Berlin and more...

Hmmm...Sat morng we met up at Annika's place for breakfast. After a nice yummy bfast of home baked buns and home made jams and chicken salad(the aim is to make your mouths water...hope I am achieving!!), we left for the stn.

Caught the 10 am train to Berlin and were there within an hour and a half. We got down at Alexander Platz in Berlin and after that we walked ard the whole day...it was a bit bizarre considering that Berlin isn't a small city like Magedburg or Wittenberg so the distances between places were huge...yet we somehow ended up walking even when we decided to take the tram!!! I'm gonna have strong legs by the end of my stay here...haha!!!

Anyways Annika stayed with us till anoon...with her roamed around the Museum Island which has some 5-6 museums of the 13 odd museums in Berlin. Saw the Berliner Dome, the Parliament building with its glass dome, the new Jewish synagogue, the Brandenburg Gate, the new site for a memorial for Holocaust victims (work is stalled coz of some controversy regarding the company supplying the chemicals), the Buddy Bear exhibition(the bear is the mascot of the city and this exhibition sponsered by the UNICEF had bears from all the nations...so each nation's artist had painted the bear differently..quite interesting...its in Berlin till Nov after which it goes on a world tour, so we are lucky we caught it) and the Potsdamer Platz, where the cinimax is located, and the film museum as well.

We seperated at that time...she went off to the India exhibition at the Cultural Centre. We grabbed a quick bite, then set off towards Checkpoint Charlie, the remains of the Berlin wall, and finally the Jewish museum (yes Kunaal, I dragged Saima and Jigisha all over to the other end coz of your recommendation.)...at first I was perplexed coz the entrance showed a very normal bldg...nothing the types Kunu would rave about...then I realised that what he wanted me to see was the Holocaust tower...its an incredible monument that captures the horror of the holocaust brilliantly in its stark spaces, darkness and light and silences...the architect is the same guy who is doing the new WTC in NY....I think its Daniel something...I can't remember how his surname is spelt!!!

We had to meet Annika at 6.15 pm so after I did a bit of shopping at the museum shop...bought an Anne Frank book, and 2 books on the museum, some postcards and a plate of Berlin...we walked back to Potsdamer Platz. We decided we'd stay for the movies at the India exhibition and catch the last train back home...so Annika and I grabbed some gluh-wine(its hot wine served during Christmas time...wonderfully tasty and warms you up...which I needed) and some pizza...and then we walked down to the Cultural Center, past the Vistory Tower and the Bell tower...they were screening two films about friendships - one a documentary about four youths from a lower class Delhi area and the other Dil Chahta Hai...which Annika happens to have seen 4 times already!!! She was singing the songs aloud later at the stn and dancing...quite amusing!!!

Anyways we caught the last train back and reached Magdeburg at 1 am...I fell asleep on the way...Sat was the first day since I've come here that I felt really cold...the wind in Berlin was crazy..at times we were just being propelled forward by the wind, but the worst was when we had to walk against it!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrr...today in Magedburg its 3 degrees...so I guess Winter is setting in finally...

Though I tried I ended up waking up at 8 am even though we slept at 2 am...Saima and Jigisha didn't surface till 11.30 by which time I'd done the weekly cleaning, disposed of the garbage and cooked lunch!!! LOL!! We spent Sunday lazing ard and studying...we had to prepare for our Blake presentation and I also got cracking on Barthes' essay (for MA)...in the eveg we went over to Annika's house for pot luck dinner...her folks dropped in with Falafels for all of us, there was macaroni by us, and chana by one of Annika's Indian friends!!! We saw this movie called 'Pushpak' - a silent film with Kamal Hassan in it...quite ok...I wondered why the guy kept translating actions for Annika - it was a silent movie didnt require any explns!!! Anyways we finished the Blake presentation work this morng. We just printed out the hand-outs we have to provide the class with...wish me luck...should flatten the Germans with the presentation!!! Hehehehe....