The cowboy, playboy, and alter boy

This is what the Germans really think of our US presidents! I found this graffiti on the S-bahn on my way to my second hotel. My second hotel room is smaller but cooler and in a great area. I’ve gone from West Berlin to East Berlin; so I’ve included a picture of a piece of the wall placed where the wall used to be. Can you see Boris representing the West side?



Boris was an excellent tour guide but my need to see the sights hasn’t been satiated. I continued my sight-seeing on Friday with Itsie who is from Spain. It was an interesting day spent on the land that once was the headquarters of the Gestapo. We went to the Topography of Terror walking tour which describes the events of the war and the terror techniques through the remaining documents and photos. It was a sobering experience which left me wondering if I wanted to spend the rest of my sight-seeing learning more about the dark past of Germany. As someone who is not a history buff, I’ve been able to see the Berlin as a relatively new city. There are very few pre-WWII buildings in the city. Everything is new, the city is diverse, and there are plenty of green areas or parks. This has helped me see Berlin as a city unlike many others in many great ways. But by learning more about the atrocities and having them become real through pictures and histories of the individuals involved, well, it’s simply depressing. This is even more so as the lessons that needed to be learned by every “group” and/or society haven’t been learned. So, to deal with all these heavy thoughts, Saturday I went to the zoo with a new friend from the Ukraine (Natalia). The zoo was nice but there were no otters or groundhogs ;-)

I haven’t heard anything from Humboldt but I’ll plan on showing up on Monday. I’ve looked up how to get there from the internet (yay for having the internet back!). I also need to find somewhere to do some laundry!

I guess there is something special about some random Bear statues around Berlin. In support of the Berlin bear fascination, I’ve taken a picture with one and yes, that is the face I make when I’m concentrating on how to use the camera!

Today I've been wandering around my new area. I finally made it up in time to have my free breakfast which was great... except for the accidental choice of liverwurst. I did have a currywurst today and it was actually pretty good. Mainly it was sausage with curry sprinkled on top and doused in ketchup. I’m going to take it easy tonight by working, reading, and relaxing. The only English-speaking TV channels are CNN International and some similar news channel. I did see WWE on last night dubbed in German. Sad, just sad!