I am back in the country. After a wonderful two months, I arrived in Atlanta on Monday night after countless delays. My luggage decided that two months wasn’t enough, and stayed in Detroit for a few extra days to do some sightseeing. I got my luggage a couple days later, but the mugs I bought as gifts were destroyed, which was sad. So sorry everyone, no presents.
On Wednesday night, my friend Lauren, who got married last summer had a great party. She invited over a lot of her girlfriends, and told us to bring all the clothes that have been sitting in our closets for a long time that we haven’t been wearing and that we’re ready to give away. So about 15 chicks came with all their old clothes, put them all around the house – shirts in one room, pants in another, skirts in another, etc. Then we had a free for all where we went through all the clothes and picked what we wanted. It was great! Everyone found some “new” clothes to bring home, and cleaned out the closets at the same time. And everything that no one wanted, Lauren took to goodwill. Fabulous idea! Kudos.
I spent a little time this week catching up with friends, but mostly just catching up on my sleep. On Friday morning, I left for NYC, and spent the weekend there. My friend Sara got married on Sunday night, so I arrived in NY Friday afternoon, spent about an hour with Will, an old tech friend who now is at Columbia, and then after much commotion and wrong turns, I made it out to sara’s friend Judy’s house for Shabbat. All of Friday night and Saturday there were between 12-15 females at Judy’s house to spend the time with Sara. It was relaxing and a load of fun. I don’t get to see Sara too often, so it was nice to catch up. Judy was also really cool, and Saturday night when Sara left to sleep in the hotel before the wedding, I stayed at Judy’s an extra night and we went out to hang with some of her friends and go to a few clubs, which was fun. We were out pretty late though, and then slept until noon Sunday. Sleeping through Judy’s nail appointment and almost through the hair appointment. We went to the hair place at one, and got our hair done a bit, and then came back home for it to just be ruined by the rain, but then headed for the wedding. The wedding was absolutely gorgeous. Everything was incredible. Sara and her new husband Shloimie were so cute together, and Sara looked beautiful. I caught up with a few Atlanta people that I hadn’t seen in a long time, and spent hours dancing, drinking, and eating.
After the wedding, I went back to Will’s, and we showed each other pictures from our recent traveling adventures (which took a long time), and then finally went to sleep around 5, and then today I woke up at 10 and worked on some stuff until I had to catch my plane. I took the M60 bus, which goes from Manhattan to LaGuardia airport, and I took it with 2.5 hours to spare before my flight. The highway was so congested from construction, that we took about an hour to go about 3 miles, so I was pretty worried I’d miss my flight, but luckily the flight was delayed, and ended up not leaving until an hour after it was due to leave. Phew!
This week is my week to catch up with all my friends at home who I haven’t seen in a few months. If you want to get lunch, let me know ;-)!
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Did you miss me?
I know, I know, it's been a while since I've posted, and I am sorry.
On July 1, I saw museums in Berlin, and went to some special exhibits and then went to synagogue and dinner before catching the night train. I took an overnight train from Berlin to Malmö (which had to cross water, so the train actually drove right onto a boat) and then from Malmö to Stockholm Sweden, and then took the metro and 3 busses to get to Herräng (about 120 km north) for camp. Camp was a lot of fun. I am sure I won't remember a quarter of the stories or things I learned there, but I will try to give an explanation of what I've been doing for the past week.
I arrived at camp, and it was nothing like I've ever seen. It is housed in a small city called Herräng, and throughout the year, the city's population is about 600. They have a small store and a bus stop, but other than that, not much. I learned that in the four weeks of camp, the store and hamburger stand earn enough money to stay open the rest of the year.
The camp is housed in the buildings of the school there. We use the schoolhouse as a dorm, the gymnasium, the patio, and the stage area as dance floors, and there are also 4 temporary dance floors outdoors, covered with tents. The dorms are packed with as many bunk beds as could possibly fit, and the showers are in the Gym - communal with privacy not existing, and hot water a desired ammenity. So basically, since 300 people showered at least twice a day for a week, using 6 showers, you can imagine the excitement when you got a hot one.
