It has been a crazy busy week as usual. Last Thursday we took a little field trip to Onkel Tom's Hutte in former West Berlin. The complex was designed by Bruno Taut (and a few others, but we focused on him).
This is our lovely instructor Jan who obviously loves Bruno Taut.
Following this chilly endeavor, my friend Chelsea and I decided to check out a food cart lot we had discovered the last week. We opted for the Wareniki (pronounced va-Ren-eh-kee). The are Russian (Russisch in German) dumplings and are mighty tasty!
My first experience in a hostel! Woo! It was so much nicer than I had thought and the breakfast was kind of the greatest thing ever! German breakfasts are. Warm, wonderful bread, meats, cheeses, yogurt, musli, yum!
Hafen City. A new development along the harbor that will be built over the next 25 years.
We took a tour of what had been completed and walked through what I will call the Starchitect district. It was the weirdest thing- I felt like I was on the set of Inception the whole time!
That night I finally had some real German food! This is the "Ham"burger I had in Hamburg, as well as quite possibly the best potatoes I have had in my life!!! In case you want to dispute the legitimacy of my burger, I also had a bite of a Big Mac on Sunday... might have been my first ever.
Burgermeister!
We sought refuge from the hurricane in a church with possibly the most beautiful organ! And, it was being played! We spent a good amount of time here. It was nice to take a break and listen to a nice concert and try to dry off.
We spent Saturday night wandering around trying to find this Scandinavian restaurant called Karlson's! Much to our chagrin, it was just a lunch place and had already closed... I'll just have to go to Sweden, I guess.
This was the crown jewel of the weekend! The Fischmarkt! There were all kinds of trucks selling fruits, vegetables, plants, fish, and baked goods, of course! Chelsea and I saw and fell in love with the baskets in this truck and had to leave with one! We used our broken German to negotiate and each left with a great Hamburg basket and a banana to boot!
Had a wurst!
The whole city was so beautiful and I finally saw more of the quintessential Europe!
Love it!
Sadly this picture doesn't showcase the wind or rain for the weekend... it was torrential!
And there it is! The proof of my new coffee... thing. :)
Today my friend Heather and I went to visit the Topography of Terror, as we had to write a paper about it. The museum contained all sorts of documentation from the Nazi Era and is set on the location of the old SS and Gestapo headquarters. It really made me stop and think about where I am, the things that happened here, and what that means. Really emotionally charged.
Ruins of the jail cells and SS offices. People were often sent here prior to being sent to concentration camps. Torture and executions were common here.
It is surreal to walk through these places and be confronted with such a strong history.
And to end on a slightly lighter note, I have included a picture of my most recent favorite thing: Milchreis. Translated to Milk-Rice. It is incredible!
I'll have to learn how to make this (meine Mutti told me how once) in case I can't find it in the US.
No comments:
Post a Comment