As most of those reading this blog know, I am a German minor along with studying Historic Preservation. So I had to go visit Germany while I had the opportunity. This weekend, I went with my friend Libbie to Karlsruhe, a smaller city just across the border from France. We visited the Karlsruhe Palace and Botanical Gardens, but my favorite experiences were those we hadn’t planned.
L: Karlsruhe Palace R: Karlsruhe Botanical Gardens
We stopped by the free modern art extension of the Badisches Landesmuseum when we had extra time on Saturday afternoon. I was delighted to realize that most of the space was an exhibit on early modern housewares. Early modern art styles like Art Nouveau and Bauhaus are my favorite and the exhibit did an excellent job of encouraging the visitor to contrast regional variations between the pieces. My friend took a picture of a mirror and happened to capture my absolute glee at realizing that there was an entire exhibit devoted my favorite art.
We also happened to be in town while a Multicultural fair was being held run by immigrant services organizations for the city. We wandered over to find some dinner and my plans of eating traditional German food were abandoned to try food from Eritrea (a country in East Africa) from one of the stalls. I don’t know the name of the dish I ate, but it was delicious and a much-needed spice-filled break from the bread and cheese that I’ve been subsiding on while in Paris.
Eritean food photo courtesy of Libbie (I forgot to take one)
We then spent the next three hours at this festival watching performances and the people around us. When we were walking around earlier, we had come across what could only be described as a counter festival. (From my incomplete knowledge of German, I gathered that the speakers we discussing the importance of the economy.) That festival had almost no one visiting and at one point I joked to Libbie that we should go back to and see if it was doing any better now. But neither of us wanted to leave. The weather was perfect, it was crowded enough to feel busy but not to the point of being overwhelming and the entire space felt so alive.
View of the festival from where we ate dinner
The festival was also an opportunity for me to use my German. I’m aware that I’m not studying the most useful language (very few areas speak Germany and most German people know at least some English). But this festival was a situation that I wouldn’t have been able to navigate if I had to ask everyone I encountered if they could speak English.
Overall, I had a wonderful time and am glad I had the opportunity so see how well my German would hold up outside of a classroom setting. I would definitely like to go back to see more of the country.
Laurie