So our last day in Nuremberg was just a quick jaunt to Albrecht Durer's house. It was cool to see but unfortunately we decided to take the audio tour. Dear god. It was narrated by some actress playing his wife, so instead of giving some kind of history or something, it was all "I was so lonely here in the house when Albrecht was away" and "this is where I kept my valuable trinkets" and "Susannah! Susannah! This is how I would call my maids." It was ridiculous. There were also about 3 women dressed up as her walking around... polygamy?
Anyway, after that we trained to Prague. When we first got there, the most insane downpour I have ever witnessed rained down on us. My clothes and shoes didn't dry for days. Even though we spent 3 nights there, I don't have a whole lot to say because we didn't really go to any attractions. We did 2 pub crawls, one of which ended at the "largest club in central Europe". So in the day, we would sleep in. The only part during the day that was awesome was the food. It was dirt cheap and super tasty. Our fave place was some weird goat-themed place. Mmm... I will miss Czech food.
Did I mention that the entire time it was unbearably hot and I felt sick? Well it was and I did, so by the time it was time to leave for Berlin I was relieved.
BERLIN. I love Berlin. I'm not entirely sure why, but I got a good vibe from it. Could see living there, I think. We had really packed days because there was a lot to see and to be honest I don't think I could tell you the order at this point but I'll give a run-through of the stuff we hit up.
Altes Nationale: One of the major museums, though most of it wasn't art I am particularly interested in. It did have the original Thinker by Rodin which was a surprise, and some nice Impressionist stuff.
We went up the TV Tower, which is Berlin's answer to the Space Needle or CN Tower. Unfortunately you can't go outside, but it's cool to get a really good view of the whole city.
I did a solo trip to the Picture Gallery in the Kulturforum (and here is where I insert my apology for total inability to spell anything German), which was cool. Durer, Boticelli... the faves.
We also visited the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which is a bombed church. It's pretty disturbing to see actually. So much of Berlin has been rebuilt that it is rare to see evidence of the bombings that wrecked most of it during the war.
Ells, La and I did a walk around to view some stuff nearish to the Kulturforum while Paige checked out a Film Museum, so we saw the Reichstag, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Brandenberg Gate.
The Gate and Reichstag are fairly impressive, while the Holocaust Memorial is a bit more puzzling. It's basically a HUGE expanse of giant concrete blocks. I don't really get the symbolism, but it certainly is big enough to catch your attention and force you to think about the Holocaust.
Also to do with the Holocaust was the trip I took with Laraina and Elliott to the Topographie des Terrors. The description of a bunch of photos with captions makes it sound incredibly boring I'm sure, but it was very interesting. It went through the Nazi rise to power, with a focus on the SS and Gestapo and went through the war and trials. I'd never seen photos like these before, they were interesting... and of course some of them more shocking and disturbing. Outside, a few blocks of the Berlin Wall is preserved as well.
That portion of the wall is entirely plain and as it was during divided Berlin, but we also visited the East Side Galleries which was a big highlight for me, though I didn't think it would be. It's basically a huge expanse of the wall that has been painted with what I suppose you would call graffiti, but it's very beautiful. A lot of it has just been restored so we went at a good time. I'm not sure why, but I found it all very emotional. The paintings were really intense..
"Dear God, help me survive this deadly love"
Finally we did the Jewish Museum, or as we called it Jew World, because it is basically Science World, only Jewish. It's really interactive and cool, but unfortunately we were super rushed so we had to run through the whole thing. There was a Holocaust Tower and Garden of Exile, two more symbolic things to encourage reflection. Also, giant garlic.
A pub crawl! I almost forgot. We did another pub crawl, although it was nowhere near as good as some of the others we have done. I'm sure Berlin's nightlife can be a lot better than what we experienced, but we didn't really have time to give it another shot (no pun intended? ;))
Gosh this entry just keeps going doesn't it? My bad, I won't let 10 days go by again.
So we went to Brugge and stayed two nights. Now, don't get me wrong. Brugge is incredibly nice. It reminded me a lot of a smaller and cleaner Florence and Prague mixed together. However there is almost nothing to do, everything closes early, and the prices are ridiculous. We engaged in what appears to be the national passtime of sitting on a bench watching birds. We also stumbled across what turned out to be a market research thing called the Sensobus, where you sampled a bunch of cake and took a survey on it. It was by far the most exciting thing in Brugge. Two nights was just a little too long, especially when you factor in the fact that we lived next to a moving bridge which sounded a hideous alarm whenever it moved (often) and a vile smelling mill/factory of some kind. In Brugge. Who would have thought.
Anyway, I'm in Paris now and vowing (possibly unrealistically) to blog every day, or at least make them better. Don't give up on me haha. I'm definitely missing Canada at this point and sending all my love! :)
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