Finishing up with Checkpoint Charlie...and Karneval!

Ok, so, now I'm going to finish up my pics from Checkpoint Charlie. So, where I left off:

Here's the line of the Berliner Mauer (a.k.a. Berlin Wall)!

And here's Saulo with the Line! He was such a total sweet heart. He had the softest sweetest voice and was always so kind and just such a pleasant individual...

Hehe, these are the "soldiers". You can take your picture with them for I think 1 or 2€, but we decided to be cheap and just take a photo from a distance. lol. But this is the original checkpoint, I believe...

Ok, the end of Checkpoint Charlie...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Alright, now I'm up to when Stuart arrived! Geeze, that was a super long time ago...alright. Well, we were supposed to meet up with some people at Alexander Platz and go to Karneval in Kreuzberg, but we were super late and they left without us, so I took some nice pictures of Alexplatz and at Karneval. I have some super awesome video of Karneval but unfortunately since I'm not using my computer, they don't load properly. So that may have to come later...

So here's die Welt-Zeit-Uhr (World Time Clock). It's a popular meeting place and has the times of all the major cities around the world, with the Northern Hemisphere cities on the top and Southern Hemisphere on the bottom. And the little post that it sits on has a...slightly inaccurate map of the world wrapped around it. lol. We were looking at it and noticed that Barcelona and Venice are pretty much cut off of Spain and Itlay, and Ireland is very misshapen. And I couldn't find Maine. Maybe I'm just very bad with geography, though. lol.

This is a very pretty fountain in the middle of Alexander Platz. It has butterflies painted on it! Yay! Notice the Burger King in the background...lol. The big building on the left is Kaufhof, a very large department store with everything in the world you can buy. But it's not KaDeWe (Kaufhaus Des Westens...Shopping Store of the West), which is a super expensive shopping mall. lol. I don't know where it is, though...don't really want to go in there...too expensive. lol.

Yay! It's me and Stuart! It was a very very hot day...

The church in Kreuzberg. You can see all the people for Karneval...

More people. Yummy foods. Traditional and crazy Brazilian music. Good beer. Aw yea. Lots of neat things to buy, too.

We left for a bit because it was super super hot and came back later when it was cooler. There was a parade that we'd pretty much missed except for the very very very back end. That I only have video of. Darn. But there were a bunch of people on the roof of one building watching the parade and making a lot of noise and drinking. It was so funny that I had to take a picture of them. tehe. They threw some things down at people occassionally, too. lol.

Ok, well, that's all I have of Karneval. Sorry it's not that exciting. *shrug* But sometimes stupid internet explorer doesn't like to load the pictures, so I'm going to stop here with pictures for now.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Today we met up with Dr. Cagle again to say goodbye. He's leaving today to go back home. Then he's going to Japan with his wife! Lucky. Japan would be super cool to go to. Then we went out shopping for food stuffs for DENISE AND MELISSA who are coming super late tonight! Yay! They leave on...Monday or Tuesday? I can't quite remember. We're planning on a night at Hannes' apartment for yummy foods and cocktails! Hannes is super awesome at making cocktails, aparently. haha. So that will be fun. And tonight I go to class with Kat (U.S. Landeskunde...it's pretty much all about the U.S. lol. Like geography, culture, politics, everything). So I thought it'd be interesting to see what it's like. Then we pick up Denise and Melissa at 2am! Yay!

Ok, that's all for now. Laterz!

Ok...pictures working again...

Ok, I think I got it to work again... Let's see...

Here's a beautiful wooden statue of the Madonna. Our tour guide was telling us about a different Madonna statue in the room, but I didn't understand why because it was really ugly, and this one was so pretty, so I took a picture of it.

Now this...THIS is the most beautiful Roman style sculpture I've ever seen. She's called simply "Dancer" by Antonio Canova in the very early 1800s, but she's gorgeous. I love the way her dress spins around her and the way it flows, and it's so sheer you can see the form underneath. The piece of marble is almost perfect, too. But the artist incorporated the zigzag vein so well that that's the point where the dress no longer looks seperate from her body but as a part of her body. I just love it so much...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Now for the - I'm sure much wanted - pictures of where I stayed while in Berlin, and possibly where I shall be staying again in August! Yay!

So this is a view down my street. I'm walking back home after class one day. So I cross the street and I'm the second door on the left! Also to the left was a teeny little bier garten. I never went there, but it always smelled DELICIOUS. haha.

The street sign for my street: Gubener Straße! In Friedrichshain! In east East Berlin! I would walk 5 minutes to the East Side Gallery.

