I must say at the outfront, that most of this has been copied-and-pasted from my email but the bit about the movies is new info so I guess you can just cruise down to that section and simply read....
As I'd mentioned on my blog, this was a trip organised by IKUS that organises such trips and other events for students Anyway we were to meet at the station at 5.45 am for this trip...god that was the only minus point in the whole trip...getting up at 4 am to get ready...and then walking to the stn...it was raining and well it felt like we are taking a midnight walk!!! Anyways once we got to the stn it felt nice n warm. The train journey was of 3 hours...so we reached luneberg by 9.30. They had organised bfast for the group at Cafe Melzer in the town
center. We had the top floor of the cafe reserved for us and the whole group at down to a sumptuous bfast for buns, ham, salami, eggs, freshly sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, a variety of sliced cheese, home-made strawberry and peach jams, and hot coffee....mouth watering yet? :)Tho I myself ate well, I was amazed at how much some of the others packed in...it was truly like making the most of a buffet...and this wasn't even the main buffet in the cafe, for we got a speical one at a discounted rate. The actual brunch buffet on the ground floor looked like way tooooooooo much to think of eating.
Anyways, after an extremely leisurely bfast, we walked on to the town hall where we had a guided tour organised for us. B4 we set of, however our lil group of Jigeesha, Saima, Raghu and myself managed to get a photograph with ALL the Santa Clauses in the town centre...ended up setting a mini-trend...LOL!!! Anyways the guided tour was cool. It was in English for one thing - LOL!!!
We saw St Nikolai church, which is where St Nikolaus is said to have come when he first landed on the shores of Luneberg. The panels in this church are very interesting...one panel shows blood flowing down which represents the crucifxion of Christ. And ofcurs the usual stain glass panel,s the altar, the bowl for baptising babies etc. Then after walking thru the old part of town and seeing the diff in the various facades which all seemed the same to me after a point, we saw the Old Crane. This crane was used to lift cargo when the river flowing thru the city was still used for water transport. It's operated manually by a treadmill...and our guide told us that the saying of walking the treadmill originates from this activity.
After we finished the guided tour, we met up again (Jigisha had gone on the gerna guided tour unlike Raghu, Saima and myself), and headed to the Christmas Market..this was down a slope. Luneberg was a salt producing city and in the 16th cen, salt production made so much profit that the city dwellers referred to it as 'white gold'...anyways since the city has a soft soil, the houses kept sinking till the idea of stabilising them with concrete came about. On ths one slope houses sank alot and there are even some houses that tilted backwards...they have been stabilised that way and preserved like that itself!!!
In the mkt we discovered that one of the organisers, Karin, was working in a stall serving gluhwine...obviously we all stopped there and had some!!! She was dressed in medieval costume...looked quite cute!!! After that we visited the St Michaelis church and St Johaniss church. In the latter, they have this MASSIVE organ that was lit up specially
for St.Nikolaus day....beautiful doesnt even describe half of how impressive it looked. Next we went up the water tower. The water tower is no longer used to churn water from the river (obviously), but they re-newed the struc in the 80s and opened it to public in 2000. Now one can go up to the top for a smal price and soak n the most breath-taking panoramic view of the town. It came quite close to the view of Heidelberg from the castle....I went up by lift while the others climbed up...and those 5 mins alone at the top were marvellous. The wind that day was insane, andI actually had to hold on to the railings so I dint get pushed back.
We spent a long while there, b4 walking back thru the town to the Salt Museum and then meeting the group again at the stn. Sadly the pub hopping plan got cancelled coz trains were re-scheduled due to some work on the tracks. Our trip back included a small bus trip as well from Bad Beevensen to Uelzen where we caught the train to Magebdurg. Reached home at 10 pm.
Poonam came up with us and we saw 'Great Expectations' and had dinner. I had waited to see this movie and now I'm dying to read the book and see what Charles Dickens wrote. And Oh, I finally understand why after seeing this movie so many (atleast of the male species) end up falling in love with Gwyneth Paltrow!!! LOL!!!
