Leipzig, a rough city

Arriving in the largest train station I’ve been to

My trip to the city of Leipzig started with 8 hours of sitting in a FlixBus, that much it takes from Saarbrucken to here.

I arrived at the main train station and I thought like wow this is probably the largest train station I have ever been to. It’s enormous!

After looking a bit around and because it was 5 in the morning which meant that I still had to wait for about 5 hours till my check-in I decided to find a place where I can stay comfortable.

In the Hauptbahnhof the only place that was opened at that early hour was McDonald's, which is actually open 24 hours a day. That’s a good tip to know if you want to travel here and need a place to stay even in the midnight or after.

So, I had my morning coffee in McDonald's with the friends that I was traveling with. Speaking of that, I encourage people to not travel alone especially in longer trips because is good to know that if something unexpected happens you can count on the other persons for help.

Staying in a nice apartment

We booked an apartment via Booking called New studio Old building Vibrant Lindeanu Wifi TV which was more than great. This is a very beautiful flat that I highly recommend if you are searching for a place to stay in Leipzig. It is situated in the Alt-West on Rabener street.

For 4 persons the total price was 240 euros for 3 nights. For us the price was quite reasonable taking in consideration the good conditions that the apartament offers.

What is Leipzig and why is an interesting city?

We’ve traveled all the way to Leipzig because we were participating in a school excursion which was meant to be about Leipzig and the Bauhaus. We met with our two guides who showed us around and told us more about the city’s history. For example, the fact that Leipzig has been once a part of the Eastern Germany after the 2nd World War until the fall of the Berlin wall on 9th november 1989.

The image of the city tells it’s story. During that period a lot of people escaped to Western Germany and also after country was united again, the population migrated towards west because of the lack of money, so the city became almost empty or poor.

The good news is that Leipzig has been growing in the last years and is still developing in it’s own way.

The youngest popoulation of Germany lives in Leipzig

The main city of the Saxony region, Leipzig, it was also called “the better Berlin”. It is known that here lives the youngest people in the entire country and the city is also the most populous one from the German federal state of Saxony.

If sometime ago Leipzig was one of the largest industrial centres in Europe, now the city is like a magnet especially for artists and students who are re-thinking the abandoned industrial space.

For example, Baumwollspinnerei once was the largest cotton spinning mill in Europe and now the place is transformed into a hub for creativity where you can find galleries, artist’s studios, cinema or a library.

Actually, the neighbourhood of Plagwitz it is Leipzig’s creative epicentre. Walking around it you can find bars, cafes, boutiques, restaurants, galleries, second hands, most of them being opened in abandoned buildings.

A rough city

I can say that the city center is nearly like any other old historical center. The buildings are freshly painted, the walls are clean, the decorations are harmonic, you can eat or buy very good expensive foods or clothes, so everything seems to be in place and very touristy like. Even the worst photographer can take a good picture here and everything would look nice.

But I think when it comes to Leipzig the story should not end here. As you walk away from the center and go west or south things are starting to change slowly. You can observe the real life of the normal people and their movements and actions.

The walls of the old buildings are covered in graffiti or drawings but not because the constructions are empty or abandoned, but repurposed. There is a desire not to cover the past, but to keep it and live with it.

As you are stepping out of the center zone, the atmosphere is getting rough, at same points almost dirty, but still there is a very cool youthful hype going around.

What I saw and experienced in Leipzig

Museum der bildenden Kunste Leipzig is one museum that I will remember for sure and I think that’s because of the current temporary exhibition that it was on display, namely, Peace is Power by Yoko Ono which I highly recommend to experience because it has some of the most meaningful artworks belonging to this artist.

The museum is located in the central area on Katharienen street and it is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10. 00 to 18. 00, except for Wednesday when it is open from 12. 00 to 20. 00.

One ticket costs 10 euros and if you are a student you get a reduction and pay 7 euros.

There is also a free admission on the 1st Wednesday of the month.

Peace is Power

Usually, when I go to a big museum I want to see everything, but this time I wanted to experience, feel and stay more with the artworks and I decided to concentrate only on Yoko Ono’s works.

The decision made my day.

Yoko Ono, who is now 86 years old is one of the most influential artists of our epoch when it comes to conceptual art. The main theme of the Japanese-American artist is the balance of power between war and peace.

As a viewer I felt engaged and a part of every work that I experienced and this is what I love and admire the most in her artistic practice.

