Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Ding Ding, Ding Ding.

Berlin

Day 4

The three of us woke up, had breakfast consisting of apples or oranges, and bread and jam. We walked more towards West Berlin to see the Jewish Museum. At first we were kind of confused as to why we had been previously told that people have been known to spend 4 hours there. 4 1/2 hours later, we understood why. There was so much to see, and it was very interactive but very informational at the same time. I really enjoyed our time spent there. We then decided to find Check-Point Charlie and a bit of the Berlin wall. When we got there, we decided that the cost wasn't worth it plus we had already seen the wall line instead. We went to the Sony Center, the area where Lindsay and I had eaten a few days before, and went into the Berlin Film Museum. I wasn't a complete fan of this one, but I thought the layout and design of the exhibit was really neat. A lot of black reflecting walls, floors, and ceilings. Like the room was never-ending. We found a Subway for dinner, because it was cheap and then returned to the Sony Center to have a drink at the bar called Billy Wilder's. Billy Wilder was a film director and he directed one of my favorite films from the American Cinema class I took at RCTC called Double Indemnity. That pretty much ended our night from there. We went back to the hostel and did our thing and went to bed.

Day 5

We had to switch rooms in our hostel, so it was a sad goodbye to our 4 bed room and onto a 6 bed room where we shared with a guy who we now was from England. We were told by the lady at the reception desk that he was a little wierd so we should try not to do anything to upset him. We were kind of scared at first, but he ended up not being to bad of a guy. He just snored pretty loudly. We went to see the Guggenheim, the Pergamon, and the Communications museums. I loved loved loved the Pergamon museum. I didn't realize that I would be seeing so many things in the museums that I had learned from all of my art history classes. Thank you Catherine! :) I geeked out a bit and grabbed Molly's arm quite a bit, when I saw things that I recognized in every museum that we went to.

Oh and by the way, the bikers in Berlin are extremely intimidating with their scary dinging bells. Watch out for them, they will run you over if you don't get out of their way.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

I need a watercloset...

Berlin

Day 2

Lindsay, Molly and I woke up around 9am and had breakfast down in the hostel's bar. We thought the breakfast was continental, but soon found out that we needed to pay the bartender 5 euros each. Woops. I started not feeling very well and I decided to stay in and rest. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I just needed to be away from people for a little while. I haven't really had any time to myself since the 14th. I took a short nap while Lindsay took Molly around to see what she and I had looked at the day before. They came back and we all took a short nap and woke up around 7:30pm and sat around deciding what we wanted to do for supper. After having a good laugh attack for 45 minutes, we decided to go ask the receptionist for a recommendation. She suggested an Italian restaurant. I'm not sure if we went to the same restaurant she was talking about, but it was still good nonetheless. We ate at a place called Piazza Rossa. I had a margherita pizza, bruchetta, and for desert: Haselnuß-marzianeis auf carmellsauce und früchten. It... was... delicious. And extremely sugary. We got back to the hostel around 11:15 and we sat around and talked and watched TV. Mostly everything was in German, except for 'Rock of Love' which is a rediculous show by the way. But, it was the only thing we understood. :P I went online after that, and then headed to bed.

Day 3

We all planned on being up at 8:15am, but... we all kept letting the alarms go off and didn't actually get up until 9:30. Molly and Lindsay bought bread and jam the day before for breakfast. We then hit the city again to see a couple of the museums. We first went to the Altes Museum which is mainly Greek and Egyptian art. They had an exhibit going on and we were able to see the actual real version of the Bust of Nefertiti. I was in complete awe. I had no idea that it was going to be the real one. I just got goosebumps again. We then went to the Alte Nationalgalerie. Where I saw quite a few artists that I recognized including Rodin's original version of ''The Thinker''. I was in awe yet again. The third museum that we went to was The Bode, which consisted of Byzantine art. I really wasn't as much of a fan of this museum as the other two, but it was still good. By the way, I was able to take pictures inside the museums... don't you worry. :) Also, for each of the museums we had english audio tours. I loved all of the information and stories they had. I found that I was captivated by a few of them and just had to sit back and relax on the benches while the voices narrated. The three of us were extremely exhausted and the other two's feet hurt so, we layed out in the grass for a bit in front of the Berlin Dom and The Altes only to be interupted by a women asking us if we knew english and then Molly gave her some peanuts to make her go away. None of us were very hungry, but thought that we should grab a quick dinner at the mall and head back to the hostel. We chose McDonald's. lol. Way to be healthy, right? Oh well. We also tooks naps again today and I woke up at 9:45pm realizing that I must have needed that... I felt really good when I woke up and then I took a shower, split an orange with Lindsay and now here I am writing a blog. Well... I should get going. Wishing you all well back home.

Cheers.

P.S. Watercloset = Bathroom