Anw, this is Sher blogging. Ach - don't twin & I sound qte qte different? mm wells. anyways...
Last day @ David's Cosy Backpacker Hostel... this is e lounge area w books & board games to keep backpackers entertained - in case e weather sux... It does look quite cosy yeah? - towel pinched @ e door so that it doesn't slam & disturb the occupants =)
Yepz... last picture of us minus bag outside hostel - cuz we decide to head to the Supermarket to get water and provisions...
Oranges! Many many! & a dog chained to the trolley... I'd love to see what happens if the dog tries to run and all e oranges smash. But then again, in real life, these things rarely happen...
Btw, hostels usually have a rule of checking out before a certain time usually 10am or 11am, else you'd have to pay for that day's bed. Hostel isn't exactly near our destinations... so day 3 was the real thing - carrying backpack around to explore the place. We didn't want to buy transport card for the 3rd day - so we happily carried our stuffs and trudged towards the main city area.
These are the sights on e way...
=) I totally don't know what model this car is and all. But it looked cute - so it's here. Together w this hostel that's friendly with huge labels...
Somehow, knowing what we wanted to cover for the day relaxes us a lot. The feeling of 'Hey no hurry! The city is waiting for us...' Perhaps it isn't... But here's our agenda for the day: "Topography of Terror", "Deutschedom" & "Reichstag".
Across e Bridge. Frankly, I forgot e name of this one. But looking at it, I remember 2 thoughts that came to mind then. 1. Okie... that's Reichstag we see - and our final destination Berlin HBF is visible from here too. That's good news... 2. What's w lamp posts w spikes to keep birds from landing? (yeah... i know... preservation of monuments... & I can totally understand aft a bird pooped on me yesterday. Stinks!)
You can see the HBF station behind us. And I think we didn't grow fat - it's just all e clothes and the perceived lack of a neck when a scarf is wrapped around it. Ok fine... maybe just a little - cuz of all e pastries.. =P
Reichstag! More about this place later.
Yeah I have no idea why I go around snapping pictures of toilets everywhere. I'm just trying my best to justify why the hell toilet entry in Europe costs some $1SGD... No wonder people find it cheap when I price toilet entry at 30cents in Rollercoaster Tycoon..
We went back to the DG Bank @ Pariser Platz (where the Brandenburger Tor is) - to see if there really is a whale in the building... like Mike e tour guide from NZ says. The story behind this is that... the star of Pariser Platz has to be Brandenburger Tor... so NO BUILDING IN THE SQUARE WAS TO OVERSHADOW IT. yeps... therefore when the famed architect of DG Bank, Frank O Gehry, said that
"hey I'm gonna build a GIANT WHALE".
(ok he prob didn't say that... but he's famous for unexpected stuff...)
the authorities were like
"NO!!! The height of all the structures on Pariser Platz and all the buildings on Unter den Linden Street must be of the same height, and have to be lower than the height of the Brandenburger Tor, with all the buildings having facades which give off a unified impression.."
Frank O Gehry isn't one who bends the rules.. he kept to the restrictions... and the external facade of the building... is one of the most boring you every saw...
Yeah there you see? Behind Mike the tour guide from NZ. Ach. I'm not sure if that's the one. But even if not, it does look sth like that..
Yeah and look. There is a "whale thrusting its head into a fishing net" - though you can't see it clearly. Cant be helped... cant get in on a Saturday... =P
I think twin would have another photo taken of this Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe. She would probably have included history/facts like there's 2700 stone slabs to this monument and the architect didn't think it was huge enough... so i'll just talk about how it made me feel...
Yep.. that's my shoe. This place.. felt like a maze. Yet, it'd have been a lousy maze cuz the slabs of differing heights are just arranged in neat rows and columns. But it's not like any other monuments... cuz those are to be looked at. This one begged to be experienced. So I walked through the stone slabs. You just start wondering... should I take a turn here? Or perhaps the next. They look the same. Does it matter? All these walls. Who's behind each turn? Will I meet my friend at the next slab? Or perhaps, we'd just be walking by the same slab in opposite directions and sides... and miss each other totally when we'd just been - a wall away.
Graffiti on the wall... yeah Berlin Wall. It's new.. not from the days of restraint. But I found it quite interesting... :) Maybe you would too.
Does this place look like it sells food?
This is e 2nd floor of the same place - still doesn't look like it sells food. But aha it does... the Turkish food plus butter milk rem? It's from here.
Twin saw 99Euro cents Palmolive shower foam on day 1 in Berlin... so we're back on a search for it. hahaha check out her expression of pure excitement and anticipation. I swear - she's auntie-ified.
Came across this little mite @ a gift shop...Only 1 person truly knows the significance (or lack thereof due to wrong size/color) of this... hahaha Mark, I wish you luck... and happiness. And I want to attend the wedding dinner.
Yeah. More Berlin bears. Rem them?
The pieces of colorful Berlin wall I was telling you guys about... You know... they'll never run out of Berlin wall to sell... just that you don't know how original your piece is.
And for the record, the Berlin wall wasn't really accessible when it was in place - so you can guess the age of all the paint and colors. =p
This IS East Berlin's distinguishing mark. It's way cool. Cuz the secret to "How can you tell where you are - East or West?" is in the lights! In Socialist East, the green man makes a walking motion... and the red man stretches out both arms indicating "STOP!" while in the west... they are... well. normal. Pretty much.
So you know... the East traffic lights are still where they used to be everywhere... cuz the East Berliners protected them from being removed - as a part of legacy. Of sorts :)
A mannequin display for a performance/event in Berlin. =)
Brandenburger Tor by night. I think it's much prettier w the lights...
Ok. This is the view of the Parliament from the cupola - the glass dome atop the Reichstag building - built to house the original Reichstag - renamed Bundestag (Parliament) today. It's supposed to symbolize metaphorically and literally - transparency of the current system.
And finally... Berlin HBF by night... here you see the lights and all....
And then the place got emptied of people... shops close... Yeah you wonder what I'm doing capturing such a shot.
Well, we slept here for the night. Not wise. Cuz it's freaking cold. Thank god for MacDonalds...
Giant computer! Promoting Window's latest - Vista. I think. Well. No worries you can't really see twin, she's there - as with all geog-like pictures; as a comparison for scale.
Here we are... sleepy... but comfortable - sheltered from the cold; at MacDonalds - where I exploited the power points and charged my handphone... and camera... =P
After being chased out at 2am - their official closing (for just awhile) time... a very tired Sher snaps a half-hearted sleepy shot of herself...
Yep here's twin. All wrapped up. Cold. Miserable.
So we took a walk. And discovered... DUNKIN DONUTS - "Baked fresh everyday" rem? Yeah look. Do you think it looks like they're throwing this away? I Bet they are selling them tmr. =P
We weren't very miserable for very long. cuz the walk around the place led us to the discovery of Mac's re-opening. So we were warm the rest of the night :) 2 happy people at the platform waiting for the distant train's arrival... We are off! To Dresden~~~
p/s. yeah I know I mentioned Deutschedom. Sorry there aren't pictures... cuz it's really a very wordy exhibition about democracy... so I wasn't really trigger happy in there. Learnt a lot though.. :) I suppose that's what counts.. on trips and exchange.
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