Okay, so, even though our travel day wasn't technically part of our 10-day itinerary, I'm writing this brief post because it helps set the context for our first "official" day.
I'll state outright that my group (Shorashim Bus #146!) was pretty lucky about a couple things:
Our flight left from Chicago. Most birthright trips, even those that are Chicago community trips, leave from New York, and participants have to figure out (and pay for) their own travel for that first leg.
We didn't have to be at the airport until about 12:30 PM, so there was none of that "wake up at 3:30AM and trek to O'Hare before the sun rises" nonsense.
The Madrid airport
We all received nametags, which was crucial at this stage. We numbered 39 American participants, three American staff, and we would soon be adding seven Israeli participants and two Israeli staff. That's a lot of names to learn.
Our first flight was to Madrid. It took nearly nine hours. We had been warned in advance about the food, but I don't think any of us were expecting it to be quite so bad. Kosher meals had been pre-ordered for all of us (in spite of the fact that none of us actually keep kosher). We received some sort of breaded chicken (at least, I think it was chicken) and...frozen eggplant, and frozen tomatoes. Literally frozen solid, completely inedible. We were not allowed to switch to non-Kosher (and presumably non-frozen) meals.
After a roughly hour-long layover in Madrid, we caught our next flight to Tel Aviv. This one was about four and a half hours.
We landed, exhausted, and had to go through customs and get our luggage, and then we were greeted by our Israelis with cheers and balloons and applause and a song. Our group was finally whole, since we would all be traveling together the full ten days. (All birthright trips have Israelis join them for several days, but the trip organizer I went with, Shorashim, is unique in that the Israelis stay the full ten days.) So, we loaded up on the bus, which would serve as a second home, of sorts, during our trip.
Hello!
This is a blog I started a few years ago in order to write about my time in Paris, but I think it'll also be a pretty good medium for me to write about my recent trip to Israel. I hope you appreciate the new Middle East-themed page design.
I think what makes most sense is to chronicle each day in a post. That means each post might get a little lengthy, but that should parallel nicely with the sort of overwhelming nature of our itinerary, right?
Well, let me tell you a little bit about the tail end of my stay in Paris.
Finally, the weather was beautiful - and consistent! Before then, it would be sunny for a few days before the temperature would dip down and I would have to start wearing a sweater or a coat again. Gorgeous weather meant that none of us wanted to go to class, let alone finish our final papers or projects. (I actually didn't skip class, just for the record).
I had a few last items on my Paris "To-do" list.
I made it to the Georges Pompidou Centre, which is a modern art museum and one of Paris' most bizarre-looking buildings:
It's not under construction and that's not scaffolding - that's just the architecture of the building. As I said, modern art. A lot of it was fairly bizarre, too much for my tastes, but there were some very cool paintings or sculptures that I really enjoyed.
As I wandered through the galleries, I loved seeing the groups of schoolchildren on tours, learning about the art. I was actually very impressed by how young they were to be learning about such modern art (most of which is very intellectual). Art education just isn't as important in the States, so it was very refreshing for me to see how young these kids were.
As the weather was so nice, my friends and I spent as much time outside as possible, just hanging out or picnicking in various parks. Paris has a very vibrant outdoor culture. If it's a sunny day, everyone goes outside to picnic, play sports, lay in the sun and tan, go for a run, or do whatever.
One of the best things to do in Paris is to get dinner around the 10th arrondissement, order something for take-out, and sit along the Canal St. Martin to eat and drink with a few friends. It's such a good idea that it's difficult to find free space along the canal, because so many others are doing the same. I went one night with my friend Joe and we split a pizza and a bottle of wine. [The most French pizza ever: smoked salmon with fresh cream and caviar. Surprisingly tasty.]
Somehow during those last few days I found time to write my final papers (in English and in French) and prepare for a French presentation. Let it just be said that going abroad for the quarter was the best thing I could have done for my GPA - I did very, very well in all of my classes.
The last weekend in Paris was over far too quickly.
On Friday, I went to the Eiffel Tower - finally. I had a picnic on the lawn with some friends. I'm glad I waited to long to go because the day was just beautiful.
Saturday was my birthday! At this point people had already started leaving Paris, either to return to the U.S. or to travel some more while they were in Europe. But, I managed to get a group of my friends together and we ended up having dinner on the Seine and hanging out around Pont des Arts. At one point we were in such a good mood that we just started laughing and couldn't stop for a very long time. The day had been warm but the evening was nice and cool, there were street musicians and plenty of other young people going for walks or just hanging out. Pont des Arts is really more of an outdoor club or café than anything else.
Sunday was spent packing and preparing for my flight home. Monday I was up early in the morning to catch the Métro all the way to Charles de Gaulle and catch my flight. Paris --> Dublin --> Chicago.
Justin met me at the airport, and he had bought me McDonald's for lunch as a "welcome back to America" present.
