I decided to let myself relax and settle into the hostel and finish my book in the morning, then I spent the afternoon on a free walking tour. That's definitely something I'd suggest when traveling, especially if you're like me and a) you're bad at directions and like that a tour teaches you a few landmarks and helps you orient yourself as to where things are situated, and b) you like looking at historical things, especially when there's someone there to point out the hard-to-find ones and tell you cool stories about them. (Plus, sometimes you get a Liverpudlian guide!)
After that I doubled back over a couple of the sites on my own. I wanted to see the Reichstag up close and I wanted to spend more time at the Holocaust memorial (the real name of which is long and German and I don't think anybody actually calls it that), which is seriously cool.
When you look at it from the edge, you can't tell that it's not built on flat ground, or that the stone blocks are all in straight rows, but when you start walking between them, the ground dips and suddenly you're in the middle of this maze of giant stone blocks.
It feels a little like walking down a city street, with the buildings encroaching impossibly close on both sides, and even though there were plenty of other people in there, when you turn a corner it can feel like there's no one else there at all. It was definitely an evocative experience.
I was getting pretty tired by this point, so I headed back to my hostel and stopped along the way for some currywurst (sausage with ketchup and curry powder on it), which I was told I must try. It was pretty good, and after that I called it a night.
The next day, I had been planning to wander and then go on another (alas not free) walking tour, but I stumbled on a bike tour place that was doing Cold War/Berlin Wall tours, and I took that instead. My knee had been bothering me a bit, twingy from all the walking, but I wrapped it up (in gauze, for alas there were no Ace bandages to be found), and maybe it was psychosomatic healing or something, but it felt much better. After the tour, which took us all over the city but felt much less strenuous than walking, I went out for my first proper German beer, which I obviously took a picture of.
I ended up in this tiny little French-themed bar full of smoke (you can smoke inside here!) and cheap beer. We shared a table with some locals and tried some shot they had, which tasted sweet and strangely (and strongly) like flowers and herbs, and seemed to me like the kind of thing they give you in Faerie so you won't be able to leave, and it felt like an authentic experience, whatever that means.
The next day, Sunday, I let myself sleep in, which I desperately needed, even though it meant I missed a huge flea market I'd been planning to go to. In the afternoon I visited the Pergamon Museum, which has a bunch of famous antiquities (like the Ishtar Gate, which is apparently a thing) that some German archaeologists brought back in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, the exhibit with the Pergamon Altar was closed for renovations, but I had fun looking at everything else. I love old things, and imagining the stories that go with them.
My favorite thing was probably the Wall of Mshatta, an ancient city (or palace?) in Jordan. Check out the detail on that stone carving! On a huge wall! Human beings are so impressive.
After the Pergamon, I braved the subways system and wandered around Berlin's baby version of Oktoberfest and ate more street food, and then it was just about time to pack up and head to bed.
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