Berlin, Finally

So, I'm finally getting around to posting about our trip to Berlin, which was less than a week before our trip to America. This is probably going to be pretty terse, since it was a while ago and I'm kinda in that just getting it done mode.

On the first day I was there, while Hunter was in conferences and stuff, I took Sadie to the zoo. She walked around a little bit but then eventually fell asleep. I didn't take many pictures of the animals, but this orangutan just looked really badass so I took out the camera, and then I saw the gorilla so I had to get one of him, too.

We saw the Brandenburg Gate, but were there at the time when the light was behind it, so this is the best shot we got:

And then the next two are Sadie and I in front of it.

Sadie and I with the Reichstag in the background:

And some more Reichstag:

Here I am in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall:

And some shots from Checkpoint Charlie:

Berlin seems to have an interesting relationship with its history. At the subway stop near Checkpoint Charlie, there were signs for an English language school that said "We have ways of making you talk" and "You are now entering the English sector" or something like that, which I thought was kind of weird? Like, imagine an ad for Jenga in the NY subway that says, "Don't let these towers fall!" I mean, basically what I'm saying is TOO SOON. But then again, I'm not German so maybe they just don't have the same sensitivities as I do.

They also offer tours around the city in the infamous Trabant and I saw some souvenir stands selling miniature ones. There were posters advertising, and I'm translating here, "East German products with the quality of the Federal Republic!" There is a word, ostalgie, which is a portmanteau of the German words for "east" and "nostalgia," and I definitely saw it there.

So yeah, this post isn't a comprehensive account of what we did and if one of the handful of readers out there has any specific questions, I'd be happy to address them. I just wanted to get these pictures uploaded because we're going on another trip in a week or so, and I don't want to get even more behind.