Karneval der Kulturen

The Cultural Carnival (Karneval der Kulturen) took place in Berlin this weekend, and I went for a bit in the afternoon with Kristina and her roommate, Gabriel. One of the highlights of the carnival is the parade, in which cultural groups or clubs perform, or display themselves in some way. It was really sunny, and so we didn't stay for the whole thing, but what we saw was very entertaining. Brazilian groups dominated the part of the parade that we saw, so there was a lot of energetic samba and capoeira going on. Here are some pictures and videos of the festival:

*we just arrived and are happy to see so much action!*

*the carnival brought out lots of fun people-- this guy wasn't in the parade...*

*the parade is coming!!!!*


BRAZILIAN GROUP

SCARY PUPPET GROUP

SERBIAN GROUP

TUBE PEOPLE

(video)

STILT GROUP

POLISH CERAMIC GROUP (a theater company)

DRUMMERS

MORE DRUMMERS, with Donald Duck yelling "more money, faster cars, more things, etc"

ANOTHER DRUMMING GROUP

BOLIVIAN GROUP

(video)

Hamburg

*Hamburg*

*the Hamburg group: tom, kujtime, olha, olga, felipe, mixaela, kristina, me and anitha*

This weekend I went with 8 of my classmates to Hamburg, a city in north Germany. Hamburg is the home of the Hamburger, in two ways. First, a person from Hamburg is called a Hamburger, so of course Hamburg is their home. Second, the sandwich type of Hamburger originated from the Hamburg steak, which is from Hamburg. Besides that, Hamburg is an important port town, both historically and still today. It has the second largest harbor in Europe (Rotterdam has the largest) and is the second biggest city in Germany. We had to take a 4 hour train to get there, so we only got a taste of Hamburg, but a nice taste. Here are some photos of our time there:

*in front of the Rathaus (city hall)*

*anitha and me by the fountain in the Rathaus courtyard*

*felipe in front of the nikolaikirche, which is now a memorial since it was bombed during WWII*

*at the harbor*


*video of musicians at the carnival by the harbor*

*anitha, olha, olga and kristina on our boat tour of the harbor!*

*at the binnenalster*

*hamburg through leaves, with the binnenalster lake in the foreground*

Cemetery

Today I went for a long walk in and around my neighborhood, enjoying my day off of classes and the warm sunshine. I purposely got "lost" several times, trying to find interesting things in the nooks and crannies. As I was walking I saw several people going in and out of a park-ish area, which was gated and fenced. I saw the park sign-- a picture of a tulip-- and decided to explore the park. Soon I found out that it's a park....... but also a cemetery, which is weird. It was the most beautiful cemetery I've ever seen, with neatly arranged flower beds, nature paths, benches and fountains, and graves. Each plot was like a mini garden, with fresh blooms and artfully arranged plants. Best of all, it was quiet and peaceful. There weren't many people walking around, so I'm actually not sure that it's acceptable for people to go on their evening walk there. Most people I saw were tending to the graves/garden.

As I left, I noticed the signs on the gate:
WAS IHR SEID, DAS WERDEN WIR (what you are-- the dead, we will be)
WAS WIR SIND, DAS WARTER IHR (what we are-- the dead, you will be)

Hmm in English it doesn't sound as nice actually. But basically, on one side of the gate was one perspective-- we will be what the people inside are, dead. On the other side of the gate was the other perspective-- what we are (dead) you await. It's striking in German anyway.

I also saved a bird today. It was stuck in the stairwell, one landing below mine. The courtyard is always open, since it doubles as a pathway between the actual bakery and the shop of the bakery. I made a path of open doors and windows for the poor bird and shooed it out. I hope it's ok... it kept banging into the window trying to get out, so there might be some brain damage. Someone needs to build a little MRI machine for birds.

Tomorrow is a (LONG) day trip to Hamburg! 4 hours in the train each way.... I think we'll all be dead tired once we get back. But Kristina just reminded me of some great news--- no class on Monday!!!! Pentecost is a holiday here, so public places, like universities, are all closed. Which means more time to sleep, relax, work, try to find a job and work on my tan.

Steglitz

To go back home from campus, I take about 3 trains. On the last train, the stop before mine is in the center of a district of Berlin called Steglitz. It's usually bustling with shoppers and people at little cafes, and so I decided to get off there and walk around, then walk the rest of the way home. Steglitz was beautiful, and I found a cheap shoe store (although I refrained from buying more shoes...). Then I began my long journey home, which I assumed would be fairly quick and painless, just a nice 30-45 minute walk.

