Return to Riga

Day 195
I woke up around 6 am. It was so incredibly cold that I couldn’t sleep any longer. Apparently sleeping in a tent in September is not such a hot idea. After grabbing breakfast and packing up I headed into the city center. I made a quick stop at the post office before heading back to an internet cafe. I still had loads more blogging to do and I wanted to get as far as possible before my flight.

I can’t stand middle of the day flights. I would rather they be early in the morning or late at night. A 2pm flight just sucks away the whole day, plus I was working with a time change that further stole away the day.

The flight was fine, not a bit of a bump the whole way. In fact, I think that I slept through most of it. When I got to Riga I knew just what bus to take and how to find my hostel. At one point though I thought that I had missed my stop and got myself together to get off at the next one. Luckily, the next one was my stop after all!

By the time I reached Franks it was time for dinner. I went out and found the Hesburger. There was a publ crawl that evening at the hostel but I decided to skip it. There wasn’t a very large group and I still can’t get the crappy pub crawl in Rome out of my head. After writing in my journal I simply called it a night.

Beeeerrrr

Day 194
I woke up later than I had hoped. I was definitely feeling the day before. I decided to not go to the second parade and took a break while Karen headed out.

At noon we headed over to see if we could get into a tent. This was impossible without a reservation the night before. The tents were fabulous. If I ever come back I will definitely be reserving a spot in one of them.

Everything opens up at 10 am. There had only been two drinking hours when we got there. Still, there were some incredibly drunk people around. One guy was trying to eat a pretzel and could chew just fine, he just didn’t have the swallowing part down and it was all over his shirt. Other people were being held up by their slightly more sober friends. All of this after only 2 hours.

We decided against squeezing in and just checked out all of the tents. We then went for one last lunch at a much less crowded beer hall. Afterwards we grabbed our stuff from the hotel and then headed to the train station. This is where we said goodbye. Karen was headed to Vienna to visit family and I had one more night here and needed to get to my hostel. It was sad saying goodbye, it had been so much fun to reconnect with a friend. But, I must keep traveling on.

After dropping my stuff off at the Tent, the same hostel I stayed at when I was here 6 years ago, I headed back downtown. I had a lot of blogging to catch up on and spent the evening doing that. When the internet cafe closed down I headed back to my hostel.

The tram was full of extremely drunk people. At the hostel’s stop there were guys from the Tent standing around to help the severely inebriated.

I had just enough time to grab a beer before they shut the bar for the night, I was the last person they served. I sat down and read my book for a bit. After about 15 minutes a very drunk Aussie came over and asked me if he could have a beer. It took me a minute to decipher his slurred accent and to realize he thought that I worked there. As I was translating drunk Australian he started saying beeer very slowly and pretending to drink. I tried not to laugh as I said the bar is closed and I don’t work here in a clear American accent.

It was too cold to hang outside very long though and I went to bed quite early.

Beertopia

Day 193

The alarm went off at 8 and we were quick to get ready. We had to find a spot to watch the parade from quickly. I'm glad that we got there early as well. Today was the first day of Oktoberfest.

About 150 years ago the kings son (I think) was getting married so he threw a big party and invited everyone. It was so much fun that they decided to do it every year. The parade was pretty good, I took loads of pictures and some videos. Each of the different breweries had horse drawn wagons with beer barrels on them. I think they were bringing the beer. These were followed by a cart full of people drinking beer. At 10 am that was pretty adventurous.

There were several marching bands. The cutest was a group of kids dressed up as toy soldiers. I just wonder if kids should really be involved in a festival about drinking.

Once the parade was over we headed to the tents and somehow managed to get a seat next to some French guys. We were drinking Spaten. The whole thing was just nuts. Right from the beginning (about noon) people were acting crazy. The only people who seemed to not be enjoying themselves were two older Asian woman who split a beer between themselves. I was amazed at how many people were wearing lederhosen and traditional dresses. Not only were Germans dressing up but I heard plenty of other accents wearing costumes as well.

