yikes, sorry for the two week delay. we went to berlin from the 18-21. it was different since it was with pribic (as in, not for art class), and lafayette funded it (lafayette=money=nice hotel & food). thursday and sunday were spent on the bus; it is about a 9 hour drive from brussels. those days were pretty much shot. the scenery was nice, though. there are tons of windmill power generators (turbines?) out in the countryside, and lots of small towns. we didn't really go through any big cities.
thursday night we had a big dinner at the hotel and then dr. pribic took us out for a walk. we went past the statue of frederick the great and saw some historic sites on the eastern side. our hotel was right in the middle of the historic district, in what used to be east berlin. we also saw the protestant cathedral and the different public buildings. it's interesting there because there are two of each building: two opera houses, two theatres, etc. from when they had the wall.
friday we took a bus tour all around the city. we saw a lot of monuments (like the ones honoring the dead Red Army soldiers, which germany has to maintain), the charlottenburg palace, and two parts of the wall. the first part was a small stretch that was pretty run down. they had excavated below the wall and found the basement of an old S.S. building where people were tortured or killed. the second stretch of wall we went to was the East Side Gallery, which was painted by local painters. it's still in relatively good shape save for a little graffiti.
that afternoon a couple of us walked down by the park and this expo center (that some people call "jimmy carter's smile"). we also went to the top of the reichstag, which has a big glass dome on top. the guard seemed to be upset about my belt setting off the metal detector. guys grumbling in german just sounds scary. it's such a rough language. anyway, we went by some art museums and walked along a canal and eventually found ourselves near checkpoint charlie, which was the checkpoint maintained by the americans. i posted a picture of the sign that was up there. a little past that there were all these guys on the sidewalk selling old soviet merchandise, like the big fur hats and little pins with lenin or the hammer & sickle on it.
the night was quiet. we had dinner, i went up to the room and was laying down watching cnn and just fell asleep. i woke up around 11:30ish, but everyone had left already so i just went back to bed.
saturday we visited Sachsenhausen concentration camp. it was a little cold and rainy that day. it was much more serious than anything we'd been to on this whole trip. the museums were all very well done and it was very respectful.
in the afternoon we went to some museums on our own. gilbert said we had to see the egyptian museum, so we checked that out. it was really nice. they had the head of Nefertiti there (the sculpture), and a giant arch taken from one of the temples. i wish i could have spent more time in there. the museum system is great: you get a ticket for one of the state museums and it lets you into any of the other 60 state museums that day. plus free audioguides (which i've come to love). with the student discount we got into 2 museums for only 3 euros (it could have been more if we had more time).
the other museum was the pergamon museum. it was massive. they rebuilt the entire front of the pergamon temple and had all the freizes from it. they also had a replica of part of the gate of Ishtar from the city of Babylon and a piece of this ancient wall from... i forget where. we had to go through the museum in about an hour. it was loaded with ancient artifacts from thousands and thousands of years ago - just the stuff i like.
that night we found a little italian restaurant. it was really good. the next morning we made our way back home to brussels.
things have been pretty slow since then. school is still going good, brussels is still pleasant. this past weekend was quiet; i think we needed that.
i saw Belle and Sebastian at the ancienne belgique on tuesday. it was incredible; just an all-around fun show. on the third floor of the AB they were screening the B&S dvd, and they also had some exposition on album art, i think. you got so much for your ticket, it was great.
well, spring break's coming up this weekend. it should be amazing. hopefully i'll post along the way.
right now it's time for dictators, though.