Two Days In Hannover

I've spent the last couple of days in Hannover staying with Myriam in her flat. Biking to Hannover was actually rather pleasant, and I was able to avoid rain until I reached the edge of the city. We met in the cafe where she works and then we walked over to her flat where I was able to unload my bike and take a shower. Afterwards we headed over to an antifa demo which was great to take part in. Demos are so different here in Germany. The police don't seem to be nearly as fascist as they are in the u.s. and there just seems to be more of an empowering attitude. People also seem a little more militant and arent afraid to take and hold space. I don't want to repeat thoughts from earlier posts so I'll leave it at that. After the demo was over, we went back to her flat and made a quick salad before biking over to a youth center for a show. We ended up hanging out there for a while with a bunch of the antifa kids and we won at table soccer 3 times in a row (I'm a natural, apparently).

Myriam and myself also talked politics for a while yesterday which was refreshing. I really enjoy hearing different perspectives on issues that I've become involved in over the years, especially from a foreign perspective. It's a nice feeling to know that despite the great distance between here and home, that people seem to be thinking about and struggling over very similar things. After these first few weeks of traveling around, I'm convinced that there is some form of universality to be found in anarchist struggle which renders borders between peoples and cultures insignificant. Again, I find that I am constantly inspired by experiences here.

I was able to sleep in this morning for the first time in a while and then woke up at around 11 or so as Myriam was heading out for work. I explored what she described as the 'cool' part of Hannover, and I'm about to head out grocery shopping to cook dinner for her and her flatmates tonight. Afterwards they had planned on going rock climbing at the gym, and I think I may give it a shot although I have no experience with anything of the sort. I'll spend the night at Myriam's again tonight and then pack up tomorrow morning.

I decided that I definitely wanted to catch 'Ducumenta' while I was here in Germany. However, heeding advice I received from my father in an e-mail: 'Don't spend toooo much time in Germany. France is livelier and sexier', I think I'll probably head to Kassel via train with my bike, and then bike to Münster from Kassel so I don't cut the rest of my trip too short. Documenta only occurs once every 5 years and features modern art from all over the world, so I'm rather excited to see the diversity of work. It seems like it's a pretty big deal in the modern art discussion, whatever that is supposed to mean.

Writing in this blog has been rewarding and I think forcing things into words gives me an examined perspective as I move across the country. I think the part I'm struggling with however is this notion of the record being both public and private. Sometimes I'm not quite sure who I am writing this blog for: who is my audience? I certainly started it as a way to have a record of this trip for myself, but it's become something else and in a way it's a nice way of connecting to home. As this is my first experience writing in a blog, I suppose it will take a while longer before some of these issues become better defined. So long,
-i

p.s. - I'm planning on posting photos of my trip later this evening. I'm interested to see how they turned out.