Anyway, enough about the buildings. The camp was awesome. Directed and run by Lennart and the Swedish "Harlem Hot Shots" - their swing troupe, the camp has an environment like nothing I've ever seen. The classes offered this week were Lindy hop, Boogie, and tap. Regardless of which classes people were taking, nearly all of them knew lindy hop. Each day, you would take three or four eighty minute classes, and by late afternoon, you'd be exhausted. After a cold shower and a filling dinner, there was the nightly meeting.
The meeting was something that everyone looked forward to each day. Led by camp director Lennart Westerlund, it was something that can't even be explained how funny it was. Lennart simply runs meeting, talks about history of the dance, shows videos along with many of the explanations, etc. But the amout of humor in these meetings is incredible. For the teachers, it is quite the honor to be asked to attend, and besides the hot shots, there were many other teachers, from the states, and around the world.
Frankie Manning, who is 91 years old, and the only remaining member of the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers" troupe was (as he is every year) in attendance. He is revered as a legend in the land of Lindy Hop. I had the opportunity to take a class from him on Tuesday during camp, and it was wonderful. At night, there are social dances going on from immediately after the meeting until the last dancer goes home. I was one of the last ones out many nights, staying out until 3 or 4:00 some nights, and as the week went on, was out until almost 5 am dancing. The difference between dancing that late in Sweden vs. dancing that late in the states is that it DOESN'T GET DARK. The sun sets around midnight, and there is this dim dusk period for an hour or so between 1-2am, but then it starts getting bright again. By the time I left the dances each morning, the amount of light outside was equivalent to the light at 11am in Atlanta. It was crazy. during the day there it got quite warm - about 85 F. But at night, it would get down to about 40. the contrast of temperatures was like being in a desert.
On Monday and Tuesday night, there was a band at the night dances, which made it even more fun. On Wednesday night, it was Blues night, and everyone gets all dressed up to go dancing, and they play only jazz blues music that night. Immediately following the meeting each night, they have an optional class or two that anyone is allowed to take, so I took the beginner blues class that night, and learned a bit before making a fool of myself at the dance.
Thursday night was another regular class day, but at night after the meeting I went to an Aerials class, and it was really cool. you had to come with a partner, so I went with another one of the guys in my class, Ivan, from Barcelona. After stretching out, they started us out with a lot of balance excercizes where the girl had to climb up on the guy and keep balance. I felt kind of like a cheerleader, it was funny. But then we learned two aerials that were really cool - a jump and a flip. It was a lot of fun.
During the blues night, Frankie Manning was there, and I got to dance with him!!!! I was so excited. Since he is so old, I expected him to be much weaker and more frail, but when I danced with him, it was almost like dancing with someone my own age (with celebrity status)
The last night was a bit sad with people leaving, but the theme was a birthday party for the camera-man, and it was really fun. Again, people got dressed up, but this time, more to the theme. I stayed up dancing until about 5 am, and then the next morning I got up early and got a massage and then took a private lesson from Naomi and Peter, which was fun and useful.
The camp runs for 3 more weeks, each bigger than the previous, so even though I was there in the smallest week, I was happy with that. The dance floor was manageable, and the class sizes were adequate. I hear that in the later weeks, you have to nap 10pm-3am and then get up and go to the dance because if you go earlier, there's not room to dance.
In week one, there were 25 countries represented. In my corner of the dorm, I was with people from Lithuania, England, Sweden, Holland, France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and Spain. The highest represented countries at camp ar 1-Sweden 2-Russia and 3- US. that is overall. US represents more in the later weeks though. There weren't too many this week.
You know the saying "The more you know, the more you know you don't know"? well, after dancing with so many fabulous dancers, seeing so many great performances, and taking all these classes, I have just been exposed to what kind of dancer I am FAR from becoming. Many of the fabulous dancers were my age!! But the nice thing was that the camp was filled with really nice people, and everyone was always willing to help and support everyone else throughout the classes and dances. I'm not going to say that there was no one that I tried to avoid...after all, at this event just as in many other dance events, there were the dirty old men that you wonder if they come to learn or just to dance with the 20 year old girls...but other than that, it was great.
In the meeting on Monday, we watched live as a documentary on the camp was broadcasted on Swedish national television. It was an hour long special recorded last year during the camp, and it was great to watch. A quote that sums up the camp is that
"It is the Mecca of Lindy Hoppers. when you are in Herrang, you are in heaven."
