Ich bin nicht ein Berliner, aber ich esse Berliner gern

When I was first coming to Berlin, I was worried. I had been looking forward to coming here for the longest time because EVERYONE has had only the best things to say about it, but the first and thus far only couchsurfer to bail on me was my first host in Berlin. I just could not get a hold of her to save my life so I texted Nikolas, the other guy who I was going to be staying with my last two days here. Fortunately he had no problem hosting me for all 4 nights instead of just 2, and we have had a great time. It would be a bit exhausting to relay everything in a seamless, all inclusive and cohesive narrative, and I am already exhausted. So here is what I will do instead:
Hightlights!
1. Pergamon museum with the massive Pergamon Altar (c. 3rd century BCE I think) and the massive Ishtar gate of Babylon. They are quite amazing. The Ishtar gate didn´t look at all how I expected it to, and the Pergamon Altar looked exactly how I expected it to, and both were awesome in the literal sense of the word.

2. Altes National Gallery. They had a ton of Caspar David Friedrich paintings, a few Monets, a couple Cezzanes, and one Renoir painting I really liked. It is an homage to 19th century painting (the brochure says that in even more flowery language), which is great for me because most of my favorite artists lived in the 19th century! It is much muich smaller than the national gallery in London, but it was quieter so that was nice.
3. Maybe the coolest bar I have ever been to is here in Berlin. It is on the top floor of an old apartment building with graffiti EVERYWHERE. Seriously, from the bottom of the stairwell to the top floor I dont think there is a single space of blank wall left, and usually the graffiti is layered ontop of earlier graffiti. On the top floor, there is a large balcony from which you can see the old black and white movies that are projected from the roof of the apartment building onto the white wall of the building on the other side of the vacant lot. On the floor below this bar/club, there is a rather awesome art gallery thats open pretty much all night (at least it was open when we arrived at like 1am).
4. I took the Free Walking Tour that everyone I have met has raved about. They were right to rave. In addition to the absolutely obligatory sights like the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag and the old Berlin Wall, we saw the old Luftwaffe headquarters and the area where Hitlers bunker had been.
5. Lots and lots and lots of Drunken German speaking :) Now that I am a little more confident in my ability to speak German, its been really a lot of fun, and I think I will actually really miss speaking it when I fly to London in the morning.

Alright, time to head out to Wannsee, bis später!