Eau de Cologne

The weekend before last I had my very first semi-alone travelling experience. At first I was a bit shaky on the idea, but in time I ended up embracing it. I went to Cologne, for reasons including but not limited to the fact that the village Schaag sits comfortably nearby, and also that I had a free* river cruise on the Rhein that I wanted to collect on. For the way there (I left Friday afternoon), I tried out Mitfahrgelegenheit, or rideshare. The driver was a girl and her friend from Wolfsburg. Both were, in as few words as possible, completely and utterly boring. After many attempts at posing questions about their lives and receiving three-word answers, I decided to fall asleep. I woke up five hours later in front of the Koelner Dom.

*Apparently there’s an alternate definition of “free”: reduced rate.

Within minutes my Couchsurfing host, Hanna, arrived to pick me up and take me back to her house. She was very nice and cool and took me out with her to hang out with her friends in the park to watch the game of Ghana v. Uraguay. All of her friends, many of them actors, were delightful. After an epic fail of a (18th birthday) party visit, which we heard would be “totally sweet,” but was, as one could imagine, the opposite, we went to a bar called King George which had a sweet DJ setup behind the bar. As Cologne was hot and sticky at the time, we brought our fans to keep cool.


On Saturday I met up with two girls from Hannover also in the RISE program. We started off the day by taking a quick look inside the Dom, which is what Cologne is famous for. It’s an extreeeemely old cathedral with unbelievably intricate detail and a plethora of little statues all over the outside of the building. The inside has a lot of paintings, some on the ceiling, and really cool stained glass windows.


From there we visited the Chocolate Museum, which was so very well worth it. We got to learn about the history of chocolate, including how it’s made and when people started making it, and then we got to see it actually being made in front of our eyes! Among many other things, we also got to see some artifacts of chocolate brands…Hershey’s not included. At the end, we shopped the most amazing chocolate store I’ve ever laid eyes on. I didn’t know they could sculpt chocolate in such ways. I saw some chocolate that looked exactly like a beer can, and another shaped like a soccer player. I settled for a small piece of coffee-flavored chocolate bark. By the way, for anyone who ever wondered how hollow chocolates are made, they use a centrifuge.


Next we walked over to the Altstadt to see the Christopher Street Day festivities, which were going on all weekend. The events included the biggest gay pride parade in Germany, which I attended on Sunday. On Saturday there were many booths and vendors in the city selling all kinds of merchandise, food, and drink, as well as bands playing…one of them definitely a country band from Texas. Unfortunately, however, it started to rain. At first the drops were sparse, but so large and heavy they literally hurt when they hit my skin. Then gradually it began to fall harder, until we found ourselves in the middle of what seemed to be a small hurricane. I’m not kidding; I’ve never seen a rainstorm like this in my life. We took shelter under an awning but still the wind blew the rain too close for comfort…rain which, to our dismay, soon turned to hail. We watched in half horror, half amusement as the wind blew the umbrellas from the food vendors, leaving the poor people soaked, not to mention their food. After causing everyone in the city to crouch under the little shelter provided by the awnings for nigh an hour, the rain finally cleared and we were able to continue our journey.

The World Cup game of Germany v. Argentina was going on at the time (epic 4-0, by the way), so we went to an “American” steakhouse to watch and get some food. Still filled with memories from Hamburg, I got the potato dish, which was almost as good as the one I had there. Then, with bellies full of food and hearts full of German soccer pride, we took off for the Rhein River Cruise. It was still cloudy and the seats on the boat were wet, but the cruise was very relaxing and it was nice to hear a little about the history of the city along the way since we didn’t get a walking tour.


After the cruise and a bit more walking around, it was time for my companions to return to Hannover and I was once again on my own in Cologne. I returned to Hanna’s house and went with her to a party at her parents’ house, where some lovely and delicious vegetarian food was served. Afterwards I went back to get some sleep for my long day ahead.

