11.13.2011 Franzosischer Dom, Huguenot Museum, and chocolate

funny bunny

So, I have a new goal... (other than finding a home for Christmas, but don't get me started on that one)
I'm going to see ALL the museums in Berlin. It'll be exciting! And I'll have a wonderful collection of tickets to go with it.



Anyway, yesterday I went to see an apartment (my first!) and it was beautiful, but I didn't get it, and that's the end of that story... The second apartment, the guy stood me up so I didn't get that one either. Actually, he is the cousin of my coworker and apparently he has done that before, but to her mother!! Boy was she peeved when she found out!

Water fountain! I have yet to try if it actually spurts water...

I didn't have any solid weekend plans except for Sunday which was to go inside the Reichstag and view the city from their little glass dome thing. I think it's the equivalent of going up the Peace Bell tower on Parliament Hill so as a new addition to the city (I am referring to myself) there's an (unwritten) obligation to check it out.

"the galleria" store window display

I headed out early just in case I miss like five trains or get lost or something and hung about Alexanderplatz. I was hoping to bump into a flea market, but instead, they were setting up the Christmas market! I'm so excited! It'll be all kitchy and fun. There was also a really fun display window with mechanical stuffed toys. A total kid and/or old grandma lure but well done. Christmas in Berlin is going to be interesting.

1. Alexanderplatz on the left, ferris wheel in the distance,                                                             2. Alexanderplatz station on the right

 

1. girl making giant bubbles                                      2. I was craving a beavertail, and this lemon sugar crepe was not even close. : (

 Christmas! Waiting for the bus to go to the Reichstag

And then, on my way to the Reichstag I get a text from my friend saying that we couldn't go because the guy who had our tickets couldn't be found. I was already well on my way there, so I just got off at the next random stop and walked around the area. Actually, right across the street was a very old French Cathedral. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting much nor was I intrigued but there was nothing else to do, so I went in. The church interior was unpretentious and maybe-a-bit-too-harsh-but banal, white, and neither contemporary nor dated, it was almost like just a temporary space or maybe I just didn't understand it. Although if you google it online, it looks much nicer hahaha.

 1.Another christmas market starting up,                                                 2. The radiating triangle. HE is watching.

In the second entrance, was a tiny museum! This technically counts as my first museum for the collection of many future museums so I was pretty excited to have found it. The Huguenot Museum is a tiny displayed archive documenting their[the Huguenots (a group of refugee French Calvinists from the 17th C)] influence on Berlin. Everything was in German, and some French, so I didn't even try to pretend I was German and reading everything with great understanding, I just walked about and judged everything visually. 

1. Original stained glass parts,                                                            2. Mirror mirror on the wall...

view from atop the bell tower

The third entrance led to a bell tower! Here, you could climb up to the very top, so of course I did. This was the highlight of the weekend! I had made it just in time for the sunset which was such a pleasant surprise. There was nobody in the tower except for me, and I was only expecting bells and windows at the top, so when I pushed open the door to the balustrade, I did not expect it to give way and open to the outside. So you can imagine it totally took my breath away in astonishment. I jumped up on to every bench to get a view from every angle. If only they were closer together I could hop from one to the next (like in Sound of Music!). This reminded me of that time I waited for my friend to take a picture out of every side of Giotto's Campanile on every floor. 

1. looking up, dizzy?                                                                           2. looking down

 

1. up at the top top looking down down.                                         2. The bells, but they seemed almost suspiciously mechanical

1. more views from above,                                                                                    2. elevation

Then there was this building. I thought it was another church thing, but it was a museum (that does not serve tickets) holding a permanent German Parliament exhibition: "Ways - Wrong Ways - Detours: The Development of Parliamentary Democracy in Germany" There are five levels, and about two to three ways to enter each floor. Beginning from the 4th floor, the walls change to this pasty yellow colour and the ceilings get all curvy and the hallways cross and interconnect to other hallways. The only thing I could think of, while running through all the different routes with glee like a silly mouse in a maze was, "How fun would it be to play tag..."

