Boris in Berlin

Moving

2008-08-04T07:16:00.003+02:00

Looks like I never did write a concluding post. Perhaps I just didn't want my time in Berlin to end. Now, no less than 7 months since I left Berlin, I've begun a new blog. Since life is back to normal now, I cannot expect the new blog to be as interesting and entertaining as (I hope) this was, but try I will. Most important is your feedback, whether you know me or not!

Check it out, it's called Gazeto Sen Celo, Esperanto for 'journal without purpose'. The design is most definitely still a work in progress. I encourage you to subscribe to it, so you'll get an email every time there's something new to read.

Why I'm never able to get sleep

2007-11-30T13:11:00.002+01:00

At work I am most always bitter. I hate waking up early. But more than that I hate waking up early for nothing. Every morning when I wake up and it's still dark outside, I ask myself why I'm getting up. I never come up with an answer, yet here I am. This leaves me with a lot of time to think of how nice it would be to spend my last days in Berlin a little more excitingly..

Speaking of excitement, though, on Tuesday some friends and I were planning on seeing a band called Gogol Bordello, a show I've been waiting for a chance to see for a long time now. We had all been discussing prospects of the show and could hardly contain our excitement, when we saw a sign on the door of the venue that read "Ausverkauft", the last thing one wants to see when one is without tickets. We had no idea that tickets had even been on sale, so we came a whole hour in advance. Slowly but surely more disgruntled youths such as ourselves accumulated, making any chance of scalping a ticket (much less 6) infinitely smaller. My level of frustration was running high. Suddenly the singer of the band and its most charismatic member walked through the door. In Russian I explained to him our dilemma, but he answered back in a heavily accented and hilarious English (just like in the movie) that there was nothing he could do for us. In the end, somehow, miraculously, despite the other 40 or so people that were ticketless, I got in. I still don't know how it happened, but a Pole I was talking to said he could get me in, I didn't really believe it, but it worked.

Gogol Bordello plays what they call Gypsy Punk. To be honest, I've always disliked punk, but they have a completely different style. Half the songs are sung in Russian. But the band's fame comes from its dynamic live performances. The singer, Eugene Hutz, goes wild. At certain points he donned a woman's wig and red heals, and started the song 'Start wearing purple' by pouring wine all over himself. I was at the very front of the crowd, definitely had a great time.

Thursday evening I went to a theater called Kino Krokodil, which usually only shows Russian movies, to see a new Austrian movie called 'Import Export'. Though a bit unorthodox, the movie was well made, funny, and telling. It tells the story of a young Ukranian mother who leaves her infant son and moves to Ukraine, looking for a chance to make a life for herself, and a Austrian guy, with his own problems, who sets out for Ukraine trying to profit from installing chewing gum vending machines. In the words of a reviewer, its black comedy 'reveals unpalatable truths about the economic systems that rule our lives'. I recommend it.

American Turkeys and Iraqi Doners

2007-11-25T18:33:00.000+01:00

This weekend my friend Zack, who I go to school with in San Diego, came to visit from Barcelona, where he's been studying. Thursday was Thanksgiving, so the director of the program hosted a dinner at his house in proper thanksgiving fashion. For the whole week leading up to Thursday, everyone had been awaiting the event like no other; I, on the other hand, was surprised everytime I was reminded about it by an ever reverberating "oh my god, thanksgiving is in (x) days!!!!!!!" I really never realized how important thanksgiving is to Americans. I spent most of the dinner talking to a German woman who had lived her whole life in Rio de Janeiro, and a British man who had flown planes during the Berlin airlift, and now lives in Berlin.

Some days later, after a long day of sightseeing, a couple of us Americans decided to grab a bite to eat at a fine (doner) establishment by the name of 'Bagdad'. Needless to say, we made sure to inform them of our nationality. After ordering, though, we were all completely astounded when they didn't offer it to us free of charge; afterall, we are their liberators!! We left the place without them even thanking us for what our country has done for theirs. I swear, they were acting as if our actions have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqis, as if our involvement there has threatened Iraq's future status as a sovereign country! Instead, we paid our own hard earned dollars-turned-euros for the doners and proceeded to eat them quietly, along side some other compatriots who had apparently also come in with expectations of a gratuitous meal once having shown their passports.

At this point I would like to express my hope in the reader's sense of sarcasm.

Phase 2: Internship (Practicum)

2007-11-19T12:17:00.001+01:00

For the first time in my life, I am working unpaid. This means that I go to work, full time, everyday, for no money. You may still be having a hard time understanding; I myself am still struggling with the concept. I will try to explain further. I provide a service to a company, for nothing in return. If you are starting to understand, you may come to realize that it's a blatant violation of capitalism. In any case, I work for the international office of a massive business/technology park by the name of Adlershof. This park is among the biggest in Europe, 15th largest in the world, and is home to more than 700 companies and institutions, most of which are ultra high tech. And I mean ultra.

The office that I work for connects businesses from around the world to this business park. Taken from its 'About' statement, this explains what the international office does:

promotes economic and technological cooperation,
assists in national and international partnerships,
helps companies access innovation networks in leading fields of technology,
supports their entry into domestic, European, and overseas markets.

When I first came in, the boss and his two secretaries were discussing the agenda. ''Book me a flight to San Jose, call the man from Vilnius and tell him the representative from the company in Venice is interested, and move the meeting in Szczecin to another day'' etc. etc. Although my particular job probably won't prove overly exciting, I think the experience of working in this type of atmosphere will.

Besides the obvious and aforementioned, the only other problem with this internship is its location. As you can see on the map above, Adlershof (far south-east) is located clear across the entire city from Grunewald (far west), where I live. It took me a whole 1 hour and 20 minutes to get from door to door, which means that I need to wake up at excruciatingly early times, my favorite thing in the world as you all know.

More reports about the internship coming soon.

Crossing into Poland

2007-11-18T19:53:00.000+01:00

Last weekend our group took a short excursion to the Polish border, a mere 1:15 train ride towards the East. The German-Polish border is formed by the Oder River (Odra in Polish), part of the Oder-Neisse line which in 1945, on Stalin’s whim, became the new western border of Poland, allotting its eastern territory to the USSR. This means that a large part of today’s western Poland used to be German land for hundreds of years before the war. In the late 40’s and 50’s the Germans were expelled, and now it is completely Polishized. We took a train to the German town of Frankfurt Oder, which is connected by a bridge to the Polish town of Słubice. Before the war these two towns used to be one, but today there is a university that is located on both sides of the river, making it Europe’s only bi-national university.

Since Poland is not yet part of the Schengen Agreement (allowing for the abolition of systematic border controls between participating countries) you still need to show a passport when crossing the bridge. Two of our group members, of course, forgot to bring their passports, so they waved to us from below as the rest of us crossed the bridge into Poland. They didn’t miss much though, since Słubice was far from anything special. It had exactly what I expected: shitty weather, pretty girls, and bad customer service. What was interesting, though, is that as soon as you cross the border you can tell the difference in nationality not only on signs and billboards, but also on people’s faces; I can tell a Pole from a German any day of the week, no matter how close they live to one another.

In Słubice we went to a bazaar, which was extremely reminiscent of Turkish ones, just on a smaller scale. They sold much of the same fake stuff, but were much less aggressive in their sales strategies. All the salesmen were Polish, all the customers German, so only German was to be heard throughout the whole thing. My favorite part of the trip was trying to understand things here and there on billboards, signs, and what people were saying. Polish, like Czech, proved to be quite impossible to understand overall.
Photo credits: my friend Heidi

Basement Exile
For the past week in its entirety, I have been locked in the basement of my house, working on finishing 3 term papers. I hadn’t been outside for 3 entire days. Classes are over, and all that remained to be done was those damned papers. Pure miserability. The reason I was in the basement is because that is the only place I can get internet access in my house. The only place for me to sit down there is on a large green sofa, which is all too comfortable to do anything remotely productive. Compounding the problem is my piece of shit laptop, which is way too big and becomes unbearably hot after being on my lap for more than 30 minutes. It becomes so hot that it permeates whatever I put between my already lightly crisped legs and the stove that is the underside of my laptop. The only remedy for this is pulling up a chair adjacent to the couch, and letting the laptop slowly melt the chair away. Theoretically the chair could last for several hours before melting completely, but every time I attempt this, my host brother or sister comes in and asks to use the chair because it’s their computer chair. The good thing is that we’re getting wireless internet installed, finally, but only after I’m finished writing, as if on purpose.

Eggs and Old Ladies

2007-11-13T14:48:00.000+01:00

Mein Freund, hast du Eier?
A few days ago I was visiting a friend of mine on a different program, who lives in an international dorm not far away. He and his colleague were getting ready to prepare a giant portion of cookies and brownies, in order to represent the USA for their school’s international day. They had gotten the recipe from a website online, so they naturally encountered a problem trying to convert amounts from the American standard to the European, since all the cookware in the kitchen was German. This only compounded the fact that it had been quite a struggle to figure out exactly what ingredients to buy at the store, due to language problems. He began the preparation of cookies by scooping what he believed to be the right amount of what he thought to be shortening into a pan. Next came the brown sugar, the flour, and then the eggs. The recipe called for 14 eggs, but when the first package of eggs was opened, the two were unpleasantly surprised to realize that they had actually bought hard boiled eggs. They sat there dumbfounded for a moment, and I began laughing hysterically, as we all realized that there was no way to make neither cookies nor brownies without fresh eggs! Discouraged, but ever resourceful, my friend exclaimed that the only way for them to get out of this mess was to call everyone they knew in search of 14 eggs. He called the first person on his phone, and asked “mein Freund, hast du Eier??” which translates to “my friend, do you have balls??”

The point of the story is that even elementary things, such as baking cookies, can often become complex to the point of impossibility in foreign countries. It’s just too bad that the poor international kids are going to have to miss out on a taste of pure Americana.

This is a hilarious bottle of testicle shampoo that sits in our bathroom. On the bottom it says: "With this shampoo, oh what a wonder, your balls will become so much rounder!"

Ossis and Wessis
Don’t know how it is in other European countries, but in Germany many bottles have “pfand”, something like a deposit. So when you buy a bottle of water for 1.25 Euro, you’ll have to pay 1.50, and get your .25 cents back when you return the empty bottle. As annoying as it is, I like the system because it keeps the streets clean, and is also used by the poor to get some extra cash. Last night, before another crazy night at the Russendisko, an extremely poor looking woman asked me if I was done with my beer bottle so she could collect it. For some reason, despite her overall appearance, as well as my best judgment, I became intrigued in her situation and began asking her questions. After a long half an hour of conversation, she told me all about how she loved her life back in the DDR, and about how the fall of the wall basically ruined her, leaving her on the streets collecting bottles. Hearing her story made me feel really bad for her, and showed me a clear picture of how the fall of communism was disastrous for so many. The thing is though that this isn’t the side of the story that you ever hear. You always see footage of Nov. 9th, 1989, when thousands of joyous Berliners began jumping over the wall, celebrating their long awaited reunion and newfound freedom. As I have found, though, quite outside of my German history class, which had an extreme western bias, there are definitely two sides to the story of the fall of the wall.

