November 27, 2010

Today, I came back home...
In the morning I did have a tour around Kassel, thanks to Kristina and Anna. We walked around the centre of Kassel, and I found out that it was chosen by the Nazis to be the Headquarters for Germany's Wehrkreis IX, so it was bombed and 90% of the city was destroyed, hence the new houses and complete lack of Fachwerk.
There are still things to see. There is a humungous park called Karlsaue on the river Fulda, where we popped in going down Gustav Mahler Stairs (I have only found out the name now that I'm writing it and the oak leaves are on these very stairs). Also, the city is full of contemporary art from Documenta, an art exhibition which takes place every five years.
Very close to the city is another beautiful park called Wilhelmshöhe with a monument of Hercules and a marvellous view all over the city. Another sight worth seeing is Loewenburg (Lion's Castle) which is only a replica of a medieval castle, but still pretty.
Other things I found out about Kassel are that its twin cities are my Yaroslavl and Florence and that they have got a local beer called Martini.
It was cold today, a bit below zero, and when we drove uphill to the castle we saw some snow, and later on my way to Frankfurt, as the train was passing snowy trees, I could just imagine approaching St. Petersburg on my way from Granny's. This thought just made me so homesick.
I was absolutely knackered after this working week, so just couldn't wait to come home, to my good old freezing Russland.
Quite peculiarly, I was surrounded by number 3 today. My gate was B33, and before I noticed that I booked seat A33 for some reason. Also, I was sent to desk 333 to drop off my luggage and after we spent some time queuing to be searched they opend another gate (Number 3, of course) and beckoned me and some more people there.
The flight went well and I squeaked like a child when I saw piles of snow as we were landing.