hello from Berlin! aside from enjoying yet more ethnic food (Vietnamese noodles ... mmm), we spent most of yesterday (our first full day here) seeing the standard tourist sights: Unter-der-Linden, Alexanderplatz, the Reichstag, the Brandenberg Gate, etc. we had planned to take a bus that would have driven us past most of the major sights, but due to some sort of protest, there was a detour. we assumed that we were experiencing a repeat of what happened in Vienna, where we unknowingly arrived just in time for a major holiday: we had, after all, walked past a 17 Juni Strasse, and was it not the 17th of June? when we got to a major square near Alexanderplatz, we were even more sure. there were scraps of newspaper and flyers everywhere; clearly, something big had gone down. we were obviously in Berlin at a time of great national import, and had no idea what was going on. I began mentally waxing poetic about the energy and revolutionary spirit of this city.

Kat asked someone about it later: June 17 was the date of some sort of workers' strike. the protestors, however, apparently had no idea that the dayhad any historic significance, and were protesting something to do with housing problems. way to go, Berlin.

of the major Berlin museums, we went to the Pergamnon and the Jewish Museum. the former has some truly staggering artifacts from a demolished Greek town (from which the museum takes its name). they have assembled the front part of the town's largest temple in the main hall of the museum. it is extremely impressive. the Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Liebeskind (Kat: "wow, it looks a lot like the ROM"), is really fascinating inside. in addition to the more tradition museum stuff (artifacts, informative posters, etc.), they have a lot of interactive exhibits, including photo albums and some home movies - interesting and thoughtful. the building itself is really cool as well, although we didn't get to explore it as much as we would have liked, because the museum was closing.

and now we're off to more sightseeing. more Berlin-themed updates later.