A Bavarian Weekend in Munich

Well, my stay in Europe has come to an end, and I am now on my flight back across the ocean to the U.S. Last week was my last week in Lübeck, so I tried to make the most of it. I started getting up earlier in the morning so that I could get more work done without having to stay late in the evening. After work I spent time with my friends in the guesthouse. I cooked with Jana, the other American in the house a couple times, and had post-sunset dessert and Egyptian tea with Mohammed and Ahmed almost every night. One evening I rode my bike downtown to explore Lübeck some more and take additional photos before leaving.  After walking around a bit, I got to the Northwestern part of the island, where I discovered a Duckstein festival across the river. As I’ve said before, it’s hard to go anywhere in Germany during the summer without stumbling into some sort of festival, usually sponsored by a type of beer. I had heard this festival was happening the previous weekend, when I went to Paris, but I didn’t know the festival would last all week too. I had a (admittedly pricy, by German standards) Duckstein while watching a band perform, and had my last flammkuchen for dinner.

Friday evening I took a night train to München (Munich). Mete had planned a Turkish night and was in the process of cooking Turkish food for everyone in the guesthouse as I was leaving, so unfortunately I missed that. I also missed Egyptian night the weekend before. The guesthouse has recently become much more social, so the only downside of travelling so much is missing events like these. Unlike the weekend before, the night train was not full of international travellers like me. I had a room with a German woman and her two daughters (I assume they were both her daughters, one was probably ~9, and the other probably just a few years younger than me), another older woman who I think was the grandmother of the noisy kids in the next compartment, and a German man who boarded the train later at night, in Hannover. The older woman presumably spoke no English, but the middle-aged woman could, and was the only one to talk to me at all. She told me that her younger daughter had been studying English for 3 years now and spoke better English than her, but neither of the younger girls would say a word to me. Overall, they weren’t the most interesting people to share a room with, and they wanted to sleep early, but I suppose that was good, because I was fairly well rested when I arrived in Munich.

I arrived in Munich just after 7 AM, and had an early start to the day. Unfortunately, the tourist information center did not open until 9 AM, and I had not printed a city map, and additionally I learned that the s-bahn trains east of the station (which go to Marienplatz, the city center) were under renovation and unavailable. I had directions to go to Dachau, which I planned to do first anyway, but the concentration camp memorial did not open until 9 AM either. So after grabbing a pastry for breakfast at the train station, I wasted some time by walking around the area around the hauptbahnhof (train station). I started walking towards Marienplatz (it was only two s-bahn stops away, and seemed simple enough to find even without a map), but by the time I was halfway there, I decided to head back to the station and catch the train to Dachau.

On the train a girl sitting across the aisle asked me if I spoke English (believe it or not, I do speak a little English), and asked if this was the right train to Dachau. I told her I was also going there, and she said she’d follow me. She told me her name was Jen (short for a harder to pronounce Korean name) and she was an economics student from South Korea, doing some tourism in Europe. We talked a bit about Korea and the U.S. They count ages differently in Korea, so she said she “thinks” she is 19. It was convenient meeting a friend so quickly while travelling alone, and when we found out neither of us had concrete plans but were interested in visiting similar places (such as Schloß Nymphenburg, a palace), we decided to stick together for the rest of the day.

At Dachau, we first entered the camp through the gate with the words, “ARBEIT MACHT FREI” printed on it, which I later learned translates to “WORK SETS YOU FREE.” As I stepped through the gate into the camp, I immediately felt chills go up my spine. I immediately felt uneasy stepping into the camp, even though there was nothing immediately in sight that served as obvious evidence of the atrocities that occurred there.

As a side note, it looks like I’m now flying over Newfoundland, so I guess I’m officially back in (well, above) North America! Oddly, I think I probably slept more on this flight, which was entirely during daylight, than on my overnight flight to Europe two months ago. Staying up late for beers with my guesthouse friends probably didn’t help though.

