Hello Everyone,
Happy Valentines Day! I hope that you all have/had a wonderful day. Mine is getting a rather early start. I am up and going at 8 AM on a Saturday morning. Crazy… I know, but it is worth it. Aaron is coming to visit me in SIX DAYS!!! And there is much to do before he gets here. So when I finish writing this, I’ll be tackling a lot of reading and other work so that I don’t have to worry about it the week that he is here.
Having just started classes this week, this is the first chance that I’ve had to write about my trip to Germany last week. I will try to remember everything that I can, but forgive me if my memory is a bit spotty. I had an itinerary from the trip, but I seem to have misplaced it. If I realize that I forgot something, I’ll make sure to add it later (Mom, Dad and Aaron- feel free to remind me of anything I left out)
Okay, so… after getting over a brief stomach bug, I loaded my slightly feverish self onto a coach bus at 7:30 Saturday morning. My self, 3 staff and 45 other students from IES rode for an hour or so and then stopped at a rest stop. Now, I know what your thinking “she’s writing about the rest stop? What’s special about a rest stop? This is going to be a looooong blog.” (which it is) but this was not just any rest stop. This was a medieval rest stop (as seen in the picture) complete with dragons, Merlin, and majestic music blairing as we stepped off the bus. I saw it and immediately thought of Cara J
After driving a little while longer, we stopped for lunch in Prague. We weren’t there long, but the city center was beautiful and I certainly hope to go back one weekend while I’m here. Eventually we arrived in Dresden where we stayed for 2 nights. That night, Christa (who was getting over the same bug) Angie and I had a chill night, but we found an amazing café with wonderful chocolate confections. Angie’s hot chocolate was the consistency of pudding, and had pepper in it!
The next day we took a bus tour around Dresden, looking at the different architecture. I think one of my favorite parts about going to several cities was seeing how each city rebuilt itself after the war. I think Dresden was the most beautiful, personally. But what was really exciting about Dresden was going to the Zwinger art museum, where I got to see Rafael’s Sistine Madonna! If you don’t know what this is, just google it, you’ll know it immediately. I’m no art aficionado, but it was pretty in credible to be standing in the presence of something so great. But my favorite painting was Correggio's Die Heilige Nacht (pictured)
That night was the super bowl and the staff had made reservations for us at a local American Bar. I didn’t stay for the whole game, because it didn’t start until after midnight over here, but I saw through half time. Almost everyone on the trip was there so it was very fun. I got a hamburger… it had horse radish sauce on it. In a word: Brilliant! You should all try it.
On Monday, we drove about an hour to Leipzig where we took another bus tour. So what is important about Leipzig? J.S. Bach of course! And we got to see his tomb. Now, I don’t exactly hide the fact that I would not willingly play a Bach Cantata on my iTunes just for fun. However, it was pretty incredible to realize that while standing in St. Thomas Church, I was standing in the presence of greatness. That night we had dinner at the restaurant that inspired Goethe’s Faust. There are images from the legend painted on the walls, and the food was amazing!
After a bit of free time, we loaded back onto the bus and drove another hour to Berlin. On Tuesday, we took yet another bus tour, which I am ashamed to say that I fell asleep on the later part of. In my defense, we had a really busy schedule, and the tour guide’s voice was very soothing. However, one thing I certainly did not miss was The Berlin Wall. When we got there, we all had a chance to get out of the bus and take pictures.
I feel the need to tell one particular story about this. After most of the wall was torn down, the parts that were left up were auctioned off to artists who painted various murals. Many have graffiti over them, but are still recognizable and the graffiti consists of inspiring messages of peace and love. After stopping at a random point on the wall, I asked Angie to take a picture of me with it. After taking it she said, “oh that’s really cool, since you love doves so much!” I wasn’t sure what she meant, so I turned to see that the mural I stopped in front of, was a mural of two doves, and I had no idea. It nearly brought me to tears, because as many of you know, since my Confirmation, I love everything that dove’s stand for: peace, purity, love, forgiveness, gentleness, the Holy Spirit. Further more, they always seem to show up in my life in unexpected places (on a side walk in Boston…) My experience at the wall was certainly a gift from God.
