Regenbogensburg

Today was a public holiday (Ascension), and as a day itself, it was quite a marvelous one for me.

I spent the morning organizing things, and making yogurt. Yes! I am experimenting with bacterial yogurt cultures. But I forgot to take pictures. But it's okay. I'm planning to try again this weekend. (Because my roommate will be away, and consequently, not here to be too totally weirded out by this innocent experiment to thwart my adventurous attempts).

At noon, I scarfed a quick not-hungry sandwich, and headed out to the large square, Neupfarrplatz, where I juggled and swung poi. It rained lightly for a little while. Some German children came up and stared, completely mesmerized, at my throws and catches, which were mesmerizing. OoooOOoooh. One picked his nose and pulled out a blood-clot booger. Wait! You didn't want to know that.

I left Neupfarrplatz when it started crowding up and went to the Stadtpark ("city park") . Remarkably, I have only discovered this place within the last month. It is now one of my favored haunts of the city. I go there to read, study, stare into space, people-watch, duck-watch, juggle, poi, and as I did today, re-lace my shoes. (*Ask me sometime about my sneakers. I am a unique lacer :P . )

HOWEVER, I do hate adding to the internet's tedious, ever-growing collection of infinite blog posts that are all rant and no photos. And the main point of this post was, indeed, to show some photos.

Today, my dear readers, was most incredible, because one of my very, very favorite types of weather came and graced Regensburg.

Heavy rain in radiant sunlight.


I love this weather with so much of my being. It makes me close my eyes and breathe in deeply, hand to my heart, and want to run free in the open.


But I did not run outside, for Sunlit Rain lasts but minutes.
And I would have burned the frittata that I was making.


But the fantastic feeling will remain with me, as well as a photograph of a faintly shining rainbow over the cathedral of Regensburg. (This one's for you, Michael! :D )


As woefully predicted, the rain vanished soon after, but behind it rolled a sky of grand, darkening, slate-gray clouds..... So beautiful! Elegant and foreboding and unearthly and stately... my camera does no justice...


And a last look at the sky over Regensburg today.


I think I fell into a swoon and couldn't get up for a while.

Today, dear readers, was a most lovely and fantastic of days.



(Oh, and the frittata turned out nicely.)

Let it Snow, (For Pete's Sake)!

Regensburg... Snow!

Hurrah!!

They're up.

(First few photos were moved from a different album, and were taken in November.)

Christmas Time Photo Update

There are some new pictures up from both the Regensburg and Nürnberg Christmas Markets. They have been added to two different albums:

Excursions

Christkindlmarkt

Enjoy!

Salzburg

So as I mentioned, Michael and I hopped an early morning train and went to Salzburg for the day on Saturday.

From Salzburg

Salzburg sits in west Austria on the river Salzach. Mozart was born there, so as it were, there is Mozart paraphernalia all over the city...

From Salzburg

Seeing as it's December and every European city that has a Christmas Market has got it set up by now, Michael and I hit up the market streets during our wanderings through the city.

From Salzburg

From Salzburg

We only truly realized that we had done absolutely no "research" for our trip to see what kind of locations we needed to visit in Salzburg until we had stepped out of the train station and were looking around our first glimpse of the city. But that was okay. Some of the very best trips are always impromptu.

So as usual, the full collection of pictures is on the Picasa album ("Salzburg"), along with extra explanations. Kuck mal ;) ! ("Have a look!")

From Salzburg

Michael's Weekend Visit

Michael came to visit for the weekend (self-explanatory...) . We met up with our friend Daniela, who was a German exchange student at Vanderbilt last year and lived across the hall from us in our dorm. She has now returned to Regensburg as well, so of course we had to have a reunion.


After wandering a bit around Christkindlmarkt (more on that later), which just opened up last week, we headed to the Irish pub Murphy's Law to get some heiße Schokolade ("hot chocolate") and warm up.

During conversation, Michael and I decided that we wanted to head off to and spend the whole day in Salzburg, Austria the next day.

I love Europe.

Schnee!

("Snow!")
So as of last night...

From Beautiful Regensburg!

IT'S SNOWING HERE IN REGENSBURG!

From Beautiful Regensburg!

Look at my adorable little snow-covered German city :] .

From Beautiful Regensburg!

See the Picasa album for a few more pictures of our first snowfall of the winter :) .

Jugglers Unite!

By the way,

From Die Universität

I forgot to mention this earlier,

From Die Universität

but I found fellow jugglers :] .

From Die Universität

(You knew that I would! )

There is a juggling meet every Tuesday night at 20:00 at the university's Sportzentrum (sport/rec center). The space reserved for us is excellent, and as with just about all juggling groups, everyone does a little or a lot of everything, from beginners to experts. There's even a big stock of unicycles!! And for kicks, this is how it looks like to be on a unicycle.

From Die Universität

But I promise it's not as scary as it looks.

The Lounge(ing) Chair

From Beautiful Regensburg!

(8. November 2008, near Hinter der Grieb, Regensburg)
(Click for the high resolution picture)

Ups and Downs

Recently I noticed that one pair of my jeans might have gotten a bit looser. A little less snug than they used to be. Maybe it's just me.

