vom Unglück verfolgt sein

Living in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is very much a double-edged sword. There are lots of things about MV that either sound great but in reality are shitty or vice-versa. For instance, there are almost no English speakers here, which sounds lonely at first, but in reality it means that my German has improved loads, and I am making German friends. Another example is that MV is almost nothing but farmland, however this means that a plant biologist like me always has fun stuff to see. Finally, this state is the tourism destination in Germany, which is great until you realize that almost all of the industry here is in one city and is devoted to tourists, which can make finding a job rather difficult. On the balance though, once you get to a bigger city here, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

That whole tourism thing that I mentioned is what I want to talk about right now though. MV is an absolutely gorgeous state to visit. It's hard to find an area of the US to compare it to. Whereas Bavaria looks almost exactly like Kentucky, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is similar to Minnesota in that it has over 2000 lakes, but it's flat and fairly treeless like northeastern Kansas. So you might think it's like the American midwest, but it is coastal, which, in addition to giving the area a whole different vibe, also means that the summers and winters are really really mild. Finally, and this part I'm still not used to yet, we are at the same latitude as lower Alaska. The sun officially sets at 9:50pm, but it's not really dark until around 11pm. Sunrise occurs at a painful 4:40am, but that infernal morning twilight (and the birds chirping) begins at about 3am.

So suffice it to say that I find the area rather unique and very pretty. I wanted to take advantage of that in my time here, and I've had one goal (to rule them all). That goal is to see a national park by the name of Jasmund. This park is (supposed to be) breathtaking. It has bright white chalk cliffs that soar over the sea, fields of flint stones, and amber floats in the water there. The park is located on an island called Rügen. I tried to reach the park last winter, and I made it all the way to the biggest city on Rügen and then it started to snow, and since I was not prepared for snow and had to turn back. I was pissed!

Last weekend, I resolved to right this wrong and travel back to Rügen. I also wanted to see a few other things on the island, and I figured I could easily kill a day there. Sunday morning, David and I set out at 7 with the train to a tiny town called Binz. Binz is the prototypical coastal German coastal town. Very similar to Graal-Müritz, it's got thatched-roof cottages, steam trains, and is just very quaint. Near Binz there is a small hunting lodge that is now a museum, the Jagdschloss Granitz. Once we were in Binz and had gotten our bearings we set out on foot for the lodge. The trek to the lodge is through a forest and up what the locals called a “mountain.” While the lodge was technically at a higher altitude than the city, the mountain was really more of a hill. During this forest trek, I noticed that it was starting to rain, but I really didn't mind since the trees covered me. The forest, though, was very nice. It was very orderly with paved paths and had clearly been manicured. It was peaceful and in certain parts you could smell the pine trees. The hunting lodge itself was very cozy. Comapred to the other castles I've seen, this seems like one that I could actually feel at home in.

This is the outside of the lodge. We were very disappointed to learn that the building is actually pink, a decidedly unmanly color.

The staircase leading up to the tower of the lodge. The figure in the center is  some raptor  attacking a pike.

Just a few of the trophies hanging on the walls of the lodge.

The weather was sort of shitty, as I mentioned, but you can see here how flat MVP is.

You can also see how many lakes there are.

We then trotted down the “mountain” back into Binz. On that way back to the train station though, I noticed something that blew my mind!

It should say something that the store is proud that it is open for a total of 5 hours on Sunday.

See, in Germany like I've mentioned, the whole country shuts down on Sunday. Like, god help you if you have a heart attack, because the doctor will be like, “Sorry, it's the Lord's day. Gotta keep that sabbath holy.” So seeing a supermarket that is open on Sunday, even it it's only for five hours, is earth shattering.

David and I then hopped on a train to take us to Prora, which has a giant series of vacation homes built by the Nazis.The Nazis had this great idea that in order to conquer Europe, you would need a well rested workforce, so they built an enormous set of vacation apartments on the coast of Prora for all of the workers of Germany. It was part of a project called “Kraft durch Freude” shortened KdF, which means something like “Strength through Joy.” Right now, the vacation complex is sitting mostly empty. Weird that no one would want to spend their free time in a huge Nazi building. Who knew? The buildings also play house to a museum about the KdF project and the Nazi times. I would definitely recommend the museum if you're in the area.

Seeing Hitler in a knight's uniform was hilarious to me.

These things are huge and extend all along the coast.

This is, I hope, a play on words. It could either mean something like "...is a vacation" or  something like "Authority vacation", considering it's a sign about the Nazi vacation houses, I really hope they intended the play on words.

Around about the time we were arriving in Prora, the rain had started to pick up a little bit. I didn't have a rain jacket, so I looked like a drowned rat after we walked along the beach trying to find the museum. By the time we were done with the museum and ready to set out toward the coveted goal of the national park, David was starting to give me looks and ask some leading questions, “what do you think about the rain?” "are you getting cold?" The park is in Sassnitz, but the chalk cliffs and anything worth seeing is a good 5 mile hike away from the town.

I really hate to give up on my goals, especially since I'd already made it that far once and had to turn back, but I eventually came to the decision that hiking onto a cliff made of chalk after 12 solid hours of rain might not be the best idea. This is especially true since parts of that cliff break off all the time, and just last year a huge section broke off and buried a ten year old girl. It was with a heavy heart that I decided to head back to Rostock...

So all in all, I'm sort of pissed. I mean, yes I got to see a cool museum and hunting lodge, and got to spend more time with David, but I've been to Rügen twice now and have yet to see the Chalk cliffs. Today's word means “cursed with bad luck” and that's how I feel about this damned Island of Rügen.