On the plane!! Easy Jet was not as bad as we thought it would be! A comfy, easy, 1.5 hours!
Arrived in Berlin Thursday night, and found our hostel. Went out for some German beers and burgers! Delicious and unbelievably cheap.
First day in Berlin.
Walking around Museuminsel (Museum Island)
Jordan was SO excited for a taste of America! We made sprinkle donuts and iced coffees a regular part of our days.
The Holocaust Memorial. Very difficult to explain, but essentially rows of unevenly placed cement columns in varying heights which you can walk through at your leisure and 'meditate' on.
My notes: "Rows of tombs, of bunks, of stacked bodies, escalating and overpowering faster than you can imagine."
Piece of the Berlin Wall-- they were scattered all over the city.
The Neu Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum on the West side. Calatrava (architect for the Milkwaukee Art Museum!) and Frank Stella combined forces to create an amazing piece in the main entry way.
Sculpture garden outside.
A close-up of the donut-shaped Caltarava + Frank Stella piece:
The cross-walk symbol is called "Ampelmann." Such a great icon!
Near the East Side Gallery.
Second day in Berlin.
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche
Walking around Friedrichshain
Overall impressions of Berlin: Berlin reminds me of an orange cube. Can't say why, exactly, but it seemed fitting. The food is so cheap and delicious, we ate a lot of pizza, some burgers, fries, falafel, and beer. Jordan sampled the currywurst at one point and I think she enjoyed it. People are very friendly, and also very cool. Fashion is not a big thing, it's more about how you work it. The nightlife goes all night, and people conserve energy on the dance floor so that they can stay out until 7 or 8 in the morning. People smoke inside buildings. Street art is everywhere and amazing. More people speak English than you expect, especially the younger generation. Americans do not emphasize learning languages as much as Europeans do. Americans seem grateful to find each other abroad. Berlin is a fairly stripped down city. It might be the opposite of Paris in terms of decadence. Oddly, they're two of my favorite cities I've visited.
Die mund est weiss. Die sonnen est gelb.
