Notebook entry on 31st July 2006: Eremitage
I wonder if my German friends see me different than my Norwegian or English friends? The reason for this thought is that I find that because I don’t speak German as well as Norwegian and English I find that I am quieter in the company of German friends than other because I have to put more thought into what I’m going to say to find the right words.
When with Norwegian and English friends, well, they know I don’t always put a lot of thought into the words that come out of my mouth. There are always a lot of words inside me searching for a way out, even when they’re words that doesn’t necessarily need saying.
Of course, when it comes to things I really feel like telling my German friends and I can’t find the words, I’ll just switch to English and hope they understand and most times they do. So if I wanted to I could speak English all the time here. But that would be to choose the easy way out, and I wouldn’t really learn anything from that. So I keep insisting on trying to speak German with the result that I’m quieter than usual, which might not be such a bad thing after all…..
Today we visited a place called “Eremitage” in Bayereuth. It’s like a really large garden/park with a small old palace in the middle. This large garden was started by a counted, a “mark gräfin”, around 1700 I think it was, and there are several smaller buildings and ponds there, lots of statues, small cave like structures and fountains, trees, bushes, flowers and paths. I really enjoyed walking around there, for one reason it is very quiet and beautiful, but mostly I like to walk in such places because it is old history.
When walking around there I try not to see things and people of today, I try to imagine being a “mark gräfin” from the 1700s walking around in this large rather private park. How would she see it? Did she enjoy it when she’d had it built? Was she happy there? What were her thoughts around some of the things she had built there?
I “saw” people all around me today, not of our time, but several hundred years back. How they would have their parties and celebrations in such a grand place. It truly was a place for inspiration. I took some photos, but when I watched them later they didn’t really do the place justice, because you can’t catch the “feel” of the place in a photo. The Eremitage was full of life everywhere, the photos are not. But I’ll cherish the memories of it in my heart, and when I ever am in need to write about such a place, this will be my inspiration.
And lots of thanks to Jana and Lone for taking me there.
When with Norwegian and English friends, well, they know I don’t always put a lot of thought into the words that come out of my mouth. There are always a lot of words inside me searching for a way out, even when they’re words that doesn’t necessarily need saying.
Of course, when it comes to things I really feel like telling my German friends and I can’t find the words, I’ll just switch to English and hope they understand and most times they do. So if I wanted to I could speak English all the time here. But that would be to choose the easy way out, and I wouldn’t really learn anything from that. So I keep insisting on trying to speak German with the result that I’m quieter than usual, which might not be such a bad thing after all…..
Today we visited a place called “Eremitage” in Bayereuth. It’s like a really large garden/park with a small old palace in the middle. This large garden was started by a counted, a “mark gräfin”, around 1700 I think it was, and there are several smaller buildings and ponds there, lots of statues, small cave like structures and fountains, trees, bushes, flowers and paths. I really enjoyed walking around there, for one reason it is very quiet and beautiful, but mostly I like to walk in such places because it is old history.
When walking around there I try not to see things and people of today, I try to imagine being a “mark gräfin” from the 1700s walking around in this large rather private park. How would she see it? Did she enjoy it when she’d had it built? Was she happy there? What were her thoughts around some of the things she had built there?
I “saw” people all around me today, not of our time, but several hundred years back. How they would have their parties and celebrations in such a grand place. It truly was a place for inspiration. I took some photos, but when I watched them later they didn’t really do the place justice, because you can’t catch the “feel” of the place in a photo. The Eremitage was full of life everywhere, the photos are not. But I’ll cherish the memories of it in my heart, and when I ever am in need to write about such a place, this will be my inspiration.
And lots of thanks to Jana and Lone for taking me there.
posted by Lena M Bakke @ 10:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home