quark and currywurst
a food log, since the last two days have been amazing eating days....
yesterday began with a big margarita glass of vanilla quark (like a thick yogurt)topped with a hearty portion of raisins, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, and more. and with a MilchKaffee (milked coffee, served in a dishlike cup) to drink. a lovely cool breeze with leaves falling on my head... amazing. dinner last night was equally memorable. Jeylan made a salad and chicken dish, and with a brisk post-rain wind, we ate out on her 6th story balcony as the sun set.
today's eating involved getting ready to say good-bye to deutschland- a chocolate mousse-filled croissant and the shot of coffee, and i say a shot, because coffee (besides the milchkaffee bowls) is served in very small portions (about 5 sips). i tried a currywurst today since i haven't yet. it is a popular "Imbiss" food item (served from a grab-and-go type stand). they are a sausage/hot dog type dish, topped with curry powder and drenched in ketchup. the name isn't attractive, but i found it surprisingly tasty. though german's like their sausage and bread, they are health consious when it comes to ice cream. i love that it is very common to see people walking around with ice cream in hand. however, ice cream is sold by the scoop. therefore, many people just get one little scoop, and so it is completely acceptable to have icecream on a more regular basis as you are just having a little bit. jeylan and i had amazing ice cream at a chain ice cream shop called "Australian". I was skeptical, but it was definately the best Kugel (scoop) i've had so far in Berlin, probably because is made on the premises. Jeylan's apple tasted just like an apple!
Yesterday I first went to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Park. I'd passed the stop every day to school and was always curious to visit the park, though i hadn't. To my dismay, there was no park, just a bust of Mendelssohn surrounded by overgrown grass.
Nearby is the Musical Instruments Museum, which is affilliated with the Berlin Philharmonie. The museum began with very old stringed instruments and harpsichord-style keyboards from the 16th and 17th centuries. I loved it! I also caught have of a free concert given in a small auditorium within the museum (one reason i went yesterday)- it was two classical guitarists and a viola de gamba player- and the compositions were there own.
Today I did a lot of walking! I began by finding the Carillon (very huge belled instrument many stories high... Duke has one in the tower of the Chapel, that I love hearing in the early evenings at school) in time to hear it play at 12 noon. Then I strolled for quite some time in the Tiergarten. Next I went to a newly trendy, quiant area of Berlin called Hackescher Markt. I found and sat inside a very old Protestant church (SophienKirche) built in 1712. Very lovely and pleasant. An old, shaded cemetary with 18th century graves accompanied the church. In that same area of town, I found the oldest Jewish Cemetary in Berlin, where Moses Mendelssohn's grave is. It was another reminder of the horrors of the Jewish history that ended with the Holocaust. Over 10,000 Jews were buried in the tiny cemetary beginning in the 1700s, and the stones were all destroyed in the war, and nothing remains of any stones today; onely a solitary stone is in the cemetary, and it is the replica of Moses Mendelssohn's.
Ended the afternoon by quickly visiting the Pergamon Museum- it has the Pergamon alter, which is a huge alter of Pergamon, an ancient Greek settlement. The museum also contains incredible remains of ancient societies dating back to 2000 BC.
bethlehem berliners
Monday morning began my week with Jeylan! It's already been so filled with interesting things, that I'm antsy to write it all down!
Monday morning- arrived at Jeylan's apartment exactly at 9 - was nervous i might not be exactly on time- i'm doing without a cell phone this week (gasp), so we are relying on good communication skills (indeed, it can be done). i arrived and we lugged my big suitcase up 5 big flights of stairs to her top-floor apartment :) As she is busy until late afternoons, I'm taking the time to read and plan out little excursions, and it's really been so rewarding!
