Weekend Travels Part 1: Magdeburg & Erfurt

This week it was unusually difficult to force myself to sit down and start writing a blog post. I think the reluctance stems from the busyness of the last few days, which have involved  a large amount of Things That Have To Be Done But Are Absolutely Boring. Unlike nearly all of the time, therefore, I found myself having to actually stop messing around on the internet and start being a productive member of society. None of the things are at all interesting to blog about, but fortunately last weekend I went on a trip to Magdeburg and Erfurt with Zoe, so there is still stuff to say after all.

I have, by the way, resolved to reduce the length of my posts. Not having a word limit means I can merrily ramble for pages and pages, making them marathons for you poor (but, I can only assume, dedicated) readers. So from now on: no longer than 800 words! A challenge.

Magdeburg

In my German class at the Volkshochschule there was a really nice guy who had lived in Magdeburg before coming to Chemnitz. He spoke of it very fondly, and it seemed, at least in his view, vastly preferable to poor old Chem. This meant I had relatively high expectations, at least that it would be more of a lively, studenty town with fun things going on than Chemnitz is. In this sense, then, I was disappointed. The Magdeburg that Zoe and I encountered was very, very quiet. Even walking through the streets on Friday and Saturday night we saw absolutely no one at all, which was rather unnerving.

However there were definitely positives aspects. On the Friday afternoon I had a bit of time to wander around before Zoe arrived, as she had been delayed due to yet another of her laughably awful train journeys messed up by Deutsche Bahn. One of the first things I found was the cathedral, which was just lovely. On the outside it looks like a normal Gothic cathedral with the classic knobbly roof and plain windows; however on the inside, looking through the windows to the sky and other buildings outside it suddenly becomes obvious that they are not clear after all, but delicate pastel colours. The greyish sky became little squares of lilac and pale blue, while the darker grey building next to the cathedral turned into squares of purple and navy. While I am vocally Not A Fan of cathedrals in general, the beauty and peace of this one took my breath away. I lost myself to the extent that I briefly decided I could definitely be a spiritual person and made a donation to light a hopefully not too hyprocritical candle.

Yep, this is from Google. I APOLOGISE for being unable to take any good pictures ever in my life.

The best thing about Magdeburg though was the Hundertwasser house. If you get the chance to see a building designed by Hundertwasser – DO IT. They are so, so cool, and photos just can’t do justice to the supreme attention to detail and incredibly beautiful colours. The one in Magdeburg is called the Grüne Zitadelle – the Green Citadel. Even the name!! 

You can see the tower on the right (YES okay, this is also from Google)

I especially loved the columns around the building at ground level; each one is unique and they strongly reminded me of pleasingly shiny wooden beads. Also the wonderful optical illusion effect lent by the stripes; after staring at the tower on the end for some time, Zoe and I ascertained that it is not in fact as leaning as the Tower of Pisa, it just looks like it. GOD. 

Anyway, as may be clear, I LOVED the Grüne Zitadelle, and it made going to Magdeburg worth it just for that. 

Erfurt
Saturday we made the two and a half hour train journey to Erfurt, a town about which everyone was much more excited when I told them I was going there. 

I actually did take this one myself!!

As you can see from the photo above, the town centre is quaint and old-timey, which beautiful town houses. The town is full of the kind of building that you have to stop and take a picture of because it looks so ludicrously fairytale-like. The most obvious example of this is the cathedral - i.e. a literal Disney castle - and the building next to it which appeared to be the university, from what we could make out. The delights of Erfurt just kept appearing. First we saw the adorable town centre. Then we went on a search for a garden that we'd see on tourist signs, whose non-appearance I didn't mind because we found a street where grass was growing in the tram-tracks which was just delightful.

Cathedral and stuff

Then we wandered towards the cathedral, discovering a little stream or babbling brook, depending on how poetic you're feeling, along the way. Wandering back towards town, we stumbled (not literally, fortunately) upon a pottery market, where I bought a Becherchen (little cup) because I couldn't resist and it's definitely a good idea to buy more stuff shortly before leaving Germany and having to somehow transport it all home.

There were a couple more highlights of Saturday; firstly the chimney cake/Baumkuchen which I first tried in Prague so was able to share the joy by introducing Zoe to their delights. It was no less delicious than the first time. The second highlight was a surprise sports fashion show in the market square, in which models with expressions of various degrees of enthusiasm, embarrassment, and attitude 'strutted their stuff' (might be pushing it somewhat) along the makeshift catwalk to a rapturous audience of middle-aged, sports-kit-wearing Germans, Zoe, and me. It was quite something.

We returned to Magdeburg and our soulless hostel room that evening, and on Sunday morning had a walk along the river in the sun, watching with interest as the probably ten thousand keen, sporty Germans jogged/skateboarded/cycled/roller-bladed/scootered past us, glowing with health and the fresh air.

All in all it was a lovely weekend, and I would like to thank Zoe for making the decision that we would not be lazy and actually do it. I will be keeping up the habit this weekend by travelling to the Saxon Switzerland with Sarah! More on the story as it develops.

(I didn't manage to keep to 800 words - this is 1000. Sorry.)

'DUNNO MATE'