DAY 12: (Jan1) - New Year's Day Tue
While we had not stayed out terribly late the night before, we were tired. It was snowing out, so we did our best to stay inside and relax.

Being that it was New Year's Day, I wasn't sure what would be open. Things definitely looked very closed when I got up. It was also snowing out and a bit slushy on the sidewalks.

I checked the website for "More" restaurant and it did not indicate that they were closed. So, we UBahn'ed it over to Nollendorfplatz and walked down the street to the place.

Indeed, More was open and offered more! They had a holiday "all you can eat"-style Buffet. It was delish, with several different types of salads and fish, including my favorite Rollmopsfisch.

The lady waitress brought us some scrambled eggs, then later some Sauerbraten with carrots and mashed potatoes. Deliciouso!

With a couple of drinks, we got out of there with just 30 Euro total bill. Not too shabby!

We walked back. Neither of us were feeling all that well and were definitely tired. Jason played with his computer while I took a power nap for a couple of hours. We were a bit hungry. The Chinese place across the street sounded good, but it was closed, so we had Burger King, which really didn't make me feel all that great.

I didn't feel much better, so we stayed in (originally, we had pondered going out for our last night in the city, but alas, this was not to be.) I watched Shrek 3, then packed up a bit. I was asleep by 9:30 am.
- posted by Matt @ 8:45 PM 0 comments

 
DAY 11: (Dec31) - New Year's Eve Mon
In the morning, we went to Karstadt. I wanted to buy a new tie for the opera. The week before, we had secured two tickets to the opera, to see "Die Fledermaus," the opera and namesake for my blog. It was very fortunate that we got the tickets and I was so excited!

We knew that we didn't have that much time, but decided on a relaxed, laidback lunch at a gay-owned café called MaVie. We ate on the outdoor patio amongst the other 'mos.



DIE FLEDERMAUS

We needed to leave for the Komische Oper around 5:00ish because the show was to begin at 6:00.

The time crept by us and I suddenly realized that I had so little time to: shower, shave, iron my shirt, pants and Jason's pants. Plus, we still needed to get the tickets at will call.

I rushed to get everything done!

ARRIVAL AT THE OPERA

Looking rather dapper, we left around 5:15 and made it to our seats with time to spare! They were great seats. First row on the first balcony toward the center.



The show was spectacular from beginning to end. It was fun, colorful. The singing and acting were first notch. I was pretty familiar with the show which is good as it was all in German (and sometimes have problems dissecting sung music.)

What I did understand, I whispered over to Jason. The playbill did have a really good synopsis, in English. This helped a lot, as well.



What was very unique about the show was the staging. Being in the Komischer Oper, or the comic opera, it didn't surprise me that the staging was lighthearted.

The stage looked very normal in the beginning (despite the fact that the stage was actually an inclined plane, which allowed viewers to better see the show.) By "normal," I mean, all the furniture for the house was carefully arranged.

The show is a lot about alcohol and getting drunk, as well as about deception. As there was more alcohol ingested, the furniture was moved to obscure angles, or even upside down. At one point, one wall went down and became part of the inclined plane. A large chandelier dropped to the ground. All the strange angles matched the insobriety of the players.

The audience was also a bit tipsy. We were offered complementary wine/champagne, etc. at the beginning of the show. Then during the 30 minute intermission, we had more and more alcohol. I would guesstimate that I had the better part of a bottle of wine. It was New Year's Eve!

The show came to an end and Jason and I got up quikly and beat the crowd to the cloakroom and out of the opera house. We abruptly walked to toward the Tiergarten. We had two hours until midnight, but we wanted to find a good place.

TIERGARTEN FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE

There were checkpoints set up at the major streets leading into the Tiergarten (the big park near the Brandenburg Gate.)

They were not letting more people in. A kind female police officer picked up a bullhorn and said, in German, that the entrance was closed because of the fact that the area had enough people. She suggested all visitors walk up the street to the other entrance at the other side of the park, as it was open.

There was something Schindleresque about hearing in German over a bullhorn, that didn't quite appeal to me.

We walked a ways and a group veered off, into the wooded part of the park, through the wilderness. We met up with a dirt road that eventually took us into the party that was going on. (We found out later that all official entrances had been shut down and that we had basically got around the system.)

The party was in full swing. There were stands with live music along with places to get food and drink. We especially liked the mini doughnuts. Jason also had some sauerkraut and I sloshed down some beer. The crowds were really not that bad!



