The last days of Berlin

How many times can I say that my hosts were wonderful? I feel like I have to one last time--they were awesome and made sure I was always having a great time.
After our big bike ride to Sanssouci on Friday, Saturday started slow. We had brunch at 1pm, and I‘m still not sure how that is included in the name “brunch“, but most brunches around here go to 2pm anyways (4pm on Saturday and Sunday)… May said it was because there‘s so many students around this area. After our late brunch, we went to the Pergamene (or Pergamon) Museum, which has an entire altar from Pergamom, and ancient city. And for all you Catholics, this isn’t your regular altar--the Greeks knew how to do it. It’s more than 30 feet high and 100 feet long and covered in bigger-than-life-size sculpture. It’s pretty awesome. We also got to see the ancient gate of Babylon (which was HUGE as well!) and some rockin’ Islamic art. We stopped for some bubble tea, my first bubble tea experience--it was good, although Greg says they got it wrong, and then went to have shisha (hookah for southern Hoosiers) and drinks at the shisha bar down the street.

The Pergamene Altar at the Pergamom Museum

An awesome Islamic vase
May and Greg at the shisha bar

On Sunday we started late after staying up late the night before, and met May‘s brother Magnus and sister Louise to see the Bodyworlds exhibit… It was really amazing, so many cool things they’ve done and so much you can learn about besides the sculptures (which I didn’t know would be happening, I just thought it would be a lot of their famous sculptures) but it wasn’t fun stuff to learn. May and I discovered that after your mid-20s pretty much everything starts going downhill. Yay. After Bodyworlds, we went to the cathedral in town, the Berliner Dom. It‘s very recent (the 19th century) and very ornate. We were able to climb to the top to see the city from the cupola. The statues were huge! Then we went to Greg’s music studio where he mixes and masters music. I tried to learn what those actually meant, but he is a genius and it’s been a long time since I took physics. Very cool to see though.

The Bodyworlds exhibition in an old factory

The Berliner Dom's altar and organ

Yesterday was another slow morning. I spent the time reading and drinking chai in a café since it was rainy. After May got off work, we went to Checkpoint Charlie which has right next to it The Checkpoint Charlie Museum, all about the wall, and started only years after the wall was erected. As an American student born two years before the wall came down, I didn’t know much about it, but I’m so glad we went to the museum. There are some horrible stories, but there are a few good ones as well. After spending a few hours at the museum, we headed to see the Holocaust Memorial in honor of the Jews killed during WWII. I was surprised at how happy people seemed there, I thought it would be very solemn. At first I was a little offended and thought people weren‘t taking it seriously, but instead of being mad about it I tried to see the good things that were still happening, even at this kind of memorial. In the evening there were lots of phone calls after supper, and May and I took a walk. It was a great last night, although a little tiring. Nepal, here I come!

Checkpoint Charlie

A piece of the Berlin Wall
The Holocaust Memorial with some young lovers