So, here's my room. On the left behind the door was my closet for clothes. All the beds in Germany look like that, it's not just my bed. I'm not exactly sure why, but it was certainly comfortable enough, and no springs in the mattress! Yay! I had cable for the TV, a DVD player, and a CD player. And wireless. Everymorning I was awakened by this bird that made a million different sounds. It was quite annoying at first...and at first I thought it was someone's bird alarm clock. But I caught the bugger one day!

The view of the street from my window... See how green it is in Berlin? So beautiful...

Here's the kitchen...and the hallway back to Sören and Suzanne's room on the left, the study all the way to the back and left, the closet at the back and right, and the bathroom on the right. The kitchen and my room were the first doors on the right and left, respectively, when I walked into the apartment. Very nice, I enjoyed it all.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ok, now for other pictures....First I'll put up from Checkpoint Charlie. It was a little sad in the museum, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so no museum pictures, sorry. But I do have some pictures of the actual place. It was just Claire, Saulo, and I who went....

The UBahn Station to Checkpoint Charlie. It was literally right in front of you when you walked out.

Haha, here's Saulo with the DDR marker. No, not Dance Dance Revelution! Deutsche Demokratische Republik!

See? That's what East Germany was called during the Soviet rule...

Here's a picture of the Soviet solder and the sign one saw when leaving the American Sector of Berlin...

American soldier and entering the American Sector...

Ok, well, now it's meal time and then party time, so more pictures to also come laters!

Ok...more pictures of Germany...

Alright, time to finish up the Bodes Museum pictures and then on to other things! I've been meeting up a lot with Dr. Cagle and Lindsay Miller. It's been super awesome. We also met the new exchange students from Bamberg yesterday, too. They're super nice, but I didn't really hear them speak any English, or at least very much. Christian (the guy...I forget the girl's name! That's bad...) said he's very nervous about speaking English because he doesn't think he's very good at it. But I guess we'll see. They actually come back the same day I do! haha. Anywho's...pictures...


Here's an ugly statue of Mary Magdaline. She's all covered in hair because she washed Jesus' feet with her hair. All the angels are around her and she's actually riding on the wings of the bottom angel.


I thought this statue was super awesome! Jesus on the donkey riding into Jerusalem. This statue would have poles stuck through the bottom and paraded into the city for Holy Week.

Ok, and for some reason internet is being stupid and I can't get anymore pictures up. Great. I had two more pictures for the Bodes Museum! *sigh* I'll try it in a bit...

As Promised...a few photos!

Alright, now I hope I can get back on track with my photo updates! Now, going way back to the beginning, the first weekend of Berlin! We went to the Bodes Museum on the Museums Insel (Museum Island)! It was late antiquity (late Roman period up through the Baroque period). Slightly interesting for me because of the huge religious influences, but not so interesting because my specialty is the very very early antiquity, thousands of years before Christ. But it was still nice, and having had an art history class, quite rewarding, since I learned how to appreciate the art.

Here the Spree, the river in Berlin. The Museums Insel is surrounded by it (duh, and island) and it's quite pretty. Here one can see the infamous and very ugly Fernsehtor (Television tower). It can be seen from pretty much everywhere in Berlin, and it severely helpful when you find yourself a little lost. haha. The tower is in Alexander Platz, which is very close to the Stadt Mitte. That's the Bodes Museum on the right.

There's the entrance...and bald guy's head...haha.

The first thing you see when you walk in. I forget who that's supposed to be...but this is the area of the museum called "The Great Dome".

See? Here's the dome...remeniscent of something? Yes, for anyone who's ever been to Rome, it's the exact same style of the Pantheon...modern architecture very much likes to copy it...

And this section is called the Basilica because it's styled like a basilica. That's the half dome where the alter would be placed.

And clerestory windows! I don't know if I spelled that correctly, but that's what the second level of windows are called in a basilica...

And it was decorated with beautiful alters. haha.

Ok, I can't remember what the fancy name for this is, but it would sit behind the alter. It was a famous thing to do in Germany, I believe. Beautifully intricate wooden sculptures placed behind the alter. The long wings could fold closed when mass wasn't being said.

Here are some old wooden sculptures of the stations of the cross. The left is the women weeping, the middle is Veronica wiping Jesus' face, and I can't tell what the one on the right is. There are two horses. I have no idea.

Ok, well, I don't have time to put up the rest of the photos because now I must go meet up with Dr. Cagle and meet the new Bamberg students coming to Lyco! Yay!

