June 27, 2012 We woke up rather late today. I was tired from staying out so late the night before and drinking. I think we woke up at 10:30ish and waited for Hora to come find us at our room. When he came we started planning out our day. Rachel needed to validate her train ticket and Hora needed to get the museum pass we got when we got to Berlin. We walked back to Alexanderplatz and then to museum island and then sat in front of the Alte Museum to have lunch. Because we didn't eat the durum from the night before, we didn't have to buy lunch again! Yes just saved 5 euros.
We take a long walk to the Jewish Museum and it begins to rain a little. Smart old me decided to take the risk and not bring a rain jacket out. It was fine. We got a little wet but nothing too bad. What was the highlight for me on the way there was this mall for cars. Not like the Automall, but literally imagine a small version of Brentwood mall and instead of Starbucks it was Bugatti. Ya that's right. One Veyron on display and the only one I've ever seen in real life. I was starstruck.

The Jewish museum was really interesting. The building was built to give it's visitors a unique experience. However it is intepreted is up to the viewer. For me, I was confused by the path and had a very unsettling sense in some rooms. Not because there were unsettling images, but let me try to give you an example. One of the rooms was the interior of an unlit tower and 24 meters high there is a slit window for some light to come in. It was comepletely dark otherwise. Another room had an art installation where there were over 10 000 faces made from metal on the floor, each representing a life of a Jew that was lost, and we were supposed to walk through it. We weren't even thinking of going in at first, but now I think this is a one of the top 10 museum/ gallery I've been to on this trip.

We walked over to the Berlinische Museum after and now it was really starting to rain. Good thing it was close by. It's a museum of contemporary art, photography and architecture. There was one piece of artwork related to architecture. The rest were very PSA type artwork about Rwanda and genocide. There was one kinda neat artwork though; it was 4 dead trees hanging upside down and twirling round and round, making a mess on the floor and walls. Other than that, this museum wasn't very impressive. You weren't allowed to take pictures unless you get this VIP photographer card... ok it wasn't really

Now it was REALLY raining. We sat at the entrance hoping it would stop raining before the gallery closed, but the rain won this battle. We needed to walk for about 15 mins to get to a train station so we could get to the famous Berlin wall with the murals. Needless to say I got wet. When we got to the wall, called the East Side Gallery, we slowly walked down the long stretch. It was really nice! Some of the graffiti was so intricate and so well done. I think I took almost 50 pics of this wall. By half way down the wall it stopped raining and I could finally enjoy the murals, even if I was soaked.

For dinner Hora takes us to another doner place that was supposed to be famous. It was good but not as good as Mustafas from the day before. We watch a little football, Spain vs. Portugal, and then head back to the hostel. Hora comes to our room to hangout and chat for a bit and then he leaves and we say our goodbyes. He's got a long way to go from here.