Leipzig (28.-30.8.)

28.8.
What a day, I got up at 6 am after ca. 3 hours sleep. I checked out at 8 am went by subway to the central station from where I took the luxury train to the airport. Again I did not have to identify myself, just put the boarding pass under the scanner. The plane took me to Berlin´s airport Tegel.
The airport bus in Berlin cost me a little bit more than 2 €, what a difference to Sweden, where I had to pay 10 times as much. I have to concede, that the bus ride was much less convenient, as it was completely overcrowded.
Arrived at Berlin´s central station which I know very well from former trips I bought a train ticket to Leipzig, which is not that far away (takas a little bit more than an hour). I had about one and a half hours to kill, so I had a portion of fish and chips, the mayonnaise came in a small cup which can be eaten as well, a great idea from an ecological point of view.
Berlin has a very large station, adequate for a city of more than 3 millon inhabitants, in the from the usual corwd, weary travellers, a bunch of homeless people, taxi drivers. A beautiful young lady with a guitar was singing some songs I have never heard, possibly from herself, and, man she was really good, a great voice, she would make a great jazz singer. The audience seemed to have thought the same, a lot of people (including me) threw coins on the guitar cover lying in front of her on the ground, and the acknowledge it each time she received a donation.
There was a large crowd waiting for the train, and as I had no seat reservation and booked second class I headed straight for the board bistro, where I found a place to sit. That´s my advice, if the train is crowded, this is the most likely place where you can sit.
We arrived in time at Leipzig. which is a beautiful city. After a small orientation phase I found the street I was looking for and headed straight to my hotel, where I arrived at 3:30 pm, i.e. 7 hours and a half after the start of my journey.
My hotel, named Adagio (very musical), is located close to the centre in a quiet road, very different to Stockholm. They try very hard to make you feel at home, they even offer you a bicycle, if you don´t want to explore the city on foot, and, this was also a first, I got a small booklet with a detailed information how, according to which kind of computer system you have, the connection with the WiFi can be established.
Such a small guide is very usefel, in some places it is not really self-explaining, how to connect, ideally speaking you start the computer and press on button, and everything works, that that´s more often than not not the case.
I did not do very much this afternoon, except going shopping, a new jeans (I will leave the old one in the used clothes container), together with new underwear. As dinner I had a plate with döner, bread and salad, which was unexpectedly good, and cheap.
As I was extremely tired i went to bed very early, i.e. before 9 pm and slept about 12 hours.
The breakfast reminded me of the good old times, enough food, but not in abundance, and you have only one plate which you have to use (of course there are also cups for the cereals), all of the people in the breakfast room were Germans, all of them middle aged or older, and overweight, the situation reminded me very much to the seventies and eighties, when the world was not yet such an international place.
Day 2 (29.8.)
Exploring Leipzig is pretty easy, as all interesting sites are located in the City center, and this city, which in 2015 celebrates its 1000th birthday is absolutely beautiful, grand old buildings, lots of parks in between, and a friendly atmosphere which make this place quite unique.
Leipzig is a very important place, if you are into classic music, Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann and his wife Klara, and - considered by many (including myself) as the greatest composer of all times - Johann Sebastian Bach, lived and worked here. Needless to say that a visit of the church of St. Thomas, where Bach worked as Kantor (don´t know the English term) and where, since 1946, his remains are buried, was part of the obligatory programme, I always have a special feeling to walk on such historically important ground.
Leipzig is a very special place, as it was in another church, this time Lutheran/Protestant, I am speaking of the Nicolai church, the peaceful revolution of 1989 began, when the people finally had enough from the buliies and stood up against them; these assholes who were in charge then had been prepared for everything, except prayers.
This appears to be the fundamental problem of our species, the bullies always find some wlling helpers and suppress the rest, and they can do so a long time, because nobody stands up against them. Fortunately dictatorships are short-lived, because a system builr on fear and terror is self-destructive; on the other hand this "short-lived" is a relative term, in case of the Soviet Union it took three generations until the system collapsed.
Ok, back to Leipzig.
Interestingly I had another encounter with the the Hare Krishnah followers, I did not identify them as such, because they were chanting something else (I took a picture of their transportable temple), one of their touts, a beautiful young lady, tried to make me interested in this nonsense, but I stopped the conversation as soon as I realized what this was. I guess, they also have good-looking young men who they use to catch potential female followers, it is a universal sales concept, to appeal at the basic instincts, and why should sects act differently.
Somewhere else a brass-band (about 10 men, and only one woman, all dressed in black and looking young and fit) played, and when I came, the audience was told, that they were about to play the last piece. This short speech was very interesting, because the band leader was very sarcastic and condescending to the people listeing, he talked about the stressful free time, and he asked everybody to come back at 8 pm and make sure to bring the shopping backs, and in the meantime we could gnaw at an ice cream to kill the time. Even funnier was, that he got applause for insulting everybody, but maybe that was for the music.
Anyway I am not a big fan of brass music, but I have to say, that they all were playing really well, and I joined in the applause that they got after having played the last piece.