On July 1, I saw museums in Berlin, and went to some special exhibits and then went to synagogue and dinner before catching the night train. I took an overnight train from Berlin to Malmö (which had to cross water, so the train actually drove right onto a boat) and then from Malmö to Stockholm Sweden, and then took the metro and 3 busses to get to Herräng (about 120 km north) for camp. Camp was a lot of fun. I am sure I won't remember a quarter of the stories or things I learned there, but I will try to give an explanation of what I've been doing for the past week.
I arrived at camp, and it was nothing like I've ever seen. It is housed in a small city called Herräng, and throughout the year, the city's population is about 600. They have a small store and a bus stop, but other than that, not much. I learned that in the four weeks of camp, the store and hamburger stand earn enough money to stay open the rest of the year.
The camp is housed in the buildings of the school there. We use the schoolhouse as a dorm, the gymnasium, the patio, and the stage area as dance floors, and there are also 4 temporary dance floors outdoors, covered with tents. The dorms are packed with as many bunk beds as could possibly fit, and the showers are in the Gym - communal with privacy not existing, and hot water a desired ammenity. So basically, since 300 people showered at least twice a day for a week, using 6 showers, you can imagine the excitement when you got a hot one.
Anyway, enough about the buildings. The camp was awesome. Directed and run by Lennart and the Swedish "Harlem Hot Shots" - their swing troupe, the camp has an environment like nothing I've ever seen. The classes offered this week were Lindy hop, Boogie, and tap. Regardless of which classes people were taking, nearly all of them knew lindy hop. Each day, you would take three or four eighty minute classes, and by late afternoon, you'd be exhausted. After a cold shower and a filling dinner, there was the nightly meeting.
The meeting was something that everyone looked forward to each day. Led by camp director Lennart Westerlund, it was something that can't even be explained how funny it was. Lennart simply runs meeting, talks about history of the dance, shows videos along with many of the explanations, etc. But the amout of humor in these meetings is incredible. For the teachers, it is quite the honor to be asked to attend, and besides the hot shots, there were many other teachers, from the states, and around the world.
Frankie Manning, who is 91 years old, and the only remaining member of the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers" troupe was (as he is every year) in attendance. He is revered as a legend in the land of Lindy Hop. I had the opportunity to take a class from him on Tuesday during camp, and it was wonderful. At night, there are social dances going on from immediately after the meeting until the last dancer goes home. I was one of the last ones out many nights, staying out until 3 or 4:00 some nights, and as the week went on, was out until almost 5 am dancing. The difference between dancing that late in Sweden vs. dancing that late in the states is that it DOESN'T GET DARK. The sun sets around midnight, and there is this dim dusk period for an hour or so between 1-2am, but then it starts getting bright again. By the time I left the dances each morning, the amount of light outside was equivalent to the light at 11am in Atlanta. It was crazy. during the day there it got quite warm - about 85 F. But at night, it would get down to about 40. the contrast of temperatures was like being in a desert.
On Monday and Tuesday night, there was a band at the night dances, which made it even more fun. On Wednesday night, it was Blues night, and everyone gets all dressed up to go dancing, and they play only jazz blues music that night. Immediately following the meeting each night, they have an optional class or two that anyone is allowed to take, so I took the beginner blues class that night, and learned a bit before making a fool of myself at the dance.
Thursday night was another regular class day, but at night after the meeting I went to an Aerials class, and it was really cool. you had to come with a partner, so I went with another one of the guys in my class, Ivan, from Barcelona. After stretching out, they started us out with a lot of balance excercizes where the girl had to climb up on the guy and keep balance. I felt kind of like a cheerleader, it was funny. But then we learned two aerials that were really cool - a jump and a flip. It was a lot of fun.
During the blues night, Frankie Manning was there, and I got to dance with him!!!! I was so excited. Since he is so old, I expected him to be much weaker and more frail, but when I danced with him, it was almost like dancing with someone my own age (with celebrity status)
The last night was a bit sad with people leaving, but the theme was a birthday party for the camera-man, and it was really fun. Again, people got dressed up, but this time, more to the theme. I stayed up dancing until about 5 am, and then the next morning I got up early and got a massage and then took a private lesson from Naomi and Peter, which was fun and useful.