Now, 18 years after the wall, the East-West dichotomy still lives on. My host sister, for instance, not only never goes to the East side, but told me she would only go if she absolutely had to. Most West Berliners today only drive through the East when showing visitors a part of history. Many say they can tell who lived on which side just by looking at people on the street. Indeed, there is quite a difference, one I can markedly feel crossing the former divide. The difference lies not only in the clothing and the architecture, but in the people’s mindsets, which I’ve imparted from numerous conversations. But for whatever reason, I’m intrigued by the East side. The communist legacy there is so interesting to me; walking down Karl Marx Allee is really like a quick trip to Moscow. Also, a large part of Berlin’s major nightlife locations find their homes in East Berlin, usually in large abandoned warehouses and long ago shutdown factories.

Maria am Ostbahnhof / Halloween

2007-11-11T17:35:00.000+01:00

Maria am Ostbahnhof:
On Friday night, a few of us wanted to go out for a little (or rather large) taste of Berlin’s nightlife, which I feel like I haven’t been exploring enough due to all of our travels and excursions. I don’t want to sound pompous, by any means, but for some reason it’s usually I who ends up in charge of figuring out what club we’re going to, where we’re meeting, where we’re pre-partying, etc. etc…So, I decided that it’d be good to check out the east side of town, which we rarely visit, despite that fact that there are many things about it, that are impossible to explain, that I actually like much better than the West side. A group of about 6 of us met up at the Strausberger Platz U-Bahn station on Karl Marx Allee, which happened to be serendipitously in front of a store that sold exclusively beer, over 500 types from all over the world. The 3 guys that were working at the store, drunk as one would be if one worked at a store like that, were very helpful in recommending us beers to try, since the selection was completely overwhelming. Karl Marx Allee is a very interesting boulevard, I find. It was formerly known as Stalin Allee, but was renamed during Khrushchev’s period of de-Stalinification. It is extremely wide, the widest in Berlin, and has massive Stalinist style apartment buildings on both sides. I spent a while talking about DDR/GDR/East Germany with one of the shopkeepers, who told me that he thoroughly enjoyed living in East Berlin during those years, and even still remembered some of the Russian he had been taught for 6 years.

A few hours later, nearing 1 AM, we made our way to the club, called Maria am Ostbahnhof, because it’s right next to the Ostbahnhof, meaning east station. I don’t remember speaking as we walked in, but we were nevertheless greeted in English by a big black American looking dude. The cover charge was an astounding 15 Euros, which almost made us turn around, but since that seems to always happen to us we just decided to suck it up and have a good time, which is exactly what we did. There were a number of DJ’s spinning some hard hitting electro sounds, which the crowd was definitely into. What I found funny though is that without the massive strobe lights that they had going, everyone in there would look like an absolute idiot the way they were dancing…strobe lights do a lot to make one look a lot less retarded. After tirelessly dancing to the loudest electronic music I’ve ever heard for hours, we stumbled out of the place at the respectable hour of 3:45 AM, at which point I proceeded to eat a huge Doner, a decision I am seriously regretting as I write this.

Halloween:
Believe it or not, but the quintessential American holiday*, Halloween, has hit Germany as well. But here it’s not “trick or treat” – rather, “Soures oder Süses!” meaning “sour or sweet!” I was enjoying some delicious Thai food, at a restaurant invariably owned by people of anything other than Thai descent, when two little witches dressed up as girls came inside to solicit the restaurant owners for candy. However, due to the fact that this is Germany, not America, and that the owners of the restaurant, in true Asian form, don’t speak good German nor know what the hell is going on in the country, they were utterly astounded by the presence of these 2 foot witches in their kitchen asking for candy. In the end, the witches walked out empty handed (who trick or treats Thai restaurants anyways!?) and the Vietnamese owners (my presumption) kept on stirring up curry and noodles as if nothing extremely strange had just taken place.

* despite the fact that in actuality Halloween is not originally American, it's fair to say that in the past century it has been fully Americanized, and can be considered an American holiday.

2007-11-10T18:12:00.000+01:00

It's cold. And snowing.

The NY kids are used to it, but it's definitely a tad colder than La Jolla..

Turkey Post #4: Life in Turkey / Religion / Chance Encounters

2007-11-09T01:22:00.001+01:00

Life in Turkey
Despite having a large population and a great economy, among the 20 largest and fastest growing in the world, Turkey still shows real signs of poverty. In Izmir, we explored a real Brazilian favela, Turkish style. We walked through the entire area, an incredibly densely populated hill of nothing but destitution. Hundreds of dirty kids would gaze at us walking by as if we were aliens from planet West. Total shanty town: the pictures to the left and right aren't as bad as it gets. Everywhere we were, especially in Istanbul, there were millions of stray cats. We were playing with little kittens every time we stopped somewhere, but there were few dogs to be found. I couldn’t figure out how there could be such a multitude of stray cats but so few dogs, which I understand is the opposite in Latin America, correct me if I’m wrong. The air quality in the cities is truly awful, even worse than in Russia. We saw cities in the distance with think, visible clouds of smog hanging menacingly above them. In

Turkey

most cars are actually domestically produced, which I was surprised to learn because they all look like carbon copies of old Soviet cars from the Cold War days. And with these cars, Turks love to drive through the smallest of alleyways, which no one but us seemed to mind. The old men like to sit in hookah (water pipe) bars and suck on tobacco all day long, to forget about their problems I presume. However, despite the dust, the smog, and the poverty, every single person I [was able to] talk to was happy to live in his country.

Religion
Most people know that Turkey is a secular country. It has been this way since its foundation in 1923, as a part of Atatürk’s reforms. Nevertheless, the fact that the population is 99% Muslim is obvious and unmistakable. The city of Istanbul contains an incredible 2,000 mosques alone. Many of these mosques, especially in the center, are jaw-droppingly beautiful. A two minute walk from our hostel were the Blue Mosque (1602) and the Hagia Sophia (537 AD) which are two of the most well known mosques in the world. 5 times a day, coming from large speakers in the minarets of almost every mosque in town, obnoxiously loud Arabic singing is blasted, the first time starting at either 5 or 7 in the morning, depending on the season. If somehow someone managed to forget that this was an Islamic country, he would surely be reminded without much delay. There were usually people to be seen in and outside of the mosques that we invariably walked past, but all in all few local people go regularly. Perhaps a large majority prays 5 times a day, but I got the feeling that few visit the mosques unless it’s a holiday. Once, we were walking down an Izmirian street with bottles of Turkish piss beer, and we decided to sit down at a place to grab some quality durums. We were told in broken German that we had to hide our bottles because the restaurant was located across the street from a mosque, despite the fact that it was already night time. In the end, though, they were nice and violated the rules of their religion by giving us brown bags to cover our bottles, homeless style.

Random Encounters
We live in a small world, and so every trip is filled with chance encounters, like the one time I was vacationing in Mexico with my friends and I somehow ran into family friends of ours from the time of Garmisch Partenkirchen on a Pirate Ship booze cruise. In our hostel in Istanbul, I met a girl who originally lived in San Diego, but goes to college in Berkeley, kind of like the opposite of me. We ended up figuring out that we had a few common friends, and even that we would have met each other at a certain birthday party last year had I still been in SD at the time. Before I left Berlin, at the Tegel International Airport, I began talking with a group of Asian looking people who were speaking Russian as we were waiting for our boarding time. They told me they came from Turkmenistan, and were even able to give me some pointers about Turkey, as well as some useful vocabulary. I then found out that the guy I had been talking to is the current ambassador to Germany of Turkmenistan, and the former mayor of the capital, Ashgabat. A few days later, on a ferry ride back from one of the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara, I began speaking with yet another Asian looking group of people speaking Russian, who turned out to be from Kyrgyzstan, and also extremely drunk. Needless to say they were very generous to me and my friends, and offered us all several rounds of cheap whiskey. They told me I was welcome to stay with them if I made it out to Bishkek (yea, right) and after they awoke from their drunken slumber, I learned that one of them was the Kyrgyzstani consul in Istanbul. It’s funny the type of people one can meet when traveling.

And speaking of ambassadors, Berlin is obviously home to many embassies from around the world. All the important embassies take up huge lots in prime areas of central Berlin. The Swiss embassy is directly in front of Angela Merkel’s Chancellery building, the Swiss cross in plain view from her office. The Americans are now causing quite a stir, as the construction of their brand new embassy is being started directly adjacent to the symbol of Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate. And finally, very close to my house, way off in the middle of a residential neighborhood in West Berlin, are the embassies of the lesser countries, the likes of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Burkina Faso.

Turkey Post #3: Commerce / Food

2007-11-08T02:50:00.000+01:00

Istanbul: City of commerce
Turks are excellent salesmen. Way too good in fact. In the touristy parts of Istanbul you cannot walk by a restaurant without a guy stopping you and telling you about their offers, it’s incredibly annoying. They have absolutely zero shame. A white person strolling through the touristy part of Istanbul is comparable to a beautiful woman walking through a maximum security male prison. The Grand Bazaar is something amazing. It’s a gigantic maze of over 4,000 little shops selling everything from chess boards, water pipes, jewelry, to imitation Dolce & Gabbana, which is doubtlessly the imitation brand of choice in Turkey. Virtually all the clothes and shoes that are sold there are obvious imitations of brand name stuff, but they nonetheless act as if it’s the real thing, just highly discounted, because you’re their friend! They will offer you an initial price that is at least 3 times higher than what they’d be willing to settle for, while still making a good profit. Haggling there is like a sport, you really have to know what you’re doing, otherwise you’ll walk out with a bunch of shit and a lot of air where your money once was. But watch out – if you try to haggle too far, like my buddy Dave did, you’ll get a nice “I fuck you your mother!” from the salesman, which I realized in retrospect probably isn’t the best method for selling things to foreigners.

Here’s another salesman story: We had just spent hours trying to find our way out of the maze that is the Grand Bazaar, with the bunch of bags of shit we had bought. We were tired, miserable, and slightly pissed off because we had spent too much money on stuff we didn’t want quite as much as the salesmen told us we did. As I’m trying to snap a picture of this supermodel looking cat, in front of some shack with stuff in front of it, a Turkish dude approaches us speaking the best English we had heard for days. He offered us some tea, draped some traditional Turkish dresses or what ever the hell they’re called over us, and took our pictures. He told us about his Kurdishness, and about how he had been in the army with some NATO troop, and even busted out some almost correct English idioms: “you know…what comes around, comes around..” or “once you go black, you don’t return.” He was an interesting guy and he treated us to a couple delicious cups of tea, so we couldn’t refuse to check out his little shop. As we walked in and examined all the things inside, I thought to myself “there’s absolutely nothing in here I’d want,” which invariably is what my friends were thinking as well. Needless to say, we didn’t leave that little shop that day without laying down some serious Lira…

Food
The fact that all three of us are college students necessarily renders us poor, and for this reason we were constantly looking for cheap places to eat. Unless you are ready to spend some serious cash though, we found that Doner Kebab is basically the only choice, admittedly with various varieties, like Doner Kebab in a roll (durum), or for instance Doner Kebab with a pepper. Kebab, for those of you who don’t know, is very similar in both taste and appearance to a Kebap. But anyways, there are millions of little corner fast food places on every street in Istanbul, as well as Izmir. They are immediately recognizable, not only because it’s totally obvious that it’s a kebab place because there’s nothing else it could possibly be, but also because there’s a massive amount of beef rotating on a stick in plain sight. Nevertheless, even in the rain, men will stand next to their kebab stands and yell “DURUM DURUM DURUM DURUM” over and over again, in approximately 40 second intervals, sometimes throwing in the word Balik Ekmek into the mix, as if it wasn’t apparent to the people walking by what it was that this stand was selling. Ohh, you’ve got durum’s?? I had no idea, I’ve been looking for one all day!

