Somehow, it's already time for midterms. I have absolutely no idea where the time has gone! I'd like it to slow down a bit as it's going a too fast (Where's my Dr. Horrible with his freeze ray?). Regardless, just because I want time to slow down, doesn't mean it will, so I have to get cracking on studying for these midterms. Monday will be the worst day as I have German (just class, no midterm), then a midterm in History, followed by a midterm in Cinema! After Monday the week will get easier: an excursion to Kreuzberg with my German class on Tuesday, a midterm in Totalitarian Wednesday afternoon, and my German midterm Thursday morning. Then it's off to Norway on Friday (more on that in an upcoming post)! I'm not too worried about these midterms, but either way, I still need to spend the next two days studying my butt off to make sure I'm ready. I decided to take the day off yesterday, though, and get myself nice and relaxed before becoming a hermit. It was a really great, Berlin-filled day :)
M, D and I started out the day by going to the Museum für Naturekunde, or the Natural History Museum. It was absolutely awesome. They have the world's largest mounted Brachiosaurus brancai skeleton... and it's huge! The first room in the museum is the dinosaur room, and the history nerd in me just got so excited! There are so many cool dinosaur skeletons and fossils, it was amazing. Then we moved into the Earth room, which had a lot of interesting stuff about plate tectonics and rocks and a really cool giant globe that had a TV mounted to it, which would spin around the globe and show how certain parts of the world formed. It was awesome! When we were in that room, we met up with K and two of M's German friends. We also checked out the hominid room, which isn't a permanent exhibit so I was really happy to see it. Human evolution is so cool to look at. Unfortunately, they didn't have a skull of my favorite hominid: Australopithecus Robustus
These guy's jaws were so large that their chewing muscles were strong
enough for them to eat almost anything. Badass.
We also got to go into this room that was filled with specimen in formaldehyde jars, which was really creepy. There were several jokes made about finding human arms in a jar, or what would happen if the animals all suddenly came to life. It was hilarious, but got that voice in the back of my mind a little scared! There was also a really cool room with a bunch of taxidermy animals, with hippos! And then we watched a video thing on the creation of the universe. It was in German, so we couldn't understand too much, though M did attempt to translate... and failed miserably, but succeeded at being hilarious.
After the museum (which we didn't get a chance to finish, so we will be going back!), we headed down the street to a fro yo place called Yoli (I think). It was so good! I got the regular yoghurt with raspberries and this "brownie" stuff... It was like melted chocolate with little crunchy balls in it. It was absolutely delicious! Then we strolled around town, and made our way to part of the wall. It was where no man's and was, and was right next to a cemetery. We didn't stay too long, which was probably a good thing, as the memorial to those who died trying to cross the wall probably would have brought us all down a bit. We headed towards a park (which we ended up not going to), all the while discussing the implications of the wall, and how the German girls felt about it/what they were taught in school about it. After a while of wondering, we stopped at a coffee shop and warmed up with some coffee and hot chocolate.
A word about the weather: when we left that morning, it was gorgeous out, so I wore a skirt. Turns out this was a terrible idea! The weather stayed nice until about 3 blocks before the coffee shop... and then it suddenly dropped about 4 degrees (Celsius). I was absolutely freezing! Fortunately, M and D were cool with going back to the apartments for a bit before continuing our lovely day. K and the German girls went their separate ways, and we headed back home. About an hour later, we headed back out and went to Alexanderplatz on a mission.
The mission was burritos, and it was a complete success. We went to this place called Dolores (based on the giant map of San Francisco, it was presumably named after Dolores Park), and had delicious burritos and Mexican beer. The restaurant has a Chipotle feel to it, but is nothing like Chipotle at all. I hate Chipotle - I always feel so rushed, and I just don't find the quality that great. I much prefer La Hacienda or Taco V - so I was a little apprehensive when it was described as similar to Chipotle. But I'm so glad I went. The burrito was delicious! And the Guacamole was easily the best I've had in Berlin (or Europe for that matter). Plus, Mexican is sooo good. And so worth the ridiculous price for imported beer.
It's Chipotle-esque because you go down the line picking from a
list of options what you want on your burrito. But it's about
a thousand times fresher and tastier!
After Dolores, we headed out to a bar called Aufsturz. A bar with 100 beers! It's similar to 99 Bottles in Santa Cruz, what with the having an absurd number of beers, but they have way more random beers, and unfortunately no rewards or system for trying each beer. But that's okay... it was still amazing. I got a Mango beer, a Passion fruit beer and a Pear cider (apparently I was in the mood for fruit!). The passion fruit was absolutely delicious, but this is probably only because I love anything passion fruit flavored. We met up with K and the German girls, plus a few more German girls, and stayed there for a few hours trying different types of beer. One of the German girls got a cherry beer, and it was absolutely disgusting! It smelled like cherries, which was nice, but had one of the worst after tastes ever!
Aufsturz Bar. They had some really cool paintings on the walls.
They were very new age meets Picasso in style.
Around midnight, we decided to leave. I was exhausted and didn't want to spend anymore money/be hungover for studying today, so I went home, and the rest of them headed out somewhere. If they'd gone to a club, I would have gone (I can always find energy to go dancing! Plus I never buy drinks at clubs because I'm too busy dancing), but I think they were just going to go to another bar, and I didn't have the energy to sit around (oh sweet irony). The train ride home was relatively uneventful... until I got off and started walking home. A Nigerian man who'd also gotten off the train asked me something, and I thought he was lost, so I decided to try and help him out. Turns out he wasn't lost. He'd lived in Berlin for a few years, and walked me home. He kept asking me for my number, and to go on a date. He walked with me all the way back to the apartments and got incredibly rude and abrasive when I told him that he couldn't come into the apartment building with me, nor would I give him my number or meet him for coffee tomorrow. Needless to say, I think next time I'll just stick it out with the group instead of opting to go home alone at 1:30!
So there you have it, an amazing way to spend a Friday in Berlin. Complete with culture, good food, great company and fruity beers :) And now it's onto the studying.... I'll be posting details about my mid-semester break plans soon!
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