Kloster Lüne

I just realized I didn't write about my trip to the Lüne convent (Kloster). Last Wednesday I went to a convent that was built in the 1300s. It was originally built in the 1100s, but it burnt down and was rebuilt again. It was a hot afternoon (it's back to being chilly now, though. I joke around and say it's a nice day...for autumn).

The building was very cool though, I think there is still a convent there. It has a very long history; it was originally a Catholic convent, but had to be forcibly converted to a protestant one, although they nuns didn't convert without a fight. When they first had services in the newly converted church, the nuns would sing songs in Latin so loud, that the assembly could not hear the preacher. Nuns mostly came from affluential families, since families a long time ago would have a number of children, usually the youngest daughter would be promised to the convent, in order to guarantee some sort of salvation for the family. Therefore, whatever the daughter would inherit would be given to the convent. This made convents very wealthy. Nuns were not allowed to keep very many things. They had to live a very simple and religious life. Very early on, nuns were not allowed to speak during meal times, so they made up a sign language in order to communicate with each other, which I thought was clever.

During WWII, a bomb had gone off near the convent where they had a bridge. The Germans bombed it, in hoped of stopping the allies. However, the bomb also destroyed a lot of the original stained glass windows. Some of them have been restored, but they have been moved to a safer location of the convent. The whole convent used to be covered with stained glass. The convent was also well known for its stitchwork, and some projects would take up to a year and a half to complete. They were beautiful pieces, threaded using a fishbone. The nuns also may have had a hard time completing their work, since their main source of light came from stained windows.

A house was built in the convent especially for King George I, since when he visited the abbey, there was no place for him to stay. He died before the house was completed.

Their sleeping quarters were also very small. If you think college dorms are small, I think the nuns who lived in convent accommodations would gladly trade with any college student. They were really small, maybe 3 meters by 4 meters, with a window. Later on, they were allowed to decorate their rooms and even have servants, this all was allowed after the reformation.

I remember that two German idioms came from the convent life. One of them goes along the lines of "You can finally see the dog" which means you're left with nothing. Nuns were allowed to keep their belongings in a chest, which had a dog at the bottom of the chest. When they finally "saw the dog"- that means that they were left with nothing in the chest.

The one I do remember ist "halt die klappe" - which means to "shut up." It originates from when the nuns had to be in a waiting room before they had to sing hymns. While they were waiting, they had these sections on the wall, where they could lean against and rest while they waited to go to the choir balcony. Later on, drop down seats were added. When they would be too loud, they would drop down their seats and be quiet.

The convent also had a very valuable painting- apparently sough after by many art museums. It was painted by a friend of Martin Luther, and it was when Jesus was brought down from the cross. The artists had drawn himself into the scene, which included Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Mary's Mother, Joseph, and Mary's sister.

We were not allowed to take many pictures of the convent, but these are the ones I was able to take:

Until next time!

Capital City, Berlin!

Hello all!
I spent last weekend with my friend Tricia in beautiful Berlin, Germany. Being a poli sci major, I had a huge interest in the city. We spent about a day in the city, and I got to see a lot of sites.

I would say all of the places I saw were beautiful sites- we went to the Bundestag (German parliament building), Chalottenburg Schloss (Charlottenburg Castle), Branderburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz, and Alexander Platz (both big squares).

We headed to the big capital city on Saturday morning, after a small setback, we made it to Berlin in the early afternoon. Berlin welcomed us with its typical weather: light rain and a bit of humidity. We got a day pass which let us ride the trams, U-bahn and S-bahn (subways), and the buses. I had an appointment to go to the Bundestag at 6pm on Saturday. Little did I know that I needed to print out my confirmation letter (although it didn't say I had to on the letter itself). After some minutes of frustration, I used Tricia's phone to access the confirmation, and saved us from standing in line to make an appointment for the next day. The view from the rooftop of the Bundestag was wonderful. You can see all of Berlin from the rooftop. There's also a free audio guide with lots of valuable information about the Bundestag building and the major landmarks around Berlin. The dome of the Bundestag contains a huge spiral with mirrors on it. You can also see into the inside of the building (it wasn't in session while I was there). The point of why it's like that is because they people should be able to see what the government is doing, a transparent government almost.  The government should work for its people, and the people have a right to be represented.

