I realise that I’ve been a bad girl and have not updated since I got back from Germany. But, I still have a lot to say and I’ll try to remember as much as possible! Then I will try to get back onto updating on a regular basis.
Köln— the Furthest North I Got
I was told by many people that I needed to get up to Berlin and Hamburg, and as much as I wanted to, I just didn’t have the funds this time around. But, I did manage to get up to Köln (or Cologne, as most Americans know it) for a week where I got to experience the magic of Lindt chocolate, a BIG church, and behind the scenes primetime television.
Above all, it was a beautiful little city. It definitely felt small, though I have a feeling it’s bigger than Stuttgart.
It is the birthplace of scent for men— and you can even go visit the boutique that first made the stuff. That would’ve been a useless trip for me seeing that I have no sense of smell, but it’s an interesting piece of history… I would’ve thought that cologne was invented by the French! But no, it was the Germans that decided that men should be allowed to smell “pretty” too, so… surprise! View full article »
I feel like I’ve gotten to know the Southern region of Germany pretty well since I got here, and for the most part it’s a very beautiful and busy place. I think the weekend that we decided to drive around down there had about 5 random holidays lines up in a row that we didn’t know about, which might account for the busyness, but it was fun, so there.
We pretty much just hopped in a car and drove aimlessly around the region (although there was an overall destination in mind). We drove through Ulm, Ravensburg, Weingarten, Lake Constance, a bunch of random tiny towns that I can’t remember the names of, and ended up in Füssen for Neuschwanstein for the second time— except this time it was spring and not winter, so it was incredibly more colourful (and warm). We passed by many cows, dandelions, and the Alps were almost always in the picture dead ahead. Here are two of the highlights which I found the most interesting. View full article »
Of all the places that I’ve ever been to on a vacation, Egypt was the only one in which I felt like I wasn’t finished. I found myself wanting to stay longer and explore more, as if I hadn’t even scratched the surface. With most places, after about two or three days I start feeling like I’m ready to go back, but Egypt was just so different in every way possible, and that might be the reason why I genuinely didn’t want to leave. It was refreshing in a very surreal way.
Friday: The City of the Dead
The poverty in Cairo is overwhelming everywhere you go, but the greatest concentration of the poorest of the poor in the city live here, in what’s known as the City of the Dead.
The City of the Dead is a graveyard, filled with Islamic-style tombstones, tombs, and mausoleums. The area is noticeably shorter than the rest of the city partially because all the tombs are less than a storey high, and partially because the overall ground level of the city has risen considerably over the past 100 years. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon to walk past a window, door, or archway that was half buried in the ground all over the city! It was just way worse here because it was even more unkempt than the rest of Cairo. View full article »
Thursday: Getting the Pyramids Out of the Way
On Thursday we decided we’d go to the pyramids in Giza. On the way there we passed by a lot of agricultural lands which had been illegally built upon. The illegal buildings were basically made out of brick and were just big red cubes stacked on top of one another. All of them were unfinished and most of them intend to keep it that way because only finished buildings are taxed. That said, the housing is illegal and not supposed to be there anyway, so it’s all just a weird situation. There are hundreds of them (maybe thousands?) and it’s all because there’s just no other place for these people to go. If they can afford a bunch of bricks then they can just build a place on one of these unfinished buildings and they’re all set. Unfinished or not, they are densely inhabited. View full article »
That was definitely the phrase of the week during my all too short trip to Cairo, Egypt. On the first day, I counted that we had been randomly called out to with “Welcome!” over 20 times!
What Is Egypt?
There is a lot to say about Egypt. The first and most important thing, is that 5 days is barely enough to explore Cairo, much less the rest of the country— which is as equally as interesting as the city itself. When most people think of Egypt, they think of ancient mummies, scarabs, jackal-headed gods, and lots of desert. While this is an interesting part of the country, it’s not only extremely outdated, but it’s only a pinhole view of the rich and diverse (and more modern) history and culture. On my trip, I did see the pyramids and tried to get in some of the more cliché reasons to visit Egypt to say that I’ve done it, but my real goal was to experience being in the middle of a non-western culture and try to really get a feel for the present culture. I have to say, I think I managed to do that— even in the short amount of time that I was there for, and consequently it turned out to be the most incredible trip that I’ve ever taken. Not only did I learn multitudes of information about the Arab world and a more personalised Egyptian view of Americans/politics, but I managed to learn a lot about myself, my personal values, and how fortunate I am to have what I have. I think that when most American or European tourists come and stay in the expensive hotels on the Nile, do their best to avoid the modern culture and probably think of it as a nuisance. But, as annoying as it can be to be constantly hassled by people who want to take advantage of your rich western economy, as I said— that is a pinhole view. Not only do I think that they are missing out on an incredible learning experience, but they are missing the point… the opportunity to learn why they are constantly being hassled. View full article »
Wow, I’ve really been slacking! Things have been a bit crazy here, so I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and write this stuff. Here’s a picture of the gorgeous spring dandelion infiltration to make up for it. Anyway, 1 May is a date for Germany which has three (maybe more) holidays smashed into one, and it makes for a rather interesting post. Conveniently, I was also being carted around southern Germany for the holiday weekend, which allowed me to get a somewhat varied experience (apparently not much happens in Stuttgart)!
The first part was originally a religious themed holiday called Maibaumstag (May-tree-day), where each town puts up a little decorated tree on top of a pole in the center of the town. Each town’s tree is different based on the individual town’s personality, and I thought it was interesting that it’s basically just a christmas tree at the wrong time of year. That said, apparently it used to be very common for people to try and take town the tree in the middle of the town so that they could fulfill the other tradition of the day, which made it so that many towns had to protect their tree! View full article »
“Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Panties…I’m sorry…Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Bach. Names that will live for ever. But there is one composer whose name is never included with the greats. Why is it that the world never remembered the name of Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm? To do justice to this man, thought by many to be the greatest name in German Baroque music, we present a profile of Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon-…” -Monty Python
The city of Ulm— probably one of my favourites so far! It’s beautiful, mostly traditional, still feels old for the most part, and above all it has the most frightening-looking church I’ve ever seen in my life.
The Münster Cathedral
View full article »
The first day that Sarah and I walked around downtown Stuttgart to check out what used to be the longest shopping street in Germany (I don’t know what it is now, but apparently it’s been outdone somewhere else), we got hungry and decided that it would be a good idea to get some food. We also thought that it would be appropriate to go to and get some typical German food so we could keep exploring the culture. Then we realized something… We didn’t know what typical German food was. That is, the food that that normal Germans eat and not the stereotypical “wurst and beer” which was all we could really think of. Unfortunately we didn’t really know where we were going and my German was even worse than it is now, so we sort of had to rely on pictures or by what we could see, so we settled on crepes, which is pretty far from German but damn good (and cheap). View full article »
My travelling buddy to Munich was another Canadian student who’s strong will and passion is rooted in Judaism, and she made it a point that she wanted to visit Dachau to pay respects and learn what she can. I thought that was a great idea and who better to pay respects to the victims of a concentration camp then with a Jewish friend. This visit was not only one of the darkest and most intense places I’ve ever been, but one of the most humbling as well— the camp in Dachau was the first concentration camp and remained only as work camp (not a death camp like Auschwitz) throughout it’s entire functional life.. which in some ways I consider to be worse than the death camps because these people weren’t immediately doomed to die— they were doomed to be worked to death. Not to mention some of the most horrific human experimentation ever documented also happened there— completely without the knowledge of the citizens of the then small town of Dachau. View full article »
Above all, it was a beautiful little city. It definitely felt small, though I have a feeling it’s bigger than Stuttgart.