In the beginning I hadn’t planned to stay in Cologne through Sunday, but once I heard the gay pride parade was going on, I felt it would be silly to go home without seeing it. I’m very glad I stayed because Sunday was my best day of the weekend. I started out the day by going to the top of the Koelner Dom, a thing I thought would be easy, based on my Hamburgian cathedral-top-going-experience, but boy oh boy was I wrong. Picture this: a staircase so steep, and so winding, that you feel like you’re rock climbing in a Tim Burton movie. By the time I got to the top (which took about 20 minutes by the way), I was both dizzy and out of breath. It was worth it though, both for the view of the city and the triumphant feeling of having done it.

After my workout I went to see the parade for a while, which was really great. There were tons of people lining the streets and I saw some of pretty much the best drag ever; some of the costumes were really out there. There was good music too and everyone was having lots of fun.


I didn’t stay for the whole parade because I wanted to get to the Ludwig Museum and have some time there before catching my train to Schaag. It was a really good quality museum. They had a Roy Lichtenstein exhibit going on so I saw a lot of his work, but I also saw a good number of works by Picasso, Dali, Beckmann , and members of Die Bruecke including Kirchner and Nolde. I also saw some very, very different modern art, including an artist who sculpts from food. Can you guess what these heads are made from?


The answer is fat. Solid fat. Covered in chocolate.

I would’ve liked to spend much more time in the museum, like a whole day, but it was time for me to visit the village of my namesake, Schaag. Yes, alone did I take this journey of self-exploration and realization. Schaag lies in the town of Nettetal, along with other villages, including Breyell which is where the train took me. My arrival in Breyell was just the beginning of my quest as I then had to trek to Schaag, and even though I thought it would be simple and easy, I of course got lost, even in pretty much the smallest town in Germany. I was walking along a road and noticed that, oddly, every street I crossed had the same name, Torbruch. But I could not for the life of me figure out the name of the street I was walking on. So I asked someone. Their reply? “Torbruch.” It felt like some kind of weird nightmare, like in Being John Malkovich except it was Being Torbruch Strasse. With the help of a map, however, I found my way, and basically followed the train tracks to Schaag, which made me feel not too unlike Johnny Cash.


The town of Nettetal is very agricultural and enjoyed my surroundings of cows, horses, and wheat. The weather was also perfect in every way.


Finally I saw the road sign, like a light shining from the heavens: Schaag, 1 km! Did I take pictures? Yes. Shamelessly. Even though people looked at me like I was an alien. Among the subjects of my photography: Schaager Grill; Schaag Chinese Express; and, of course, the inspiration for the name of this blog, Schaager Strasse. After failed attempts at taking pictures of myself with the signs, I awkwardly asked some Schaag inhabitants if they would help me, adding with a shy chuckle that my last name is Schaag. They just raised an eyebrow and guffawed a bit in response, then took the picture which they unfortunately were not entirely adept at. In the end, however, there is hard evidence that I was present in Schaag, evidence that will survive the generations as the legend of Schaag lives on throughout the ages.


I only got to spend about an hour in Schaag before it was time to go back to Cologne to catch the train back to Braunschweig. I was running a little late after getting back to Hanna’s house, so after packing my things and realizing that I had 10 minutes before the train left, I had to literally run the whole way to the station, getting to the platform with 2 minutes to spare. My ride home was my first experience with the ICE (Inter-City Express) trains, and lemme tell ya, they are sahweeeet!!! SO much better than the regional trains, where I somehow always get stuck sitting next to 15-year-old punk kids with skateboards and/or screaming children. 2nd Class on the ICE beats 1st Class on Regional times 10. There’s a restaurant inside, pillows on the seats for your head, personal rooms…oh I could go on and on. I won’t though, because this has been the longest post in the world and I really need to stop rambling and be done with it.

Until next time!
Amy

Holland x 2

I have a confession to make. I have fallen madly in love...with Holland! I was there for two consecutive weekends, starting three weekends ago. The first weekend I was in a town called Tilburg, in the south, in order to see a music festival called Festival Mundial; for the second I went to Amsterdam. Both weekends were a blast! And the Dutch people and culture appeal to me very much. Each weekend I learned a lot about some different aspects of Holland.

