Der Tag der schmerzenden Füße

Well, our Betreuerin (chaperone), Peggy, was right. We did a TON of walking today, back and forth to S-Bahns, up and down the city streets, and from one museum to another. We met up this morning at the Neues (new) Museum, located on the beautiful Museum-insel, and we took a guided tour through the massive place with a highly knowledgeable lady archaeologist.

--make sure to pause the music at the bottom of this page before viewing-- :)

When we arrived to the Neues (also the location of the Altes) Museum, this is what we saw and heard; together with the beautiful surroundings, it was like a dream...

At the Neues Museum, we saw amazing pieces of art dating back to the Stone Age. Probably the most famous piece we saw was the bust of Nefertiti, Great Royal Wife to the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten. But we really saw so. many. pieces of art, in so. many. rooms, all I know is we saw that, we saw a large wooden sculpture from the 500s BC made by German tribesmen, and we saw the beautiful architectural work of Stüler, Schinkel (a big name around here), and David Chipperfield. My favorite part of this museum, though, was the staircase near the front of the museum and the surrounding columns, all of which have been slightly restored--but not enough to take away the horrible black burn marks or the bullet holes left over from the bombing of Berlin during the Second World War. For me, this period of history is most interesting, and to actually see the War's extant damages was unbelievable.

With my new German shades on. :D

After about two hours in the Neues Museum, we took a quick lunch break and grabbed sandwiches from a deli near the S-Bahnhof. In no time at all, we were back on Museum-insel to visit the Pergamon Museum, home to the reconstructed Babylonian Gate of Ishtar, and many other giant and ancient exhibits! The exhibits here were really breath-taking, but unfortunately by this point we were all just so exhausted, and our feet were hurting from all the sight-seeing we've done this week, so I know I wasn't the only one unable to focus. I didn't get to take many pictures, either, since we were in museums all day.

When we finished at the Pergamon Museum, we had a two-and-a-half hour break, during which Matthew and I grabbed a muffin and smoothie and walked along the Spree ("shpray") River in order to find the famous Berliner Ensemble theater. We were very early, so we sat with Peggy, conversed auf Deutsch, and then grabbed some dinner in the theater's Biergarten. I had a cold Boulette (hamburger patty) with mustard, apparently a classic Berlin snack, and the best Kartoffelsalat (potato salad) ever.

The reason we were at the theater, though, was because Peggy has many friends with the Berliner Ensemble, and so she got tickets for us to see a play by Brecht, called "Die Kleinbürgerhochzeit;" basically, "Petit bourgeoisie/middle class Wedding." It was...interesting...and none of us is really sure what we just saw, but it was a beauuuuutifullll, authentic, Baroque-style theater, highly ornamented and filled with real and enthusiastic Germans. :) We got to sit scattered throughout the balcony, so that was extra exciting. And even better, Matthew and I were sitting amongst a group of people our age, who were confused about their seating arrangement, so I got the chance to interact with one of the girls in German, and we decided to switch seats so that their group could all sit together. So, we were completely confused by the play, and the outlandish physical comedy (?) didn't really elucidate the plot line, but a good time was had by all, and it was a true privilege to attend this play at such a fine and well-regarded establishment.


Trying to catch the S-Bahn back home was yet another adventure. Part of the group stayed back with Peggy at the Biergarten to meet some of the actors, but six of us--the super-tired ones--walked to the Bahnhof only to find that the train we needed was cancelled the rest of the night, at least from this particular station. So, we waited a looong time, chatted, finally got on the S-Bahn, stopped somewhere else, waited a bit there (see picture), and then our train came and delivered us back to the apartments.

One important thing I must close with: today, 24 May 2012, I met my first Pole in Europe! :D I was in line at die Toilette, when the woman in front of me handed her water bottle off to someone and muttered some familiar words: "Tak...prosze...tak....(other random words that sounded Slavic)." And so, naturally, I crept forward and said, "Przepraszammmm...?" With that, I started a very brief conversation po polsku before we agreed upon English, as she knew no German, and I found out that she and her group were from Gdansk in northern Poland. She was excited to hear that I enjoy her language and culture, and she was happy that I'll get to finally visit Poland for the Euro Cup next month. Ich liebe Deutsch und Deutschland natürlich, but Polnisch und Polen forever hold a special place in my heart, so I was thrilled to finally meet a European Pole on her own continent. THEN--I got a double-dose of Polish today--on the final leg of our S-Bahn journey home tonight, the women sitting in front of us were again speaking with a familiar cadence. "Czy pani...? Dlaczego? Moze..." (sorry, I'm having trouble inserting Polish characters in the blog post) Anyway, had I not been so tired and had I brushed up on my Polish recently...woops--I'll do that before the Euro match!--I may have said something to them, just to find out where they were travelling from and stuff.

Tomorrow, we'll be doing a bit more sight-seeing, but it's slowing down. I can't believe that it'll already be Thursday! But I am so looking forward to the weekend. I finally feel like I'm able to enjoy myself and do things, and this weekend we'll have a little bit of free time. I think this is the sensation all of my friends have experienced with college: going away to a new city, trying new things, etc. Throw in a new country and a new language and, of course, it's even more enjoyable. :)

Gruß

-Monika