After the tour, my friends and I were extremely American and got dinner at the Hard Rock Café… We took a picture with Elvis (unfortunately not on my camera though). Wednesday, we had a free day and the girls and I used it to go to the Berlin Zoo. We walked in, saw a baby elephant and immediately turned into 4 year olds. I kid you not, it was one of the most exciting parts of the trip. I can’t remember the last time I went to the Zoo, and seeing lions, giraffes, monkeys and pandas is just as exciting as it was 10 years ago.
One of the reasons we went was to see Knut, a polar bear who was born in captivity but rejected by his mother. His caretakers wanted him to live but had reservations about him being raised by various humans. They found a solution when one man offered to spend every moment raising Knut, being his mother. The two were best friends, but the gentleman passed away in September. It is a really beautiful story, which made it really exciting to see the 2 year old polar bear.
I had an exciting night too. Christa was thrilled because one of her favorite sopranos, Elizabeth Futral was singing the role of Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata at the Berlin Opera House. We got there about a half hour before the show to get student rush tickets. For 13.50 euros, students are given whatever seats are still remaining in the house… and we got FIFTH ROW! We could see them spit when they sang, it was incredible. The production was beautiful (far better than the one that came to UNH last year) and sitting so close made it that much better.
Thursday was a day of Museums. We first went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, which commemorated the people who fought against the injustice of the wall and the American soldiers who turned a blind eye, allowing east German citizens to cross over into the west. My favorite part if this exhibit was the last room that displayed stories of non-violent peace activists from countries all over the world and their accomplishments. (If anyone from the farm is reading this, I was thinking of you all, Brian in particular. He really would have loved it)
In the afternoon we went to the Jewish museum, which displayed the complete history of the Jewish people. What I liked about it was that they were deliberate about not making it a Holocaust museum, because there is far more to the Jewish people than just the Holocaust.
On Friday, we went to Potsdam for a day and got to see Castles! First we saw Sans Soussi, (I think I’m spelling that right, I don’t have it in front of me) This was the summer home of Frederick the Great. Unlike other castles that had been turned into art museums, this one was decorated as it was when Frederick lived there. Both the rooms and the gardens were stunning. Later we went to the Cecelienhof (spelling again… sorry) Palace. This is where the Potsdam conference was held, and Churchill, Truman and Stalin determined how to divide up Europe at the end of WWII. While standing in the conference room, it was almost surreal to think about who stood in that room before us. However, we all agreed that the most haunting room to stand in was by far Stalin’s study.
We had a free day on Saturday again, so we did a bit more sight seeing and had a bit more fun. In the morning, Christa, Angie and I went to see the Berlin Cathedral and got to climb up to the top of the dome and walk around it. The view was stunning. Then we went to see the book-burning memorial. This memorial that represents the thousands of books burned at Bebelplatz by the Nazi party, is not visible during the day from the street. It is a plate glass window in the ground and when one looks down into it, they see a room full of empty bookshelves. At night, the room is illuminated to simulate a fire. Again, I thought of my sister.
That afternoon, a few of the girls went shopping. I got a Berlin shirt and a couple of other items that I had been looking for. Nothing terribly notable. And in the afternoon, the program paid for one more dinner for us. After dinner, several of the students, myself included, decided to check out the Berlin film festival taking place that week. For 3 Euro, we got to watch 5 short films from all over the world and there was a question and answer session with the directors and producers after each. It was very cool. My favorite was from Indonesia. With their permission, the filmmaker documented a day in the life of a homeless couple. It is hard to describe beyond that, but it hit close to home for me.
Then on Sunday we loaded back on the bus and came home. I enjoyed Berlin, but we were all very glad to come back to a place called home in Vienna at the end.
On Monday, we started our regular classes. I am continuing with German and taking The Lied, Performance Workshop, Austrian Art and Architecture, and Coexistence and Conflict: A History of European Jews. All of them will be a lot of work, mostly reading, but very interesting. If you don’t mind, I will write a bit about them a little later, seeing as I need to work on some of their assignments.
My main challenge for the coming week will be staying focused, seeing as every day brings me closer to seeing Aaron. We are both unbelievably excited to see each other and have various things planned for the week. I’ll be sure to tell you about it all next week. I am so fortunate to have a boyfriend who loves me enough to buy a ticket to come see me as my Christmas present. Please keep him in your prayers Thursday night as he travels.
I’ll post again soon.
Love,
Caitlin
(I'm going to try posting pictures with this blog, I'm not sure where they will end up falling with the text. Let me know if you want to know more about anything I mentioned or the pictures)