Karen and I spent most of our time talking to the French guys, Daimeon and Bertram, as well as some Italians at the other side of the table. When we were done with beer for the evening we headed back to the hotel, both tired, but excited to have been part of Oktoberfest.

Modern View

Day 192

I woke up before jet lagged Karen and headed downstairs to get some breakfast, it wasn't long before Karen came down as well. After organizing ourselves, well, Karen organized, I shoved my stuff in a pile in the corner. My bag just vomits every where whenever I open it and I can't do the repack several times a day, that would be all I ever did!

We headed off to the Museum of Modern Art. I had been in Munich 6 years ago but had not been here. This could have been because it was completed in 2002, it might have not even been here.The museum was much like the other modern ones I've been too. There was a selection of furniture, grotesque pictures, strange movies and some Picasso's. I'm not a huge modern art fan, I really just don't get it. Despite this there were some interesting things to look at. I quite liked the odd neon lights. I don't know if that was really art, but it made for a fun picture.

After the museum we did a bit of shopping. I had been freezing cold in Eastern Europe and had to get a winter coat before returning. Luckily I found a cute one that wasn't to expensive very easily. Staying with the beer and German food trend from the night before we headed to the Augustiner beer hall for dinner. We sat next to this odd woman who told us that she was Arabian, but had been living in Colorado. We both thought she meant Saudi Arabia. She then said no, beneath there. I asked if she was from Oman or Yemen. She seemed a bit surprised and replied Oman, I told her that I had been to Muscat and Nizwa. She then told us that she lived in Egypt. I think she was very confused.

Tonight had to be an early night, there was a long and early day ahead of us.

Reunions

Day 191
It was time to put Eastern Europe on hold for a few days and head back to Germany. I was headed to Munich to meet up with one of my former co-workers, Karen. We were going to Oktoberfest!The bus ride to the airport was a bit odd. I couldn't figure out how to buy a ticket so I just got on. Then a woman approached me, I thought, crap I'm gonna get fined. At closer inspection I saw that she had tickets pinned to her sweater and that I was meant to buy one from her. She seemed to stand there patiently while I figured this all out.

At the airport I got some food and went through security. They second they saw the American passport I got the pat-down treatment. I don't really care though, as long as they let me through!By the time I actually got to Munich it was just about time for dinner due to the time change.

Karen was already at the hotel room waiting for me. It was really fabulous to get to spend a few days with one of my New York friends.We headed straight out to the place you have to go to in Munich, the Hofbrauhaus.

After some good beer and German food we tried to do a bit of shopping, but there wasn't really much time left for that. We finished the night off at the hotel bar. I gave Karen some of the behind the blog secrets (don't worry, nothing juicy) and she updated me on the work front.

It was a very good beer

Day 172
When I woke up I was back in Germany. I was in my least favorite city though, Hamburg. No matter, I only had about an hour to wait for my next train. I was headed to Copenhagen, Denmark. I had never been to Denmark before and was quite excited.

The train ride was not short though, about 4.5 hours. There was even 45 minutes on a ferry. Luckily the sea was calm and I didn´t get sick. They did make everyone get off of the train though, unlike when I was in Sicily. I think the point was to get people to buy stuff. It worked, I bought some M&M´s.

By the time I found my hostel I was exhausted. I had spent 17 hours in transit. It´s funny just how tiring doing nothing can be. I did want to see a bit of Copenhagen though. I spent some time wandering around and even checked out the main shopping street, the longest pedestrianized street in the world. I also stopped at a bar that is known for slow pour Carlsburg. I only had one though, it was the most amount I have paid for a beer yet on this trip.

At this point it was evening and I decided to go and see Wall-E. It was really incredibly cute!

Walking back was nice, even though it was a bit late at this point. No one bothered me at all. That was really nice. When I did get back to the hostel it was really very quiet and I simply went to sleep.

All that and Some Strudel

Day 163
I woke up feeling refreshed and not the least bit sick. I guess all I needed was a really good nights sleep. After stuffing myself with the fabulous hotel breakfast I packed up my stuff and headed out.

