Last Saturday afternoon, tutors for the international exchange and Erasmus students at Bamberg University led a hike to the city's Altenburg castle. Bamberg, which is known for its seven hills, among other things, is overlooked by the castle, and it has been for roughly 900 years now.
On the way there, the trail led us through a quiet stretch of meadow ringed by trees with roofs jutting out behind their crowns. The vista from the meadow, much like from the castle, was spectacular.
Facing east, the Bamberger Dom, Schlösser and the crimson red tiles that populate the UNESCO World Heritage-designated city come into full view. Behind those landmarks is a mountain range that overlooks the valley in which Bamberg sits. To the west, the Altenburg looms overhead and smaller, surrounding villages can be seen.
From my bedroom window of my wohnheim, I can see the sun set each evening, and from the window of my kitchen, I can watch it rise in the morning. Until this week, I had not seen the latter, but I resolved to watch morning break over the mountains and fill Bamberg with light. Monday morning, my alarm rang at 5:33 a.m. and I was out of the door and running less than 15 minutes later, donning my 2023 Founders’ Day long-sleeve tee, shorts and running shoes for the cool, dawn weather.
Five kilometers later, I was back at the spot that my sunrise-viewing dream started: a bench overlooking the city. Pausing my music, the sound of hundreds of birds chirping to each other surrounded me as the pre-dawn light slowly became more prominent. As the minutes ticked closer to 6:24 a.m., there were some interruptions to the serene spot - sirens wailed here and there, and a faint hum of traffic came from the autobahn a few kilometers away - but the moment was everything I had hoped for.
After watching the morning dew develop on blades of grass next to my bench and then heading back to my apartment, a friend - a chronic early riser unlike me - generously invited me for tea as rain started to splash on the cobblestoned street. For the next hour or so, we chatted over green tea and quark, and then it was time to move on to the next task of the day. So went the rest of my day, ticking off to-do list items and bumping into newfound friends along the way.
By the time 8:00 p.m. and the day’s sunset came around, I had been awake for 15 hours and still had things to do, but I made sure to watch the sun dip behind the mountain range to the west of Bamberg. As the last vestiges of Monday’s sunlight disappeared, the day’s activities replayed through my head and slight exhaustion set in.
Since then, I have woken up once more to watch the sun rise in the morning, and have seen the sun set nearly every evening as well. Between sunrise and sunset, there will always be time to do. However, making a habit of enjoying the semi-daily scene has helped slow life down here in Bamberg. It has given me a chance to think of what lies ahead with the start and end of each day, which is not quite what I expected to take from my first few weeks abroad, but the lesson in reflection as the light refracts through Earth’s atmosphere is valuable nonetheless.
Gabriel Kopp '26 is double majoring in Journalism and Law and Public Policy at Mercer University. He has written for The Cluster since he started at Mercer, and currently works as Editor-in-Chief. When he isn't working on a Washington Post crossword, he enjoys going for runs around Macon and reading The New York Times or the AJC while sipping coffee.
