Travel-Bug Tales: Part 2 in Berlin...exploring Museum Island!

My favourite photograph of the trip...near Museum Island in Berlin, Germany.

One of the top three things I wanted to do in my loosened make-shift list was to visit the UNESCO listed Museum Island in Berlin, other than that I was happy to follow the choices Winney made or indeed where the map accidentally took us. We had anticipated spending almost a whole day in Museum Island and even bought the Berlin Card that included free entry to all five museums. It was a little surprising to find that we had passed by Museum Island the night before, without paying attention to what it was and discovered each of the museums seem more focused to a certain genre. But by the time we had covered three of the five museums I was starving and ready to go in search for some lunch, so we wandered hungrily out of Museum Island. The buildings and surrounding areas of the museums can only be described as serenely beautiful (hence this photograph intensive post)....especially the canal-like river running beside Museum Island. In fact, and perhaps a little strange, my favourite photograph of the whole Berlin trip is not of me or Winney....but the one moment taken from a padlock decorated bridge over the river by Museum Island (the first photo of this post). Perhaps it is the blue skies over the river or even the charm of these beautiful antique buildings, but there is just something very special in a place where people have made sincere wishes of love and happiness. Almost sacred in daring to dream with such pure hope, and so I had to take a photograph to capture the memory of how I felt at that moment. Reality came knocking in a little haste as I was abruptly drawn away by a man who wanted to know my name and where I was from....perhaps he was right to assume I was foreign as I did have my camera out. Though I did take inspiration from a local German lady I saw the day before and put my hair up in a twisted do....in other words I always seem foreign no matter where I go albeit Asia, America or Europe. Don't get me wrong....in no way shall I complain, as looking foreign has saved me from my deep inability to work out directions wherever I go as many a kind souls have stopped to help direct me on to the right path throughout the years. But a few encounters in Berlin did puzzle me a little. Walking by the river and up the steps to the bridge, a man above shouted "Hello Jane!" and started waving frantically at me. Assuming that he had recognised me as someone else, I replied "Sorry I am not Jane" when he was still trying to get our attention as we walked past. Maybe he thought Winney was Jane or maybe in another parallel world I could have been a Jane...who knows? It seemed every single day in Berlin we were disturbed by some form of male, and it was sadly not always in a nice or friendly manner. The most disturbing must have been when we were walking on a street in Charlottenburg near the rows of Asian restaurants as well as supermarkets...a man from a group began shouting "Hello Konichiwa" (Hello in Japanese) and when we continued to walk past quietly it had become "Ni Hau!" (Hello in Mandarin). When we did not stop but walked on in a quicker pace without looking back, he aggresively shouted everything from "Wasabi" to "Sushi" at us. Of course I have heard much worst before whilst just walking on a street somewhere, and determined not to let a stranger rain on our fun Berlin parade we marched on across the street to find some food!

Looks like I was the only one dressed for a day out at the DDR Museum Island!

There is great beauty in imperfection.....

Winney and me at the Neues Museum.....Museum Island, Berlin.

On our way to Bode Museum, we saw a cute stall of hand made crochet accessories!

Almost followed the famous Marilyn fly-away-skirt pose! ^_~

Bode Museum, Museum Island in Berlin.

Berliner Dom....

A fair near Zoogarten for lunch amongst the traditional musical boxes!

The Charlottenberg Palace, Berlin....

Charlottenberg Palace....

Back to the Berlin Savoy!

Of all three museums I was probably most taken by the Neues Museum because of Nefertiti's Bust....she was absolutely beautiful! As I stared at her in awe of the symmetry that formed her perfect facial features I was lost in thought and curiosity about this powerful woman who gave birth to six daughters. What was she like as a person? If she had the choice to relive her life, would she have chosen the same fate or would she change anything? Then I suddenly thought of Cleopatra....both ladies were famed as great beauties, but yet I wondered what did their beauty really mean to them? As we wandered out of Museum Island following the river we saw many stalls selling interesting art, hand-made crochet accessories (photo above), vintage bags and bric-a-brac of all sorts. Stopping at a tiny table with one lady busy beading away, we fell in love with some beautiful earrings she made...which I could see myself matching with a sultry long 1920s or 1930s styled number...and so we put our non-existent German language skills to use in bargaining a deal for the earrings. Now it will be a matter of waiting for the next Candlelight Club or ball to go to! With shopping and food in tow it became a lovely day, so to finish off we decided to stroll through the gardens of the Charlottenburg Palace after dinner as it was quite near our hotel. Next stop will be Part 3 of the Berlin adventure, and next week I shall be off to Asia with my family for an almost 3 weeks holiday....touching down in Malaysia, Japan and Singapore. I shall try my best to keep up with the posts, but as it will be dependent on internet connection during my travels there could be a longer than usual pause....rest assured though as I will most definitely be back! In the meantime I wish all you lovely darlings a fabulous long bank holiday weekend!

Until the next time,

♥May xx

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