Texans in Deutschland: Berlin

So I grabbed a few hours of sleep Friday night and was back at it again on Saturday. The first thing I did was swallow my pride and buy a scarf. Everyone wears a scarf here in Germany (even the straight ones), and I can now see why. I probably looked incredibly American trying to hide my face behind a fully zipped up jackets anyways. Found a turkish shop on the way to the museum and bought the first one I saw. I then preceeded to look even more American than before when I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to wear it, which ended up around my neck like a slipknot cutting off my circulation. I was at the point where I would sacrifice oxygen for warmth though.

The first item worth noting that I ran across was the new Jewish Synagogue. A few times in Berlin I would be just walking to the next main attraction when I would randomly stumble across something interesting. There is just that much cool stuff packed in to one area. This bad boy was once the biggest synagogue in Europe until it was mostly destroyed by Nazi's, and then later on by American bombs. They fixed up what they could and it is still quite impressive.

I headed on to probably one of the nicest areas of the trip. The river seperates a large park from where the museum center and the Berliner Dom sit. Nice bridges cross over the river and people play violins and saxophones for tips. Which brings me to another great part about Berlin. The only person I had ask me for money the entire weekend was a little girl who was asking for donations for something to benefit with deaf speaking, which I was happy to pitch in for. She had a paper with signatures and all and gave me a big hug before she walked off. I can't remember the last time I have been in a city without being asked for money, so Berlin was a pleasent surprise. Also worthy of a tip was the guy playing Celine Dion's song from Titanic on a flute... video to come at a later date.

The museum center was surrounded by hallways made of tall pillars and a courtyard filled with random statues. Of the 4 museums in the area, the Pergamon was the only one that I really cared about going to. Let's just say that I am not in to abstract art.

This was the only attraction that cost any money the entire weekend and for 15 euros, it was worth every penny. Even it was 45 euros I would have paid. The Pergamon altar was a giant frieze build in the 2nd century b.c. in the city of Pergamon, just across the Aegean Sea from Greece. The sculptures display a scene of a collosal battle between the Gods and the Giants. German's resurrected this altar in the 80's with the intent of putting it in a Berlin museum but later realized that the museum wasnt big enough. They had to build a bigger one to contain all of the awesomeness that was coming from Turkey. The sculptures depicts snakes killing men and Gods putting lions in chokeholds. Some of the more famous gods are showing domination giants. As you walk up the steps to the altar, the battle scene follows along side of you to portray the giants trying to reach Mount Olympus, but never quite reach the top. They museum gives you audio headphones that do a wonderful job of desribing each exhibit. They go in to great detail about each of the battles, involving Zeus, Athena etc... Greek mythology isn't my strongpoint, but the fact that someone could not only sculpt a fight scene that makes the directors of 300 jealous, but they did so in 200 B.C, and it is still in good enough shape to piece together and be presentable.

Zeus domination with a lightning bolt

Athena picking up giants with one hand

After I was done gawking over the alter I went in to the next room and saw the Ishtar gate. There's not many things that stop me in my tracks and leave me speechless (other than Marissa), But this thing truly did. As soon as I walked through the path I just looked straight up and froze. I really don't even want to post a picture of it, because no camera can do it justice. The gate of Ishtar was the 8th gate to the inner city of Babylon, dedicated to the goddess Ishtar. Sadly, this wasn't even the biggest one, but just one that they could excivate. After realizing that people were trying to get through the doorway that I was still standing in, I moved along to the rest of museum, which had some neat things, but nothing that could live up to the first two exhibits.

It wasn't a long walk from the museum over to the Berliner Dom. I'm not going to lie, my expectation of the Dom weren't very high, but I had no idea that the building was going to be this gargantuin and this detailed. They began construction on this building in the 14-1500's and it has been added on and renovated ever since. Nothing more to say other than this building is awesome. Behind it is the Soviet radio tower. They wanted to remind everyone of Sputnik apparently.

I saw a few more things that afternoon, including Humboldt University, where Einstein studied, and then headed back to the hostel. Everyone was still lyingrecovering from the night before, so I showered and went out for dinner on my own. Leaving dinner and walking back towards the main street my hostel was located, I noticed a girl in extremely high heels following me. When she asked what I was doing tonight and if I wanted an "All inclusive massage" I jetted in to the nearest bar I could find. I wonder how long it took her to come up with the phrase "all inclusive massage", thats a pretty good one.

In the bar, I got to talking with a couple of guys from Stockholm about anything and everthing. They were there on a friends b-day and had some pretty interesting stories. They were headed to the casino under the Soviet radio tower so I tagged along. We didnt do much gamblin, just shot the bull around and told some pretty funny stories about their friend, which sounds eerily similar to my friends. They do something for each persons birthday that each person has to partake in. They got one guy a brazilian wax for his birthday, and made him do it. Dressed one guy as woody from toy story and made him go to the bars on a wooden broomstick horse, and bought one friend a tortoise that lives over 40-50 years. They make Sweden sound like an awesome place and I can catch a flight to Stockholm for 15 euros (22 dollars). We will probably go once Marissa gets here. I am ready for her to get here so we can start seeing some sights together Anyways, I brought the snow back with me from Berlin, as it was probably snowing harder here when I returned, than it was in Berlin. I will leave you with some of my favorite pictures from the weekend. Peace!