Oldenburg

Hey Everyone!

Today I did something pretty big for me: I went to Oldenburg by myself. This may not seem like a huge deal, but it was really a big accomplishment for me.

What started this adventure was these signs around advertising an Expressionist art exhibit in Oldenburg. I was pretty curious about it and asked my friends if they wanted to go to Oldenburg with me today. As luck would have it none of them could go. I went back and forth on if I should go by myself, but I reminded myself that this Europe thing is a once in a lifetime experience and I should get the most out of it as I can. Then I looked up train schedules from Bremen to Oldenburg.

I managed to get to Oldenburg no problem and even ate this pastry thing during the train ride. I really have no idea what this pastry was - it was apply, crumbly, and this pudding type thing in it. It was good.

So I got to Oldenburg and after wandering around the hauptbahnhof (train station) for about 10 minutes I found the tourism office. A girl spoke some English and pointed me outside. Once I got outside I sort of cheated and asked a taxi to take me the Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte (roughly translated: art museum). Something got confused though and I ended up at the Landesmuseum für Natur und Mensch (roughly translated: Natural History & People Museum). It was not what I was expecting, but I did wander around. Every single thing was in German so I couldn't really read the signs, but it was good none the less. There was an exhibit on early Christian artifacts that was pretty cool, but, once again, would have been way cooler if I knew what I was looking at.

After I left the nature & people museum I decided to walk in the direction of die Schloss Oldenburg (the Oldenburg Castle). Along the way to the castle I found the art museum I had wanted to go to! It was awesome. The person at the desk spoke English and I was able to walk around. The nice thing about art is that it is open to translation and you don't have to read signs describing it. I really enjoyed it.

After the art museum I made it to the castle, but just looked it from the outside. I wandered around and found a really cool church as well, but it had construction going on inside and outside so I wasn't able to go in and explore.

Overall it was a good day and I'm proud of myself for taking on a new city by myself when I don't speak the language.

Love,
Elizabeth







Pretty street scene from Oldenburg
















Signs for die Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch















This was on the ceiling of the art museum and I may or may not have been allowed to take it. Never the less it depicts a female as queen of heaven - email me if you are interested in some more of my observations of this painting.






One view of die Schloss Oldenburg























One of the better photographs I've taken - a park in Oldenburg. The water is actually part of this moat thing that was originally set up to protect the city from invaders. The city has expanded well beyond this boundary of course and now it's just a pretty park.