Day 46: Pergamonmuseum, the Reichstag, and East Side Gallery

The real adventure of Day 46 began before 1AM. We were leaving our residence in Brno for good, taking a direct night train from there to Berlin. As our taxi was late in arriving, we were left with about 13 minutes from the time when we got on the taxi to when our train left the station at 1:11AM. Thank goodness for empty streets and a driver who understood the gravity of our situation. He sped us across town and dropped us off at the station at 1:06. Unfortunately, the main doors were closed at that hour so we lugged our suitcases down the stairs to the alternate entrance, checked the platform number, and dragged them back up. Our train was there, and we hopped on immediately, not caring which car it was.

As we tried to make our way down to our car, however, a woman stopped us and told us we had to go on the platform, pointing us all the way to very end of the train. "You have one and a half minutes," she said.

Dragging our suitcases and backpacks off the train again, we ran on the platform to find our car, number 264. The numbers went in about this order: 251, 252, 261, 262, 263, 364, etc. I would not recommend a panicked train-length sprint at 1AM with a backpack and a 15kg suitcase to anyone.

We got to the end of the train without finding our car, but got on anyway. A man stepped into the hallway and when we asked for directions, he pointed us down the direction we'd come from. "It's at the other end of the train," he said. So we turned all the way back.

The numbers skipped by 264 and ended in the 250s, where we stood in the hallway to catch our breaths for a minute. The train had already begun to move by then. Another conductor came by and we again asked where to find our car. He pointed us down to the back of the train.

"No, we just came from there," I told him. "We've just ran the length of this train twice so can you please check your information?"

He took out his phone, did a quick search, then said, "it's right at the front of the train."

We finally found our way to the right car, but as it was a locked sleeping car, we had to wait outside until someone came by and opened the door for us.

"You're fifteen minutes late," he said with an unbelievable sneer. "I've closed down your spots."

"Look, we were right here in the first place. We would have made it if it weren't for your staff who told us to all the way to back of the train and come back. That's why we're late," I snapped.

"Alright, fine," he answered. "Follow me."

He showed us to our rooms, locked the door, then proceeded to tell us in a low, urgent voice about the dangers of night trains and how people have been killed for their money. We had to practice locking down and then turned off the lights right away. Considering my heart rate over the previous hour, I was surprised I slept at all, but actually had a very deep and comfortable sleep the moment I lay down.

After getting to Berlin and checking in at the Wombat hostel, our first stop was Museum Island. We had tickets to the Pergamon at 1PM, and had two hours to walk around beforehand and get lunch. We found a great meal for dirt cheap at the university student cafeteria, and saw some of the other museums around the island as well.

Unfortunately, it appeared that much of downtown was undergoing renovations at this time. The State Opera was barely visible beneath the scaffolding, and the main exhibit of the Pergamon Museum, the Pergamon Altar, was unavailable until 2019. The Ishtar Gate -- the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon -- though also marred by scaffolding, was still a great sight. I very much enjoyed the decorated Processional Way leading up to it.

The museum was the perfect size and took us two hours to get through. It contained reconstructions of impressive archaeological structures, such as the Ishtar Gate and the Market Gate of Miletus, built with pieces from the original.

Upstairs was the museum of Islamic art, which had some very beautifully decorated prayer niches.

After the museum, we headed over to the Reichstag. Since our detour to Berlin was spontaneously added in just a couple days prior, we were unable to book a reservation to go inside. We had to settle for a look around the outside, which was still very impressive.

We subwayed across town after that, all the way to the East Side Gallery. It was a lot longer than I expected. Although there was a fair bit of graffiti, the visit was very worthwhile. There was such a wide variety of art, and many meaningful pieces.

On our way back, we passed the Oberbaum Bridge, then stopped by Alexanderplatz to see the TV Tower. It was too expensive to go up, but we saw it up close and walked around the area for a bit.

Dinner was a very good Creole chili burger with rosemary potato crisps and sour cream in the Cajun restaurant attached to our hostel. I don't think I've ever fallen asleep as quickly as I did that night.

Photos by Julie Zhang.