Back to Dachau, I first entered the museum and found the theater to watch a short documentary about the camp. After watching the documentary I walked through the museum, which was quite extensive. Despite spending a couple hours there, I felt like I kind of rushed through it too. Of course a lot of the information was quite general, such as the general historical context, which painted a picture of how the Nazis rose to power and were able to commit such atrocities with the general support of the German people. However, there was also plenty of information specific to the camp, as well as many pictures of victims, and some of the victim’s personal belongings were on display. The museum also did not focus solely on Jews as victims, but all victims, including Gypsies, homosexuals, and pretty much anyone who disobeyed and resisted the authority of the Nazis. After walking through the main museum, I entered the bunker, which was the military prison. Here I saw the tiny cells, which used to have extra walls making them even smaller so that special prisoners were not even allowed to sit, and had to stand in darkness. Outside the bunker I saw the poles that were used to hang prisoners sentenced to death.

After making my way through the museum and bunker, I walked around the camp some more. I walked past the barracks, which were mostly demolished, until I eventually found the crematorium. As you might expect, this was the most difficult and uncomfortable part of the experience. I walked into the room with the ovens, which still strongly smelled like death. It is hard to believe that the room still has the same stench as it did in 1945, but there was a pungent, noxious odor in the room, which combined with the sight of the ovens made me feel sick and lightheaded. I had to step back outside for some fresh air and sunlight. I walked back in to see the gas chambers, which were never actually used at Dachau, but of course similar chambers at other camps were used to murder millions of people, and they were built at Dachau with the same intention. The door was labeled “BRAUSEBAD,” meaning “SHOWER ROOM,” to trick victims into entering the room without resistance. While there was enough at the camp to spend several more hours, I already felt quite uncomfortable, and wanted to spend time enjoying more positive things in Munich, so we headed back to the city. My pictures from my visit to Dachau are here.

Jen and I returned to the hauptbahnhof, and I picked up a city map and some lunch. We then headed to Schloß Nymphenburg. We took a u-bahn (subway) instead of the tram that stops near the palace, and I underestimated the length of the walk to the palace, but we got to walk along a canal leading up to the palace. The water was green and not as pretty as I expected, but we saw swans and I had a good view of the palace from a bridge over the canal. The palace was a bit pricy to enter but we were both satisfied just admiring the building from the outside. We saw the large English Garden behind the palace, adorned with statues and fountains.

Next, I decided to head to the Olympic park. This area had a lot of interesting modern architecture. The u-bahn stop was next to the BMW museum (and close to the Munich BMW offices), which both had interesting architecture. The Olympic park itself features strange architecture that looks like glass tents suspended from large poles. I was surprised to find a large carnival at the park. Also, most of the athletic facilities seem to be now available for use by the public. The area was quite active. The park features beautiful scenery too; the pond, large, green hill, and blue skies provided for some excellent photographs. I do not know if there is a memorial for the assassinated Israeli athletes, but if there is I was not able to find it. Rather than turning around, we tried to walk to another u-bahn stop by following signs pointing to a u-bahn station, but either we missed a sign or the signs were very misleading, because the next stop in that direction seemed to be several kilometers away, and we wasted quite a bit of time walking, before finding a tram stop that took us back to the train station. I got in touch with Mike, another RISE student interning in Hamburg who was visiting Munich as well, and we agreed to meet at the Hofbräuhaus after Jen and I checked into our hostels.

When we met up, Mike had met some other people too (some were also on RISE, others weren’t), and we ended up with quite a large group. Of course the Munich Hofbräuhaus is probably the most famous beer hall in the world, and despite it being very large (with multiple floors), we decided it was unlikely we’d find seating for all of us, and checked out some of the other beer halls and restaurants in the vicinity. We ended up at an Augustiner beer hall, which was okay because apparently most Munichers prefer Augustiner to Hofbräuhaus anyway. Here I had my first maß, a liter mug of beer. The Augustiner Helles is a very smooth, light beer, so it was actually quite easy to drink a full liter. Traditional Munich beer (as well as most of the old breweries in Germany) abides by the traditional Bavarian Purity Law, which specified that beer could only include three ingredients: water, barley, and hops. When yeast was discovered, that was added as a fourth ingredient. This simple ingredient list results in very smooth, easy to drink beer. Of course I didn’t just have a liquid dinner, I also had some shweinebraten, a traditional Bavarian pork roast with potato dumplings. After dinner we grabbed ice cream for dessert, and about half of the original group went to another bar, for another half-liter of beer. Our group continued to dwindle in size, until just Mike and I headed to a second bar for a third beer. It was great being in Bavaria, which could be rightfully considered the beer capital of the world, and I had three different types of beer: helles, dunkel, and weißbier. After a night of Bavarian beer drinking, I returned to my hostel for some sleep.

