Berlin - Final Day

14:38, on the 200 bus to Tiergarten

The first thing I visited this morning was the Topographie des Terrors. It's a museum that documents the Nazis rise to power, the different factions of the Nazi army, the camps, what happened throughout WW2, the liberation of the concentration camps and subsequent war crime trials. It was really interesting, but heavy (of course). Wasn't impressed with what looked like school-aged kids giggling around the place, though. Pretty disrespectful. There was also a photography exhibit on the Polish ghettos, which was a great illustration of the difficulties of life in the ghettos, and how the people strived to keep things as normal as possible within those communities. Pretty moving stuff.

I went over to Sea Life next, because I figured it would be light relief from the very serious place I had just visited. It was a nice little place, and walking around looking at the fish was really calming. There was this mirror maze thing at the end before the gift shop, and I've never been so messed up in my life. It took me forever to get through the thing because I was so scared of walking into the bloody mirrors. I emerged into the gift shop, blinking stupidly because my head was swimming. In the gift shop I bought a keyring with a tiny shark plush on it, and it's the cutest ever.

Photographed with a glass just to show how small it is.

There's a bit after the gift shop called the AquaDOM, which is basically a gigantic cylinder full of water with over 100 species of fish in it. You can go up in the middle of it in an elevator and see everything and it's really good! It was like being in the ocean without getting wet and without scary things like jellyfish interfering with you. It was really cool!

I needed some lunch at that point, and found a place across the road from Sea Life called Kantine Deluxe. It's exactly how it sounds - it looks like a bougie canteen. You order on a tablet and then collect your food from the open kitchen. It was really nice in there. I had seasoned chips and a currywurst, followed by a creme brulee. Absolutely delicious!

I'm now on the bus to the Tiergarten - I'm thinking of taking a walk to burn off lunch. Don't know if I'll even make it though as the bus is at a standstill and loads of police vehicles keep going by (I think there's a politician in the city or something). Plus it's really cold.

Sou and I have made plans to meet up again this evening because it's my last night in Berlin, and we're going to have a few drinks to see me off. It's going to be fun, but I feel really sad because I kind of don't ever want to leave.

16:01, Heinrich Heine Straße station
   
I didn't go to the Tiergarten because of the ridiculously stressful traffic (the bus stopped like three stops early because of the whole politician-in-town thing so I would've had to walk for ages in the freezing cold to get there). It was a shame because I wanted to see the Tiergarten, and I probably won't get a chance to now, but it's on my itinerary for next time I'm here!

I went to go see where the Kit Kat Club (yes, it was named for the club from Cabaret); I could only see the entrance because it wasn't open yet, but it was interesting to see the location. It was very east-Berlin. I would've gone out to the club but you have to dress in fetish style or similar and I have nothing even slightly outrageous with me. It'd be interesting to go there properly some day.

Now I'm on the way back to the hostel so I can freshen up and get ready for meeting Sou later on.