Next was the Brandenburg gate. It was really close to the Bundestag (I could see it from there!). It started raining shortly after we got there. We took some pictures and eventually made our way to the Holocaust memorial next to the gate, and across from the American Embassy (which was HUGE, it was bigger than the other embassies nearby eg, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland. They should keep American snacks at stored and hand them out to homesick citizens). The memorial was also pretty big, and I remember talking about it in a Holocaust remembrance class a few semesters ago. It sparked some controversy because it is on an extremely valuable piece of real estate. However, I think it was a proper way of remembering victims. The memorial consists of big cement blocks, which get bigger towards the middle, and decrease at the extremes. I didn't get it when I first got there, but I told Tricia that it was sort of a maze; you could see the end, but it took a long time to get there. The cement blocks covered my view, so sometimes I ran across someone, but once I moved on, I never saw them again. To me, this meant that although people knew what their destiny might be, they crossed paths with other people, but once the others kept going on with their destiny, they would never be seen again. The huge blocks in the middle represented a blocked view, you didn't know who you would meet, you didn't know how you would get to the end, you couldn't see anyone else walking through the maze. It was the feeling of being lost, although you could clearly see the end. 

Berlin is a huge city, walking around it tired us out. We went to eat a place that had food i'd been craving for some time: tex-mex! I was glad to finally eat something that reminded me of home. It was funny that the waiters had to warn people that some of the food was spicy. I think they spiciest thing i've found here is curry ketchup...

The next day I checked out Potsdamerplatz and Alexanderplatz. This is what Potsdamerplatz used to look like during the cold war:

today:

I also went to Alexanderplatz and thought it was pretty neat. It was dedicated to a Russian Czar I think, when he visited Berlin. 

And of course, I went to check out Checkpoint Charlie. It was the main entrance between East and West Berlin. Many people tried to escape from East Berlin, and some even hired diplomats to smuggle them out (for a price, of course).

It was a great time in Berlin, but I wish I'd had more time to see everything. Perhaps the weather will be better whenever I return. Probably not.

I'm headed to Copenhagen this weekend. I just received an email telling me to set up a check-out appointment with the landlord. Time's coming to a close soon! I can't believe my summer will be over in a few weeks.

Until next time!

It's finally sunny in Lüneburg

Finally, a week where there will be multiple sunny days!! I took the days when it didn't rain for granted. Today, I spent most of the day outside, and so did everyone else. I got a few things knocked off my Lüneburg "to see" list. I went to Adana Dostlar, which is an outstanding Turkish restaurant right by the city center. I had a good-bye lunch with my German tandem partner (I speak English to her, she speaks German to me), since she is leaving for the US to study abroad. Over the past few weeks, I've noticed that not only has my German gotten significantly better, but I have also gained confidence in speaking it. In some ways, forming German sentences is like doing an equation. The sentence structure is subject + verb+ object. The verb must ALWAYS be in second position. So if a time and place take the first position, then the subject position must be rearranged.

Anyway, I also went to the brewery museum, next to a Bier Garten. It was really interesting, it had all of the tools used to make a big vat of beer, including some vats. I later went to Kalkberg, a huge hill that's a "mountain" and where they used to mine for salt until the 1980s when salt was no longer profitable. Later on I went to an organ concert at the nearby St. Nicholas church. They played one of Bach's fugues, which sounded really cool. I accidentally coughed during the performance, but no one looked at me because of the interruption; it was if everyone was in some sort of trance.

It's supposed to be sunny for the rest of the week, and I plan to take full advantage. Tomorrow I am going on a guided tour of Kloster Lüne, an abbey that was built around 1,000 years ago.

Until next time!

Change of plans

Hey everyone!

Unfortunately my plans for Munich fell through for this weekend. But I do hope to make it to the 2013 Oktoberfest!
I do have plans to go to Berlin and Copenhagen in the upcoming weekends. My goal is to travel a bit more around Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) before I head out. I've taken advantage of my student ticket this summer, and it's saved me a lot on travel. It's been really rainy here in Lüneburg this week, something that's discouraged me from traveling more and a bit of an annoyance. It's been cold here of course, with one day of sunshine.

I'm headed into Hamburg to visit my friend. I really hope the weather gets better.

It's almost the home stretch, one month before I return to America.

Until next time,
Melissa

First week of class (again)

Hello everyone!

