East Side

Monday, June 10th

My plan for the day was to see the East Side Gallery and the Neues Museum. I started by leaving the apartment and going to the train. And then I put my absentminded professor hat on.

I had been trying to access the Internet on my phone and it was not cooperating. So I decided to restart it, which is what I do when it's being fussy at home. However, the SIM card I got had a PIN. Which I did not have with me. Since I've had my phone and its maps, I obviously did not have an actual, physical map with me. I got off the train at my stop and decided that it shouldn't be too hard to find the gallery, and surely there would be signs for it. My only other choice would be to go back to the apartment and then come back again. After about 15 minutes of wandering outside and inside the train station, I happened upon a souvenir shop. I went in to ask if they could tell me how to get to the gallery. Turns out all I needed to do was cross the street. Ha!

The East Side Gallery is the portion of the wall which was left up and they invited 100-something artists to come paint murals on it. If you've seen more recent pictures of the wall, you've probably seen this part. Here's my soapbox for the day: I understand graffiti on blank walls or on parts of the wall that are bare, but why do people feel the need to sign their name on someone's art? I saw people signing the wall. I saw stripes of spray paint across a mural. And it bugged me. I feel like the whole purpose of the murals is to make a statement about the wall and what it meant for it to come down. And stupid children or ignorant tourists decide to mar that statement. It makes me sad.

I get over to the wall and pull out my camera to start taking pictures. After the first one, my dead battery light came on. And it makes complete sense that someone who loves to take pictures would not carry extra batteries, right? I settled for just looking at the wall and occasionally switching the batteries around to get my camera to let me take one more picture. Maybe it was the universe's way of telling me to be present and not look at everything through my camera.

After the wall, I went back and fixed my phone and got new batteries. Then I headed back to museum island to the Neues Museum. It just means new museum. This is the museum which contains the famous bust of Nefertiti. It really is impressive. It looks lifelike, right down to wrinkles by her eyes. And the colors are vibrant. It's one of those things that makes you wish you could create a really great piece of art.

I also saw the sorting hat from Harry Potter.

Just kidding. Apparently the symbols on it are some sort of almanac and the man who owned it would have worn it to show off how important he was to able to know when to plant things.

After enriching myself, I headed out to find Primark. It's sort of like h&m and old navy had a baby. Lots of trendy cheap clothes. And it was chaos. So many people. I didn't buy anything. Because I really don't have any extra room in my suitcase. Eek.

Jocelyn and I went to Sushi Circle for dinner. It's one of those places where the plates of sushi come around on a conveyor belt and you just pick up the plates you want. So much fun.