day 8 - berlin
For the moment, Chris and I are Berliners. But, let me start with a brief catch-up from the last two days.
All weekend, documenta was packed full of people (it only cost us about 9 € per day). For the most part, everything was within a few blocks of everything else and we had seen almost everything by Sunday night, with the exception of a museum that was way far out west. I saw more Kerry James Marshall pieces. The camera’s battery gave up on me at the worst time on Saturday and I forgot to bring the spare. I thought about driving back for it, but we couldn’t figure out a way to meet up again without disrupting the viewing schedule.
We caught up on our sleep Sunday night, checked out, and went to the museum, which was up on a hill at the far end of the city. The museum was magnificent, but there were only few dozen pieces for documenta amongst the regular collection and a special “the art of painting” exhibition. So, we got to see all of this for the same admission. When we were finished, we stopped by the grocery store and hit the autobahn. It is officially my duty to handle the autobahn, as Chris is scared shitless of it.
I, on the other hand, love it, understand it, and am glad I’m only in Germany for a few more days, because driving at 240kmph is unfortunately wasteful and excessive. At least I got to do it before the limits are imposed. After a few hours of driving, we arrived in Berlin at David’s Cozy Little Ice Cream and Champagne Hostel, to be greeted by Adrian, one of the friendly keepers of the place. He checked us in and walked us down the street to our rather spacious apartment that would be home through this upcoming Thursday. Overall it’s great, but we’re still getting used to taking a shower in the kitchen. We have a couple of housemates from Hong Kong staying in the room across the corridor, but we’ve only briefly seen them and I’ve already forgotten how to pronounce their names.
Last night, Chris needed a break from me, so I went over to the main building of the hostel with a six-pack of bier and shared it with some of the other travellers. There was this guy named Riley, who was the most friendly with me. I gave him two bier. He was a volunteer forest fire-fighter from Spokane. There was this guy Matt who was here from Seattle. He had been in Prague for the last three months and he’s leaving shortly for somewhere else. It seems like everybody I’m meeting from the States is here for the whole summer. There were Laney and Francesca from Vermont and some other guy that was avoiding eye contact with me, but I gave him a bier and didn’t ask his name. There was a guy from San Francisco and a girl named Kate from Tasmania. The guy from San Francisco heard that St. Louis was the most dangerous city in the country..*groan* Kate told me that if I plan on going down to Australia at any point, I should make a point of visiting the western rainforests of Tasmania. Matt disagreed and said I should see the great barrier reef because we’re killing Killing KILLING it by visiting it and touching it. Eventually, the conversation was wearing me out, so I made my way back to the apartment with Riley by about 1:30am. Chris was up and reading and feeling much better. We drank some more more bier and talked til 3, then passed out.
Today, we’ve decided to do almost nothing. We’re relaxing, eating new cheeses, thinking, drinking Berliner Kindl Pilsner, cooking up some rostbratwurst, potatoes, and apple sauerkraut. Basically, this is just our time to chill before we go on a whirlwind tour of Berlin’s Tiergarten district tomorrow.
On Thursday, we drop off the Mini at Tegel and fly for not much over an hour to Venice. At that point, we have no idea how we will get from the airport to our “campsite/resort.” So far, the plan is to make a plan before we’re there. Dinner is almost ready (Chris really likes to cook, so I’m not stopping her)..
All weekend, documenta was packed full of people (it only cost us about 9 € per day). For the most part, everything was within a few blocks of everything else and we had seen almost everything by Sunday night, with the exception of a museum that was way far out west. I saw more Kerry James Marshall pieces. The camera’s battery gave up on me at the worst time on Saturday and I forgot to bring the spare. I thought about driving back for it, but we couldn’t figure out a way to meet up again without disrupting the viewing schedule.
We caught up on our sleep Sunday night, checked out, and went to the museum, which was up on a hill at the far end of the city. The museum was magnificent, but there were only few dozen pieces for documenta amongst the regular collection and a special “the art of painting” exhibition. So, we got to see all of this for the same admission. When we were finished, we stopped by the grocery store and hit the autobahn. It is officially my duty to handle the autobahn, as Chris is scared shitless of it.
I, on the other hand, love it, understand it, and am glad I’m only in Germany for a few more days, because driving at 240kmph is unfortunately wasteful and excessive. At least I got to do it before the limits are imposed. After a few hours of driving, we arrived in Berlin at David’s Cozy Little Ice Cream and Champagne Hostel, to be greeted by Adrian, one of the friendly keepers of the place. He checked us in and walked us down the street to our rather spacious apartment that would be home through this upcoming Thursday. Overall it’s great, but we’re still getting used to taking a shower in the kitchen. We have a couple of housemates from Hong Kong staying in the room across the corridor, but we’ve only briefly seen them and I’ve already forgotten how to pronounce their names.
Last night, Chris needed a break from me, so I went over to the main building of the hostel with a six-pack of bier and shared it with some of the other travellers. There was this guy named Riley, who was the most friendly with me. I gave him two bier. He was a volunteer forest fire-fighter from Spokane. There was this guy Matt who was here from Seattle. He had been in Prague for the last three months and he’s leaving shortly for somewhere else. It seems like everybody I’m meeting from the States is here for the whole summer. There were Laney and Francesca from Vermont and some other guy that was avoiding eye contact with me, but I gave him a bier and didn’t ask his name. There was a guy from San Francisco and a girl named Kate from Tasmania. The guy from San Francisco heard that St. Louis was the most dangerous city in the country..*groan* Kate told me that if I plan on going down to Australia at any point, I should make a point of visiting the western rainforests of Tasmania. Matt disagreed and said I should see the great barrier reef because we’re killing Killing KILLING it by visiting it and touching it. Eventually, the conversation was wearing me out, so I made my way back to the apartment with Riley by about 1:30am. Chris was up and reading and feeling much better. We drank some more more bier and talked til 3, then passed out.
Today, we’ve decided to do almost nothing. We’re relaxing, eating new cheeses, thinking, drinking Berliner Kindl Pilsner, cooking up some rostbratwurst, potatoes, and apple sauerkraut. Basically, this is just our time to chill before we go on a whirlwind tour of Berlin’s Tiergarten district tomorrow.
On Thursday, we drop off the Mini at Tegel and fly for not much over an hour to Venice. At that point, we have no idea how we will get from the airport to our “campsite/resort.” So far, the plan is to make a plan before we’re there. Dinner is almost ready (Chris really likes to cook, so I’m not stopping her)..