Or maybe I've even lost some weight since I've been here, through a combination of different little things here and there. Walking more, cycling more, eating less... and climbing up and down a stairwell of 60 some-odd stairs day in and day out.

(Let's not forget the days when I inadvertently add 20 or 40 more every once in a while by forgetting things in my room :D . Oh! Just today, I was cooking in the kitchen, and said bye to my German suitemate as she headed out the door to the gym. Several minutes later, she comes back through the door laughing and says to me, "Dangit! I was all the way downstairs already! And then I opened the front door and realized that it was still a lot colder than I thought it was! I have to get my jacket now.")

From Living in Regensburg

I always feel bad for the occasional friends who come over, though. We have no elevator in the student residence, and while I myself have become used to it now, they're inevitably a little out of breath by the time they get up here, and there's unfortunately nothing I can do. (The Chinese host nature in me is horrified.)

Schlösser

("Castles")

Today we went to Castles Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein in Schwangau, in the very south of Germany and a stone's throw from the Austria border.

Pictures inside the castles are not allowed, but I just want to say that today, I beheld 100+ year old BREAD in Castle Neuschwanstein... in a box... on a platter with the year 189- [something] on it... or in other words, the year that the bread loaf was baked and presented to a prince for his birthday...

... That's just odd. Don't do that. Be sure to clean out your pantries when the proper time calls for such.

From Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein

I've only put up a handful of pictures from today's excursion, but at any rate, they're up to see now. By the way, aerial shots of the castles are stunning, but obviously, I can't provide you with those personally. You have the internet, though, so you ought to look some up if you would like to have a look.

Contact in Zwiebelmarkt

As I mentioned, I was in the cities of Erfurt and Weimar this weekend, which are not far from each other and lie around central Germany.

Weimar is famous for the Zwiebelmarkt, or "Onion Market." It's a big street festival that's held every year, this year being Zwiebelmarkt #355. The most common wares at the hundreds of stands lining the streets are, of course, food and Zwiebeln -- onions.


It's all very autumnal and aesthetically appealing and cute. In addition to sprigs and sprigs of onions, there are also other onion-based goods, like onion marmalade/jelly (I kid you not. But I heard it was actually rather good).

Later in the afternoon, I split off from our small group and took to wandering the Zwiebelmarkt streets until dinner. Lo and behold, I found a fellow contact juggler. I was excited.

From Erfurt, Weimar, and Buchenwald

I watched him for a while... most probably because I suddenly realized that I can do exactly what he does. And... he was earning oolongs per hour just performing simple contact juggling! (You have to remember -- The €1 and €2 are coins here, so... Seeing as it's easier to toss coins, AND the Euro is worth more, there is obvious appeal for me here...)

After about a whole hour of watching what he does to earn street performance money, I went up to him when he took a break and swapped e-mails with him so that I could send him these pictures that I took of him. At first, I didn't talk, because he didn't talk in his performance, so I thought I'd follow suit.

C-juggler: "Er, you speak English?"
Me: "Of course. English and German, both."

I explained sending the pictures to him and we swapped e-mails.

C-juggler: "So you can do some of this, too?"
Me: "Yes, a little, though I'm better at juggling and poi. You know what I'm talking about?"
C-juggler: "Ah, yeah, with these things on strings..."
Me: "Exactly."
C-juggler: "Do you live here?"
Me: "No, I'm from the States. I'm an exchange student."
C-juggler: "Aha. But are you staying in Weimar?"
Me: "No, I'm staying in Regensburg. By the way, how often is it that you come here, to Zwiebelmarkt, for example, to street perform?"
C-juggler: "Well, I live here in Weimar, you see. Oh, but I'm not from Weimar originally, I just live here now. I'm actually from Mexico."

Wow. You don't see many Mexicans in Germany. Much less Mexicans swathed in desert-dune cloth and chalky costume make-up who are standing on boxes and contact juggling in the street.

He smiled and said farewell as I wished him luck and went back to the youth hostel. I sent him the photos I took when I got back to Regensburg.

Buchenwald Concentration Camp

I just got back from a weekend in Erfurt and Weimar. Today, as our last stop, we visited the historical Buchenwald concentration camp, located 8 km from Weimar.

I simply find it so ironic, because walking through Buchenwald in the autumn is almost dreamily beautiful. It is quiet, nearly silent except for the tread of visitors on the gravel paths, and sunshine in good weather will turn the surrounding woods absolutely brilliant with gold.

From Erfurt, Weimar, and Buchenwald

Yet Buchenwald is steeped in so much unspeakably horrendous history, as with the unfortunately many other concentration camps and other historical sites associated with the second world war (or as many other wars as you can name...) . There was so much suffering, I can not even imagine. I can't even describe, with or without words.

Today, while the rest of our group wandered off to look around some more before our bus ride back, I went to the center of the main prisoner camp, where it is now flat, and only black gravel in wooden frames outline where there were once several dozen barracks holding inmates hollow with despair. I stood where literally thousands of dying bodies and walking corpses passed by for month after hopeless, tragic month and forgot what it was like to be human...


And I cried and cried...


... and cried.

Fotos

Lots of pictures are up, with likely more to come as the days pass.
You can follow the link and see them all here:

Picasa Web Albums - Globejuggler
Comments welcome as usual. Enjoy.