “qualified.” We planned to have dinner in the city of Bregenz, on Lake Konstanz, but since it was such a nice day outside, traffic into the city was unmoving. So we walked down to the lake for a bit, then hopped back into the car and drove to the other side of the lake—to the city of Konztanz. We had a great dinner, and then walked through the city by night. It’s one of my favorite European cities. The lake is beautiful and the main square is full of fun fountains and windows with pretty jewelry inside. As we roamed, we devoured gelato, and we were full and contented on our way home to Büsingen.   

(Don't forget to check out more photos on Photobucket)

Hairy cows, chocolate muesli cereal, some deer in a moat...this must be HOME

After preparing for weeks for our trip overseas, Elisa and I (or at least I; I can't really speak for Elisa) found ourselves a bit unprepared this past Sunday morning, as we loaded up our stuff into my parent's car and made the three and a half hour drive from my house in Columbia, Maryland to Newark International Airport in New Jersey. While we had gathered all the necessary items for such a trip (cold weather clothing, ear plugs, and who knows what else. Really, I've already determined that I've packed way too much), our actual plans for once we landed on European ground only extended through the first week of a two and a half month stay. As Elisa and I keep telling ourselves, "That's why it's an adventure."

We landed at Zurich International Airport at 8:30 am the day after we flew out (I probably slept about 3 hours on the plane). Our goal for that day was to make it until at least 6 pm before we succumbed to jetlag and lack of sleep. Our hopes of succeeding were low until our friend Sabine found us at the airport and took us for some coffee in Schaffhausen, the little Swiss town next to the town in which we've been staying, Büsingen. Büsingen am Hochrhein is an interesting story. It is administratively part of Germany, but Swiss in almost every other way (monetarily, geographically, etc.) Apparently, this is because some guy, who I guess ruled Büsingen, was very proud of his German culture and swore that it might never become Swiss, despite the shifting of the border and whatever else occurred to make Büsingen a virtual German island within Swiss land. Anyways, now Büsingen is the home to European Nazarene College and the Eurasian Nazarene Regional Office. The Nazarenes probably make up half of the population of this tiny town. I lived here with my parents my senior year of highschool, when they were both working for the church here. And that is how Elisa and I have come to be in this tiny village on our current travels; it is another one of my homes.

Büsingen does not offer very many exciting things for one to do, but Elisa and I have been having fun exploring and relaxing anyhow. We took a walk and covered most of Büsingen within the hour. In the picture above, Elisa is enjoying a view of the beautiful Rhein river from our favorite boat dock in Büsingen. To the right, we see Elisa meeting an esteemed inhabitant of Büsingen: a hairy cow. As you can tell, Elisa finds the odor of the hairy cow albeit questionable. We also made our way up to the Bergkirche St. Michael, which is arguably my favorite building on the planet. The church was built in the 11th century and still stands upon a hill in Büsingen, lit up at night for the village to see. It is idyllic in every way, and the epitome of peacefulness. 

After our short walk, Sabine took Elisa and I to Lidl, the German grocery store (we left Büsingen, crossed into Switzerland, and shortly thereafter crossed the border back in to Germany). Almost everything in Europe is more expensive than in the States, but kindly enough, groceries in Germany are cheap. Elisa and I bought a lot of bread and cheese, and another one of my favorite things in the whole world: chocolate muesli cereal!!!!! I can't begin to express my love for this product. I could eat it every day for the rest of my life. I'm highly considering throwing away everything else in my suitcase on my way back to the States in November just so that I can fill my suitcase with chocolate muesli cereal. Okay, maybe not. The point is, I love it. AFTER we got our groceries, I'm not quite sure what happened. I know that somehow Elisa and I managed to stay up until around 7:30 pm, but I wasn't exactly lucid for the majority of the three hours before I fell asleep.
        On Wednesday, Elisa and I walked to Schaffhausen and back, which would be about six miles. The whole walk was along the Rhein and despite the overcast weather, it was a beautiful day. We got some coffee, people watched, and climbed up the Munot, the largest military fortress in Switzerland. My favorite part about the Munot is that, as it has long since ceased to serve any military functions, its moat has been drained and replaced with a vineyard, gardens, and a cute little deer family that just hangs out down there and is tended to by the groundskeeper or whomever. In Schaffhausen we also saw two old churches which were pretty boring because they are Protestant, and scoped out the train station, knowing that we would be needing to take the train from Schaffhausen in to Singen, another nearby German town, the next day. We needed to go to Singen for pretzel bread and gelato, first and foremost, but also because we needed to go to the Apotheke. Elisa had contracted some bug bites at some point over the night which were in need of soothing. The bug bites are unsurprising; we've had many unpleasant insect visitors in our room because it's not yet cold enough for them all to be dead, and it's wet outside, so they come inside. Elisa killed two huge spiders yesterday and I'm infinitely thankful that she is my roommate on this trip and not Diane Loughry. We shall have a great many more adventures in the coming weeks, I'm sure!

If you'd like to see more pictures from the trip, check them out on Photobucket. I will try to be as consistent about putting up pictures as I hope to be about blogging! Enjoy.