It was cold. Very cold. While we were bundled up in hats, gloves and scarves. There was one guy in his early 20s who was wearing just a sweatshirt and pants, apparently to impress some chick. Well, he didn't impress us. Although cute, he was really retahhhded.

There was a very festive mood in the air. It was smoky with all of the fireworks going off. Before we knew it, it was almost midnight. Around midnight, the fireworks came to a crescendo and people cheered and kissed and passed around bottles of champagne and hard liquor.



We were both a bit tired, so we hoofed it in a certain direction, which ended up being the wrong direction. We continued on, following the crowds. I'm not completely sure why we didn't go the way we knew.

Jason finally suggested going to Potsdamer Platz, where we took the U-Bahn home. There were a lot of partiers in the subway, which was kind of fun. We hit the sack around 2:00 am.
- posted by Matt @ 8:42 PM 0 comments

 
DAY 10: (Dec30) Sun Jewish Museum
We woke up around 8:30ish and there was sun in the sky, again! We got an early start, rushing and managed to beat the other couple in the apartment to the shower. The other couple staying at the apartment, Klaus and the chick from Latvia were in the kitchen when we were done showering.

I quickly ate a couple of pieces of bread and yogurt and talked with the other couple whilst Jason showered, shaved and primped and did whatever else it takes him to do an an hour each morning.

The couple was nice, although Klaus, from Bochum, in Western Germany, didn't know much about Berlin and came across as kind of arrogant. For example, he didn't see Berlin as having a City Centre. I mentioned the area from the Brandenburg Gate to Alexanderplatz.

"That's on the East Side and that doesn't matter," Klaus said. I asked myself if he had been in a bunker for the past 20 years and didn't know that wall had come down.

Klaud also didn't feel that Berlin had diversity in architecture. No old and new like, in Paris. I wondered if he had ever seen the ultra-modern Potsdamerplatz.

JEWISH MUSEUM

We packed up quickly and grabbed the U-Bahn to Hackesches Tor and walked the 10 minute walk to the Jewish Museum. Outside, it looked pretty cool.

There was no wait when we arrived inside, but a line quickly formed behind us.

The architecture was fantastic, dramatic, emotional, chose your word:





I liked the exhibits. They were well chosen, interesting and interactive. Oh, and in perfect English, as well as in German.

Some say the museum is too "Americanized" or "too politically correct," I would say it differently, that the material was presented in a way as to not be polarizing. All in all, the tone was good, with a consistent "story" as you walked through:

we have culture
we tried to assimilate
we have had no home of our own
we were persecuted throughout history
we were nearly wiped off the European continent by the Nazi machine



The later point was an important one and was poignantly present, as it should have been. Honestly, having been to the museum in Auschwitz (Poland,) I'm extremely aware that there is no shortage of horrific, grafic material. The museum chose the material and amount of material wisely. (Later on, Jason questioned whether there might have been some type of third party who helped keep the museum from being too one-sided, too sensational, etc.)

Still, I would not be surprised if some Germans hone in one the one aspect of the exhibit, even though from a space perspective, it was pretty modest.

There were subtle items on display. In particular, one postcard really affected me. In German, it was an anonymous tip from a concerned German, who told how previous residents from the building were hiding upstairs. Paraphrasing, the person thought the one Jewish woman was "fresh" and "snooty" and that they need to make her "disappear." - it was signed "Heil Hitler." This made my stomach turn thinking how people could be so blatantly hateful and cold-hearted to another person.



Another part of the museum really got me thinking. It was a room with a series of pictures and stories in little boxes in the air. Each was a story of a Jewish child growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, in post-Nazi Germany. It must have been an incredibly uncomfortable period of healing and facing the truth.

The holocaust was chilly and without words said a lot:



By the time we left, there was a line of easily a couple of hundred people in line outside the museum. Good we got there early.

Commonsensical Travel tip: When you are interested in a popular touristy museum, get up early and do it first thing, go straightaway.



We traveled to Schönhauserallee, in hopes of finding a certain gay owned Italian restaurant (good to support the ol' community. Said restaurant was closed, but there was a gay-owned Thai restaurant across the street, "Golden Budda." The atmosphere was basic, but nice and the food was without spice, but not a wash.
- posted by Matt @ 6:21 AM 1 comments