Berlin
March 2nd – 4th, 2007

I just returned from a fascinating trip to Berlin. I flew on Friday morning with Germanwings. I bought real cheap tickets online. Only € 60 for a roundtrip ticket from Stuttgart to Berlin! I had been looking forward to this trip from the time I made the reservation. I had only 2 days in Berlin and a lot of places I was interested in visiting. Unfortunately we had really terrible weather and that cut my days of sightseeing down to one.

On Friday, it rained all day and it was very cold. I wanted to see the Berlin wall, the Bradenburg Tor, Reichstag, checkpoint Charlie, some museums.. however I was drenched in the rain, miserable and cold and did not care to do anything at that point except find a nice warm café and drink Latte Macchiato mit Karamel which is what I ended up doing. Drinking Coffee, then a couple of Mojitos.. hmm I love those.. and then went to an Egyptian bar where I got a Sheesha. That warmed me quite well.

Saturday, I had to make up for the lost time. Sebastian, Jeff and I went first to the longest remaining section of the Berlin wall. (Photo 1 and 2) That is close to the Ostbahnhof. There was a small souvenir shop where the owner claimed to be able to stamp your passport with the checkpoint stamp for €1.00. We didn’t have our passports so we could not do it. After walking in that area, we went to Unter den Linden where the Brandenburg gate is. We had heard of a free 3.5 hour walking tour offered everyday at 11am or 1pm which had been getting rave reviews and wanted to try it out. It definitely lived up to its expectations. (Photo 3) Our tour guide Nikolai (an American) was very entertaining. Plus we got to see a lot and learn a lot about this city in a relatively short time. Ideal for us, as we had limited time. We visited the Bradenburg Tor, Reichstag, Hitler’s bunker, Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie (Photo 4), the Berliner Dom, Holocaust memorial, Museum Island and more. For anyone travelling to Berlin, I would highly recommend this tour. It was really good. And yes, it indeed was free (Though tips are gladly accepted). Check out the company at www.newberlintours.com. Apparently they make their money on the paid tours offered. All of them seemed very interesting but unfortunately we did not have the time to take one of those. This tour itself lasted from 1pm to 5pm.

After the tour all of us were famished. We proceeded to find Dada’s falafel place, a place I had read about in guidebooks as having the best falafels in town. It really was super. At least the best one I have eaten so far. Even better than Lashish in Detroit which until Dada´s was my best falafel place. After dinner we went to West Berlin to see the Kaiser Wilhelm cathedral. It is a very impressive looking Cathedral which had been bombed during WWII. It had been heavily damaged and has not been reconstructed. It serves as a reminder of the horrifying repercussions of war. (Photo 5).

In the evening, we went to a bar on Kurfürstenstraße (The Champs Elysees of Berlin). I tasted my first Berliner Weiß mit Schuss. (Photo 6). It is a white beer (sometimes known as the champagne of beers) to which fruit cordial is added (raspberry or woodruff) which gives it a very sweet and fruity flavour and a bright red or green color depending on what flavour you pick. It is actually a summer drink.. but for a non beer drinker like me – this was perfect - for any occasion. I wish I can find one in Tübingen.

In all Saturday was a fantastic day. Even though the weather was not much better, we did get out and explored the city. I am sure I will go back to Berlin. There are still the museums I need to visit ….

Ok, You all probably knew this, but I just figured this out. You can click on any of the pictures on this site and you will get to see the enlarged picture. Great! Now you can see that I am not that bad of a photographer. Though I must admit, I am not too happy with the pictures I have of my travels so far. The places I have visited are far more prettier than the pictures depict. However the pictures of Tübingen and Heidelburg are nice. Do click on it to see the beautiful town I am living in.

München, Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Konstanz and of course, Tübingen
February 2007

I am finally able to appreciate my German lessons as now I am able to talk, read and understand some German. In fact, I have completely forgotten my French (I don’t know if that is a good thing). I was trying to talk to Sebastian in French, who is a colleague at SIT and is from France, and I could not get one sentence correct. Actually I could not even remember the most basic French words. Frauke, my teacher at SIT says not to worry, it will all come back if I am in France and actually trying to use it.

This month, I have joined a couple of Salsa classes and an Aerobic “strip ’n move” class. It has been awesome so far. It is really a great way to meet some locals and also to practice my German as all the classes are in Deutsch. I have a beginner level Salsa class on Sundays at 6:00pm, another Salsa class (Beginner level II) which is on Wednesdays at 8:30 pm and the aerobics class which is on Thursdays at 9:15pm. I had signed up for another Salsa class which was scheduled to begin on March 2^nd, but I think I have too much on my plate now, so today, I went over and cancelled that registration. I probably will cancel the aerobics too. I am enjoying the Salsa classes so much, especially my Wednesday classes, I think I will stick with those. Besides with all the traveling I am planning for the next month I will be missing classes so no point registering. Right? So what else have I done in the month of February? Traveled!

