Roads to Safe Places

Toc toc toc toc toc pause. Toc toc toc pause. Toc pause pause pause. Toctoctoctoc pause. Toc longer pause. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. No wait not finished yet Brbrbrrrrr. Toc toc toc pause. Toc pause. Toc? Toc pause. BrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr yeah I mean business now and I'm not going to stop anytime soon BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Yes, our  downstairs neighbour chose this weekend to do some refurbishing.

It's 33°C inside and 40°C outside our flat. Though I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't actually colder outside, can't possilby be even hotter.



3pm update: 37°C outside, 34°C inside. Huh. I should be outside.

The inevitable was put off by my inability to get to the internet, but now, here there are some pictures of Hannover. I know that I usually concentrate on how ugly it is, but this time I went to the inner city, especially the banker's district, and I've also looked at some of the beautiful churches.



( The view (2) )

The Nikolai cemetery, founded in the nineteenth century, partially destroyed in the second world war and today continuously destroyed after that because some horrible people thought that a great big freaking roundabout might be a good thing to have in the middle of a beautiful historic cemetery. What's happening to it makes me really angry, as does the fate of the beautiful little chapel from the thirteenth century which is now situated in a nice spot squeezed in between a ShinShin eatery and a junction. You have to walk dangerously close to the traffic to catch a glimpse of the inside, and there cemetery is torn in two by the junction and several housing blocks.



( Cemetery (5) )

Banking district with loads of money temples from different periods. I stuck to the prettier ones and left out the glass monsters.



( Banks and surrounding area (10) )

An art gallery, or rather a house of arts. For some reason someone must have thought that a great big chandelier in the street would look good.



( Art gallery (3) )
The opera. Someone felt the need to add a big red flag that says "Opera!" for the confused.

( Opera (3) )

The Michaelis church - it's around the corner from our place and beautiful. I can't wait to see it from the inside, there was a storytelling event going on in there when we were in the area.



( Michaelis church (8) )

Inneres Aegidientor. It used to be a gate to the town in the fourteenth century but was rebuilt later, obviously.

( Inneres Aegidientor (2) )

Aegidienkirche, which is probably me favourite church in Hannover, even though it's a war memorial now. I love that there is no roof and the building simply opens up into the sky, I'd love to attend a service in that church.



( Aegidienkirche (17) )

And some pictures from the inner city that don't really fit into any category.

( General inner city (10) )

Sorry about the length and the amount of pictures, this is probably more TMI than anything else.

Thanks for the congratulations on getting the flat, everyone!

A literal translation of the word "Hässlichkeit" (IPA: ˈhɛslɪçɪçkaɪ̯t)  would be "ugliness". I've never heard it anyone use a lot, but my mother keeps using the word to describe things in Hannover, as in, "Das Ihme Zentrum ist von ausgesuchter Hässlichkeit." ( "The Ihme Zentrum is of supreme ugliness").

When I went to the viewing of our new flat the areas I walked through reminded me of why I usually dislike Hanover and why I think the city is really, really ugly. It was raining, everything was grey and cold and sad, with one of those headache inducing white skies. The part of the city I walked through on my way to the flat are not exactly in the tourist area, either. In fact, it's part of the city's "redlight district", which in this case boils down to a handful of dodgy hotels offering exotic massages behind the main station.

Since I've already posted a few pretty pictures of Hanover, I felt like posting (more representative) ugly ones, too.



( More Hanover (15) )

What we need to do now is find a weekend to move, which is much more difficult than it sounds, what with all the music stuff that Crocky's got on the weekends.