four cities, two weeks --- berlin, day 7

last day in berlin. boooo! we DID NOT allow enough time for this city. (do we EVER allow enough time for ANY city? (ha, no.))

as it was our last day, jens suggested walking around a bit, starting at the reichstag since it was near our hotel. (yes, totally stay there. it's a business hotel so it's super quiet and efficient. lots of storage, very clean, it's steps from hbf so it's easy to get to most parts of berlin.)

anyway, the reichstag. we didn't go past the barriers but that's fine. honestly, i just wanted to see the "dem deutschen volke" inscription and bas-reliefs. 

it really is amazing to me how this building has had so many different lives. jens told me that one time when he was at the reichstag in 1989 there was a buddhist center inside.

EDIT!!: i was wrong about the buddhist center in the reichstag! SORRY jens had this to say about it: The Buddhist centre was actually a Museum about the Bundestag. Everybody got a book there "Fragen an die deutsche Geschichte".

so it really does seem like the riechstag is and has been, honestly, for dem deutschen volke as advertised.

a quick walk through the tiergarten and we were at the back of brandenburger tor. HELLO QUADRIGA BUTTS

we were roughly following the course of where the wall used to be which meant, of course, that we stopped at the memorial to the murdered jews of europe. i had seen the photos before but, i don't know, i wasn't really prepared for the emotional impact.

a big gripe that i and everyone else has made before but, oh, IT IS WORTH MENTIONING AGAIN:  PLEASE STOP TAKING SELFIES HERE THIS MEMORIAL IS NOT ABOUT YOU.

one last thing and i will move on but i DO want to mention that berlin, ok, ALL of germany, handles its past with great finesse. they do not hide the facts. the atrocities are always acknowledged publicly but they've still managed to move forward. it can't be an easy thing to do and i admire their dedication to making sure these things never happen again.

ok, sorry. back to the levity. right. were you aware that berlin has a ramones museum?

we didn't go there but i am thinking that museum and lunch at white trash fast food would be a fun afternoon. ROCK AND/OR ROLL

you probably knew that the former location of the berlin wall is denoted by a line of double bricks set into the pavement.

you probably also know that sections of the wall other than the east side gallery are still left standing around town. see, past mingling with present with no whitewashing.

we saw this section at potsdamer platz where we were looking for a deutsche bank geldautomat (OMG I LOVE THE WORD GELDAUTOMAT)

idk, this platz and sony center were not my favorite parts. too many people. too many american brands. too much, too many, too loud, too crowded, too, too, too. i was glad when we got an u-bahn back to kreuzberg

to DEUTSCHES TECHNIKMUSEUM THIS PLACE HAS GOT EVERYTHING 

first things first, however. LUNCH. i had a berlin lemonade. jens says this is something that the breweries make from leftovers but, i will tell you IT IS DELICIOUS

also BIG UPS TO ORGANIC CURRYWURST IT IS NOT THE WURST IT IS THE BEST

i will tell you now, we spent the remainder of the day in this museum. it is HUGE

SO HUGE SO MUCH STUFF THEY EVEN HAVE A MONSTERKABINETT

god, it's so creepy but i fucking love it.

you think this museum is finished when you have completed the planes and trains BUT THEN THERE IS THE TRAIN SHED

one thing that made me laugh:  the whole time we were in the train shed(s), i kept hearing broken wear in my head. (two guesses as to why. (ha, nice train is the answer.))

ALSO in the museum is an ENTIRE SECTION DEVOTED TO TECH

we took a short break from exhibits at this point to see if we could solve the puzzles in the kids' section. i spelled my name.

leff tried to spell "nutbutter" but he didn't have enough "t"s.

heh, nutbuter.

FOR REAL KIDS ZUSIE IS THERE

you really MUST go to this museum if you are in berlin. BE WARNED HOWEVER, it is fucking exhausting. WE CLOSED THE PLACE DOWN

by this point in the day, we were all starving so we headed back to the zoo to scrounge for eats. for some reason i stupidly suggested that we try the food hall at kadewe. I DO NOT KNOW WHY I MENTIONED IT I WAS TOO TIRED FOR THAT LEVEL OF COMMERCE IN YOUR FACE 

so after a quick tour of SUPREME RETAIL HELL (you KNOW how i am about shopping. i'm sure it's a perfectly lovely place if you enjoy purchasing things) we got the hell out of dodge and got a closer look at the kaiser wilhelm memorial. it is beautiful.

and, again, no whitewashing. that's one of the best examples of past and present coexisting in berlin, imho.

dinner was at a vietnamese place in the zoo. for some reason they had a sad carousel of sushi. jens wanted to keep it company, it was so sad. XD XD

in all honesty, i think we were all maudlin because we knew we'd all be saying goodbye at the end of the meal. I HATE GOODBYES I NEVER GET TO SEE JENS AS MUCH AS I WOULD LIKE TO *sads* THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH FOR MAKING OUR TRIP TO BERLIN SO AWESOME JENS *HUUUUGS*

leff and i had packing to do. THE NEXT DAY WAS PRAGUE still, he had time for another currywurst before heading back to the hotel.

he says this one was not as good as the organic one in kreuzberg but that he needed to try it for comparison's sake. so, THIS ONE WAS THE WURST HAHhahah ah, god, that is really the only german joke that i have, sorry. :/

TOMORROW ON RAKKA AND LEFF HOP A TRAIN TO PRAGUE:  WE HOP A TRAIN TO PRAGUE THAT TAKES FOUR HOURS it was crazy scenic AND THEN THE HOTEL TO END ALL HOTELS OMG YOU GUYS I STILL GET DAGGERS TO THE HEART THAT I AM NOT IN THAT ROOM check back tomorrow THE VIEW WILL KILL YOU