The camp runs for 3 more weeks, each bigger than the previous, so even though I was there in the smallest week, I was happy with that. The dance floor was manageable, and the class sizes were adequate. I hear that in the later weeks, you have to nap 10pm-3am and then get up and go to the dance because if you go earlier, there's not room to dance.
In week one, there were 25 countries represented. In my corner of the dorm, I was with people from Lithuania, England, Sweden, Holland, France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and Spain. The highest represented countries at camp ar 1-Sweden 2-Russia and 3- US. that is overall. US represents more in the later weeks though. There weren't too many this week.
You know the saying "The more you know, the more you know you don't know"? well, after dancing with so many fabulous dancers, seeing so many great performances, and taking all these classes, I have just been exposed to what kind of dancer I am FAR from becoming. Many of the fabulous dancers were my age!! But the nice thing was that the camp was filled with really nice people, and everyone was always willing to help and support everyone else throughout the classes and dances. I'm not going to say that there was no one that I tried to avoid...after all, at this event just as in many other dance events, there were the dirty old men that you wonder if they come to learn or just to dance with the 20 year old girls...but other than that, it was great.
In the meeting on Monday, we watched live as a documentary on the camp was broadcasted on Swedish national television. It was an hour long special recorded last year during the camp, and it was great to watch. A quote that sums up the camp is that
"It is the Mecca of Lindy Hoppers. when you are in Herrang, you are in heaven."
Friday, July 01, 2005
En route - CR to Germany...then to Berlin
5-27-05
Our second day in Prague, and we got up to go to the Castle on the other side of town. We arrived just as the castle opened because the guide book said it would get busy later in the day. Seeing the castle was neat, and we’re lucky we went that early because by 10:30, there were so many tourists, we couldn’t see two feet in front of us. By lunchtime, we were done seeing the castle and its gardens, and had lunch coming back down the hill. We’d also heard that there was a violin shop in the center of the city, so we went out scouting that. We thought it was a violin maker’s store, but it was just a shop where they also repaired…no creating involved. But the violins there were nice, and the prices were fractions of what one would pay in the states for the same quality instrument. The owner let me "test drive" a few of the violins too, which was nice, but seeing that I haven’t played in months, I think he was probably disappointed he even let me touch any of his violins haha =)
Later in the day we walked to Wencelas Square and had some ice cream and planned the next few days. In the evening, we walked around the town some more, and went to two different parks and read our books. It was nice just sitting around and not being spotted too quickly as tourists.
One thing I noticed while in Prague, was that it is easy to tell that this was a country that has been under communism for some time. You could feel it when you came into the country, but then notice it both when talking to people, seeing buildings built both before, during, and after the communist era, and see the difference in the amount of décor, and how ornate the buildings were. In comparison to the rest of Europe, the clothes people wore were twenty years in the past. Trendy stores found all over Europe had obviously just reopened in the more recent years, and many of the shoppers were tourists. The prices were high for Prague, too. In general, costs in the Czech Republic are about a half to three quarters the price of the same thing in the Euro countries. Unfortunately, the big name stores don’t change their prices for where they are.
6-28-05
In leaving Prague, we stopped at two places on the way out. We took a bit of a detour to Mlada Boleslav which is a city northwest of Prague, and their claim to fame is housing the Skoda (car company) factory. The reason we went though, was that during WW2, all the jews of the town were wiped out, but the Torah of this prominent Jewish town was actually saved, and my synagogue back home has kept the torah for safekeeping for the past ___ years. We decided to take a trip to the town, and see what (if anything) is left of the Judaism in the town. We arrived to find that the plot where the old synagogue was is now housing a government building, and the only way to recognize the plot is that the paving stones outside are still there in the shape of a Mogen David (a Jewish star). We also went and visited the cemetery, which is kept up by a Christain woman whose home is on the property. By the size of the cemetery, one could tell that at one time the city had a flourishing Jewish population, but now of course, it is empty.
After that, we continued on our Jewish history tour of Europe, and stopped in Terezín, which is a city also a bit outside of Prague, and housed the "demo" concentration camp. Basically, when leaders of nations, or reporters or really anyone wanted to see a camp, or get an idea of what a concentration camp was like, they would be taken here. The prisoners were treated a little better than in the other camps (still not decently of course), and there were things like swimming pools and other amenities that were built not for the people to use, but solely for show or for the Nazi officers to use with their families. Disgusting.
