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| Erin's Journal for 9-19-02 This was to be our last full day in Berlin, so we decided to check out a few more museums. I'd found a listing for the Museum of Natural History, so after our usual leisurely prep time, we walked up there. This is part of the Humboldt University umbrella, and houses the largest dinosaur skeleton in existence. They had a pretty good collection of bones in the front rooms, and an impressive setup of zoology specimens in the back rooms - the scenes were lovingly created in great detail, with actual stuffed creatures of each type presented. The water bucks of Africa for example towered hugely above us, and the rhino was immense! Very cool museum, and small enough to get through before becoming exhausted. After that we walked on to the S-Bahn (the above-ground version of the U-Bahn, and using the same tickets) to get to the Egyptian museum at the far end of town. Everything in Berlin is further than it looks on the map, so we got plenty of exercise even with the public transport! The claim to fame of the Egyptian museum in Berlin is the famed mask of Nefertiti. It really is quite elegant and beautiful, and makes all the other pieces in the museum pale by comparison. After seeing her, I was pretty content to rush through the rest of the sculptures, script samples, etc. and head on to snack time - by now it was 3:30pm! We stopped for - you guessed it - Italian food for a late lunch and watched the passersby. The Egyptian museum is right across the street from a huge palace, so we watched the schoolkids and tourists come out of the immense grounds as we dined. We were tired by then and totally burnt out on museums, so we called off any further attempts that day and headed back to the hostel for a nap. I had only gotten about 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep the night before and was getting collectively more tired each day, so I needed it But as soon as we arrived, we found ourselves greeting a nice new roommate, Fabio (not THE Fabio, but still a nice guy, from Brazil). We checked out his digital photos as we chatted, then when he took off to explore the area, I bedded down. Not 10 minutes later, another new roomie came in, and I gave up. We talked for a while, and ended up going down for happy hour and eventually dinner with Ben, a nice guy from Perth, Australia. When we got back from dinner, it was time for the 2nd happy hour (each night there's one at 8-9pm and one at 12am-1am), so Ben stayed there while Glenn and I went up to crash. |
| The world renowned mask of Nefertiti |