In the morning I had a quick breakfast at the hostel, and caught the free (for tips) tour of Munich (by Sandeman’s, the same company I took a free tour with in Copenhagen). The three hour tour took us all around the downtown area of Munich, and our tour guide was great at explaining the history of Munich, which usually involved beer. We started with the glockenspiel at the rathaus (city hall), which our tour guide loathed, and described as the second most overrated and boring tourist attraction in Europe, after the astronomical clock in Prague. I don’t necessarily agree with him, I found the little puppet show complete with a jousting match between knights from Bavaria and Austria, kind of cute, but the glockenspiel bells were horribly out of tune. The guide explained that the city sent the bells to a company in the Netherlands to be fixed, but they returned in even worse condition. Next we went to Munich Frauenkirche, a church, which according to legend was built with help from the devil, who angrily left his footprint by the entrance after being tricked by the architect. It’s strange how many churches in Europe have legends involving the architects making deals with the devil, including a church in Lübeck and Notre Dame in Paris. This church in Munich featured an icon of a menorah on the roof, as the church allowed Jews to hide in the basement during the Holocaust, and therefore has a strong connection to the Jewish community in Munich. Additionally, the church towers were spared in WWII because the allies used them as a landmark to find the Munich city center, and purposely avoided bombing them.

The tour continued to show us major historical sites in the area, and our tour guide told us crazy stories involving Munich and beer. In one instance the city was actually saved from Swedish invaders by making a deal to surrender several thousand barrels of beer to the invaders. However, beer sometimes caused problems too. A government official once suggested extinguishing a fire with beer (because it was in greater supply than water), but the men preferred to drink the beer or steal the barrels, and failed to put out the fire. Our tour guide also explained the history of the Hofbräuhaus, including why the first floor is referred to as the “wash” (ask me if you’re interested, but I warn you it’s pretty gross). There was also the story of the miraculously unbroken beer stein. After the cross fell off a church tower, it was easy to find a fearless volunteer to climb the tower and replace it at the Hofbräuhaus. This volunteer climbed the tower without even putting down his stein, and after putting the cross on in the wrong direction, dropped his stein. It fell to the street, but did not shatter. The church proclaimed this a miracle. Our tour guide also explained Hitler’s gradual rise to power in Munich, and his failed putsch attempt. Of course, even this involved the Hofbrähaus, and perhaps it wouldn’t have failed if it weren’t for some irresponsible Nazi beer drinkers.

After the tour, I climbed up the Alter Peter church tower, which provided me with an excellent view of Munich. After this I had just a little more time to walk around Munich and see some sights, such as the Siegestor, that I did not see on the tour. I then had to catch my train back to Lübeck. My pictures from my weekend in Munich (not including Dachau) are here.

Monday was my last day of work, and I started working on a final report and said goodbye to my supervisor and colleagues. On Tuesday I got up early to head downtown one last time to close my bank account, as well as to do some touristy things I had not done in Lübeck. I went up the tower in St. Peter’s Church, which provided me with a great view of Lübeck. I also visited the museum in the Holsentor, which had many artifacts from medieval Lübeck, when it was the capital of the Hanseatic League. I also took the tour of the rathaus (city hall), but the tour was only offered in German, and I found it rather slow and boring, especially since I couldn’t understand the tour guide. I biked around the city a bit, and had my last currywurst for lunch. I also finally bought some marzipan from the famous Niederegger store to take home.

