a packed week back in Berlin

I've been literally on the move ever since I stepped foot into the Berlin train station. Today, around ten days later, is my first lazy day of staying inside since I was in Boston more than a month ago. The apartment is incredibly quiet with only with a bit of music and the wind outside. Somehow no interesting classes seem to be offered on Wednesdays, so while I may end up having class on Friday mornings (which would NOT be optimal) I will probably have Wednesday's off this semester. That brings me to all of the things that have been going on ON TOP of the beginning of the summer semester and finding classes and that whole thing. Once my schedule gets a bit more set in stone I'll be able to tell you more about what i'll be learning about in the next few months. So here goes, from penguins to pneumonia:

- Erin makes a stop in Berlin!

While on vacation from her Tufts-Abroad program in Paris, Erin Bruynell spent a couple of days in Berlin. She had some unfortunate mix-ups with the Paris ticketing offices, who booked her train for a day after she had planned, and had put them in first class unexpectedly. But that meant that we just had a couple of hours to get together before she was going to head on to Munich on a night train on Monday night. So literally fresh from the train I took the subway with my luggage to Erin's hostel. We went to one of my favorite cafes (St. Oberholtz in Rosenthaler Platz) and had a leisurely dinner while catching up. She was ready to leave Paris, and I was proud to announce that the prices in Berlin were nothing compared to what she's used to. Sadly we had very little time, but again, we've got to take those chance encounters as they come and make the most of it. Short but sweet, and her traveling buddies from Paris were both nice and funny. I hope she had a good time surfing the beer gardens in Munich :-)

- My first German "Frat" party

A friend of mine named Johannes, whom I met in the cafeteria last October, has recently joined a Frat. In German it's called a "Studentenverbindung", which literally means a student connection, but what it really is is a bunch of guys living together under certain rules and conditions. And they have parties... from the one I went to my impression is that they are rather tame parties that involve controlled amounts of good beer and lots of grilling, but according to Robert, the Verbindungen are known for getting pretty toasted with their alcohol. At least that's the way it is in Heidelberg, which has the fanciest and oldest frats in Germany (probably older than in the US). The big difference is that there's nothing greek about these frats. There used to be a big fencing-culture around them; different members of the frats would have to fence (literal sword fighting) against other frats in order to be initiated. 

Johannes invited me that afternoon and gave me rough directions. The first thing that impressed me was how nice the neighborhood was - tree-lined streets, totally quiet in West Berlin and not to far from the University. They lived in a big brick building. The grilling happened out back, where a bunch of people, not just the frat members, had already been eating around picnic tables. I recognized some of Johannes' friends from the physics department (he's a physics major) and chatted with them before getting food. The frat members had a ribbon that they wore around their chests, one meaning that they've "passed the test" and one meaning that they're the new guys. Apparently after your second semester of living in the house you're expected to pledge; you have to study the history of the frat, learn a few songs (I believe), and then pass an oral exam before you're officially a frat member. I have no idea if Johannes is actually going to have to learn how to fence... I read some stories written by the true American Mark Twain from his travels abroad, and he described some of the fencing-competitions in Heidelberg as being intensely bloody... I didn't stay for too long but really liked meeting some new people and seeing the atmosphere. 

- A very small visitor invades our apartment

Anna warned me before I came home that my room was currently "in use". When I got home I received all accompanying explanations: Anna's sister Melanie and her husband Manuel were visiting for the week, with their 17-month old son Jakob. They were staying till Friday and would really really appreciate it if they could use my room, since they could close the door and it would be better for the baby when it goes to bed, at around 8pm. At first I felt slightly awkward, because secretly I was furious at not having access to my room after being so exhausted and having been to so many places. All I wanted to do was collapse on my bed, eventually do laundry and unpack. But alas, it was probably better that I still had some close in a suitcase and could easily move to Anna's room for a few days. There was no use fighting it, and the adorable blond-haired little Jakob, with his stomping feet and generally drooling mouth, convinced me that it would be okay. Plus, I was mostly worried that when Robert's two brothers come into town that Thursday night, there wouldn't be any room for them to sleep over... so really it was better to be flexible about it all. Anna and Diego even gave me their bed to sleep on because they felt so bad about the whole situation. 

The entire apartment was general commotion at all times until the baby went to bed. Melanie and Manuel wanted to see a few things in Berlin (this was their vacation), so Anna pretty much put off her University for a week so that she could show them around. I didn't have to go grocery shopping for an entire week because they always had so much food around. But it was fascinating seeing the little munchkin. Melanie had another one coming too, a girl, expected this summer. On one hand I was convinced all over again that babies were far too exhausting, but on the other hand something that Melanie said really stuck with me: "we would just be such boring visitors if we didn't have Jakob here with us". He was a really lively addition to the apartment. And Melanie and Manuel were incredibly friendly; they even gave me and Robert their address in Freiburg and want us to stay with them if we're ever in the area.