München, February 10^th, 2007

SIT arranged for an excursion (a day trip) to München. It is a 3 hr drive from Tübingen. We traveled by bus. München seemed like an awesome place.. seemed because unfortunately I did not have enough time to see most of it. We had about six hours in all. We walked around the city center, and saw the Rathaus (the old and the new one) and visited the Frauenkirche. After that Cecilia, Adam, Sebastian, Yunwoo and I went to Lunch at a German restaurant. I really wanted to see the Deutches Museum, but that is easily an all day commitment which I could not afford, so instead we went to the Hofbrauhaus. The (in) famous brewery. Today, I had my first beer in Germany. Yes, can you believe it… the country’s famous for its beers and I hadn’t as yet had any. But I do not like beer. However, the Germans have interesting beer mixes… like the Radler (what I had) which is beer mixed with lemonade, or the Diesel which is Beer mixed with coke. Later we went to the Olympic Park, and climbed the TV tower. Got some good pictures from there.. before my camera died down later :)

Neues Rathaus, and the city skyline

BMW Headquarter in München

Stuttgart, February 14^th 2007

Today we had only 1.5 hours of class today. At 10am we left from SIT towards Stuttgart to visit the Mercedes Benz museum and one of Daimler’s production plants. The museum was great. The building was pretty impressive (the cars too were, of course). The factory tour was interesting. We got to see the production on the Daimler engines for one of their product lines. Later, we went to the city center. This my third visit to the city center of Stuttgart, so for once I did not shop (I was tempted as my favorite store Zara is in the pedestrian mall there) Ok Ok.. I did go to the store .. but only for 10 minutes. Unfortunately (or fortunately.. as I do need to save my money), Zara did not have a good collection.

Heidelberg, February 17^th 2007

There are many special tickets one can get on the Deutsch Bahn (German trains). One of them is the Baden-Wüttemburg ticket. This ticket costs 27 for up to 5 people to travel on any one day to any city in the state of Baden-Wüttemburg. So we decided to take advantage of this awesome low price and took a daytrip to Heidelburg. Only, we were 6 of us. Still, more the merrier! Adam and Jeff from the IMBA group, and Sebastian (from France), Cecilia (from Sweden) and Yunwoo (from South Korea) all traveled to Heidelberg. It was awesome. The weather was fantastic. Adam had been to Heidelberg before so he led the way. We went to the Altes Brucke (the old bridge) then to the Heidelberg Schloss (Castle) and later walked around the city center. (Photo 1: Crazy hair day in Heidelburg - at the Altes Brucke overlooking the castle - with Yunwoo, Cecilia, Adam, Jeff & Sebastian). Typically in all cities the city center has the Rathaus (the town hall), and a lot of old buildings, cobblestone streets, a couple of churches and some shops, cafes and restaurants. In the evening, Adam and Yunwoo went to a concert at a Church.. I was tempted to go as well, it sounded quite interesting.. “From Beethoven to Beatles..” is what the sign read. However we only had a couple hours before we needed to head back to the train station to get back to Tübingen. I decided to use that time romping in the city rather than staying indoors. Did I mention the weather was spectacular today? Probably the warmest it has been since I have been here in Germany. So, the rest of us took the trail of the Philosopher’s Weg… a trail that leads up a hill, across the river from the city center and the Castle. The view was spectacular from the top of the hill. The castle was all lit up.. (it was getting dark). Too bad my pictures don’t do it any justice. All that walking made us hungry.. we had dinner at a Thai restaurant. The food here in Germany is typically a little bland, so I asked for “mehr scharf” (more spicy). Bad Idea. It was so hot, I could barely eat. My taste buds went numb after a while. I guess I ought to be careful of what I ask for the next time. We were able to catch our train on time, and reached Tübingen at 12:30am.

With Cecilia, Sebastian, Yunwoo and Adam at the Heidelburg Castle

Konstanz, February 24^th – 25^th 2007

Since our group had such a good time in Heidelburg, we planned to travel together again. This time, an overnight trip to Bodensee. Bodensee is the largest lake in Germany. The lake is bordered by 3 countries: Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Konstanz, actually is a town which sits on the border of Germany and Switzerland.

We again took advantage of the Baden-Wüttemburg ticket to travel. It is such an awesome deal, especially with a group. The two day trip cost only 14 Euros in traveling expenses. Yunwoo and Jeff could not make the trip, so it was just Adam, Sebastian, Cecilia and I who went.

We stayed at a Youth Hostel there. It was the cleanest hostel I have stayed at. It was even better than a couple of hotels I have stayed at. (It is amazing how your expectation lowers when you are on a shoestring budget). After checking in at the hostel, we ate lunch at an Italian Restaurant (I think it is called Rustica Trattoria) that Adam recommended (He had stayed in Konstanz for a month a few years back). The food was awesome. The weather was terrible. It rained 80% of the time we were there. We had expected the weather to be real nice so we did not carry umbrellas. Bad decision! Still, we made the most of our day, walking (in the rain) exploring the city and spending time in cafes if the rain got too bad. In the evening, we went to a Mexican-Italian restaurant bar. I was pleasantly surprised to see they served Sangria. I haven’t seen many restaurants or bar offering Sangrias. Yes, I know people here prefer beer. Well, needless to say, we ordered Sangrias.. 2 pitchers of it. It was actually quite good. Though still not as good as the one I had at Lola’s. Lola is a Pizzeria in Charleston WV, and believe it or not, they have the best Pizzas and Sangria I have ever had. And trust me; I have traveled to a lot of places and I love food. I should know. Lola’s is really good. Well, back to Konstanz, we finished with our Sangrias and later walked to Switzerland. Yes literally strolled there. It was very boring though. Apparently the people from Switzerland-Konstanz come over to the Germany-Konstanz for nightlife and restaurants. On the way back we missed our bus to the hostel, and instead of waiting for ½ hour for the next bus, we walked. I did not realize it would take us an hour to walk back. It was after midnight by the time we got back to the hostel. But it had stopped raining, and the walk actually was quite pleasant.

The next day it was still raining. We really wanted to take a ride on the Bodensee. So in spite of the bad weather we took a ferry to Meersburg. Meersburg is a small town built on a steep vineyard right by the lake. It is a delightful town with quaint old buildings a very interesting castle and spectacular views of the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately with the rains and fog the view of the alps was there only for fleeting moments. It is definitely a place one should visit in the summer. I imagine it would be fabulous then.

We had time to stop by and have lunch before we boarded the train back to Tübingen.