Ow!
That was the second time he stepped on me.
It was to be expected, I guess. I'd been completely exhausted, after staying up most of the night watching election news, so I slept soundly for the first 3 hours of the train ride. There were only two people in the room, and six seats, so each of us got a bench to ourselves. Around midnight, though, another person arrived, and we had to share the bench. Since I can't sleep sitting up, I decided to lay down on the floor, where I passed a peaceful night until...
Ow!
That was the first time.
No big deal, really. He just stepped on me. It's not as though he swung his 500 lb suitcase down from the rack as I was sitting up and clubbed me right between the eyes, or something.
OWWWWWWW!
After arriving in Berlin, I met Laura Tomlinson (my mom's friend's daughter) at the train station. We got on a subway, where we promptly got stopped by the inspectors, because I had the wrong type of ticket, and hadn't validated it. I tried to look apologetic and confused (which wasn't hard) as Laura rattled away in German with the inspector. After that, we went to her apartment, then left to explore the city, where I lost her spare house key, before ruining the paint job in her living room - a wonderful guest, as usual.
On Thursday we also went to a movie: Motorcycle Diaries, in Spanish, with English subtitles - the theater was in a touristy area. All of Berlin feels much more American than Lyon does. It's full of skyscrapers, Starbucks, and Dunkin' Donuts. Everythere there is dirt cheap compared to France. I bought jeans, tennis shoes, and about a hundred pastries. German desserts are better than French (the group who went to Italy said the same thing about Italian food - I'm not sure who decided Lyon was the gastronomical capital of the world). For about half the price, you can get a pastry twice as big, and often better tasting. The French desserts look a lot better - they're all elegantly sculpted and decorated, with gold leaf on the chocolate cakes, etc, whereas the Germans just glump together a huge amount of flour, sugar, butter, and add a fruit filling. Yum.
Friday, I explored the museums while Laura was in class, and did some shopping. First I saw the Jewish history museum, which is designed by the same architect who is doing the Spiral in London, and the World Trade Center memorial. It was a very impressive museum, though it kind of glossed over the Holocaust. It was designed to show Jewish history in its entirety, so there was a room for the diary of a 15th century Jewish woman, a room for a 19th century
banker, a room for the Holocaust, etc. I assume (I hope) that they did that because there are already so many Holocaust museums in Germany. I also went to the museum at Checkpoint Charlie, which is small but packed with stuff. Berlin must have been a very interesting place to live before the wall fell. And after, for that matter.
On Saturday we went to Dresden. We were very lucky to be able to go - we were supposed to have made reservations for the bus beforehand, but luckily two other people didn't show up, so there was just enough space for us. It's amazing how much of Dresden is still in ruins. A lot of the buildings and statues still have scorch marks. The whole place feels like a museum. While we were there we saw a vault full of all sorts of treasures: sculptures, vases, clocks, jewelry, and a 16th century cherry stone with 185 (!) faces carved on it. The craftsmanship for all of it was incredible. We also went to an armory, which had a huge array of armor and weapons, including a 15 foot long sword (very practical). The puppet museum was closed, unfortunately, but we went to the modern (post-1800) art museum, which was extremely good. I'm glad we saw it, because the modern art museum in Berlin on Sunday sucked. They had a collection of 'rock sculptures' - blocks of granite - and that was it. In the whole museum. Granite. It's very bizarre, because Berlin is full of great modern art. We went in a church with impressionist Mary paintings, and a Jesus vaguely reminiscent of "The Scream." Even the Dunkin Donuts had more modern art in it. Then again, maybe the granite was really great art, and we just didn't get it.
Also on Sunday, we saw an Austrian winter festival. They had a fake hill constructed, with fake snow, and people intertubed down it. We didn't go because of the long line, but I did get Austrian pancakes there. Then we went to see another movie, "7 Zwerge: Manner Allein Im Wold" (7 Dwarves: Men Alone in the Woods. It was a comedy). As the title implies, it was in German, but Laura translated for me. She was a very good host - without her, I would probably still be in the police station in Berlin, trying to explain why I had the wrong type of tickets ("Danke shen! Bitte! Lola Rennt!").
The train back to Paris was a bit more comfortable, since I got a bench to myself, but it was an hour late for some reason. I missed my train back to Lyon, but I got the next one without any problems, and got back in time for my literature presentation, which also went well. Oh, and I finally got a chance to read some more of 'Bilbo Le Hobbit.' So, overall, a very good trip.
Das lebewohl!
(My online dictionary says that that's 'Goodbye' in German, but who knows).
