And no its not a leprechaun. It's the little man the signals pedestrians to cross the street. The one they have in Berlin is very cool, if I heard the busabout man right he was designed by the East Germans because they couldn't have him looking down, so he looks jaunty, with a hat. I'm a very big fan. I noticed that the hostel sells a mug with him on it, but I thought it would be a pain to lug around, so wanted to see if they had anything else. So we went in to a souviner shop this afternoon and sure enough they had an entire wall of stuff. So I caved and got myself both a key ring and a bag.
We started the day quite slowly, sorting breakfast, lunch and what we want to do for the next few days. Todays plan brought us first to the Jewish museum. I didn't enjoy this quite as much as I thought I would, I found it a little bogged down in pessimism at times. But it was a nicely set out museum, and had some interesting things like the Holocaust tower which was this empty space, with only a narrow opening of natural light, and only muffled sounds making their way in. It was certainly eerie.
Just around the corner was the modern art museum. When leaving we were aksed by a Japanese tourist whether it was worth it, we tried to be fair but basically the answer was no. We managed to get discount tickets at least. There was some great art, but half the building was closed because of reconstruction, so there was very little to see in the end.
We headed for checkpoint Charlie after that. According to wikipedia (yes I know) the last remaining structure was destroyed in 2000. So now its just a little house in the centre of the road, and a museum off to the side which we didn't visit. I did find it quite amusing that what would have been just inside the East side was now a massive billboard for the new ipad 2. Another visit to Tiergarten for a quiet read was defintely in order after this so we walked back up to there, and then on to the golden angel (not the correct name) for some great touristy style photos.
We unfortunately left eating a little late so poor Sophie had to put up with mild melt down Chloe. We planned to find food near our s-bahn stop, but despite there being a wealth of places to eat in Berlin, there were none around the Tiergarten stop. We tried the next stop, which we walked to, but by this time I was getting over walking, and very hungry. So we managed to find a Chinese noodle box type place and grabbed something and jumped on the train home. When we headed back to the hostel to eat instead of sitting in the garden Soph replaced her food with a sandwhich, which left me feeling very guilty. Hopefully it teaches me to keep myself in check next time.
Well it's 10.45 and i'm very sleepy, I meant to be in bed a while ago but got distracted looking up and booking accomodation for the next few cities. At least we've got it sorted now, right up to Pula. And busabout finally got back to us and admitted it was their problem we weren't booked on the buses properly and its now sorted. So getting organised! Lots to do!
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