1.The German Dome,                                                  2. looking up

The exhibition was as exciting as its title, and again, many of it was in German. But as you can see, the architecture was more exciting than the unreadable content. However, do you notice a similarity between the bell tower and this German-Parliament-owned-museum thing?  Other than the fact that one is German and the other is French, someone was obviously looking at the other person's architectural drawings when building their interiors. (I'm only joking, they were built to be architecturally sisterly on purpose)

1. On the 2nd floor, you can get a top view of a model located on the first floor! Peek-a-boo 2. Go ladies, it's your day. "Frauen Tag" translates to Women's Day

There is no secret door to the outside here. 

"Okay, you win," she says.

I found the Ritter Sport store! Here, you can make your own chocolate. You choose between dark or milk chocolate as a base, and then choose what you want on the inside like nuts, or what-have-you, and then in 30 minutes for almost 4 euros, you can have your own expensive, but one of a kind chocolate creation. Just with that alone made this place like 10x better than the M&M store in New York (sorry!). Plus, they have a giant wall of flavours > wall of multi-coloured uni-flavoured M&Ms. Just the other day I was telling myself that I was going to get all the Ritter Sport flavours (because I like to collect things) and I have a friend who likes to eat chocolate, and he warned me not to go all hahaha-crazy about it. Well, I can give up now because all the flavours are in one place and the catch is no good without the chase. Plus, there are waaay more flavours than I thought! But rest assured, I didn't leave empty handed, I still have a giant grab bag of random flavours for you.

Chocolate creation time

The Reichstag, built out of chocolate.

The Ven. and I met up for dinner, and when I showed her my Ritter Sport bag, she was like, "Girl, that's not real chocolate, let me show you a real chocolate store." Haha, so she took me to this place called Fassbender & Rausch and it seemed like it was run by elves or oompa loompas. Not in terms of comedy, but in terms of how serious they were of their product. The windows are lined with giant models made out of chocolate and aisles were filled with ribbon tied boxes of neat little truffles, "Chocolates for the true chocolate lover," they chant say. Although I'm a bit sceptical about the chocolate models because it's probably plastic on the inside (Only because the Guylian ones in Australia were straight up (disappointing) chocolate coloured plastic gnomes), I tried some of their chocolate a few days later and it was actually really good!  .

Here, you can even buy your chocolate in gold wire baskets! How exquisite!

Sony Center.

Our (the Ven. and I) goal today was to see the Sony Center. There really isn't much there, apparently it is just shops, which were all closed by the time we went, but it is one of the newer buildings in the city. And by new, I mean built within the past ten years. 

On our way to the Sony Center we had to take a short train ride two stations from where we had dinner. While waiting for our train to arrive, the Ven. looked at me and suddenly asked, "Where is your bag?!" I was taken aback by her sudden exclamation but I looked to my hands and realized I was not holding onto my Ritter Sport chocolates any more! I had forgotten it under the table at the restaurant. Luckily the restaurant was just across the street so I booked it over there, exploded through the doors, and motioned mutely with an abashed smile about a particular bag of chocolates left under the table where I had been sitting only a dozen minutes ago. By the time I returned to the platform, the train had just arrived. I figure the Ven. would not get on the train without me, but one of them (there are two) saw me running down the platform and we made eye contact and she pointed at the train and nodded, so I tried to get as close to her train-box, (caboose?) as possible and then I hopped on with the doors closing behind me. And as the doors were closing, I heard a distinct outcry in Cantonese, "Doooon't get onnnn!!". Turns out, they didn't get on, and I did, and we waved to each other from both sides of the window as the train started. I got off at the next station and waited for them, but I got off laughing. 

"Hey look! We are both wearing our winter hats!" she points out.

            1. Bus stop entertainment. A trivia for while you wait! or miss your bus..                 2. Entrance tickets!