Still catching up... April 14-19: Easter with Em, and Berlin (again!)

I had an awesome Easter weekend, starting on Friday the 14th when Kola arrived in Göttingen for a visit! We had an Ostermarkt in town, which turned out to be rather similar to the traditional Weihnachtsmarkt except with more animatronic bunnies:
Actually I haven't really heard about Ostermärkte outside of Gö, so I think it's a local thing... another chance for folks to set up a booth and sell crazy crafts and foodstuffs while kids run around and ride the seasonally-themed carousel and gorge themselves on sweets. I wonder why it hasn't caught on everywhere else...

The highlight was some kind of hard-core Christian youth group whose members were handing out flyers and postcards, mostly because it was completely outrageous: they had a guy in a santa suit and a large wooden cross to which was tied a poor innocent stuffed bunny... near as I could tell, they were staging a protest of sorts against the secularization of Christian holidays. Right, because that's exactly what you want to have to explain to a 5-year-old at the Easter fair. I do think the message has merit, but the venue was a little inappropriate. I also mentally docked some points for a feeling of anti-ecumenicism I got speaking to some of the members... I was asked if I understood the true meaning of Easter, and I responded that I darn well better after 15 years of Catholic school, but they didn't seem to think that counted for much. I got invited to their next meeting with the explanation that they were against all those hoity-toity rules, traditions, and regulations that some less-hip churches adhere to... Again, it just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I'm just addicted to the incense, though... I saved the flyer anyway.

Anyhow, I picked up Kola at the Bahnhof and we checked out downtown and saw some of the festivities (and had the best ice cream in town) before heading back up to my place. I pointed out the Planetenweg landmarks we saw along part of the way... there are a series of metal signs representing the solar system along a westward artery from the train station, with distances and size supposedly to scale. I've seen the sun and all of the closer ones, but haven't had the chance to find the outer planets yet. Suffice it to say, I recently found out that I live pretty darn close to Uranus. (Insert "your mom"-type humorous response here, guys! I'm looking at you, Ricebag!)

We made a fabulous stir-fry and spent the evening catching up and of course mooning over all things Kenyon, especially the Cornerstones. What a great feeling to be able to share those memories with someone who knows them all as well as I do! I still wish I could've gotten a visit in sometime this year, but thank goodness I had such a fabulous alternative!

Saturday morning was sunny and gorgeous, so we went back into town and were happy to find everything open on a holiday weekend. We had pizza for lunch at Arul's, and then went shopping for dinner supplies (quesadillas, which is no small task over here. Thank goodness for the "international foods" section in the supermarket!) and baked goods for Easter morning, including a chocolate-covered bunny cake and a pair of Osterlämmer, little lamb-shaped cakes.

We walked our groceries home and then I called my host family to wish them a happy Easter... and hopefully get invited over for a visit, which was indeed the consequence. We picked up a flower to bring them and wandered up to Weende for delicious homemade Küchen and lots of conversation, which was great fun. Every time I go back for a visit I'm pleased to realize that my language skills are actually improving. It's still strenuous to try and listen to 4 conversations at once in a room full of native speakers, but I remember going to bed every night completely exhausted from simply talking to Christina and Wolfgang over dinner. Things are much better now.

We went home and cooked our fabulous pseudo-mexican meal and then stayed up half the night listening to Cstones and some Chamber Singers music and discussing school, life, and all the big stuff.

The next morning we ate our Easter treats and then headed once again into town, although it was overcast and things were mostly closed. We stopped in at the Jacobikirche and Johanniskirche to look around, found the Nikolaikirche locked and ducked into a cafe for lunch... mmm, crepes! Since it was drizzly out we stayed there until it was time for the evening service at the Michaelkirche. I hadn't been to Mass there before, and although it wasn't too full it was nice. Then we headed home and finished off our leftovers, and got ready for the next morning's trip to Berlin!