- The Berlin Zoo

Last Wednesday I had no class and was planning on just enjoying the peace and quiet of the apartment while the crew was out seeing Berlin. BUT, the plan for the day was the Zoo... when would I get another chance? A beautiful day, good company, a little one to get excited about the animals with... So all six of us (5 1/2...?) stood in line at the Zoologische Gartens awaiting entry.

 An hour or so later (it was a gorgeous day, lots of visitors, young and old) we were overwhelmed with all the places we could go to in the zoo. The place had everything: lions, giraffes, polar bears, penguins, you name it. We started at the elephants (there was a baby!) and made our way through the monkeys, the chickens, the pelicans, the muskrats, the zebras, the sea lions, other funny things i can't name, the one elusive tiger, and finally, after much searching, we discovered a lazy and somewhat dirty Knut chilling on some rocks in his own private area. 

Jakob probably saying "da!" to Diego and his dad, Manuel

KNUUUUUUUUUUUUT  

Knut was at one point the pride of Berlin; the polar bear was born about four years ago and has a total sop story to go along with it. The mother totally rejected the baby, so a zookeeper took the mother's place and they were always together, little baby Knut and the zookeeper. They were literally famous; people came to Berlin JUST to see Knut. In the fall the zookeeper died, and in the meantime Knut has gotten pretty big, so now the big question is where should be live? Should they build him a larger habitat in Berlin or move him elsewhere? Who knows, but like Anna said, Knut was in reality dead boring and the penguins and seals were much more fun. 

Diego towering over Anna and me

...AND this one is for you, Ronny :-)

- Volkspark Friedrichshain

I left the Zoo a bit early (well, what is early? we were there for a good five hours) to meet up with Kate for some more macaroni and cheese.... mmmmm, but unfortunately her supply has run out, so i'm not sure what we'll do for the next time... We then walked to the park near her apartment, the Volkspart Friedrichshain. Even though it was nearly dark tons of people were out chilling or grilling in the park. We walked to something called the Märchen Brunnen, the fairy tale fountain, built by one of the Friedrichs a couple of hundred years ago. The place was astounding! Just in the middle of the park was this place literally out of a fairy tale, really really beautiful. I hadn't even heard of the place before - just goes to show that the prettiest parts of Berlin are hardly touched upon in the guide books.

- A long Thursday night

Robert and his brothers arrived from Gera, where they were visiting their father (and where Steffen lives permanently). All was already a bit chaotic because, as I feared, the apartment was rather crowded. Anna and Diego were here, planning on sleeping in their room under the hammock, Manuel and Melanie hadn't left yet and were in my room, and Robert and I had Anna and Diego's bed. That meant two floor spaces for Steffen and Tommy. 

All would have been reasonably okay had Tommy not become totally sick during the night. It started with a sore throat, but then he couldn't fall asleep because he was shivering so much. Robert and I heard nothing of this, since we were unable to sleep due to Steffen and Diego's harmonious snoring. Anna finally got up to ask Tommy if he was okay. He didn't have an answer. She suggested that he go to the hospital. I know I speak for Robert too when I say that we didn't take Tommy seriously at that point; Anna was certainly right, but we just kept thinking maybe he'll feel better once he gets to sleep. Big brother Steffen took the decision-making responsibility. He and Tommy left to go to a taxi line to ask them where the nearest hospital was. Luckily there was one next to Sudkreuz, so only around a twenty minute walk from my apartment (good to know for the future...). They came back a couple of hours later, and after a brother-meeting they decided to take Tommy to their grandparent's apartment as to avoid him being in contact with the baby. They couldn't diagnose anything at that point, but he was clearly not doing well enough to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor. It was about 4 in the morning at that point; their grandparents live an hour away by S-Bahn. They woke up their grandparents, who were happy to take care of Tommy for a little bit, and had some breakfast before heading back to Kreuzberg to tell us about everything that happened. 

I'm pretty sure the only people that got sleep that night were snoring Diego, Melanie, Manuel and definitely the baby, who woke the rest of us up at 7 like he usually did. In any case, Robert and I needed a few coffees and were exhausted for a couple of days before we recovered. But Tommy was the real one recovering. He didn't make it to the birthday party the next day, and was really glad to head back to Karlsruhe to his Mom. Katrin must have checked his blood again when he got there because she called us back with the news that Tommy had pneumonia, but was doing much better.

- Finishing up last semester

Somehow that Friday Robert and I still managed to go to my university and get a lot done. He got a cheap student-priced hair cut while I picked up readers at various copy shops in Dahlem. I went too and fro buying a few books for my classes in addition to some school supplies, and then I went back to the BCGS Büro to see Carmen. Right away she deluged me with things I needed to get done (it's always like that, a bit stressful but now I'm used to it) and with changes to the summer semester, etc. But what was most exciting was realizing that all of my grades for the Winter Semester were in and done. Somehow despite all of the language difficulties and lack of library books or workspace and general berlin confusion I managed to do very well last semester. Who would have thought? I surely didn't expect that; my goal was more oriented towards surviving and getting everything passed in. But it's a nice feeling at the beginning of the summer semester, to know that I could do it once, and perhaps I could do it again. 