Tilburg: I decided somewhat last minute to go, as a seat in the rental car spontaneously opened up. My travel companions were 6 Spanish people and a girl from Hamburg. All very delightful, fun, and nice people! We did Couchsurfing, which is basically sleeping on someone's couch or spare bed for free when you're travelling. We stayed with this Dutch guy named Arjen, who somehow had space for 8 people in his home. I had a very nice time. Because of Arjen, we got to meet and hang out with a lot of real, authentic Dutch folks and try out some Dutch food...some of which tasted like American food (I ate something that tasted exactly like a corndog) and some of which was VERY different (I tried a sucker that tasted like a Chupa Chups at first but had a salty liquid reminiscient of soy sauce in the center...it was pretty gross but I stuck it out to the end nonetheless).


The Dutch people are very nice and cool people, and their language is fantastic. To me it sort of seems like a mix between German and English. Surprisingly, however, most Dutch people speak very little German. They do, however, speak perfect English so there was no language barrier. They also have a lot of World Cup spirit; both weekends the streets were totally decked out with bright orange banners (the orange thing is because of William of Orange...for anyone who's taken a European history class, this may ring a bell), their flag (which basically looks like the French flag turned sideways), and signs that say, "Hup Holland Hup!" During the Tilburg weekend they were actually playing a game in the Cup, so we saw lots of people at the festival dressed and painted in orange or dressed as a lion, their mascot.


Festival Mundial was a multi-cultural music festival; there were bands from Spain, France, America, Ireland, and many different countries in Africa. I got to see N.E.R.D., Flogging Molly, and Sean Paul (who is, as it turns out, kind of a jerk) and also discovered a pretty good band from France called Babylon Circus. It was a bit rainy and cold the whole weekend, but still a very good time was had by all.


Amsterdam: Most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life. My companions this time were three Romanians, two of which work in the same chemistry lab as me, and a Frenchman. Our sleeping arrangements, assembled somewhat at the last minute, consisted of "camping" at a site in Amstelveen, a town right outside of Amsterdam. The placement of quotes is due to the fact that we were sleeping in a cabin, on beds, with a restroom and showers nearby. Which was fiiiine by me. We rented a car again for this trip and driving into Amstelveen we saw my dream neighborhood. I didn't know before that it was my dream neighborhood, but I know it now. Picture this: a street lined with house after quaint little house, each surrounded by a moat where people hung out on their boats and there were gardens with beautiful flowers everywhere...it gave the feeling that the people who live there must not have a care in the world. Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture, but I would seriously like to live there someday.


Within the center of Amsterdam there is also a lot of water, and bridges everywhere. Again there were apartments all along the waterfront, with a boat in front of each one. I saw people sitting in their boats just reading or having a picnic. I thought it looked the most stunning, however, at night, when the city lights were reflected on the water like splashes of paint.


We toured the Red Light District, and this time I stayed dry since girls are allowed to walk through; I did, however, refrain from taking pictures as I heard that the "employees" of the district are wont to do one of the following to those caught doing so:
a)Jump out and grab the camera of the offender, then proceed to throw it on the ground, subsequently stomping on it mercilessly; and/or
b)Throw a cup of urine (!!!) at the offender.
So...yeah, I kept my camera in my purse.

After a night of our own "self-guided" tour of the city, we took a free walking tour the next day, which was very informative (an organization called New Europe has free walking tours in many cities, including Munich, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Paris, and many others). We got to see many interesting parts of the city that we'd simply walked by before without noticing, or without knowledge of the vast history behind it. For example, we saw the street Rembrandt lived on, the Anne Frank house, and "Hand on Boob," a sculpture done by an anonymous artist in the night right outside a church.


By the way, the church is situated right in the middle of the Red Light District, so that, in bygone days, those who had "sinned it up" in the City of Sin could go straight to a priest and pay money to have their sins forgiven. There was also a women's prison where people would go to watch prostitutes get whipped for fun. Ah, those were simpler times.

Now about the architecture. At first I wasn't very impressed...it's not exactly dazzling and I was used to the gothic, medieval, and baroque style of Germany. Slowly, though, I began to notice how much character the buildings have and by the end of the weekend it really grew on me. Many of the building have an odd bell shape on the top. They all have large hooks extending from the front near the top. And many of them lean forward. I have no clue about the reason for the first statement, but the last two have to do with the big import business that Amsterdam was built for. The hooks were used to haul things up into the buildings, which leaned forward so that the things being hauled up wouldn't swing and hit the front of the building. Clever!


