Dresden

After leaving Cottbus, we went to Dresden to stay with more of Anne´s friends. We came at a good weekend since there was a street fair going on. We showed up, left our things at the apartment and went off to explore the fair. There was live music on almost every corner and there were open courtyards where people put on music and movies. There were also street performers. Some juggled fire, others danced, and some danced with fire. There was even a Native American flutist, like in American fairs - go figure! Our favorite was the concert that was in an old church. During WWII, Dresden was bombed heavily by the British and the Allies, destroying 75% of the city. This church had been bombed and was missing the roof and parts of the walls. It had been taken care of so that the walls were fortified and wouldn´t fall over, but otherwise, it was open to the sky.

The next day was spent walking through Dresden learning about the history and looking at all of the buildings. Some if which were still standing after the British blitzkrieg. You can see in our pictures that the old stones are burned and blackened. The newer stones used to rebuild and reinforce the old buildings are whiter. Apparently, as a sign of peace and goodwill, the British and Germans have worked together to rebuild many of the buildings they each bombed. There was a beautiful church that was rebuilt only a couple of years ago. It was completely demolished by the bombs and some of the old stones were used to rebuild it.

We are now in Leipzig, at Anne´s apartment and are looking forward to seeing her university and city.

Day 2 and 3 (Berlin, Lubbenau, and Cottbus)

Hey everybody!

Our last day in Berlin was a lot of fun. We woke up and went over to Fan´s to meet for breakfast. She took us to a great little cafe by her apartment called Cafe Alibi. Afterward, we went to the Tacheles House. Fan suggested it to us and it was pretty cool. The building used to be part of one of the first shopping districts in Berlin until after WWII. When Berlin was split into East and West Berlin, the GDR made it into an administration building. When the wall came down, the building was going to be demolished, but, instead, it was left empty. After some time, squatters moved in. They were all artists and they turned it into a building that they could live in and use as a studio. The government tried to kick them out by saying the building was condemned and not safe to live in. They said the squatters must fix the building up if they wanted to stay, not thinking that poor artists would be able to afford to fix it. But the artists somehow raised the money, made the required changes, and were allowed to stay. There is still some fighting between the government and the squatters, but for now the building stands and is quite popular with tourists.

Today was a great day. Except for the fact that Kendra woke up sick :( But nothing 12 hours of rest couldn't fix! We stayed at Anne's uncle´s cabin last night in Lubbenau. The place had an out house and no phone lines. It was right on the Spree (the river) with fruit trees and berry bushes all around it. It was very remote and Anne assured us it was fine if we went skinny dipping. So we jumped in the water, raced to a bridge down the Spree and back just as we exited the water and put on our clothes a tour boat full of people went by. Karin and I looked at Anne and she just smiled.

Today Anne's mother took us on a boat tour down the Spree and we were able to see all of the small cottages and gardens. It was beatiful and relaxing. The Spree starts in the area where the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland meet. As it moves towards Berlin, it splits into many different parts and converges before arriving in Berlin. We went through a part where the Spree was split and if you didn´t know where you were going, you would surely get lost.

We had lunch at a little resturant with "the best fish in town" and it really was amazing fish! They had a selection of sea fish as well as local fish from the Spree. We chose meals from the local fish. Karin had the Forelle, which was essentially river trout. Anne had the Quark, which was a milk based soup - kind of like sour cream, but better. Kendra had the Zander, a local white fish. Yummm! (see the pictures)

Then we went on a walk eating apples and plums off the trees we passed. When we got back to the cabin and played SKIPBO!!!! And we´re not sure if it was jet lag, or food coma, but we each had a nap, even after such a long nights sleep. It was lots of fun.

Later that afternoon, Anne's mom drove us to Cottbus. where we had dinner, looked at photos, and played at the play ground at Anne´s old elementary school. We came back to the apartment and Anne´s mom made us an ice cream dish with fresh blueberries, strawberries, and bananas. It has been a great couple of days and it´s definitely time for bed.

This time we have pictures!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/golobgirls/BerlinDay1?feat=directlink

Day 1

Anne took us around Berlin this morning. We planned on waking up at 8am, but our alarm didn´t wake us up, hopefully this isn´t a recurring theme. We´re going to try setting two alarms and maybe we will actually get up on time.

We started by walking through "Little Turkey,"apparently there´s a large Turkish population around Berlin. We moved on to some of the better known areas in the city. It´s been 20 years since the Berlin wall came down in November 1989 and there are many exhibits around the city to remember the event. We visited some of these exhibits and were able to learn some of the history that lead up to the breaking of the wall. Some of the sights we saw were the Berlin world clock, the famous TV tower, the St. Marie Cathedral, a really cool poseidon fountain. After getting some delicious gelatto and doing a little more sightseeing, Anne was tuckered out. So we went on without her.

There was an Anne Frank memorial in Hackescher Market that we went through before surprising Fan at her apartment (Fan is a classmate of Karin´s). She was busy preparing a project presentation so we didn´t hang out for long, but she was able to give us some great tips on what to do with the rest of our day. We ate in Little Turkey and some amazing hummus and pita bread and a yummy chicken and rice dish. After dinner, we went the the East Side Gallery which is where the longest strip of the Berlin wall still remains in tact. Every year they choose different artists to paint different sections of the wall. It´s interesting to see all of the different kinds of art. It took us a while to get back to the main section of Berlin and by the time we got back to the apartment we´re staying at it was already almost 10:30 and we´re beat and heading to bed.

We´re currently experiencing technical difficulties in uploading the photos, so we´ll just have to upload them as soon as we can.

We made it!

In Berlin! Anne's friends made us dinner... Yumm. We had potatoes, veggies, and schnitzel. We got to their apartment right before the thunder and lightning began. It poured all through dinner - good thing we packed rain jackets! Since we arrived at the airport after 7, it hasn´t been too exciting yet, but here´s proof that we found Anne :)

Itinerary

So our first blog comes from the States (boring, I know), but we had gotten requests for our trip itinerary and figured this was the most efficient way to get it out there.

Aug. 25-28: Berlin
Aug. 28-31: Cottbus
Aug. 31-Sept. 4: Munich
Sept. 4-7: Salzburg
Sept. 7-9: Reutte, Austria
Sept. 9-12: Paris
Sept. 13-15: Venice
Sept. 15-18: Florence/Siena
Sept. 18-20: La Spezia/Cinque Terra
Sept. 21-28: Rome