Day 52 - Ready For Some Nightlife

It was a cranky day today. I'm really sick of being cranky. It's a useless feedback loop. But it is fun to watch people get out of my way in museums when I'm in a bad mood. :P

Today was the Pergamon. The Pergamon does big better than anyone. They've basically rebuilt sections of temples and fortresses inside the museum. The roof is about twenty meters high so that you can check out all their majesty. It's nuts. I made myself cranky by forgetting to recharge my batteries. Luckily my iPod batteries had enough juice to get me through the day. In my continuing study of what makes some art interesting and some art not, I found it really interesting that a lot of the objects in the islaamic section of the Pergamon were lit from below, the same technique used by Wes Craven (or his lighting tech) to make the dream world of Nightmare on Elm Street seem unnatural. Given what I've been reading about German prejudice lately, I'm not sure I approve of the choice, although I thought the artifacts looked cool. Then again, I always keep an eye out for something that might inspire a DOOM wall texture or architectural motif, so maybe they really are trying to make the islaamic stuff look evil.

After that, I took off for the Old National Gallery. That was pretty cool. It's organized fairly similarly to the gallery I liked so much in Munich (the Alte Pinakotek). I largely whipped through it though. I was crochety over my batteries and other things. Also, german museums employ people to watch you at all times. I was told not to get too close to the paintings with my camera. It's not very conducive to the art appreciation experience to feel like you're being there is nothing but a potential problem. Heck, in the nigh deserted Kunstgewerber museum, the guards actually followed me around. Also, they don't want me to put my camera against glass cases to get good pictures of the items within. They don't light it brightly enough that you can take the picture by hand, you can't use the glass to steady your picture, and they don't have pictures of most of the smaller items in any books or card you can buy. What the %$}*. Fire that useless guard and shell out for new glass once a year. The museum will save thousands. And one last complaint regarding the Old National Gallery, the audio guide sucked. Too few works have description numbers. Half of the numbers are wrong. (At least they're written in a different way so you learn not to waste your time.) And your characterization of The Thinker doesn't match up with the description from the Rodin museum. Get it together.

Afterwards, I went over to the culinary school to grab dinner. No dice. They seem to have one menu a day and it doesn't cater to vegetarians. I could have had soup and some veggies in cheese sauce, not a dinner for someone covering as much ground as I do. I had another plate at my favorite turkish place, instead. I really dig that restaurant. The pasta I had today wasn't a culinary delight, but it was good, filling, and cheap. Additionally, the people who work there are always very nice and seem to really care if I'm enjoying my meal. I'll probably eat there more than a few more times before I leave.

Speaking of leaving, it's time to book accomodation in Krakow. Heck, I'd like to get my hostel arrangements out of the way for the month. We are in the last month now, and even as crochety as I've been, I'm going to miss this place and all the others. By the same token, I'm looking forward to not having to constantly relearn how to get basic necessities (food, transportaion, ATMs, laundry, etc.) handled. All right. Tonight is the nightclub tour, so I better get my butt in gear. Berlin is famous for its nightlife, and I'm looking forward to getting a broader feel for it.