Monday: Kurfurstendamm- it was the hub of West Berlin and is a 2-3 kilometer stretch of really ritzy shops, which isn't exactly my thing, though it was entertaining seeing the big BMW and Mercedes glass-walled stores. What I went for, however, was to visit the Evangelical Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedaechtnis Kirche (remembrance church). It is a towering church, but it was bombed in 1944 (along with much of Berlin, and indeed many churches.... on my block in Kreuzberg, I walked by a huge, bombed out church called St. Micheal's most every day). Though the city of berlin considered demolishing the church because of it's condition, the citizen's of Berlin voted for it to remain as a reminder of the war. Really stark contrast of the jagged steeple (it looked as if someone grabbed the top of the steeple and just cracked it in half, leaving the jagged lines where it cracked off) and the ritzy, bussling, newly built up street. The church also built a very modern bell-tower right next to the bombed church, so that as well is a start contrast. There is no body of the original church remaining, but I went and sat inside the new one which is super modern and glows blue on the inside with a modern, golden Jesus over the alter-- very surreal.
Last night- Jeylan introduced me to the A-Trane. So very neat! It is a well-known Jazz club in Berlin. And last night was free entrance to boot! We heard a jazz pianist, Andreas Schmidt, who played with a guitarist and amazing drummer. The style was mixed- the drumming was very new-aged, experimental. The piano also mixed electric keyboard and a recording device, but also with excellent piano playing. What a blast!
Today: I began in Viktoria Park which is just a few blocks away in Kreuzberg. It is on a large hill and a waterfall falls down it! at the top is a memorial to when Prussia pushed back Napolean around 1815, built by Schinkel, who is famous for his architecture, much of which can be found in Berlin. The top of the park, at the monument, provided a fabulous view over much of Berlin. So much grass, water and flowers, sunbathers, bikers, walkers. I love the multitude of public spaces in this city. It is so easy and wonderful to retreat to such places - I can only take so much city, and i find it impressive that a city would make such an effort to provide so many public parks. Spent 10-15 minutes talking with a friendly German man about the city, my studies, etc. It's been very rewarding to be able to handle such conversations in German.
In the afternoon I went to the Nikolai Viertel (Quarter). It is located near central Berlin, and is a section of town reconstructed to look as the area did long ago (not too sure how long), though the St. Nikolai Church there was originally built in the 13th century (it was also completely destroyed in the War, though it has been rebuilt in the same style and many remnants of the old church such as a 600 year old stone bath and other artifacts are now in the rebuilt church. I stopped in a year round Christmas shop there, and it made me miss Bethlehem!
The last part of my excursion was to find the cemetary and grave of Felix Mendelssohn. Amazingly, soon before I had to meet up with Jeylan, I found the cemetary where I thought the grave might be. It was incredible to wander around with graves from teh 18th century. Much of the cemetary stones were ruined and not kept up, because during the Berlin Wall, the cemetary was not kept up at all because the cemetary was on one side of the wall and the parish it belonged to was on the other side. incredible. more incredible, however, with the minutes ticking away, i found Mendelssohn's grave! I was looking for a grave marker that would be some sort of large, 2 meter high colums like other grave markers there of rich, Berlin notables. Interestingly, Felix's gave stone is no larger than a typical one - it might have been 2 feet high. His sister Fanny's (who was a very good composer, particularly for the piano) grave marker, which was next to her brother's, was actually much more sizable than his!
Tonight, Jeylan and I had dinner with some of her friends from her program at a restaurant overlooking another public park. I had a very german dish- hash-brown like shopped potatos fried with cheese melted on top. Served with bread. Yum.
pictures
Outside the Reichstag.
With Dan at the Yodelkeller!
a cool breeze...
Though the week has ended wonderfully (including with a little cooler air!), it started off pretty brutally...
When Ann and Dan left Germany, they seem to have left their Slovakian virus... they arrived to Berlin both feeling very sick from a virus, and luck would have it, I found myself with it once they left. Very sick beginning Sunday night, I couldn't get out of bed for about 40 hours, and also missed two full days of classes. It was definately very horrible. Once I felt better Tuesday afternoon, I had to buckle down worked non-stop until finals finished late Friday afternoon. Friday night was a pleasant BBQ at the school with the group. It was definately a great feeling to be done with classes.
Saturday we took it easy, began cleaning the apartment and other lovely things. In the afternoon I went to the Orgelmusik at St. Marien's Kirche (church) in Alexanderplatz. It was a 1 hour organ vespers and the organist played lots of old german stuff- bach, buxtehude, and some other folks. the organ is a 1732 wagner organ- pretty much very old and large! Really neat to hear the music in the country where these men composed and played.
