Dresden City Festival

Dresden City Festival

Gold horse raider statue

I never been to the former East Germany before, so when I had a chance to visit Dresden, I didn’t hesitate to go.  My Indonesian friend who study in Dresden informed me about the city festival, so I go there not just visiting the city but also experiencing the crowd.  In addition, Indonesian students would also perform traditional dances!  This is something that I always admired from fellow Indonesians: none of the students are professional dancers (c’mon, engineer, scientist, linguist…) yet they are wiling to learn to dance for introducing Indonesia to the world. 

Preparation before the dance

Anyway, so I went to Dresden by train with several language course students.  The trip took about three hours.  We planned to have one-day trip, we would go home in the evening.

Arriving Dresden, I didn’t waste my time, I directly went to the stage where the Indonesian dances would be performed (there are several stages spread all over the city center).  There I met my friend and saw the preparation before the dances started. 

The dances attracted people around.  Some were videotaping, took pictures, and kids also tried to follow the dances.  Very cute!  There were four dances: three Balinese and one Sumatran.

People attracted to Indonesian dances

After the dances, I said goodbye to my friend and continued my sightseeing around the festival.  There were several areas divided by themes, for example: sport theme, medieval theme, youth theme, culture theme, etc.  Very interesting!

After awhile, I met with my Berlin friends again and joined them to a palace and explored the garden.  And after that I got separated again until we met again in the train station before going home.  Overall I think Dresden is a nice city, it has old and modern buildings.  To be honest, I never thought that Dresden would be a big city…

'Biggest' fan

Fountain in Dresden's castle

Lübeck

This is my last traveling in Germany before I fly back to my country. With a very limited time, I can’t travel far. I have to choose one city nearby Bremen where I can visit it without staying. The option is going to a city that I haven’t visited before or; a city that I have visited before but to a place that I haven’t visited. In the end, I choose to go to a city that I haven’t visited before.



Why Lübeck? Well it’s a recommendation from a friend. She said that it’s possible to explore Lübeck in one day and the city has many old buildings from the medieval and gothic times.

Lübeck is in the north direction from Bremen. To go there, I have to go by train to Hamburg and then change train to Lübeck. I use this route because my semester ticket covers a train cost from Bremen to Hamburg, which means I don’t have to pay. And when I try to buy a ticket to Lübeck in Hamburg, there’s a guy offers me to join his group ticket. With this ticket, the cost is cheaper than a single ticket.

By using a free map that one can get almost everywhere, it’s easy to travel around the city by walking. The city is just a one big round, nobody will get lost. It’s just a matter if one wants to travel clockwise or anti clockwise direction.










The landmark of the city is the two twin towers as the ancient gate of the city. And as my friend said, there’re many interesting historical buildings. The city is very nice; I think it is cleaner than Bremen. The sidewalk beside the river is also nice because it is on the same level as the city road. I think I don’t mind to live there.

Lübeck is famous for its marzipan, a kind of nuts. There’s a big marzipan museum and store there. Most of the marzipans are made as a filling for chocolates. Only small numbers are purely marzipan. I bought a pure marzipan in a form of sea turtle. I feel so sad in eating the turtle :(

I walk circling the city for about four hours. I manage to go home before 9PM. It’s tiring, of course, but I hope I could do it again in the future.

Meppen

Again, another small city near the border where I have to stop for changing my train. This time, I have to wait for about 1 hour. The interesting part of this town is a mural in the station wall. It’s not well preserved, but it still nice to see.

Salzbergen

This is a small town near the border of Germany. I go there just for transit because I have to change trains from Bad Bentheim to Bremen, as I try to travel in cheapest way.

I have to wait there around 30 minutes and that time, it was Sunday. First, I thought I’ll end up dead in boredom as this town doesn’t even exist in my map. But I am glad that I am wrong. Outside its small station, there’s a monument of an old train, complete with old train shower, old lamp, and old information post. So interesting!

And across the street, there’s 1 café and 1 small restaurant. They both open in Sunday!!! And not far from there, like 1 minute walk, there’s larger open air café that also open in Sunday. I think if I explore more, I could find many more interesting places to kill the time. Well, probably the town is aware of this situation; where many people have to wait for changing train. That’s why they keep open in Sunday.


I think I kinda regret that I only have 30 minutes there.

Wremen, Cuxhaven and Bremerhaven

No, I don’t mistype it. It’s Wremen not Bremen. It’s just a small place in Cuxhaven. According to Wikipedia, Wremen is a municipality while Cuxhaven is a district.

I went there for excursion study under Coastal Geomorphology course. We’re visiting tidal flat, ex-salt marshes, and dykes. It’s a very nice excursion especially the weather is friendly. It’s a bright sunny day.

First we have to struggle in muddy coast. Sometime we got stuck, sometime we can slide on it. Nobody got fall down, but surely our pants are a bit dirty. Me, I got water in my right boot.

Tidal Flat Pilgrims

Then we go to dykes that build for protecting coastal community. The salt marshes that present before become prairie.

At the end of the journey, we visit Bremerhaven, a port town near Bremen. Nowadays, this town wants to be the biggest container port in Germany. The tidal flat areas are gone replaced by concrete flat. Hey, I am not against it. I just have a nice video presentation about it.

Places to Visit in Berlin

Since Berlin is a special place, even the road signs there also special. Just pay attention at these crossing lights. Aren’t they cute?



To do a sight seeing of the city, you don’t even need to join any tour. There’re 2 busses that pass most of the major tourist places in the city. And what makes it perfect, the busses are double-decker ones so you can see the city from above. Many tourists also doing it and the drivers can speak English so they can help you if you need information.

As a part of marine community, my chosen places to be visited are not far from marine theme. There are 2 places related for this, one is the state aquarium and the other is private-sector aquarium called ‘Sea Life’.

In the (state) Aquarium, the place is nice but somewhat a bit stiff in design. The remark mostly in German. Only small part that also contain English.

In the Sea Life, the design is funkier. All the remarks are bilingual so this is really a nice place to visit. However, there’re times when the Sea Life’s staff make a presentation about the animals, and during this they present it in German. Another thing, there’re many warning signs here that forbid the visitors to take pictures with flash as it can make the fish stress. Hmmmm… why such a warning isn’t present in the Aquarium?






Anyway, also in this place you can see a giant aquarium tower in the middle of a hotel! To see the whole aquarium there’s special lift for it in the middle of the tank! So amazing!










Actually I still want to visit the Museuminsel or museum island but I have no time for it. I guess this would be a good reason for me to go back to Berlin :)

Weather in Berlin

Well this is just based on my experience. I didn’t measure or compare anything related to the weather. In Bremen, I get thirsty easily. And if I don’t drink much, my lips and skin will get dry easily. In Berlin, I don’t experience this. I don’t get thirsty easily although I have walked for some hours. And surprisingly my lips and skin are not dry because I drink less.

As I write before, the weather during New Year celebration was nice. It was warm and the sky is clear. But in the next day, there’s snow rain! And it keeps raining almost the whole day, covering everything to become white! What a drastic chance. But I guess, as we’re in Indonesia have rainmaker/ controller, in Germany they have snowmaker/ controller!

Places to Stay in Berlin

Actually there are many cheap places to stay in Berlin. If you google it, you can find hundreds (or even thousands) about it. But since I visit there during New Year celebration, it’s not easy to find a place to stay. They all fully booked.

But somehow I manage to get one nice accommodation. It comes from the lonely planet list. Although it supposes to be cheap but during New Year celebration, the price becomes irrational. But hey, what choice do I have? So I just take it. Beside, it is located strategically in the city centre area, so I guess the price is somehow rational now.

The vacant room is girl dormitory where you have to share one room with 6 persons. If you just need a place to sleep for awhile, then this kind of room is perfect. This room also have bathroom. But funnily, the toilet is outside! Isn’t that we use toilet more than shower…?

When I come to this hostel, everything is relatively clean and tidy. But when I left it, everything is a mess especially in the toilet. Trash of tissues is covering the floor and the mirrors are full with graffiti. Gosh, is that why the price is so high during New Year celebration, because people tend to do vandalism during that time?

New Year in Berlin

Berlin is a big city as I would imagine. It has big buildings, wide roads, many places to visit, and many stores that open almost 24 hours a day. When I visit there, tourists are everywhere. Group of people following one tour guide is common to see. Also, independent tourists like me, who walking around with map or lonely planet book, are everywhere. So you don’t have to be worried for getting lost here, you won’t!

