The second day in Berlin, we woke up early and once again had breakfast at our bagel spot. I had the exact same pesto bagel with tomato and mozzarella and a cup of coffee. It was like being in civilization again! We went directly to the East Side Gallery after breakfast and spent a long time there. The ESG is one remaining section of the Berlin Wall and it is dedicated to arts, graffiti, and murals from artists all over the world. I was able to scribble "Freedom for All" somewhere along the bottom of one section, as well as sign my name and leave my mark from the USA. I'm forever a part of Berlin history now!
From the ESG, we went further into the center and went to Museum Island to go to one of the internationally renowned museums. When we arrived, we were really hungry and ready to eat, but we decided to buy our tickets first before going to eat. Well, we arrived at the museum,
just to see a wonderful line coming from the entrance, out the gate and down the street. We got our spots in line and I went immediately to the front to ask the people how long they've been waiting. +Reason I like Berlin: Everyone speakens ze Englisch!+ A one and a half hour wait? Really? This better be the best damn museum I've ever been too! After getting our tickets, we were dying of starvation, so we left and went to find something to eat. Nearby, along one of the main squares, was a bratwurst and currywurst stand. I had one of the "must try" Berlin currywurst and it was quite delicious. We finished our delicious meal with an even more delicious Nutella crepe, fresh and hot from the stove! The chocolate crepe was so great and since I'm only in Europe every so often, it was one of those treats I'll have to remember until the next time I return.
When we go to the museum, it was in fact amazing, but not so incredibly great I have to rant and rave about it. Inside were ruins taken from none-other-than Turkey! Huge colossal column structures and pavilions of altars and statues and columns dedicated to the Greek gods. It was incredible. Also, they had stolen treasures from around the world, mostly Turkey, but towards the end it was just a lot of plates and cups and pots and boring things that weren't so interesting. One thing I did like was their current work on restoring the original colors of the ancient Byzantine statues. They were quite interesting in color, something I'd never seen before. Lions were painted blue and green and all the statues had brown hair, blue, red and yellow clothing, accents of green and black touched and highlighted significant spots. The statues were always carved naked and had their clothing painted on, in a seemingly skin-tight depiction.
When we were finished with the museum, we were tired (as always) but still trucked on. We went to the Berlin Dome, where we were able to go inside and see photographs of the construction, the war damage and reconstruction and we were able to ascend to the top of the dome to see the great views of Berlin. By this time, it had started to sprinkle, and the city was grey and cloudy. We left the dome and headed to the French and German domes. The French dome was not open to the public and the German dome was some outrageous price to climb to the top of the dome, which we had just done at a bigger and better dome, so we decided to skip that and go to another church. The church of St. Hedwig is a church in Berlin that looks very similar to the Parthenon, a simple round building. We entered to see that a small mass was being held, so we only got to take a few pictures (the inside was very modern anyway—not too much to see there) and leave.
By now, we needed to make our way to the hostel, because we needed to catch some bites to eat before going on the infamous Berlin Pub Crawl. We picked up some—you guessed it!—McDonalds on the way to the hostel, changed quickly once we got there and then headed out for the evening. It was a great night. We went to several places, met a lot of people. Americans, Spanish, Germans, Scottish, Irish and even a couple that had just moved to beautiful Denver, Colorado! I tell you, the world is too small and Denver is still one of the best cities ever! We partied the night away and returned at the wee hours of the morning to catch some sleep before our last day in the German capital.
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