Sometimes I miss Paris but I'm so happy to be back home in the U.S. And now that I've had the opportunity to travel some, I know I'm not going to want to stop. I wonder where I'll go next...
Friday, May 21, 2010
I'm in France for only another 10 days or so. I'll be sorry to leave, but excited to come home. These days are sort of rushing past right now. There are still a few tourist sites I have to visit while I'm here, but I think I'm mostly concerned with finishing up my classes and enjoying myself for this last week or so. (Also, my birthday is almost here!)
Last week I went to the Rodin Museum. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and the museum has some adjoining gardens with statues scattered throughout. Of course, his most famous piece, The Thinker, was up on a pedestal:
Apart from it being completely surrounded by tourists, it simply wasn't my favorite piece. I preferred
La porte de l'enfer (The Gate of Hell)
Or, Le Secret
Since we've had such excellent weather lately, everyone's been spending a lot of time outside. The Luxembourg Gardens, surrounding Luxembourg Palace which houses the French Senate, are well manicured and colorful, with people sitting around and picnicking all around the web of meandering paths.
Willllm Clark visited me last weekend. He was on his way to Germany and decided he'd see Paris for a few days. Activities included: The marché aux puces (flea market) up at Porte de Clignancourt. I believe it's the oldest flea market in the world, or some other such distinction. It was a little bit disappointing, actually. They had some pretty cool antiques in one section, though. The Bois de Boulogne, a huge park on Paris' west side. According to the wikipedia page, the park is about 2.5 times as large as Central Park in NYC. A Pop Art themed bar, a cool club, and Pont des Arts. Pont des Arts is a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Seine, right in front of the Louvre on one side and the Institut de France on the other. The bridge has a pretty cool scene at night: it's full of (mostly young) people, hanging out, eating and drinking and smoking and conversing, playing music..It's essentially an outdoor bar with a laid-back atmosphere.
Other than that... I went wandering around Place de Saint Michel the other afternoon, walked over towards Notre Dame:
I headed back to the Louvre, since the last time I went I obviously didn't even see half. If you ever find yourself in Paris, and you only have one day to visit the Louvre, you should visit the Denon wing, which probably houses the best-known pieces: the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the seated statue of Ramses and a statue of a sphinx, as well as some of my favorites, like Delacroix' La liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Leading the People)
And my absolute favorite: Victory (Nike) at Samothrace:
Just beautiful.
I was at the Louvre just up until it was closing, which is 10 p.m. on Wednesdays. I was walking through the galleries with my iPod, mostly so that I could block out the other tourists more easily. At one point, a security guard stopped me, so I pulled out my earbuds to talk to him, assuming he would be pointing me towards the exit since the museum was about to close. He asked to see my map, and pointed at the Pyramid and the fountain outside. What he really wanted was for me to wait for him there, so that we could "get to know each other" after he finished his shift. I declined! But that's just so...typical (and stereotypical) Frenchman, I'm finding. They'll just walk up to you, saying "Je voudrais faire ta connaissance..." ("I'd like to get to know you"), and then they'll invite you anywhere.
Well, allow me to tell you a bit about the tail end of my sojourn in Berlin. WARNING: This ended up being a longer post than I originally intended. If you don't feel like reading the whole thing, skip to the end for a surprise.
After having visited most of the major landmarks and tourist sites in one fell swoop, I had a few days on my own to wander, explore, follow up on recommendations and see what I would see.
One of the best recommendations I got was from Katie, who insisted (and rightfully so) that I visit Kunsthaus Tacheles.
Right now, the place serves as an art center housing a café, art studios, tons of galleries, concert spaces, and the whole thing turns into a bar/club every night for the Pub Crawl or other parties.
Every inch of this place is covered in paintings/posters/graffiti/stickers/canvas/anything you can think of, really. The "back yard" is full of more galleries, sculptures, tables and chairs and places to hang out. My kind of scene.
The building apparently has a history almost as colorful as its insides. It was built as the entrance to a big shopping mall/department store in the early 1900's. That quickly went out of business, and since then it's been home to a showroom for the German General Electric Company, the Nazis as the central SS office and a prison, the German Free Trade Union Federation, and a movie theater, until it was scheduled for demolition in the 1980's. They closed the theater and removed the dome that once crowned this place, but work was stopped in 1990 when a group of artists moved in and went through the motions of having it registered as a historical site.
It's funny that this keystone of Germany counterculture is situated in one is now one of the most gentrified neighborhoods in Berlin. On the one hand, the site needs tourism to fuel itself. But seeing something again and again through the tourist's camera lens has the effect of making it remarkably trite. I imagine it's difficult to maintain the integrity of the commune as a vibrant place for art and expression (and a fair share of radicalism) while becoming more and more of a tourist trap.
Another great Katie recommendation: The Pergamon Museum, museum of Classical antiquities, the Ancient Near East, and Islamic Art.
