The best cafe in the world

8/30-8/31

 

I apologize in advanced for how boring this post is without pictures, but I will add them asap!

Yesterday was a very long series of Museums, walking and rain, but was good nonetheless. Those of us who are sick were finally able to find drugs and throat lozenges, which was a HUGE help. :)

After a morning full of class, we headed over to the German Historical Museum, which was extremely impressive. It spanned from 100 BC all the way to post-Cold War Germany, and while we had about 2.5-3 hours to explore, we didn't look at half of it. I focused my time on two areas... the art and memorabilia from the Reformation/Renaissance/APeuro-esque time and then from about WWI on. It included anywhere from Luther texts to WWII war cannons and Hitler's desk. It was interesting to see everything we've been talking about in scattered bits and pieces all put together in one museum :) We also went to the Gemaldegalerie (a fancy art museum) after dinner, but I was so done, I cannot tell you one thing about it. Whoops. 

We had a chance to relax a bit and have a ladies night in our apartment with several girls from the trip, but then we all had to put in our 2 hours of nightly reading :)

Today, we headed out to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (about 40 minutes away). I don't have the pictures on me, but I'll add them to this post later and you will have a better idea of how horrific, and powerful the camp was. And honestly, the trip deserves it's own post. But, as a taste for what's to come... Gabe spent a lot of his tour explaining the roots of the evil and the process that leads humans to the place where they are finding joy and community in the torturing of others, which was extremely thought provoking, but not the easiest questions to be grappling with. Needless to say, it was a day of prayer. 

After we got back, I spent a little time shopping in Berlin with Corrine. I got a notebook and highlighters for school (wooo! woot!!!) but also got a little toiletries bag that I found the other day and fell in love with. It's so hard to buy things here, knowing how long I'll be lugging them around, so it's a tricky balance, but I justified this one enough to feel good about it ;) Then a few of the ladies grabbed dinner at a "mexican" restaurant nearby. I feel like the quotations say it all. 

And, I'm actually writing this in a two-story cafe in Berlin. We were walking back from dinner, nearing home, and this place was too perfect not to stop. The bottom is a pub area with lots of people getting together for drinks on a Friday night, and the top is filled with students and other cool kids huddled over their laptops and books enjoying the atmosphere. I'm pretty sure its the first time since we've got here that I have been alone, and I'm savoring every second of it... the environment is just a plus! Also: free internet (yay!)