Category Archives: Germany

Personal Journal: Strange Dreams

St. Petri Cathedral, Bremen. Photo by Scarlett Messenger
St. Petri Cathedral, Bremen. Photo by Scarlett Messenger

I had a nightmare that I was here in Germany and I had to go grocery shopping, but instead of regular groceries I bought big sacks of grain and barrels of stuff. I had to bring my stuff down into the apartment on a big elevator platform thing, but all these people kept trying to steal my sacks of grain. Then this swarthy looking guy dressed in black and with a camera man following him around with a camera that said “ABC Wide World of Sports” jumped up on floor above us and yelled, “I AM ROME!!!!!” and grabbed one of my sacks of grain and started to take off with it. I managed to wrest my grain from his clutches and grabbed his ankle as the platform continued to sink slowly, effectively dislocating his hip. There was also part in the dream where I was being subjected to a witch trial, but because this was the New Germany, they did it via television as an interview process and the ultimate test was your ability to properly answer the questions on an 8 page form in pen without making any mistakes. In German. If you couldn’t do this, there was some sort of vague threat of an ill demise in a mill pond.

Yeah, everything was coming up Ken Russell in my dreams last night.

Theme: Cemeteries

Cemeteries are everywhere in Germany. Centuries of history combined with a culture built upon memorializing and remembrance give cities like Berlin some of their most beautiful greenspaces. People treat the cemeteries like public parks, so unlike the sterile flat lawns of cemeteries back home you have shady groves, beautiful statuary, and plenty of benches to sit on. It is common to see people having lunch or just hanging out with friends in the cemeteries. Cemetery photography has been a hobby of mine for years, so Berlin was the perfect place for me.

Theme: Home — Rosenthaler Platz, Mitte, Berlin

Our apartment is in the former East German Mitte neighborhood. Our closest U-Bahn (subway) stop, Rosenthaler Platz, was a “ghost station” during the Cold War. This means that the trains from West Germany would pass through it, but could not stop, so for 30 years it was filled with barbed wire and barricades. It is mostly a “hipster” area, filled with fusion restaurants and juice bars. The enormous Circus Hostel and Hotel next door makes it a very international and youth oriented neighborhood.

Theme: U-Bahn