Berlin Day 2

Gila was insistent that I correct what she perceives as misinformation. According to her I was not tired and cranky, I was unreasonable, crazy and had adopted the Germanic trait of barking out orders. I sense trouble on the horizon, maybe. Perhaps I need to up my medication to avoid catastrophe.

After a very late night, it was hard getting going this morning. I woke up at about 7:00 and couldn't fall back asleep. Gila didn't budge, even after the alarm went off. I let her sleep until 9:30 before I roused her and made breakfast. We had a list of about 48 things to get done today. We managed three.

We started by setting out for another street on the U2 subway line near our apartment. Someone had told us that we could find shops with cheaper SIM cards there. We did find cheaper cards, but not what Gila wanted. These cards were only useful in Germany. Since we have wi fi, she can check up on David with Skype phone calls. Perhaps she could have done without the card altogether, but if we get separated or distracted or sidelined, the phone is the easiest way to find one another. When she decided on the card and had it installed, there still was no signal. Sebastian, the sales clerk assured us that it would be functional within a half hour so we decided to have lunch, check the phone and be nearby to return the card if it didn't work. I had been hankering for a Turkish doner, but we passed some interesting ceramic vases in a window of an Asian restaurant so we chose to eat there. We ordered one of the specials and both of us loved the meal. While we were in the area, Gila bought some toe socks and small gifts from a Tibetan shop. Real German souvenirs! To make sure everyone at home knows where we have been, we each bought a Berlin bag. Mine is just utilitarian, but Gila splurged. Hers has a pleasing form, a pocket and a zipper. Where was this purchased? At the bus stop. We got bored waiting for the bus.

From there we headed back to the Hauptbahnhof Tourist office. We bought tickets to Swan Lake ballet, the Magic Flute opera, a modern dance show and an acrobatic show. We also got info about an international jazz club and a free philharmonic symphony. Gila is already cultured. She's trying to round out my arts education, a little like Professor Higgins and Eliza Dolittle. We will see if she succeeds.  By now it was already four o'clock, too late for a museum, but too early for the ballet. Very thirsty and hot, we sat down in a cafe to reorganize. Rather than a hot drink, I asked for iced coffee at the counter. I guess I was thinking about Tim Horton’s iced cap. The server looked at me as if I were crazy. Wir haben eiskaffee nur im Sommer. I must have made a pathetic face, because he tried to console me with a macchiato poured over ice cream mit Sahne. He succeeded!

We took the time to relax, regroup and savour the coffee and suddenly it was close to five. Still too early for the ballet. One step outside and we knew exactly what we had to do, photograph the most stunning sunset. Amongst the dark clouds were bursts of brilliant orange, fushia and rose, a backdrop for the cranes that are renewing the city and the domes that already exist. I finally decided not to be intimidated by my new camera and we spent the time documenting approaching dusk. Of course, by this time we had missed our bus and no longer had time for dinner. All we managed was to buy a couple of oranges in Alexanderplatz.

Amazingly we found the Deutsche Opera immediately. In fact, the underground entrance is under the canopy of the building. Like all entertainment venues, there were merchants about, one selling buttered pretzels, delicious if not a filling supper. Parts of the ballet were wonderful. The orchestra, orchestral and the dancers, on toe. The prime dancers were incredible. They moved with such fluidity that it seemed that they had no bones. The chorus, however was mediocre at best. The costumes were bright and colorful, but they did not make up for the less than precise dancing. Not moving in unison was a distraction instead of an addition to the performance. Wasn't the black swan a female dancer? In this production it was a male waving triangular shmattas on sticks behind the scrim. Any resemblance to a black swan was imaginary and only if you had a vivid imagination. But what do I know? Damn it! I'm a retired teacher, not a critic. I am the one who is being culturized, but really, does a classy person take off her shoes, socks and bra in a concert hall? I agree that the second baloney was hot, but I didn't disrobe in public. Okay she was discrete, but really!

The concert hall was huge. Everyone left at the same time. Trying to get coats from the cloakroom and then into the door of the train was my thrill of the evening as there were strange hands poking and pushing on a number of my body parts. When a huge crowd exited at an interchange station, we were able to sit down and assess any damage or improvement.

Instead of staying on the train until our stop, we got off at Alexanderplatz. It was hopping and even better, the doner place was still open. The bodega was run by Turks. They love their music, especially if it is at maximum decibels. If you can't beat them, join them. While waiting for our order, we danced to the music, or rather wiggled our hips. The evening was cool but in order to preserve a vestige of hearing we ate outdoors. I finally got what my mouth was watering for. Okay, so it was after midnight and not the most conducive food to promote sleeping. But it was...wunderbar.

 Alexanderplatz at night.

A trip wouldn't be complete without me steering us in the wrong direction. I managed to accomplish that too on the way back to the apartment.

Given our jet lag and late retiring the previous evening, one would think that we headed straight to bed. One would think. But we hadn't been inside any museums or galleries and it was time to figure out how to maximize our museum card in the most efficient manner. What is open Monday? Which locations provide us entrance with the museum card? We had bookmarked twenty-three sights as must sees. By 2:30 in the morning, we came to the realization that it wasn't physically possible to do everything we wanted in the time left. We chose three galleries in the same area to visit the next day and called it quits. Am I really going to get up at 8:00 am while on holiday and a Saturday to boot? We shall see.