After returning to the guesthouse to finish packing, I was invited out to the Paulaner Munich-style restaurant in Lübeck, which I often walked by and wanted to go to. I went out with Bruno (from Brazil), Mete (from Turkey), Rodrigo (from Chile), and Stephan (a German friend of Bruno’s). Since it was my last night, I splurged and spent almost all of my remaining money. I had another maß of beer (this is probably the only place to get the in Lübeck), but I chose the weißbier (Paulaner weißbier is one of my favorite German beers), which is a heavier beer, and I realized is harder to drink in such a large amount, compared to something like a helles. It didn’t help that I ordered both a large schnitzel dish and a soup (it was shwarze beer soup, which sounded way too good to not try, and it was delicious). I left with only about €5 to my name, but the guys insisted on going out for one last drink and agreed to pay. They picked an Irish pub, so my last beer in Germany was actually a Guinness, which is quite silly, but at least I had a maß of German beer too. Finally we returned to the guesthouse, and met up with Mohammed and Ahmed as well (who are always up late during Ramadan). I really wanted to get some sleep before my flight, but I spent a while longer hanging out with my friends before catching a few hours of rest before my morning commute. My remaining pictures in Lübeck have been added to my Lübeck album here.

In the morning I got up very early to catch the 6:30 bus to the train station and started my journey home. Luckily I was able to get some food despite my limited money, I found a cheap cinnamon roll in Hamburg, and was able to use my US currency to get Burger King (a little welcome back to America, I suppose) in Dublin. Now I’m nearly home! I’m flying over Maine, only 198 miles from Boston, and should be arriving in half-an-hour. This trip went by really quick, but it was great have an international work experience and meeting so many friends from all over the world. While I have missed some things from home, it has been great travelling Europe and experiencing different cultures. I hope to return to Europe sometime soon!

P.S. As a final note, I’m looking at the map of our location on the plane, and now that it’s zooming into New England, I’m noticing New England towns named after German cities such as Berlin and Bremen, I never heard of those towns in the U.S. before.

A Weekend in Paris

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent this past weekend in Paris. One of Rui's colleagues from her lab drove us from Lübeck to the train station in Hamburg, and we caught the night train to Paris. We travelled in a "couchette" car, which has rooms with two triple bunk beds for six people. We coincidentally shared the room with Prajwal, a RISE Pro student (another DAAD program for grad students to have industrial internships in Germany) from India (and a grad student in the U.S.) who apparently was at the Dresden meeting with us. We also shared the room with an Indian IBM employee temporarily working in Hamburg and touring Europe, as well as a couple who I think were Norwegian and German, if I recall correctly. Prajwal was really interesting because he's a more adventurous traveler than most, and shared his stories and photographs. He often avoid trains and hostels, opting instead to hitchhike and find shelter using couchsurfing.com. Rather than only visiting European cities, he hiked to some of the most beautiful sights in the world, including glaciers and a secluded mountain in Norway (Kjerag) where there is a boulder wedged between two cliffs. He had some great photographs of him standing on the boulder, I'm a bit jealous of his experiences.

After getting some sleep on the train, we arrived in Paris in the morning (albeit about half an hour late). After figuring out how to buy a ticket, we hopped on the metro and met up with Rui's friend Rosie, who is working at the Pasteur Institute for the summer. Rosie managed to hook us up with a free place to stay, as her friend who was away for the weekend graciously lent us their flat. After dropping off our stuff, Rosie started showing us around Paris. After a brief stroll through the gardens near the flat, we took a walk by the river towards Notre Dame Cathedral. The sides of the bridge over the river near Notre Dame were covered with padlocks with the names of couples written on them. I've seen similar displays on other bridges in Europe, including in Lübeck, but none had as many as this bridge in Paris. We did not brave the long line to enter Notre Dame, but we admired the intricate gothic architecture from the outside. We continued exploring and found a piano available to the public as part of a campaign called "Play Me I'm Yours," and Rosie played a little piano for us. We soon made our way to  Le Marais, which is apparently both the gay and lesbian district and the Jewish district of Paris. Here we grabbed some falafel and ate it in a little park.

After lunch we continued exploring, admiring the grand architecture of the city. We found a public viewing of the Olympics, with red phone booths bringing a taste of London to Paris, but we did not stay for long. We soon found another park to relax in for a little while (Rosie had a problem with her foot and needed to stop and rest every now and then).

