Tags
Dvorak, Gewandhalle, Leipzig, Music, Smetana, Thomanerchor, Thomaskirche, Tschaikowski
As some of you might have learned about on Twitter, I’m currently in Leipzig, Germany for a 3-week internship. I’ve had a really good time here so far and would like to share some of my experiences with you.
Leipzig is a city with about half a million inhabitants, located in eastern Germany in the state of Saxony. The city is full of beautiful old buildings and home to a lot of old churches, the Federal Administrative Court, museums, parks, cultural places, the Leipzig Book Fair, etc.
Yesterday was the first day that I really had some time to go and explore the city. I walked from “my” appartment I share with two flatmates to the city, which took me about 45 minutes. I walked through the Clara-Zetkin Park, even though it was very cold outside the sun was shining and I really enjoyed my little walk. I was heading to the Thomas Church, where at 3 p.m. the world-famous Thomanerchor (St. Thomas choir of Leipzig) was about to sing their weekly motet.
Because of the 800th anniversary of the choir, the choir sang, amongst other musical pieces, a commissional work by Krzysztof Penderecki called “Missa brevis”. It was just beautiful! The St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig is an all boys choir with the boys ranging from ages 9 to 18. Their sound is simply breathtaking.
After that I went to the former cotton spinning mill of Leipzig which is now home to the “SpinnereiGalleries“. Lots of German and international artists work and/or present their pieces in the different exhibition spaces allocated on the huge grounds.
As you can see in this picture, some of the artists even live in their atelies. This place is very inspirational and I highly recommend going there, whenever the grounds are open for the Gallery Tours.
On Friday I went to a concert at the “Gewandhaus”, which is a concert hall located near Augustusplatz. The Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra of Berlin and the Royal Symphonic Orchestra of Warsaw played “The Moldau” by Bedrich Smetana (I’m so in love with that work!), Piano Concerto No. 1 by Peter Tschaikowski and “From the New World” by Antonín Dvorák, which I also really like. What a great way to spend your Friday night!
During my first week I went to lots of restaurants. But two of them have been particularly great! Both of them are French. The first one is a very small Épicerie called “Petite Marieke“. They sell delicacies but also offer lunch. Yummy! When I went there last week they had two courses, both were vegetarian. I’m definitely going back for more!
The other French place I really liked was called “Maître“. Its look is all Jugendstil and the food and wine are delicious! If you are a fan of seafood you should really try the mussels in white wine sauce. I was in food heaven 🙂
Last but not least I’d like to say a few words about my flatmates, which I didn’t know before I came to Leipzig. They are so nice and made me feel at home right away. We like to cook together, one of them always bakes fresh cookies and bread for us to nom and overall it’s always great to meet new people. The flat is very cosy too.
So basically that was my first week 🙂 I don’t want to bore you with details on my internship, all I’m going to say is that so far I really like that too, it’s very interesting and everyone is extremely friendly. What else can I wish for?
Have a nice sunday everyone!