Hallo!

Man today was amazing!  It definitely turned up like I had hoped it would.  I started off early in the morning around 800 and headed into Mitte, the area of Berlin that was east of the wall.  There was tons of stuff to do there so I figured I would spend the day there.

I started off by checking out the Brandenburger tor. It is basicallz a gate that survived WWII bombing attacks from the allies.  It was blocked off by the Berlin wall and was literally a gate to nowhere.  Now it has been mostly restored and provides a memorial for people to remember their relatives or friends who have tried to pass into the west side through the Berlin wall.  It was beautiful and the weather was great.  I walked on to find the Reichstag, Berlins capital building.  It was an amazing stucture with a large glass dome in the middle so that people could walk up and see a 360 degree view of the city from above.  I didnt walk up because the lines were insanely long.  I walked down the street where the Berlin wall used to be and saw a ton of memorials and pictures of people who had tried to escape.  I passed by the Sony Center which was a nice architectural building but not exciting at all.  I kept walking along and ran into a Hägen daz ice cream place so I had to grab a cone of coffee ice cream even though it was 900 in the morning!  I finally hit Niederkirchnerstrasse where a large chunk of the Berlin wall still remains.  Also nearby was the open-air museum dedicated to those who lost their lives on the east and west side of the wall.  It was a very emotional scene.  I saw older people in groups taking guided tours and nodded solemnly long with whatever the tour guide said.  I dont understand any german at all but I got the feeling that they were all really moved.  I hit up Under Den Linden street which is the main street (kinda like King street in Honolulu or Kalakaua avenue actually).  I passed by the university and its library.  I wanted to go inside the library just to check it out but the man at the door was very adament about me needing a membership card.  I didnt know libraries could be so exclusive!  I ate at the universitys cafeteria.  Had a sandwich and some milk. The milk tasted really weird, kinda sweet!  It was interesting and made the lunch much better!

I went to a Berlin Opera! How cool!

I finally hit my main destination: the Museum Island.  Complete with the Pergamon Museum, Alte Nationalgalerie, altes museum, and Bode Museum.  The Altes Museum had ancient roman stuff from Greece so I was rather unimpressed understandably.  I headed on to the Pergamon Museum.  It too had roman ruins but this was different.  They had basically transplanted an entire temple into the museum!  These ruins were from Pergamon in modern day Turkey.  It was soo cool to see entire facades in the museum, just like in the British Museum but better! They also had an Islamic area and that was neat to see as well.  Some of the facades were over 60 feet tall!

The Nationalgalerie was nice and had some impressive paintings and sculptures bz people like Donatello, Monet, and others that I cant remember now.

I also saw the Berlinder Dom.  Its a protestant church that survived the war and underwent some restoration.  It was HUGE and really really beautiful.  There were tons of sculptures lining the roof tops and the side domes...so impressive.  I went on to see the Berlin Rathaus where they make legislation and the Marienkirche, which is a gothic church that largely survived WWII.

I had pretty much finished what I had planned for the day and it was onlz 1730.  I headed back to the Staatsoper, an opera house.  They were playing madama Butterfly.  I asked about seats and they were REALLy expensive.  I figured I would go back .5 hr before the show to see if they would reduce their prices.  I found dinner at a local store, just a fish sandwich.  I had a currywurst for dinner last night and it was soooo good.  But all I could see was heartattack written all over it.  Such high cholesterol but soooo tasty.  I went back to the opera house and scored a great seat on the second balcony for 17 euros!  I walked in and immediately realized that I was underdressed for the occasion.  I was still wearing my blue jersey top with khaki pants.  ALL guys were wearing suits, and all women were wearing elegant dresses....oops!  I got tons of bad looks and the people sitting next to me were obviously displeased with my dress.  Oh well, I stuck out like a sore thumb, but isnt that how most American tourists do it?

The singing was amazing and the theater was beautiful.  The story was basically about a japanese lady and an american soldier who fall in love with each other.  The american goes off to war and finds another lady for his wife.  The japanese lady commits suicide in old-style fashion and the american man feels sorry.  I know its a very crude re-telling of the story but you have to understand that it was sung in Latin and the subtitles were in German!  I had no clue what was going on.  When people laughed, I laughed.  I didnt even know when to clap!

The bottom line is that it was a great show and I had a great time.  I went to a Berlin Opera!  How cool!  Well mz internet cafe that I am in is starting to close down and I have to still upload pictures...  Going to prague tomorrow, bye all!  crap, no time to upload pictures...maybe manana.