Travelblog: Dresden

Alright, now that a ridiculous amount of time has passed since my trip to Germany, it's finally time to write about Dresden before I forget what I did!

First, I have to say, even though it's been seven years since I was last there, and even though the city has naturally undergone changes in that time, Dresden is still a home away from home to me. A lot of that is because of the dear friends who are there, but it's also the city itself, which I just adore. If you've never been, put it on your "bucket list." Now.

I was amazed at how quickly my German skills came back once I was actually in Germany. I had been trying to practice reading and speaking over the past year, knowing this trip was coming up, but in the States I'd really struggled and realized I'd forgotten much grammar and vocab. Once I was immersed in the culture and language again, much of my ability to understand came back very quickly (though my speaking was still pretty rough). The even more amazing thing is that it's kind of stuck with me since my return - I've been trying to read a little auf Deutsch every week to keep my skills up, and I find it's infinitely easier on this side of the trip.

As it was, the whole week we were kind of speaking Gervakish, flowing in and out of languages as needed to get our point across. Adri is a linguistic genius and when she would get overwhelmed she'd inadvertently start throwing other languages into the mix (at one point during the wedding prep she answered somebody in Russian) - as Burkhard said, "The Holy Ghost comes often when Adri is tired!" :)


(Frauenkirche Dresden)

We just kind of chilled and hung around Dresden for a couple days after the wedding. On Pentecost Monday, took a walk along the Elbe and went to see the Frauenkirche. I had to see it with my own eyes now that it's completed - I remember my first time in Dresden in 1995, passing a bunch of scaffolding as they were trying to sort out the ruins and being told that they were finally going to rebuild it using as much of the original stone as possible. It seemed like it would take forever, but at each successive trip to Dresden, I could see the progress being made. And now it's done. And it's beautiful.


(The Pillars of the Church - really!)

Tuesday we ventured further afield to Gorlitz and Bautzen. Gorlitz is on the border with Poland, in fact, half of the town is in Poland, and the border is now open, you can cross without a passport. So we did. And we all agreed the German side is much nicer. They had some churches with very interesting interior architecture - figures were carved into the base of the pillars that supported the roof, and when we asked about it, folks said they were meant to reflect the people who built the church - literally the pillars of the church! Talk about a great visual reminder of the cloud of witnesses! Gorlitz is also home of the "Holy Grave" - a resident who later became mayor made a pilgrimmage to the Holy Land in 1465, then came back and reproduced some of the sites for the townsfolk, since most of them could never make a trip like that. One of the sites is the garden tomb where the resurrection supposedly happened. The interesting thing is that there was a fire at the garden tomb in the Holy Land in the 1600s, and it was rebuilt differently, so this reproduction in Germany is actually closer to the original, in a sense. Bautzen is over 1,000 years old and is just a cool, quaint old town with many interesting corners and vistas, and much of the town wall is still intact, which adds to its charm. It's also the center of high Schwabisch language and culture.

Wednesday was a Dresden day again. We went to the Panometer, which is a panoramic aerial view of Dresden in 1756, and then we went to the top of the Rathaus tower to compare the Dresden of today to the Dresden of 1756, which was both interesting and fun. Wednesday night we were invited to Nora and Clemens' to grill out, which was also a lot of fun!


(Sachsiche Schweiz)

Thursday was hiking in the Sachsiche Schweiz (Saxony's Switzerland) - a huge park on the border with the Czech Republic. It's beautiful there - kind of reminds me of another favorite place on the planet, the St. Croix River Valley, but with much more dramatic views and greater difference in elevation.


(The true test of my gorillapod at Sachsiche Schweiz - wrapped around a guard rail with a very steep drop on the other side.)

After a long and fulfilling hike, we went to the Neustadt to get some doner for dinner. Hmm. . .doner. Delicious, but as you may surmise from the picture, definitely something you need to eat with good friends - not a good place to take a first date! I lived in the Neustadt the summer I spent in Dresden, so I showed Adri and Burkhard the house I had stayed in, then we walked along the Elbe until it got dark, then it was time to pack up because I had to fly out the next day. :(


(Hmmm. . .doner!)

So, that was how I started my summer, with a couple of glorious weeks in Europe. And I'm going to cap 'er off at the happiest place on earth - the Minnesota State Fair! I'm sure some pictures will find their way onto the blog. :)

Peace,
C.