As you know, Istanbul straddles two continents (and is the only major city to do so in the world). The European side is separated from the Asian side by the Bosphorus, which flows from the Black Sea and eventually finds its way into the Mediterranean. Due to this strategic location, the Bosphorus has a huge amount of ship traffic (much of it Russian), and therefore the water (especially in the city itself) is worse than disgusting. Still, there are two bridges in Istanbul that are constantly fished from by, you guessed it, Turkish fishermen. They don’t stop fishing, ever. We walked over one of these bridges on our way back to our hostel from a night in a Turkish dance club at about 4 AM, and it was still packed with sleeping fishermen, dreaming about catching the nasty contaminated fish that swim in those waters. The reason this is under the food title, is because right next to both of these bridges, there are always stands selling fried fish sandwiches, the fish having come without a doubt from those very same fishermen. Needless to say, you’d have to be crazy to eat one of those contaminated fish sandwiches, but I had one anyways because I was tired as hell of kebab meat.

Turkey Post #2: Impressions, Peculiarities, etc..

2007-11-04T16:53:00.000+01:00

There were many aspects and peculiarities about Turkey that struck me while I was there. The following are just a few of them, with more to come soon:

Turkish Nationalism
What struck me first and foremost, is the unbelievable amount of Turkish flags, many of them adorned with the face of Ataturk, that hang on literally almost every building and balcony, car and bicycle in the entire country. This was especially striking coming from a place like Germany, where you’d seriously have to spend hours to find a German tricolor. I found Turkey to be a very nationalistic country, reminiscent of Iran (though I’ve never been there), despite the fact that Turkey is still a secular country. Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic in 1923 and also the country’s undisputed hero, is amazingly cherished there. Every single Turkish Lira bill denomination has his face on it. You can find his portrait hanging on the wall of almost every office. Even America is much less nationalistic in this sense, and I think this is a major argument against Turkey’s accession to the EU, as the union was originally established to prevent another European war, and as history has shown, nationalism often leads to problems.

Language
In central Istanbul, many people speak English, so we had relatively few problems communicating. This all came to an abrupt and extremely unpleasant end when we took a bus outside of the center, towards a ferry that would take us to an island in the sea of Marmara. We were quite surprised to find ourselves in a tiny little minibus, in which not a single person knew a single word of English, German, or any other language. What the hell do you do in such a situation? Needless to say, we got extremely lost and frustrated, but made it ok. The same thing happened, but to a worse extent, in Izmir, where apparently a maximum of 10 people speak English out of the total population of 3.7 million. We had absolutely zero prior knowledge of Izmir before we arrived there after a sleepless night; where we could find a cheap hotel, how to take a bus into the center, it was impossible for us to find these things out due to the total and complete lack of communication. Even the simplest of tasks became not just hard, but often impossible. Then we finally found a tourist center, to our great delight, we were finally saved. The only problem was that the woman in the tourist center didn’t speak any English!!! How is this possible??? You can imagine just how much of a source of frustration this proved to be. I was intrigued about the lack of foreign language in Turkey, and it’s not like we were in some small village, we were in the middle of the third largest city. When we were finally able to find someone who spoke a different language (it was German) I was told that, indeed, Turkish children are taught, besides Turkish, either English or German. But I think this is total bullshit, because even young people there can’t say a word of either language.

Toilets
Turkish people do not believe in toilets. In fact, they prefer holes, which to us was another awful surprise. You may be thinking, “oh but that’s much more sanitary than sitting on a toilet”. True, but this advancement in sanitation is all but rendered useless due to the fact that the Turks don’t believe in toilet paper, either. No toilet, no toilet paper. I guess that makes sense...What they use instead is a small bucket of water. The rest is up to your imagination, but I can tell you one thing, it’s absolutely disgusting. Once we left Istanbul, we found ourselves holding in our natural urges for as long as possible. After a few days I had had enough, so I went down to ask the hotel manager, who only spoke Turkish, for some toilet paper. Now imagine, for a moment, how you would go about gesturing to someone for toilet paper...

Beverage
I was going to Turkey thinking that Turkish coffee, which is delicious, would be the drink of choice. I was very wrong, though, as Turkish black tea turns out to be the overwhelming favorite. It is never made with bags, instead just loose herbs and leaves, always drank out of the same small tulip shaped glass. I noticed that the Turks’ favorite past time is, without a doubt, sitting in front of one's shop sipping endless glasses of tea, watching as people walk by. Turks are generally very nice people, and we were often treated to free glasses of tea, from people we didn’t even know. Funny thing is, whenever we’d be sitting at a restaurant, outside on the patio where all the passersby could see us, the waiter would bring us glass after glass after glass of tea free of charge, presumably to make the place look legit to foreigners, since we, 3 white guys, seemed to be enjoying ourselves so much there. On another note, there is quite a lack of drinking culture here, in terms of alcohol, which is readily apparent coming from such a land as Germany. In fact, we found that many restaurants actually did not serve any alcohol whatsoever, due to their invariant proximity to a mosque. And since there are more than 2,000 mosques in Istanbul (!!), it seemed like every restaurant was proximate to one. Turkey brews it's own beer, called Efes, which is the Turkish name of an ancient Ionian city that we almost saw. This beer though, after coming from the capital of beer, tasted like absolute shit. Water and shit. Any imported beer was really expensive, so we ended up staying quite sober throughout the duration of the trip, like good Muslims should.

Turkey Post #1: What we did

2007-11-03T18:02:00.000+01:00

On Oct. 27th I flew into Berlin-Schönefeld airport after 9 days and 8 nights traveling through Turkey. Stepping out of the plane, loaded with stinky immigrating Turks decked out in imitation Dolce & Gabbana, I was happy to be back in such a civilized country such as Germany. Of all my travels, this one was arguably the most culturally remote, if not geographically as well. I don’t even know where to begin chronicling this episode of my experience abroad. Before I start, though, I should explain that soon our term papers will be due, and for my European Union Business Environment class my paper will be on the topic of Turkish accession to the EU. I went to Turkey with this question in mind, so my thoughts and analysis will tend to concentrate around this subject, as it is quite a big focus of discussion in Europe, especially in Germany. On a related note, as you may have noticed, I added a poll on the right side, and I also finally realized that there is a setting allowing anyone to make comments on here, not just registered users, something I really should have changed a long time ago.

Since there is so much to write, I will be writing several separate posts: this one chronicling our trip, another being about impressions, analyses, thoughts, etc., and then perhaps a third.

* * *

We landed at Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul, on Friday the 19^th, afternoon. Modern airport, English spoken everywhere, no problems. It took us no time to pay the 15 Euro for a Turkish visa, after which we took a shuttle to the district of Sultanahmet, the main tourist area, where our hostel was located. Sultanahmet is where the 3 most important and commonly visited sights are: the Grand Bazaar, the Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque. We had no problems finding our little hostel close to the edge of the Bosphorus, interestingly enough by the name of Bauhaus, the famous German school of architecture. The staff there was very friendly, as were the seemingly endless groups of fellow young tourists from around the world (but mostly from the Anglophone countries of Australia, Canada, USA, and the UK). Of all the hostels that I’ve been to, which isn’t all that many, this one was nonetheless the most social, trendy, comfortable, and cheap. Everyone there was very outgoing, facilitated by a very cool rooftop deck furnished with couches, bean bags, tables, bean bags, and couches, not to mention a magnificent view of the Bosphorus. During the course of our 5 days in Istanbul, we saw, smelled, heard, and bought many, many things. In addition to the 3 places I’ve mentioned above, we climbed to the top of the 400 year old Galata tower to see astounding 360 degree views of the entire city; explored the fully intact underground 6^th century Byzantine Basilica Cistern; walked for many miles on the Asian side of the city; walked all around the biggest of the Princes’ Islands; took a ferry to the Black Sea and the opening of the Bosphorus, to name just some of the things we did. Overall we did a lot of walking, which made us really tired but also gave us a good feel for the city after 5 days, despite all its magnitude.

On the night of the 5^th day we took an overnight bus to the 3^rd largest city of Turkey (after Istanbul and Ankara), the 7,000 year old coastal city of Izmir, formally known as Smyrna, thought to be the birthplace of the Greek poet, Homer. After spending a mostly restless night on the bus, we took a much more miserable, crowded and stuffy bus from the central bus station to central town. From there we took a day trip to the western most part of the country, to a picturesque beach town called Çeşme. The next two days were spent hanging out in the city, as we were unfortunately unable to make it to the ancient ruins of Ephesus, a 2 hour train ride away.

The second post, coming up real soon (in fact it's already written, I'm just teasing everyone) is much more interesting I think than this one. Until then, check out the pictures of my trip that are already up.

Back in Berlin: Home Sweet Home

2007-10-28T19:15:00.001+01:00

After 9 days exploring Turkey I'm finally back in Berlin, and although the trip was a great one, I'm definitely happy to be back in Berlin. The post(s) about the trip will take a while to write. I've already started, but progress is slow due to the sheer quantity of accounts, impressions and thoughts. Also, I have to give a presentation tomorrow on the former GDR economy (my West Berliner host mother said: "GDR? there was no economy!?") so it might be a few days until I finish. Until then, please vote in the poll I added to the right, and then perhaps vote again after reading about my trip.

Istanbul, here I...coming.

2007-10-18T17:45:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow I will set foot in Istanbul, along with two friends from a country in North America. We are making this trip during a time of tension in the relationship between this North American country and Turkey, and because of this, my North American friends will be covering themselves under a shield of Canadianness. I, of course, hail from Russia. I come from a town called Ulyanovsk, where Lenin was born and still chills to this day. I am prepared to speak horribly accented English for the next 9 days, in order to avoid blowing our cover. And if the Turks don't believe that I'm Russian, then surely they'll believe that I'm African. Allah Akbar to you, too.

* * *

I have had my iPod for over 3 years now, ever since I bought it stolen from some kid named Billy. Billy's iPod has served me very well, until it succumbed to the pressures of European Union electricity standards, or perhaps died of natural causes. In order to console myself after the death of my comrade, Billy's iPod, several weeks ago I went to the grand opening of a giant mall in Alexanderplatz to buy the cheapest mp3 player I could find, just to get me by. There I was able to find one that has the capacity to schlepp an entire 1,000,000,000 bytes of pure sound in a portable manner for only 16 Euro. When I got home I was thrilled to discover that I would be making the hour long commute to Alexanderplatz yet again, as the mp3 player was not in the mood to turn on. I dwelt upon my unglück for many hours, having chosen the one disobedient mpDrei player out of a box of hundreds of its kind. It took me no less than 4 hours to return it for another one of the same breed. But at least my new new mpDrei player would turn on. I was overjoyed and spent the hour long ride back home listening to the intro "song" on repeat. A week or so later, my 3rd mpDrei player in Germany kicked the bucket, hard. It would turn on and display its normal rainbow of colors, and stayed this way until I hit it hard enough to knock the batteries out. Depressed, I figured that I would never again be able to listen to music in a portable manner. But alas, a good friend, one of my fellow North American travelers, let me borrow his rather expensive mpDrei player out of the goodness of his heart...and today it died.

