Ok, so these pictures are in the reverse order I wanted them to be in, so suck it up and just enjoy them! I'm not going to post everything or even a representative sample of the things I've done and the people I've encountered because that would take too much time. I'm doing this, well mostly to satisfy a certain bitchy friend who has been bitching on my comments about me not putting pictures up... take that bitch! haha!


This was taken in Tiergarten Park - the giant park in the middle of Berlin. So pretty. It was also very hot, so it was nice to stop and take a gaze.




Kyle's roommate has a snake - it's name is "Snakey". I wanted to ask the roommate if I could see his snake = "Darf ich dein Schlange sehen?" the word for snake can also have a secondary meaning..... I'll leave that to you to figure out..... We played with Snakey for a bit, I had a mild freakout soon after this when snakey was moving everywhichway and his skin felt odd and scary on my skin.

This is an S-bahn station. What can I say, I've spent a great deal of my time in Berlin, in these types of places. I love the public transportation here - simply amazing. It's so efficient and busy - it really hearkens to the vitality of the city. I especially like the above ground stations - they are so large and open. Underground stations are not necesarily dingy, but they are dark and remind me of the teenage mutant ninja turtles, which isn't necesarily a bad thing.
This is no-man's land - the area between the two parts of the Berlin wall. It's part of the East Side Gallery: a wonderful mix of Artistic and general graffiti. I must admit that I didn't really have a good concept of the Berlin Wall and it's signficance when I went here early on in the trip. I shoud have watched that movie before. Nevertheless, it was a powerful experience to be so close to the wall that had such an influence on German history and also to see the artistic statements that were put on it.






Here is Kyle and Kim and I on the S bahn. Terrible picture, but that's ok. These are my german friends!





Here is an example of taking a picture to make fun of the funny use of English when it may or may not have been understood. Kyle and I also ate a restaurant where the drink menu had the slogan "Cocktails - On the Cock's Tail". So funny!


Anyway, that is enough for now. Tomorrow I got to Paris, so I wanted to spend time today finishing up the touristy things so when I come back on friday, I can just spend the weekend with friends and perfecting my german speaking.
I went to the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe today. It is a very interesting display of huge concrete slabs - differing sizes and angles - yet in rows and columns. You can walk through them and the perspective changes with each step. It is not meant to be blatantly or even just openly symbolic of anything, but it does lend itself to individual symbolism and the depth of the monument and the size of the slabs makes it a powerful statement of whatever you might take from it. There is also an information centre underneath that is apparently very powerful; it has information of the numbers and histories of the people killed and really puts things into perspective. Once again, things like that aren't open on mondays (reminds me of last monday with the Gemeldegalerie) so I was unable to go into the exhibit underneath. I do plan to go on friday when I come back to Berlin.
After that, I wandered Berlin mostly randomly. I took a U-Bahn and then walked and then a bus for a while and then I walked for 2 hours and made it back to where I started. I went through areas of very urban shopping and then through streets where there were lots of food places and then some residential areas and it was always interesting. I think it was the least touristy thing I've done - and it gave me a great sense of what Berlin is like - away from the tourists snapping photos of the historical buildings and all that.
So, enough blogging for the moment, I need to figure out what I will take with me to Paris, I don't even know if I have enough clean clothes, but I can't do laundry now because it wouldn't be dry by tomorrow when I need to leave.
In theory I don't want to blog or email while in Paris. The only reason I've been so computer present while in Berlin is because Kyle has the internet on his computer and his appartment is basically just his room or the kitchen. He also has the same laptop as I do, so it's all too familiar. I will certainly post of my Parisian escapades on Friday though.