PS - Christopher's got a new job working as a field organizer for the DFL, from now until the election! Woot!

Travelblog: Pfingsten Hochzeit

(Adri a Burki)

So, the real reason I was in Europe a couple months ago was to attend Adriana and Burkhard's wedding in Ottendorf-Okrilla (a village 30 minutes north of Dresden). They were married on Pentecost weekend, which was the most appropriate day possible to celebrate their union, as it was ultimately a quadrilingual wedding!


(All dolled up and ready to go!)

Adri is Slovak (and ethnically part Hungarian as well), and Burkhard is German, so the entire ceremony was conducted in both languages - first Pastor Matthias would speak in German, then Vladimir (a friend getting his PhD in theology) would speak in Slovak; we alternated languages on each verse of the hymns, and they each spoke their vows in their native tongue. The sermon would have been too cumbersome to go back and forth like that, so Matthias wrote it early enough to be translated, and all the Slovaks had a special insert in their bulletin so they could follow what he was saying (I was on my own to keep up with the German, but that was good practice, and I could follow most of it). Then they asked Burkhard's father, Adri's sister, their friend Adrian, and myself to come forward at the end of the service to each say a blessing and prayer in our native language, which is where things got quadrilingual as Hungarian and English were added to the mix.

So like I say, the day before Pentecost was the perfect day to celebrate this wedding!


(Can we set a table or what?)

Both the service and the reception afterwards were absolutely beautiful. Since Slovakia and Germany have differing customs, they really strove to blend their two cultures (as America has its own wedding culture, it was interesting to me to see where things were similar and where different). So, immediately after the wedding, they had a receiving line and took pictures with all of the guests, then we had cake and coffee (a German custom). There was an official wedding cake but then the guests were also expected to bring cakes to share during this time.


(Look at all that cake!)

After cake, the "program" began. This is also a German custom, and basically recurs through the rest of the evening. The program may or may not have anything to do with the wedding itself - activities ran the gamut from random silly skits and songs to large group folk dancing to skits specific to the couple and a version of the newlywed game, etc.

So there was some program, then we ate dinner, then some more program, then time for talking, interspersed with more program. Around 10 pm or so began the dancing (the Slovak custom), and at midnight all the women gathered around Adri and sang a folk song that was about giving up her veil (a symbol of single maidenhood that must be put away now that she's a married woman), and then the couple served another special, very sweet cake (all this is also Slovak custom). Sometime after this the group started to disperse.


(Adri and her Keretzmama - "Godmother" in Hungarian - with the youngest guest, die kleine Magdalena)

By American standards, this was a rather "small" wedding, but by European standards it was rather large, because they wanted a number of their friends to join the celebration. In America it also seems so much of the wedding accoutrements are bought from some store (often specializing in the wedding industry) and the couple's main tasks are to just pick out everything they want. This was a much more "organic" experience (and my impression is that such practices are more typical of European weddings - at least, of the circle of Europeans that I roll with).

Their clothing and flowers were purchased in the usual places, and the food itself was catered, but all the decorations and programs were designed and made either by Adri herself or by family and friends. A group of us spent all day Friday getting the church's community center ready for the reception (I had no idea I could do napkin origami!), and everyone also pitched in to help tear down when the party was over. All of the cakes were homemade, and friends of Burkhard's brother were hired to serve as waitstaff to help keep things flowing smoothly. Naturally, this all helped to make the cost of the wedding very reasonable, and had the added bonus of providing more time for visiting with the couple and fellow guests on Friday as we set up. And I can honestly say it was one of the most elegant, classy weddings I have ever attended, so it just goes to show you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to have a beautiful celebration.

So that was the Pfingsten Hochzeit. Tune in next time for more about the rest of the week in Dresden, generally.

Peace out,
C.

Travelblog: Riga

(The Swedish Gate, Riga)


The first week of vacation I went to Riga to visit the semi-misanthropic Latvian - though not my first time in Eastern Europe, it was the first time I'd been in a Baltic state. I have to say, Riga is a beautiful old city, and for as often as Latvia has been occupied by external forces, it's in remarkably good shape. I definitely recommend visiting if you get the chance.

