Deutschland & Austria

Munich

In previous trips to Europe, I never made it to Germany or Austria. I think that I just kept going back to Italy and exploring different regions there and while I’ve covered a good portion of Western Europe–Germany just never happened. Which is why my most recent trip was such a long time coming–whenever you bring up Berlin in a conversation (especially to anyone remotely involved in or interested in the art world) your inquiries are met with a praise chorus of enthusiasm.

Day 1, Tuesday: Munich
Anna and I flew into Berlin and then immediately boarded a plane to Munich. The city itself is pretty self-contained and we stayed in Euro Youth Hostel, which was conveniently located next to the Hauptbahnhof Central Station. We walked to city square (Marienplatz/Glockenspiel) and saw Frauenkirche and Neues Rathaus and walked to the Isar River. Note: on this day, three separate groups of men mocked us for being Asian (threw up peace signs, tried to take pictures of us and yelled “Ching Chong Chang” while we were crossing the street). Aside from the casual racism (because who cares about being PC when it comes to Asians?) Munich was lovely.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Day 2, Wednesday: Munich (Day trip to Füssen/Neuschwanstein Castle)

Munich is a great transportation hub/launching pad for day trips. We took the train to Füssen to the “must-see tourist trap,” the Neuschwanstein (Disney) castle–the home of Ludwig II–former King of Bavaria, who was never married, had no heirs, was briefly engaged to his cousin at one point, and was gay (although the audio tour failed to mention this last bit). Major supporter of the arts and Richard Wagner’s opera works–he modeled his throne room after the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The actual tour was only 30 minutes and the audio guide was lacking–leaving you wanting to know more about the life (and mysterious death at age 40) of Ludwig II. The Bavarian Alps were breath-taking and straight out of the Sound of Music.

In the evening, we ended up at an indoor/outdoor beer pub, where we watched part of the Italy/Ireland EuroCup match (Ireland won, 1-0).

Salzburg

Day 3, Thursday: Munich, (Day trip to Salzburg), Berlin

Instead of covering more of Munich (a day or two is really all one needs there), we decided to take an impromptu trip to Salzburg–birthplace of Mozart. It was a 90 minute train ride from Munich and our time there was pretty limited, but we managed to squeeze in a visit to Schloss Mirabell and Festung Hohensalzburg.

Rushed back to Munich to get to the airport for our flight to Berlin. Stayed at the Circus Hostel (at the recommendation of a friend).

Day 4, Friday: Berlin (Sachsenhausen)

Took the train to Oranienburg (about 40 minutes outside of Berlin) to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp/Soviet Camp Memorial. It was a 95 degree day and the audio/walking tour took over four and a half hours to complete. Most of the original structures had been taken down, but a lot of the buildings were marked. Two of the barracks were part of the memorial site and the interiors–including bunks–had been reconstructed according to the accounts of former prisoners. The audio guide also featured chilling first-hand accounts from former prisoners. Some 200,000 passed through Sachsenhausen between 1936 and 1945–when the camp was liberated by the Red Army and Polish troops. With the advance of the Red Army, Sachsenhausen was evacuated on April 20-21, 1945 when 33,000 inmates were forced to march east on a ‘death march.’ Some 3,000 remaining inmates were liberated on April 22, 1945. The visit was obviously solemn, but nonetheless important to acknowledge the history of that region.

At night we ate dinner at a wine fair in Potsdamer Platz and tried to go to Berghain (unsuccessfully). Ended up eating pizza at the hostel instead.

Brandenburg Gate

Day 5, Saturday: Berlin

Had to relocate to East Berlin Hostel. Anna went to visit her high school friend, Esther, who lives in Berlin (but is relocating back to the States this summer). During her visit, I went to the Berlin Biennale at The Academy of the Arts and the KW Center for Contemporary Art. Lots of video art curated by the artist collective DIS, but there was one performance piece that I particularly enjoyed–a work by Alexandra Pinici tiled ‘Signals,’ where a group of performers dressed in black spandex suits affixed with small dimly lit bulbs acted out a series of very short, sometimes comical or musical acts in a small, dark box of a room. The audience is left to navigate their bodies in an awkward space and learn how to maneuver based on their own individual level of comfort.

I stumbled into a wonderful little comic book shop called Berliner Comicbibliothek and then met up with Anna again to go shopping for a bit in Hackeschermarkt where we also grabbed bubble tea at ComeBuy. We ate dinner at a Japanese place called Hashi. At night, we went to Tresor–a pretty subpar club.

Botticelli at the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Day 6, Sunday: Berlin

We went to the Gemäldegalerie, which has a wonderful selection of Old Masters Paintings. There were even some wonderful Botticellis. Afterwards, we went to the flea market at Mauerpark, which was a spectacular show of music, food, vendors, crafts, and people watching. At night we went to Club der Visionaere, which was pretty perfect and lively for a Sunday (and since the previous two nights somewhat let us down).

Berlin Cathedral

Basim Magdy

Day 7, Monday: Berlin

On our last full day in Berlin, we went to the Neues Museum (saw the bust of Neffertiti and their wonderful Egyptian and Ancient collection) on Museum Island and went to the Deutchbank’s KunstHalle to see the exhibition of their artist of the year (at the recommendation of a co-worker), Basim Magdy. Also walked by the Berlin Cathedral. Met up with Esther for dinner on Zossener Straße and listed to a guitar/blow keyboard duet in the park with the sun setting in the background. We put the remnants of our Euro cents in their guitar case and headed back in the general direction of reality.