The first thing I visited were some odd statues. They were really pretty ugly. I have no idea what they were about. After checking out some half-timbered houses I went to the Hanover History Museum.

About 100 years ago a medieval world map was discovered here. Jerusalem was thought to be the center of the world. The unknown areas were filled with crazy looking humans and fantastic animals. The original was destroyed during WWII, all that remains are a few copies.

The free audio guide was extremely detailed. It was also a bit funny. At one point the voice said ‘you might think that the object in front of you is no more than a hollowed out tree stump, that is in fact what it is.’ It had been used to strengthen a well.

Hanover was part of the Hansiatic League and was quite a rich city back in the day. Often torture was used to draw out confessions. However, for a confession to be valid it would have to be repeated after the torture was over. I would think that just the thought of being tortured again was a form of torture itself. There were 27 witch trials in Hanover, apparently this was much less than in other German cities.

Clocks didn’t have minute hands and the length of an hour varied by the sun. I just thought that was interesting.

After learning a bit about the Hanoverian British kings my notes grow sketchy. I guess I got a bit bored. In the 20^th century Hanover became known as a car making town. After the WWII section there was a bit on toys and farming. I was a bit bored at this point though and decided to call it a day.

I sat in the market square for some time reading and eating apple strudel. It was good! Next store there was a Bobs Big Boy statue. Weird.

I had to pick up my bags from the hotel hours before my train. There wasn’t much I could do besides sit and read. I did chat with a friendly bartender for a bit. She had lived in California for some time.

By the time my train came I was pretty tired and definitely ready to get to my bed.

Sniffles

Day 162
I was feeling a bit sniffly when I woke up in the morning. I decided to treat myself to the not so cheap hostel breakfast and I drank about a gallon of orange juice.

I managed to arrive at the HBF just a few minutes before my train departed. I was headed to Hanover.

It wasn’t a long ride and I was there before I knew it. It didn’t take me long to find my hotel. I actually had my own room and even a shower, just no toilet. After a short break I headed out to see the town. It was a bit rainy and I was still feeling a little off. I did manage to find a really top heavy looking building though and an interesting sculpture.

I sat in a café for a bit and tried to decide what to do with myself. There isn’t much to do in Hannover and I had another day to see it. I decided that I would just go back and watch the Olympics for a while and catch up on CNN. On my way back I picked up some dinner.

This was a very uneventful day, but I didn’t want to make myself sick and was asleep early.

Check

Day 161
The Italian girls in my room had to be up really early and it took me some time to get back to sleep after they left. They had been friendly, they just didn’t really speak any English so we couldn’t really get to know one another or hang out. By the time I woke up again it was a little later than I had expected.

Today was my last day in Berlin, I had to do something good. I decided to go to the Check Point Charlie Museum. I had been here before but I remembered thinking that there was just too much to see in one visit and that I wanted to return at some point. This was a check point between east and west Berlin. Shortly after the erection of the Berlin Wall a standoff occurred between U.S. and Soviet tanks on either side of Checkpoint Charlie. It began on 22nd October as a dispute over whether East German guards were authorized to examine the travel documents of a U.S. diplomat passing through to East Berlin. By October 27th, 10 Soviet and an equal number of American tanks stood 100 meters apart on either side of the checkpoint. The stand-off ended peacefully on October 28th. I guess this is why this is the most well known check point today.

After WWII Germany was split up. The western allies (not Russia) thought that it was unfair for Berlin to go completely to the USSR so half of it was given to them despite its eastern Germany location. At first the GDR tried to win the west Berliners over to their lifestyle. They lowered the prices on goods to try and get people to shop in eastern stores. This didn’t work.

From June of 1945 to May 1949 a blockade was put on goods from the west. Everything was airlifted in at a rate of a drop off every three minutes.

The GDR was anti west and blamed the 1950 failed potato crop on sabotage. There were protests by both sides. At one point there were warning sides in west Berlin train stations that if you got on a train going the wrong way you were putting your personal freedoms at risk.