RIP Billy's iPod,
RIP InVion Digital Audio Player,
RIP InVion Digital Audio Player 2,
RIP North American's Zune.

Train Stations and Russian Parties

2007-10-14T17:06:00.000+02:00

I finally got a bike. A few days ago I took it for a ride around the neighborhood, stopping by a little local grocery store to pick up some candy, just like I used to do more than 10 years ago. The afternoon really took me back to the days of my childhood, being surrounded by nature, exploring the neighborhood while eating tons of delicious German candy. I was exploring the area around my S-Bahn station, Grunewald, when I came upon some sort of memorial: a metal engraving, a wreath of flowers, and an Israeli flag . I was astonished to realize that this little station in the middle of nowhere, the very same one I use everyday to get to and fro, was the exact location from which 50,000 Berliner Jews were deported to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz (Warsaw, Lodz, etc...) more than 60 years ago. I've said it before; reminders about Germany's dark history are inescapable here, there is not one day that goes by without something being written in each newspaper about the war or the holocaust. However, this discovery of mine was especially shocking, for lack of a better word, being so close to where I live, and even more so because I use that station every single day. As a note, the pictures you see are not mine, I'll be switching them with my own as soon as I go back with a camera. Photo credit: Florida Center for Instructional Technology

On a slightly less depressing note, last night some friends and I went out to the Russendisko in Berlin. We showed up and realized that we had actually been to the same place about a month ago, when it was rather empty and unexciting. Last night though was an awesome experience, a totally crazy party, the two Muscovite DJ's were playing all my favorite Russian music, including Start Wearing Purple and Ya Soldat, among many others. The rather small bar/club was packed to the brim with people, I was told about 20% Russian, the rest German with a few foreigners here and there. The atmosphere was what made it as fun as it was, when we left at about 5 in the morning it was still as crazy as when we got there at about midnight. I'm for sure going back there next time it goes down, which is only twice a month.

Also, happy birthday to my Pops, hope you're having a good time in the land of the Mexicanos!

Weekend in Praga

2007-10-08T23:51:00.000+02:00

On Friday there was a German rail workers' strike, which made our trip to Prague quite a hassle. Instead of an easy direct train, we resorted to taking a train to the small town of Elmerswerda, wherever the hell that is, along with a bunch of other people that boarded along the way, most of which were also going to Prague. Chaos ensued when we found out that the train from Elmerswerda to Prague was canceled. We were informed that there was a bus coming, one bus, which was our only chance to get to our destination. If you can imagine a group of 20 American college students desperately pushing through crowds of elderly people trying to fight for a spot on a bus, I imagine that's something like what we looked like. Somehow all 20 of us managed to get on the bus, much to the disappointment of the other 50 or so people looking through the windows jealously. In all of the confusion, it took us 10 whole minutes to figure out if the bus was in fact going to where we needed to go, while the bus driver and the rest of the passengers waited. This amazed me, because if the same situation had happened in Russia, or anywhere more east, I know for sure that the bus driver and the others would have been less than patient, to put it lightly.

After spending an unnecessary whole day on the road, we finally made it to Prague. Our hostel was absolutely incredible. We had two huge suites to ourselves, complete with flat screen TV's, internet, massive couches, kitchens, everything we could have asked for. After a day of traveling we were too tired to go out, so we just stayed and enjoyed the amenities. The next morning we woke up (way early for me, as always) and went to the center of old town for an excruciating 4 hour tour guided by a Czech looking guy, who actually turned out to be a Palestinian Arab. In those 4 hours we saw and heard quite a bit, but here are some highlights: Prague has a huge Jewish ghetto, with 7 synagogues, including Europe's oldest. It used to have one of Europe's largest Jewish populations. A cool thing about the city is that it was barely bombed during the war, and the Nazi's preserved the synagogues during the occupation because they were going to use them as museums for an extinct race, pretty crazy. We stopped in a restaurant, where our group was sent down to the basement, as usual since were so big. There I ordered a beer called Krusovice, which was really incredibly tasty. German beer is good, but I'd venture to say that Czech is ever better. It definitely wasn't peak tourist season, but the city was still packed with tourists from all over the world. The Charles Bridge, the main one that crosses the Vltava, was almost impossible to cross due to people congestion. I can't even imagine what it's like during peak season, although I was there during it about 4 years ago. We saw the inside of the church at the top of the hill that overlooks the whole city, after which we parted ways with Omar and climbed the 287 stairs to the top of the tower of the church, affording the 6 of us that were brave enough to ascend absolutely awe inspiring views of the city.

I had heard that Prague is pretty well known for its nightlife, so I gathered a small group to go out clubbing at night. We decided to avoid the biggest and most famous (also most touristy) club, and chose a smaller but still well known club instead, called Zloty Strom (Golden Tree). Definitely a fun place, didn't let us down in the slightest.

Like in Slovenia, I was again frustrated to be able to understand about 5% of the language, but nothing more. It is also very hard to be able to tell which words are similar to Russian words and which aren't, which really adds to the frustration. Not to worry though, I was able to find some Russians in Prague too, of course.

Prague is a clean and beautiful city, with really cool architecture and an interesting history. I took a good amount of pictures of buildings and sights, but unfortunately not many of myself, oh well. The inner city is not overly modern and definitely maintains its medieval heritage, all of this making it the popular tourist destination that it is, with countless souvenir shops lining the sides of streets everywhere. However, I did feel a bit less safe than in Berlin, less due to the people or anything than to the signs on the metro and trams that say "Watch out for pick-pockets!" Luckily I returned with my camera and my wallet. For a place that used to be under communist administration, the center itself was somehow able to escape the crimes of communist style architecture, although I would imagine that this is not the case with the outer areas of the city, not to mention other cities in Czech Rep. The place hasn't changed much from when I was there 4 years earlier: the women are still amazing, the food is still delicious, and the beer is still the best.

Pictures of Prague!

Tag der Deutschen Einheit!

2007-10-04T21:47:00.000+02:00

On October 3rd all of Germany went crazy. It was National Unity Day, Germany's biggest national holiday, officially commemorating the integration of the GDR with the rest of Germany on the 3rd of October 1990. In reality, though, it commemorates the fall of the wall on November 9th, '89, but it was decided not to use that date because November 9th has quite an infamous history in Germany:

Nov 9, 1918 - Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and the Weimar Republic is proclaimed
Nov 9, 1923 - Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch
Nov 9, 1938 - Kristallnacht

Obviously the last one is the main reason why the date was not chosen, but nonetheless, it is interesting that we now celebrate a date almost a whole year later - October 3rd 1990 - than the wall came down.

This holiday is obviously a big deal in Berlin especially, for reasons much too obvious to explain. I went to the Brandenburg Gate in the center of town for a free concert of massive proportions. I thought Sun God at UCSD was big, but pretty soon there were more than 500,000 people filling Straße des 17 Juni. The stage was right in front of the Brandenburg Gate, and if you looked behind you, past the other 400,000 people or so, you could catch a beautiful sunset with the Victory statue in the foreground. Definitely a cool experience, and the bands that played were good too. The headliner was Die Fantastischen Fier, Germany's biggest rap group, and I was happy to recognize some of their songs.

On another note, German pride is actually pretty hard to come by in this country. Despite the fact that this holiday is their equivalent to July 4th, you'd have to look hard to find someone waving a German flag. Germans are not very comfortable with national pride as such, and in fact when I started singing "Deutschland Deutschland Uber Alles!" at Oktoberfest I was immediately informed by one of our German friends that you aren't allowed to sing that part of the anthem anymore.

Tomorrow we are supposed to hop on a train to Prague, but there's apparently a train worker's strike happening tomorrow. It's going on from 8-11, which is strange because that means that at 11 the strikers just go back to work...I guess even strikes are efficient in Germany.

Genuine Oktoberfest

2007-09-30T23:46:00.000+02:00

Friday morning I woke up way earlier than I had to in order to take my economics midterm early, so that I could make it to Munchen for Oktoberfest!!! For the past 2 weeks I had been unsure if I was really going to make it there, as I had to pull a rather large amount of strings to pull it off. Due to this, it was way too late to buy a train ticket at any reasonable price, same with airfare. What to do? A long time ago, back in the states, I saw some piece on TV about a service the Germans invented, called Mitfahrgelegenheit. It all started with the notoriously high gas prices in Europe, but basically it's a well-known and easy to use carpool service. You just go online and look for people who are driving from your city to or through wherever you need to go, and you pay them 20-30 Euros for a ride. Awesome.

I was pretty proud of myself for being able to call some random Berliner and make plans for getting a ride all in German. Anyways, the way to Munich was interesting. In a tiny old and shitty yellow car, I sat for 8 hours with the owner of the 'car', a German girl, a Moroccan, and a real German Jew, an original from the good old days. It was funny because I could tell the German girl was thinking to herself the whole time "why the hell are there so many foreigners and non-Germans here! I thought I was living in Germany?" They were all young, maybe slightly older than myself, which makes the carpool service cool because chances are that you'll be driving with some fun people.

I was going to Munich to meet up with two friends from high school, Matt and Dangerous Dave. The retarded thing, though, is that neither of them have phones, so it was pretty much impossible to sufficiently coordinate my arrival. All I knew was the address, no idea where to find them or if they'd even be there when I arrived. After driving through the city trying to find the Hauptbahnhof, we got lost since none of us knew Munchen very well, I said to the people in the 'car': "if you guys happen to see Lothstrasse, let me know!" and wouldn't you know it, just as the last word left my mouth, we saw Lothstrasse. Crazy how that happens.

Matt and Dangerous live in an international dorm, so their study abroad experience is definitely different than mine. Both housing styles have their pros and minuses. The great thing about dorm life (and you gotta remember that a dorm in Germany is much different for obvious reasons than one in the US) is that you don't have to go far to party, in fact, you just have to open your door. The shitty thing is, though, that you don't get as much of an opportunity to learn the language (which a lot of students don't care about anyways) and most significantly, you don't get delicious food cooked for you everyday. All said, I'm glad I'm living with a family. Not only do I come home to delicious home cooked German food, but I also feel the need to go out to the city more since I obviously don't wanna sit around the house all day.

I finally found Matt and Dangerous, but in a completely betrunken state, for they had started the day by challenging themselves to each drink a mini-keg (5l) to the dome. To my great misfortune, due to the lack of communication, I found myself with absolutely nothing to sleep with/on. The cold tile of the floor felt almost as good as a Swedish Tempur-pedic mattress. Awesome.

The next day, Saturday, we went for some genuine Oktoberfest action. We got there at about 11am, and it was already completely packed and overflowing with tons of people, all with one thing in common: stomachs full to the brim with beer. We waited in line to get inside one of the many huge beergartens, one called Paulaner. The air inside the tent was so humid it was like you were in a beer-sauna, whatever that is. It was a group of 6 of us, and after unsuccessfully looking for a place for all of us to sit we decided to split up to better our chances of finding a table. Even with just two people, Dangerous and I, we were still unable to find a place to squeeze in. I blame this on the Italians, whose numbers were probably even greater than Germans in this particular tent on this particular weekend. I definitely have a lesser appreciation for Italians after this weekend, for sure. But we were determined to find a godamn place to sit, fueled in part by frustration but also by thirst. Then, all of a sudden, I saw someone pointing at me from the corner of my eye shouting "UCSD! UCSD!" It was a group of college students, apparently from my school, none of whom I had ever seen before in my life. Somehow, though, they recognized me and that's how I got a seat at a table. Had this amazing coincidence not occurred, I would have probably left Oktoberfest pretty disappointed.