Through out the day I kept seeing the time and saying, at this time in another mthI shall be on the flight home, landing or at home. When we reached Mburg at night I said 'HomeSweet Home'..then I looked at the watch and said....hot damn in a mth it shall truly be 'HOME SWEET HOME!!'. The countdown begins...and wat a way to wind up my stay...coolies!!! :)
Sunday was spent lazing, watching movies and studying. In the eveg we went to Raghu's room for dinner. He stays in the univ-hotel. Cute lil cozy room with a tiny kitchenette. We made rotis/parathas for him in his room...and there was egg bhurrji and mixed sabzi and this south-indian style rice made by him. Good fun... on our way back we crossed the temp board... it was -1 deg!!!! We were so excited....Saima suddenly started feeling cold reading that and ran home.B ut Jigi and I stood there marvelling that we are not feeling cold, even tho temp was in the minus!!! Infact since it wasn't windy, I commented that I had felt cold the prev day but not at the moment!! LOL!!! This morng there was frost on the grass and our windows were all fogged....hope it snows soon.
I woke up this morng when I thought someone knocked on our door. But then thought it must be imagination, coz no one can get up without getting past the buzzer on the ground floor first. 2 mins later the buzzer rang... I ran to the door and Hardo was on the intercom saying'open the door'..so I pressed the buzzer, he repeated 'open the door..ur flat door'..I was flummoxed and asked him to come in first...then I went and got the keys..opened the door. And was stunned...there were 3 stockings filled with gifts hanging on the door handle, and a packet full of more gifts on the doorstep. Hardo had left them there...there was a note in the packet saying St Nikolaus visited us, tho it 2 days late. HEHE!!!
Hardo and his parents have truly made this very special for us. The girls last yr defi didnt have this.....:) Goody goody...our trip shall be double special!!! :)
And wat a way to wake up!!! Anyways after that we hung up the stockings on the windows as well as the window decoration biscuits ....as I told saima, we may not have celebrated Diwali/Id this yr, but we sure are celebrating christmas...the trad way. Advents calendars, baking, stockings et al!!! Feels damn good!!!!
The movies we saw ton Sunday...I've never seen so many ever before in such a short span of time!!
Thie first movie is based on Arthur Miller's 1953 play. It presents a convincing portrait of the way Americans consistently have denied personal responsibility for evil and projected it onto others. Here a sex-driven young woman (Winona Ryder) seeking to avenge herself on her estranged lover's wife, a zealous judge (Paul Scofield) who puts order above truth, and a self-serving minister (Bruce Davison) who wants to hold on to his power conspire with other members of the town to bring down a nonconformist (Daniel Day-Lewis), his godly wife (Joan Allen), a spiritual elder (Elizabeth Lawrence), and a handful of pariahs.
Although the original drama was meant to reflect upon the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s, this film directed by Nicholas Hytner, has more universal implications. It cuts to the heart with its revelations about the potentially destructive power of the urge for self-preservation, the chaos created by a society's fear of the unknown, and the great courage it takes to stand up to authoritarian zealots.
As one of the most sobering and prophetic films of the 1996, The Crucible compels us to recognize the shadow side of our lives, including the evil inside us. The ending also compels us to think about whether there is anything that we would be willing to die for.
The second movie I had seen earlier, but didn't know the name...I found out when I saw it...LOL!! Buffalo 66, where Vincent G (the director of the movie) stars as Billie Brown. Upon his release from prison and while desperately looking for a restroom and a pay phone from which to call his parents, Billie Brown meets Layla (Christina Ricci), a voluptuous teenager, whom he decides to kidnap on the spur of the moment (as if his new freedom has instantly ignited the old criminal drive). After a ridiculously funny monologue by which he delivers his naive motives, Billy convinces the young girl to succumb to his plan of visiting his alienated parents, Janet and Jimmy (Angelica Houston and Ben Gazzara) and fooling them into believing that he is something he is not: happily married and very successful.
The movie reminded me of the theatre of the abusrd - the repetitive dialogues, the make-up, the characterisation,the feeling of aimlessness,....quite an interesting movie to watch!!!
We started seeing 'The Death of a Saleman' after we got home from Raghu's room, but fell asleep after and hour, so shut it. Shall probably finish seeing it tomorrow or day-after! Lets see....today Saima and Jigi are seeing P&P once again...they are addicts...LOL!!!
Hmmm..I think this is it for today...been here for over 2 hours now. Kinda tired of the sound of the printer which is right in front of me...and of typing too!! LOL!! Ciao!!
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