Categoria / Category Learning German 2003

In Learning German 2003, Highlight, Europe On  31/12/2003  No comments

See the posts of  Learning German travel (2003)

• Berlin: first week
• Potsdam
• Dresden
• Berlin – 3 more weeks of classes
• Leipzig
• Weimar
• Karlsruhe
• Munich
• Linz

In Learning German 2003, Europe On  15/09/2003  No comments

After the exhausting week in Linz, I got in Munich and slept for almost a whole day. I needed… The days here were not so beautiful. It was raining and it started to be cold. I realized the summer was over.

I waked around downtown, went to shops, cafes, and, as usual, I end up in museums. First, I visited the city museum (Stadtmuseum). There were paintings, drawings and maquettes that told the region history. There was a part dedicated to music and theater. Here it could be found all kinds of marionettes and toys. I liked to see that, as in Brazil I do not know any museum that show such things. The music part, for being small, impressed me the great amount of instruments from other parts of the world as from Asia, America and Africa. Every time I see this, it bothers me that the third world is being left without history, and that the rich countries are the ones to tell our history.

On the same day I visited the Deutsches Museum, a huge museum on technology...

In Learning German 2003, Europe On  05/09/2003  One comment

Right after my arrival in Karlsruhe I went to see the ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie and visit the Medienmuseum. It was impressive for me because I had the opportunity to see works of electronic art that I only knew  from books. Works as the ones by Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau, Bruno Cohen, Jeffrey Shaw, Hermen Maat, really are nothing in a book when compared to the experience of touching and interacting.

I walked around the city downtown area. Crowded with shops, cafes, and lots of people walking around, it reminded me Brazil. Maybe due to the modern architecture, the noise and movement of people coming and going. One of the most important tourist places in the city is the Schloss Karlsruhe. The palace was constructed in the eighteenth century by Karl Wilhelm. Today it houses the museum Badisches Landesmuseum im Schloss. Here I could get a sense of how it was the life in the palace and appreciate the art. I climbed up the tower to have a view of the city...

In Learning German 2003, Europe On  02/09/2003  One comment

Weimar reminded me Leipzig. It seems that the two towns have lots in common, besides Goethe, of course. I waked around the historical center, it also rained. I, then, spent a time in a café to read a little about the city.

In order to know more about the city history I visited the Weimar Haus – das Geschichtserlebnis. It is a museum with an automatic guided visit. Doors open to different rooms and sceneries with wax personalities, videos and lighting effects. As audio explains the history of the place.

Other two important museums in town are Goethes Wohnhaus and Bauhaus Museum. The Goethe house was crowded, it should be a day for school visit. The museum is a walk through the different rooms of the place where the writer used to live. The Bauhaus Museum was not big, I expected more. It was a sort of repetition of what I saw in the Bauhaus museum in Berlin.

Concluding my quick visit to Weimar I had dinner in a Thai restaurant...

In Learning German 2003, Europe On  01/09/2003  No comments

I arrived in Leipzig on a Sunday morning. Since it was raining, I spent a lot of time in a Frühstücksbuffet (a brunch). I had lots of food and went back to the hostel for a nap. It was a perfect day to relax.

After the nap I walked around downtown, sometimes the sun tried to show up a little bit. The historical center is beautiful, with its old building, cafes and shops. Leipzig is a town with an artistic and intellectual background, here lived personalities such as Goethe and Bach. Today it seems to be an student town. This was one of the few European cities where I saw people kissing each other on the streets. That caught my attention because, in my idea of “cold German people” wouldn’t be youngsters kissing in public. Maybe they were tourists… I don’t believe so…

I visited the Bach Museum. It is not big, it has some images from his time, partitures sheet music and a handset with explanations on his life and work. I like it...

In Learning German 2003, Europe On  17/08/2003  No comments

The following weeks in Berlin I had German classes every morning. Long walks around town in the afternoons, plus museums, parks, zoo, aquarium, cafes, beach, flee market… And the evenings: pubs, movies, orchestra, live music, dance festival… It was a very cultural summer vacation, and in company of good friends.

Second week

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Third week

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In Learning German 2003, Europe On  16/08/2003  No comments

Together with 3 other classmate from Germana classes we got a train to Dresden. We used the Schönes Wochenende Ticket (Happy Weekend Ticket), a very cheap ticket that can be used unlimited times (only on regional trains) to up to 5 people. The trip was fun, we laughed a lot the whole journey. The city reminded me Prague or Budapest, we walked all over downtown. I love cities with rivers or sea.

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In Learning German 2003, Europe On  09/08/2003  One comment

A short trip from Berlin is to spend a day in Potsdam visiting palaces and gardens. Our first stop was the Sanssouci Palace (Schloss Sanssouci). We did a tour (in German) in the interior of the palace visiting many rooms. It is like others palaces I have already visited, something unreal for me, exaggerated and exuberant.

From there we walked on the beautiful gardens to the Chinese tea house (Chinesisches Teehaus). Once more; exuberance. The house is surrounded by golden statues. We continued to visit the Roman baths (Römanischer Bäder). It is incredible to imagine how they lived here. Everything it is so pompous that looks like it lacks life, that it is really cold and distant.

We got late to the new palace (Neues Palais), it closes at 5pm. Since I was tired I lay down on a branch in the shade and waited for Lorena. She went walk around the palace to see its architecture.

By dusk we walked to the lake to see the marble palace (Marmorpalais) and the Dutch village...

In Learning German 2003, Europe On  08/08/2003  One comment

The first week in Berlin was a sort of getting used to the new routine that it will last for a month. I always liked routines in cities where I don’t live. It is like to have an intimacy with a place for a short period of time.

I started with German classes in the mornings and I had afternoons and evening to know the city, see friends and visit museums. On the first days I met Thomas, Lorena and Kai for a beer in Mitte. Thomas I met in Bolivia in 2001. Lorena is my friend from Barcelona and Kai is her friend. We enjoy the warm Berliner night sitting outside and chatting about travels. The talk was a mixture of Spanish and English with some words in Portuguese and German.

I visited the Wall Museum (Haus am Checkpoint Charlie) with Lorena. I thought it was a little disorganized, there was a great amount of photos and newspaper pages hanged on the wall. By the end one could notice some organization. Great part of the museum was about people who wanted to escape from east into west...