- A 150th Birthday Party

Helga and Dieter, at the head of the table

The main reason that Robert and his brothers came to Berlin was for both of their grandparents 75th birthday parties. Saturday April 18th has been written in my calendar since they invited me before christmas. Helga, Robert's grandmother, had her birthday exactly on that day and Dieter had turned 75 a couple of months before. A few old and new friends of there's were there along with Robert, Steffen and I, Robert's father and his wife, and her daughter Nora. It took about two hours for Robert and I to actually get to the party, but when we did it was worth it. 

In a small "Gaststätte" in Köpenick, Berlin, a tram ride from their apartment, we met in a private room for food, food and more food. We started with introductions over coffee and cake (two different kinds), then ordered drinks and talked, and then had a little program with poems and odes to the birthday couple. When we were all good and hungry again we were served a tasty buffet dinner. More drinks. Two more items on the program: Robert's Dad read some funny stories outloud and then we played the DDR quiz game. Of course, Dieter knew every answer to every question asked, and could even give us an annotated version with more information than the quiz-game gave us. So when I asked, for instance, how long people in the DDR had to wait before getting their trabant (the only cars available), he'd respond, well, that depends on the model. I was impressed and astounded, but the crowd was all east-german, so they knew the answers too. We had dessert, more stories, and then Steffen, Robert and I (Tommy was still recovering in their grandparent's apartment) made our way back home. 

- Heeeeeertha BSC

I am perhaps not supposed to mention this.... but maybe the right people won't see this entry. Robert "played blue", meaning he skipped out on one or two courses on Monday to stay an extra day. The primary reason was to stay in Berlin a bit longer, but the secondary reason was because I had gotten three tickets to see Hertha BSC play soccer against Werder Bremen that Sunday afternoon. Kate came too; it was our first experience at an 1te Bundesliga game. We are total "soccer tourists", but still it was a ton of fun... as soon as we neared the Olympic stadium we could hear the super-fans singing their songs and the ground was literally shaking. We were sitting in the Bremen section oddly enough, but Robert confessed that he wanted Bremen to win the game. Haha, but they didn't! Berlin won 2-1. We ate delicious bratwurst and got some souvenir cups. At the end of the game I realized that I had spent a lot more time looking around at all the other fans and people than concentrated on the game, but so it goes, a Berlin-experience not to be passed up.

Olympic Stadion

- DJ Dahlem

On Monday night I finally went to a frisbee practice. This is pathetic; Monday was literally the first time that I've worked out, I mean really worked out, since last summer I think. I've never been more out of shape in my life. But I was set on taking the first step and going to a practice, just to see what it would be like. It took a ridiculously long while to get there - around an hour - and to my disappointment there weren't any women (even though the website indicated that it was a "mixed" practice). Luckily three more women showed up and once we got beyond the drills and started playing I felt right back into the swing of things. The practices that I went to in Heidelberg and this practice is much more casual than the practices we have back in Chicago. I can play whatever position I want (in Chicago we usually stick with the same ones) and we keep playing until dark. 

Of course I was absolutely dead by the time we were half-way through... it's pretty hard to hide being tired in frisbee, since the player you're supposed to be defending ends up scoring all the points because you can't catch up to her/him. But oh well. No use in getting hard on myself. The walk from Sudkreuz was good for my muscles, but nonetheless my entire body has been aching ever since, and it's been two days already. I'm going to give myself a little time off before going to the next practice, do a little running in between to get back into it a bit slower. Really I'm playing frisbee to meet a few new people, and when I'm dead tired that's a bit hard to do... so, we'll see. 

- Springtime in Berlin

Spring is here! Because of the weather differences, Karlsruhe had the warm weather before Berlin did. But it has literally been sunny for the passed week and will continue being sunny at least for one more. The leaves are fully out, and some flowering trees are already starting to lose their flowers. And the Waterfall is on! The Kreuzberg in the Victoriapark has never been more beautiful. I explored some new parts on my run today. I doubt that I'd get any work done sitting in the park, but really all I want to do is spend as much time in there as possible. 

Berlin Zoo, back entrance

die Sonne scheint in Karlsruhe

The sun shines in Karlesruhe. Spring had sprung. Even as Robert picked me up from the train station we could see the trees blooming in white and pink all over the hills nearby, looking as if snow had fallen on just a select few. The weather was no colder than 20-degrees C each day I was there; the heavy coat and winter boots I brought from Berlin would sadly have to remain neglected in my luggage for another few days... but who's complaining?!