To be honest, this was sort of a rough first week of class. However, I'm looking forward to going to Bremen tomorrow (again)! There's a guided tour there, and I want to spend more time looking at things since I was only there for a few hours the last time. I have also been planning a trip to Munich for next weekend, which i'm really excited about.
I'm also working on the details for my eurotrip before I head back to the US. The planned legs of the trip are: Italy, France, Spain, and...Sweden. Sweden seems like the oddball of the group, but it's relatively cheap to fly to Sweden from Germany, so I figure it's a good opportunity to go while i'm nearby.

I figure that today is chore day, so I'll finally clean my room up. At least my dishes have been washed.

Until later!

cool rainbow all the way!

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Alright, i've gathered my thoughts about the experience to Auschwitz, so it's time to write about it.

The main purpose of visiting Poland was to visit the infamous concentration/death camp: Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people died at this location, and I still felt the aura of fear in the air, especially when I went into the gas chamber and incinerators. As I was going in to the gas chamber, I felt a strong feeling of hesitation and nervousness. I had to gather some courage for a few moments before going in. I can only imagine what thousands of others felt, not knowing what their fate would be as they entered through that same door. The feeling of fear and death was imminent at the camps, I still cannot wrap my head around what happened, since so many crimes to humanity were committed.

What struck me was that there were a lot of tourists at Auschwitz. There were tour groups around the camp, mostly around mid day. In the morning, there weren't as many.

Auschwitz I was the smaller of the camps, it had the incinerators pictured above, as well as the "Arbeit macht frei" (work makes you free) gate. It also had the medical experimentation block, another tough (figuratively) building to go into.

blocks 11 and 10, medical experimentation blocks. 

There were so many reminders of death everywhere, it was such a sobering experience to walk where victims of the holocaust had walked; but I appreciated that I walked freely, and not in fear of my life.

Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was a much larger camp. I entered through the infamous gate:

It was an unbearably hot day, I had what seemed to me the luxury of carrying water and snacks while walking around in Birkenau. The heat was overwhelming, but more overwhelming were the barracks, guard towers, and barbed wire fences left behind from a reign of terror.

Block 16a- the children's barrack. 

One of the most saddening moments was walking into a barrack where children were held. There paintings up on the wall, of playful school children and of a child walking to school, a mockery, really, since children were the most helpless.

The barracks were small, the roofs reached no more than maybe 25 ft at its tallest point. They were designed to hold horses, but instead held hundreds of prisoners.

What remains now are the decays of the horrors that occurred in Auschwitz.

Dzien dobry! (hello!)

Dzien dobry everyone!

I'm on the bus from Warszawa (Warsaw) to Lodz to catch my flight back to Bremen, Germany. Fortunately there's wifi on the bus, so I'm not terribly bored.

This is my first time in Poland, and it's also the first time where I didn't know a single word of the national language. Not very many people speak English, so it was a little tough getting around. I arrive in Poland on Wednesday afternoon (4th of July, happy birthday America!) I spent a lot of the day walking around Lodz and sightseeing. My accommodations throughout my stay in Poland were through couchsurfing.org. At first I was a little nervous about staying with people I didn't know, but it was an overall great experience. The people I stayed with were very generous and kind. In Lodz, my host was not available until the afternoon. While I was exploring killing time, I explored a big avenue that goes through Lodz, Piotrkowska street.

I managed to wander out all the way to the old train station where holocaust prisoners were brought into the Lodz ghetto. It was a long walk, I don't recommend walking all they way out to it. Take a bus or tram. Along my long walk there were marks on the sidewalk of where the former ghetto wall stood. I arrived at the old train station, now a museum. It had records of all of those deported. There is also part of the ghetto wall that remains; along it are memorial plaques. There were some from cities that had prisoners deported to the ghetto, and they often read "with remorse and deep regret," an apology to all the victims that died because of simply who they were. I went to Auschwitz the next day, but that experience will have its own blog post.

The train.

Former wall border. 

I then headed over to another site called Manufaktura, Lodz is one of the youngest cities in Poland, and it got its booming start from the manufacturing industry. Most of the factories have been closed down now, and Manufaktura is set in one of the old successful manufacturing plants. I finally met up with my host and we went to a meeting of other couchsurfers in the city. We got out late from the meeting, so my host decided to take me to a crêpe restaurant. They had all types of crêpes there, one with chicken and curry, chicken, onion, and beans (that's the one I had), and of course the regular sweet crêpes. The idea of having chicken in a crêpe was so foreign to me, I was hesitant at first to try it. The first crêpe I tried to order was sweet (almond,  rise, and vanilla), but for some reason they didn't have the ingredients. So I gave in an ordered the one with chicken, onions, and beans. The verdict? It was absolutely delicious. I wish I had known about this before. The cool think about couchsurfing is that you meet locals who know their town fairly well; had I stayed in a hostel, I would've never thought about eating a crêpe with chicken in it.

