Day 5!

There’s this comedian Eddie Izzard who has a joke about Disney building castles in Europe, and how when Disney came over they had to make them a little bit bigger because they actually have them here. And then jokes it’s really annoying because you have to drive around them on your way to get anywhere. The areas we have been to that hasn’t completely been the case, however Potsdam was more extravagant that I could have ever imagined. In a 10 km there were 9 different palaces. The reason there were so many is because every person who became king wanted their own castle that left their own mark. (The neighborhood parties must have been awesome.) 

We weren’t able to see all of them but we did get to see both of Frederick the Great’s and then the Orangery. The first one of Fredrick the great was after he had become king. He and his father had a really rocky relationship because Fredrick II didn’t want to be king. This first castle we looked at was after he had become king and was very militaristic minded. This was a stark difference from his other castle (because yeah he had two-perks to kingship) which he called Sans Souci and it meant “no worry”.  This was his summer castle even after he had become king. It was far more artistic because prior to becoming king Fredrick II had a big interest in Math, Science and the Arts. He had a wife, but no women, not even the Queen, were allowed to go there. It was his favorite place to be, and he was even buried there; not with his wife, but with his 11 favorite dogs.

Like most of the things in Berlin, a lot of these castles had been renovated back to their original state because of either war, or degradation over time. The statues were actually covered up in these large wooden boxes so that the weather would not damage them. It has been uncharacteristically warm for this month, but just to be safe they will not remove the covers until March.

My dad told me I needed to start looking into apartments for next year, I think I found a really good starting base!

After this we got to go see the city of Potsdam. I had my first currywurst! It was so so so very good! The mustard here is stronger than in America. There is more of a bite to it. The streets were cobble stone, and I honestly don’t understand how women can walk that in heels. We got to go into a catholic church that was open. It was very beautiful, and the organ player was practicing while we were there. I got very intense goosebumps being there. It was different from our American churches in that was not any stained glass. In a lot of the churches I actually haven’t seen any stained glass. The inside of this one had a lot of beautiful painted murals.

Then we went and walked around the Dutch Corridor. The architecture was much different than the other buildings. Stefano said he has just saved us all the trouble of traveling to that area now sense that’s how all of the Netherlands looks anyway.

We went home for a short time to see our host family then headed back out for the play! We saw Lenz a pre-modernist play. The overall jist is that it’s this writer who goes to live in the mountains with a priest after his family dies. He slowly goes insane before committing suicide. (My German is not that good, Dr. Baker filled us in before went and saw.) However, I really love theater so that was my main reason for wanting to go. The theater that we were in was a box theater. This means that instead of it being something like a giant auditorium, it only held about 100 people (if even that) and no mics were used by the two actors on stage. The set was a plywood half circle that was angularly cut for the actors to enter and exit through. There was also one raise circle platform for them to use. Past that there was a chair and bucket on stage. I’m not quite sure what they said, but they said it well. The outfits were black and white which for me seemed to symbolize the good and evil in the world that the main character (Lenz) was facing as he tried to regain sanity. The set was created in a way where one of the walls could pushed over, and the body language from Lenz showed how he was gradually slipping away from reality. In order to show a change of pace or scenery there would be a loud electrical noise and the lone hanging light bulb would make an electrocuting noise and flicker off. The scenes were shown via projected on the plywood. For me I viewed the stage symbolizing his head and the only other actor on stage was the only other person allowed in. It was very emotionally draining to watch because so much was happening, and this actor was so invested into his character. It was really cool to see his persona change when they came back for curtain call. The play was fantastic and so well done and I am so glad I was fortunate enough to go.

After this we U-bahned our way back home. It was a little more difficult because the subways shut down sooner and less run in the later evenings. We were successful nevertheless!

We're now in Hamburg, so I'll post all those adventures when we get back!

-C