Bad News - Good Day

So, I'm sure most of you by now know that I did not make it to London. In my rush to catch the train to Bamberg Friday night, I left my gigantic suitecase with Sören and Suzanne with the promise of getting it soon. I arrived in Bamberg, had a pleasant evening, slept fairly well, woke up, and as I tried to print out my flight itinerary, realized that my passport was in the gigantic suitecase back in Berlin. I would not be allowed to fly out of the country. We also realized that I had actually missed my train too, because the actual ticket said, "From Bamberg to Frankfurt" but the time said, "Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof 10:28" (actually said "Nrnbrg Hpbf"). That's about 2 hours from Bamberg. I was supposed to catch the Bamberg train at 8:30ish. I still could have made it to the airport in time, but I'd have been crunched. I was so upset with myself. How could I have forgotten the most important thing when traveling. So stupid of me. So I'm going back to Berlin either Tuesday or Wednesday to pick up the suitecase again. I have to send an email to Suzanne.

So this means, no London, no Ireland, and most importantly, severely less time with my Denise and Melissa. *sob* But at least they're still coming here to Bamberg for a short visit, so I can at least see them for a bit.

And even though I've managed to have my travel plans ruined YET AGAIN, I think it still is a good thing. For one, I can relax and not worry about catching planes, trains, and buses, or rush around like a maniac trying to pack a million things into my days. I'm safely with Kat in her little apartment located above her family's little house. They're severely kind to me. Her mom doesn't know any English, which is especially good for my German. I ate an amazingly delicious dinner with them last night and they took me out for lunch today. Last night Kat and I went to meet up with Dr. Cagle and Hannes and Lindsay Miller for some drinks. I tried "Rauchbier" (smoked beer), which is positively AMAZING. It's like drinking hickory smoked bacon...which for most people I feel wouldn't sound very good at all, but it severely is. It made me think back to my childhood at my MomMom's house. Maybe also the jäger atmosphere of the little pub that was decorated similarly to hers added to the remeniscence. *shrugs* I thoroughly enjoyed it, nonetheless. Dr. Cagle warned me at first that it would take more than one to really get the taste and actually enjoy it, but I was hooked after the second sip. And I think it was purely because of the atmosphere and the remeniscence. It is THE smoked beer of Bamberg and it's called Schlenkeler. The story is quite amusing, Hannes told us it last night:

There was this guy in the town who would limp or swing ("schlenkern") around everywhere, but was always in the pub where the smoked beer came from. Because of his limp, they called him the "Schlenkerla". When they decided to give the beer a name, no one could come up with anything. Then he walked in and they all decided instantly that it would be called Schlenkerla. haha. Also drinking a lot of this stuff just makes you swing when you walk, apparently. hahaha.

haha, a bit of an interruption to say, Melissa, I'm thinking about you THIS SECOND because the song that says "music is my girlfriend" came on and Kat and I both giggled for about 10 seconds.

Anywho, today Kat and her parents and I met up with Dr. Cagle again to see Altenburg, this beautiful castle atop one of the hills. I guess it's more of a fortress. But there's a 33m tower that they used for fire signals to the other hills when enemies were coming or if something was happening. It was really cool. Melissa and Denise, we're making you guys come see it. Bamberg is located on 7 little hills, so it also has the nickname "Little Rome". It also has a little area on the river called "Little Venice"and is the residence of the Archbishop of Baveria, I think. Kat's not sure how the areas are split up. AND it the only place north of the Alps where a pope has been burried, Pope Clemence II. Bamberg is also severely Catholic. lol. There are churches everywhere, and there are even statues and sculptures of saints. There's a funny story that the Archbishop didn't want a political mayor or anything set up to compete with his control, so he made some law that no political buildings could be built in his city, so the sneaky things that politicians are built it on the river, which belongs to no one. haha. Amusing.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Dr. Cagle again, only this time it's to also meet the new exchange students from Bamberg! So I'll have a head start on getting to know them. Yay! ^_^

Tuesday I'm hoping I can get back to Berlin to get my suite case and my PASSPORT. *sigh* So now I send an email off to Suzanne and then maybe I can get to putting up some pictures from Berlin and work my way up to Bamberg. But probably not...probably only getting through a weekend or something. I had almost 500 pictures from our last week, from Stammtisch to the Balkan konzert to the zoo to the party. woops! haha. The blog is reserved only for the good pictures, so don't worry, there won't be any insane amount of pictures. I'm going to open a flicker account I think for ALL my pictures, if anyone wants to see all of the stupid little ones, too. haha.

AND I got a super awesome wonderful surprise today when I went to help Eric with his plane tickets to Germany: he's coming to see me here in Bamberg and not in Berlin!!!! Yay! I really was thinking about how much he'd really enjoy Bamberg more than Berlin, too!

Alright, wells, I guess I'll get to emailing Sören and Suzanne. *sigh* Tscüss, or as they say in south Germany, "Ade" or "Servus".