A wonderful day in Germany
When we first came to Germany about 2 weeks ago, it was miserable. I was hot and tired and couldn't figure out how the public transportation worked. It lacked the mystique of France while managing to be incredibly confusing at the same time. It did not help that I wasn't particularly prepared for the German leg of my journey. I hadn't studied maps, or worked out the public transportation, or even bothered to learn any German. All of these things are my fault. Germany is not to blame: it simply went on being the same country it had been for the past decades.
There are some things that Germany could do better, but they are not meant as affronts to me personally. I'd like to see more air conditioning. I would like to see better internet connections. I would like the public transportation to be connected. As it is, I have to leave one station and walk a block to transfer to another line. This is irritating.
Fortunately, we have worked around a lot of these problems. I found a direct bus line to where I want to go. We put up some curtains to block out the sun and keep the apartment cooler. The internet is still terrible, but we found some high-speed free wifi for our downloading needs.
Today, the weather was lovely and we really enjoyed Berlin. After class, we had a cocktail (some shots of absinthe and a cherry colada, to be specific)
You can see both the absinthe and the edge of my cherry colada. The absinthe was a little horrible, the cherry colada was delicious.
Then, we went to the Pergamon museum. This is an incredible museum in Berlin that has the gates of Babylon, a Roman altar, an Islamic wall... and some other things. The artifacts themselves were amazing, but what I couldn't get over was the HUGE pieces they had in the museum.
They literally took pieces of ancient cultures and moved them into a German museum. It was overwhelmingly amazing. Hopefully, I will post a few photos soon.
We spent an hour or two in the museum and then worked our way back home. We stopped at a riverside bar and had an evening cocktail (I had this delicious caramel-coconut rum thing), while we watched the river flow by in front of us and lounged on some beach chairs. We picked up a few groceries for dinner and wrapped up the night with some tasty burgers and fries.
The weather was wonderful, the night was great. I have no complaints, other than we did not have this night sooner. Our first 12 days in Germany were rife with struggle (perhaps in true German fashion), and now we've finally figured things out. It feels like it is almost too late. We just have a few more days before we go home.
There are some things that Germany could do better, but they are not meant as affronts to me personally. I'd like to see more air conditioning. I would like to see better internet connections. I would like the public transportation to be connected. As it is, I have to leave one station and walk a block to transfer to another line. This is irritating.
Fortunately, we have worked around a lot of these problems. I found a direct bus line to where I want to go. We put up some curtains to block out the sun and keep the apartment cooler. The internet is still terrible, but we found some high-speed free wifi for our downloading needs.
Today, the weather was lovely and we really enjoyed Berlin. After class, we had a cocktail (some shots of absinthe and a cherry colada, to be specific)
Then, we went to the Pergamon museum. This is an incredible museum in Berlin that has the gates of Babylon, a Roman altar, an Islamic wall... and some other things. The artifacts themselves were amazing, but what I couldn't get over was the HUGE pieces they had in the museum.
We spent an hour or two in the museum and then worked our way back home. We stopped at a riverside bar and had an evening cocktail (I had this delicious caramel-coconut rum thing), while we watched the river flow by in front of us and lounged on some beach chairs. We picked up a few groceries for dinner and wrapped up the night with some tasty burgers and fries.
The weather was wonderful, the night was great. I have no complaints, other than we did not have this night sooner. Our first 12 days in Germany were rife with struggle (perhaps in true German fashion), and now we've finally figured things out. It feels like it is almost too late. We just have a few more days before we go home.
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