In Germany, some local regional trains split at a station in the middle of the trip and head toward different directions. Thanks to Alina who warned me of this, I paid extra caution and got on the correct wagon of the train going to Marburg. Alina was very busy that day so she didn’t how much time she would have with me. When I texted her after getting on the train, she told me she was coming to pick me up. She biked to the train station and we walked back into town. On the way, she gave me the directions to tour around the town and told me some stories behind this place.
Marburg is build on the hill by the River Lahn. It is divided into the Upper Town and Lower Town, with the Castle on top of the Upper Town and center in the middle of the Lower Town. It looked like a smaller version of Heidelberg but had fewer tourists. The city preserved its original looking better because it escaped most of the bombings during the war being as an unimportant military target, as well as a hospital city. Marburg is also famous as a university town. According to Wikipedia, the University of Marburg is the oldest Protestant university in the world. According to Alina, it is the most left-wing university in Germany. Whenever there was a protest or demonstration, the students from Marburg were always on the frontline. To prove that, the Political Science Building in the university had been a lockdown by the students for two weeks by the time I was there. They were protesting against the change in the education system: Before, German university use a “degree” system from which students would come out with a similar level of certificate; recently, the government was to adopt a new system which classified the levels of degrees more distinctively, like the Bachelor, Master, and PhD in different levels we use. I cannot remember exactly how they classified the different levels of university of education before (they did have a legitimate one). They argued that the new system discriminated against certain groups of students as inferiors. Everyone graduated from a university degree should have equal chance. Furthermore, the students who graduated from the old degree from the previous system would have more difficulties now looking for employment due to the change. Oh yeah, I love these socialists in Germany. Remember, they don’t need to pay for their university (They were complaining paying very small fees for textbooks as those were free before!) and have numerous benefits such as taking trains for free 100 km around the region. Comparing to them, Canadian students (let’s not talk about the poor Americans) are paying a lot for their educations which I considered nothing comparing to my astronomical international students fee figures. Talking about education should be available for everyone...
We walked passed by St. Elizabeth’s Church, where, as Alina said, “the person who elected Hitler as the President of Germany was buried.” The man’s name was Paul von Hindenburg, the President of Germany who preceded Adolf Hitler and played a big role in Nazi’s rise to power. After dropping me off at the tourist office, which was closed that day (thankfully I had Alina), Alina had to go to her meeting so I was left to discover the town by myself. Although I had no problem with that, she felt very bad and said she would try her best to come out again. The plan was if Alina had time during a break, she would call me and I didn’t pick up to save money, then we would meet at the elevator (the town was built on the slope, so there were several elevators connecting the upper and lower levels) by the tourist office within the next 15 minutes. I liked the feeling of exploring a place without a map. I walked back to Elisabethkirche, and turned up the road to the Castle and Upper Town. Hiking up through the forest at the back of the Castle and passing by several beautiful gardens, I found the Schloss. As usual, it was build on top of the hill and had an overlooking view of the city. I walked around the Castle and even used its washroom, kind of a chilling experience since it was in the dark lower level with spiral stone stairs leading down. You know, this old stone castle with a single door entering the darkness and nobody around, not hard for me to relate to some Halloween stories. After enjoying the view of the city at the fortress balcony, I went down the road and found St.-Marienkirche. It stood on a terraced plateau and had some benches at the front, so some students came up to have a break, reading books or just relaxing with the view. It was like the Rose Garden in UBC for me. Of course, I didn’t miss the chance to sit down and relax with my book for half an hour. Then, I walked down to the busy central part of Marburg. This town was beautiful to me. Narrow cobbled streets winding up and down sneaking between the old medieval houses, some of them were so original that they tilted vertically to an angle from aging. Fountains, sculptures, cafes, bars all had their own characters. I was at the Marktplatz thinking about lunch when Alina called. We met ten minutes later at the agreed meeting point and she said she would brought me to a little characteristic cafe for lunch.
The place’s name was Roter Stern, a little cafe that had a back patio by the River Lahn. We went outside and was lucky to have a table in the sun. The tranquility could easily inspire a master work with willow trees bending over the green water. The backdrop was the beautifully decorated medieval houses. Wooden boats and canoes passed by occasionally. Students sat by with a couple of coffees, having discussions about the ongoings, studying their big binders of notes, and reading the thick texts or small handbook where they would discover their next genuine ideas. Alina brought me to here for one more reason, the philosophy of the cafe, which I learned at the cashier counter while ordering the food: the cafe’s menu had a price on each item, but it was only symbolic, the customers were encouraged to pay whatever amount of money they felt comfortable. The idea was to have the rich pay a bit more and the poor afford whatever they could. What a lovely place! Isn’t that what human beings’ actions should be based on, not money but heart! We had pasta for food and talked more about other things, mainly learning the differences between the society, system, ideas we were used to. I didn’t want the conversation to end, but Alina had to go to deal with her professor about her thesis. In the end, she asked me whether I liked the place. Looking at that tranquil ambience again while drinking down my last sip of water, I told her: “I can stay here for the whole day.” On the way out, Alina showed me the university student magazine she was involved in, as a marketing director. If I remember correctly, the name of the monthly publication was War and Peace (Krieg und Frieden?). It collected articles from all channels of resource. Students who did not have opportunity to publish their opinions on big name papers would have a chance to show them in that magazine. Again, the goal was to promote equality. Do I have to say it again how much I loved the Socialism atmosphere in Deutschland?! We finally said goodbye for the day and agreed to meet again when I came back to Frankfurt before flying back to Canada.
I turned left at the Alte Universität and walked up Universitätsstraße before hiking up to the right diving into the busy city again. I went to the center of the Rathaus because Alina told me a paper shop nearby. This tiny shop was opened by a 80+ years old woman. The place was completely jammed with paper works that it was hard to find a square to put your feet in. The collections ranged from postcards to posters, artistic paper folds, paper cuttings, newspaper archives; the list goes on forever, basically any sort of piece you could imagine made from paper. With the translation help from her staff, she told me she had been collecting those for more than 60 years. Some of those items did not worth anything to most people, but with the effort she put in and the history behind them, they were certainly not worthless. I bought an old University of Marburg paper badge from her. I went out of Altstadt to Neustadt via Wettergasse and Steinweg, and kept enjoying the elegant medieval houses on both sides. On the third time I passed by St. Elizabeth’s Church that day, I stopped by the archaeological excavating site. It seemed that there were underground paths built in the area of tens of kilometers long. The site of working archaeologists brushing off dirt reminded me of the Terra Cotta Warriors and Soldiers at home. The time was still early, so I decided to walk along the river side. The lawns by the river was occupied by students playing and chilling. When I reached the New University area, I felt the exciting students’ vibe again. They seemed so happy. I walked across a couple of bridges back and forth around the area, had a gorgeous view of the Castle from its foot, and caught a few protesting signs on the Old University building for equal education. I also came across a graffiti in the old town earlier that day of a barcode with the bottom labelled “Education”. Guess it was truly a university town.
It was hard to say farewell to Marburg with all I learned and saw in those few hours. And because of the friend I had there, I felt special connection to the city. I came back to Frankfurt and finalized my plans for the next few days: Dresden in East Germany, and then Prague to meet Sijia. When I arrived at Gabri’s apartment, he happened to be on the phone with Alina. I thanked her again for coming out and showing me so much of Marburg despite her busy schedule and told her where I was up to after we parted. It was a day to remember!
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