The atmosphere in a real Oktoberfest beergarten is really incomparable to any other party. It's loud. There is always beer being spilled on you in some way or another. Every 10 minutes or so, everyone grabs their Maß, which is what you call a liter of beer, stands up on their bench, singing, waving, and then occasionally falling. At one point, literally right behind me, there broke out a fight between a whole group of Italians and one German. I don't even know what it was about or how it started, but the point is that one of the retarded Italians actually threw his Maß mug, which is glass and damn heavy, in the general direction of my being. It missed me, but one of our American friends wasnt so lucky. I'm not sure if it was from the impact of the mug or from an Italian elbow, but his chin was split, and blood dribbled down his shirt. Hey, that's a damn good souvenir. In the mayhem that ensued, after we were kicked out of the tent, I somehow became separated from my amigos. So, I wandered, or swam, actually, through Oktoberfest for a good amount of hours, with a nap on a hill in between.

I really don't know how, but I managed to get back to the dorm, using the U-bahn as well as a tram, by myself without ever really knowing where the hell I was or where I was going. That night they had a party at the dorm where I met a bunch of cool people and spoke German the entire night. What's really kinda crazy is that some of the German people I met there actually knew some of the same people that I do, Nicola and Steffan Garin from Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

The way back took an unprecedented 4 and a half hours, just a little faster than the 8 hours it took to get there. This time it was just me and a German surgeon, in an Audi TT pushing an aberage of 190 kmh on the Autobahn, which actually has more speed limitless stretches than I had thought previously. Needless to say, I had an awesome time in Munchen, and I really hope I'll have a chance to go back before I leave Europe. My apologies for such a long post, but there was definitely a lot to say about Oktoberfest in Munchen.

For more pictures click the link on the right!

Weekend Trip to Thuringia

2007-09-24T19:52:00.000+02:00

For the first time since the day I got to Berlin, the weather has been fantastic. This was great because I just returned to Berlin from a weekend trip to Weimar, Buchenwald, and the medieval town of Erfurt. I hate waking up in the morning, absolutely despise it, especially after going out the night before: we were supposed to meet at a train station 45 minutes away from my place at some ungodly hour Friday morning. Due to this lack of consideration on the part of the trip organizers, to my great misfortune, as I took my first breaths of Weimarian air, I realized that I had left my camera (as well as other necessities) back in Berlin. Scheiße!!

Weimar is an absolutely remarkable city. It is today an UNESCO World Heritage sight, and has been home to countless famous German intellectuals: poets, mathematicians, musicians, architects, thinkers, the list goes on and on. Bach, Liszt. Wagner, Strauss. I could write many pages about the cultural significance of the city: it gave name to the notoriously fragile Weimar Republic after the first world war. It was the home of Goethe and Schiller, two of the most famous German intellectuals of all time, especially the former. In fact, Weimar is Goethe. Despite all its other qualifications and claims to fame, Goethe's legacy is unbelievably tangible in this city. There is an intricate museum made out of his home, which we were able to see. Our tour guide in Weimar, Alexander Litvishenko, was an interesting fellow. He spoke with such speed that it seriously felt like the words were hitting us square in the face. Working through a decently think Anglo-Russian accent, in 2 hours he was able to spit so much information at us that we felt as though there was seriously nothing else that could possibly be said about the city. He is a translator by profession, speaking Russian, Polish, German and English. In between sights I would talk to him in Russian, although at first I was a bit hesitant as to not disrupt his English train of thought: for me it is sometimes quite difficult to switch between languages, especially ones that are not my best. I was impressed that his English, although not perfect, was never contaminated by words from any other language, neither his Russian. I asked him about how he was able to switch so readily, and he said that is just a skill that translators have; they keep in their heads equivalents of words in different languages, and never have trouble switching. I was pretty impressed. Speaking of Russians, by the end of the weekend I had met and spoken with about 15 of them, some locals, some performers, some tourists.

Weimar just shines with culture, it overflows with it. Yet this is in (extremely) stark contrast to what lies just 8 km away, on the top of a picturesque hill: Buchenwald. This is not exactly what you think of when you think of a concentration camp. Here you will find no gas chambers, as it was not an extermination camp; rather, it was an Arbeitslager: a labor camp. However, just as many gruesome deaths occurred here as in any of the other camps that dot Europe like pimples on a teenager's face. There is so much I could write about this place, too. Today it stands desolate, almost devoid of buildings. Most of the barracks where inmates were held were destroyed by the Soviets, who used it for their own purposes from 1945 to 1950, as the area was part of the GDR. Nevertheless, the place still invoked extremely intense feelings. Of the buildings that remain, among others, there is the main gate and its torture chambers, some SS barracks, and most notably the crematorium, which is completely intact and tangible. As we walked through the crematorium slowly, seeing the actual ovens in which thousandsss of people were turned into rough ash and yellow smoke, many of our group members began to cry. What we saw was really hard to put into words. It was hard for me to grasp completely that I was treading on the very same ground on which so many innocent people were just gruesomely and barbarically tortured, beaten, and murdered. When I think of concentration camps, I think of a gray, wet, and nasty day. But when we were there, it was a warm, beautiful day, and from the site of where the barracks used to be one could see a gorgeous view of the Thuringian countryside. I guess the inmates endured life during such days as well, seeing freedom in the distance. Truthfully, the day's experience cannot really be put into words. It was my first concentration camp experience, a moving experience to say the very least.

A 20 minute train ride took us away from the misery and depression of Buchenwald and brought us to the beautiful city of Erfurt. What is most notable about this city is its large and original medieval center. Many European cities have such centers, but Erfurt's is incredibly well preserved, unscathed by the evils of modernity. In the large town square, there is currently being held an Oktoberfest celebration. From the apex of the orbit of the world's largest movable ferris wheel, we had an absolutely amazing aerial view of the city. It was night, and fog seemed to completely envelop the medieval cathedral of St. Marie, a truly breathtaking sight. For all its rich history, and its beautiful old town, I am surprised that it is not a well known tourist destination. In fact, I'd definitely recommend anyone traveling through central Germany to stop by Weimar and Erfurt, two very cool cities. Erfurt has a number of beautiful churches, the inside of which we not only saw but were told about in excruciating detail by tour guides.

All said it was a beautiful weekend, and I was more than pleased to see that Berlin was also enjoying nice weather upon my return. Unfortunately I was not able to take my own pictures, but I forced my group members to take tons of pictures, so hopefully I'll get my hands on them soon.

Oktoberfest isn't just for Muncheners..

2007-09-19T16:34:00.001+02:00

First of all, I'd like to thank the people who contributed to the little discussion about language acquisition in the comments of the last post, I hope we can keep that up!

Everybody knows about Oktoberfest, the legendary week long German beer drinking celebration, traditionally held in the beergartens of Munich. However, since other Germans don't want to feel left out, these days one can celebrate Oktoberfest in many other large cities throughout the country, just on a slightly smaller scale.

Last week I went to a Löwenbräu Beergarten in Alexanderplatz, (one of the) center(s) of Berlin. The reason for the parentheses is quite interesting: Alexanderplatz was the traditional center of Berlin, but in 1961 the erection of the wall placed the city square on the East side, making it necessary for West Berliners to come up with their own city center. In fact, there are now two examples of many things that one normally sees only one of in most cities: radio/TV towers, municipal headquarters, etc. Anyways, for those that are unfamiliar, a beergarten is basically a large tent with many tables and always packed to the brim with people, no matter what day of the week or what time. I was there once on a Thursday night and once on a Saturday afternoon, and both times it was almost impossible to find a spot to place one's bottom. As you enter, you are overwhelmed with the sound of several hundred absolutely wasted Germans singing songs and having a grand old time. In between tightly spaced tables and benches there are walk waiters and waitresses dressed in traditional Bavarian style, but not just any. These waiters are adept at dealing with betrunken people, but most remarkably, are capable of carrying incredible numbers of beer mugs at a time.

The quantity of beer that flows from the taps of the beergarten is pretty astounding: German's can drink an impressive amount of beer, there's no denying it. What surprised me though, is the relative old age of the crowd (for being a place where you do nothing besides drink massive amounts of beer!), with the median age being circa 50. That makes sense though, as liters of beer run €6 a piece, too much for most young Berliners, I'd assume. Still, the point is that drinking beer is an integral piece of German culture, no matter your age.

As you can imagine, the atmosphere in a beergarten is really friendly and fun. Both times I spent a long while speaking with the people around me, especially since my German seemed to improve with each liter of beer I ordered. My favorite part, though, was watching the people, because if you watch long enough you'll see Germans making complete idiots out of themselves: I saw at least 3 people fall over face first (hilarious), as well as a guy that unexpectedly stood up from his chair, much to the surprise of the waiter above him carrying 10 (now empty) mugs of beer (sad).

Now that I've seen what a non-Munchen beergarten looks like during Oktoberfest season, I'm looking forward to the chance to compare it to the real deal. I may be going down there next weekend, depending on several factors, after this weekend's trip to Weimar, Erfurt and Buchenwald, which I'm definitely excited for.

2007-09-17T17:36:00.000+02:00

So this is my last week of German classes, from next week on we will only have to go to our elective classes, which for me include: German History 1871-present, EU Economics, and Peace & Conflict Studies. The end of our daily 3 hour German class is a welcome change for all of us, because we will no longer have to be at class by 9am. This doesn't sound bad, but most of us live a little outside of the main city so it takes a while to get there by metro. I also have my own objections with regard to the language classes:

1. All that I've managed to hold on to from my childhood's German is the accent. So when they heard me say the few words I do know, albeit without sounding like a complete moron, they put me in level 9 of 12. Most of you know that in reality over the 10 years that I've lived in America I've forgotten 99% of my German, so when I stepped into class the first day I was way overwhelmed. Then I asked to be switched into a lower level...even this one was way too hard. Now I'm in yet another class, which is still harder than I'd prefer. The thing is that all instruction is in German, period. So when I ask for the definition of a word (which is all I do all day) she answers in German, which just makes for more questions inside my head.

I've always thought that languages are taught much better in Europe than in the States. I've sat in 3 different classes, and it's always the same: 3-4 asians, mostly Koreans and Taiwanese, a few French and French speaking Swiss, and then sprinkled in are some Poles or Spaniards, etc., and then the Americans from my program. As the Asians and Europeans absorb their third language (they all know English (fluently), as a rule), the Americans struggle to grasp only their second language. Most of the people in our group have been learning German for well over 5 years, some as long as 7, and they can barely say anything. I can barely speak German, but I think I'm already better than most of the those that have been learning it for almost half their lives already. So that begs the question...is it that the instruction in America is bad or that American students are simply incapable of learning foreign languages? My conclusion is neither of the above. The real explanation is that most (though of course not all) American students just don't care about learning a foreign language, and perhaps they can afford not to care, because it happens to be that the events of the last century or so have led to the emergence of English as the lingua franca of the world. And in the environment of the language school here, this fact is especially apparent, as it is the sole medium of exchange between all the students.