Before we knew it, the weekend was over and it was time to go home. Sadly I did not get to go to the Van Gogh (my favorite artist!!) Museum, but hopefully someday I will be back in Amsterdam.

Hamburg!

This past weekend I went to Hamburg, a city famous for its port. My companions this time were fewer and consisted of a mixture of American and Canadian kids also participating in RISE (my internship program), as well as my neighbor Yasemin. My trip can be basically summed up in a series of facts and myths.

Fact: People eat a lot of fish in Hamburg.

Myth: Hamburgers were invented in Hamburg.

Fact: A couple of my companions felt the need to eat hamburgers in Hamburg nonetheless. Yasemin ate four because she made a mistake when ordering in German.

Myth: Water is never free in Germany (we found a drinking fountain!!)

Fact: It's cooler to be American than British.

Myth: Women can't enter the "men's only" section of the street.

Fact: Women who enter the "men's only" section get sprayed with a super-soaker by an angry prostitute.

Myth: It's easy to stay up partying until 6 a.m. then take a train home.

Fact: If you try to sleep in McDonald's, they will kick you out.

Let me be more explicit...

We left for Hamburg on Saturday morning and got there at noon. We then spent the whole day walking around the city and saw virtually everything. It's a very nice, family-friendly city (excluding Reeperbahn) and not too touristy. There are a few very cool old churches that we saw. This is a statue above the front door of one called St. Michael:

There were lots of bands playing on the streets and festivities going on in the city center. When we first arrived, we passed through a huge clump of people interacting with each other and wondered what was going on until we realized that they were all exchanging soccer trading cards! Within the city center also lies the Rathaus (town hall), which is a very beautiful building with an equally beautiful courtyard. As a Kansas Cityian, I was particulary fond of this fountain:

We walked along the harbor, which was very pleasant and peaceful. There were many cafes along the waterfront where people were sitting and reading. There was also some playground equipment and musical instruments on the ground that you can play with your feet:

The port was nice but my favorite spot in Hamburg is in the picture at the very top, which really doesn't do it justice. The green rooftops on the buildings were truly stunning and seemed to go on for miles.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Kartoffel Keller, or "Potato Celler." Almost all the dishes were made with potatoes and the waitresses wore potato sacks. It was lovely! And the food was DELICIOUS. I would consider going back to Hamburg just to eat more potato dishes from Kartoffel Keller. So smooth. So creamy. So hearty a meal.

After dinner we went to watch the World Cup game of America vs. England at a big public viewing. It was tons of fun as there was much support for the U.S. and much amusing rivalry between ourselves and the Brits who happened to be there. Most memorable chant from the British side: "You f***'ed our language!"

After the game (which was, by the way, a tie, for those unaware), it was on to the infamous Reeperbahn, a street where sex is solicited about every few feet (or meters if you're so inclined). This includes, but is not limited to, the "section where women aren't allowed," or, "prostitute alley" as I like to call it, mostly since I don't know its real name. Anyway, I scoff at the notion of "men only" so as a feminist I was naturally obliged to walk through. The consequence of this action can be found in the Facts and Myths above.

After much dancing, bar hopping, and general merry-making, it was finally 5 a.m. and the sun was beginning to creep up the horizon. Any Hamburger knows what this means on a given Sunday morning--Fischmarkt! It's basically a big market where a lot of fish is sold, as well as your average fruits, veggies, etc. It lasts from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and hundreds to thousands of people attend, many of them pooped-out partyers like ourselves.

Finally it was time to go home, and boy were we ready. We were exhausted...this city definitely showed us who's boss! It was a great weekend.

Tchussi!

<3>

Fact: This post was entirely too long. I apologize.

Berlin!

