This
time around in Berlin, I was able to see more off-the-beaten-path
sights. I'm guessing it was because I spent my time in Berlin with an
actual German, which turned out to be helpful. Who knew?
We
saw all the normal stuff. Siegesäule,
Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, Fernsehturm.
Checkpoint
Charlie was the most disappointing sight of the entire trip. It's
literally a ticket booth in the middle of the street. There's a
McDonald's next door. I was expecting the gateway between East and
West to have a little more...show, more ummph, more anything. I mean
for god's sake that TV antenna on Alexanderplatz at least has laserlights. Play some disco music, get some strippers, pass out T-shirts,
something. If you go to Berlin, skip Checkpoint Charlie.
We
spent some time checking out the main drags of Berlin. Unter den
Linden and Friedrichstraße
were
interesting but very very pricy. There was a Volkswagen store and I got a sneak peak of the new VW
Beetle though, hot off the line!
The
diplomatic quarter was also fun to see. We killed a good hour here
because I wanted to find the Mexican Embassy. See, the picture on the
internet of the Embassy showed it with an enormous fence around it,
and honestly, I sort of wanted to get arrested as an American trying
to break into Mexico. (Un)luckily, we never found it. There were
tons of other political jokes running through my head. I really
hoped the United Arab Emirates' Embassy would have a fountain of
crude oil. No dice. Also, I have to say, India's embassy puts the
other to utter shame.
We
spent Sunday at the Pergamon Museum, and it was exceptional. The
Pergamon has a bunch of stuff from Mesopotamia. It's got the Ishtar
Gate, a Codex of Hammurabi, and the entire city of
Pergamon from Turkey. It was really fulfilling to see these things
because I'd learned so much about them. We spent essentially the
first semester of Humanities Class in high school on Mesopotamia. I
also forced us to go to the Botanical Garden and I geeked out there a
whole bunch.
Oranienstraße
was something that my
German friend wanted to see because he heard it was popular, but he
freely admitted that he didn't know why. This was unexpectedly my
favorite place we saw....other than the Pergamon. Oranienstraße
started off boring and then slowly we started to see Turkish shops,
and then Vietnamese shops, and then art shops. There was also a fair
amount of homeless people and graffiti and drunk people in between. My
accomplice for the trip got sort of edgy during this phase. I joked
about renting an apartment there. He didn't laugh. I don't have any
pictures of Oranienstraße
because I was pretty sure that if I took out my camera, I would be
mugged. This area reminded me why I like Berlin. The street is really gritty (filthy) and diverse (poor)
and so alive with people (drunk). I really liked it though and I
would love to go back...in the daylight.
So
that's it for Berlin, Part II. I'm certain I'll end up back there at
some point, but I won't bore you with a third story.
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