august 11th: educational fun in berlin

Meseum tour

After a tremendous night out the previous evening, Sophia, Matt and I went to breakfast at Steinecke Cafe. There I had a delicious German sandwich with three different types of meat and a cobbler pie. It was the perfect meal to start the day. 

The plan for the day was to see an art museum before going to a beach party on a river in Berlin. Matt and I split off from Sophia to see the Museum Berggruen, known for it's spectacular artwork from Picasso, Paul Klee and others. 

Museum Berggruen has generous amount of artwork from the collector Heinz Berggruen. Berggruen bought his first  first collectors piece, a Paul Klee watercolor painting, in 1940 for $100. Five decades later, he gave Berlin the bulk of his impressive collection, which was recently valued at $450m. It includes 165 masterpieces by Braque, Matisse, Klee and Giacometti. This gallery/museum also has more than 100 works by Picasso from early student sketches. The museum is an impressive sight. I enjoyed wandering around for the 3 hours I was there. 

After an educational filled day at Museum Berggruen, Matt and I headed to the Arena where the beach party was. The Arena is a beach bar that has a swimming pool in the middle of a massive river. The buildings surrounding the bar area are over a hundred years old. That night, there was a Tango competition going on. It was interesting to see Tango dancers dance the night away in Berlin as we hung out in the sand. Matt and I had a few drinks while hanging out with others on the sand. I then fell asleep for the next 3 hours. Matt eventually did the same thing. The past fews days didn’t include much sleep for either of us. So, to sleep on the beach that day was quite nice. Matt eventually went swimming in the pool. I had forgotten my swim trunks unfortunately. 

Pool party in the river

The plan after the pool was to get dinner with another friend from Berlin, Benny. We both met Benny in Hong Kong. He brought out his friend who was visiting from Bavaria. We all went out and had Spatzel and Maultaschen. I had the Maultaschen, while Matt had the cheesy Spatzel. It was great to see Benny again. It had been three years since the last time we all drank together. Once dinner ended, Benny and his friend ended back home. 

Maultaschen 

Matt and I started to head back to the hostel for the night. As we walked into the train station, we saw a large group of people crowding around a live band on an intersection. We decided to check it out the commotion. I’ve never seen so many people watch a live taping of a band, let alone a band on a street corner at 2am. It was an interesting experience to watch the reactions of the crowd. The main performer was from France. He was live recording his album other musicians chimed in with their voices. His main instrument was a trombone. He would make a beat using a synthesizer. He'd repeat this process until the entire song was completed. He would then add his own trombone solo as the completed song play in the background. What a random treat to run into! I especially enjoyed the main singers voice as he serenaded the crowd. 

After Cesar, there was another band to perform next. I found the woman's voice to be funky, yet beautiful. 

Tomorrow we leave Cottbus, Germany to check out the countryside.