The division of Germany tore families apart. By the early 60’s over 2.5 million people had fled to the west. The GDR put a stop to this exodus by building the wall. This didn’t stop people from trying to escape. Most of the museum is about this. Often GDR guards would only shoot to miss those scaling the walls despite the financial gain possible from catching people. Motion detectors were installed on the wall for some years. If they were tripped up to 50 pieces of metal shrapnel would be fired. Most of the people who ran into these died.

Some people managed to literally drive through the wall, but soon it was too heavily fortified for this. About 800 people made it through with fake passports that read United Nations on them. There was no such thing as a UN passport. Some people painstakingly put together US army uniforms and practiced their American accents to get through.

Often the people who filled out the paperwork to leave legally were arrested. This happened to one woman who wanted to join her husband in West Germany. Her daughters were put into foster care. It took her 6 years to get her freedom and her children back.

Some of the ways people did escape were really creative. A few women where hidden in suitcases. One was even 5’7! Others hid in specially reconstructed cars. Some tried to jump across, but this just caused the windows facing the wall to be bricked up. Those who attempted to swim across often didn’t make it, many of these were children. A few people successfully dug tunnels under the wall. This included a group of people in which the youngest was 85.

The museum ends with the wall being torn down Germany being reunited. This museum is huge and took me hours to get though. Even so, I don’t feel like I have really seen it all.

After dinner I spent some time at the internet café before doing a bit of packing and going to bed.

95 Reasons

Day 160
Today I had things to do. I was going to be staying with some family in Paris shortly and I wanted to bring their teenage daughters something nice. Of course I had no idea what to get them. It was a teenager a couple of years ago, I don’t know why it was so hard. After checking out about a dozen stores I finally just asked the sales lady, turns out that purses were the most sought after so that’s what I got.

Mondays in Europe tend to be a bit boring with everything shut down for the day. I decided to head out to Wittenberg after my little shopping spree. This is where Luther started the Protestant Reformation. I just wrote about this about 2 days ago. If you don’t remember I suggest taking notes during future entries. There will be a test at the end of this trip. Just kidding!

Wittenberg is a really cute little town. It was quiet too. I wandered down the main street to the Castle Cathedral. On the wall was a bronze version of Luther’s thesis. I liked up with everyone else to get a picture. Inside the church wasn’t that interesting. They were charging €1 to take a picture and I decided to be cheap, therefore I have no pictures.

On a street not far away I found the St. Mary Church. The inside was pretty interesting. An info sign said that outside there was a stone carving that depicted Jews as pigs. It said that this was typical of medieval churches. I have never heard this and went outside to find it. The carving had a plaque in front of it, but I couldn’t see anything that remotely resembled a pig. There was a holocaust memorial on the ground in front of it.

After wandering the town for a bit longer I simply headed back to Berlin. It was dinner time when I returned and I made myself some pasta. Berlin had been a bit lonely so I once again tried to meet people. I think this is just a bad week for that. I did run into an Italian guy that I had met in Frankfurt though. He annoyed me in Frankfurt and he annoyed me in Berlin.

I ended up watching the Olympics for a while in my room. When the other girls in my room returned I shut off the tv and went to sleep.

Kung Foo Fighting

Day 159
Jason, the bootie I had had drinks with the other night had invited me to join him and some friends for a ropes course in Potsdam. I had meant to go and do this, but I was dumb and underestimated how long it would take to walk to the train station. I missed it by about 5 minutes. Luckily I hadn’t confirmed with him so he wouldn’t think I was a no show.

I was irritated with myself and didn’t know what to do with my day now that my plans were squashed. At this point it decided to rain. I decided to be a really lazy person and went to see Kung Foo Panda. Even though it was animated violence it still made me jump a bit. I liked it though, panda was cute.

When the movie was over I contemplated going to an art museum, but I was simply not in a productive mood. I just picked up dinner and took it to the cheapie (€0.49 an hour) internet café and watched ANTM for a few hours. When I got bored of that I tried to make friends again at the hostel but came up short.

I really need to stop this lazy thing, it’s driving me up the wall and making for a very boring blog!

Time Travel

Day 158
I really wanted to make sure that I accomplished things today. I actually managed to get to museum island before anything had even opened.