As soon as I arrived in Karlesruhe I relaxed. Because of the slight stress of traveling to Lisie's and to Saarland, it was wonderful to go to a place that I know better, where the streets and Robert's mother's apartment were totally familiar. Most of what we did in Karlsruhe was family-related. Both of Robert's brothers were there for the easter holidays. The night I arrived we joined Tommy at one of his friends house for some grilling and soccer. For a group of 19-year-olds who had just finished their finals (pseudo AP-exams) they were incredibly well-behaved (wow, that makes me sound oooold). 

The next day Robert's aunt and her family came from Nuremberg in Bavaria just for the day. We drove about twenty minutes to a town called Rastatt. Helmut had prepared an historical tour for us, so in our group of about fifteen we walked around the small town, stopping at a few town gates, important buildings, and the castle. We stopped for ice cream in the quiet town center, and then we headed back to Karlsruhe to check out the view from the tower. I've been there a few times, but it's always nice to see the view in the different seasons. We went back to the apartment for a big dinner of cold cuts and cheese and breads and salads, the works. 

Tommy and Steffen by the castle in Rastatt (yes, they are sitting on a cannon)

Katrin and Helmut in Rastatt

The view from above, Karlsruhe and Durlach

<-- Steffen and Robert at the Karlsruhe Schloss (castle)

The next day Steffen, Robert and I did some walking around downtown Karlsruhe, stopping for a bit at the castle (EVERY town in Germany has a castle... the one in Karlsruhe is particularly big thought) and wishing we had a frisbee with us. On Easter Sunday Tommy, Robert, Katrin, Helmut and I drove a half-hour to the town of Baden-Baden. I was astounded that all of these beautiful towns were so close together. I imagined a two hour train ride to get to Baden-Baden, but no, it's about as far as Framingham is from Weston. In Baden-Baden we drove up and up and up to yet ANOTHER castle. But this one was different. It was older, more of a fortress built for the protection of Badisch lands and the valley below. We walked around on trails behind the fortress, enjoying the fresh air. We walked to some areas with expansive slabs of rock where people were rock climbing (well worth watching). After we stopped back at the fortress restaurant for my first SPARGEL, or asparagus, white, of the season. Helmut shook his head in dismay upon hearing that they were serving Greek asparagus; getting to eat fresh German asparagus is something that people look forward to all winter, so perhaps it was "not the real thing" to have it imported from southern europe. We ate an incredible meal with a view of the entirety of Baden-Baden (unlike istanbul, seeing the whole city/town from one window was, in fact, possible) from our table. 

at the Borg-restaurant in Baden-Baden

Later that night Robert and I met up with some of his high school friends from Karlsruhe for some grilling and catching up. And already it was time for me to head back to Berlin! I was desperately hoping that I could bring some of that great weather along with me... My train was at noon that Monday, just in time to get to University for classes on Tuesday. I would've loved to stay longer, but alas, duty calls! And how can I really complain after having two months of vacation?

Helmut, Katrin and Tommy

From Zürich to Saarbrücken

Another potential name for this entry was "stomach rumbles and toilet troubles". But I'd rather focus on the good parts of my travel-vacation, and there were certainly some great ones despite the minor food poisoning. 

My flight from Istanbul left at 3am on Sunday morning. Somehow, even though I was unbelievably exhausted from the lack of sleep and the late-night flying, everything went incredibly smoothly. The shuttle from my hostel, getting easyjet to let me check my luggage, leaving on time, arriving in Basel, getting Swiss francs from an atm at the airport, finding a bus to take me to the train station, buying a train ticket to Zurich, taking the 30-minute train ride, and finally, having a few Swiss francs left over to take the #11 tram from the Zurich train station to Lisie's cozy apartment. 

I arrived at 7am, a good three hours before she was expecting me, but after a bit of futzing she got over that fact and welcomed me warmly. Lisie is always incredibly excited to have me come, and equally sad to see me leave. Unfortunately I just don't have the time to stay with her as long as she'd like me to (and occasionally I think that I wouldn't have the patience... living with students is just not the same as living with an almost-80 year old). We chatted for a few hours over a breakfast of tea and sopf, or a braided bread that she buys for special occasions. She let me get some sleep after that. I was passed out in her bed for a good five hours before I had energy to go back out and say hi again. She made me pfannkuchen for lunch, in other words, very very buttery and sweet pancakes with applesauce. Lisie is very possessive of her kitchen; she would never allow me to help her cook, nor could she handle it if I commented on the excessive amounts of butter she uses in her cooking. Our big plan for the afternoon was to go by tram to the train station to buy my train tickets for the next leg of my journey, to Saarbrücken, that Tuesday. Lisie was at first looking forward to going out (as was I, since it was about ten degrees warmer than it had been in Istanbul, and I was so excited to see some signs of spring). We walked incredibly slowly, however, her with one arm latched onto mine. While there we both complained at the amount of people. Tons of skiers, just coming home from a day trip to the alps (incredible, eh?), along with people getting ready to travel for Easter. She complained again at the hard seats in the Ticketing office, saying she didn't have enough bacon on her bones to handle sitting for too long. But we made it, stopped briefly at a grocery store (also packed) and then gradually climbed our way back home to her apartment. Just that one outing and she was kaputt, totally exhausted. We looked over some pictures for a while, talked about her parents (her favorite subject, very very cute), and then she made me some pork and rice for dinner. 

