and then i took berlin

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (any leonard cohen fans?) yes bad joke. anyway my mom used it on me and i can't seem to find any good subject title things so bad joke it is. on the way to berlin it was chaos for real when the train arrived. it was one of those trains with the corridor and then booths to sit in... not good for a conglomeration of people with suitcases to all get on at once and then not find anywhere to sit... that was the other problem most of the seats were reserved. anyway i stepped into a cabin where a girl asked me something and she ended up to be going to berlin as well and she was staying in the same hostel as me! (how weird!) coincidence or what! so we bonded on the train and decided to tour berlin together the next day. she also had a giant map. hooray!
so the first thing i wanted to do was go to a market. we made it to one and found a bank but the market was crappy. here is a photo of it anyway


then we found a place called tim's canadian diner so she took a photo of me with it!


we were very close to the jewish museum designed by daniel libeskind which i had learned about in the holocaust module! that was really really cool and sad but amazing and there was a whacky freud exhibition on too which was cool and strange. it was in celebration of what would have been his 150th birthday if he was alive (6 May 1856).
here is the outside of the museum


this is one of the museum displays called the garden of exile


there are a lot of symbolic elements to it that i had learned about and i think it might be built on the lines of the wall... i'm not sure though. anyway we ended up at one point in the turkish quarter where we had lunch at a place where the menu was only in turkish and german... that was a challenge. but i managed to order a pizza that had mushrooms on it. THANK GOD IT WAS A PIZZA!


and then we went to checkpoint charlie too.
after checkpoint charlie we went to a park who's name i can't remember but it was SO COOL!


they had row boats so we went rowing. and i had to park the boat and did it perfectly! then i did a dance and tripped... damn!
here is my friend (gannan) rowing


oh how i love to row boats!


then we saw these birds nesting


and swans nesting and we saw a heron fly in. it was so cool!
after that we went back to the centre sort of this big plaza where we saw the TV tower which is not really that cool


marx and engles


a big giant world clock


and the berliner dome








plus we saw bunnies in the middle of the city! how bizarre!


then we went to a famous beirgarten for dinner which was great! and then went home totally exhausted. but before we got to the biergarten we got lost of course... and managed to find a bus driver who spoke no enlgish but told us how to get there. that was not so great (the lost part).
here's gannan on the subway looking at photos


the metro system in berlin is incredibly intense. there are like 20 MILLION different lines and two different systems S and U bahn's. the S bahn is really cool though because it goes outside and you can see all the major parts of the city on it! also make sure that you buy a ticket on the metro because they have plain clothes people randomly stop you and ask for your ticket SCARY! we had accidentally bought a day child's ticket so when that happened they weren't too impressed with us. i think the name of our station was rosenthalerplatz.

anyway the next day we went our seperate ways. i went to go shopping on the longest shoppign street EVER but decided first to go the wrong way and passed the zoo. in the background is a famous and bombed church


shopping was fun i bought new jeans on sale (woo) and earrings! woo woo! then i found the big gate that is the gate between east and west berlin


yes the name escapes me now. and the holocaust memorial. unfortunately at this point i was feeling really ill so i didn't make it to the duetsch guggenheim where they had a hanne darboven exhibition on! DAMNIT i'm not impressed with myself. but i thought i might pass out in a museum so i went home instead and passed out.
well this is the holocaust memorial






i met gannan and we went to dinner near by at an italian place where we had the most amazing pesto! and then we had chocalate cake at a cafe which was also amazing! and then we said goodbye :( but she was fun!

so that was berlin. the next day i had a train to catch really early that changed randomly and annoyingly. but can you guess the next destination?
KOBENHAVN!!! (that's pronounced coobenhoun) COPENHAGAN YES THAT'S RIGHT! this is a place i've wanted to go for soooooooooooooooooooo long and i finally made it and i and i had a friend there to visit! hooray!!!

so till tomorrow and copenhagan