Highlights of the week included a concert by the Berlin Philharmonic at the National Opera House, an interesting art exhibit showcasing Latvian art made under the censorship of the Soviet era, being there to celebrate May 4 (Latvian Independence Day), a 10 hour hike through the Gauja River Valley, and walking along the shore where the Daugava River enters into the Baltic Sea.

As much beautiful art, architecture, and nature as I saw there, what's most fascinating to me is always the socio-cultural dynamics of a place. I find Latvian culture very similar to Depression-era culture in the United States - nothing is wasted. For example - they've got a zillion different dairy products because they use milk and its byproducts at all stages of development. I'm sure this is in large part due to the austerity of life in Soviet times, and it's not a bad thing at all in terms of stewardship of resources, but I wonder if (or how long) it will hold out in the face of encroaching Americanization, especially among younger folks who have never known life as a Soviet state.

Along similar lines of not wasting - Latvian cemeteries are more organically landscaped than their well-manicured American counterparts. Maybe it's because they're a small country and need to make the most of their arable land, but instead of burying people in an open field that could be used for farming, they thin out a forest and bury people within it. Most folks plant real flowers around the gravestone, and many have benches for visitors. A very different and less sanitized approach than we take in America.

And speaking of sanitation - I am admittedly kinda OCD about proper food handling and storage, and as you might imagine, I had to just let a lot of that go on this trip (disproving Grandma Louise's theory that Christopher and I would've never survived the Depression or a freak soap-operatic detour in an abandoned fall-out shelter) . It's true that I never got sick from anything, even when I was nervous about how it was prepared or stored, so maybe there's a lesson in that for me, that I shouldn't worry about it so much.


(Hiking in the Gauja River Valley)

Another interesting cultural point is that Latvians are, well, kind of rude. I used to think this was an individual quirk of Aiva's personality, but now I'm realizing it's more of a cultural phenomena. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming it's another held-over defense mechanism from Soviet times. But I always try to learn at least the words for common courtesies for wherever I'm traveling, so I learned "Thank you" (Paldies) right away. Then I asked Aiva how to say "You're welcome" and her answer was "It's not really a welcome like in America, it just means 'no problem' - it's not worth learning, it won't have the meaning you intend." Then I asked how to say "Excuse me/Pardon me" and her answer was "You don't." You just push past people or cut them off if they are in your way. (!)

And it's true - when we rode the bus to the Baltic, it was rush hour. At first there was all this space in the aisle in the middle of the bus, but no one would move to it. Even people who were riding for a long time wouldn't move in to make room for new people, so at each stop people would just keep shoving in, the space by the door getting tighter and tighter, without a word exchanged. Finally people had to move because there was just no possible way to cram another body in at the door. It was bizarre to watch - I mean, even in New York City, people riding for a while will generally move to the center of the subway car so that new people can get on the train!

The Independence Day celebration was also interesting. People were bringing flowers to lay at the base of the Independence Memorial, in front of which was a large floral display in the shape of Latvia. There were a lot of activities going on throughout town - folk dancing troupes dancing and popular folk groups and choirs singing at various stages. An artsy theater was running animated shorts and documentary films all night (we watched, among other things, a hilarious stop-action short that was an abbreviated history of Latvia). All these things we took part in were free of charge and free of merchandising. It wasn't chest-thumping patriotism, but it was the people coming together to celebrate their culture and heritage. And I thought it was a refreshing change from how 4th of July is often celebrated in America (where we seem to either celebrate our independence from each other by retreating to private vacation homes, or come together to celebrate our freedom to excessively and extravagantly consume).


(Hiking in the Gauja River Valley)

So, those are some impressions of Latvia. All in all it was a good week, and I'm glad to have visited. If you ever find yourself there, the aforementioned "paldies" (pal-dee-es) is a handy word to know. "Labe" (lah-beh), which means "good," will also serve you well in many situations. As in:

"How was the concert?" "Labe."
"How did you sleep?" "Labe."
"I think we should take the 10 am train." "Labe."
When a guest in someone's house, gesture toward the food and say "Labe." And, when you are stuffed and Aiva's mom is trying to put more food on your plate, put one hand over the plate, one hand on your stomach, smile, sigh, and say "Labe."

Helpful word, that labe!

That's all for now. Tune in next time to hear about Dresden!