So, instead of doing all those things I listed for last weekend, I spontaneously went to Berlin on Saturday with 16 other people!! One of them, Yasemin, is my next door neighbor, and a few others I had met some days before, but I many I had not met yet at all! It was decided Friday night at a BBQ and though I already had plans for the weekend it sounded like way too much fun to pass up. So Saturday morning we all met up and basically overtook the train for the 3 hour or so ride to Berlin. We toured the city during the day on Saturday, danced until morning at a techno club called Zapata, slept in a hostel for like 2 hours, then went back to Braunschweig Sunday afternoon. Things we saw include:

--Brandenburger Tor: Interesting story about the statue on top. The Germans spent tons of money getting the woman's head to turn so it would face the French Embassy, because the French tried to steal the statue once (or something like that) and they didn't want them to ever forget it.

--Holocaust Memorial: Very interesting memorial. It basically consists of a bunch of concrete blocks of different sizes, and the floor beneath is very uneaven. As you walk through it the blocks get taller until you are surrounded by these massive, menacing towers. It was a bit eerie.

--The Wall: We saw a part of the wall left over from when it was torn down. The division of East and West that once existed was quite obvious just from looking at the difference in architecture on either side of the wall. It wasn't hard to tell which side you were on. For me the most interesting part was the graffiti on the wall; someone had written a message to a family member or friend saying they will be together soon. Overall it was a bit depressing.

--Checkpoint Charlie: Not really much to tell about this, actually. The actual checkpoint was much smaller than I expected, and you had to pay to get a picture in front of it! Lame.

--Painted Bears: The symbol of Berlin is a bear, and there are painted sculptures of them all over the city. For you Kansas City folk, it's a lot like the cows. This is the "European Union" bear:

--Kreuzberg: The Turkish neighborhood in Berlin. We actually didn't do much there except sit in a park, but there were tons of Turkish families there, grilling, playing soccer, etc. It was nice to sit and watch after all the walking we had done.

--Reinstag: The German Parliament and such a beautiful building. Anyone can go inside and watch the goings-on of politics from above. However, there was a very long line so we skipped it. Inscribed on the front of the building is "Dem Deutschen Volke" which means "For the German People."

For dinner I had my first Doener, a Turkish chicken sandwich that is rather hard to explain but very good. At 2 a.m. the night was still young of course (Berliners often party until 7 a.m. or later, and people laughed when I told them that in America we are usually home by 2) and we went to Zapata, a club that played techno music all night and where fire spewed from the ceiling. We found it while walking along Orangienstrasse, a street with lots of very cool-looking restaurants, bars, and other forms of entertainment.

The highlight of the trip, however, had to be when a 46-year-old German man (I know his age because he told me) approached me and began to serenade me in German. He then proceeded to do the Goose Step. The experience as a whole was very awkward but mostly just really amusing.

Unfortunately, all the walking and dancing in Berlin gave me quite a few blisters on my feet, one of which got infected and subsequently very swollen, leading to my first doctors visit in Germany! The doctor prescribed me an antibiotic, and it seems that here in Germany the only antibiotic they have is Amoxicillan...which I may be allergic to. So much excitement here! :) Anyway, my foot, which at first was extremely painful, is now much better but I am still bedridden until the swelling goes down. Thus I am writing this post from my dormroom, where I now have internet, woohoo!!

Everyone here is gearing up for the start of the soccer World Cup this weekend. Europeans are crazy about it, which I'm sure most of you know, and I'm excited to see!

Aufwiedersehen!

Amy

Amy Lynn Schaag is a Cavewoman with No Internet.

So. I had planned to wait until Thursday (yesterday) to make another blogpost because that was supposed to be when I received internet access in my dorm. To make a long story short, no internet access was received and probably none will until next Thursday. So now I am making this post in the lab.

My first day in Germany was somewhat pitiful, but that could just be because I was tired and scarred from the long, lonely, uncomfortable plane rides. Or it could be because my very first European bus ride experience consisted Germans laughing at me for not knowing what to do with my bus ticket when I got on. But don't feel sorry for me because it only has gotten way better since then!