Massive Greek temple:
The Ishtar Gate, which was at the entrance to the inner city of Babylon, built around 500 B.C.:
Massive. Just fantastic.
I spent one day visiting the sites just outside of Berlin: the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and memorial, and Potsdam. I went with a girl I met my first day in Berlin, Nerea, who is from Spain, living in Norway, but currently on a tour of Europe.
Well, needless to say, the Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg concentration camps were depressing. It was more difficult than I had expected it to be for me to walk through the grounds and actually see the sites that I had previously only studied from a safe distance. Established in 1933 as a prison for political opposition, Oranienburg was one of the first sites that would later become known as "concentration camps," and in many ways served as a model for those to come. In 1936, Sachsenhausen was built to expand upon the idea. You know the rest of the story. Again, as with Tacheles, it felt disconcerting how such a site was becoming a tourist trap. Many people who visit concentration camps do so respectfully, whether they be mourners or descendants or simply individuals learning about a terrible story in history. But I couldn't help but grimace at the girls making frowny faces behind the gate reading "ARBEIT MACHT FREI."
On a brighter note! Nerea and I had a deliciously filling lunch of döner kebabs, the German equivalent of shawarma, those Greek/Middle Eastern sandwiches I love so much. Then Potsdam! Potsdam played home to Prussian kings right up until World War I. It is also, of course, the site of the Potsdam Conference at the end of World War II. Nowadays, it's a cute little town just at the outskirts of Berlin's metro area, that just happens to have a few palaces and a spectacular garden. Unfortunately, Nerea and I got there just after they stopped admitting people into the palaces. So we took some pictures outside and went on a walk through the huge garden (perhaps "small forest" would be a more accurate term).
Neues Palais:
The last excellent recommendation I got: the Fleamarket (Flohmarkt) at Mauerpark! This is a huge, weekly fleamarket a little bit off the path so well-trod by tourists. TONS of stands selling everything, from antiques to clothing to art to knick knacks to bikes to furniture to tools to fresh fruit/vegetables to spices...you get the idea. Plus tons of great (cheap) food. After walking for a few hours through all of the stalls and hordes of people, I was just considering heading home when I decided to take a seat at a little amphitheater just beyond the market in the park. I AM SO GLAD I MADE THIS DECISION.
Bearpit Karaoke. I don't have the slightest idea why it is called that, but after sitting for a few minutes the amphitheater was filled to capacity and then overflowing with people waiting for the karaoke to start. Berliners really, really love Bearpit Karaoke, apparently. It was hilarious watching them belt out American karaoke standards, shamelessly, for the crowd.
So here I am in Berlin! I'm trying to fit everything there is to do in Berlin in just a few days, so I have long and hectic days here. My only real complaint, though, is that it's TOO COLD FOR MAY. I'd really love to be able to put my coat away for good.
Yesterday I went on a free walking tour that goes to most of the historic/important landmarks in the city. I had a CRAZY tour guide named Summer who is from Southern California and is really into performance art.
We started at the Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor):
We visited the Berlin Holocaust Memorial, more accurately known as Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe:
We walked over the site where Hitler's bunker once existed. It's now an unmarked parking lot where Berliners take their dogs to do their business.
We saw a small part of the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie is actually incredibly lame because it has been completely reconstructed and it's all fake and touristy.
But, I did very much enjoy Gendarmenmarkt, a public square containing the French Cathedral (Französischer Dom) and the German Cathedral (Deutscher Dom), as well as the Konzerthaus Berlin. Both cathedrals are Protestant, but since the French were Calvinists and the Germans were Lutherans, they practiced separately, and so the square with the two nearly identical cathedrals facing each other represents religious tolerance.
We moved on to Bebelplatz, a square ringed in by the Berlin State Opera, St. Hedwig's Cathedral, and Humboldt University. This was the site of a large Nazi book burning demonstration in 1933.
A plaque displays a famous quote by the German Jewish author Heinrich Heine:
In German: "Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher Verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen." Rough English translation: "That was just a prelude; when books are burnt, you end by burning people." Written in 1820.
On a much happier note, we passed by Fassbender and Rausch, Chocolatiers that always display huge chocolate scupltures of famous buildings in their windows:
Chocolate Reichstag = Better than real Reichstag??? Probably.
We saw the New Guard House (Neue Wache), which now houses a monument to the victims of war and tyranny:
And the official end of the tour was on the steps of the Berlin Cathedral:
After the tour, I went with a group of Australians, a USC student, and our tour guide to get schnitzel and beer. Delicious.
Then, on our way to the East Side Gallery, I met some Arizonans on the S-Bahn. They were from Tucson and Phoenix, just a few years old than I am. The world is too small sometimes.
East Side Gallery, the longest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall, covered in huge murals:
Berlin is great. And I still have so much to see. (I repeat my plea that the weather gets warmer/sunnier/SPRINGIER)
