Volume 2, Day 10
Despite taking it easy on Friday, or perhaps because so, I slept in a bit in the morning. Of course, my definition of sleeping in is still on the early side. In any case, I spent a leisurely morning in the hostel, popping over to the supermarket for some pastries and helping myself to a little coffee from the breakfast. I would have paid for a coffee from the coffee machine (and taken free water to make my own), but the machine was off. What choice did I have, asks the person seeking rationalization.
It was nearly noon before I even realized it, and I was feeling good from focusing so intently on my writing and studying. I went over to the Kaufland to buy a salad, and remembering that the supermarkets would be closed on Sunday, went ahead and bought bread, wine, and gummy just in case. I ate my salad in the hostel as the staff were cleaning up from breakfast and then rushed off downtown on a rented Mobike. I ditched the bike when I got stuck in traffic and street repairs near Alexanderplatz and walked the last two blocks to the German History Museum. A good part of the reason I wanted to stay the extra weekend in Berlin was to have a day to roam the museum.
I bought my ticket and headed upstairs to begin browsing the exhibits. Fans of art or medieval weapons would definitely be rewarded by the museum, which houses several complete (and shiny) suits of armor, some even posed in jousting position on an armored horse. Meanwhile, hundreds of portraits of various people I’ve never heard of provide pepper the halls. I feel I got a bit of a refresher on European history from the fall of the Roman empire to modern times, but a lot of the exhibits were out of order and the introductory texts generally assumed a lot of familiarity with the topic on the part of the reader. Note, I am saying European history because it is impossible to untangle German history from the rest of the continent with shifting borders, power dynamics, and religious wars.
I finished WWI and headed downstairs with an hour left before the museum closed, but of course the sections covering the Weimar Republic, the rise of Nazism, WWII and post-war Germany were far more extensive than the upstairs exhibits. It’s not an exact analogy, but I was surprised by how many details in the Nazi playbook remind me of the trajectory China is on, particularly in the way the CCP frames its historical narrative and is gradually increasing its control over all culture, media, and thought.
I had to pick up my pace when the fifteen minute announcement came over the loudspeaker, meaning I only had 10 minutes to get through the second world war and five minutes to cover the cold war. When I stumbled out of the museum at 6, I realized I had spent more than four hours in there and could have easily spent another 2.
I was going to load up a podcast to accompany on a walk to Kreuzberg, but the strains of an opera wafted through the air. I crossed the street to Babelplatz (in front of Humboldt University) to find the plaza was broadcasting Tristan and Isolde on a large screen. “Staatoper fur Alle” is an annual tradition to bring the state symphony out of its opera hall (adjacent) and provide free classical music to the masses. I made note of the 1pm start time for Sunday and scheduled “free opera” on my to-do list.
On the other side of Gendarmenmarkt, I spotted a small family run supermarket that was unexpectedly open on a Sunday and popped in to have a look at their fridge case. I was even more surprised to see a decent selection of cold beers at cheap, cheap supermarket prices (the kiosks and spati tend to be priced like a convenience store, of which I have yet to see. It is weird to go from the land of 7-Elevens, Family Marts, and Lawsons to Europe). So, I couldn’t resist dropping a euro for some monk-made beer.
I continued to wander south, passing a man-made urban beach (a collection of bar/restaurant stands with sand and beach chairs), and Checkpoint Charlie. Near Merhingplatz I spotted another open supermarket and took the opportunity to grab a snack (little salami sticks) and a Carlsberg (much less selection of cold beer) before finding a bench along the canal to sit down and have a rest while I waited to meet C at 7:30.
C and I met on the bridge and walked a bit along the canal to another plaza where a band was playing House of the Rising Sun from a trailer attached to a bike. As were walking up, the police were already closing in to shut down the unlicensed concert. It was a bit loud, considering they had powered amps. C’s friend from Hamburg, R, showed up fortuitously and we hung around chatting for a while before heading to Tang’s Chinese Kitchen after 8.
I didn’t catch how long Tang had lived in Germany, but these guys, who are a bit older than me used to regularly come to the restaurant back in the day. We were also joined at dinner by an Italian guy, his sister, her son, and another German. It was quite an international party. I got to speak to Tang in Chinese every time she came by the table, but she spoke confident German to the other guys. It was interesting experience overall. The food was pretty good, a given since the cooks are brought in from China, though it was obvious that they weren’t masters of every dish, which were drawn from different regions of China. When I talked to the cook at the end of the night and found out he was from Hunan, it made sense from the taste of the dishes. I had heard the chef was from Sichuan at the beginning of the night and made a point of ordering classic Sichuan dishes, but they weren’t quite right.
There was a lot of alcohol involved, and by the end of the night, Tang’s husband was sitting with us and pouring liberally from a bottle of Shanxi fenjiu. We didn’t disperse until after 1 am and I was really tired. The neighborhood was super quiet, but C and I biked part of the way together, passing through some areas bustling with activity and revelry. I was back in the hostel by 2am and I noticed that the Americans, who had a 6am flight, were already checked out and gone from the room.
| Pastries | 1.58 |
| Groceries + lunch | 7.31 |
| Mobike | 1 |
| Deutsches Historisches Museum | 8 |
| Monchshof beer | 1.15 |
| Carlsberg + salami | 2.56 |
| Dinner | 25 |
| Mobike | 2 |
| Total: | 48.6 EUR (379 RMB) (USD 54.73) |
Running Total: 5578.5 RMB (USD 805.6)
Daily Average: 557.9 RMB (USD 80.56)