Reflections and Writing on the Walls

Wow, what a trip! Spanning almost 4 weeks, 3 different countries, and six different cities and I can't even believe it's over already. But if there is one thing I found out during our extensive trip was that you will always be able to find Graffiti; the  art of the underground anywhere and everywhere. I have had a personal interest in Graffiti or Street Art as an Art form ever since I did my IB research paper on it my senior year of high school. So on this trip I made sure to take pictures of my favorite Graffiti and Street Art pieces in each city we visited. For each city's  culture and people were different in there own little ways. Which for me the effects of these small differences were noticeable in each of their respective Graffiti and Street Art scenes and in a way it became the way I felt I could get the best understanding for each city. And now as our trip comes to close these pieces of Graffiti serve as a kind of way to remember the culture and to an extent the very people of each cities we visited. So I felt no better way to end my part on this blog and the trip than to  share with you all may favorite pieces from each city.

Taken in Vienna, near our hostel.

Taken in Prague, this artist also had similar pieces all over the city.

Taken in Leipzig, on the way to the train station.

Taken in Wittenberg, as we entered the city.

One of my favorites from the East Side gallery in Berlin. 

Also taken in Berlin, on the "backside" of the East Side gallery.

Taken in Salzburg, on the forest path near the Monastery.

Hidden and later uncovered graffiti made by the prisoners at the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp.
One of the most beautiful pieces I have pictures of.

A Castle, a Composer and Covered Fountain.

Our final city before returning to Vienna was the Austrian city of Slazburg. One could say it's strait out of a postcard with it's 109 beautiful church and cathedrals while being sounded by the Alps on one side and the Slazach river on the other and to top it all off it's capped with one of the most magnificent castles I have ever had the pleasure of seeing.  We had a great view of not only the city of Slazburg but the surrounding area when we all climbed up to the castle, officially called Hohenslazburg Fortress which sits on top of the Festtungburg. It boasts the impressive stat of never being once being taken in it's entire 941 year history which has allowed it survive mostly intact for such a long time. Therefore making it the biggest fully preserved castle in Central Europe. We had a tour of the inside of the castle and as we walked it's long hallways and climbed it lengthy spiral staircases I began to grasp it's true size and get a sense of why it was so impenetrable.

The Hohenslazburg Fortress.

The view!

On our first full day our walking tour guide Gabriel Frost told us all about the fountain we couldn't see, made famous by the opening scenes of the Sound of Music. But beyond the sights (or in our case the hidden sights) Slazburg also has the pleasure of being the birth place and home of one of the most famous classical composers of all time: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Which our guide told us all about as we walked through the city pointing out the cafe Mozart hated but went to every day. And as she mentioned how extra special it was being in Slazburg arrived on Mozart's birthday as we walked by his birth house. She continued in saying as we walked inside of the Slazburg Cathedral how we had the pleasure of seeing the very fount he was baptized in, on his baptismal day. We later ended our tour by Mozart's apartment where he spent most of his days while he lived in Slazburg.

Mozart's Birth House.

Our guide also spoke about Slazburg more modern claim to fame: The Sound of Music. As I spoke on earlier by pointing out a covered up fountain, but also the real life abbey that Maria was from in the film. As well as other famous shots from the film by the main square in front of the old Archbishops residence. Which compelled me and some of my classmates enough to attempt to watch The Sound of Music that night to see places we say that day in the film. It was definitely worth it! For it was almost magical to realized that we walked by the same beautiful places in the film, that very day. I could finally see why they choose the city of Slazburg to set the film for as they say in the film the hills ( and the city),  were truly alive with the sound of music!

The Covered Fountain.

Bikes and the Berlin Wall

We spent so much time in Berlin that I feel it deserves to posts to be devoted to it, so in light of my early post this will take a much lighter tone, to show you all what I think is the true Berlin experience. Matt, Brett, and I all decided to rent bikes for a day a bike around Berlin, to try and get at least a small feel for this huge city. Our goal was to eventually end up at the East Side Gallery, a portion of the old Berlin Wall now devoted to artists and street artists to paint as they see fit. It was a ways away from where our group was staying in  Berlin so we thought that traveling there by bike would not only be the on of the simpler but more scenic ways of getting there.

Me and my Bike!

