Excursions II - Weimar

Our second stop during our class excursions was Weimar, where we stayed for 4 nights. I'd have to say that out of all of the places we visited, Weimar was one of my favorites - I think this has to do with the fact that, for me it felt more "German." By German I mean, it had the cobblestone road, the half-timber houses, the big open squares, etc. It's what I imagined Germany would be like before I came over here. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Berlin - it is my home away from home after all - the only thing is, it's an international city, so you don't really that get that "typical" German feeling that is more present in Weimar. There's also a lot of really good German food in Weimar (they have the best Bratwurst by far)!!!!

While we were in Weimar, we stayed at this, to be honest, what kind of appeared to be an abandoned building. But, don't worry, it wasn't. It's owned by one of professor's friends, who is in the process of turning it into a Yiddish Music School - random, I know. But it was actually a pretty cool place - it was pretty big, and there were so many places to go explore and check out! It was kind of fun living there, and we were also able to do a little community service, and help clean up the place some. We did work in the garden (raking leaves, replanting plants, building garden beds), as well as tear up flooring and tear down wall paper! It's a lot more fun than it sounds! lol!

As a good-bye to Weimar we all went out to dinner together at this German restaurant our last night there - and we all basically ordered the same thing - Kartoffel Klöße. They're sort of like potato dumplings, I guess, I'm not really quite sure how else to describe them other than to say that they were absolutely delicious!!! :-)

Here's a pic of them I stole from Google Images:

Overall, the thing I think I liked most about Weimar is that we had the most time to explore by ourselves - like we didn't really have any scheduled guided tours - so I feel like I really got to know the city and the people, more so than I did in other places where we would just follow a tour guide around. We got to go explore places like the Palace, the Market Square, some old ruins, etc. all on our own time and own pace - which was nice, I really liked it!

Excursions I - Dessau

So as part of the program here at Lexia in Berlin, all of the students have the opportunity to partake in class excursions throughout Germany, as well as the Czech Republic. One of the first stops we made on our 10 day adventure, was Dessau - home of the Bauhaus architecture (if you don't know what this is, don't worry I didn't either - apparently it's like this really famous architecture school - all of the students in the architecture program were super excited about it). We also stopped by this huge environmental building that via cooling and warming devices, as well as solar panels, produces the majority of their own energy - it was a pretty cool building I must say.

Overall, however, there's not much else I can say about Dessau - since we were only there for a few short hours. It wasn't the most exciting stop on our tour, but they did have good ice cream!!! :-)

Environmental Building

Environmental Building

Kürbisfest

So I'm really sorry ... I totally meant to put this post up online before I left for my class excursions, and forget!!! But here it is, a little late, but still interesting!!!

The weekend before I left for excursions (so like 2 weekends ago) I went to the Kürbisfest, otherwise known as the Pumpkin Festival, in Berlin's district Schöneberg. It was basically this big fall festival set up right in the middle of the city, with the streets all blocked off for vendors and events and such. There were of course pumpkins, but also lots of food, clothes, rides, etc. It was just a lot of fun to see everything and experience that part of the German culture - along with all the delicious food!!!!

Anyways, here are some pictures from the Fest!!! :-)

East Side Gallery

This past weekend I ventured on over to what used to be East Berlin to check out the East Side Gallery. This "gallery" is an international memorial, created to commemorate freedom at the Berlin Wall. The gallery "is a 1.3km-long section of the wall near the center of Berlin. Approximately 106 paintings by artists from all over the world cover this memorial for freedom and make it the largest open air gallery in the world, (Eastsidegallery.com)."  


It was pretty awesome to see the Wall, something that for the longest time represented division and boundaries and rules, covered in artistic works expressing freedom and love and independence! It was great! There were just so many different paintings by so many different artists from all over the world! It was really interesting seeing everyone's different interpretations on the memorial and what they wanted to add to it. It's definitely one of those must see places in Berlin!!

Berlin's Art Forum

A major aspect of the program I'm in, Visual Culture, is German art. We spend a lot of time looking at art and the artists' responses to the world around them - for example their responses to WWI and WWII. And this weekend was no exception, as all of the students in the Visual Culture program as well as some students from Lexia's other program - the Architecture program, had the opportunity to go to the 15th edition of "Art Forum Berlin" - an international art show featuring leading galleries from the world's most important art centers. 


Tons of artists, from all over the world, come to this event to showcase their work to potential buyers, as well as partake in the many art talks that that occur throughout the weekend. We saw everything from your typical painting to crazy things like everyday objects set up to create music. It was pretty awesome to just see what everyone had created and what their take on "art" is.


Anyways, here are some pictures I took of the different exhibits: