Well.....it's hard to know where to begin. So much has happened in the past two days, but I'll have a go at it!!! Yesterday we ventured to the Berlin Wall and into the Topography of Terror museum, which documented the Nazi reign of terror. It was a sobering experience, but one that it important to have. It's one thing to learn about it in a history class in the U.S. or even watch a video/documentary about it. It's a completely different experience to learn about it right where the center of the regime was located and to be standing right where true terror and dehumanization took place. The pictures, videos, interviews and documents were such reminders of the terrible reality that is hard to comprehend. The next museum we went to was the Checkpoint Charlie museum, all about the history of the Berlin Wall. It was an information overload, every available space on the walls was covered in documents, pictures, and writing about the event. I couldn't even believe the amount of history contained in that museum! On a sobering note, when looking through the documents of the people who died in prisons and camps under Stalin, I happened to find 2 pages people with my last name. I couldn't believe it! I am definitively interested in finding out about the relation there. For the evening we went and saw the Magic Flute. We were not sure to expect because we had heard it was going to be a bit different staging than normal, and we sure weren't dissapointed in that aspect!!! It was a very interesting take on the story: a giant awesome dragon, snowing in Egypt, 3 sisters killing the dragon with pistols, a green lush jungle with a giant swinging monkey, blackface Monastotos and his blackface henchmen, moonwalking Papageno and Papagena, Queen of the Night and henchmen with shotguns being taken out by 2 bolts of thunder and lightening, and really wierd glowing square cage/ picture frame things. Yeah.....it was pretty cray cray, but with amazing voices and music!!!
Phew! That covers yesterday and now on to today. We started off by finding a delicious bakery with a grumpy baker lady. My raspberry cake thingy-ma-jig was sooooooo good!! Our first stop was the Pergamon Museum which housed all sorts of relics from Ancient Greece and the Islamic empires. Seeing the gates of Babylon, giant stone statues of Greek gods, amazing murals and tapestries, and even a replica of the Code of Hammurabi was really cool!! We then went to lunch at the local market, nothin' better than fresh potatoes chips and bratwurst. The next museum some of us went to see was the German History Museum. It was ginormous!!!! After an hour and a half, we thought we were done with the museum...then we realized there was still another half to go. Needless to say we hurried through the second part of the history so we could get back to the hostel in time for dinner then on to the ballet. I was extremely excited for the ballet, and it completely surpassed my expectations. I was utterly astounded at the beauty of the dances and music. The amazing choreography coupled with the gorgeous Tchaikovsky music by the fabulous orchestra (even excepts from the Nutcraker!!) made for a phenomenal show. It went by so fast just because I was enraptured the whole time. Having 7 curtain calls definitely showed how much the audience loved and connected with the performance.
Well tomorrow we are going to a church service in the Berliner Dome and seeing the Berlin Philharmonic that night!!! What a way to spend our last day in Berlin! Stay tuned for more.......
I loved baked goods!!!!
In the Topography of Terror Museum
Checkpoint Charlie Museum
A gate from Babylon in the Pergamon Museum
The Islamic artifacts exhibit in the Pergamon
Our homeboy Martin Luther!!
Fancy weapons at the German History Museum
A lovely fortepiano
WWII memorabilia
Standing by an anti-aircraft weapon
Seeing Onegin in the Staatsballet
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