Christmahanukwanzika, Part 3: Munich-Salzburg-NYE

Seeing as how I may be the only Jew in the history of the world to go on a road trip specifically to go to church, I promptly inoculated myself against apostasy, upon our return to Munich, by setting out the menorah and lighting the candles for the seventh night of Hanukkah. Only after that were we able to move on to other things.

The week between Christmas and New Year's was an interesting one for the city of Munich. There was an element of anarchy to the whole thing that is generally lacking in the States, and I kind of liked it. So while Laura and I repeated in our endeavors of the first week, this time with different destinations and attractions, the city slowly disintegrated into chaos around us. Like I said, interesting.

The day after we got back, we went to see the Munich Camerata perform a concert of music for chamber orchestra--Vivaldi, Handel, Telemann, and the like--courtesy of Laura's host family, the tickets being their Christmas present to her. It was a nice affair, the music was good, and we were, of course, dressed to kill. Spurning the Hofbräuhaus for dinner, we settled on a small, hole-in-the-wall indigenous restaurant, and there we began to hatch our plans for the coming week.

The Peterskirche in Munich has the cool distinction of having a balcony at the top of the church to, affording spectacular views of the city and beyond, to which you can climb. So one cold, overcast winter day, after visiting the Viktualienmarkt (a large, outdoor, year-round food market the likes of which you would not believe - exotic and quotidian food both exerting their inimitable power over helpless passersby), we each paid our euro and climbed the long, long staircase to the top, pausing only to allow the odd gaggle of rude American tourists to shove past us, and, occasionally, to photograph some of the best graffiti therein. When we got to the top, we were rewarded for our efforts:

Big City

The Frauenkirche and Rathaus, looking north

That scenic experience behind us, and thwarted in our attempt to secure a steak dinner (a long and harrowing tale that is still too raw upon my heart to relive), we headed over to the North Gate of the city.

Not pictured: The Korean tourists standing directly behind me, taking the exact same picture

This particular week, in truth, turned out to be a bit less productive and a tad more lazy than the previous one. While we did see some cool things in addition to the ones you see above, and we did eat at some places I would not have expected (including a ridiculously good Mexican restaurant that, to my utter delight, uses real jack cheese on their burritos, something that is apparently rare here in Europe), the memory thereof is now so hazy with its distance in the past that I can't quite remember specifics. What is essential to the tale is that we spent the week having cultural experiences and planning our New Year's. So when the weekend rolled around, we were prepared.

One of the better impulse decisions we made on this trip (and one of the better ones I have ever made in my life) was to take a day trip to Salzburg the day before New Year's Eve. It was a confluence of circumstances that made this possible: It's only a two-hour train ride from Munich, it is right across the border from Germany, and Bavarian Transit offers a round-trip, multi-person ticket for €29. Why not go? we asked. No reason, we replied. So let's go, we resolved. We went.

The train ride was comfortable enough (train travel in Germany is, I can say without fear of reprisal, far superior to its counterpart in Bulgaria. Ah, the wonders of a high-income economy), but when we got to Salzburg, it was cold, with a capital COLD. Braving the elements--including hail-like snow--like the determined tourists we were, we set out and saw a great many wonders of the city:

The scenic views,

Apparently, Anonymous is in Salzburg, too

the 961349 monuments to Mozart,

Handsome fellow.

and a museum of classical art that we inadvertently snuck into, not realizing that admission was €6.

Having absorbed all these wonders, we ventured up the hill to the Salzburg Fortress; basically, your standard castle on top of a mountain. But oh, is it scenic.

Seriously

The mountain to which we sung excerpts from Mozart's Requiem. That's right, I brought my score.

Did I mention it was cold? Well, let me mention it again, because we were eventually forced to take refuge in a Chinese restaurant and subsequently forced to order dinner while waiting for the hour to come when we could catch our train. Salzburg, for all its visual virtue, is not a very big town, and we were sufficiently cold to decide that we didn't really need to see too much more of it. So we passed our time in the marginally-warmer-than-the-elements restaurant, caught the train, and returned to whence we came.

The story of New Year's Eve:

In the course of our down time of the previous week, we had entertained many possibilities for how to spend our New Year's, including our original plan of going to Vienna (nixed for lack of money), outdoor concerts (nixed for lack of clothing warm enough to withstand several hours of intense cold), and a Goth Club (nixed for lack of eyeshadow and tight jeans). We eventually settled on a run-around-in-the-streets, make-it-up-as-you-go plan. We began our evening innocently enough with a big, cozy pasta dinner, and for comedic effect, I'll simply fast-forward to the part where we stood outside in the rain, fireworks going off six feet behind us (and in front of us, and on either side of us), pyrotechnics bouncing off windows in the Marienplatz, yelling at--and being yelled back at by--a group of drunk Italians, asking strangers to take our picture, shoulder to shoulder with thousands of other people. And thus we spent the first minutes of 2012.

