Wer schreibt, der bleibt

The title of this post, which is also the slogan for Die Linke(The Left) political party in germany means, he who writes, remains. I like that, don't you? It seems particularly apt for me at this moment.

In the morning I catch a long and boring train all the way down Germany to Basel, Switzerland to visit the Stampfli's for a few days. I'm pretty excited, although I haven't seen them since I was six? seven? Ursula sent me a picture of what she looks like now so that I would recognize her at the train station and all I could think was that she looks exactly the same as I remember, which is comforting. 

Hamburg has been a surprisingly interesting and pretty city to visit. I came here, sort of out of obligation, since it seemed wrong to travel Germany and not visit its 2nd largest, wealthiest city. I have a couple friends from Hamburg, and had heard it was nice, but its not a big tourist hotspot like Paris or Amsterdam or Prague. In fact, most of the tourists here are from Germany. However now that I actually visited around I'm really glad I did.

On my first day I sort of wandered around on my own, taking in as much of this huge city as I could, and then went to a theater that showed movies in english and saw Public Enemies. I'd never been to a movie before by myself, which was kind of fun, especially since I was one of only about 10 people in the entire theater, and most of them seemed like Germans either trying to improve their english, or simply fed-up(as I am) of the poor dubbing job most english-language movies get here.

The second day I woke up early and took a really informative walking tour, which was nice since Hamburg is a bit spread out and it would've been so easy to miss a lot of the stuff we saw. 

One place in particular really struck me, which was the building that used to house the offices of the man who created and promoted Zyclon B. Now of course, it is a totally nondescript office building, completely anonymous except for one bronze plaque on the wall outside, and an empty Zyclon B container on a pedestal within. On the plaque, besides a historical note about the building and former occupant, is a quote reading, "...un nit varnicht die schlechte ojf der erd, soln sej varnichtn sich alejn!". At first I just figured it was some old-form of german I wasn't familiar with(although some of the words were familiar) until the guide explained that it was Yiddish. The translation is: Do not destroy the wicked of the earth, let them destroy themselves! I'm not exactly sure what about it struck me so deeply, but it reminded me of the story of the Dachau concentration camp survivors who came back years later to protest the living conditions of the people who had once imprisoned them. It is this idea of forgiveness that is neither passive nor permissive; a forgiveness that recognizes that people who hurt others hurt themselves so very much more in the end. It is an idea that aligns very closely with my own views on non-violence. It has nothing to do with being weak or overly-optimistic, rather it seems to me that harming people who do violence is superfluous--they harm themselves with every violent act they commit. Like Voldemort ripping apart his soul through murder, the salvation or strength gained through violence and hatred is only temporary, and always unequal to the cost. 

Later we went to the St. Nicholai memorial, which is the haunting ruins of Hamburg's gothic cathedral that was destroyed by bombing in 1943. Although they've cleared away the rubble, the skeleton of the church, including its tower, remains and now houses some beautiful sculptures as well as an information center. One of the sculptures is especially beautiful. Its named the Earth Angel and the inscription says "take my hand and let me lead you back to yourself" in five different languages around the base. I like that, too. It seemed to me that around every corner in Hamburg I found fascinating and beautiful and haunting places, graced with words. This city has reminded me why I believe so strongly in the power of words, and why I feel somewhat naked and unprepared when I haven't been able to write in a while. 

Both yesterday evening and this one I went down to the Sternschanze district, which is the University district, and ate at a really great little Italian place with good chianti, lit by an electric chandelier missing a few bulbs. It was nice to sit someplace beautiful, people watch and let the evening slip by. 

Today I ran some errands, bought my train ticket, and then went to the large park in the middle of town and read in the sunshine for awhile. Its nice, now that the countdown to the end of my trip has begun, to be able to relax and read a good book(I'm currently working through the german version of the 3rd Harry Potter as well as a hilarious novel I picked up called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies which is EXACTLY what it sounds like)

Oh, I almost forgot! Hamburg is on the banks of the Alster and Elbe rivers, right before they flow out into the North Sea. Its crisscrossed with all these beautiful little canals, and absolutely covered with shorebirds. In fact, all of the swans on the Alster are protected by law. It is illegal not only to kill, eat, or beat the swans but also to insult them, which is a little difficult considering how large and pushy they are, being used to friendly tourists feeding them...