We started form the area near the Brandenburg gate where we rented our bike from the City Market for 5 euro for a 2 hr rental. After riding through the city, and stopping only a few times to check our map we made it to the east side gallery. When we arrived a feeling of joy began to sink into me as I took in the wall for what it had become. For I saw what used to be the physical manifestation of the "Iron Curtain" now turned into a beautiful collection of art not only form the east side community but form  around the world. Even though it is just a concrete wall in the end, but fact that it had changed from being separator of peoples into an art gallery that unites them, amazed me. For it was refreshing to see how much the wall changed from it's original use to this newfound one.

A part of the more "original" wall near the Topography of Terror museum. 

Part of the Wall from The East Side Gallery.

Afterwards we stopped at this amazing sushi place called Rice In (I would later end up eating there a total of three times during our six day stay in Berlin). But I had this amazing Onigiri that his the spot perfectly after riding all day on the bikes. If anyone plans on visiting Berlin anytime soon I would highly recommend stopping there at least once.

Amazing Tuna and Avocado Onigiri.

Heavy Heart and Heavy Mind; Berlin

So we've been in Berlin for a few days now but the first and second full day had my heart sinking to the floor.  On our first day, we took a walking tour around the city of Berlin. The first half wasn't too bad at all; we got to see all the various museums that the city had and their history. Then as we went on, the guide began to go into figures of history like Stalin and Hitler and the Nazi party. It was really cool to get to hear about this topic and see the monuments as we went. Our the end of our tour (3 hours later) was at the topography of Terror  museum. It's here that we got to see part of the Berlin wall that was still standing. One thing I found interesting was that any type of museum or monument that has anything to to with the holocaust is free of charge, by law. Being in that museum, I could see that some people were  at the point of tears because of  all the pictures and information that were put on display; others had a look of silent shock. For me, as I saw some of the pictures and read about them, I felt a sadness and heaviness take over. I couldn't process that something like this had taken place.

 This feeling was amplified when, on day 2, we went on a walking tour of the Saschausen Concentration Camp.We saw a lay out of what the whole place looked like and then saw some of the original buildings that were in it that had become museums. there was one building that had letters and paperwork from all the victims of the holocaust and honestly, it made my heart hurt. On the bottom floor, There was a large floor display of all the shoes and clothes of people that had been found and excavated. As I stood there looking at this, I just felt increasingly heartbroken and was at the edge of crying when the guide told us we were moving on. For the rest of that tour and the day, I just felt so emotionally exhausted. It was honestly a really sobering experience to see and learn about such a significant part of our history....

 

Leipzig: Packed full of Musical History

Hello all sorry I haven't been on top as I should have been with updates of my experiences of our trip so, for the most part my next few posts will be in the retrospective. This one will specifically be covering the highlights of my experiences in Leipzig, made famous by Bach and the Mendelssohn's. The first thing we did as soon as we got settled in Leipzig was visit the Bach statue in front of the St. Thomas church the church were Bach worked at for the last 30 years of his life. We would end up visiting it again the next day as we meet for to go to the Bach museum which had a massive collection of all things Bach including Bach's Box. Bach's Box  was in back of the Bach museum which really didn't help show how cool of a box it was. For it was the only piece of original furniture from his house in the museum, and it was recognized as such due to the fact that it has the same crest as Bach's family crest on the inside of the lid (you can also see this same crest all around Leipzig). The fallowing evening we went and saw Bach being preformed in the St.Thomas Church by the St. Thomas church's boys choir. It was absolutely amazing listen to Bach in the same church where he composed most of the music we listen to today. And afterward we got an unexpected tour of the church by one of Dr. Powell's friends where he explained the significance of all the stained glass art as well as sharing some interesting facts about the alter in the church.

Bach's Statue outside of the St. Thomas Church.

Bach's Box!

While we were in Leipzig we also went to the famous Mendelssohn house, home to Felix Mendelssohn. He was known as the man who brought back Bach from obscurity and truly recognized not only how good Bach was but also how important he was for his influence and effect on classic music that came after him. The ground floor of the house served as a sort of intractable exhibit that to much of our classes delight included a virtual orchestra that you could try your hand at conducting. The first floor of the house was set up as the original home that Felix Mendelssohn lived in with his wife and family. It even included a selection of his paintings, which I never knew about until seeing them myself. I was quite honestly surprised at his skill as painter for I have only ever heard about him in regards to his music. Finally that second ant last floor of the house featured a recently added exhibit on Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix's sister who although never recognized as much as her brother due to her gender was in many peoples opinion's on par or even better than her brother at composing. My favorite part of this floor was the exhibit on her famous work called "The Year", featuring the original 12 manuscripts corresponding to each of the twelve month celebrating a happy memory of her and her husband experienced during each of them that that year. The manuscript were also exceptionally beautiful as Fanny's husband was a painter and personally illustrated each one of the manuscripts. Overall, it was amazing experiencing first hand the vast amount of music history and importance contained in such as small town as Leipzig.

