DAY 8: (Dec28) Pergamon & West Berlin Stuff
After a relaxed breakfast, we started the day off with the Pergamon museum, on Berlin's Museuminsel.





It was just how I remembered it from 1988! (It took a bit of remembering to recall that I had been here with Julia and others during my one day pass to East Berlin in 1988. We only had a few hours and there were not many crowds in 1988.) I need to look to see what pictures I took that year.



We spend a couple of hours in the museum. It did have some neat elements, however, it was not my most favorite museum in the world. I think I liked the blue and gawdy Ishtar gates with the animals.



After being in the crowds, we were indeed ready for a change, so we hoofed it to the U-Bahn station and headed to Motzstraße.

Lunch was at "More," a classy gay restaurant on Motzstrasse. We relaxed there and took in the sights and the people. My theory is that there are "men for hire" hang out in this restaurant. Maybe it's what "More" has to over that is "more." To be clear: guys just don't look that hot, dress so provocatively without being "for hire."

We walked along this part of town and did the American thing: bought a couple of T-Shirts, including my new Beatle T-Shirt.

Berlin is definitely an open city, two guys or two gals holding hands in public would not cause people to bat an eye. Just like in Cincinnati.

We walked into KaDeWe, the largest department store in Europe. I love the houseware department. We bought a cool frame, with matching candles that were made in Germany.



We went back to Wedding and hit the Karstadt across from Evelyn's place. I thought it was funny how Jason had been carrying around the Bruno's bag all day.



Like a little child, I required a disco nap and took one at 8:00 pm, whilst Jason chowed down on some "China-nudels" from the nearby vendor and happily read through blogs on his laptop.

Having rested and showered, we were ready to go "auf die Piste," a rather trashy way of talking about going out, in German. (Last time I was in Berlin, an Austrian woman who was also staying in Evelyn's apartment taught me this expression. Evelyn later told me it was trashy, but well, I'm going to use it.)

We went to the bars on Motzstraße: Prinzknecht (very classy,) Scheune (very trashy, a la Cincinnati "On Broadway's,") Woof Berlin; ending at Tom's, as most self respecting Berliner gay would. At one point, I had looked at a clock once and saw that it was 11:30. A bit later, Jason reminded me that it was 3:30 am.

The train ride home was a breeze. It was fun being surrounded by so many drunk people in the U-Bahn.

At around 4:30 am, we finally laid down in bed.
- posted by Matt @ 6:15 AM