That was the second time he stepped on me.
It was to be expected, I guess. I'd been completely exhausted, after staying up most of the night watching election news, so I slept soundly for the first 3 hours of the train ride. There were only two people in the room, and six seats, so each of us got a bench to ourselves. Around midnight, though, another person arrived, and we had to share the bench. Since I can't sleep sitting up, I decided to lay down on the floor, where I passed a peaceful night until...
Ow!
That was the first time.
No big deal, really. He just stepped on me. It's not as though he swung his 500 lb suitcase down from the rack as I was sitting up and clubbed me right between the eyes, or something.
OWWWWWWW!
After arriving in Berlin, I met Laura Tomlinson (my mom's friend's daughter) at the train station. We got on a subway, where we promptly got stopped by the inspectors, because I had the wrong type of ticket, and hadn't validated it. I tried to look apologetic and confused (which wasn't hard) as Laura rattled away in German with the inspector. After that, we went to her apartment, then left to explore the city, where I lost her spare house key, before ruining the paint job in her living room - a wonderful guest, as usual.
On Thursday we also went to a movie: Motorcycle Diaries, in Spanish, with English subtitles - the theater was in a touristy area. All of Berlin feels much more American than Lyon does. It's full of skyscrapers, Starbucks, and Dunkin' Donuts. Everythere there is dirt cheap compared to France. I bought jeans, tennis shoes, and about a hundred pastries. German desserts are better than French (the group who went to Italy said the same thing about Italian food - I'm not sure who decided Lyon was the gastronomical capital of the world). For about half the price, you can get a pastry twice as big, and often better tasting. The French desserts look a lot better - they're all elegantly sculpted and decorated, with gold leaf on the chocolate cakes, etc, whereas the Germans just glump together a huge amount of flour, sugar, butter, and add a fruit filling. Yum.
Friday, I explored the museums while Laura was in class, and did some shopping. First I saw the Jewish history museum, which is designed by the same architect who is doing the Spiral in London, and the World Trade Center memorial. It was a very impressive museum, though it kind of glossed over the Holocaust. It was designed to show Jewish history in its entirety, so there was a room for the diary of a 15th century Jewish woman, a room for a 19th century
banker, a room for the Holocaust, etc. I assume (I hope) that they did that because there are already so many Holocaust museums in Germany. I also went to the museum at Checkpoint Charlie, which is small but packed with stuff. Berlin must have been a very interesting place to live before the wall fell. And after, for that matter.On Saturday we went to Dresden. We were very lucky to be able to go - we were supposed to have made reservations for the bus beforehand, but luckily two other people didn't show up, so there was just enough space for us. It's amazing how much of Dresden is still in ruins. A lot of the buildings and statues still have scorch marks. The whole place feels like a museum. While we were there we saw a vault full of all sorts of treasures: sculptures, vases, clocks, jewelry, and a 16th century cherry stone with 185 (!) faces carved on it. The craftsmanship for all of it was incredible. We also went to an armory, which had a huge array of armor and weapons, including a 15 foot long sword (very practical). The puppet museum was closed, unfortunately, but we went to the modern (post-1800) art museum, which was extremely good. I'm glad we saw it, because the modern art museum in Berlin on Sunday sucked. They had a collection of 'rock sculptures' - blocks of granite - and that was it. In the whole museum. Granite. It's very bizarre, because Berlin is full of great modern art. We went in a church with impressionist Mary paintings, and a Jesus vaguely reminiscent of "The Scream." Even the Dunkin Donuts had more modern art in it. Then again, maybe the granite was really great art, and we just didn't get it.
Also on Sunday, we saw an Austrian winter festival. They had a fake hill constructed, with fake snow, and people intertubed down it. We didn't go because of the long line, but I did get Austrian pancakes there. Then we went to see another movie, "7 Zwerge: Manner Allein Im Wold" (7 Dwarves: Men Alone in the Woods. It was a comedy). As the title implies, it was in German, but Laura translated for me. She was a very good host - without her, I would probably still be in the police station in Berlin, trying to explain why I had the wrong type of tickets ("Danke shen! Bitte! Lola Rennt!").The train back to Paris was a bit more comfortable, since I got a bench to myself, but it was an hour late for some reason. I missed my train back to Lyon, but I got the next one without any problems, and got back in time for my literature presentation, which also went well. Oh, and I finally got a chance to read some more of 'Bilbo Le Hobbit.' So, overall, a very good trip.
Das lebewohl!
(My online dictionary says that that's 'Goodbye' in German, but who knows).
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