Leipzig

I also went to Leipzig! It's only a bit more than an hour from Berlin by high-speed train, but somehow it took over three years of sort of vaguely meaning to before I finally got there.

Historically speaking, Leipzig is known for being a center for classical music and the arts - think Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schiller, Goethe. Etc. More recently historically speaking, the city is known for its "Monday demonstrations," peaceful protests instrumental in the fall of the Wall and the eventual collapse of the East German government.

I was there to see an acquaintance who's a professional opera singer in the Leipzig Opera's awesome production of The Barber of Seville... with all the characters as insects. Did I mention it was awesome? And that as friends of the performer, we got second-row seats? It was awesome. As was hanging out with the performers afterward at the Irish pub and realizing that out of the ridiculous costumes and great voices they're just, you know, people. Who happen to sing opera for a living.

I didn't take pictures during the opera, obviously, since that would be rude, but look here for BEAUTIFUL INSECTS. My friend is the snail sitting under the leaf in the fourth picture.

And here are some Leipzig pictures of my own, featuring a big train station and an even bigger gloweringly Teutonic war monument, a pretty downtown and some very well executed history museums:

Leipzig (September 2010)