We would, in the course of our evening, make quite a few friends (including, but not limited to, a young couple from Hof, a 26-year-old Cheshire lad who was leading a pack of girls from North Carolina, and several odd Frenchmen), be paid into a club by two of them at 2:30 AM, leave at 3:00, join the innumerable, inebriated, incoherent crowd on the subway at 4:00, and be forced take a cab back home after the subway dumped us off with nary a bus in sight. But all in all, a satisfying way to spend New Year's Eve in Europe.

New Year's Day 2012 dawned warm and overcast, and as it was my last day in Germany, we decided--along with half the city of Munich, since there is apparently nothing else to do on January 1--to take an easy walk around the city, which gave us the chance to see a few more things that we had theretofore missed. We finally got around to see the Landtag building, as well as another Gothic-y church that I had been wanting to see up close. The word(s) of the day was (were) taking it easy, and this we did, not having the energy to do much else.

Palatial

Flying High

The Boulevard from above

At the waning of the light

Idyllic

Exhausted, we headed for home, and the next day, I was back to Sofia.

It was a rather nice trip, and a monumentally satisfying two-week hiatus from all the stress I had been accumulating. I was glad to have the time and the experiences. All of them.

The last two weeks' tale will be forthcoming tomorrow, or perhaps Sunday. Thanks for sticking with me, so far, and adios.

Christmahanukwanzika, Part 2: Leipzig

I love Bach. Bach-y Bach Bach.

It hasn't always been that way. But in college, once I was exposed to more of his music, I grew to like it. And then love it. The man was undeniably a genius, contending with some of the other giants of our Western Classical idiom for the completely arbitrary and subjective title of Greatest Composer Ever. 

He knew how to put some notes together.

Which is why, whilst in Germany, Laura and I unhesitatingly took the chance to travel to pay our tribute to The Man. After a six-year tenure in Köthen, Bach moved to Leipzig in 1723, directing the choirs at, and composing for, several of the city's numerous churches. His home base, the Thomaskirche, still regularly programs his music, and since 1950 has housed his remains. Of course we were going to go. And what better occasion than Weihnacht?

Waking up altogether earlier than we had grown accustomed to, burdened with bags of food to be consumed over the course of the weekend, we made our way to the Munich central station on Christmas Eve morning. Our train travel went off without a hitch, and six hours later, we made it to Leipzig.

Upon leaving the Leipzig central station, we found the appropriate tram and took it over to the stop that should, in theory, have been right next to our hostel. After getting lost down some questionable alleyways in a desolate, not-exactly-well-lit, abandoned part of town, we began to feel a little nervous, but we eventually found the appropriate door. Exhausted from the double ordeals of traveling and feeling nearly certain we were about to be mugged, we paused to catch our breath, Skype our families, and get settled in. We finally ventured out at 9 PM and headed over to the Thomaskirche for a service that would, disappointingly, turn out to be nothing more than a Christmas play, although hearing the whole story in German was not an uninteresting experience. 

Knowing that there would be a Midnight Mass (one that actually took place at midnight, something I've never witnessed in the States), we stayed after the play was over, which was definitely worth it - we were rewarded with a manageably short (given the lateness of the hour) all-chant service featuring the Thomanerchor, the boys' choir that Bach himself directed nearly 300 years ago.

Though the night was freezing, and we again found ourselves having to walk for a bit longer than was comfortable through what proved to be another scary section of town, we made it back to the hostel alive and in one piece, slept for all of six hours, and got up early to get to the Christmas morning service (again, something I've never experienced in the US) back at the church.

On the program for Christmas morning? Cantata #1 from Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorium. And it was good. 

Being churched out for the moment, we went out to see Leipzig and to try to have some semblance of a normal Christmas. We made friends with some rather large Christmas trees, 

It was bigger than it looks

saw Leipzig's enormous City Hall,

Also bigger than it looks

the Gewandhaus,

Nice.

and opera.

Majestic

Our Christmas dinner? Indian food, if you can believe it, at a nice-ish place in the middle of town. Full of this unconventional Christmas dinner, we went home, Skyped our families some more ('tis the season, you know), and went to bed.

