Time flies in Berlin when you’re having fun!
I think it may be easier to start from today and work my way back, because it’s been over a week and I’ve just done so much…I’m going to need a holiday after this!
Half of the group left us over the weekend, as we were split into four-, five-, and six weeks, so we had a big farewell party that extended over the entire weekend. Friday night began at Kikiblowfeld, a bar on the banks of the river Spree. The music wasn’t that crash hot so we didn’t stay for too long. Saturday was a quiet day, I watched a few movies with Jessie and Matt, and I didn’t really leave the apartment until 8pm that night when we went to Studio 54 and I kicked off my shoes and danced in the sand. It was a nice night although there were a lot of farewells. Ben made do with his last night by eating two greasy kebabs at four in the morning!
Today and yesterday I’ve been subbing articles and beginning to lay them out into the structure we decided on. Now that people have gone home they are tending to upload their articles so we can get more of a move on with the project.
Last Thursday I decided it was time to get out to some museums, neither which turned out to be free (some museums are meant to be free on a Thursday night but the exhibitions cost, and they change the rules as often as the sun rises here). After class I headed to the Jewish Museum, which shows the entire Jewish history. They have been persecuted for centuries on end, although the holocaust has to be the worst incident by far. When entering the museum, you begin by walking down a flight of stairs and then into an abyss of grey corridors.
The three different memorials I’ve seen that all try to commemorate the persecuted Jews have the same idea – to make you feel unsteady and disorientated, the two here in the Jewish Museum achieve that. The first is the axis level, where you can only get into the new building from the old building by walking through these tunnels that lead to three different places – the Holocaust Tower, an empty tall room which lets in a small shard of light to see by; the Garden of Exile, a slanting sloping array of 49 pillars which the garden grows out of from the top; and the final tunnel that leads to the exhibition. The new building is shaped in a zig-zag, like a warped Star of David.
There were two more levels of exhibition charting the history of the Jewish people, which I found fascinating. It explained everything from their dietary requirements and everyday acts of living to some of the awful things they’ve been through.
Later that night after dinner, Kieran and I set out for the New National Gallery, which was housing a temporary exhibition called Bilder Traume. It was all these artists for surrealist and modernist art, including Jackson Pollock, Dali, yeah I think that’s all I knew but there were some cool pics there! Very inspiring and thoughtful.
On Wednesday night we decided to try out an Indian restaurant in Schoneberg that I found recommended on a website. About 8 of us all headed over, a few earlier, and sampled the cuisine. It was a nice meal but I usually get butter chicken but this night I had chicken tikka, which just wasn’t as nice. I enjoyed the meal and it wasn’t too expensive. We just had a nice time, a good laugh around the table trying to guess each other’s favourite films and other such chatter.
David was up for a late night so a few of us stopped on the way home at one of my favourite wi-fi cafes which is also a bar in the evening and I found out they do a Pimms – yummmm! I really enjoyed it!
On Tuesday we were supposed to have this Tiergarten tour by Jeremy, which turned out to him walking us to Schloss Belevue and pointing to the big palace saying ‘an important man lives there’. Seeing as I’d already been to the Tiergarten many a time I just found it a waste of time, so a bunch of us split from the group and headed out to Lake Neuer. Alison and I sat in deckchairs watching the others in the row boats on the lake, and we both managed to fall asleep in the chairs. Somehow I always end up sleeping in the weirdest positions and woke with a sore neck.
Amy, Alison and I were going to have a quiet night watching a film, but were interrupted by a text from Matt, saying come over to beer pong. What is beer pong you ask? Just another one of those random drinking games that boys like to invent to make having another beer that much more fun of an experience. Two people at either end of the table have nine cups each filled with an inch of beer, and shaped like ten pin bowling pins. The person at one end has to throw the ping pong ball into the other person’s cups, and if they do that other person has to drink it. Overly exciting huh.
On Monday night we went to a funky Blues Bar in Kreuzberg, although being a Monday night the public transport was rubbish getting home and I had to lead the way on a bus, walk and tram. It was a really funky place though – when we walked in they had, because it was open mic night, a guy on the piano, and a guy on a guitar, then one of our guys Sebastian on a guitar, with a bunch of guys sitting around doing percussion. It was lots of fun although quite a small and popular place so it was really hot in there.
That weekend we had spent at the International Berlin Beerfest, located just down our street! We finished up sushi for dinner on the Friday night and walked down to the festival already in full swing. There were over 200 different types of beer from all around the world. I ate a giant gherkin – delicious! On Saturday we spent the day at Lake Muggelsee. It’s about an hour out of Berlin by train and tram, and it has a sandy beach front although the lake is natural water. We were there till about 6pm just enjoying the sun, reading, playing in the water, and generally relaxing.
Better get back to the subbing…catch you soon xoxo
Tags: Travel
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