Up the Fernsehturm

I now wake up at the same time that I used to wake up each morning to go to work. In fact, my commute takes about the same amount of time, except now instead of standing on a crowded subway heading down to King Street, I'm walking through the early morning streets of East Berlin towards my language school. Point is, that despite the improved commute, I still am getting up shortly after 6:30 every morning (halb sieben, auf Deutsch!). And I need to go to bed earlier. Blargh.

After a good but looonng morning of classes, I participated this afternoon in my first Goethe Institut cultural/sightseeing activity. The school runs a wide range of afternoon programs that you can sign up for, some free and others with an associated low cost. Tomorrow, for instance, there's a pub night at a local pub, and on Sunday, I'm going on a tour of Kreuzberg, a neighbourhood in Berlin.They also offer museum trips and various lectures about Berlin. But today--today I went to visit my favourite example of communist architectural triumph, the Berliner Fernsehturm!

This thing, remember?

The Fernsehturm!

Alas, I took that photo on a sunnier day. Today, of course, it was hazy and rainy. In fact, while I don't think any occurred, thunderstorms were even forecast for this afternoon. It certainly did rain. So the clarity wasn't stellar, but the views were still impressive.

Mitte, with part of Museum Island visible on the left-hand side, and the Neue Synagogue (see the golden dome?) on the top right.

The Berliner Dom, with a view up Unter den Linden to the Brandenburg Gate (not really visible because of the haze) and the great Tiergarten beyond.

I like this photo because it captures some of the wide range of building styles here in Berlin. For instance, in the foreground you have some older buildings (likely rebuilt or partially rebuilt after receiving bombing damage during the war), and then you have the 1970s communist apartment buildings on the left. And of course you also have the shell of a church in the bottom centre of the photo, likely bombed during the war and left as a shell either for lack of funds or to serve as a poignant reminder of the war...or both.

More Mitte.

A closer photo of the same section of Mitte. I am pretty sure that the building in the middle with the series of glass skylights is the Goethe Institut!

Bötzowstrasse (my street!) in the middle there. The mass of greenery is part of Volkspark Friedrichshain, my go-to haunt for some outdoor reading.

In addition to taking in these views, I had a pretty great German moment today. One of the Fernsehturm's employee escorts visitors to and from the observation deck in one of the elevators. On my way down this afternoon, a German couple on the elevator remarked to the employee with us that the weather was so bad. The employee responded, saying that it seems whenever she happens to be scheduled to work, the weather is without fail bad, thus ruining the view. It wasn't particularly funny, but I laughed right along with the German couple and the others on the elevator.

Beyond the fact that I UNDERSTOOD HER, this moment was a big deal for me because it reminded me of something that happened on my previous trip to Germany, five years ago, when I spoke absolutely no German. Back then, I was on the S-bahn returning from a solo museum excursion. The train stopped at a station and about eight police officers, fully decked out in riot gear, got on my car. They were relaxed, their helmets were off, they were laughing with each other--it appeared as though they were on their way back from some kind of exercise. At any rate, one of the other passengers on the train asked them something in German; from the context, I could only presume it was something along the lines of where they were coming from. One of the police officers responded and then all of a sudden all of the people in the car--a handful of others plus the police officers--started laughing. And even though I had no idea of what the joke was, I started to fake-laugh so as not to look conspicuous.

So you see, today, what was so awesome about today's moment in the elevator was that I was right there, genuinely laughing along with all those native German speakers! Wee! So, progress, methinks.

Also, does a pretzel roll that I made into a sandwich count as a pretzel? I think so...

There was a salad to accompany this sandwich. I did not have a monochromatic meal, don't worry.

BREZELN COUNT: 3