Whyyyyymar

Have you ever had a strong aversion to a place without really understanding why?

It's an odd feeling. Once the initial cuteness, newness, and springtime allure wore off, I found myself bizarrely uncomfortable in Weimar, where I spent a week looking at Liszt documents in the Goethe-Schiller Archiv.

I still haven't figured out why on earth I was so weirded out. All the ingredients for a fun experience were there:

• Weimar is cute
• Weimarians are friendly. A woman on the street actually offered to give me actual directions (which I suppose can be a pro or a con, depending on whether you want to be officiously helped / calmly ignored)
• Weimar is historic: home to important cultural figures like Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Liszt, Richard Strauss, the hotel Hitler always stayed at which remains eerily unchanged today, and Gropius's Bauhaus movement and the square where Hitler held horrible giant rallies but we're not talking about that, okay??? Geez
• Weimar has a beautiful park by the river with forests and fields and nature
• I stayed with an awesome lady who was a great conversationalist
• I met up with friends for a beer at one point, which counts as +2 hipness points and -3 researchhermit points

So why didn't I like Weimar? On the street level it is certainly attractive:

Goethe-Schiller Archiv, where I spent 8-9 hours every day

View from the archive

Walking along the Ilm to the library 

Caspardavidfriedrichism: whereby all German cities must contain a Gothic ruin

Russian cemetery?

Path from the city down to the Ilm park.

Historic cemetery

Giant tree root growing in a grave. Contemplation of mortality, etc.
I'm not a poet, help me out here!

Weimar's Coolest Texture, since 1889

Church around the corner from my apartment

For all this loveliness, the silent tumbleweed-emptiness felt oppressive to me after only a couple days. If you glance again at the street photos, you'll see that they are all empty. Evening in one of the main squares looks like this:

I count 5 people including myself.

Granted, Weimar was probably empty because it's too early for tourists and the students were on break. So the instant the students leave, the city falls into a deep sleep. And then there are the usual oddities that come with small-town life, which seem striking for someone 1) coming directly from Berlin and 2) accustomed to living in large cities. (... quoth the native Denverite. Lest it seem odd to call Denver a large city: Denver metro area population: 3,000,000. Denver city population: 650,500. Weimar population: 65,500.)

Among the oddities of the small city with stores primarily intended for tourists:

Engrish! This text is dollar-store bad... on a pair of shoes selling for 70€ in a fancy store.

Dead things! For all of Weimar's aspiring taxidermists.

Weimar is a city obsessed with heritage and museums: there are actually 16 different museums in a city so small you can walk from one end to the other in 40 minutes. Now don't get me wrong, I love going to museums. But occasionally the exhibitionary complex can go too far. In Weimar, even the depressing shopping mall put on a "fashion" "exhibit":

Let's take a closer look at that terrifying, melting face, shall we?

Whaaaaat the fuuuuuuuuuck

So in short: Weimar is a great city to visit if:

• You like museums
• The students are around to liven the place up
• You are only staying for a few days

OR

• You are less batshit crazy than I am?

Because in the end, my dislike of Weimar was probably just a special blend of missing Berlin + a delicate aroma of batshit crazy. (Featuring: real taxidermied bats!)