Eventually we made our way to the Louvre. I wasn't able to go into the museum, but I was amazed at how large the Louvre is from the outside. You could probably spend a whole week in the museum. By the Louvre I had my first glance of the Eiffel Tower from a distance. We planned to have a picnic by the Eiffel Tower, and soon found a grocery store to buy food for dinner. We bought a bottle of champagne (technically it was only sparking wine because it was a cheap bottle, and not actually from Champagne, France), some salami, chocolate, and some sort of pâté (I think it was duck meat). We found a bakery and bought their last two baguettes, and found a spot to sit in the grass near the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately the sunny weather we had all day changed into ominous clouds, but we had enough time to eat our food and drink our champagne before the rain came down. We waited for the rain to stop under a covered platform, and from there we saw the tower light up as it got dark. Lights quickly flashed on and off at different positions on the tower, causing the Eiffel Tower to glimmer. After the rain stopped, we headed back to the flat to change before going out again for the evening. We went to an outdoor club where we met some of Rosie's other friends. One of her friends was from Connecticut and had worked on a project involving EEG-based BCIs, very similar to what I am working on here (if you're wondering, I have so far failed to get good results, and now have less than a week to change that).  We did not stay at the club too late because we were very tired after walking all day (and strangely, the music outside stopped before 1 AM, even though most European clubs do not become busy until after 1).

On the first Sunday of every month all the museums in Paris are free, so we thought we might be able to go to the Louvre, although I expected it to be very crowded. Unfortunately, I had an alarm clock malfunction, and slept a couple hours later than I planned. After finally getting up, Rui and I first went to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arch is in the middle of a large traffic circle (Place Charles de Gaulle), and at first we didn't notice the underground tunnel to get to the arch, so we waited for a break in the traffic and ran across. We climbed to the top of the Arch, where we had a magnificent view of Paris. Twelve major roads meet at the traffic circle (and radiate out like a star), so the Arch feels very much like the center of the city. We had a great view of the Eiffel Tower, as well as the modern business district, La Défense, with its ultra-modern Grand Arche (built in the '80s). I also liked watching the large traffic circle below; I saw both a Lamborghini and Ferrari drive by, and was amazed by what I can only call "organized chaos" as traffic passed through the circle.

After visiting the Arc de Triomphe, we planned to meet up with Rosie again by the Louvre. Unfortunately, the lines for the museum were very long, and I did not have enough time to wait. We tried another art museum nearby, only to find lines that were just as long, if not longer. We gave up on the museums, and instead found a place to eat crepes for lunch. After lunch we took the Montmartre funicular (incline) to a hill in the northern part of the city. There we saw Sacré-Cœur Basilica, as well as a great view from the highest point in the city. We saw the nearby Moulin Rouge, and I grabbed a donut from a bakery and a panini. Soon Rosie had to go, and I did not have much time left before my train. Rui and I took the metro to Place de la République, but the square was under construction, so there wasn't too much to see. We sat in a park for a while before heading to the train station. There I said goodbye to Rui, before boarding my train back to Lübeck.

On the train I found that I was once again sharing a room with the IBM employee from India (I admit I forget his name, but he was very friendly). I also shared the room with a girl from Buenos Aires and a woman and child from Sweden (although the woman was originally from France). There was another guy in the room, I think he was French, but he did not seem interested in conversing with us. In the morning, the train arrived to Hamburg 80 minutes late, but I eventually made it back to Lübeck, getting to work very late. I spent a lot of time on trains this weekend, but it was great to visit Paris. You can see my pictures here.

This is my last full week in Lübeck, my trip has gone by very fast. This Friday I will take another night train to Munich, and I will return to Lübeck one last time Sunday night. Next Monday will probably be my last day of work, and I think I will spend Tuesday morning in downtown Lübeck for the last time, before heading to Hamburg. I will hopefully spend the night in Hamburg with another RISE intern, and then I will fly home Wednesday morning. It's crazy that soon I need to start preparing for my final two semesters at Pitt, but for now I will try to enjoy my last week in Deutschland.

Dresden and Prague

Well, I failed to stick to my normal blog schedule, so I’m writing this post while on a train (with some editing later). Last week I went to Dresden for the RISE conference and then to Prague for the remainder of the weekend. This was Rui’s last week in Lübeck before leaving for Paris to visit a friend before returning home. Somehow she managed to convince me to come with her for the weekend, so I’m writing this while on my way to Paris. Paris is the furthest I’ve travelled (quite far for a weekend trip by train), so this is my first trip on a CNL (city night line) train. The night line trains have rooms with “couchettes,” which are like triple bunk beds to sleep in, so hopefully I’ll get some sleep before arriving in Paris tomorrow morning.