We arrived in Dresden in the mid-afternoon after a few ubiquitous road detours that slowed us by about an hour. They have a lot of projects that require highways to be closed, and instead of doing the construction at night, they do it during the day so that everyone is slowed by hours. They have these signs though, for example, if you’re going to be stuck in traffic for the next 12 km, they will put that on a sign, and the sign will have a huge sad face on it "L" . Then it gets a little less sad at 10km, and by 6 km, there’s a face ":-/" and then continue to a smiley "J" and then a smiley with a tongue sticking out that looks REALLY happy when there’s only 1km left. They are funny signs.
Anyway, we arrived in Dresden, and we were happy. Dad was happy because he could finally speak German again, and I was happy because we arrived to a Holiday Inn, and it was BY FAR, the nicest hotel I’d stayed in over the past 6 weeks. They gave two towels per person, put mints on the pillow, and there was shampoo in the shower. This was the first place to have any of these three things. Luckily, throughout the rest of my trip, I have had my own towel, my own shampoo, and usually I passed up having the mint on my pillow. I was happy to be there though. We spent the evening seeing the town. Dresden was bombed during the war, but they’d rebuilt a lot of it, so it was neat to see. It was in East Germany after the war though, so again only recently was it changed from communism. We had a good dinner, and dad couldn’t get over how good the beer was, or that he could talk to people again.
6-29-05
We left Dresden, and headed to Meissen, which is a small town well known for the past 200 years for their porcelain. It is where the European porcelain was first discovered and produced. The factory again produces all of the porcelain there, and we took a tour where they showed us the process for creating any pieces. It was neat to see the whole process. We left Meissen and headed for Berlin. Again of course, there was traffic on the highway due to construction. In all our time here, we have driven the Autobahn many times, and never once seen an accident to blame for the traffic. Only the construction zones all over the place.
Once in Berlin, we drove around a bit accidentally, just trying to get to the hotel, and once we checked in, we returned the rental car and got an unlimited day pass for the metro system which is REALLY good there. The first place to where we ventured was dad’s old apartment from college. We found it quite easily (which surprised me since I sometimes wonder if he remembers he has a daughter). And one of the students let us in the building so we could see it. Dad was reminiscing a little, but couldn’t remember which room was his or anything, so it was a quick visit. From there we went to the infamous Brandenburg gate. This gate has been standing through many of the changes in Berlin over the years, most recently both a bombing of Berlin, and was a gate of the Berlin wall. It was where the speeches were made just before the wall came down as well. There was an exhibit there with the history of the square, and it was neat to learn. Down the street we went to the Denkmahl. That is the new Holocaust memorial that was just opened in May. It looks like about 200 grey stones, the sizes ranging from gravestone to coffin size, and placed within an entire square of the city. Also down the street from the Brandenburg gate was the bundestag, which is where government senate things take place. It is housed in the Reichstag building. We went to the top of the building into the dome, and got a good view of the city. Later in the night, we went to the Kaiser Wilhelm gedächtnis. It is a church that was bombed during the war, only parts of it are left, but it has been left in that condition to remind the people of Berlin, and from around the world, the horrors that took place in WW2.
6-30-05
This morning we first headed to the synagogue which was also bombed during the war, and they have recently rebuilt it. We were going to take a tour of it, but decided to come back for services Friday instead. We also went to KaDeWe (Kaufhaus Des Westens) which is the largest department store on the continent. Kind of like Marshall Fields is to Chicago. Anyway, it was pretty cool inside, especially floor #6 which is the food floor. The presentation in there was just incredible. We checked out of the hotel after noon, and headed to dad’s friend Martin’s house. We got there and rang the bell, but no one answered, but within two minutes, his wacky neighbour from across the way told us to come over and sit in his garden while we waited. He had a beautiful garden in the back, growing everything from vegetables to fruits to flowers to herbs. He brought out some beer and watermelon, and we sat around and talked for a while. He has a Bulgarian guy staying with him who looked in his mid twenties, and we were all sitting around the table and he said to him in German "you always wanted to meet an American girl, now there is one sitting here in our garden!!" it was funny. A few minutes later, he’d called Martin (we’d been at his house for about an hour now), and as it turns out, Martin said he couldn’t come over because he was waiting for his American friends. Turns out he was there the whole time and just didn’t hear the buzzer. It was great sitting around with everyone, even though I didn’t know what they were talking about most of the time. After catching up a bit, Martin took us on a tour of the city, pointing out both historical landmarks and personal ones. He pointed out where many of the synagogues were, as well as the Jewish cemeteries. He took us to the place where the first holocaust deportation took place, which was just next to what used to be a cemetery where Moshe Mendelssohn was buried. After our drive around town, we came back to the house and martin cooked a wonderful dinner and the neighbors came back over for dessert. The evening was fun, but I think that tomorrow will be a full day, and I also leave for Sweden tomorrow, so I must get some rest. The house is quiet with everyone else getting some shut eye.