You don’t even need to step inside the museum to meet one of Yoko’s works.

In front of the main entrance there is the installation called "Wishes for Leipzig". Here, the artist invites the people to write their wishes on a piece of paper and to hang them on some tree plants. A part that I really enjoyed was maybe not writing my own wish, but reading others.

“Add colour Painting” or “Refugee Boat” is a room where the people are invited to paint or write on the walls and on a boat. Here, you can feel free and inside everybody’s thoughts as you can read messages like “No border, no nation”, “Music is power”, “Make love not war”, “Peace for everyone”.

It is like Yoko wants us to continue and spread the message of peace.

“Golden Ladders” is an artwork that raised many feelings and questions into my heart and mind.

The differently shaped and sized golden ladders made my think of the climbing to the unseen essential things. The structure that starts from the floor and goes all the way to the ceiling adds to the experience a powerful Godly feeling.

“Ex it” is a work consisted of a hundred coffins for men, women and children, the same number of lemontrees grow out of them. You can walk through the rudimentary coffins and let your mind think and fly about life while you are also hearing birdsongs.

When I entered this space I was overwhelmed again by a lot of feelings and thoughts.

The atmosphere is white, it feels pure, clean and safe. It’s giving you hope and a beautiful, peaceful view regarding to death.

Yoko’s drawings and poems feel like home. She can say the things that you want to say but you can’t.

Everything is a metaphor that goes beyond the visible world directly into your soul.

Baumwollspinnerei

As I already mentioned earlier, the old industrial space of Leipzig is now transformed into creative places. Speaking of that, the most famous area in this regard is probably Spinnerei.

Spinnerei is an artistic hub placed in western Leipzig precisely in the Lindenau district.

We got to visit only Halle 14, a place which was renovated and converted into a center for contemporary art.

“Forgotten enlightenments” is the name of the exhibition that was on display. Artists such as Anahita Razmi, Zarah Hussain, Islam Shabana, Adel Abidinn are talking about the unknown islam storiesin contemporary art.

What is specific to this exhibition space is the fact that besides the artworks you can see very clearly the structures of the once industrial construction. The combination of the two works pretty well giving the works even more expression.

Druck Kunst Museum

The museum for printing in Leipzig made me think that I should never take things for granted like the keyboard that I am using right nowfor writing this words because until it came to its invention it took many attempts that lead in our times to more practical solutions.

The museum has printing presses that are still working. So I can say that this museum is not like every other museum where you go and just look from distance at the exposed objects, but here you can see how the machines are working.

Plus, and here comes the even more exciting part, you can make your own prints.

While visiting the museum we were introduced by the book printers into the history and process of typography and printing from the oldest methods up to the invention of computers.

Where to eat in Leipzig

For sure there are a lot of places where you can eat in the city for every buget, but if you are traveling on a low buget like I do, then I recommend you Salon Casablanca, located on Karl-Heine-Straße 47.

This restaurant offers very good and cheap oriental food. Everyone of us was satisfied and happy with the served meal, even if we had to wait for quite a bit till our food was made and that's because in the evening the place was crowded, but that was a good sign which usually indicates a good spot to eat.

Green areas and a sea?

When we travelled to Leipzig the weather was extremly hot in the whole Germany. Here the temperature reached up to 38 degrees Celsius, so it was hot. As we were walking around the streets we were always searching for the trees’s or buildings’s shadows trying to cool our bodies down from the high heat.

Going to the green areas or the parks in the middle of the day or in the afternoon sounded also like a good idea to cool down until we found out and experience mosquitos bites.

There were to many mosquitos in the green areas and we were wondering if they are coming only at us since the other people who were relaxing on the grass, doing barbeque or playing games were not disturbed by them.

So, if you have lotion or spray against mosquito bite you can enjoy Leipzig’s nature in the Palmengarten, Johanna Park or Clara Zetkin Park, all of them being very closed to each other. I think there are also other parks, but we’ve only been in the mentioned ones.

Plus, our two guides recommended us to go to one of the many’s Leipzig lakes since it was very easy and fast to reach one of them in within 20 to 30 minutes of bus drive, but unfortunately we did went to any. And I say unfortunately because after the trip I remained courious about the lakes and I searched some photos and I was amazed by the beach aspect of the place. The soft sand and big lakes would have made us feel like we are standing by a sea.

If I would ever return to Leipzig I promise myself that I am gonna go to the lakes. I remain with this final thought about this city.