Month: August 2017

While in Wittenberg, we visited the church that Luther nailed the 95 theses to and began the reformation. This was a very different city from the ones that we had visited before. One thing that many of us noted was that it seemed that Wittenberg was a town that was working hard at becoming a major tourist attraction. This was especially true with the 500th anniversary of the reformation just a few short months away. This  seemed very weird to a lot of us because the only really monumental part of Wittenberg was the Church. Other than that, Wittenberg is really just a small town in Germany. Continue reading “The Tourist Church”

I know this post is a little after we went to Bremen, but here it is anyway. Continue reading “Bremen: reflections”

This is a picture of one of our meals in a restaurant in Köln. This dish is known as the Jaegerschnitzel. It’s a traditional German dish made from breaded veal cutlet with mushroom sauce. This is my favorite meal in our entire German trip

This is a picture of the wine barrel we found in Heidelberg. According to Wikipedia this wine barrel can hold up to 219,000 liters of wine.

I took this picture of a monument describing the distances of certain cities throughout the world. Djakarta (or Jakarta) is listed to be approximately 11,084 km away.

One of our weekend trips’ destination is the city of Köln (Cologne). This city is very famous for its massive Cathedral. As a result, the city is filled with tourists from all over the world (I even met some Indonesians travelling here as well).

On Sunday, we attended the mass as a group. It certainly was an interesting experience to me as I have never been in a Catholic high mass before. The mass started with a group of priests carrying the bible and a cross. They also had some incense that had a very interesting smell. To some, the whole mass might seem somewhat ritualistic but in my opinion the things that they did reflect their adoration for God. Even though I didn’t understand anything from the sermon (because it was in German and we had no translation), I thoroughly enjoyed the whole “ritualistic” aspect of it. It makes our adoration for God seem much more real.

Being a famous tourist spot meant that the church had many visitors all the time, even some times during the mass. It didn’t really bother me that much because the visitors weren’t being too loud and they were somewhat respectful. However, I believe that it would’ve been so much better if they had translators so that everyone can understand the sermon (considering that most of the people in the mass are tourists anyway).

 

On one of our weekend trips, we visited the Sachenhausen Concentration Camp. It was a very interesting trip as we were able to tour around the restored campgrounds. We were able to read about how the Nazi and the Soviet officers treated their prisoners and how life was for prisoners as well.

This trip was very sobering as well. I personally was struck at how people can have so much hatred for others. I understand that wars can be necessary at times and in wars, there are prisoners. What I can’t understand is the underlying hatred that was directed toward these prisoners. They had to endure so much and no shred of humanity was even shown to them. It simply amazes me how someone can have this much hatred towards another that lead them to torturing them this much.

Coming to Berlin has definitely opened my eyes to many things about Berlin. Berlin as I knew it is a city that is both historical and technologically advanced. However, when I first arrived in the airport I was a bit disappointed. As an international student in Calvin, I am used to travelling great distances and have been to numerous airports, especially airports in Asia and in my opinion, the Tegel airport is a very bad one.

The city itself was, in my opinion, not very impressive. From my perspective, a lot of the infrastructures in Berlin seems very bland and mediocre (save for several historical or very modern buildings). Most buildings are painted with dull colors and it just adds to the mediocrity of city. On top of that there are also no skyscrapers as well.

However, what makes Berlin so interesting is the diversity of people and culture. There are just so many cultures in Berlin itself. I’ve seen numerous Turkish, Asian, and Western restaurants and shops just about everywhere.

Berlin’s public transport system is also something to be impressed about. The level of punctuality and efficiency is just so astonishingly good. The German public transport system puts to shame many other systems.

The holocaust museum in Berlin was the first actual holocaust museum that I have been to, apart from a few monuments.But this does not mean I have known nothing about it. Throughout my schooling years I have read book after book of stories about people’s stories. Also quite a few of movies who’s soul purpose was to show the atrocities of the war. However standing in the place where it happened is a wholly different level on its own. I walked the Sachsenhausen camp by myself with the audio tour not speaking a word. The place in the camp that was the hardest to come to terms with where the three lumps in the ground that where the three mass graves that where found outside of the crematorium. Over 40,000 people’s ashes had been thrown in those holes. I stood there and stared at it. There was nothing else I could do, silence was the only thing someone could do.

I apologize for posting so late, I have had my posts for couple of weeks but never got them out. This is what I wrote a week into the trip:

This first week has been pretty interesting. There are so many similarities between Berlin and the US that it kind of feels normal when walking around the city. (Except the fact that everyone is speaking a language that I only know about 50 words) Also the great and extensive transits system is really nice. It’s kind of weird, back in the states a 30 minute drive to go somewhere is a trek but taking public transit(something I am not used to) takes minimum of 40 minutes to get anywhere. And it never feels that long but after you wait for the first bus then transfer, sometimes a couple of times, it’s usually been an hour even if you have only gone 5 miles. So that has been interesting. Some things that I miss from home are air conditioning, tacos, and water. However I have found some foods hear that I really like. One is the Döner Kabab which is a Turkish like sandwich.

 

Of all of the cities that I’ve visited here in Germany, none have quite appealed to me like Bremen. I’m not sure whether it was the old-fashioned style of the buildings, the cool notes of history, or the fact that this is the city where I spent my twentieth birthday. Regardless, I have some great memories and stories from Bremen. Continue reading “The Bright and Beaming City of Bremen”

If there is any one most impressive building that I have seen on this trip it. Is definitely the cathedral at Köln. It’s an absolutely massive building with some incredible stone work. Continue reading “The Köln Cathedral”