Going back to last week, I woke up early Thursday morning to catch the train to Dresden with Rui and Amanda. After weeks of very mild weather, summer finally hit Germany, and the temperature was very hot. We took a crowded, uncomfortable EC train (EuroCity) train, which was continuing all the way to Budapest (I think the train was from Hungary), to Dresden. We had difficulty finding seats without reservations, but we eventually arrived in Dresden, and after giving up on trying to figure out Dresden’s poorly marked S-bahn trains we walked to the hostel. When we arrived we got to experience something glorious and unusual on this trip: free lunch! After weekends of travelling on a budget, I was grateful to have good German food offered for lunch, and I got to eat with many other RISE students. I saw other interns I previously met in Hamburg and Berlin, and met many other interns, while eating spätzle, served like macaroni and cheese.

After lunch, most interns stayed at the hostel and waited for the bus to the conference, but I chose to leave with a group of people who wanted to instead walk to the conference, and explore the city along the way.  All I really knew about Dresden before coming was that it was firebombed and destroyed in the war (and Kurt Vonnegut witnessed a fellow POW get shot for taking a teapot from the rubble). On the walk I saw many old buildings that had obviously been restored, and many still looked like they had been burnt. I learned later that some of the black stones I saw were not burnt, but rather turned black due to the minerals in the stones. Eventually we made our way to the opening ceremony of the conference, which wasn’t particularly interesting. The room was also quite hot, a common theme of the Dresden trip. This was by far the hottest weekend in Germany since I’ve arrived, and Dresden is much further south than Lübeck. After the opening ceremony, we had yet another free meal! The DAAD invited us to a nice Bavarian-style restaurant, where we had roasted pork (sliced right off the pig) and beer. Later in the evening, a group of us walked around trying to find a biergarten (I still have not been to one), but we unfortunately arrived just as it closed. We continued walking (further and further away from the hostel), but failed to find anywhere too interesting before realizing how tired we were. Most of us eventually turned back to catch some sleep before getting up early for the conference the next day.

The conference was not particularly interesting, and mostly consisted of presentations about graduate school programs in Germany for international students. After the conference we were given a walking tour of the city, which was more engaging. We saw many of the same sights as the day before, but were now given context and history to go with the sights. Dresden had a beautiful protestant church, which was unique for being more extravagant than the city’s Catholic church. Our tour guide shared quite a bit of Saxon history, and the tour was one of the most enjoyable parts of my Dresden trip.

After more free food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all included with the conference), many interns headed to a park by the river to relax and drink beer, before eventually finding a bar to watching the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. We found an Irish Pub, featuring an Irish man singing songs on guitar, which meant we had to watch the Olympics on mute, but it was still an enjoyable atmosphere (although imported Irish beer is more expensive than German beer). A lot of people were interested in going to a club afterwards, but the club we found had a dress code banning shorts, which everyone was wearing due to the heat in Dresden. I ended up meeting a couple other interns who decided to return to the Irish pub for another drink before returning to the hostel.

In the morning, I got up early again for free breakfast at the hostel. But as most people boarded the buses to the remainder of the conference (additional presentations and a group photo), Rui and I broke away from the pack and returned to the train station to catch a train to Prague. Unfortunately, the train ended up being the same crowded, hot, uncomfortable EC train that we took to Dresden in the first place. We also had to sit near crying babies, but at least we had a beautiful view of the Czech Republic from the window. After a couple hours we arrived in Prague! Prague is a beautiful city, and while Dresden was nice, Prague was the highlight of this trip.