Last night was the last night with Katherine- so we and a few other girls had dinner at a well-known turkish restaurant in K-berg. My hummus was excellent. Our friend recommended the yogurt drink, so Katherine got it. Pretty much the worst thing ever- it fools you into thinking it's an icecream milk shake- but it really a white beverage that tastes like liquid sour cream... amazingly, out of thirst, katherine downed most of the .5 liters.. She's amazing like that, and I miss her already! Woke up and saw her off at 5 this morning (of course, the berlin sun was already up to great us!)
Had a nice lazy Sunday morning, then went to the East Side Gallery with a few friends - it is the longest stretch of the Wall left in Berlin- probably about 200 meters or so. In the neighborhood, we found a photobooth that actually develops the photos inside (read- they aren't digital), so we crammed the 5 of us in and took a roll- fun! lunch = a Schwarma from a shop in the 'burg. It is along the lines of a doner or falafel but has potatos and chili sause in it and you can get it with chicken. Yum. Definately my favorite of the three greasy sandwiches. This afternoon we went to a large flee market on Barnauer Strasse. I purchased a beautiful necklace of Che-che beans - so my first purchase is Columbian and not German.. but I have been eating lots of German chocolate!
So, I really look forward to this week! I am staying one full week with my very good friend, Jeylan, who's been here since March with a study abroad and just finished and now has an internship in the city. She is living in a more southern, bit nicer section of Kreuzberg. I'm looking forward to visiting some museums and galleries, checking out new parts of the city, and spending time in places I've already been.
Thanks for reading!
Swanks x 3
Sent Ann and Dan off this morning- they spent the last 3 days of their 6 week adventure here with me. Unfortunately both were sick. Dan was getting over something, but Ann got very sick and had to stay in my apartment most of the time. Still managed to do some neat things together though-
Thursday, I took them to Alexander Platz. As it was another very hot day, fountains throughout the city were popular places to cool off. Sat with our feet in the fountain of Poseidon. Fun to cool off, people watch... in case zou've been curious- yes, mohawks are still very much in style on this side of the Atlantic. We then walked down Unter den Linden, spending time outside of Humboldt University - there is an interesting collection of large bears painted by artists reprenting most of the countries of the World. Down further we walked through the Brandenburg Gate and looked at the Reichstag.
Friday afternoon I went with Dan to Checkpoint Charlie. A solder still stands there, mostly for aesthetic purposes. We spent time in the Museum that is now there. It gave a lot of information on not only the history of Germany after the war up until the end of the wall, but also other world history during those years. There were also really interesting artifacts of things people used to cross the wall. I thought I'd already heard about most - I was most surprised by a homemade hot air balloon in which a family of 8 flew from East to West.
Friday night Dan, myself and a few others finally went to the Yodelkeller- a local locals' bar that we pass daily on the way to and from school. The beverages weren't the best, but were served with a tasty treat- they look like cheese curls but are flavored with peanuts. Katherine and I promptly purchased some the next time we were in a convenience store :)
Yesterday we spent the afternoon in the Tiergarten, and had lunch at a Biergarten. We reached Potsdamer Platz just in time for a large parade celebrating Gays/Lesbians/Transgendered, etc. The place was crowded. Managed to cross the street however, and I played the tourguide pointing out some historic sites (more wall, an East German Watchtower).
Last night we watched "V for Vendetta" out in the Freiluftkino (Free Air Movies), which is just a block down the street in our neighborhood. Jeylan met up with us, and we grabbed lawn chairs provided, and enjoyed the show! The courtyard was filled with a few hundred young people, was a really fun way to go to the movies.
I can't believe I only have a week left of classes- finals are this Wednesday-Friday, so I have to buckle down..
