Guten Tag. I only have a few moments to share some things with you, so I must be brief. On Saturday I took a day trip down to Lutherstadt Wittenberg and it was such a nice trip. There weren't many people there and the day, while a little hot, provided a nice breeze so all was not intolerable. The Altstadt (old town) itself is small, and can be walked in less than half an hour. The Lutherhaus museum was one of the best curated museums I have been to. The presentation was simple and provided texts in both German and English and was unobtrusive to the point of letting you take in the artifacts. It also had the best use of computer technology I have seen, with monitors positioned at selected places that allowed you to uncover details of larger objects--mostly paintings, Cranach paintings in particular--in a comfortable setting without being too overtly flashy or dumbed down like so many museums tend to do when they incorporate "new" devices.
I climbed up the Schlossturm (castle tower) and got a great view of the city. I am terrified of curved stairs, especially those that are small and open. Do you know what I am talking about? Luckily there were few other people there so I was able to take my time and be very careful when going up and down. I was drenched in sweat when I finished and made sure to give a little prayer of thanks when I reached the ground, but I got some great pictures.
Surprisingly, one of the highlights of the trip was a visit to a museum on life in the East from the 1920s to 1980s. It consisted of kitchens, livingrooms, and bedrooms through the decades and it was a fascinating insight into the kind of lifestyle people enjoyed (although they admitted that it was a lifestyle enjoyed by few, given that a TV once cost a whole year's income). Suprisingly, when I bought my ticket for the museum the ticket woman asked me if I was from Austria. No, I told her, America. She was happy about that. Admittedly, I only said one sentence and that was "One student ticket, please" so I am under no allusions to my rather poor speaking skills being better than they are. Later, while I was going along on the tour while not saying anything, the tour guide asked me if I could speak German. I told them that while I could only speak a little, I understood 90% of their tour. They were really happy about that, since I am led to believe that it is a rarity for Americans to even try to do anything in German, even those who live here full time, since it is so easy to get along without it.
Anyway, it was a lovely trip. I only have two more days of my class, and will have to admit it was a bit disappointing. The skill levels were so diverse in the class that we spent half of the time doing remedial material. I finally had enough when we spent half an hour on word order in simple sentences. I was a bit brusk with people, but then again, I am in Prussia, so that should be expected.
Yesterday I spent the day in heaven. To be more precise, the place I want to go when I die. I am talking about the top floor of KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens, with the We prounced, of course, Ve), which is Berlin's fancy department store. The top floor is just food, food, and more food. Half of it is just meat. I just walked around it looking at all the different types of meats and just drooled all over myself. Meat!!! Sausage!!! Bacon!!! I still have not had any real vegetables or chicken since I have been here. The fish I have had has been relegated to herring dishes, of which I will partake in greatly in Hamburg, to be sure.
Speaking of that, on Sunday I am taking a train to Hamburg where I will spend the day before flying out of Hamburg to southern Austria on Monday morning. From there I will venture into the Balkans for a week. It isn't quite clear what I will be doing there, but I know that we will go to the Dalmation coast for a day, maybe pop into Trieste, and go to Slovenian wine coutry for at least a day or two. I have expressed some interest in getting shot at in Bosnia. It will be an exciting trip, that is for sure.
After a week in Slovenia and surrounding areas I will be taking a train to Munich where I will meet with Blimpish and then spend the week drinking beer in Munich and then in a triumphal return to Berlin. While I suppose I am looking forward to seeing Blimpish, I am most excited about having air conditioning in the hotels and being able to take a shower in a real shower. It is going to be almost 100°F here in Berlin on Thursday and there is barely any AC to be found. I might spend the day at the Wansee.