The original plan had been for Kola's friend Ashli to come to Göttingen, but after Kola had to make a surprise return to Tübingen (after her wallet was stolen in Rome!) plans got shifted and Ashli and Em were going to reunite in Berlin. I decided on the fly to tag along for the first couple of days of their visit since I didn't have much else going on. Our reservations at the hostel were already made, but we weren't scheduled to check in until midafternoon on Monday, so we had a few hours to kill after our arrival. Since we were at the Zoo Bahnhof I recommended the zoo or the aquarium, both of which I had seen during the March conference. The lines to get into the zoo were humongous (I guess since it was a holiday weekend) and since we didn't have the whole day we opted for the aquarium.
Oh no! Kola's about to get eaten by the creature from the black lagoon! Luckily some other tourist taunted it and the monster ate him instead. We made it out alive...

I also remembered this time to get a photo of the placard with the German name for White's tree frog:
Coral finger?? Is coral particularly sticky? I certainly don't think that's a visual reference. (Awww, but he's still sooooo cute!)

After the Aquarium we went to check into the hostel and meet Ashli. As a Douglas Adams fan, I can heartily recommend the Heart of Gold to any hitchhikers that find their way to Berlin... and even if you forget your towel, they've got you covered! They will also lend you sunglasses (??) and reading material for a small deposit.

I sent a message to Andrew, another friend from Kiel, proposing dinner and a movie on Potsdamer platz (where they show many films in the original language.) As it turns out he and some other folks were already planning to see The Inside Man there, so we made plans to meet them either at the movie or after, depending on what movies were available. We had a lovely dinner and thought we were going to miss the start of the film, but Andrew and Jen, who was also in town, caught us and we got tickets just in time. I'm actually glad that I saw the movie in English, because I think I would've gotten pretty lost in a German version.

We hung out a bit after the movie and then Kola and Ashli and I decided to head back to the hostel, since it was a moderately long walk and it was already dark. We did pass the Brandenburger Tor on our way back, which I hadn't ever seen at night. Very pretty!
We planned out Tuesday and hit the sack, since the crux of our plan was a major 4-hour walking tour of the city. I'd already seen many of the signs on previous visits, but I still learned a few things along the way. I was actually glad that I'd heard about Berlin's historical landmarks previously, because it's quite a bit of territory to cover and our guide was rather new... so we got a smattering of factoids and anecdotes with no overarching story to tie them together. Not exactly the best introduction to the city, but at least we saw all the important stuff.

And like I said, some things were new to me as well, including the supposed site of Hitler's secret underground bunker. There are no signs of any kind because nobody wants to create a rallying point for neo-Nazis and sympathizers. Now it's just a little playground behind an apartment complex.

We headed back towards the hostel and found a nice Thai restaurant nearby for a late lunch. The waiter was really talkative and wanted to know where we were from, what we were doing in Germany, what we studied... We had him take a couple of pictures since he was so nice. I need to get a copy from Em of one that I'm in!
After our meal we stopped back at the hostel, and got free t-shirts. Cool! We decided to wander to Alex and check out the Fernsehturm (TV tower.) I'd never been up to the top and the view had been highly recommended on our tour, so we decided to check it out. Unfortunately the day had turned overcast and rainy so things were a little hazy, but it was still neat:
Of course, it had also been a long and full day and we were understandably exhausted:We did find the World Clock after a little bit of wandering, and then Andrew met us again with a restaurant recommendation for dinner, this time a Vietnamese restaurant. Lecker! He had to leave the next morning to catch an early ferry for another adventure, so we found our way back to the hostel yet again... with a bit of map consultation. I'm still fairly proud of myself for maintaining the role of navigator with minimal panic and a reasonable degree of competency, considering it was my fourth visit to Berlin!

I had to catch a train the next morning back to Göttingen, so we made plans to wake up and do our goodbyes then. My sleep was disturbed a little bit by a snoring hostel roommate (nobody in our party, of course) but I still managed to bet back with plenty of time for the Einstufungstest for second semester... and like I already mentioned, I managed to get Oberstufe, so I must've slept well enough!

I still want to cover last weekend's Geburtstag escapades before I take off on my next adventure tomorrow morning (visiting Kola and Ashli in Tübingen!) so I guess stay tuned!