After finals, I will be staying one more week in Berlin with Jeylan. It definately feels like I'm living here. Though it's a great experience in so many ways, I won't lie that I'm missing home - family, friends, the US. Perhaps more on that later.
the Wall
I forgot my key before running out the door to school this morning, so I'm locked out of the apartment until Katherine gets back from an errand. So here I am in the internet cafe on the corner of the block that has been my home for the last 4 weeks. It is interesting, definately far fewer Germans have personal computers and internet than Americans, so internet cafes, particularly in large cities such as Berlin, are very popular for the local population.
When I walk down Adalbertstrasse (our street) to the internet cafe or busstop, I cross a 'canal', which is actaully a very long park that is about 10 meters across and lies parallel with a road. It is the former No-man's Land that lied between the two walls (the Berlin Wall was actually at least two walls, with No-mans land (a death strip) in between). And this afternoon after classes, we had a group outing to the Berlin Wall Documentation center in Berlin. We had a detailed tour outside by a section of wall. The history of how the wall went up over time, flight attempts, the differences between the West and East, how the wall got more advanced to ward of escape attempts is all fascinating. Today only 280 meters of the wall remain around all of Berlin. People might wonder why more wasn't kept up to memorialize the 30 years that the wall stood, but in 1989, Germans were scared and really just wanted to get rid of it.
Had another doener for lunch today- so I think I'm averaging about one a week here. One of my favorite things is just noticing local residents gathered with a friends or even just solo standing outside such 'Imbiss' stands eating their lunch or dinner.
So it's supposed to be about 100 degrees here tomorrow -- i really will be appreciating the air conditioning and ice cubes when i get back home!
Sachsenhausen
Intense day today. Began by waking up late (thanks to Katherine who roused me shortly before we ran out the door), but good since I've been tired! Made the 40 minute trip by foot/bus to get to Potsdamer Platz at 9, where we met our classmates and two professors to go to Sachsenhausen, about 45 minutes by S-bahn in Northern Berlin. From there, another 1-2 mile walk. So about 3 hours later, we were there. Such commutes are not out of the ordinary, that now when we get anywhere in <45 minutes, it seems like a rather superhuman accomplishment.
Sachsenhausen in a Concentration Camp in Northern Berlin. Amazing that any such camp existed in the capital city- much unlike many other of the major camps that were actually removed from most towns. I don't wish to tell much about the experience here. But we spent about 1.5 hours on the grounds, and were able to walk around it at our pace with an info-phone thing and site map. Amazing to have been there and still having trouble wrapping my mind around the reality that was the Holocaust.
From northern berlin, I took the S-bahn to southern berlin to visit Rathaus Steglitz, a memorial to Jews transported from the neighborhood of Steglitz beginning in 1942. The memorial is a Mirror Wall in a main city Platz, in the middle of busy streets and the U-bahn. Using my german, I chatted with some locals to try to get their views of the memorial. Afterwards, I bought a way too expensive Iced coffee from Starbucks, but the air conditioning and ice cubes were incredibly wonderful.
quick update!
Just recently got back from the run. The first one I've done in berlin since we typically walk many miles every day in this city.
Soooo glad for the finally cool(er) air. Germany doesn't believe in Air Conditioning, and it has been very hot up until now, which has been a bit of a challenge for the last month or so.
Last night Katherine and I attempted to go to Don Giovanni at the Comishe Oper, which is a big thing in berlin. However, the only tickets left where a bit steep... so we opted to check out the movie theater in Potsdamer Platz. We wound up seeing a very interesting german film, "Das Leben den Anderen" (the life of the others) about the Stasi in the former DDR (east germany) and a german playwright with political ideas that threatened the Stasi-- a very real theme for Germany.
I realize I haven't talked about food in a while...
Kaffee und Kuche (coffee and cake) - is a very traditional thing for Germans, a great afternoon treat that I will never tire of
Schultheiss Pilsner is a very tasty beer- had one at a Biergarten tucked away in some trees right off a main city-street, so neat!
Marzipan croissant from the corner bakerie = delicious.
Tomorrow I am going to Sachsenhausen with my class. It is a former concentration camp right outside Berlin. I don't want to go in that obviously, it will be very difficult to experience. however, i think it will be also a very changing event, and another experience to better learn about part of the long, historic struggle of the Jews in Germany.