Nature shows on TV ensued, which is another big part of what we do together. Lisie loves her television, but it has to be "intelligent" programming, as she calls it. The news, travel shows and nature shows always seem to be running in the background in Lisie's apartment. Unfortunately Lisie cannot hear as well as she used to, and she cannot keep her languages straight. So while the TV is on she tries to chat with me in an incredibly loud voice, sometimes commenting on what is going on in the news. She does this, however, in three different dialects: regular German (what I can understand and speak), Schwäbisch (the dialect that my great-grandparents maybe used in southwest Germany), and Swiss German (the worst of all... it sounds like a mix between yoda-speak and an ostrich, as I described it to Erika in an email). So the language thing and the hearing thing and the TV thing all put together is what tires ME out when I'm at Lisies. Too much noise all at once.

But nonetheless we usually have a very nice time together. We went the following day with her life-partner Otti to a beautiful restaurant about twenty minutes outside of the city. Of course in a car one is far more mobile than when one relies on public transportation, and it was nice for me to get out of the apartment for a bit. While filtering through her closet, Lisie happened upon some of her favorite items of clothing that she couldn't bare to give away. One of these items caught my eye, and I tried it on, a big red skirt with white squares. She rejoiced when she saw that it fit, and once I added a belt to it it didn't look half bad. So I wore the skirt to lunch that day. We ate a really classy meal, with some sort of chive cream soup and chicken and polenta and cranberries and a creme brulee for dessert. Mmmmm, I'm pretty sure the stomach problems could not have come from that meal. When we were about to leave, Otti saw to his disappointment and slight embarrassment that he could not unlock the car. After a bit of tinkering, he noticed that he had left the lights on from when he had gone through a tunnel. Luckily the sunshine made the wait for a mechanic much more bearable, but sweet Lisie could not help but complain a bit. We finally made it home and I took a solid two hour nap before a small dinner of scrambled eggs (again, lots of butter). 

Lisie and Otti at the Rössli Illnau restaurant

Lisie and I outside the restaurant, waiting for someone to jump-start the car

I had begun feeling sick that night, but as I didn't want to have Lisie worry too much I let her come to her own conclusions, that I was feeling nervous to travel. In the morning she insisted that I take a taxi to the train station. I convinced her that I would be better off with the tram, and thus left a bit early to go to an internet cafe to write some emails home. Lisie was of course sad to see me go, but she had her daily routines to get back to: walking down the 80 steps to pick up the morning newspaper, watering the roses on the rooftop terrace, watching her daily news, looking up the weather, seeing what nature shows were on that day, and calling her cousin in Strasbourg as she does at 8am every morning. She is miraculously turning 80 this year, in a couple of months. I have no idea if I can go back to visit her that weekend, but it seems to me that such a special occasion should not go uncelebrated. We'll see, but if I do go back, I'd love to have Erika or Robert there with me to bear the burden of listening to Lisie's somewhat incomprehensible stories that switch dialects every few sentences. 

Lisie with a picture of her mother, my great-grandmother Josefina

That day (a Tuesday) I had a five hour train ride ahead of me, first to Mannheim and then on to Saarbrücken, where Rolf and Gudrun Kahbhenn would be waiting for me. I had visited them about two years ago for the first time, during a big Saarland festival that involved parades and concerts. We know Rolf actually through my grandfather: when Rolf was in University he spent a year going to school in Quebec, and during vacations and holidays he stayed with my grandparents in Montreal. Therefore he knew my dad when my dad was 9 years old, and apparently his German was not too bad at that age either (Rolf can also speak french though, as can most people who live in Saarland, the western-most province of Germany, in other words right on the French border). We arrived and right away I told them about not feeling so well. We went and bought some medicine, and I rested in their apartment for a couple of hours. Rolf and Gudrun love telling me about the history of their small but proud province, so we caught up a bit over homemade apple cake and coffee that afternoon. We went to a concert in Saarbrücken that night, the German Requiem from Brahms. Beautiful, with around 60 chorus members and a full orchestra, along with two soloists. It was a "difficult piece" according to Gudrun, and when she said that I gave a sigh of relief because I found it quite hard to listen too as well. I think when she says "difficult", she means that the text is abstract, and the tones are generally dark. So not your everyday Moonlight Sonata if you will. 

Saarbrücken, the old town -->

We ate breakfast together the next morning. Rolf and I picked up some bread and groceries before leaving for the small town of Saarlouis that afternoon. Rolf is not the only one that grew up in Saarlouis; my grandmother grew up there too before she immigrated to Canada. We went and visited my great aunt on my grandmother's side (Lisie is my grandfather's sister and Hannelore is my grandmother's sister). Hannelore is unfortunately in the hospital because of a bad blood clot. She needed to have her legs operated on (one was actually taken off). She was however in really good spirits when we saw her. I was surprised to find that she has a much sharper mind than my grandmother, who is four years older. Hannelore has an incredibly close-knit family; four of her five children came in at one point or another, both to visit her and to see and welcome me. They are incredibly warm, and have for the most part stayed in or near Saarlouis. Their thick Saar dialects made it difficult for me to understand them at some points, but then they just repeated themselves slower or in regular german. These are technically the cousins of my father, so my second cousins... ? And then Stephan's son Steven (get it? that way they can differentiate between the two) also came. I think he might be my third cousin... he is twenty one and is training to be a salesman. He actually lost his eye after a tragic accident at his last job-training. He was on the track to becoming a mechanic but had to change all of his plans when he got injured. He's unfortunately a Bayern Munchen fan, but hopefully we can leave the soccer aside and keep in touch in the future :-) 

(from left to right: Monika, Steven, Hannelore, Rolf, me)

Gudrun prepared me a lovely noodle soup that night for dinner. Rolf and I stayed in to watch some soccer and a funny Saarland TV-show called "Staub", or traffic. It was literally all about what people say and do when they are stuck in totally stopped traffic on a highway. 

The next morning my grandfather paid us a visit. Now, that might sound crazy to any of you who know that my grandparents live in Montreal. It was in fact a surprise to us all that he would be in Germany for a week. He went to an airplane show at the Bodensee (lake Constance), went to visit my great-grandparents grave, and then wanted to visit some friends in the area. 

<-- Opa and Rolf with the Saarbrücken public toilets

He then came to Saarbrücken to see me and stay over at Rolf and Gudruns, which worked out perfectly because I was leaving for Karlsruhe (the last leg of my journey) that afternoon. He came around breakfast time and was surprised to hear me conversing in German. We did a little walking tour of downtown Saarbrücken afterwards. There he was incredibly impressed by the modern tram that runs through some of the main streets, as well as the somewhat complicated and very sanitary public toilets with automatically closing doors. We went all together to the train station after that. Such a short visit! Longer next time...? Or even better if they come back to Berlin again, and then we can go to the opera once or twice. 

The Saar River -->

I thanked Rolf and Gudrun for taking care of me and being understanding about my lack of energy. It was really great of Rolf to bring me to see Hannelore, too. Gudrun will be celebrating her 70th birthday in a couple of months, so I will be sure to keep in touch with them and find her a nice Berlin souvenir. And as for my grandfather, I will probably see him in Montreal this summer, with my grandmother. 

tesekkür ederim...

... the most complicated way of saying "thank you" of any language, but luckily by the end this was the only turkish phrase I could remember.

The rest of Istanbul, to be quite honest, went by so quickly that the only way I can keep track of everything we did is by looking back at pictures. Jess and I generally met up each morning around 11 and then split up again at night, me back to my hostel and her back to the superdorm about 45 minutes (by light rail and bus) north of the city. It must be noted that eating was a pretty big theme of my time in Istanbul. Every second shop seemed to have rows and rows of shiny and wonderful looking baklava and other pastries to offer; we certainly took them up on their offer. 

<-- the Grand Bazaar, in all of its chaos and glory

So I arrived on a Wednesday. Thursday I was on my own for the morning but met Jess in the afternoon for a walk around the Grand Bazaar, to the Istanbul University (the biggest turkish University in Istanbul, I believe), to a couple of pastry shops along the way for seriously delicious baklava, and then to Taksim Square and the street called Istiklal at night. It seemed like the entirety of Istanbul was in that area looking for some Raki or some Efez (just about the ONLY beer brewed in Turkey, but incidentally quite delicious and light). Jess and I played a round or two of dominoes as we waited for a friend of hers on her program, and then (i confess) we made our way to the James Joyce bar for a little Ulysses chatting and a rather rusty live band. 

<-- the new and modern "Light Rail", 0.80 Lyra per ride

The next day Jess and I met in the morning at the Aya Sofia and took the light rail first to the wonderful smells of the spice market. There we chatted with some vendors who gave us some "great deals" (who really knows) on a few spices and a couple of ceramic tiles. I couldn't resist! They fed us turkish delight (called "lokum") to lure us into their stores and who can possibly say no to turkish delight?!? It helps that the prices in general are about half of what they'd be in Germany, so all in all, the souvenirs from Istanbul were worth it, in my eyes. 

