Leipzig

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. It was raining outside and the experience of listen to Bach in his own town, looking outside the window, it was significant to me.

I also saw the World Press Photo exhibition in the train station. The station is like a shopping mall packed with shops, snack bars and restaurants. It is a little weird because the building of the station is antique, it looks like Europe, the old world. But when in this mall it seams I was in Brazil or USA.

Even though my stay in Leipzig was short, I think I could get an idea about the town. The little I saw, I liked a lot. The city seams to be small but with a lot of life. As in Berlin, I saw construction everywhere, a city in transformation and reconstruction phase.