After leaving Nürnburg, my next, and last stop before returning to Berlin, was Dresden. This phrase may be over used, but it applies so perfectly here that I must insert it: I saved the best for last. Dresden was gorgeous! The entire city, of course only from what I saw, was so photogenic. I wish I could stay here longer, but I guess leaving now will make me thirst for more in the future. Like pretty much every German city, there is a new town and an old town. The old town is where the big beautiful buildings are that people visit throughout the day. But I stayed in Newtown, and what a good stay it was. Dresden has one of the best young scenes that I have come across. Every night, the entire Newtown is filled with people, most of whom are roughly my age, walking through the streets, sitting and talking and having a great time. Dresden, more than anywhere else I have been, reminds me of Olympia, in a good way of course. There are so many small unique restaurants and stores, as well as murals and street art, that I found myself stopping in my tracts over and over again just so I could appreciate what I had seen. Just north of this area is a large grass park too that, thankfully when I went, was a great hangout spot for tons of people into the night.

I only spent two nights here, like in Núrnburg, but one of the days, me and two other hostelers  took the city by storm and tried to see as much of it as we could in one day. We walked far and covered most of the ground we set out to accomplish. By the end of it a huge rainstorm came blowing through and forced us to retreat onto a tram and head back to the hostel. By the way, Dresden has tons of trams. No u-bahns to my knowledge, but my goodness their tram game is strong.

It is hard to leave this place, especially since the sun is shining so brightly and it is a glorious day. But I must return to Berlin. Tomorrow we present our projects that we have been working on throughout our stay, and so I will get to see my classmates again after almost three weeks of being on my own. So long Dresden, you were wonderful. And thus my wanderbondage has come to an end. Now it’s time for business. 

I spent two nights in Nürnburg at a hostel quite close to the HBF. This theme seems to be recurring. I seem to want to not have to travel very far to get to my hostel after arriving in the city. However things turn out from here on, I know that this hostel was a great choice. First, the people I met there were very fun and unique to other places I have been. Again, though, the hostel game is heavily dominated by traveling Americans. Every once in a while though, you meet someone from somewhere you wouldn’t expect. For instance I met Ricardo, from Brazil. It didn’t take long after meeting him before I realized most of our conversations were going to be football oriented. We had many a long chat on this topic; he suggested to me a couple games from past years that would be worth rewatching, and I told him my perspective on the Champions League final, which had just been played.

Aside from the people, the city itself was gorgeous, especially when you knew where to look. Nürnburg is more developed and touristy than I was lead to believe. The cit is in fact huge, and all the traditional areas are drenched in modern stores. It is hard to find anywhere that really remains untouched by this. For the most part I spent my time in the middle of the city, inside the old town. This area is surrounded by an amazing wall that, I’m assuming, used to be the border of the city. Inside this area area the main tourist hotspots. Since I wasn’t going to be there long, I decided to hit these. There are a couple large prominent churches inside this area, as well as a river, Pegnitz I believe, and some beautiful bridges. The crown jewel of the city though is the castle in the back of the walled area that overlooks the whole city. From the ramparts here, one gets a free view of the entire south side of Nürnberg, this was probably the main highlight.

Althoug my time was short there, it was very good and informative and I now can say I know a little bit more about Nürnberg. 

My time in München has come to an end, unfortunately. I spent four great nights in the beer capital of the world, three of which were at the home of Natalya through Airbnb. This Russian girl from Ukraine, who has been living in Germany for 14 years struggled with her English, so we each to advantage of the opportunity to learn from one another. I can confidently say my German has at least become better during my time in Munich, more so than some other places anyway. Together we attended a party in the same apartment building she lived in, we went to Nymphenberg Palace, ate amazing traditional Bacarian food and went to a her favorite beer garden, these amongst other things. If anyone comes through Munich, I highly, highly recommend Nymphenberg Palace; however, if you can, attempt it on a beautiful, sunny day. I know that’s out of your control for the most part, but it is worth it if you guess right.

Now I begin my trek back to Berlin. First I will spend two nights here in Nürnburg. I’m not sure what all I will do here yet, but I’m sure I can figure something out. Next comes Dresden, but I’ll get to that later.

My original plan was to stay in Nürnburg after Kaiserslautern, but the two family friends that my Mother knew, were both busy and somewhat unavailable. So I decided to skip Nurnburg and save it for June, post class, and instead head to the Capitol of Bavaria, Munich. I arrived a couple days ago, spent a night in a hostel and now found an Airbnb to stay in for another couple days before making my way back to Berlin.

Here I will need to figure out my second PsychoGeography, because I originally intended to do it in Nürnburg.

After my brief stint in the Düsseldorf area, my next stop was Kaiserslautern where I would meet up with our old friend David Hollifield. On my way there I managed to catch a train along the Rhine River. Along it there were many precariously placed yet beautiful called on the tops of hillsides above the river. These were similar to the ones seen from the trai we caught to Prague, however, there were much more here. After I got off in Bungen and caught a transfer train, the surrounding area quickly turned to a rural landscape. For miles and miles, or rather kilometers and kilometers, there was very little other than trees and fields. There were large forests here as well, not just the small patches in between fields. After all, this was the northern tip of what could still be considers the Black Forest, of which we have all heard so much about.