After dropping our stuff off at our hostel, we ventured to the old town, which featured some of the most intriguing medieval architecture I’ve seen. There was some sort of folklore festival going on, and people from many countries were there with flags and costumes representing their culture. We saw churches more lavish and beautiful than the protestant church in Dresden. We found a restaurant for lunch, which was nicer than where we usually eat when travelling. We were spoiled with free food in Dresden, and felt like splurging a bit, but luckily Prague is a fairly inexpensive city. I had goulash and Pilsner Urquell, and we even split an ice cream sundae. We also fell for a trick I heard is common in Europe. Warm bread was put on the table, but it was not free like in the States, and we were charged for it on our bill. Regardless, it was a really good meal, one of the better ones I’ve had in Europe.

After lunch we made our way to Charles Bridge (everything in Prague is named after their most famous king, Charles), an old bridge lined with many statues, and offering spectacular views of the city and river. There were also great street performers on the bridge: a group playing music similar to New Orleans-style Jazz, and a duo performing with musician marionettes. After crossing the bridge, we hiked up to Prague Castle, which is really a complex of buildings from various centuries with various types of architecture. The castle is on a hill west of the main city, and offers an excellent view of Prague. The gothic St. Vitus Cathedral within the castle complex was very beautiful. There was a wedding at the cathedral (I see weddings everywhere I visit in Europe), and we saw the bride getting out of an old car, looking like an actress in an old film.

After returning downtown, we walked by the river, and eventually grabbed dinner at an Italian restaurant, and had pizza with salmon, an interesting topping I wouldn’t normally think of (but I suppose it’s not unlike putting lox on bagels). We eventually returned to our hostel, and while we originally thought we’d go back out and find a bar (there were other RISE interns we hoped to meet up with), we ended up going to bed pretty early due to exhaustion. In the morning we checked out of the hostel and returned to Old Town Square to catch a free (for tips) tour. The tour was given by a very enthusiastic local, who was eager to tell us about the city’s history. She explained the astronomical clock, a functional work of art, which includes a little puppet show every hour during daylight. We got there just in time to hear a bugle call from a trumpet player high up in the tower. We saw another church famous for displaying what is supposedly the 400 year old mummified hand of a thief who tried to steal jewels from the statue of the Virgin Mary. The sculpture supposedly grabbed the thief’s wrist, and would not let go until after the hand was amputated the next day.

The tour ended in Josefov, the small Jewish quarter of the city (and Franz Kafka's birthplace), with several old synagogues. The oldest is the Old New Synagogue, which is famous for the legend of the golem of Prague. According to the legend, Rabbi Loew constructed and brought life to a golem to protect the Jews of Prague from anti-Semitic attacks and pogroms. According to legend, the golem, which was likely an inspiration for stories like Frankenstein, is still stored in the attic of the synagogue. After the tour I returned to the synagogue to go in, but it was quite small and there was not much to see (other than admiring the fact that the building has survived for so many years despite facing years of antisemitism, including WWII, in Europe). The simplicity of the synagogue was a stark contrast compared to the grand extravagance of the Catholic churches we visited. We continued walking around the city, and grabbed Chinese food for lunch before departing Prague to return to Lübeck.

My pictures from Dresden are hosted here, and my pictures from Prague can be found here.

After returning to Lübeck, I realized that the guesthouse is in a constant state of transition with people constantly moving in and out. Of course my friend Akshay left the previous week, and my Russian friends also moved out while I was away. When I returned, I met the new girl living in Akshay’s room, and was surprised to find I was no longer the only American in the guesthouse. I think I am also now the youngest person living here. This week I also finally got to know my neighbor Mohammed and his friend Ahmed, who just moved into the guesthouse for the second time. They are both Egyptian medical doctors practicing in Lübeck. They are both Muslims observing Ramadan, and spend the late evenings (after sunset) in the kitchen feasting and relaxing. Northern Germany is a difficult place to observe Ramadan because of the long summer days (Muslims do not eat while the sun is up during Ramadan), but my Egyptian friends are very friendly and it was nice joining them for post-sunset fruit and tea. Ahmed brought Egyptian tea and mint, grown in his grandmother’s garden, and is eager to share with everybody. While I feel like I’m not meeting too many German people here in Germany, I think it’s great meeting so many international people in the guesthouse.

Now I’ll try to sleep on this train, and tomorrow morning I’ll wake up in Paris! Next weekend I’ll be taking yet another long train to Munich, and then I’ll only have a couple days left in Germany before returning to the States.