For the New Year party, the celebration is at the Brandenburger Tor, the city landmark. There’s a huge stage and F&B stands around. This open air place is close guarded with the police who’ll check your bags and pockets. No glass bottles, weapons, and firecrackers allowed.

As in everywhere, the celebration is more or less the same. Many singers perform in one huge stage, broadcast live by one TV station. And 10 seconds before midnight, the countdown begins and then followed by the fireworks. What is nice about the celebration is that the weather is so friendly. It’s relatively warm and the sky is clear.

After this, I go back to my hostel. This time I have to walk for about 2 km as no more bus operated. In the streets, trash is everywhere, mostly from the pieces of glass bottles and firecrackers. I guess this is the perfect time for the Germans to litter. People still partying in the street, they are drunk and having firecrackers war. Police’s sirens keep screaming in every corner. To make it more thrilling, the winter night is pretty dark so the situation is really like a gang war or something. I never experience this kind of situation before. Although I am experienced in walking home from a stadium after rock concerts or football matches that end up in riots, but it’s rare to see many people drunk in the street in Indonesia. But somehow, I just don’t feel scared. In fact, I still can take many pictures although I am walking alone with a potential-attractive pink jacket.

When I go to bed at 2 AM the situation is still the same. But when I go out in the next day at around 9 AM, the situation is completely different. The roads are clear and no more drunk people in the streets!!! Well the roads are not all clear but at least most of them are clearer. And the streets are just filled with some tourists like before. Not so many but it’s just like nothing special happen before. Wooow…!!!

Trip to Berlin (Lift sharers part 3)

As it becomes a first choice, I use the lifting service (mitfahr) to go to Berlin. This time it’s so easy to find as many people also go there just to celebrate New Year and go back. But for some reasons, I end up use different traveler for going there and coming back. It turns out that the trip to go to Berlin is the nicest one so far in my lifting history. The main travelers are nice young couple and my travel mate is a guy, they all are native Bremen but they talk mostly in English so I don’t feel alienated. And even better, we talked about something that I am pretty good at: football!

In the end, they drop me in my hostel. This is really nice as usually this kind of service never provide this privilege. Usually they just travel from point to point as they want it and won’t bother to turn a bit just to drop one passenger. So yes, this one is the nice one.

Berlin

The capital. The biggest city in Germany. It’s surely an interesting place to visit. Unlike other places that I visited in a ‘wrong time’, I surely visit Berlin in the right time. I went there to experience the New Year celebration in one of the important places in Europe. For this, I don’t need to have any people to be visited. I just go there, get lost and experiencing. (Visited at 31 Dec 2007-1 Jan 2008)

Things to Buy in Stuttgart

Yeah, actually not so many. I am just so impressed with the merchandise of VFB Stuttgart. The design is so varied and good. For my opinion, this is the coolest football merchandise designs that I found in Germany so far. If I live in Stuttgart, I am sure I’ll buy and collect many of these. But since I live in Bremen now, I have to be loyal with my city.

Places to Visit in Stuttgart

A day after Christmas, Thank God, many tourist places are open. So at least I didn’t just go there, taking pictures and go back.

First stop is Schlossplatz. In here you can find the old palace and new palace including some monuments in 1 area. In short, this is the best place to take pictures as evidence that you have been to Stuttgart.

TV Tower. This is the oldest TV Tower in Germany. It was built in 1956. Here, you can take a lift to the top of the tower and look at the city of Stuttgart from an open air.

VFB Stuttgart Stadium. It was closed when I visit there, so I just take a picture there. However, I can’t find any sign that stated this is a stadium in Stuttgart. So I don’t blame anybody if they don’t believe that I’ve been there.

Mercedes Benz Museum. What can I say, although I am not crazy about car, but still this museum is a cool one. It’s about the history of the Mercedes Benz from the scratch to the present time.

What makes it amazing, the museum is pretty hi-tech. Every visitor is equipped with a small device and earphone for audio guide. We can hear the explanation by pointing this device to the boards that have audio guide sign. So it feels like we have our own personal guide.

Traveling in Stuttgart

Surprisingly, traveling cost in Stuttgart is so expensive!!! A full day ticket can cost you € 4.50 and this is only covering 2 zones!!!