2. (#2 complaint about language school) I hate listening to people speaking German with massive accents, for me there are few things worse. There's a girl in my class from Bali, who really should have taken Spanish as a foreign language because she rolls her R's soooo hard (which is great for Spanish, deplorable for German). Then there are the French...I honestly feel bad for anyone who grew up with French as their mother tongue, because that accent has got to be the hardest of any to shed, and it's extremely annoying. Whenever the French students say something I swear it's like they're speaking French. I know that it's easy for me to criticize them because I was lucky to learn German as a child, but still, c'mon people. Personally, I'd rather be able to sound OK but have a limited vocabulary than sound like an absolute idiot foreigner with a decent vocab.

That's enough ranting for today, more will come about my elective classes later.

Devil's Mountain: Teufelsberg

2007-09-11T20:43:00.001+02:00

As I've mentioned before, I live on the edge of town, right across the street from a massive forest, called Grunewald (meaning green forest). Today two of my class buddies and I went for an adventure through the seemingly endless forest, headed in the direction of Teufelsberg, which I had found out about on the Great Google Earth, which I love so dearly.

Teufelsberg is a very interesting place: it is an abandoned Cold War era American listening station, used to listen in to the East Germans. It's built on a man made hill: beneath lies a Nazi military technical college designed by Hitler's #1 architect, Albert Speer. His design proved to be so sturdy, that attempts at destroying it after the war had ended failed, so it was covered in debris, making the artificial hill that is now the highest point in Berlin.

Since the wall came down and the Americans abandoned the place, it has been extensively graffitied, pillaged, and destroyed in the classic teenage European manner. Despite it having once been a top secret facility complete with fancy (back then) computer systems, it is now trashed and open for anyone who isn't too scared to go inside, assuming once can even find it in the first place.

Climbing to the top of the highest building offers spectacular 360 degree views of all of Berlin, as well as much of the surrounding area. What is most noticeable about such a sight is the total lack of urban sprawl, quite opposite to most US cities. Berlin has managed to keep many of its richer citizens in the city, allowing it to be completely surrounded by a luscious ocean of forest instead of thousands of small unsightly suburban developments.

The complex is located in the far west (former British sector), and from the top one has a great view of east Berlin in its entirety, highlighted by the TV Tower that rises dramatically from the traditional Eastern center, Alexanderplatz. As I stared off into the distance of the east, I thought to myself how crazy it must have been for a Berliner to be able to tangibly see the other side, whichever it may have been, but yet not be able to step inside. Especially from so high a vantage point, had the wall still existed, it would have looked completely insignificant. Berlin is and was meant to be one city: observing the entire city from above reasserts this.

Pictures of Teufelsberg!

Weekend in Dresden

2007-09-09T00:04:00.000+02:00

Friday morning we went on a group trip to Dresden, a little less than 2 hours (by train) to the south. What makes this city famous, überalles, is the extremely controversial bombing of Dresden which took place in February of '45. Led by the British Air Force, and then continued by the United States (what?), the Allies ruthlessly bombed the city despite it's lack of military importance, killings thousands of innocent Germans.

With the exception of one building close to the rail station, you wouldn't say that Dresden looks like a city that was largely destroyed. There are still old looking buildings in many places. However, it is the center of the city, the oldest part, that took the heaviest bombing. Huge reconstruction efforts have been made, although very recently, making the old city center still look pretty old. The old and grand churches, some of which had to be rebuilt almost entirely, stand within ear-shot of ultra-modern shopping malls. Since the rebuilders tried to use as much original building material as possible, you can actually tell which bricks/blocks of stone are from before the war and which aren't. Although the architecture in Dresden is rather beautiful, it was a symbol of Baroque humanism, knowing that most of what you are looking at was built for the most part in the last 10 years depreciates the awe factor.

Dresden's 40 years of socialist rule definitely manifests itself, ultra-modern malls aside. As you see in the picture, some Dresdners are still living in the past. Although the weather may have had something to do with it, Dresden struck me as a rather gray and unexciting city. In reality, though, I think that the city is actually fairly green. It's situated on a river, like all European cities, the Elbe, which has recently flooded the lord out of the place.

Pictures of Dresden!

2007-09-04T15:24:00.000+02:00

After our boat trip on Sunday we went to a Hofbrauhaus called Lemke Brauhaus. A Hofbrauhaus is a restaurant that brews it own beer, and this one is pretty well known. There, over a few good tasting beers, a few of our group members and I had a long and thorough conversation regarding current events, mostly about the role of the US in the world (which as many of you know is one of my favorite topics). After a good hour or two, a gentleman sitting at a table by ours said to us in a thick British accent as he was leaving: "Sounds like you're having a good discussion about American foreign policy, perhaps you can actually think of a decent one!" Although I can get by in Germany without appearing American (my German pronunciation isn't all that bad, and I've been told that when I do speak with a slight accent it sounds more Russian than anything else), when walking around with a group of 17 full-blown Americans it becomes a little harder to disguise our collective 'Americanness'. Nevertheless, we haven't had any eggs or tomatoes thrown at us yet, and I've noticed that the general European anti-American sentiment isn't quite as strong as it used to be.

In other news, as I was walking to class yesterday I passed by a Middle Eastern father and son donning yarmulkes and tzitzit. I think that it's safe to say that Europe is even safer for Jews than it is for Arabs and Muslims. As I've mentioned before, there's a large population of Turks in Germany, especially in Berlin (2,600.000 in the country!!). A large majority of them were actually asked to come here by the government in the 60's and 70's as guest workers. Now there's so many of them here that there's a mild but growing anti-Turkish sentiment. It seems that lessons of history show that whenever a minority population begins growing too quickly, most dramatically in Germany, native citizens become a bit agitated. Here's the statistic that says it all: only 91% of Germany's population is actually German, even less than the French in France. Thankfully for the Turks though, Germans are extremely careful in this regard for obvious reasons.

Berlin by Boat

2007-09-02T23:31:00.000+02:00

Berlin is seen best by boat. This is what I learned today, after we took a 3+ hour excursion around the entire city (which is massive) drifting slowly along the Spree river. Everyone knows that every major European city is located on a river, and Berlin is no exception: the Spree offers views of Berlin from a much different perspective.

I was able to snap many good pictures during our boat trip, which you can see here. I think they are pretty good quality and also very interesting. Since much of Berlin was destroyed over 50 years ago, many new buildings have been constructed alongside the old. There are countless examples of the coexistence of the old and the new in this city (more so than in any other city, I think), which is something I tried to capture today. I must repeat that this city is remarkably green...much more so on the West, but the East side also has its greenery. This is especially evident from the perspective of the Spree, as almost its entire length is lined by trees. I saw tons of people spending their lazy Sunday afternoon on the banks of the river, barbecuing, sleeping, and relaxing together. I get the impression that people are generally pretty happy here. In fact, every single person I've talked to on the subway so far (I spend a lot of time on the subway) has told me that they love living here, especially the young people, and I can see why.

Today's nice and relaxing boat trip was great after yesterday's long night of clubbing The nightlife in Berlin is world renowned: it's definitely a city that never sleeps, ever. The clubs here only really get going well after midnight, and although I left early, at 4:30 AM, I have read that they usually don't stop until well into the afternoon of the next day. The one we were at last night (Saturday), Qdorf, was absolutely huge. It had at least 4 sections playing different kinds of music, and probably more that I didn't see (not that I needed to). In the different sections you could hear everything from American rap to hard house music and everything in between, so there was always something different to dance to, which was nice because the 6 of us had slightly different tastes. Although I love the hard hitting bass of House music, I've found that not all Americans like it, probably because they're not used to it.

On Saturday night there was 6 of us that went out, having learned from the previous night's mistake. On Friday night all 18 of the students in our group went out on the town, and this proved to be a bit too large of a group to coordinate efficiently, especially when most of them are themselves a bit, well, uncoordinated. The nightlife in Berlin is not limited to weekends, as there's always tons of places to go Monday through Friday. In fact, there's even a club that opens exclusively on Tuesday and Thursday nights: I guess if you have somewhere to be the next morning, like at work or school for instance, you're just not cool enough to be there. After two hardy nights out on the town though, I've had enough for the time being. Next weekend we have an excursion to the city of Dresden, one that can make certain (older) Americans shudder. After that though I plan on further exploring Berlin's seemingly endless supply of nightlife. The thing about clubbing here is that many of them are so unique. Some are located in awe inspiring warehouses that were abandoned after the wall came down, there's even one called Club CCCP (that's USSR for the 'transliterationally challenged'), which I definitely plan on visiting.
Yet another thing that makes the nightlife so good is the exceptional public transportation system. At least on weekends, I can get home from anywhere in the city at any hour of the night, or morning, which was great this weekend. Even at the wee hours of the morning, the trains are filled with people, always relatively young ones that are returning from a long night of partying, or, in some cases, just getting started. Berlin has tons of young people, although not quite as high a percentage of the total population as I noticed in Budapest. As Gabor told me, young people from all over Hungary move to the city to get a better paying job, making it look like the average age there is 30, which I guess is possible.
As I was walking to the Zoologisher Garten U-bahn station at 4:30 AM last night, my attention was caught by a bright light atop the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, which was partly destroyed by Allied bombs in '45 and was never restored. I veered from my homeward path and circled it a few times, admiring the decision to leave it standing as it is. I think it is a wonderful monument in the very middle of a completely rebuilt Berlin, serving to show modern Germans what can happen when a nation acts irresponsibly on so grand a scale. It is really a spectacular sight, especially at night.

It's cold here. As I was walking from my house to the nearest S-bahn station in my heavy jacket this morning, I thought about how warm it probably is in both San Ramon and especially in San Diego, where my buddies are probably hangin out at LJ Shores beach. Locals tell me that this weather is unseasonably cold, that it usually isn't this cold so early. I don't mind though, at least it hasn't began snowing yet. It's funny, back at home my friends always say "But you're Russian!" whenever I proclaim my coldness, whereas here they say "Well you're from San Diego..", as I am the only one from the West coast (13 out of 18 are from Rochester, NY, 3 others are from other places in the East, and one is from Minnesota).
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the city is filled with graffiti, including anti Nazi graffiti. Although there are examples of it all over the city, I've managed to snap a shots of a few.
Tomorrow, Monday, is the first day of class. I am actually looking forward to it, though, as I hate not being able to speak German as well as I'd like, and Herr Jacobsen, the teacher of the Business Economics course as well as the director of the whole program, is quite an interesting fellow. He was the managing director of an EU study on the effects of introducing the Euro to Eastern European countries such as Poland, which I think is a very interesting subject, I'm excited for a chance to pick his brain, so to speak.

Sightseeing Potsdam

2007-08-30T19:48:00.000+02:00

First of all, I recommend everyone to check out the video clip I added at the bottom of the last post on the East Side Gallery, especially for those that haven't been to Berlin and haven't seen the Wall.