goodnight
Our second day in Prague, and we got up to go to the Castle on the other side of town. We arrived just as the castle opened because the guide book said it would get busy later in the day. Seeing the castle was neat, and we’re lucky we went that early because by 10:30, there were so many tourists, we couldn’t see two feet in front of us. By lunchtime, we were done seeing the castle and its gardens, and had lunch coming back down the hill. We’d also heard that there was a violin shop in the center of the city, so we went out scouting that. We thought it was a violin maker’s store, but it was just a shop where they also repaired…no creating involved. But the violins there were nice, and the prices were fractions of what one would pay in the states for the same quality instrument. The owner let me "test drive" a few of the violins too, which was nice, but seeing that I haven’t played in months, I think he was probably disappointed he even let me touch any of his violins haha =)
Later in the day we walked to Wencelas Square and had some ice cream and planned the next few days. In the evening, we walked around the town some more, and went to two different parks and read our books. It was nice just sitting around and not being spotted too quickly as tourists.
One thing I noticed while in Prague, was that it is easy to tell that this was a country that has been under communism for some time. You could feel it when you came into the country, but then notice it both when talking to people, seeing buildings built both before, during, and after the communist era, and see the difference in the amount of décor, and how ornate the buildings were. In comparison to the rest of Europe, the clothes people wore were twenty years in the past. Trendy stores found all over Europe had obviously just reopened in the more recent years, and many of the shoppers were tourists. The prices were high for Prague, too. In general, costs in the Czech Republic are about a half to three quarters the price of the same thing in the Euro countries. Unfortunately, the big name stores don’t change their prices for where they are.
6-28-05
In leaving Prague, we stopped at two places on the way out. We took a bit of a detour to Mlada Boleslav which is a city northwest of Prague, and their claim to fame is housing the Skoda (car company) factory. The reason we went though, was that during WW2, all the jews of the town were wiped out, but the Torah of this prominent Jewish town was actually saved, and my synagogue back home has kept the torah for safekeeping for the past ___ years. We decided to take a trip to the town, and see what (if anything) is left of the Judaism in the town. We arrived to find that the plot where the old synagogue was is now housing a government building, and the only way to recognize the plot is that the paving stones outside are still there in the shape of a Mogen David (a Jewish star). We also went and visited the cemetery, which is kept up by a Christain woman whose home is on the property. By the size of the cemetery, one could tell that at one time the city had a flourishing Jewish population, but now of course, it is empty.
After that, we continued on our Jewish history tour of Europe, and stopped in Terezín, which is a city also a bit outside of Prague, and housed the "demo" concentration camp. Basically, when leaders of nations, or reporters or really anyone wanted to see a camp, or get an idea of what a concentration camp was like, they would be taken here. The prisoners were treated a little better than in the other camps (still not decently of course), and there were things like swimming pools and other amenities that were built not for the people to use, but solely for show or for the Nazi officers to use with their families. Disgusting.
We arrived in Dresden in the mid-afternoon after a few ubiquitous road detours that slowed us by about an hour. They have a lot of projects that require highways to be closed, and instead of doing the construction at night, they do it during the day so that everyone is slowed by hours. They have these signs though, for example, if you’re going to be stuck in traffic for the next 12 km, they will put that on a sign, and the sign will have a huge sad face on it "L" . Then it gets a little less sad at 10km, and by 6 km, there’s a face ":-/" and then continue to a smiley "J" and then a smiley with a tongue sticking out that looks REALLY happy when there’s only 1km left. They are funny signs.