My first stop was the GDR Museum. Unlike the Stasi Museum in Leipzig, this was about how people lived.

In 1952 the border into and out of the GDR was closed. The only exit was through Berlin. By 1961 2.6 million people had fled from the country. In order to prevent this barbed wire was put up around West Berlin almost over night. Over time it was expanded into the wall that is recognizable in pictures and around the city today. This museum wasn`t about the wall though, it was about the people.

The museum started with childhood. At some preschools kids were taken on collective potty breaks on long benches. There were also classes on Marxism-Leninism just like math and composition. Only about 10% of students ever made it to university. If they did studies were strictly controlled.

A large section discussed the types of jobs that people had and what the average pay was. This was interesting, it would have been nice to know what living expenses were though to put it all in perspective. Most people seemed to have been in manufacturing. There were a huge number of factories producing all sorts of things in the GDR. Most of this was exported and it could often be hard to find GDR made goods as well as foreign goods.

The GDR had its own fashion designers. There was a big shortage on natural fabrics and most were synthetic. Eventually the GDR even created its own denim. Despite this, people often paid a months salary to get a pair of Levi`s.

There were a couple of rock bands that were pretty popular; UDO Lindenberg, Klaus Renft Combo, City and Puhdy`s. The last even toured the states. At dance halls and other events it was required that 60% of the music had to have been created in the GDR, the rest needed to be approved by the government. To get around this dj`s would play only parts of the GDR songs. The television was also controlled by the government. One of the kids shows that was created in the 50`s was called Unsersandmannder and is still shown today. The kids show of the 80`s was called Brummkreisel and featured a guy in a red hat and an easily offended dwarf.

Travel was often difficult and the government sponsored their own package trips. According to the museum there were often shortages on bathing suits and people often simply swam nude. The government really didn’t like this. Despite efforts people continued to swim nude as a form of protest. Despite an aversion to nudity the GDR was rather liberal when it came to sex. Girls were given the pill for free as early as 16 and abortions were free and legal. People were encouraged to get married and have children.

There was a small section on the Stasi, but I had already had enough of that so I didn’t stay long. The museum was really well done and very interactive along with informative.

After the GDR Museum I tried to check out the Pergamon, but the line was really long. I had been there before and decided to just skip it. Instead I headed to the German History Museum. This place was huge both in size and detail.

The word German came from the Romans. The Germanic tribes had contact with the Romans, but were never Romanized themselves. The Franks began to rise as a group in the 5^th century, but it wasn’t until Charlemagne became king that their empire was cemented and expanded.

After this my notes get a bit spotty. I’m sure you’re a bit sick of history anyway, apparently I was too.

I did however pay attention to the section on the Reformation. One of the biggest complaints of the reformist was the selling of indulgences to absolve sin, or even to get into heaven. Ninety-five percent of people were peasants, this made heaven a place for only the wealthy. In 1517, shortly after an outbreak of the plague, Martin Luther nailed 95 thesis on the door of the Castle Church in against the sale of indulgences. This began the Protestant Reformation and in turn the 30 Years War.

Germany became a country in 1859. There were sections on both WWI and II, I didn’t spend much time here though, I was getting a little museumed out. I was interested to see that there were a few objects from the Hygiene Museum, though.

At this point I decided that it was time to get some major blogging done and I picked up dinner on my way to the internet café. Later on I did try to meet some people a the hostel bar, but there wasn’t much going on there and I soon left for bed.

Rain, Rain Go AWAY!

Day 157
I was up early and ready to go. I had so much energy that I walked to the HBF. I was headed to Potsdam. I just didn´t consider fact that it was raining and that I might want to bring an umbrella with me.

I had thought that there was some sort of big memorial here, but I guess I was wrong. It was just a lot of rain. For whatever reason I had problems finding the tourist office. The signs were all pointing different ways with different distances. I kept just grabbing teas and snacks. It was like I thought the rain would stop if I ate enough.

During my wet wandering I found a store that had American food. I could have gotten Quakers for about $15, peanut butter for $10 or Koolaid for $8. I went for the Hersey bar for $2.

