Musikalischer Stadtbummel: Potsdam Photo Dump: the best kind of dump

The prospect of writing long, deep, thoughtful, clever posts has historically discouraged me from blogging. There are times when whining as humorously as possible is a cathartic exercise... but typically I don't feel a strong urge to sit down and write blog entries when I could be reading Harry Potter auf Deutsch or baking a casserole (or eating a casserole for that matter).

Now and then I'm more eager to just show photos of my travels, rather than fill the space between the photos with wordstuffs. So while there will be a few words by way of introduction, this entry is basically a photo dump. And proud of it.

The university I'm affiliated with here is the Uni Potsdam, located three podcasts away from my residence in Berlin. It's a long commute, and since I'm not taking courses I don't need to go there often -- but when I do, I really feel like I'm not in the city anymore. Buildings are replaced by houses, then little mini-houses with gardens (a kind of communal living that seems popular here), then woods, lakes, and eventually fields with horses and rolls of hay. The university itself has three campuses, two of which are not especially attractive, and one of which -- no joke -- holds classes in the Neues Palais. Or not quite the palace itself: the university buildings are located in the smaller "mini-palace" across the way. As the story goes, Friedrich I felt that the view from his palace was too boring, with no way to appreciate the grand exterior when indoors. So he commissioned a mini-palace, visible through the windows and home to all the various servants, kitchens, gardeners, etc. It's sort of the palace equivalent of this.

Anyhow, the campus I'll be on is sadly NOT the palace campus. It's campus Golm (the word actually sounds gloomier than the place looks, but it's no palace). But as "orientation" activities involved nothing but filling out forms for 30 minutes (voilà, I'm oriented!), I had an opportunity to walk around the palace gardens for 4 hours.

One corner of the Neues Palais.

Proving I exist. Also, this is my favorite sweater, so I felt more inclined to take selfies than usual.

Morning mist + sun. The most magical combination for treks through the forest.

In the palace grounds, structures are tucked away in the woods. There's a constant feeling of adventure and discovery -- you round the bend and it's like, a gazebo! a statue! a fountain! a Japanese tourist! No but seriously, it's awesome.

An amazing metal structure with mist behind.

Dozens and dozens of peaceful forest paths like this...

... with dozens of shiny critters.

The orangerie: my favorite structure on the grounds. You have to ascend quite a ways to reach it.

Fountain with red ivy.

I think the various panoramic shots I took help to capture the atmosphere. It's basically 360 degrees of loveliness.

The orangerie and gardens.

Artichokes!

As I was heading back down, the sun came out and illuminated the red ivy.

And it was stunning.

This hedge had just been trimmed -- I thought it looked cool. Kind of like hundreds of unraveled coat hangers

I saw this plant last time I was in Germany, a species from Chile that is just so kooky. I couldn't resist.

One of the most peaceful parts of my walk: these amazing foliage tunnels weaving between gardens.

And with sunlight shining through...

... it felt like Alice in Wonderland.

The shaggy underside of a giant windmill.

Another castle from afar.

Strange clouds over the Sans Souci (the pleasure palace of Frederick II, strategically painted to complement my favorite sweater).

Goofy in gelb.

View from the Sans Souci.

Without a care indeed.

Yet another unexpected discovery: the China House tucked away in the woods. Decorated with golden kinda-racist Chinese stereotypes on the outside. Great/yuck/wow/hmm?