Goodbye Berlin

Time flies! I'm back in the states, and sadly my trip has rapidly drawn to a close-- but I still must fill you in on the rest of my stay in Berlin.

In my last post, I had just finished retelling my fun meeting with Micha and Carissa. The next morning, Sarah, Kalani and I went for a delicious lunch at Cafe Orange and then took a pleasant stroll around East Berlin. I snuck off to catch the first part of the Jewish Museum which lies in an impressive museum designed by the same architect who did the new Denver Art Museum. I really like his work, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Libeskind>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Libeskind afterwords I met up with Barry's language partner Julia and we joined Kalani, Sarah, Daisy, Sam and Noah for Thai food and a trip to the Reichstag. The Reichstag has an interesting history, its a very old building that originally housed the Parliament for the German empire and then the Weimar republic. The Nazi's burned it hollow and it sat in disrepair for years. Now, however it sits at the middle of one of the most modern government centers I have ever seen. After the Berlin wall fell, the new capital of Germany had to be built from scratch in Berlin and all of the shiny newness is in stark contrast to the old-school neoclassical style of DC. The Reichstag is surrounded by sleek glass office buildings as well as the chanceller's residence. Although it retains its old-school facade, the inside of the Reichstag is a brand-new ultra-modern parliament building with a giant glass dome on the top. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_(building)We spent a few hours enjoying the view from the top of the clear dome as the sunset. There is a spectacular view of the entire city.

Julia is finishing up her masters thesis before she starts her doctorate. For her thesis she is comparing the rhetoric that Hitler and Mussolinis employed in their public speeches. As part of her research she gets to travel to Italy. She also does Model UN, and we had fun talking about travel and our mutual friend Barry.

As usual we all finished up the evening at a Bier Garten (this one was on a fake beach on the river) and then we parted ways. The next day I met with Kalani and Sara for Indian food and then started my long trip back to the states, via London.

I'm going to get my photos in order so I can write one last post and include a link to the photo album. Ciao!