Our last day in Leipzig once again dawned a bit earlier than was preferable, and we manically packed to check out of the hostel, culminating in Laura's throwing the remainder of our payment, in cash, through the retractable window of the hostel's office's door. Waving our arms like maniacs in front of the oncoming tram in an effort to get it not to run us over to stop and let us in, fortune, and the tram's driver, smiled on us, so we were able to get to the Thomaskirche on time for the service. This morning's music was Cantata #2 from the Weihnachts-Oratorium. After it was over, the church silent, and the people gone, I finally got the chance to (metaphorically) kneel before The Man.

There he is

The rest of the church was cool, too.

My homage paid, we set off into Leipzig to see a few more things before it was time for us to leave. Cool, serious things included the Mendelssohn-Haus,

Who knew he lived in a mansion?

the rebuilt Paulinerkirche (an interesting note about the Paulinerkirche: It was originally constructed in the 1400's, survived World War II--not something many buildings in Germany can claim--and was then tragically demolished by the Communist government of East Germany in 1968. Who would do that? A replica of it--what you'll see below--began to be constructed three years ago, except that this incarnation of it is completely fronted by glass, top to bottom. Ridiculous),

How cool is this?

and a museum documenting the history of East Germany from the end of the war up through reunification, which was fascinating, chilling, and insightful, all at the same time.

Slightly wackier things that we saw included an abstract monument to philosophy

Yes, those are naked dudes holding power tools

and an office building that looked unsettlingly like a face, right down to its beady little eyes, doubling as windows.

A little creepy

At four o'clock, our driver--as we had booked a rideshare--came and picked us up, whisked us down the autobahn at 180 kmh (!), and dropped us off safely back in Munich, all for the low, low price of €20. And so ended our Christmas Getaway.

It was, by far, the most unusual Christmas I've ever had (not that I make a habit of observing it, though my life has somehow conspired to always put me in the position to do so), but a fun and satisfying one. The one thing I had really wanted to do, I did, and though neither of us could be with our families for it, Laura and I got to spend it together. All in all, a good trip.

Tomorrow we'll conclude our whirlwind tour of my vacation, glossing over many important details, as has been, and must continue to be, my custom herein. Thanks for reading, and I hope to continue not to completely disappoint you. Until then -

Christmahanukwanzika, Part 1: Munich

That's probably enough of a break, now.

Despite my best intentions, and promises that a dark, troubled corner of my mind knew it probably wasn't going to keep, I have once again failed to bring you the bolging you thirst for and deserve.

My bad.

The nature of my "breaks" (read: slovenly vacations) has been such that I haven't had the inclination time to write while they're happening for reasons including, but not limited to, having too much fun, relaxing, refusing to think about anything remotely of import, willful irresponsibility, and gross negligence. But, here I am, back in Sofia for over a week, and I've continued to leave you hungry. But here, come in out of the cold, have something to drink, and lose yourself in the latest of my yarns:

I flew to Munich on the 19th, where I was greeted by subzero (Celsius) temperatures and a blanketing of snow. As it happened, Laura and I would continue to be snowed on almost continuously for the next two weeks.

The first part of my visit will best be described as the misshapen hybrid between a week of pure vegging, pre-Christmas festivities, and a cultural walking tour of Munich. In light of the fact that descriptions of my lazy-day activities would probably not make for very gripping storytelling, let's skip right to the second item on that list.

One of the primary draws for me to come to Germany for Christmas (besides the presence of my beautiful girlfriend) was simply how the Germans do Christmas. A bunch of the holiday traditions we have in the States either come from the Germans or have been completely outdone by them, and they even have a few that we can't even touch. I present into evidence as Exhibit A the phenomenon of Christmas Markets:

Even the Rathaus was dressed up for Christmas

These markets, which, in some instances, can take up 1/10 of a square kilometer, are vast expanses of tents selling all kinds of food, toys, souvenirs, kitsch, and the ubiquitous glühwein, which essentially amounts to hot Manischewitz with spices and fruit. But it is delicious. And warm. And wine.

And it comes in real mugs, which you can steal!

We spent a disconcerting amount of time hanging around these markets, paying exorbitant prices for food and drinks, partly because of the atmosphere, partly because of the crowds, and partly because of the ridiculous nature of some of the larger ones such as Tollwood:

Multicolored tents as far as the eye could see

Nice to meet you

However, on my third day there, instead of hanging out in the freezing cold for hours at a time, we decided to make comfort foods in honor of the season:

NOM

And, after I fried latkes, handcrafted a menorah out of tinfoil, and read Maccabees, we celebrated Hanukkah, as well.

Happy Hanukkah, y'all

But when the fun and games were over, we got down to some srs bsns cultural activities. We made a list, checked it twice, and decided there were 23487645986 things we needed to see in Munich while I was there. We decided to start at the Münchner Residenz, former home of the rulers of Bavaria. It is large.

