The good news, which I'm choosing to focus on, is that I got to buy a new coat / zip-up thing, and the colours are beautiful! It goes perfectly under my rain coat, so I get the warmth and the dry.
It's supposed to snow tomorrow. Snow. Tomorrow. Should I repeat it again? Snooooow!
Again, the good news is that I'll be all prepped for my two days in Paris in November, and for the Toronto November when I get back home. I'm choosing to see is as a bit of a winter training!
Okay, so today was interesting, because I truly had / have no idea where I am. I mean I know I'm in Berlin (there would have been a need for some well-placed worry if I wasn't aware of at least that!), but I don't know here anything is, and how to get to anything. Again, this is by design (the design of being too busy with life before I left to do the level of research I'd like to have), and while it doesn't fit my usual style of doing things, it's teaching me a lot about myself and my surroundings.
I'm used to planning, knowing where stuff is before I do it, calling ahead and seeing what's open, what's not, etc. This whole thing has made me a bit uneasy, if I'm being honest. But I'm trying to lean into the uneasy, to learn what not having a plan is like. Plans usually change anyway, so this'll be a beneficial lesson I'm sure, or at least a time for me to continue to prove to myself that absolutely nothing is under my control anyway.
I can't say I like it as much as I would like to, but, you don't always like the lesson you learn, but you learn them anyway. In fact, I think you learn more from the ones you don't like than the ones you do.
By no means should this register as a complaint, because I could just sit down at night, which I plan to do tonight, and look over / research the things I want to make sure I don't miss while in Berlin. So, that's what I'll do!
As for today, I walked a whole lot. I got lost immediately, but that was bound to happen since I had no idea what I was going, and then ended up in front of a most gorgeous, very old cathedral called Berliner Dom. It was built between 1894 and 1905, and was only open to the public in 1993 after it was repaired fro, heavy damage from war.
I walked to the top of the dome (was totally winded, no way I'm doing the CN climb anytime soon!), and got to see a full 360° of downtown Berlin.
Every picture I took from this spot made the cathedral look like a painting!
Confirmation. It is not a painting.
Love the next two so much.
So much repair done to these little guys.
There was some music coming from somewhere while I was up there. It sounded a bit like Amy Winehouse, and a bit like Macy Grey. I originally deduced that it was from a tourist boat on the water nearby, playing the radio, so I stood at the top of the cathedral and listened. I then suspected that it was live music, because I saw a woman far in the distance swaying, with a mic and amp on a bridge across the horizon. I used my camera as binoculars, and realized then that the sound I heard was coming from her mouth!
It was an Oprah moment, you guys (don't you think it would be the greatest thing to be a person and have someone name amazing moments after you? That just seems so cool to me!), standing at the top of a cathedral, overhearing this amazing voice that was being projected across the open space. I stood there for a while, took it all in, then was shocked back into realized with a breeze that gave me a huge chill. I took a picture of her as close up as my camera would stay still for, and then one from my actual distance for comparison.
I could hear her so clearly, even from this far. So beautiful.
I saw a bunch of other stuff too, bought a few treats, so I'll just put the pictures here, and chat through them as I go.
I don't know what this is really, but I saw it from across the river and just loved the look of it. I then walked toward it, and it seemed to be some form of outdoor community, that may have extended to an indoor community.
This is the exterior of a mall I went into to grab something to eat. I had some sort of pizza thing, which was delicious, and then bought a sandwich for the road, which I later ate after climbing down the stairs in the cathedral. It had some of the best, most fresh bread that I've had in a long time. And it had been in my purse for hours.
Just a very cool looking facade.
I saw a cool looking exterior of a different building than the one above, and walked in. The security guard, seemingly well-hidden, asked me something in German, I didn't understand, so he waved me through. Poor guy, I had no clue. Anyhow, from what I saw, I gather it's an office building, and it is really quite stunning in person.
This is a museum that I'm hoping to be able to make it back to. It was too late in the day to go today, and they were closing a half hour after I got there. It's right beside the cathedral, in an area they call Museum Island. Because there are in fact a bunch of museums on an island in the middle of Berlin!
As I sat outside of the building above, this guy tried to jump into this giant sculpture. At first he couldn't, and I was fully judging him for being an idiot. Then, he walked backward and took a running start and made it in. I couldn't help but laugh, because then he yelled, "I'm in the cup!" in a goofy voice. It was pretty funny.
A very cool building outside, and the I went in and learned that it's an information centre about Berlin and German history. Quite fun as well.
I went for dinner at a steak place that I'd say is on par with a Kelsey's in terms of environment and quality. It was pretty good, and the waitress was an absolute sweetheart.
As I walked about just before dinner I found a random shop that had some very random things inside. I bought these, some wafer cookies that I love the packaging for, for some reason, and also the taste of. They're very strong in flavour, not like the lame Canadian equivalent, lol!
What you see below is basically heavenly dreams in a tiny tub! It's called Naschi, and I have no idea what that word it, but holy hell, I'm going to marry it. If you like Nutella, and you like coconut, you've met your match! It's a 3"-ish tall tub for 1.8€. The coconut adds a crunch texture, and guys, I can't even talk about it! I'm going to struggle to not buy 25 tubs and bring it back to "share"... lol.
Alright, tomorrow will be museum-filled, as will likely the next four days because it's supposed to be super cold and rainy, but whateeeeeever, museums rule!
Have an excellent night, everyone. And I'll do my best to be back tomorrow with some adventure stories (and yes, rest assured, adventure can happen in museums, just ask Ben Stiller... see what I did there? Yeah!)
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