Anyway, we arrived in Dresden, and we were happy. Dad was happy because he could finally speak German again, and I was happy because we arrived to a Holiday Inn, and it was BY FAR, the nicest hotel I’d stayed in over the past 6 weeks. They gave two towels per person, put mints on the pillow, and there was shampoo in the shower. This was the first place to have any of these three things. Luckily, throughout the rest of my trip, I have had my own towel, my own shampoo, and usually I passed up having the mint on my pillow. I was happy to be there though. We spent the evening seeing the town. Dresden was bombed during the war, but they’d rebuilt a lot of it, so it was neat to see. It was in East Germany after the war though, so again only recently was it changed from communism. We had a good dinner, and dad couldn’t get over how good the beer was, or that he could talk to people again.
6-29-05
We left Dresden, and headed to Meissen, which is a small town well known for the past 200 years for their porcelain. It is where the European porcelain was first discovered and produced. The factory again produces all of the porcelain there, and we took a tour where they showed us the process for creating any pieces. It was neat to see the whole process. We left Meissen and headed for Berlin. Again of course, there was traffic on the highway due to construction. In all our time here, we have driven the Autobahn many times, and never once seen an accident to blame for the traffic. Only the construction zones all over the place.
Once in Berlin, we drove around a bit accidentally, just trying to get to the hotel, and once we checked in, we returned the rental car and got an unlimited day pass for the metro system which is REALLY good there. The first place to where we ventured was dad’s old apartment from college. We found it quite easily (which surprised me since I sometimes wonder if he remembers he has a daughter). And one of the students let us in the building so we could see it. Dad was reminiscing a little, but couldn’t remember which room was his or anything, so it was a quick visit. From there we went to the infamous Brandenburg gate. This gate has been standing through many of the changes in Berlin over the years, most recently both a bombing of Berlin, and was a gate of the Berlin wall. It was where the speeches were made just before the wall came down as well. There was an exhibit there with the history of the square, and it was neat to learn. Down the street we went to the Denkmahl. That is the new Holocaust memorial that was just opened in May. It looks like about 200 grey stones, the sizes ranging from gravestone to coffin size, and placed within an entire square of the city. Also down the street from the Brandenburg gate was the bundestag, which is where government senate things take place. It is housed in the Reichstag building. We went to the top of the building into the dome, and got a good view of the city. Later in the night, we went to the Kaiser Wilhelm gedächtnis. It is a church that was bombed during the war, only parts of it are left, but it has been left in that condition to remind the people of Berlin, and from around the world, the horrors that took place in WW2.
6-30-05
This morning we first headed to the synagogue which was also bombed during the war, and they have recently rebuilt it. We were going to take a tour of it, but decided to come back for services Friday instead. We also went to KaDeWe (Kaufhaus Des Westens) which is the largest department store on the continent. Kind of like Marshall Fields is to Chicago. Anyway, it was pretty cool inside, especially floor #6 which is the food floor. The presentation in there was just incredible. We checked out of the hotel after noon, and headed to dad’s friend Martin’s house. We got there and rang the bell, but no one answered, but within two minutes, his wacky neighbour from across the way told us to come over and sit in his garden while we waited. He had a beautiful garden in the back, growing everything from vegetables to fruits to flowers to herbs. He brought out some beer and watermelon, and we sat around and talked for a while. He has a Bulgarian guy staying with him who looked in his mid twenties, and we were all sitting around the table and he said to him in German "you always wanted to meet an American girl, now there is one sitting here in our garden!!" it was funny. A few minutes later, he’d called Martin (we’d been at his house for about an hour now), and as it turns out, Martin said he couldn’t come over because he was waiting for his American friends. Turns out he was there the whole time and just didn’t hear the buzzer. It was great sitting around with everyone, even though I didn’t know what they were talking about most of the time. After catching up a bit, Martin took us on a tour of the city, pointing out both historical landmarks and personal ones. He pointed out where many of the synagogues were, as well as the Jewish cemeteries. He took us to the place where the first holocaust deportation took place, which was just next to what used to be a cemetery where Moshe Mendelssohn was buried. After our drive around town, we came back to the house and martin cooked a wonderful dinner and the neighbors came back over for dessert. The evening was fun, but I think that tomorrow will be a full day, and I also leave for Sweden tomorrow, so I must get some rest. The house is quiet with everyone else getting some shut eye.
goodnight
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