Jess working her turkish skills for tea near the Grand Bazaar; Spices at the Spice Bazaar

And then we went to the bus station. Now, I wish I had taken some sort of photographic proof of the chaos of such stations. There is, in fact, no actual station, but rather a conglomeration of huge busses of all different colors just sort of blocking the way for other busses and gradually collecting passengers. Apparently traffic times are no time for bus rides, but that did not stop Jess and I who seemed intent on getting stuck in traffic every way we went. But walking around Istanbul, although amazing, was also incredibly exhausting and somewhat hard on the feet (am I getting old?!?), so we welcomed the hour-long rides between destinations. 

We hopped on a bus to a town called Ayab, which Jess had visited with some friends (and her teacher?) a few weekends before. It was a conservative town, according to her description, and the general lack of tourists mixed with the plethora of head-scarf-clad women (occasionally wearing the full-black version that only left a diamond shaped gap for the eyes and nose) certainly showed what she meant. We walked through the bustling main street to an "authentic" local market, featuring tons of underwear stands along with stands that sold vegetables and fruits and the normal market fare. Jess finally found the perfect pair of shoes there: 100% genuine Tex-mex (I believe) pseudo converses in maroon for 20 Lyra (about $15, or 10 Euros). 

<-- vendor selling headscarves in the Ayab market

We stopped for some more baklava, some tea (Jess favored the tea over coffee), and then made our way to the local Mosque. We tied our scarves around our heads, placed our shoes in a plastic bag, and actually made our way in to the cavernous and gently lit mosque. Around twenty or so men (with some small children at their sides) were praying on the carpeted surface ahead of us. We walked up a skinny staircase to the upper level, where the women were supposed to pray. The carpeted-surface, I must say, was incredibly inviting; taking a long and comfortable nap would not have been too difficult. 

inside the mosque

A young and friendly-looking woman approached us and asked us a few questions. Her turkish sounded so beautiful; it's really too bad that we couldn't understand what she was saying. She asked us at one point what religion we were, and when we both said Jewish, she responded something about how we are all brothers and sisters. She repeatedly pointed to her heart and made a heart shape in the air with her hands. We smiled and nodded our heads once in a while to look as if we understood. She spoke with us for a good ten minutes before going to pray elsewhere. We took in the quiet of the Mosque before making our way back outside. Since the afternoon prayers were to begin around a half hour later, many people had gathered in preparation for the prayer service while we were inside. We walked to the supposed tomb of someone in a small passageway with beautiful tiles and mosaics. 

women washing up before paying respects

We were there to see the tiles, but others, mostly women, were there to pay respects. We were the only "westerners" there, so it was quite a surprise to exit the Mosque to find a group of soldiers just sort of casually chatting and waiting outside. We asked people at a donations desk (i think that's what it was) what the officers were doing there. They did answer Jess' question, but unfortunately she didn't understand their answer. Oh well, another mystery awaiting to be unmasked (once we can speak turkish fluently). 

We walked from the Mosque through a totally deserted and quiet cemetery. The gravestones were so old that they must have dated back to before the Ottoman times; some had the traditional Ottoman "fez" hat at the top indicating that a male had been buried there, and some had wreaths to indicate a woman. Although there were not many people there was no lack of frolicking felines creeping around the tombstones; cats are EVERYWHERE in Istanbul! Explains why Jess found a litter of new-born kittens on the bed of her dorm room the first day she arrived back in February... The more we walked through the cemetery, the more I realized that it was absolutely endless. The tombstones, although clearly not as old as the first ones we saw, covered the entire hill before us. By hill I mean a hill that takes a good thirty minutes to walk up and is high enough to merit a gondola lift, which we used to go back down. Did I mention that we had incredible sunshine throughout this entire climb? 

That meant wonderful and expansive views, not of "the city" in its entirety, but of a really beautiful part of the city and a glimpse of the blue Bosphorus beyond. From among tombstones midway up the hill the evening 5 o'clock prayers began. 

We could see around five different Mosques from where we were; from each came a loud and strong voice singing the traditional adhaan, meaning something along the lines of Allah is Most Great, Come to Prayer. All of the voices from the many mosques were powerful, overwhelming, and difficult to describe. If I could finally figure out the video option on these blogs, then i'll be sure to share some footage with you!

We drank some apple tea from a cafe at the top of the hill, and had a German tourist take this awkward photo of us. The gondola lift to the bottom cost as much as a regular bus ride. From there we walked for an hour or so along the Bosphorus back to Tacsim, where we hopped on a ferry.

Destination: Asia

First of all, a ferry ride in the sunset... not too shabby. The air had gotten pretty cold at that point, so Jess and I stayed away from the wind. Without a second thought we hopped off the ferry onto the Asian side of the city. I expected it to look drastically different, but really it was just another part of Istanbul, and a great place from which to see the sunset. We walked to a semi-water front restaurant where I ate sort of small egg-noodles in a yogurt sauce. We smoked some Hashish (my lungs are pretty incapable of holding in the smoke though, and compared to the older men sitting at the table next to us, who'd probably been smoking all day long, we really didn't do too much damage) and played a competitive round of Backgammon. Back on the Europe side, we split up a bit earlier so that we could get some sleep and I could "rest" like the old lady that I am.