When I did find the tourist office and got a map I found out that there wasn´t that much to do anyway. I did try and walk around the castle gardens, but it was wet and muddy. The last place I ducked into to dry off at was an icecream shop. I got a massive icecream that looked like steak and fries.

I had waited all day for the rain to stop and I was tired of it. I was also tired of being in wet clothing. I headed back to Berlin and went to another movie. This time I saw Zohon. It was pretty stupid.

When the movie was over the rain had stopped, it was just too late to do anything. I ended up back at the internet cafe to blog and screw around on You Tube. When I was done I just went back to the hostel to sleep.

Monkey´s in a Barrel

Day 156
I had some real issues getting myself out of bed in the morning. I hadn´t gotten back last night until almost 4am and I was exhausted. When I did get it together I decided that it was time for another long walk.

I walked past Potsdammer Platz and checked out a Holocaust Memorial. Six years ago this was just an empty space. Now it is full of square stones of different heights. It was really ugly. Beneath the memorial is Joseph Goebbels, Hitler´s propaganda minister, bomb shelter. It is still intact. I think that might make a better site than an bunch of stones.

Not much further down the street is the Brandenburg Gate. Last time I was here it was under restoration and covered by a big sheet. It was fabulous to be able to see it in its full glory this time.

The Reichstag, Germany´s main government building, was just a stone´s throw away. I had wanted to walk up to the top, but the line was really long and I decided against it.

Next on my list was a walk through the Tiergarten. I walked the entire length of it. It was really nice and calm compared to the speed and noise of Berlin.

In the far corner was my next stop, the Berlin Zoo. I had heard really fabulous things about it and decided to check it out myself. It was really fabulous. The animals, for the most part, were not in cages. Instead they were on islands with deep ditches around them. It made me feel like I could reach out and touch them, or that they could go and check out the other animals if they wanted.

The elephants were huge and fun to watch. I can´t wait until I get to Africa and get to see them in the wild! Peaceful giraffes lounged near some animal that looked like a goat but wasn´t. As always, the monkeys were my favorite. I think one of them would make a great travel partner. Some rather large ones were jumping around while wearing sheets over their heads, they were like ghosts monkeys. My favorite ones were squeezing themselves into a barrel.

The zoo did seem on the rather bird heavy side. I had a lot more fun in the petting zoo then I did looking at feathers. I spent some time checking out the polar bears, but didn´t see the baby Knut. For some reason a few bears were play fighting with each other. They were really cute.

At this point it was near 6 and the animals needed some sleep and I needed some dinner. I headed back to the hostel to take care of that. I had wanted to grab a drink after dinner to celebrate the Euro falling, but I was tired. Instead I went back to my room and read for a bit before falling asleep.

Booties in Berlin

Day 155
The vacation had to end. No more lazy days and movies. I was here to travel and see stuff. I wanted to see something.

After breakfast and checking my email to confirm my evening plans I headed to Check Point Charlie. This is where the original checkpoint to the allied size of Berlin was. This is, however, not the original building or sign. Those are in the Allied Museum across town, and I saw them 6 years ago the first time I was here. Now you can get a stamp in your passport that was an actual GDR stamp. I wanted to get one, but I need to be careful about dates in my passport so I decided against it.

Eventually I wandered to Humbolt University. In the square across from the main building Hilter had several thousands books burned. There is now a memorial that is a room of empty book shelves, enough to put all the burned books. Nearby was the monument to those who have suffered from tyranny.

In Alexanderplatz there is a tv tower built by the GDR. Strangely, when the sun hits it, you can see a cross. The GDR tried to stamp out religious symbols so it was a bit of a joke on them.

I then had a very long walk to the East Side Gallery. This is the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall still in its original place. There is just over one kilometer here. These have a lot of interesting bits of artwork on them, however there is also a lot of graffiti. It´s now illegal to break off bits of the wall, but there still seemed to be several people who were trying to take some of it home.