Well, rather shortly I noticed that the streets weren't straight as I had assumed, but curved and sort of zig-zagged around, so I started following my basic intuition as to where my house was. Mistake number 1. Then I noticed a park, and since I had been looking for parks near my house (and thinking that I was near my house) I made a "short" detour into the park. The problem with the park was, that it kept looking like it ended. I would get to a street and cross it, then realize that the park continued on the other side of the street. I cross a river twice, somewhat realizing that I didn't recall a river anywhere near my neighborhood. Then I saw the train go by and had the brilliant idea of following the train line. I kept walking, and although I recognized street names I had no idea if I was going the right direction or not. Finally I saw a bus stop. Germany is a wonderful place, in that the bus stops all have maps. Once I saw the map, I realized the following:


So, I hopped on a bus to go back to my section of Berlin. Whoops! Then, I missed my stop on the bus and had to walk back a couple of stops, but all's well that ends well! Now I know where the park is and I know that it's a monster of a park. It's a nice place to get lost in actually, as long as I go the right direction once I exit the grassy fields.

Happy May Day + Zoo Trip

*I befriended a pelican at the zoo*

Today is May Day (May 1st), which is celebrated in Bavaria with may poles, traditional dress and dancing. In Berlin, there are lots of demonstrations and drunk people, especially since May 1st is also man's day here. Groups of men drink together all over the city (meaning in the streets, on the trains, everywhere since it's legal to drink anywhere here), so I'm staying in tonight.

As a side note, there are a lot of strikes going on now. The last couple of weeks the postal service had been striking, yesterday the bus/tram strike began, and most surprisingly the police are also striking. I was told that it's very uncommon for organizations to strike here in Germany, but I suppose once one group strikes everyone wants to.

To celebrate May Day, I went to the East Zoo of Berlin with my friends Elif, Basak and Freddy. It rained a bit in the morning, but by the afternoon the weather was gorgeous! We saw a lot of exotic animals at the zoo, and it was especially nice since it's spring and nearly every animal had a baby version.

*me and freddy, elif's conversation partner who showed us around the zoo*

*elephant!*

*and a baby elephant, so cute!*

*baby giraffe, mama giraffe*

*zebra*

*video of panther babies playing*

*tiger*

*baby cheetah*

*proud lion*

*peacock*
*monkey*

*croc*

*elif and me in the tropical house*

After the zoo, I went off on my own to explore Alexanderplatz. They were having a Finnish festival there, and were selling Finnish goods in small booths. There were a lot of people out and about today, since it's a holiday and most people don't have to work.

*Red City Hall, Alexanderplatz*

*Marienkirche, Alexanderplatz*

*Neptune Fountain, Alexanderplatz*

Dresden, Germany

*olha, kristina, olga, and me in dresden!*

My friends and I have discovered a beautiful thing: the happy weekend ticket. For 35 Euros you can travel with 5 others anywhere in Germany, but only on the weekend. This makes it really cheap to travel to nearby German cities, so this weekend we went for the day to Dresden.
I didn't know much about Dresden before we left, other than the fact that it was almost completely destroyed by the Allies in World War II. During the day, I found out that one of my favorite German authors, Eric Kaestner, is also from Dresden. It's a beautiful city, and its art museum houses famous paintings from Italy, Holland, Germany and Spain. Kristina was especially thrilled, because she had always dreamed of seeing one particular painting, the Sistine Madonna by Raphael, and it is located at this gallery-- she got to check one dream off her list!
The only problem with our trip was the time-- it took 3 hours to get there, and we only had 6 hours in the city, so although we saw a lot, there was a lot more to see and explore. But the weather was beautiful and the company was great, so all in all the day was a big success!

*we passed golden fields on the train-- they're weeds, but they're beautiful*

*flowers around the city*

*inside the Kreuzkirche (church of the cross), which was destroyed in 1945*

*altar of the kreuzkirche*

*in front of the rathaus (city hall)-- the statue of a woman is a monument to the women who rebuilt the city after WWII*


*in front of the frauenkirche (women's church) which was also destroyed by the war and only rebuilt in 2005*


*olha, me and kristina by the river in dresden*


*in front of the opera house*


*kristina is so excited to go to the art museum!*


*the Sistine Madonna by Raphael*


*this was my favorite: The Chocolate Girl by Liotard (Kristina surprised me after with a magnet of the painting!)*