After seeing beautiful fields and trees, the landscape quickly and suddenly changed to buildings and concrete. Before I knew it I had suddenly entered into the city of Kaiserslautern, population 100k. This small town was quite isolated from the rest of Germany, I have spoken with multiple people since. Most Americans have never heard of it. Many Germans had not heard of it either, but no one had ever been there. And here I was.

David and his wife, Mary Kay picked me up from the train station, we hugged it out and we were on our way. David lived actually a 20 minutes drive outside the city. During the drive he told me the this area was dominated by one of the largest US military bases in Europe. This made sense given David’s military history. He and his wife had been here a few years earlier, and they loved it so they decided to move here. Their place outside the city was only temporary. In only a week they would be moving into their new house in the city, which they were excited for, given the horrible traffic the area they were in was known for.

When we arrived, I was delighted by just how far into the country we were. This was definitely rural Germany. There may have been small 1000 person villages every once in awhile, but there were fields everywhere. Their temp. place and an awesome patio/deck which had an amazing view of the nearby landscape. It was still flat here, but there were more hills than Hamburg and Berlin, that’s for sure. I claimed the sofa as my sleeping spot for the night and enjoyed the next couple days catching up with David and exploring this hidden gem of Germany.

Before I came to Düsseldorf I knew that Emil Schult was an artists. He had created two pieces of work that he had given to my parents. So I had seen some of his work and I was aware of what he could do. However, after spending a couple days with him, I found that I had really known nothing about him before hand. It all started with his studio.

One day Emil decided to bring me to his studio, which was a small apartment a short walk from his house.  This was where he did all of his work. I tagged along, expecting to see some stuff similar to the ones he had given my parents. When I got there, though, as soon as he opened the door and I walked in, my mind was blown. The place was filled with all of the large works, from pictures to sculptures as well. Along with all of his tools and tables. This was a place where he had spent countless hours, I could instantly tell. What surprised me the most was just how many works there were all around in the studio. There were two main rooms, where most of the equipment was, then a kitchen, then a whole downstairs for storage and a bathroom.

I call his works ‘pictures’ because I don’t know what else to call them. They are the types of work where you look at them and you have no idea how they were made. I still to this day am not entirely sure of the whole process, but I think I at least have a better idea. The works, for the most part, consist of layers of different papers, each cut out to a specific, very fine shape, via scalpel, then they are each individually painted a specific color, before finally being attached to each other some how, mostly by glue. When you see the works he has created, you cannot believe that they were all done by hand. There is so much detail in every work that it is easy to assume that the whole things was done by a computer, at least that is how I felt at first. He does use a computer, more for the design and drafting of the images, to get all of the dimensions correct, before getting to the hard, or maybe he might say fun, work done by hand.

When we arrived there, he had a specific job that he had to do. He had just finished creating cover for a record label, Rebirth they were called, and he needed to sign the pic and package it up and mail it. He had doe this process thousands of times so he really didn’t need my help, so I was surprised when he asked for it and jumped at the offer. These valuable works, which are finalized by being cover in a layer/frame of glass, need to be covered in his hard yet soft cardboard like material. He cut out the pieces to frame them, just right, on every side, before taping them all together. I actually cut my finger on a small piece of the stuff he cut out. He said be careful, because although it felt soft on the outside, underneath was a layer of multiple to help make it durable, and he ripped open the small piece to show me.

Before and after I helped him, I had been browsing all of the works hanging up on the walls. They were each so unique and different from the last. They all had this distinct touch of modernism in their display, from the fine details that made their reflections seem futuristic. The subjects ranged from animals to abstract space designs. I asked him which was his favorite and he said to go look in the kitchen. I did so and above the sink was a small picture of a dog. The dog? I asked, no turn around, he said, I did so, and then I saw it for the first time, I don’t know how I could have missed it. There were two shelves, as long as the room itself, Completely filled with packed up works. You see, he said, I have created so many that it is hard to choose. However, he said, that one I am quite proud of. He pointed out one of the more prominent works that was on display on a stand I the middle of the room, so it made it seem like he had not just finished making it. It was an intriguing and yet bizarre image of a hand, colored unusually, and in its palm was a small computer chip. In the chip was were all these small, tiny details began to emerge the longer and closer I looked at it.

