Day 6: Vegan Adventures, A Castle, and the First Encounter with Nazism

We started off today pretty well. We went down to the center of the city past bakers and bikers gathering strange looks from passers-by, as we usually do in foreign countries when taking pictures of random people's gardens. I couldn't help it, though. The nature here is sensationally beautiful.

A lot of gardens have this gradient flower bush thing going on. Not only is it gorgeous, I'll bet it's really difficult to accomplish.

Johanna is our host here. I keep meaning to get a picture of the roommates and her because everyone is unbelievably cool but if I want to blend in and seem cool as well, I shouldn't go around taking pictures of everyone. There are four other roommates right now. 

We gave Johanna the gift bag yesterday during a conversation over tea in her massive garden. This house is like an old count's house in a very rich neighborhood near respectable German folk and it's slowly being taken over by artists and hippies. I love it. There is a giant pile of old shoes from previous tenants and from what I understand, everyone takes turns cooking and shopping and taking out the trash. Have I gone all poetic about the trash sorting system in Germany yet? If not, let me reiterate. Everything gets sorted. Everything. There is a separate bin for compost, plastic, glass, paper, and anything you could think of. This place is some kind of dream world.

Johanna quite liked the gift bag. She received a magnet and a little button for her Greeley gift and very much liked the Reese's pieces and mini Butterfingers. The flag made her laugh and she really liked the candy cigarettes. She's my type of person. She's taking her degree in Gender Studies and is interesting, funny, and clever. I don't know how we got so lucky. She also talked to her brother today and we're officially staying with him while we're in Berlin. Hooray, we have a place to stay for another few nights! Reader, you have no idea how much anxiety this has been causing me. This trip is wonderful and fun and exciting, don't get me wrong, but how unsure I've been feeling is definitely a negative point against it. I'm so anxious all the time, I feel like I'm going crazy.

Oldenburg Castle. We're in a German city, why wouldn't it have a castle?

Me in front of the big church in the middle of the city

Another view of the church

 We walked downtown and found a little cafe that sold homemade tomato soup. We decided that would be a good option for lunch and ordered it. I also wanted some fruit or something so I ordered a smoothie, then at the last minute realized it contained "honig"--honey. So I changed my order. The cashier suggested a shake, which I decided against because it has milk. Casey explained that I couldn't have animal products so the woman made something a la carte for me--just soy milk and strawberries. The waiter who prepared the soup knew without asking to not put cream on my tomato soup. Somehow, these random people completely understood my veganism and were not taken aback by it. In fact, they seemed to work extra hard to make sure I could enjoy something at their cafe and even asked me in English if I found enough to eat. Why is this country so amazing and how can I ever go back?

After the cafe, we walked down the street where a violinist was playing to the delight of a blindingly blonde little boy and his austure father. As we walked up, the violinist was playing the theme song from The Godfather. I love that song so much, I made eye contact with the violinist. The next song he played was Hava Nagila. I don't know if it was a personal dedication or just feeling but I felt a little singled out. I mean, just because I'm darker than your average German doesn't mean I'm Jewish. People do seem to instinctively address us in German here. We must always just look like we know what we're doing and where we're going even if we don't.

We walked to the old castle and stumbled on an open-air market. This place had fruit, vegetables, candy, meat, fish, clothing...anything you could want and all very reasonably priced. We walked away with a full bag of fruit and vegetables including fresh strawberries, a kohlrabi, carrots, and apples for about 5 Euros. I would definitely never be able to get that amount of fresh, delicious food in the States for 8ish dollars. Not even close.

It was an experience asking the people for amounts of food as well. I also learned a couple of important German words for fruit and vegetables, many of which I forgot because they're so similar to the English words. I did learn that they call eggplant "aubergine," which is a French word that's crept into English in England.

After the market, we decided to walk around the Schlossgarden (castle garden) because it looked pretty and it was a nice day. We found a duck pond, amazingly beautiful trees, a tree house, and verdant gorgeousness. For a town about the size of Fort Collins, Oldenburg has a lot going for it. There was a paddle boat kiosk as well, which we considered and discarded. I've never been paddle boating but I felt like seeing the museum in the castle instead so that's what we did.

 The very kind man at the counter of the museum took Casey's student ID and only charged us the student price for tickets. He also held onto our newly-bought produce and my purse, saying "Many of the articles are not behind glass. You might accidentally knock something over and that's in no one's interest" in a perfect British accent, shortly after babbling away with Casey in German, presumably about the museum.

The museum is an odd mix of things, ranging from early Greek vases through the signet stones of the old Counts of Oldenburg. Below are a few of my favorites of the day. Each floor is divided up into a different century.

Don't mess with my castle! I can definitely lift this sword over my head. See? I'm totally holding it right now.

This is the beard hair of one of the Counts of Oldenburg. Seriously.

This beautiful room was a breakfast room and then a library

This is Herman and Thusnelde. Look up their story--it's a bit crazy. Full of rape and shenanigans.

I have no idea what this product is but that's the exact expression and pose the woman on the label was doing.

I want this dress. It is so Dutch and chic.

Then we stumbled on the World War II section of the museum. The room related to the Shoah was tastefully done (I want to vomit just writing that but it's true). Everything was in black and white. The walls mimicked the tiles and made bars. The below picture was in a display case in the middle of the room. On one side, there were pictures of the book burning and some exhibits at the Auschwitz museum. There were also a couple of display cases containing copies of the books Hitler ordered be burned.

A full Hitler Youth uniform over a children's book containing hymns for the Nazi party

 To their credit, the city didn't sugar-coat anything. They accurately portrayed their history and explained exactly when the synagogue in town was burned, when Oldenburg was officially free of Jews, etc. I had to take a minute and remember that the Shoah, the Holocaust, happened. It happened here in this town where I've been so happy for the last two days. It happened here in this country where I'll be staying for weeks. It happened thanks to the great-grandparents of many of the people I see in the street.

It was a lot to stomach. We moved on, though, and I tried to stop thinking about it until I had time to write about it. This feeling is only going to get worse as we travel. I fully intend to take the tour of Dachau when we visit Munich and that'll hit hard, I'm sure. I know the sort of thing that happened here could happen anywhere--has happened in many more places since. All the people I talk to are nervous about the current German nationalism as a result of the World Cup win, as if this were a precursor to reinvigorating the type of nationalism that allowed Hitler to come to power. I have to remind myself no one is to blame, the people who had a part in it have been brought to justice. This doesn't reduce the power of seeing a little golden star in a glass case in the middle of a black and white room.

We basically closed down the museum and went back to the house. I discovered this morning that my sneakers have some metal poking out of the back of them, which explains why walking has been painful on my heels recently. I bought new shoes for cheap. They're definitely Germany shoes. I'll probably take a picture of them some time tomorrow and post it. It's like I'm trying to fit in here but something about the feel of Europe seems right to me. People are very friendly but to a point. Everyone seems to dress for the occasion of going out in public. Even those who are more casual do it in a fashionable way. I love it.

Back at the house, we ate leftovers from yesterday and booked an airbnb for Prague, which will hopefully be approved soon. So we have the next week planned if all goes well, which hopefully it will. We decided to skip Leipzig because it would involve two full days of travelling and we'd probably be too tired. I talked to my grandparents, which made me feel better about the homesickness, and I went down to watch Underworld in German with Casey and the roommates. It was comfortable and very nice. Overall, a busy and fun day. It is definitely time for sleep, though.

Until tomorrow in Berlin,

Maria