Berlin: Part 2

The second day in Berlin, Kim and I woke up and took a cold shower!! The staff had “fixed” the water temperature, and by that I mean it was cold instead of hot Luckily this is exactly what we wanted, especially after sleeping in 100 degree room with 8 other people, so we were happy.

Since it wasn't as unbearably hot as the day before (yet), we decided to take advantage of the manageable temperature and head to the East Side Gallery. This is a section of the Berlin Wall that has since been covered in murals symbolizing freedom, and is the longest outdoor gallery in the world, about a mile long. Perhaps you'll recognize its most famous mural, The Kiss:



After walking the entire gallery, Kim and I grabbed an S-bahn to the Jewish Museum. The Jewish Museum has enough exhibits and activities to last an entire trip to Berlin, it was ridiculous. The building itself was very interesting and symbolic, and there were plaques throughout the museum explaining its symbolism. On top of that there is floor after floor of museum exhibits covering not just the Holocaust, but the entire history of Judaism and modern-day Judaism. A lot of the exhibits were interactive, which was nice because walking through museums just reading plaques and looking at artifacts can get tiring (although they have that, too). Kim and I spent a good chunk of the day there, but eventually we needed food so we dragged ourselves out of the air conditioning and found some nourishment.

After refueling, we headed over to Checkpoint Charlie, everyones favorite gateway into East Berlin. There were actually 3 checkpoints, Checkpoint A, B and C, but Checkpoint C(harlie) was the most famous because it's where the American tourists would pass through.





We went into the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which detailed the myriad ways people escaped from East Berlin, by going over, under or around the wall. They had some cars or other things people used to hide in to get past the checkpoint guards, which were interesting to see. There was a TON of information in the museum, and I would have liked to see/read more than I did, but it was too hot to stay long. Most of the museum is on the second floor of the building, and it was packed with people. It was 100 degrees outside, and packed with people, few open windows and even fewer fans it was sweltering, so we eventually gave up and left :(

Next up we went somewhere that we KNEW would be air conditioned – a chocolate store! Good ol' Rick Steves had recommended Fassbender & Rausch, Europe's largest chocolate store. They sell 250 different kinds of truffle and candy on a 55-food long buffet, so we stopped by and, because we didn't want to be RUDE, we bought a couple truffles each- you know, just to be polite.



Post-chocolate consumption, we headed over to the Potsamer Plaza theatre, because they were advertising a live production of Dirty Dancing and I had to at least TRY to see it.



I asked about tickets for that night's show, and they had some! And then I bought them!




The show was fantastic. The dialogue was entirely in German, which wasn't too surprising considering we were in Germany. Because I <3 Dirty Dancing I already knew what was going on in almost every scene, but poor Kim isn't as well-versed in Swazie and had a harder time following it :( At the intermission I translated the first half for her, and told her what would happen in the second, but at least she could still enjoy the dancing :D Unfortunately, the male lead wasn't anywhere near as hot as Patrick Swazie circa 1987, but the female lead did look a lot like Jennifer Gray. The whole thing was fantastic, and you should fly to Berlin and see it right now.