The next day, Emil brought me to the city of Düsseldorf, and we went to a music school called Robert Schumanns, I think it was called. Having not been told what exactly we were doing there, I was expecting to see a musical performance. In the building we were in there was a stage with a lot of people going in and out, there were signs everywhere that reaveled that there was going to be a show there later on that night. However, we wouldn’t be seeing that, instead we went through a door at the back of a room with 15 other people, all but one of whom were roughly 50+ year old women. We we to down some stairs and through another door. In this room Emil had everyone sit in some chairs in front of another small door. There were four large works of his hanging up in this room. It was here that Emil started talking to everyone, in German of course, I still had no idea what was going on. From what little I could discern, he was discussing the Earth and specifically places in the Middle East, one of his pictures was of the large tower in Dubai. After a short talk, everyone put in these funny shoe cover and we walked through the small door. When we got in we found ourselves in a dark, dimly lit room, with small cushions in the middle  for everyone to sit on. Once everyone was seated, Emil, holding a remote in his hand, turned on one of the lights which illuminated the wall behind him, revealing a large immensely colorful wheel of sorts. Emil began to speak to the people again, and this is when I realized that this was all a presentation of his. Again, he spoke in German, so it was hard to pick up on the full dialogue, but I did hear large numbers recited over and over again, as well as an interesting comparison between ich bin and je suis, which both mean the same thing. Emil showed the back side of the room, changing the lights to his will with the remote, which had a golden wall which unfolded revealing a neon cross, the Jesus kind. I gathered that all of the gold walls were in fact painted with real gold, but were also mixed with another sub stance to prevent staining. The ceiling had an interesting space/astronomy design that was only visible when properly illuminated. At one point, Emil stopped talking and began to play some music. Everyone was quiet while it played. It was an interesting tune, it sounded very futuristic, consisting of a calm constant sound that occasionally would change to a high pitch. For some reason, accompanied by the space ceiling, this made me think of aliens.

When the music ended, everyone started to leave this magical room. Outside I the small room with chairs and the big pictures I sat next to Emil as he began distributing small books that everyone was buying from him. Each person paid ten euros and he would sit there and sign the book. Everyone, all of them bought a copy. After all was said and done and me and Emil were walking back to the car, he finally revealed to me what I had seen. This room, in which he presented, was called the Crypt, and he had been presenting this room a couple times a week to different groups of people each time, who had come from all over to see it, for over 15 years. It was one of the most visited exhibits in the area. The main concept, he said was the discussion of people and life on earth all being as one on this planet in the eyes of God. This was interesting for me to hear, because Emil, to my knowledge was not a religious man, yet he spoke so clearly and truthfully on this matter that I wasn’t sure any more. I brought up how I had just heard at the Untying the Mother Tongue conference that for many cultures the concept of religion did not exist, and this was simply their way of life.

At our next stop, we went to another exhibit, this time of an interior decorator. In this building there were tons of works of art, including many of Emils, but there were also many other things, everything you could think of when it comes to interior decoration. There were tabled and cabinets, as well as many old, from the 50’s or so influenced pieces. We stayed here for a while, I was mostly within a couple steps of the snack bar at all times, before heading off to our last stop. One more art gallery. Here, in the heart of downtown Düsseldorf, there were no works by Emil, but rather all of them were by one artist. This place was called he serateh gallery, if I recall correctly. We were only he a short while, Emil wanted to go in and say hello to a couple people. Afterwards we left and walked around the corner and met his family sitting with another family at a Thai restaurant. The father in this other family was named Rolf, he was Emil’s oldest friend, and together they had formed the musical group Kraftwerk many years ago.

After spending a couple nights in Hamburg, my next destination was a six and a half hour bus ride away in Düsseldorf. A long time family friend, Emil Schult, lived there. I had not seen him in more than ten years, but my family had still maintained contact with him, and thus a connection was possible while in Germany. He had actually spent a year living in the US when he was my age, he lived with my dad and his family, so in a small way our roles were switched.

The first night was a bit of a disaster. My bus was already arriving a bit late into the night, so I felt bad for having Emil pick me up. But to make matters worse, I got off my bus one stop too soon. The town of Duisburg sounded very similar over the intercom to Düsseldorf. I was standing outside the Hauptbahnhof talking with Emil, trying to figure out where he was, when I suddenly looked at a carving on the ground that said Duisburg and my heart sank. I looked at a map and sure enough I was in the next town over, another 30 minute drive away. 30 minutes later, Emil, bless his heart, and his daughter Lianna picked me up. But to top things off for how bad things were, that morning I had awoken with a sore throat and a bit of a headache, which had only become worse during the long, uncomfortable bus ride. Jump ahead, this illness lasted my whole stay in Düsseldorf area, very disappointing. I say Düsseldorf area, because as it turns out, Emil actually lives in Viersen, a small town 30 minutes west of Düsseldorf, quite close to the border of Holland. Before you ask, no I did not go to Holland, but I might in June.

Viersen was much more of a rural/country area than I was anticipating. The twenty mile distance outside the densely populated Rhineland area was enough to turn the landscape from buildings to farm fields separated by the occasional small cluster of trees. The first thing I did with Emil the next morning was go on a walk through a field near his house to truly get a grasp of the scenery. With the land being so flat, it was easy to see for miles. The church towers stood out on the horizon and he said that for hundreds of years those chuches were what people around here had used as guides for transportation since they were so prominent.