Incredibly, the only shot I got, the gazebo in the Hofgarten

Across the Odeonsplatz from the Residenz is the ridiculously intricate Theatinerkirche. Almost completely destroyed in the war, it has been rebuilt to be more or less an exact replica of how it once was. And boy, it once was.

Also large.

So much detail

Keeping the church theme going, we also visited the Michaelskirche, this one, interestingly enough, a Jesuit church (What's that?). And also quite magnificent. The interior of the church looked familiar, as it bore a striking resemblance to another St. Michael's - the Serbian Orthodox church we visited in Belgrade. And upon leaving, we found a sign asking us to shut the door - in Serbian. While there is obviously a connection, I have nary a clue as to what it could be.

If you squint hard enough, you can see on the altar a portrait of St. Michael slaying the evil that is Protestantism.

The inexplicable aforementioned sign in Serbian

As the Michaelskirche happened to be a (rather liberal definition of a) short walk from Munich's sole synagogue, and as it happened to be the second night of Hanukkah, we took the stroll, detouring only briefly into the German equivalent of REI. To our disappointment, the entrance is barred to non-Jews. This is something that I can begin to understand in a place with a history such as Germany's, but something I found a little distasteful nonetheless. Judaism is supposed to be welcoming. It's supposed to be inclusive. I've never encountered a congregation that didn't welcome Gentiles among it, so long as they respected its traditions and beliefs. 

Though that got to me, I couldn't help but admire the synagogue anyway.

Impressive

The next day, armed with a combined 20 years out of practice, Laura and I headed over to the Karlsplatz to go ice skating. And I only fell once. Bam.

When those 2 1/2 hours (!) of frivolity had ended, we set off to see one more thing in the waning light, BMW Welt. BMW standing for Bavarian Motor Works, and Munich being the capital of Bavaria, where else would it be? It was pretty cool, with exhibitions of new and concept cars, interesting little diagrams, and even interactive demonstrations. Before I begin to sound like a walking advertisement for it, I'll stop. But here! Pictures!

All futuristic and stuff

Really kind of cool

That will bring an end to my first yarn about how I got to Munich and spent the first four days running around doing all sorts of cool things in an effort to justify my presence there.

Give me a day or so to catch my breath after all this heavy typing and I'll spin you another one about how we made a pilgrimage to Leipzig for Christmas weekend to pay our tribute to Bach and hear all sorts of his music. Read fast.

Bringing the First Half to a Close

I didn't fully realize the significance of this point in the year until I began hunting around for appropriate titles for this entry, and it hit me that I'm more or less done with half of my time here.

While not technically true (I've been here for 4 months, with 6 to go), it's morally true, as my plane bound for Munich in about 11 hours signals the official arrival of Winter Break, the pivotal point about which the year turns.

There are a lot of things it would behoove me to say, then, so it's with a certain amount of regret that I should admit that it will be impossible tonight. I have to get up in 6 hours, and I have an extremely hectic 4-hour window after that in which to run all sorts of errands, in all sorts of places around town, before getting to the airport on time. So, unfortunately, this more momentous of entries must remain filled only what I had in store for it before it hit me just how important it ultimately is. But I will do this: In the next few days, when I (finally) have the time to relax and worry about far fewer things, I will deliver something reflective and insightful. Scout's Honor.

At any rate -

It has been a busy, hectic Last Week Before Vacation. I nominally finished up the first leg of my research and put together a presentation thereof to deliver to my fellow Fulbrighters and the Fulbright Commission. Despite a few technical difficulties and not really having enough time to prepare, it went off well enough. All of the Fulbrighters in Bulgaria were gathered together on Friday for the 100 Days in Bulgaria event, and I got to hear what all of them have been doing in their towns. It was quite good to hear that things are going well and most everyone is having as good of an experience as I've been having.

I also began looking at my music for potential grad school auditions in earnest. Between that, the research, the presentation, and running errands that have been crying for completion before my extended absence, it has been rather exhausting. Staring at pages of mixed meters and rapid modulations after staring at pages of Cyrillic script and fighting with your computer to make it do the things you want has a way of being so.

But with everybody in town this past weekend, we had the chance to relax and catch up, which was a nice way to transition into the break. I will admit to feeling small twinges of jealousy every time I heard about one or the other of them going back to the States for the Holidays, but the greater part of me has actually been looking forward to spending this time of year in new and exciting places. And so continues my journey.

So Happy Holidays, and may you be surrounded by those you love this year. So long for now.