Day 42 - Move Ahead; Fall Behind

Okay, I took the day off yesterday and felt much better. I didn't really take the day off, though. I grabbed the hostel's Lonely Planet guide to Germany and started checking out Berlin. In fact, I think I've basically sorted out the rest of my itenerary. This is tentative, of course.

Date: City
May 27: Berlin
June 6: Krakow
June 9: Prague
June 14: Budapest
June 20: Athens (may take a day or two of travel)

That's a long time in Berlin, but there's a crazy amount to see there. I've heard there's a fabulous tour by a guy who worked for British intelligence during the cold war. Check it out. The first line of the description of the Nightlife Tour is especially choice for fans of late 80s SNL. I think I'll have to go on that one.

Okay, so let me check where I left off. [goes to check]

Doh! I forgot to tell you the rest of the story about the Devil Church. Even if you don't believe the first story about how the devil built it, here's another. And this one is definitely true. They ran out of funding many times during the twenty years they were building the church. Their biggest fund drive involved bringing in hundreds of vatican priests to sell indulgences. They sold one hundred and forty thousand indulgences to the thirteen thousand people of Munich. So even if you don't believe the devil literally built the church, it's foundation is definitely on shaky moral ground. We now resume your regularly scheduled bulleted list to recap today's events.

• Center For Unusual Museums. I was in a mood for something goofy, so I hit the Center. I was getting worried as I headed up to it. There was this piece of paper on all the signs for it with some sort of letter written on it. I thought maybe they were closed for refurbishing or something. I kind of wish they had been. It turns out they're closing. My first day back in the states (June 30), will be the last day of the Center For Unusual Museums. And if you can't muster any sadness, you have no appreciation for kitsch. Skip to the next bullet. Okay, for the rest of you (and this definitely means you, Holly :) the CTUM rox with a capital OX! It's a collection of funky little museums. The most expansive (and probably most hilarious) is the chamber pot museum. You have no idea how elaborate some chamber pots were. The oriental enamel painted ones were as elaborate as any of the vases I've seen in the British Museum or Louvre. You have no idea how silly some chamber pots were. It was apparently very popular to paint an open eye on the bottom of the chamber pots. We move on to the guardian angel museum. Since guardian angels don't get the attention that regular angels, saints, martyrs, and apostles seem to, the CTUM decided to collect everything with guardian angels on it. From paintings to plates; from statues to snowglobes (well, one snowglobe anyway), they had plenty of guardian merchandise. They also had the pedal car museum, featuring pedal cars from since before there were even real cars. (The tricycle horse they had could predate automobiles, anyway.) Then there was the museum of perfume bottles and the museum of official wax seals. Did you know Einstein had a seal? What a kook! I could go on, and certainly will when I get back with my pictures, but before you think this museum was entirely fun and games, let me tell you one thing. One museum in the CTUM was so disturbing, so frightening, so just plain wrong that I dare not speak of it online. Suffice it to say children will not be allowed to view the slides. Brrrr.
• Deutches Museum. After being laughed out (and creeped out) by the CTUM, I headed for the german equivalent of the Exploratorium. I gotta tell you, the Exploratorium is way more fun. There were some fun things here, but nothing as cool as the shadow flash room or the shadow dance room at the Exploratorium. They don't even have the bed of pins to poke your eyes out with. Who would have though Germans took their science so seriously? Regardless, there were some cool things to see, but the map it was listed on lied when it said the displays were in german and english. Many were, but a lot weren't (and wouldn'tcha know the most interesting stuff was all german).

That's really most of what I did today. I spent three hours at the CTUM and four hours at the Deutches Museum. Then I dropped my big pretzel on the floor... twice... and ate it anyway. The stores are mostly closed on Sunday. I'm beginning to resent Catholics a little. I wonder if everything in Israel is closed on Saturday?

One last thing before I wrap up. I'll be headed to John's Cozy Little Oriental Hostel Berlin next. (They have PS2 and Xbox! w00t11!) I'll email them to make sure I've got the proper address so we can get that half gig memory card mailed. Swapping the smaller ones is a bit of a pain.