One of Felix Mendelssohn's Original Watercolors.

Fanny's "The Year".

The Virtual Orchestral as Shown off by Carl.

Sprechen Sie Englisch?

The first three days were full of exploration, delicious food, and language barrier. It's been truly incredible and I haven't even ventured outside of Vienna yet. Through these blog posts I will document and attempt to capture the essence of my travels.

Monday, Jan 8th
After about eleven hours of flying, the group and I landed in Vienna at noon, local time. This was, of course, far from the noon to which my body was accustomed. Nevertheless, I managed to stay awake until Austrian bedtime. This would probably not have been the case if not for the spectacular city waiting to be explored. Since we arrived at our hostel, The Wombat, an hour before check-in time, Alex, Matt, Konner, and I decided to take a stroll. We found a food stand which graced us with our first meal in the new city.

Hühner kebap, delicious street food.

Getting settled in was the next order of business, after which my roommates (Alex, Matt, and Jeffery) and I wandered our way into a pub. Fortunately the bartender understood enough English to ensure we got our beers and complimentary potato chips. We followed this excursion with a group dinner at Zwölf Apostlkeller, a restaurant that descends several floors underground! I may not have chosen the best entree to pair with my strawberry wine, but it was hard to resist the roast pork and dumplings.

Tuesday, Jan 9th
I started my first full day in Vienna with a couple of espressos and a hearty breakfast at The Wombat. The group and I then headed for St. Stephen's Cathedral in the city center for a guided tour. I learned about Vienna's history and got to see the house (now a shopping mall...) in which Mozart died. Our tour guide, Herbert, also showed us one of Beethoven's favorite cafes. It was very surreal spending time where my two favorite composers spent time, and this was just an appetizer for the next day's event.

“In this place until 1849 was the house in which Mozart died on December 5, 1791.”

Later that night we attended our first concert. The program revolved around love letters and songs by Robert and Clara Schumann. Though I couldn't understand the letters, the music was beautiful and I found myself entranced by the opening piano part. I also really enjoyed this take on the production as it was, well, more of a production than a recital, complete with acting and humor that prompted the German-speakers to laugh. After the concert, Megan, Matt, Jeffery, and I took to the streets in search of dinner. It was only after this outing that I realized I walked over 30,000 steps that day!

Wednesday, Jan 10th
The main course to Tuesday's appetizer was a visit to Zentralfriedhof, the site at which the greatest composers are buried. If standing where Beethoven once stood was surreal, standing above him was phantasmagorical (yes, I had to look that up). I got to see the gravestones for Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, Brahms, and many others including the elusive Legeti, for which Aaron and I spent the better part of an hour searching. On our way back to The Wombat, Aaron, Caroline, and I got separated from the group and ended up lost in the city. Fortunately I had the two prerequisites to salvation: Google maps and an international data plan.

After some brief downtime, Caroline and I headed north for Kahlenberg, a hilltop that overlooks the city. We arrived only to find the thickest fog I've ever seen; our view of the city was a lost cause. It was an enticing change of scenery nonetheless, and I thoroughly enjoyed our trek through the foggy woods. Before we hopped back on the bus, we decided to stop at a little souvenir shop where we were greeted in German. In previous encounters, the phrase, "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" had saved the day, alerting the Austrians that they were dealing with American tourists and should switch to English. No such luck this time, as the owner replied, "Nein, nein," and continued to mutter at us in German. We tried to ignore his implacable presence while we browsed around. This continued for a few minutes until Caroline asked if he was closing, to which he replied, "Yes!" Finally aware of our transgression, we got out of his hair and made our way back for the next concert.

Thick fog!

Our second concert was the Bellini opera, I Puritani. The venue, the state opera house, was enormous. We were seated in the top row and there were probably six or seven rows below us. The seats could have been more comfortable, but I'm just glad we didn't have to stand in the very back as others did. The show featured large choral and instrumental ensembles, great soloists, and even subtitles in either German or English. I used this as an opportunity to work on my German; I would read the subtitles of the people in front of me before reading my own English subtitles. All in all, it was a great experience and I can't wait for what's in store in the next cities!