BERLIN

thanks to the bahn, we got to Berlin in about 6 hours safe and sound. it was probably the most difficult thing ever trying to find my seat and I asked countless people "scusa, wo ist" and then i'd point to my seat assignment on the ticket. Everyone was really helpful, but didn't seem to know either, so I just picked a seat and sat down. No sweat. I mostly pretended to be Italian on the train and in the public places cause it was more fun. The countryside from Amsterdam to Berlin is amazing. There are windmills and green for miles. Joanna Newsom accompanied me and James Joyce until I really just couldn't read anymore Dubliners. on arrival to berlin we had to figure out the u-bahn, s-bahn train system. it really isn't that difficult once you see how it works, but we had been traveling all day and our heads weren't quite screwed on all the way. thankfully there are maps everywhere and if you ask an older person where to go they are more likely to tell you in a slow, aww, you're lost, kind of way. we ended up staying in an amazing appartment in Mitte, the old east part of Berlin. the tub was really cool, cause to use the shower you just sat in the tub and held the sprayer thing at your face. it was so fun.
anyway. we unpacked, and headed out in search of food. we found a corner store that resembled a 7-11, but that sold alcohol and pre-mixed cocktails. so we got some wine, spaghetti, and spaghetti sauce that was in a packet. seriously, it was "just add water!" spaghetti sauce. we found this hilarious and bought it. it was dece.
the next morning we headed out early to do the real Berlin thing. megan and her mom went to the concentration camp Sachsenhausen near Berlin, but katie and I wanted to see the city, so we parted ways. First! The East Side Gallery. an absolute must if you are going anywhere near berlin, it is a piece of the inner wall (not the real border because of the river). it is totally tricked out in new art, which i was confused about, but learned that it had been restored in 2009. dozens of international artists came to paint their impression of the November 9, 1989 event.

we kept walking past the gallery and crossed the Glienicke Bridge - the 'Bridge of Spies' - sweetest name ever, and happened upon 3 public pieces by the artist Blu (this is Blu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4) which blew my mind. they are huge!
if you are interested in public art, street art, or graffiti, Berlin is the city for you. It is everywhere. and some of it is really impressive and thoughtful.
the center district was next because i just had to see the Reichstag. it had been built up in my head for so long. i wrote a paper about cristo and jean-claude wrapping it, and we learned about it in german visual culture, so i was beyond ready to see the thing. it still blew my mind when we came up the u-bahn. it is MASSIVE. and the square outside it sprawling and empty and i can only imagine what kind of events have taken place in that momentarily deserted area. i can't imagine wrapping something that huge. from there on we wandered the city, no destination in mind, so we saw a large number of impressive buildings that i have no idea what they were.

we stopped in every thrift store we could find, and in a couple kaffee shops and a soup place where guessed what we were ordering. i've never experienced not being able to read anything on the entire menu before. except coffee. that was it. thankfully everyone speaks english, although we tried our hardest not to. my 5 or 6 words in german are thoroughly ingrained in my head and even now i think to say Dankeschön to italian people.
later that night we went on a pub crawl and met up with our 4 other crawlers. i guess tuesday nights aren't big night-on-the-town nights. it was pretty freakin' cold, too. there was a guy named Yal from Norway, a German girl named Simone, and an Israeli guy named Daniel, plus katie, megan, and I. since it was such a small group we got to do whatever we wanted really, and they just showed us the cool spots to go. My favorite was Club Zapata where they had a fire shooter and sweeeeeeet music. finally some good ol' europop. the upstairs of this club was an abandoned artists gallery type-thing, that also had a couple very cool bars. During the day it is a squatters haven, and it still houses squatters more or less legally, or tolerated at least. Simone, as we are climbing the stairs, says "ok, if anyone asks you if you want to buy drugs, let me deal with them" we all nodded our agreements. it was very chill though, and we sat down and talked for a long time in the cozy dimly-lit red bar.
after a long night of dancing and meeting people and getting plum tuckered out, we discovered that the s-bahn was closed. it was time to figure out the metro at 4:30 in the morning, which was quite the experience, but we did it! home safe, we ate leftover spaghetti and watched music videos on German MTV. there are the craziest videos on there. some new, some really really not new. they definitely love Kesha's Tic-Tok though. wow, like every 5th song.
we woke up the next morning and I WANTED TO MUSEUM. so we went to the Berlin Gugg and saw the coolest exhibition called Utopia Matters (http://www.deutsche-guggenheim-berlin.de/e/ausstellungen-utopiamatters01.php) which was such a great thing to see because it summed up the german visual culture class I took in the fall. it put all of the Nazarines work up to the De Stijl and further into perspective. paintings are sooo different in person. it was so cool to see what i had studied. i kept regaling katie with little facts, im sure i was pretty annoying but i just couldn't contain my mouth. after the gugg, we headed off to the Neue Museum only to find that the permanent collection was closed until the 12th of march, NOO! but it was cool to see the museum and the area surrounding. we decided to walk back to Potsdamer Platz because it wasn't that far and we wanted to see more of the city, but we walked in the opposite direction and ended up who knows where, surrounded by little falafel\kabab places. so naturally we stopped, got some AMAZING falafel, baklava, and asked where the nearest u-bahn to Alexanderplatz was.

I absolutely love public transportation. the bahn's were just too cool. the people watching on trains is just about as amazing as the ride itself as well. german little kids are adorable, and i loved just listening to conversations. no idea at all what was being said, but it was beautiful none the less. german is definitely my next language. i could keep talking about this trip forever. there are so many little things about Berlin that make it more than just any other big city. some of my favorite things were the little smiles you get when you say gutentag instead of hallo, the guys selling currywurst on the street in their laps, CHOCOLATE, the pace and flow of the people getting on and off the trains, ordering a different pastry every morning from the bakery around the corner (the lady was so nice, i was trying so hard to pronounce the words and she was very patient with me, and even helped when i was wayyyyy of base), and the sky. stormy skies are beautiful and i have never seen them quite like they were in Berlin. im going back at some point. 3 days was not enough. i will be back.