Everyone in the dorm I'm staying in is super nice. I met a bunch of people the very first night because I had to go around knocking on people's doors to see if I could borrow a towel (great conversation starter by the way!). I ended up actually getting a towel from a very friendly Spanish girl named Patricia who has since loaned me many other items, invited me to every event in her life since then, and helped me find a phone for use in Europe. Because of her I have been introduced, I think, to the entire Spanish community in Braunschweig. They are very fun people! Patricia is also a great person to practice my German with because she speaks virtually no English, and I speak absolutely no Spanish, so we are forced to speak German with each other. It causes a lot of miscommunications but that's ok.

The people who work in the lab with me are also AWESOME. They go out of their way to make sure I am having a good time and include me in everything. They often speak English to make sure I understand what is being said and if I want to speak German they speak slowly because they know I can't understand when they talk fast. They have a soccer team and were very adamant about me joining, even though I told them I suck. We played yesterday and even though I was stinking up the field, they still passed the ball to me all the time. They are a very funny, close-knit group of people and all have nicknames for each other. For example, they call Jo "Vogel" which means bird in German and another guy "Ossie" which is a German slang term for someone who comes from East Germany. There's another guy whose dad apparently owns or has some very important position with Jaegermeister. They call him "Mr. Jaeger."

There seem to be no hipsters present yet in Braunschweig (punkish yes, 90's-esque grunge definitely) but I plan to start a wave. Jo calls my wayfarers "mickey mouse sunglasses" and I was like, "Dude. Just you wait and soon everyone in Germany will be wearing these just like EVERYONE in America wears them!" He also said that when I wear my fannypack I look like a "cool ghetto kid." WIN.

This weekend I am staying in Braunschweig to explore, etc. Tomorrow I'm going to the Fleamarket to buy a stolen bike for cheap (very common here) then there is a free Beerfest, a small music festival, and Jo wants to go see Robin Hood sometime this weekend (dubbed-over in German for the win).

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!
Tchuss!

T--3.5 Days

My takeoff for Germany is quickly approaching! This Sunday at about 11:30 a.m. I will be flying to D.C., from D.C. to London, then from London to Hannover. The PhD student I will be working with this summer, Johannes (apparently he goes by Jo, and sometimes JoJo, pronounced like "Yoyo"), was nice enough to offer to pick me up at the Hannover airport and bring me directly to the place I will be staying in Braunschweig, about a half-hour drive. I will be staying in an all-girls dorm at the university, Braunschweig University of Technology. I found out today that it is the oldest university of technology in Germany! My address, for anyone interested, is:





Hans-Sommer-Str. 25
38106 Braunschweig



By the way, the reason I'll be in Germany this summer, for those who don't know, is to work on a chemistry research project with a PhD student. We will be working on luminescent dyes. I've been talking to him mostly in German but recently in an email he threw in a couple English phrases, first telling me to "chill out" (when I asked him if I would be able to start on the project immediately) then saying we will "work hard, play hard." I told him I wanted him to speak to me in German this summer, but I'm afraid of what I'm getting myself into! My speaking abilities are a bit sketchy. I do, however, look forward to getting much better as the summer progresses.

The city of Braunschweig has about 250,000 people and is filled with history; there are buildings and sculptures that date back to the 12th century. Included in these is the palace of Henry the Lion, a prince who founded Braunschweig as well as Munich. In the city center is a large bronze statue of a lion which was erected in his honor way back when. It was also the first bronze statue north of the Alps (random fact of the day).

Braunschweig also has some pretty cool modern architecture. Check this out:

It's called Happy Rizzi House, designed by James Rizzi, an architect from New York. Visitors are allowed to walk through it, and I certainly plan to! For more pictures click here: http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/the-happiest-house-on-earth.html

I've been hard at work this week trying to find the cheapest ways to visit as many places in Europe as I can! On my list so far for Germany is Hamburg, Berlin, Heidelberg, Dresden, Munich, Cologne, Duesseldorf, and of course the village Schaag. For the rest of Europe I'm hoping for Paris, Copenhagen, Milan, Vienna, Budapest, Amsterdam, and Zurich. Whew! Hopefully I'll have enough time (and $) for all of that, but I'll be there til August 16!

Sorry for the long post, but I hope some of it was interesting! I'll try to post at least once a week when I'm in Germany.

Tchuss!

--Amy