Therapy

Berlin is huge. Today it still felt like we had so much to do and see.

First we went to the Eastside Gallery. This is the longest stretch still remaining of the original Berlin Wall, and has been turned into an outdoor mural. It is the longest/biggest outdoor art exhibit in the world I think. Over a hundred artists from around the world were invited to paint on sections of the wall. So every 10 meters or so there is a new "work of art". The messages and pictures and colors used by the artists were really inspiring to me. It was amazing how uplifting art felt after all that we've seen this week. Kind of like art therapy. It was also really neat to see which countries the artists were from. You could tell by the words on their art pieces or by their signature at the bottom. It was a really great exhibit and it took us about an hour and a half to really go through and walk the whole 1.3 km of beautifully painted wall.

Then we went to a bombed out church that has been left as a reminder of the war. However, this was a huge disappointment and not what either of us were expecting at all. You couldn't really tell what had been damaged by a bomb except that the top was...not a top. It was just a jagged spike that was much, much shorter and uglier than it should have been. But the inside was totally cleaned up and turned into a mini-museum / postcard shop. So we didn't spent a lot of time here, and considered our score for the day 1 win and 1 loss.

The bombed out church is right next to the Tiergarten, which is the largest green space in Berlin. It used to be the old royal hunting grounds but now it's just a big park. The Tiergarten surrounds the Victory Tower, which is a huge pillar with a statue of Victoria, goddess of victory, on top. The Tiergarten was very green and very pretty, but...we've seen a lot of gardens, so it wasn't anything super spectacular. When we got to the Victory Tower, we found that it was completely covered up for reconstruction. The whole base, the huge pillar, and the statue - you just couldn't see any of it! Kind of a bummer. Now the score for the day was 1-2.

I had heard from multiple people to go visit the Charlottenburg castle gardens. We visisted the Schloss (Castle) Nympehburg gardens in Munich and I wasn't that impressed, but I love to take people up on their recommendations. And let's be honest, we had a day pass, so I was determined to get my freaking money's worth. So Laura agreed to come with me to the castle gardens. It turned out to be gorgeous!!! I am so glad that we went there. Unlike some of the other gardens we've seen, most of the trees were kept fairly close to the ground, so it was really easy to see all the beautiful flowers. It was sunny out, so the layout of grass and flowers with the fountain spraying was a wonderful way to counteract the disappointing church and Victory Tower. We sat by the fountain a while and later walked through the gardens and around this lake in the middle. It was a very pleasant stroll, and we were feeling much better about bumping the score for the day up to 2-2. At least we weren't losing anymore.

In a good mood from a day of art and color and fresh, clean, manicured nature, we headed back to Steph's...of course stopping for another gyro for dinner. I can't get over how good and how cheap they are! It's really difficult to tear myself away from that little shop, especially considering that in a few days I'll probably never have another gyro as good, as huge, and as cheap as these.

We ate back at Steph's place and chatted with her. We decided we were going to go out for a girls' cocktail night, but when Laura and Steph both got on their computers I assumed it would be a while til we left. So, with nothing else to do and somehow being permanently exhausted I took a fantastic after dinner nap. I got up at 10 and that's when we headed out to go see some Berlin nightlife!

I feel like a lot of travelers are super focused on nightlife, i.e. getting trashed and going clubbing - but I'm not really about either of those things, at home or traveling. So for me, fun nightlife means finding a good bar or two, having some nice drinks or beers, people watching, and being able to talk with whoever I'm with. I love to see all the lights and commotion, but I don't like dressing up skankily in freezing weather to go to a place with overpriced drinks where it's too loud to have a conversation. I just don't get the appeal of that.

Steph studies fashion, so while Laura and I looked scrubby (as always), Steph dressed up to the nines and put us both to shame. In other words, she dressed nice enough to make up for how shabby we looked :) She is so cute with her outfits!!! Her shoes matched her clutch and her belt and it's so fun to watch people get all dressed up. Also, she is the best person at walking in high heels that I think I've ever seen...she practically doesn't wear normal (flat) shoes. It's impressive.

Berlin is having a Karnival Der Kultures (Culture Carnival) this weekend (I told you, our timing is serioulsy awesome) so we first went to go see that at night time! It REALLY reminded me of being at Seattle Center for Bite of Seattle or something. There were tons of food booths from all sorts of countries set up. There were also a lot of different cocktail bars set up since it's legal to drink on the streets and/or on public transportation here. The bars all had different country themes too. Then there was music playing on a few scattered stages, as well as hundreds of vendors from all over the world selling knicknacks that I've seen somewhere between Asia, India, and Africa. It was really cool to be able to pass by vendors and be like, "oh, that looks and smells good, but I had the REAL thing in the REAL country!" I was impressed with how many things I could actually say that about. French crepes, Belgian waffles, Ukranian borscht, South African biltong (beef jerky), Indian curry...so that was really fun :)

After about an hour of wandering through the culture carnival, it started to close down and we went to another part of town and found a bar to sit at. This is where we got into our ultra girl talk conversation complete with cocktails. We were sitting outside on a cafe, able to watch the local prostitutes walk the streets and people wandering in and out of clubs and bars across the street. It was a very happening area with a good Friday night atmosphere. By the time we'd each finished sipping two cocktails (neither of which impressed me, I think I should stick to beer and wine), it somehow was like 3 or 330 in the morning! I have no clue where the time went!

By the time we made it home on the slow public transportation during the normal-people-sleeping-hours, it was around 430 or 5. Crazy. But I guess it's typical of us to have one ridiculously late night in every country :) It was also a lot of fun to hang out with our host for the whole evening since she's been at University most of this week and hasn't been able to spend too much time with us. So all in all, it was a great night!


Quotes:
"You know when the alcohol.....(makes claw motions with hands)..." - Steph, trying to explain that her cocktails had 'snuck' up on her - hahaha. That is going to be an inside joke that crosses the Pacific for sure. Too funny!