After I had crossed the Spree I found a really cheap internet café and worked on blog for a bit. Once this was finished I headed back to the hostel for a bit of a rest. I had been walking for about 5 hours at this point and needed to sit down. I just hadn´t taken the time into consideration. There is only one pot at the hostel and I had to wait some time before I could make my dinner. I had just enough time to eat and clean up before running for the s-bahn.

I met Jason, a fellow bootie who is now living in Europe, at a really nice beer garden. I hadn´t seen Jason since a bootie meetup in Chicago about 2.5 years ago. It was really fabulous to be able to catch up.

I must have been more tired than I had thought, because I fell asleep and missed my stop. By the time I realized this the s-bahn had closed. I really had no idea where I was. After one bus in a the wrong direction I found a bar that was open and didn´t look scary. They told me where I needed to go and the correct bus to get on. I even learned a new German word, hoffen, to hope. I hope that I get back before sunrise.

The bus didn´t take me to my hostel, but a few streets away. As unhappy as the whole thing made me, I didn´t once feel the need to panic. Travel seems to be calming my need to overreact.

When I got back to the hostel I fell exhausted into my bed.

Alone Again

Day 154
I woke up early in order to say goodbye to Markus, he once again had that work thing to do. It was sad packing up, I had had such a good time catching up with Markus. I guess that this does get a little lonely sometimes.

It was still early when I made my way to the train station. I was now headed to Berlin! After a touch of confusion at the HBF, I managed to find the bus for my hostel. It was really quite easy to get there. I was glad to see that there were only three other people in the room. I was going to be here for 8 nights and this just meant a better shot a good nights sleep.

The day was overcast and a bit rainy. I decided that I could spend one more day not doing a whole lot. I headed to Potsdamer Platz to see a movie. The Mummy had just come out. It was pretty good, I still have a crush on Brendan Friazer. I think that another one might be coming out too.

After the movie I did some grocery shopping. At the hostel I made myself some dinner. In the hostel bar I met a couple of people and chatted with them for a while before going to sleep.

I Meant To

Day 153
I meant to wake up early enough to visit Wiemar. This didn´t quite happen. I got distracted in the park. It was quite nice and the ducks were fun.

Once I was in the city center I spent some time window shopping. By the time I made it to the train station it was past lunch time and the next train wasn´t for over an hour. I didn´t want to end up there late so I decided to just skip it. I´m sure that I will be back and have another chance to visit.

I was pretty hungry at this point and found a bagel place. They had the Olympics on. At this point I decided that I would really like to be watching it.

On the way back to Markus´s place I got a bit distracted. I wandered into the Thomaskirche where Johan Sebastian Bach once attended. Someone was playing the organ and I sat there for some time just enjoying it.

When I did make It back I couldn´t figure out how to turn on the tv. I ended up watching movies on my ipod for a bit. After Markus got home (and made fun of me for not being able to figure it out) he showed me how to work the tv. We watched the Olympics for a bit before putting on some sort of odd space movie. I can´t remember the name, but it was good.

Very Lazy and Rainy

Day 152
After saying goodbye to Daniela in the morning (Christain had left for work early) I packed up my things. I wasn´t leaving Leipzig, but rather moving to the other Markus´s guest room.

I spent the late morning and early afternoon pretending to work on blog, but really screwing around on You Tube.

Around 4 Markus came to get me. Once again it was fabulous not to have to navigate unfamiliar territory on my own. Markus had a really cute apartment. After cooking dinner, well Markus cooked, I tried not to cut myself while cutting a pepper, we went for a walk around the area.

Nearby there was a canal and an area of revamped factories. We tried to check out some exhibit space, but they were closed. Eventually we ended up in the park at a beer garden drinking radlers.

Back at Markus´s we watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I didn´t really get it. As Markus does this thing during the week, I think it might be called work, but I don´know, we both went to sleep at a normal hour.

Movie and a Museum

Day 151
It was fabulous to be in a quiet place and get a good nights sleep. After breakfast with Daniela, Markus and his godfather. Afterwards we watched Scary Movie 3 and I spent some time with blog.

