My cat smells like Bruce Willis

The night before leaving for Berlin, Julia, G, and I attended Elaine's farewell party at AnonymouS Bar. The bartenders were wearing those creepy V for Vendetta masks so that wasn't great, but it was a chill, fancy place. It was cool pretending I knew important people. And some guy gave me his card because his nephew does sound editing in New York. So that was cool. Who knew I could socialize without embarrassing myself?

Then, we took a bus to Berlin. Yes, we drove to Berlin from Prague. And it took a long time. And I didn't take my nook or anything to do because I didn't know how secure our hostel was going to be so I was super bored. It was scenic. And I slept a little. We had orientation and walking tours on the first day. This is a pretty museum.

This is the Kathe Kollwitz Pieta in the Neue Wache. The inscription reads "to the victims of war and tyranny."

Some guy photobombed me on the West side of the Brandenburg Gate.

This is the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled that baby out the window.

And this is Gunther Schaefer. He accompanied us around on the first day, taking pictures of us. And I felt like a celebrity because he actually is a celebrity.

He has a painting in the East Side Gallery. The paintings there actually cannot be changed. The artists have to touch them up every once in a while, but they cannot make any changes. They can actually be fined if they do, even though it is their artwork. People that graffiti their own names on the wall could also be fined, but I don't think that is as enforced.

I found something that said Faust so that was cool. Only a few people actually commented on my name. Not that I go around shouting my name off the rooftops. Maybe I should have.

We were at Checkpoint Charlie on our walking tour and I just wanted to point out how good the zoom actually is on this camera.

I was standing in the same spot, but I zoomed for this one.

Saturday, we had museum day. However, the staff told us that our museum tickets could get us into all five of the museums on Museum Island, but you could actually only choose one of them. So G and I went to the Neues Museum and went through pretty quickly, thinking we were trying to go through 3 out of the 5, but then we were turned away at the next one because we had already used our tickets. It sucked. But then it started pouring so I went back to the hostel and got ready for the opera.

Where can I even begin with Ampelmann? I am obsessed with him. It was actually one of my favorite things in Berlin. He's so cute.

I had a nice Riesling by the river at the Ampelmann Restaurant. Some brass band started playing in front of everybody sitting out there. And nobody was that enthusiastic. So I raised my glass and said "Na zdravi" which is Czech for "to your health" or "cheers." I didn't think I was that loud because I was just saying it to G. But the main guy actually saw me and was like "DANKE" and I was like oh. But I don't think he heard me. I think he just saw me raise my glass in his direction.

And then we accidentally found an Ampelmann Store and I bought a button, earrings, and a sticker for my computer. Worth it. He's awesome. I aspire to be as iconic as Ampelmann.

I have noticed that it seems to be a European thing to have a really long intermission and a super long curtain call at events like the Ballet and the Opera. We saw Cosi van Tutte at the Komische Oper Berlin. It was interesting. Basically these guys trick their fiances into falling in love with the other's fiance to show that women suck. I don't think the opera's for me. But we did receive these cute chocolates on our way out. And it was delicious. I deserved it after the 3 hour opera. Most of our group left at intermission so go us. Not sure if this chocolate completely made it worth it. But I didn't really have anything better to do and now I can say I went to the opera in Germany. That's cool. http://english.komische-oper-berlin.de/schedule/2015-06/cosi-fan-tutte-2013/1165/#

On Sunday, we had free time. We went to this big flea market in West Berlin, but they were still setting up about two hours after we got there. Berliners are not morning people. It was even difficult finding a place to get kaffee. While they continued to set up the market, we walked through a nearby park and I explored this Soviet Memorial. It had a timeline-ish thing with pictures around the back that I looked at for a while.

Also, on our way to the flea market, I made the best joke I've made in about a year. I should've told mother this story when she asked for a story, but I only just thought of it. So we had already visited the Brandenburg Gate, but we had to walk through to get to the flea market, so as we were walking towards it, we saw a fence across it on the other side. And I go, "history is repeating itself. TEAR DOWN THIS GATE." But then you could totally just walk around it. But it was still great. I crack myself up.

I ate bratwurst.

Then, Olive and I went to the Jewish History Museum. Pomegranates.

Not sure about this.

The main reason we went there was for a special exhibit on Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael that one of the staff at Berlin CIEE described to us on the first day. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. It was done by a British filmmaker Peter Greenaway and a multimedia artist Saskia Boddeke. I had goosebumps the entire time. It was 15 different rooms, starting with the differences in the three stories from Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and including films with dance and all this crazy shit. It was so cool. It was such a filmmaker thing to do. And I loved it. It was like nothing I've ever experienced. I probably could have spent hours watching the videos because I'm not even sure if they loop or not. They probably do. But we didn't have too much time.

It was kind of dark so my camera kept doing crazy stuff like this too, but this was the Satan room so it was kind of fitting.

I took some videos that I'll show you when I get home. I tried to upload one, but the file is too big. The basic premise was to ask yourself if you are an Isaac or an Abraham. And it was amazing. Still couldn't answer it, but it's an interesting thing to ask yourself. Also, I found Ashley Tisdale there. http://www.jmberlin.de/main/DE/01-Ausstellungen/02-Sonderaustellungen/2015/akeda.php

Then we had to get on the bus and drive back to Prague. And we were stuck in traffic for an hour and a half. But our bus was ok.