The next morning I went to explore the old town, which was filled with old abandoned factories. I couldn't wander around much because I had a train to catch- I was headed to Krakow. I made it on time, but it was a very long train ride (5hrs). The train also didn't have air conditioning- I was almost at melting point. I finally arrived in Krakow after a very long ride. Thankfully, I stayed hydrated with lots of water.

In Krakow I was also met by another host. She was absolutely wonderful and helpful. After I showered and ate, she took me on a walking tour of Krakow. She lived near the town square, so it was a very nice after-dinner walk. She told me we walked around 14km that night (!). I'd believe her- we saw a castle, went to the old market square, the old jewish part of town, and went all the way to Oskar Schindler's factory (the story made famous by the movie "Schindler's List).

Market Square.

The entrance to Oskar Schindler's factory. 

I regretfully didn't spend enough time in Krakow, so I'll have to go back and check out everything I missed this time.

I headed to Auschwitz the next morning, and my host helped me plan the trip. As mentioned, I will write about my experience of Auschwitz-Birkenau in a separate post.

Yesterday (Friday) I took a bus to Warsaw. I took PolskiBus.com, the nicest line of buses i've been in. I'm currently writing this post on the Wifi that is available on the bus. The power outlets actually work as well! The tickets are also very cheap.

I met with another host, but since I arrived fairly late (around 9), we didn't have much time to sight see. After the host picked me up from the station, we went to get dinner at a place near the Warsaw Technical University. I forget the name of the restaurant, but the mascot was an old policeman from the old soviet times. I had a salad with baked salmon, and he ordered something strange. The waitress brought his dish and noticed that it had raw meat (raw ground beef), along with some other spices. I asked him if he was going to eat it like that, and he said yes! It seemed so strange to eat raw meat, I was really taken aback by it. After he mixed the spices into the raw meat, I had a taste of it. It actually wasn't bad, but I think i'd rather stick to cooked hamburgers.

The next morning (today) my hosts (Gregorz and his wife) took me on a very quick walking tour of the old section of Warsaw. Warsaw was about 85% destroyed after WWII, Hitler had plans for it to be completely wiped off the maps. However, what little survived it rose from the ashes (some describe the city as a phoenix) and a lot of the buildings were restored, based on old pictures. I had a huge ice cream cone (I forgot to mention that things in Poland are very cheap, in comparison to the rest of the EU).
Again, I spent too little time in Warsaw, but walking around a city with a lot of history, but with a very modern twist was an exciting experience.

Now I am on the bus, about an hour away from Lodz. Traveling through Poland is definitely possible in 4 days, but I wish I had spent more time here. Hopefully I'll be back here soon.

That's it for me now, my next post will need a little more time for reflection.

Do widzenia! (Good bye!)

First of July...Halfway point!

Hi all,
So the first session is officially over, and it's very sad to see most people leave. I have a week of break in between, so I will be headed to Poland on Wednesday. I'm planning on couchsurfing, so hopefully some of the locals can help me get by during my stay. Almost every person i've talked that's been to Poland has told me that Krakow is a beautiful city.

This weekend was Hansetag in Lüneburg. Many cities that used to be in the Hanseatic league were present. I saw a lot of cool things, especially in the old part of the city. There were blacksmiths, weavers, candle-makers, and carpenters. There was also a lot of music and food; I tried my first crêpe (with applesauce and sugar).

weaver

Blacksmith

My friend Tricia came into town briefly with her boyfriend to give me my birthday presents. I'm turning 23 tomorrow! it's sad being away from friends, family, and home, but i'm sure i'll have a great time here.

One thing I need to mention: I had to change my flight reservation to leave a week early; the thing is I didn't do very much research on the Schengen Area before booking my flight in April. Germany is one of the countries that takes overstaying very seriously, so I didn't want to risk paying a very high fine or any restrictions if I would want to return to Europe. I don't recommend staying past the 90 days given under the Schengen Visa. If you have to stay after, look into getting a residence permit or a work permit.

I look forward to my trip to Poland, and of course I will take lots of pictures!

Until next time.