More Time

A few days after Prague, we finally got the chance to enter the Reichstag. Since day one, we had tried several times to enter, but for security reasons, you had to make reservations. Sarah had previously emailed them but was denied, so finally, she talked to Gabrielle, my studio professor, and she pulled some strings and got us in. We spent the first 45 minutes going through security screenings and then sitting through some informational lecture about Reichstag (I fell alseep). At last, we got to go up into the dome, designed by Lord Norman Foster. The center "cone" covered in mirrors brings light down into the building while a shading device tracks the sun and controls how much light gets into the dome. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day out, but nonetheless, it was awesome to experience. When we finished, it was back to studio.

After countless hours of AutoCAD, several energy drinks, and pulling all-nighter after all-nighter, the day of final crit had arrived... and I slept through most of it. But don't worry; I stayed awake for my presentation. Overall the entire class had decent critiques, but again, pretty much every person was sleeping if he/she wasn't presenting.

After sitting through 20 presentations, studio was officially over. Most of the class booked it over to our favorite burger joint, Burgermeister. It's located underneath U-Bahn tracks (right by Schlesisches Tor), and it used to be an old public restroom. We indulged in burgers and fries and beer before heading back home.

While everybody else passed out for the night, I decided to make the most out of my time left in Berlin. I met up with Tess (the girl I met on our flight to Madrid back in February) at a bar called Tante Lisbeth close to our apartments. This wasn't the typical bar that I was expecting. When I walked in, there were people swing dancing all over the floor! Turns out, you can take swing dancing lessons here (which is what Tess was doing beforehand). The whole night, I drank my beer and watched people dance around me as I listened to the sounds of Duke Ellington and the like. It was a fun night, and I'm glad I got to rendezvous with Tess before departing. On my walk home, I walked through the most shady area (oooooops). At one point, some guy asked me (in German) for tissues, but of course I didn't understand him until he made the hand-motion of blowing his nose... and then I noticed his hands were bloody. I can only hope that he had a bloody nose and needed a tissue to clean his hands... And then as I walked faster, I passed by a bonfire with maybe 50 homeless people... eeeek! But have no fear, I made it home in one piece. Just don't tell my parents.

After the dark clouds of final crit passed, we only had two days left in Berlin. On Wednesday, we all had to go to studio and clean everything up. If you're not an architecture student and have never been one, you would not believe what a dump studio turns into. Sheets of chipboard and cardboard are all over the floor and walls, sticks of basswood scattered around as if the big bad wolf had come and blown all the houses down, supplies like straight-edges and glue and blades are found in the most random spots... it took a couple hours, but we finally left studio the way we found it.
Afterward, we made our way to "soup lady" to take a group photo, went a few steps down to the print shop to take a group photo and shots of tequila, printed the photos and signed them, and said our goodbyes. Somewhere in between, I managed to record a very brief and distracted acceptance video for the Wentworth Bowl. I'm willing to bet that 75% of Wentworth doesn't even know what that even is...

In the afternoon, a few of us went to East Side Gallery, the longest remaining strip of the Berlin wall. The east side of the wall has several paintings done by a variety of artists from all over the world. We spent a while walking along the wall, admiring the paintings. It's pretty crazy to think that only 22 years ago, Berlin was completely different. A whole generation (my generation, actually) has grown up without knowing what east and west Berlin were.

Somehow, after walking along the wall, we found ourselves at Burgermeister once again. It just so happened to be conveniently located nearby! We had our final burgers and chili cheese fries (oh, how I miss the cheese fries) and departed with a full stomach.

A couple of us decided to go souvenir shopping (of course we left it until the final days to buy Berlin souvenirs) over by the Brandenburg Gate. To my surprise, Unter den Linden was in full bloom! It felt like just yesterday that I was walking under gray skies and leafless linden trees... it's hard to say goodbye to Berlin when the weather's beautiful and the trees are green.

At night, we all celebrated by drinking Germany's cheap (79 Euro cents for .5 liters!!) beer and attempting to pack all of our scheisse back into our bags.
Actually, here's a funny story. When we were in Switzerland, I bought a cow horn that's surprisingly loud for its size. While I was packing it into my suitcase, one of the guys decided to blow the horn into the stairwell (and everything echoes in the stairwell). It lasted for a good 20 seconds before he-who-will-not-be-named came back into our apartment. Next thing you hear... everybody's doors open up and everybody's asking questions. Some of the girls were freaking out, thinking the noise was a girl screaming bloody murder. Meanwhile, we're all dying of laughter in my apartment.

The next day, we all slept in before getting up to clean our apartments. Rolf and the "housemaster" (landlord) both came by to check everybody's apartments and return our 50 Euro deposits. Meanwhile, Jeri, Sarah, and I were trying to eat the remainder of our food (we weren't very successful). They made crepes for our favorite boys while I lounged around for a while.

I finally mustered up the motivation to bring all of my plastic and glass bottles to Kaiser's to recycle. I ended up with 5 Euros, which barely compares to Shannon, Dan, and Barb's savings of 16 Euros! Recycling's a big deal in Berlin (and most of Europe).

Next stop: Bier-Spezialitäten! Thanks to my Frommer's Day-by-Day guide, I found Berlin's best beer shop. This little place has more than 500 of the best beers from around the world. When I went abroad, my brother asked me to bring home a few beers that he couldn't find in America. I found one and improvised on the other. I'm such a good sister. I had to lug it around with me in Italy since I already sent my larger bag with Rolf to meet us in Munich (I'll explain later).

When I got back to the apartment, Jeri, Sarah, Kemal, and I headed out to the TV Tower. It was our last day in Berlin and we had to do one last touristy thing. We didn't realize that the tickets were done by numbers and time, so we ended up having to kill about 1.5 hours. Luckily Alexanderplatz was packed with vendors; it was like we were back in Prague! I stuffed myself with currywurst and fries and a waffle and a slushie. Oh my. Eventually we made our way to the top of the TV tower... it was alright. Nothing I didn't already see at the top of Berliner Dom.

When we got back to the apartment, my plan was to go to the bier garten with a small group of people... unfortunately, when you invite one person, that person invites another person and so on... so it turned out that the entire 20 of us went to the beer garden. Alright.
We made our way to Prater (thank you, Frommer's) where I met up with my friend Gabriel, who I met at the hostel in Budapest. The rest of the group went and did their own thing (thankfully) while I drank my beer and ate my veal sausage with Gabriel, Sarah, Jeri, and Kemal. I highly recommend beer gardens. You get to drink and enjoy the beautiful weather under lights and trees! And if you're lucky, you get good German food. It was a perfect night to end our time in Berlin. Half of the group went out clubbing afterward, but I stayed in and reminisced before going to bed. Time really does fly when you're having fun.