Reichstag and Ramen

After my adventure this morning, I was not really up for more adventures. However, our program had a scheduled visit to the Reichstag. That's the German parliment building, and it happens to be a couple blocks from the Brandenburg Gate, which happens to be a couple blocks from my apartment.

Luckily, it was close by and I was with lots of other people.

The Reichstag has a large glass dome on the top. This is a modern addition. People can go up into the glass dome and look over the city. Directly beneath the dome is the plenary chamber, which you can sort of see from above. This is supposed to represent the transparency of the government.

((Here's a picture of the building in question!))

When we made it through security, we were greeted by our older tour guide. After we introduced ourselves as Americans, he immediatly wrinkled his nose and made a comment about Donald Trump. Good to know we have such a great reputation abroad...

He took us through the building, showing us a model of the city, the library with all the parliment records, and Angela Merkel's office. Our group wasn't very good at staying together, so I think that further irritated him. By the end of the tour, I couldn't tell if he disliked us or if he was just being German.

Across the road, there was another building. I can't remember the significance, but you can pass between the two buildings via an underground tunnel. Today, the tunnel is just a normal hallway with long people movers (so fun!). Originally though, it was a small brick tunnel carved underground. There was a cross-section, and we all got to walk through it. Hello inner child!

I wasn't able to get a great picture of it, but one of the hallways in the Reichstag (actually where Merkel's office is) has a unique design. The walls look like crumbling white brick, and there is a lot of Russian graffiti (all small and in black ink). This represents the destruction of the Reichstag during the final days of WWII.

The Russian soldiers (understandably) defaced the buliding when they finally captured it. Although the outside has long since been repaired, some of the internal hallways were designed to serve as a memorial to these Russian soldiers.

The Reichstag also has a lot of art! As you can see in the picture of the library, some of it is quite unique and abstract. There's one piece by an artist named Katarina that is a cancer cell drawn on top of an image of the Reichstag. Art comes from not only German artists, but also American, French, British, and Russian artists, since they were the allied powers that occupied Berlin after the war. The American contribution was (of course) flashing neon lights displaying 10+ hours of quotes from famous German political speeches.

We went out onto a balcony and got to see some other cool political buildings. Across the river, there is the official congressional library. The library building looked awesome. I kinda wished we could have toured that, too! Apparently at night, they project a light show onto the building and show a visual history of Berlin. I don't think I'm going to make it to that, but it's a cool thing nonetheless.

At last, it was time to go up to the dome! It was closing, and they weren't allowing any of the tour groups through. However, our guide pulled some strings, and we got an elevator up. We said goodbye, which was suprisingly sad. As our IES student assistant called him, I'd grown attached to our "our nice mumbling guide".

The dome had a free audio guide, so we all put on our headphones and wandered up. There weren't stairs, but instead a spiraling ramp. The audio guide somehow knew where you were, and would play audio depending on which direction you were facing. If you walked to fast, you would cut off your nice British guide mid-sentence and he would start a new section. Towards the end, I got tired of the guide, and just kept moving and cutting the poor fellow off.

The view was very nice, though. You could see lots of major Berlin landmarks (at least those located in the Mitte district). I could even see the Nordmensa cafeteria where I got hopelessly lost earlier today.

((Pictures - "You can see my house from here!" - The inside of the dome - My beautiful face - View outside - Top of the dome))

The top of the dome was actually open, so rain could come in. There was this odd cone-shaped structure used to catch rain.

Finally, we wandered back down the dome. All of us were getting pretty hungry, and we were craving Ramen. Not the blocks of instant noodles from the store - real resturant ramen! We found a place called Takumi Nine not too far away.

It was so wonderful! I think I found my new favorite resturant in Berlin. On Wednesdays, they have half-price Gyoza (amazing doughy pockets with pork inside). The food was amazing. I had curry rice with chicken, which was wonderful. I love Asian food!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We shared lots of laughter and appetizers. We made a pact to come back every Wednesday. (Which we have very successfully upheld, I might add. Not that I am writing this journal several weeks after the fact...)

As is a very common theme, I crashed upon returning to the apartment. My bed is comfy, my day was long, and I was happy to sleep. :)