Görlitz visit and a brief excursion into Poland

Gorbitz- You can see part of the astromonical clock behind me


We went up the Reichenbacher Tower for some great views


I really like this building with its crazy eye windows and strange astronomical markings


Poland was a little more shabby!


On Thursday I dragged myself out of bed at 6am and headed down to the main station to catch an early train over to Görbitz, a beautiful old border town north of here. The day before I had noticed a last minute call for the trip with ESN (Erasmus Student Network) and, as I really need to get on with writing a paper, I decided on a whim that it would be the perfect procrastination.

Thursday was a national holiday here in Germany; most places were closed as it is firstly a religious day, Himmelfährt (Ascension Day?), and secondly Männertag (Men’s Day). I had assumed that Männertag was like Father’s Day but it doesn’t seem to translate exactly. Instead, it is an excuse for all the men to have a day off and drink all day long. Even before 8am there were groups of men everywhere, swigging their first bottles, wearing daft costumes and heading out to god knows where laden with crates of beer...

We arrived in Görbitz early and wandered through the town which was almost empty. It is a historic place, probably about a thousand years old, and in contrast to much of the area was not destroyed in World War II. Consequently it has some impressive architectural heritage- over 3,500 protected buildings and monuments in a wide variety of styles from gothic to baroque, art nouveau to romantic- and has a reputation for being one of the most beautiful towns in Germany, looking almost as it did in 1945. It lies on the River Neisse and was, with the Polish town Zgorzelec on the other side, an old trading town between the Bohemian and Silesian regions.

Görbitz has its very own astronomical clock, which seem quite common across Europe, and funny round towers everywhere. We went up one, the Reichenbacher Turm, for some great views across the city. I think it was built in the 14th Century as part of the town’s fortifcations. He also visited the Heiliges Grab (Holy Grave), an exact replica of the grave of Jesus in Jerusalem, which was built around the 15th century by a wealthy businessman as his personal place of worship.

Later on I wandered over the bridge to Zgorzelec with some French people that I keep bumping into. It is strange because there is literally nothing that tells you that you are leaving one country and entering another. On the other side, however, the houses suddenly become very shabby and run-down, the language and currency changes, and everything becomes much cheaper! Naturally we ate dinner over in Poland, after drinking a few cheap but sadly disappointing beers and going for a wander. There was very little to see in Zgorzelec though, clearly the Germans got the better side of town when the border was drawn in 1945! The food was good though, I tried a Russian dish called Pirogi and it was tasty. After that there was little to do but cross back into Germany and head back on the train to Dresden to fall into bed as it was pretty late.

So Görlitz was a really nice place, it was a shame it wasn’t sunny as we’d expected but at least the rain held off. My brief excursion into Poland was fun too and I plan on heading further into the country where there is actually a bit more to do and see in a month or so, particularly as it’s so cheap. Unfortunately I still have a paper to write urgently, and now I have finished this blog I am running out of procrastination possibilities. Right then, better get down to it...

Uni begins!

My classes started on Monday with Geopolitics of Energy, which turned out to be a lot more interesting than I had expected. On the Tuesday I had to do a half hour presentation to the class on the link between energy resources and democracy (or lack thereof) and although I was quite worried preparing it in the previous week as I had no idea what kind of standard to expect from the German education system, it all seemed to go alright on the night. Now I just have to submit a 12 page research paper on the topic! I also met some really nice people on the course and everyone is incredibly knowledgeable and the standard very high. The class, thankfully for me, is in English and everyone speaks perfect English...as well as Russian, French, Spanish, maybe some Chinese or Polish too! It’s somewhat depressing as I struggle away with my Deutschlish, but everyone is pretty nice and helps me out. It is compulsory for International Relations students here (and all other countries too, it seems) to spend at least six months studying abroad and to take foreign language classes. For us in England, neither is obligatory and I would hazard a guess that this is probably reflected on our manner of conducting international relations as a country...

I also started German classes this week which is very useful. I found my A-level papers before I left England and I couldn’t believe how good I once was at German. Unfortunately that was five years ago but it is slowly coming back. I am pleased to be having German classes on two days a week now, especially since I now have no more international relations classes for three weeks, then suddenly start two extra classes and also more Geopolitics all at once. This is due to the odd German timetabling that is made up of ‘blockseminars’, where a class runs intensively for two weeks or so then it’s all over. Very strange and definitely confusing!
Otherwise, the weather has been gorgeous here- it has been over 20 degrees most of the week. Going to a barbecue this evening though, so making the most of it before I return to England! I’ve been following the election run-up with interest via the internet and have also watched the TV debates on YouTube and I think that they were really good. Typically, Nick Clegg made on appearance at De Montfort University in Leicester just a couple of days ago, but I guess not being there saved me the trouble of being compelled to drag myself out of bed ridiculously early in the morning.

Can’t really think of anything else to say, I’ve visited the Zwinger which is a palace here which now houses the fairly famous Old Master’s Gallery in Dresden and that was quite impressive, as you can see from the pictures. I would like to visit some more modern art galleries if I can find one. The Hygiene Museum is also supposed to be well worth a visit, despite its cold, clinical and very German sounding name! Need to get a couple of papers out of the way and then I can go off on a few more jaunts that I’m planning. More soon...