During the afternoon I headed out to explore the town. Leipzig isn´t a huge place and I had little problems navigating without a map. There was a nice pedestrian area and a whole lot of shopping. Leipzig is a pretty cute place.

After a falafel and pursuing H&M I headed to the Stasi Museum. The Stasi were the secret police of the GDR.

In 1980 there were 2,401 stasi operating in Leipzig. These were all undercover jobs, so they were given false titles and professions as covers. People were often recruited secretly, sometimes recruiting even began when people were still children.

The stasi monitored everything for any activity that could be adverse to the GDR. All packages were inspected, any money from the west was confiscated for the government. Letters were read sporadically. Cassette tapes were also often confiscated. They would then be reused to record phone conversations on tapped lines. Polaroids were taken before apartments were searched for adverse materials. Cameras were made smaller and hidden in all sorts of things. Even children´s school work was monitored. Right before Germany was unified a 14 year old boy wrote a paper complaining about the government. If the wall had not come down when it did he might have never be able to have a career.

If the stasi felt that someone might possibly be planning some sort of adverse activity agents would create some type of personal crisis. This would be meant to distract them from what they might have been planning. Often it wasn´t until after the wall had come down and the stasi files were made public that people would actually know what had happened to them.

When someone was put into a stasi jail they were often not told how long they would be there. Trials were held without them even being present. One woman didn´t find out that her husband had been executed until 3 years after his death.

The stasi produced in innumerable amount of files. Most of these were destroyed right before the GDR fell. Around 10,000 meters of file cabinets were saved and the destroyed bits are currently being pieced back together.

This museum had an absolutely huge amount of information. It was just all in German. I rented an audio guide for what I did find out. I don´t think this had more than 10% of what I could have learned if I spoke German.

When I had finished with the museum I headed back. I had dinner with Markus and Daniela and spent the evening chatting with them. Markus had to leave in the morning and I said goodbye to him before going to sleep. I hope that I will be able to see him again on this trip. If not, Markus is considering college in the US so I am sure I will see him again no matter what.

Back at Work

Day 150

When I was in Dresden I worked at the Deutsches Hyegine museum. I helped to work on the new permanent exhibit. Well, it was new about 4 years ago any way. Six years ago the museum was free on Fridays, my hope was that it would be the same today. It wasn´t, but no big deal.

The new exhibit is about 5 times the size of the old one. I recognized some of the objects from the old exhibit. The transparent woman was there. One of the sections that I had worked on was about how different cultures dealt with death. I had written a few letters to try and get one of the containers that ashes are sent into space in. The museum had one of these. I have no idea of this was because of me or not, but I like to think that it was.

In the room on food there was a cornucopia with animals and all sorts of food coming out of it. When you touched the different objects a screen popped up and told you about which cultures eat and don´t eat the different types of food.

The next room was about sex, these were followed by the room about kids. I wonder if it was on purpose. There were also a few rooms on health and fitness, but these were all in German and I couldn´t really figure out what was going on. The last rooms were on beauty. The whole thing was really very well done and I really enjoyed going back to work.

Across the street from the museum on Fridays was a market. You could get all sorts of things here. What I used to go for, and was looking for today was some sort of yummy Turkish sandwich. I was really surprised that the stand was not only still there, but in the same place. The sandwich was just as good as I remembered to.

After wandering around the Grosse Garten for some time I headed back to the hostel to pick up my stuff. At the train station I made a quick phone call.

Way back in Belfast I met Markus and his dad Christian from Leipzig. We had kept in touch over the last several months and they had invited me to stay with them. Markus picked me up at the train station. This doesn´t happen very often, well, only twice now. It is really nice to not have to navigate a new city on my own with my pack. Back at Markus´s house I caught up with his dad and met his mom Daniela. They had a lot of friends and family over to see Markus off for his year of civil service and they had a barbecue going on.

When I had lived in Dresden I met another Leipziger named Markus. He came over around eight and we headed out on the town. Markus had planned a pub crawl of some of the best places in the city. It was really fabulous to catch up after almost three years of not seeing each other.

After several months on my own now it was really wonderful to be around friends.