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Yesterday caught up with me a bit, so I sleep in later than I wanted to. I tried to cram in as much as possible into a somewhat shortened day.
I started with a boat tour of the Spree, which was great to see the architecture and learn about the city. Berlin has a great feel to it - I loved the blend of old and new architecture combined with the deep and tortured history. I could definitely see myself living there. Also of note - Berlin has more bridges than Venice, and 1/3 of the city is green space or water. That's my kind of city!
I went to the Tränenpalast (palace of tears) which was a museum dedicated to the border crossing between East and West Berlin, where so many people had to say goodbye to family members. The museum was dedicated to the stories of the people, more than the history itself.
Next I went for a walk through the city - I stopped at shops and poked my head inside of a mall just to get a flavour for the place. I ate German street meat because the vendor was wearing an incredibly hilarious costume and I bratwurst on the street had to be good. It was! Along the way I ended up stumbling upon a VW Group exhibition celebrating their 50th anniversary. It was interesting so see some of the cars I had no idea how big the company is!
My wandering wasn't without aim - I was headed down to Checkpoint Charlie to see a piece of the Berlin Wall and visit the museum there. It was fascinating. I'm a sucker for stories and I really got roped in by two types of content: 1. the modified escape cars (so cool) 2. the depictions of the wall and its impact on families drawn by children growing up at the time. The rest of the museum was good, but it was a huge amount of text and there was stuff crammed in on every inch of every wall, so it was a bit much to take in. I would like to redesign it completely. The history is so rich, and full of visuals and stories that the museum could be so much more compelling. I know Germans like to write the articles/rules everywhere, and that part was interesting but I felt like it could really evoke emotion, which it didn't. There were also sections (Picasso's Guernica) that were poorly explained and seemed really out of context. That all being said, I learned a lot and I'm really glad I went.
I wasn't able to get a tour of the government building, the Reichstag, which has an amazing glass dome that you can walk around, which was a bit disappointing. It was booked the entire time I was there.
I walked home and took in the sights. I wanted to get some other German food - the only "authentic" thing I had seen on the menus in restaurants was Maultaschen so i figured that was worth a shot. To my surprise it came pan-fried on top of a salad! Haha. It was quite good, but very unexpected. The filling was vegetarian, but i could taste some of the similarities to Mom's recipe - spinach and spices.
I had also hoped to check out a climbing gym but sadly they didn't have autobelay devices and didn't seem keen on me showing up and trying to find a partner. That's quite odd to me since the climbing community is so open and friendly, but I figure perhaps it's different here. Perhaps it would have been easier if I spoke German.
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mom Guten Tag! Glad you are having a great time.