Springtime in Berlin

Spring!

I spent an idyllic afternoon in the botanical gardens. It was...lovely.

Deutsche Oper

Saturday was lovely - not particularly warm, but clear skies brought out the blue in the Spree and throngs of people sat outside of cafes and restaurants enjoying the sun. I finally visited the Boden Museum and its 3rd - 16th century collection of sculptures, paintings, and altar pieces, which turned out to be quite appropriate for Easter weekend, since most of the collection had a very strong religious content. I think if I could start over again, I would perhaps study medieval history. Walking amongst the elaborately carved altar pieces with their depiction of the Virgin and Child or the Cruxifiction one can only guess at the kind of faith which inspired their creation. I also felt the same way at the Catalan National museum in Barcelona where I saw countless depictions of saints and their trials - being skinned alive, placed on open fires with scalding water poured over them, having their breasts cut off - the kind of violence that we cannot imagine today. Much as I lose myself in the world of the 1890s, it is still a recognizable world. Not so this medieval world where anonymous masters created master pieces with pain-staking labor.

After a hearty lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant I was ready to catch a performance of Tristan and Isolde at the Deutsche Oper. I must confess that Sophomore year in college I forwarded through considerable portions of the Ring Cycle, which I had to watch for my Hist and Lit tutorial. Yesterday I was ready to redeem myself. I prepared assiduously - I read the entry on the opera in Wikepedia, and I prepared water and a sandwich, lest my blood sugar plunge disastrously mid-performance (a very wise decision, since the opera started at 5 pm and ended well after 10 pm). I sat smack in the middle of the very first row, with only the orchestra pit separating myself from the stage.

I must admit that when the opera started I was somewhat put off by the soprano singing the role of Isolde. One imagines a blond nordic beauty, and not a rather stout middle aged soprano with fake braids who lumbered around the stage looking more likely to imspire fear and intimation (that she could crush you) than awed vows of eternal love and devotion. The large mass, however, doubtlessly also gave her an incredible, powerful voice. By Act Two I was awed by this Wagnerian vision, still heavily influenced by Schopenhauer at this point, thinly disguised as the story of Tristan and Isolde. This is no Hollywood version with a pretty boy and pretty girl for sure. The music was beautiful - this is what gets you in the end, however disturbing the message of the opera, and the non-too-subtle anti-semitism of the ring cycle - the music redeems Wagner.
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One with the Proletariat

The Society for Industrial culture in Berlin left pamplets at the bundesarchiv with a list of their city tours. This Sunday I decided to discover Feuerland (Fireland), the area filled with iron smelting and heavy machinery factories in the 19th century. The tour met at the U-bahn station Oranienburg Tor, and right away I learned something new - the Gate used to be an actual gate in the old city walls. This area of Mitte now filled with apartment buildings and trendy restaurants used to lie outside the city and was mostly factories and cemeteries. We wandered in and out of Hofs, learned about an unsolved murder (the room the woman lived in has now been plastered over), saw the city as it had once been in the 19th century - the Berlin that was more Dorf than international capital. Two hours later I found myself with a much deeper and proletarian understanding the city's past.

It was a beautiful day. The city was hosting a half-marathon, in which I wish I had participated, although I discovered in the papers today that a man had collapsed and died mid-race. After the instructive tour, I wandered around the used books and antiques market am Kupfergraben and breathed in the Spring. It's only this time of the year that tree leaves bud with that particular fresh, fuzzy kind of green. I love the flower sellers on the streets and in U-Bahn stations, who usually sell very reasonably priced flowers. Who can resist the temptation on a beautiful spring day?

Class photo in Barcelona

The class photo particularly enjoyed examining the archeological treasures of Barcelona, for example, this Roman wall in the gothic district of the city.

Barcelona I

I love the colorfulness.

The city has amazing architecture - including styles from Roman ruins to Catalan modernism.

Port Vell at sunset. We tried a Catalan specialty - noodle paella at a restaurant nearby.

European Retreat

Going abroad for research has its downsides - travel disasters of various stripes, adjusting to a foreign country, a foreign language, and loneliness. It also carries a few perks. While in Berlin:
1) I eat tons of liquor chocolates, available in any supermarket.
2) Drink with dinner, by myself, one euro half-liter bottles of wine from Chile, Argentina, Spain, and of course, Germany.
3) Read novels and watch shows like Desperate Housewives and CSI with no sense of guilt, because of course I'm just practising my German.
Just last night I watched a movie about a Princess (from a small European country rather like Luxembourg) who is engaged to Crown Prince Ferdinand of Sachsen-Anhalt, and before her marriage, goes to Berlin (which stands in for the big, bad city in this movie), battles all kinds of problems, such as the non-existence of bellboys at the Pension she stays at, to intern at the embassy of her own country,and falls in love with a landscape artist commissioned to create a garden at said embassy. A quality film, if I've ever seen one.

Living the Good Life

Berlin has some lovely restaurants and cafes. This tapas restaurant located in the vaulted area beneath the S-Bahn tracks near Savigneplatz has some wonderfully seasoned dishes. The gnocci tastes like a small cloud that melts in your mouth.