My two friends and I were train-hopping around the Harzgebirge region and we stopped here because our teacher said it was a lovely place. We arrived at the train station a little after five in the afternoon – not a great time to be anywhere in the former East Germany (nothing’s open that late, anyway). Across the tracks was a dirty, grimy industrial complex, and our side of the tracks wasn’t much better. We started walking toward downtown, but we gave up after spotting a few suspiciously-curious looks. We sat down on bench and I got stung by stinging nettle. We decided to head back to our youth hostel in Quedlinburg, but the next train didn’t arrive for another hour. We sat in a park across from the train station and made daisy chains to put in our hair. I enjoyed it. When our train finally arrived, we passed a teenager who lifted two fingers , nodded his head, and said, “Peace.” I don’t know how great Halberstadt really is, but I guess I enjoyed it.