In Munich & Frankfurt, with about the same price you can travel to further zone. Hmmm I wonder how Stuttgart decides to have this cost…

Stuttgart

This is also a big city although as not as big as Munich. The city is considered as new as it was bombed during the World War II and has to start everything all over again. The city has hilly sides and low land sides. So, it’s nice to take a tram or S-Bahn as a sight seeing activity cause you can see the low land from the high land and vice versa. (Visited at 25-27 Dec 2007)

Traveling in Munich

Munich is a big city, so traveling there should require a specific strategy. Well at least that’s what my friend does. In taking the transportation, she needs to figure out the destination station so she can jump out near the exit door!!!

She develops this strategy because she found out that her time is wasted for this kind of walk: walk from the station’s entry point to the platform and walk from the platform to the station’s exit way or to the next line for making connection. Hmmm… I know that the schedules are tight and the transportation infrastructure can reach 5 levels in Munich, but I never thought that will cause such a problem as the U-Bahn and S-Bahn always come in 5 minutes. I wonder what kind of strategy that she would develop if she has to live in Bremen ;)

Places to Visit in Munich

When I went there, it was a Christmas holiday time. So, not much to see as many places are closed. However, I managed to visit some of places that I found interesting.

First is the Allianz Arena. This is the newest stadium of Bayern München. Unfortunately this place was closed when I came, so I just take a picture in front of it.

Olympiapark. This is the area where the 1972 Olympic Games were held. The architectures are very fascinating and the whole complex is very comforting for outdoor activities. I think, during winter, walking around the park is a good strategy to make you warm.

BMW Museum. Of course it’s about BMW history, but since I came during Xmas holiday, it was closed and I only take a picture in front of the building.

Rathaus. Rathaus is a city council house. In Munich, this place has a big clock with dancing puppets. The puppet show only performs at noon daily.

Nymphenburg Schloss/Palace. This is the summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria. Since it’s projected for summer, the view in winter is not as fascinating as it would be in summer. No flowers in the gardens and all the statues are covered. Hmm, maybe the statues are feeling cold.

Odeonplatz. In this place, you can find many statues and buildings from 19th century.

People in Munich

During my early days in Germany, I’ve heard many stereotypes about Northern people and Southern people. The major thing is that people in the North are grumpier and cold while in the South is the other way around. But I guess this stereotype isn’t applied if you compare Bremen and Munich.

I found that people in Munich is colder and rather individualist. They don’t smile and don’t interact each other. I know I could be wrong as I only visit the city for a few days. But these are the impression that I got. For example, if you are in an escalator, you have to stand in the right side to let other people can pass you in the left side. (Just like cars in the roads). If you don’t do this and make other people can’t pass you, they will express their complain to you directly rather than to give you a friendly or polite warning. Another example is when I saw an old (senior) lady facing difficulties in opening the S-Bahn door. Nobody helps her!!!! I don’t think this would happen in Bremen. Even for me who always late to come to the tram stop and have to run from some meters away, there’s always somebody who will hold the tram or bus door for me so I can jump in…!!! See…??!!

Munich

This is the highest cost city to live in. So when I went there, I am ready to be amazed by the prices. Surprisingly, the prices for foods or merchandises are not shocking. But I am shocked to know that there’s no semester (student) ticket for city transportation! So my friends there have to buy monthly high price ticket for their local transportation. Other high price that I am not surprised to hear is the apartment rent. Although I know that it’ll be high, but still am surprised when I heard it. (Visited at 23-25 Dec 2007)

People in Frankfurt

Yeah, it’s not fair to judge people in Frankfurt as I haven’t exploring much of the city. However I was so impressed by one of the taxi driver there.

When I have to travel by using the lifting service, I have to go to a small station in the evening. When I arrived there, it turns out that my ride is late and there’s no warm place for waiting. No shops around and no station lobby. Just an open space. And in December, it surely not a nice place to wait.

In this situation, I did something unthinkable. Well actually it’s my friend’s idea. He told me to go to a taxi stand and ask the driver to allow me going inside the car, so I can have a warm place while waiting. At first, I have a doubt to do it. I mean, c’mon! Giving privilege to other people for free while actually you can gain money from it… That sounds so impossible. At least, that’s what my big-city-background thinking. But the taxi driver that I come to, a nice old man, really let me in for free! Although he can’t speak English but he can understand me. And he really doesn’t want to take anything from me…!!! I feel so touched. All I can do is just wishing him all the best. I hope he will get a good karma from what he has done to me.