Today our group went on a sightseeing trip (sans bus) to Potsdam. Arguably the most famous place in Potsdam, and the reason for the city's own fame, is a palace by the name of Schloss Cecilienhof. It was built relatively recently, in 1914-1917, by Kaiser Wilhelm II for his son Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany. Its fame, however, comes from the Potsdam conference that took place there in the summer of 1945, between the "Big Three," Stalin, Churchill, and Truman, where the fate of Germany was decided. We went inside for a guided tour, and saw the actual huge round table at which the conference took place. In the garden I found some elderly couple's camera memory card. I knew it belonged to an old couple because I put it in my own camera and looked at the pictures. There were pics of Peterhof in St. Petersburg, Venice, various cities in Italy, as well as countless pictures of an obese cat. Although I was pretty happy to inherit a free memory card, so to speak, the pictures were pretty nice and I'm sure they would have been sad to lose them, so I returned it to the lost and found place, but not without first snapping a myspace-esque picture of myself, so they can at least know what their memory card's savior looks like.
Next we walked to Schloss Sanssouci, the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. This is an interesting place due to its meagerness. Since the average castle of such a powerful king is usually quite grand, Sanssouci (meaning without worries, in French) is different because it only has a small number of rooms and has one floor, with no basement. Of course it has a huge garden though, I can't imagine a castle in Europe, no matter what size, without a huge garden.

Potsdam was interesting, but hardly made an impression compared to the metropolis that is Berlin. However, our native Potsdamer guide made sure to point out that Potsdam is over 1000 years old, significantly more so than Berlin.

I must say that there is a truly incredible amount of immigrants in Germany, but especially in Berlin. This is something I'm well used to in America, but the sheer amount of immigrants that I see everyday (of all kinds, not just Turks) really jumps out at me. Yesterday I was waiting by a bus stop observing a large group of totally touristy looking Asian people, thinking to myself "I wonder what they think of Germany.." As they got closer I realized that they were all speaking fluent accent-less German. Who woulda known..

As I'm writing this my host brother is watching the German version of American Idol - "Popstars on Stage". It's funny because its so similar to the show so many Americans are obsessed with: a bunch of funny looking young people come to sing and dance, there are 3 judges - one is big and black, and one is a woman. All the songs that are sung are American songs...it's really the same show, funny how American "culture" spreads.

I will try to snap a photo of my host family soon. I've had some interesting conversations with my host mother lately. The house we live in was built in 1920. I was curious to know if her parents stayed here during the war, especially at the end. She said they had stayed, and that her father had been a prisoner of war in Russia, which makes me feel a bit awkward as a Russian, but whatever. I asked my host mother whether she had seen The Pianist, and she explained to me how tired she is of hearing about the war and about the Holocaust, due to the fact that the post-war German school system has been teaching basically nothing besides the horrors committed by Germany before she was born. I understand partially, because the American school system also spends a lot of time teaching about the plight of the Indians more than 200 years ago, as well as the enslavement and segregation of the Africans, which after high school I can't bare to hear about anymore either. Nevertheless, as a non-German, and especially as a Jew (I don't think she knows I'm Jewish) I was a little offset to hear that. Yet Germany as a country is very apologetic, and although that is the least they can do, it is comforting. However some Germans think that this apologetic-ness sometimes goes too far. For instance my host sister was telling me about a time when a mother of a Jewish kid here in Germany complained about a bad grade given to the kid on the grounds of racial discrimination. Obviously I don't know the specifics of this case, but I think that if I was a German, I'd err on the side of caution when it comes to such things.

I think that's enough for today..

Pictures of Potsdam!

Sightseeing Berlin: Impressions

2007-08-29T22:28:00.001+02:00

Today we went for a much awaited sightseeing trip around Berlin. First of all, the city (the western part, at least) is very green, which is a nice change having been in large American cities. Not only do countless parks add to its greenness, but most of the boulevards are also lined with trees, like the famous Under den Linden, for instance. Berlin is filled with small shops. Locals go to a bakery to buy bread, etc., instead of going to the American style supermarkets that are now common sights around the world (what would we do in America without supermarkets??).

Where the wall used to divide the city is now marked by a line of cobblestones along its length. It's amazing how central the division was, right through the heart of the city. Today it was hard for me to imagine a highly enforced and guarded border to be where it once stood. As we crossed into the eastern side, I noticed a stark difference between the two, even today. Although much has been done by Berliners to reunify the city, one can easily identify what side of the city he's in just by looking around at the architecture. In the eastern part of town I honestly felt like I was in Moscow at times. The architecture of a place makes a big impact on its look (obviously) and feel, and all the large apartment buildings and official buildings, constructed in true grand Stalinist style, made it look more like Warsaw than Berlin.

Speaking of architecture, there are still Nazi era buildings that survived the heavy Allied bombing of 1945. The former Air Force Ministry is still standing, a striking glimpse into that era. Even more impressive if the Olympia Stadion, built in 1935 for Hitler's Olympic Games. A massive building capable of seating 80,000+, it hosted the final game of last year's World Cup. In all of its grandness, Nazi architecture is, to say the least, impressive.

Our tour was by bus, guided by the director of our program, Herr Jacobsen. I tried to take as many pictures as I could from inside the bus, but some did not come out as well as I would have liked. Occasionally we would get off the bus for short periods, and these pictures turned out well, as did the ones I was able to snap once we got off the bus for good. After seeing so many places in such short time today, I have realized that Berlin has an amazing amount of sights to offer. I will be returning to all the places I saw today and checking them out in more detail, then I will be able to post some better pictures and explain some more of the history behind the places and things, of which there is no end. There is no doubt that Berlin is a fascinating city, in its history as well as its modernity.

First pictures of Berlin!

I took the video above as our bus passed Berlin's famous East Side Gallery, which is a collection of over 100 artists' paintings on the East side of a stretch of the wall that has been preserved. It serves as a memorial for freedom and represents "hope for a better and free future for all people of the world".

BeeLow the Beat Box Battler

2007-08-29T10:00:00.000+02:00

Yesterday a friend of mine and I were walking around the city after a 5 minute oral german test (I was placed in level 9 out of 12, which is amazing if you know how nonexistent my german skills are). We sat down on a bench in a park to finish our brews, and started talking to some dude on a bench next to us wearing awesome white-man-ghetto-wear, with his bike (the long kind that you see on rap music videos) nearby. Turns out the guy "started the Berlin beat box scene", for those of you that are familiar with beatboxing, he said he knew personally Joe Driscoll and Rahzel, the human orchestra. For those not familiar with beatboxing, it's when people make beats with their mouths, and usually others freestyle over them. Later I went to the guy's website, www.beatboxbattle.com, and was surprised to find his picture here and there, so he wasn't bullshitting. When we were still at the park I asked him to show us a little of his beatboxing ability, it was legit. For the San Diegan Africans of '06, even Darryl ain't got nothin on this guy.

I live in the disctrict of Grunewald, meaning green forest, in a house directly next to the edge of the forest. When giving me my set of keys, my host family asked me to make sure to look the front gate, as there are wild boars in the forest that like to destroy their garden. Wild boars! Of course. I haven't done much in these first few days in Berlin besides getting settled in and spending hours in the basement (which, for now, is the only place I can use the internet) writing and putting pictures up on this blog. However, this weekend I'm going to a big consumer electronics exhibition, which will reveal all the newest gadgets and things for the upcoming year, which sounds promising. Also this weekend I plan on starting to check out Berlin's massive music scene...the only problem being that soo many bands and artists come through Berlin that it can be hard to choose what to see.

In about an hour were finally taking a sightseeing tour of the city, about time since I've already spent 4 days here without having really seen the major sights. Pictures coming, as usual.

Picture Abums

2007-08-27T23:50:00.001+02:00

Almost all of the pictures I have taken so far have been uploaded. After each of the previous posts, with the exception of the last, you can click a link in red at the bottom to view the pictures of that place. Or you can click the link above to see them all. I've captioned most of the important ones in the albums, and remember that to see captions of the pictures here just hover your mouse pointer above them. I'll try to take a picture of my host family when I can, and I will be sightseeing Berlin on Wednesday so there'll be some pictures of the city. Until then, laters alligators.

Willkomen zu Berlin!

2007-08-27T18:37:00.000+02:00

After picking up my two 50+ pound suitcases (plus my heavy backpack and 2 bags), I got on an ICE train from Munchen to Berlin. Wow, what a difference between this German train and the previous East European ones...after hauling my ridiculous amount of luggage onto the train I was overjoyed to find clean, well air conditioned, and spacious seating, and with a huge bathroom with automatic sliding doors. I asked an elderly woman next to me how long it would take to get to Berlin in German, more to practice German than anything else because I already knew the answer, she said she had no idea. In a minute her phone rang and she answered: "Alo? Kto eto tam? Ya vas ne slishu!". Before I arrived in Berlin I met 3 or 4 more Russians. There are certainly Russians here, there's no mistaking it.

I arrived in Berlin an hour earlier than I had planned, and so I would not be met by a chaperon of the program until later. By this point I was not only tired as hell (yet another sleepless night train) but hungry wie ein Wolf, so I set out to look for my first Döner. It was delicious. A Döner is a Turkish kebab dish which, to quote Wikipedia, "was developed to suit German tastes by Turkish immigrants in Berlin, and has become one of the world's most popular fast food dishes." Awesome!! I've always loved Greek Gyros, and I loved Shawarmas in Israel (although it was all that we ever ate), and Döners are even better! The main difference is, for those that are familiar with the former, that Döners have more vegetables like lettuce, onions, tomatoes, etc...absolutely delicious, I can tell that I will be eating many of these in the months to come.

Like in Hungary, German girls are also as a rule very beautiful. After cruising around the Bahnhof (train station) with my jaw dropped most of the time, I came back to the place where I was supposed to be coming off my train. Just as the train arrived I found a person waiving around a sign that said Nazareth Exchange Program, and he was quite amazed to see that I had already managed to get all my stuff onto a cart, since the train hadn't even come to a complete stop yet.

After Hans (who would have guessed) helped me schlepp all my dreck into the car, we drove away from the Bahnhof, through the center where I could see many of the major sights. After having been in Budapest and Ljubljana, what was immediately noticeable about the center of Berlin is its spaciousness. Where the other cities were packed with buildings, in Berlin I was able to see both the TV tower, the Reichstag, the Chancellor's office, as well as many other noticeable places all at the same time despite their relative distance from one another. Later I realized that there was a reason for this, that this was the most heavily bombed area, and that the Reichstag is pretty much the only thing still standing from before the war. As we drove by the President's building, Hans pointed to a large group of Turks having a barbecue in a park directly across from the Pres, who sees them from his window everyday. Living in America this is a common sight, I told Hans, who thought the situation was pretty humorous.

Soon I met my wonderful host family, Familie Clemens. They are a large family, and extremely nice. Although there are strict program rules saying that they are only supposed to give me 2 meals a day, they told me to feel free to grab whatever I wanted, even despite my being Jewish (just kidding!). But seriously, I'm very happy to be staying with them which is quite a relieving feeling (almost as relieving as one's first successful #2 in an entire week, right, Eric L?) They are comprised of a retired couple, although not very old, 3 children, and a dawg (she is a very ghetto dawg). Two of the children are my age and live at home, and one is 23 and works in London. At the moment there are 7 people living here!!, because the oldest girl is here for now, and there is another guest student who is about to leave. What is most amazing of all, is that I am their 21st student!! The house is nice and big, it even has a sauna! After arriving and getting to know them a little, I passed out for 17 hours.