Sunset from the Asian-side -->

On Saturday I packed all of my things (how did I accumulate so much just after four days?), said goodbye to the two friendly German women that I'd been sharing my room with, and followed Jess' very specific directions to go to her University. I was definitely surprised, not at how long it took to get there, but at how different the city looked along the way. There were some tree-lined streets and some much more western-looking Pizza-Hut filled streets. My directions were to request a stop when we passed the dunkin donuts just beyond a huge shopping mall with oversized billboards. I only had a few problems in finding the right bus at the mayhem-filled bus station; other than that it felt pretty cool to have crossed the city on my own. Jess showed me her Superdorm from afar - looks really super and spiffy, simple but new. We walked from there up a large hill to her actual campus. 

this is what Jess sees on her way to campus every day

My goodness! It was beautiful. She is attending an elite english university here, so whenever she mentions its name to people she meets, they give a nod of approval and admiration. It's called Bogazici University, but with all the right accents and pronunciation it sounds more like Boazichi, nicknamed the Boa. The campus itself looks sort of like Duke, which is incidentally the University that sponsors the program that Jess is on. And since it's on a hill, the views are incredible. What a good reason not to get anything done in class. We walked down the hill to a huge 500 year-old fortress at the bottom with dangerously narrow stairways lacking all forms of barriers and safety precautions. Not for someone with vertigo. 

oh, just another 500-year-old fortress...

More walking along the Bosphorus, this time for most of the day. Our destination was the jewelry market at a town that I forget the name of (maybe because a lot of the towns had similar names). We passed through around three major coastal towns, and had a DELICIOUS waffle with all sorts of toppings in one of them. Some of those coastal towns reminded me of New England, with sort of colonial architecture that one could find in Cambridge. Enjoying the warm sunshine and walking certainly gave us an appetite, and we ate along the river after perusing some cool and cheap jewelry.

<-- women exercising on an "adult playground", as Jess called them

That evening we walked through the "European" part of town, as in the part that has unmistakable European influences in its cobblestone streets and even a few european chain stores. Istiklal was incredibly crowded, so we ducked into some side streets looking for a feminist bookstore. Jess found it, but as we weren't too impressed (it was more about the search and feeling proud that she knew her way around) we went to a totally hidden and crowded neighborhood cafe. It was for sure where the local students went to go hang out. We drank some warm Salep, which is a sweet white drink served with cinnamon, a bit like rice pudding without any rice. Delicious. 

We then walked and walked, saw some street musicians playing the Kanoon, saw some bigger and fancier hotels, walked through some more enchanting streets that I'd love to go back to, and stumbled upon a wonderful and charming little cafe: Molly's. Perhaps one could call it a sort of ex-pat hang out: a Canadian woman had opened it about ten years earlier after quitting her job at a language school. She offered us tea with milk, and said "where else in Turkey could you get milk for your tea?" We were gifted some free carrot cake while we sunk exhausted into the comfortable couches. Two older woman came in after us, both Americans who were teaching abroad in an international school in Pakistan. They admired our eagerness to study abroad, and said that having the freedom to see the world is the best thing that happened to them. Jess and I knew secretly that we'd be totally similar when we reach our sixties. But that's a long way off...

One of my favorite sights in Istanbul was the fishermen along one of the bridges. They literally lined each side so that no foot of the barrier was left unoccupied. The fishers were pretty much all men, and they had occasional bus-boys running to and fro serving them tea and bringing them Simit (sesame bagels). The coolest thing was that you can go under the bridge to a strip of restaurants. There you can actually watch their lines bring up the fish, sometimes only one squirming sucker but sometimes four or five on the same line (multiple hooks?). Those guys were there literally all hours of the day, so when Jess and I went to a bar under the bridge at around 10, we had a lovely display of a good ten or so fishing lines to keep us entertained. We sat on beanbags (how awesome!) and drank some Efez to celebrate my last night. 

fisherman on the Bosphorus

The sad fact of having left high school is this constant effort to try to keep in touch, while realizing that it's pretty near impossible to stay on top of everything that happens in the lives of your closest friends. Even skype calls have their limits. But there's no use in being so nostalgic about times past (high school had it's fall-backs too). Those strong friendships just need to be maintained and celebrated in other ways, in new ways. Such as meeting up in far away places and relishing in the fact that you are both able to adapt to new cities and teach each other about them. There is nothing wrong with losing touch, since we know that we'll get back in touch at some point in the future. Not only was seeing Istanbul amazing, but learning to be comfortable with the fact of long-distance friendships was also an important lesson. So with a tear and big hugs, Jess and I parted ways at the light rail stop. She headed back to the superdorm and I to my hostel to catch a midnight-shuttle to the airport.