In the morning I woke up to an amazing breakfast. Outside in the backyard there was a table completely covered in delicious coldcuts, bread, cheeses, and salads. Looks like I came to the right place. Later I went to an orientation meeting. There are 18 of us, 13 of which know each other from Nazareth College in NY. I was happy to learn that I am not the only one that doesn't speak German really, there are a couple that dont know much more than Ja und Nein. Although it would be better if they didnt all know each other (Naz college is smaller than my high school), I think I won't have any problems making friends, in fact I've already made some. Getting to and fro the house and the classrooms wasn't a problem, as the Berlin public transportation system is great. About 20 minutes from door to door.

Now I'm going to go enjoy dinner. If it's anything like breakfast was, I'm gonna be there for a while.

Budapest with Borat

2007-08-27T12:46:00.001+02:00

When Kathryn and I arrived in Budapest, we were greeted by two locals, Gabor and David, with whom my dad arranged to show us around the place. It was a Friday, and the train station (Keleti) was totally overcrowded, hot, stuffy, and stinky. After spending way too long at the station, we hopped into a tiny black Kia (we were barely able to fit the 4 of us and our small bags) and went sight seeing.

The city is located on the Danube river: one side is called Pest, the other Buda. The two sides, interestingly enough, were only connected in 1849 with the building of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge. They call Budapest the "Paris of the East", and for good reason. The city offers magnificent sights: the Parliament building (biggest in Europe), Saint Stephen's Basilica (Temple of the first King of Hungary, whose fist is mummified inside), Budapest Castle (of course), Heroes' Square, are a few examples among many others.

After a long day of traveling and sightseeing Gabor and David took us to the highest point in the city, from which you could see breathtaking views of the entire place. Kathryn and I compared it to the LJ cliffs because of the similar activities that took place there, for those of you reading from SD.

David couldn't speak too much English, but Gabor was pretty conversant. It was really funny walking around with him, though, because he sounded exactly like Borat, even the things he said (he has never seen the movie). In a strong accent: "In Hungary, we have a many Gypsies..." It's true though, Budapest does have a large population of Romas, but I couldn't help but laugh everytime he mentioned them.

Budapest is a nice city, pretty clean and decently affluent. In the central areas you can find long, nice avenues lined by countless outdoor cafes were nicely dressed locals and tourists come to enjoy a nice evening. I felt much more comfortable here than in Slovenia, and I imagined that I wouldn't have any problem living there for a bit. Two days in Budapest were definitely not enough, and I felt like the place still had much to offer after Kathryn and I parted and I got on a train to Munchen, to pick up the rest of my luggage on my way to Berlin.

The train from Buda to Munchen was another shitty one. In a poorly air conditioned, dirty and cramped train I was lucky enough to spend yet another sleepless night. I shared a cabin with a group of 4 Venezuelans, whom we had actually met two days ago at the train station. The oldest one, who was the only one interesting to talk to, is a grad student at MIT, very intellectual guy. In between loud and startling PASSPORT CONTROL!!'s, we discussed everything from Chavez to Esperanto. Apparently well off and intellectual Venezuelans are not in favor of Chavez, as opposed to the poorer citizens to which his speeches are directed.

At 6:05 in the morning the train stopped in Munchen. Next post will come soon.

Pictures of Budapest!

Updates

2007-08-27T12:42:00.000+02:00

I'm finally in Berlin so I can now post pictures. Some have already been added to earlier posts. Move your mouse over the pictures for captions. When I get all the pictures uploaded I will add links to see all the pictures, which I think have been turning out nicely. As of now I only have half of all the pics because Kathryn has the other half, and she is still traveling (Paris and Amsterdam, I believe).

What it feels like to be wet

2007-08-24T21:14:00.001+02:00

I took a train overnight from Munich to Ljubljana. Once it got light, as we were passing through Austria, the views from the train were remarkable. As my jaw would drop in awe of the landscape we were passing, the Croatian girl would just say eh, this is all the same to me. Hah!

The people in Slovenia are nice, but definitely not everyone speaks English. The locals that don't usually speak German though, and with my barely existent German we were able to get our questions answered. We stayed in an extremely corolful youth hostel, a converted prison. We got the cheapest ''room'' we could get: a 12 person dorm style room. It was tightly packed and extreeemely hot and stuffy. Late at night you would wake up as people came back from late outings, and early in the morning you'd be woken by early risers packing up and setting off...not the best sleeping arrangement I've ever had to say the least. That 1st night in Ljub. we went out to a club called Global, which was situated on top of a tall building, from which you could see most of the city, including the castle, and several other buildings. Overall, it is a fairly nice city, but there are not too many things to see and by the next morning I was more than ready to see what else Slovenia had to offer.

The next morning we got up early and hopped on a bus to Slovenia's tiny Adriatic coast line, to a town called Piran. impossible to miss. Although it was not an exceptionally warm day, the water was pretty warm so we went for a nice swim. This place is really cool. As you'll see in upcoming pictures, it's an ancient Mediterranean looking piece of land that dramatically jets out into the Adriatic. The 300 years of Venitian rule over it are we were on top of a castle (when aren't you at a castle when in Europe?) that overlooked the city and the sea, it began to rain like hell. Despite the wetness, we had a very nice day in a beatiful town, but the pleasantries were soon to end. To make a long story short, we missed the last bus out of Piran back to Ljubljana, where we had the rest of our stuff and from which we were soon to depart to Budapest. We asked pretty much everyone we could what we could do to get back to Ljub., and everyone said "yu kan do nozing, yu stay in Piran." We ended up taking a 2 and a half hour taxi ride back, putting a rather nice hole in our resective wallets...live and learn.

At 2 am later that night, we took another night train to Budapest...a true nightmare. The train of course, in true Slovenian style, was smelly and dirty, and despite our best attempts at getting some sleep, we found ourselves constantly being awakened to the beatiful and comforting sound of "PASSPORT CONTROL!" being yelled as someone slammed open our compartment door every hour. In addition to that, when they checked my tickets they told me my Eurorail pass was invalid because the Germans didnt stamp it on my first ride. First they told me to pay a fine of 100 Euros! The problem here was that these two cionducters did't speak English nor German nor Russian, so it was pretty much two retards arguing with each other. Then they said 50 Euros would do it, but I'm thinking why pay so much, especially if I already have a perfectly good eurail pass, if a regular ticket cost Kathryn 45 Euros?? Then they said, ok ok, 25!, but I still didnt get if they were legit, or if this was really as fishy as it smelled. I didnt end up paying anything to them, but a nice woman who was trying to translate for us told me that I should feel extremely lucky not to have paid 100 Euros and that the two conducters were being really nice to me, but all I felt was pissed at the whole lot of them. By the time we finally got to Budapest, I was happy to be out of Slovenia.

Pictures of Piran!

Ljubljana: city of 50%

2007-08-23T02:45:00.000+02:00

I finally met up with Kathryn today in the fair city of Ljubljana, try to pronounce that one. On the train from Garmisch Partenkirchen to Ljubljana, I sat in a cabin with an outrageously beautiful Croatian girl. Who knew that women in the former Yugoslavia are all amazing!? The first thing zat strikes you about this city is that it is completely covered in graffiti. As I walked off the train into the heart of the city, I found myself constantly turning around because I thought I had heard Russian being spoken. Everytime though, I was disappointed to realize that it was not Russian (ever), just Slovenian. I understand about half of what people say in Slovene, and I have yet to see a Russian here, whereas in Germany they were relatively easy to find.

Gotta go. Be back soon
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Pictures of Ljubljana!

Lederhosen

2007-08-22T01:03:00.000+02:00

Ich habe diese zwei Tage gewohnt in Garmisch, eine kleine Stadt in Bayern.

I've been living in Garmisch for the first two days of my trip. Set in a valley surrounded on all sides by massive mountains, Germany's highest, it's as quaint a town as can be. In fact, it's so quaint that I've learned that even the daughter of the late Boris Yeltsin has a place here. It seems some pretty rich people have discovered what treasures Garmisch has to offer. Walking down a street in downtown today I passed an astoundingly beautiful car, an Audi R8. As I was drooling all over it, out comes a pretty young blond girl from a store nearby, and hops in! A girl! Turns out that she is Germany's championship downhill skier, which explains how a girl just a couple years older than me can afford to buy a brand new €100.000+ ride.

I've been living in an apartment of a family that were good friends with mine when we lived here 10 years ago. The place is directly in the middle of the city, a perfect location. I've always thought that my own family is pretty multilingual, but we've got nothing on this one. The dad is Russian, the mom is French, they live and work in Germany, so they're all completely fluent in Russian, French, German and English. Plus the mom somehow knows Spanish. Craziness.

Yesterday, after touring my old house and school, Nicola (son of family) and I went out for a night on the town. We decided not to stay out too late because we were going to meet Kathryn at the Munich airport early the next morning. Needless to say, that plan didn't work out. Since it had been 10 years since we last saw each other, he had just finished his term at work, and I had just flown in to a foreign land, excitement effectively prohibited any good judgement that could have pursuaded us to go home and sleep. The only clear memory I have of that evening was an intense drunken converation with a group of American army people about Russia (there is a large US Army outpost in Garmisch, which is the reason we lived there). I woke up way too late with a head splitting Deutsche style hangover. I immediately began to panic because at that moment I was supposed to be at the Munich airport, well over an hour away! As I was checking to see if maybe by an act of god the flight had been delayed, I realized that she is actually flying in tomorrow morning, not today! So, the day was saved.

Especially in Partenkirchen, which is somewhat older and much less touristy, there are people who still walk around in traditional lederhosen! I thought that was pretty interesting, especially in such a modern and progressive country such as Germany.

It's already close to 2 am and I actually have to pick up Kathryn in the morning this time, so I gotta catch some sleep, although there is still more to write. This will come soon, along with pictures.

Pictures of Garmisch-Partenkirchen!

Change of plans

2007-08-15T06:10:00.001+02:00

So, our week-long travel plans have changed slightly. It'll be a day in Garmisch first, then a day in Munich where I meet with Kathryn, then two days in Ljubljana where we'll be staying at a former prison turned hostel, two days in Budapest, after which we part ways and I head to Berlin and meet my German host family, the von Heslers.

One month and counting

2007-07-18T07:11:00.000+02:00

Wilkommen meine Damen und Herren.

So I have exactly one month and two days before I bounce out of good old San Ramon, leaving behind my family, my friends, and my job, and hop on a plane to the southern Bavarian city of Munich, in order to do some traveling before I arrive in Berlin. Munich is about an hour north of the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where I spent 5 quality years of my childhood. If all things go well, on 20 August I will meet up with my dear friend Kathryn before we embark on our week or so long journey through Europe. The tentative plan is as follows: Munich -> Garmisch (Partenkirchen can go fuck itself) -> Venice -> Trieste (Italy) -> Ljubljana (Slovenia) -> Munich.

While waiting for that day with great anticipation, I have been keeping myself busy with work. I enjoy working with the people in my office, but sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours a day is hard work! Before summer began, I had promised myself that I'd devote all my non-work hours to studying German...that process has yet to begin. Although German used to be my absolute best language - better than Russian and English - its been 10 whole years since I've spoken it. Needless to say, I can't talk for shit!