1 Juli-- Day 7

Woke up, had class. Fridays, we only have our culture class, so that's nice. Talked about the history of the Germanic states, and the way that Berlin itself was created by merging a bunch of different individual towns.

Afterwards, we decided to go together to see the Siegessäule (Victory Column) again. We stopped at Dahlem-Dorf to grab a bite to eat. Note: Biergartens are good when the grill is open. Otherwise they're ridiculously expensive. We could have gotten like 3 döners for the price of one person's schnitzel. Which is why I had a spaghetti off the kid's menu (which was actually a pretty big spaghetti.) This was normal priced.

This time we actually climbed the tower, instead of just passing it on our bikes. Pay 2 euro to get in, then there's a bunch of little info things talking about the history of the tower, the whole Germania plan, and stuff like that. Then, there's a bunch of stairs. Thankfully, they had little seats for people to sit on if they got tired (we got tired.)

Here's my attempt at getting a photo of us with the self timer. Ended up getting photos taken by a random old man, but I have none of them.

Anyway, if you look at the picture, you can see the lower level (it has the red granite columns and the gold railings.) There's a huge glass mosiac there, depicting how all the German states managed to unite themselves. Then there's 3 levels of gilded cannons, which I believe are supposed to be Danish, Austrian, and French (or at least commemorating victories against those countries). At the very top, there's another lookout /standing level. Crowning the very very top is a statue of the goddess of victory, Victoria.

Glass mosaic. The woman with the eagle and the long red cape is Germania? I think.

The view from the top. You can make out the Berliner Dom, TV tower, and the Brandenburg gate.

There was a man who was playing an actual piano (who knows how) in a little park next to the traffic circle that surrounds the tower. (too many prepositions, I know). He had speakers, so when you were at the top of the tower, you could actually still hear his music. Played some Yiruma haha.

The piano man

Afterwards, we went down, listened to some music, and investigated the huge statue nearby. It was in commemoration of Otto von Bismarck, the first German Chancellor. It has him in front of a kneeling Atlas. To his right is Sybille (I'm assuming the oracle Sybil) who's sitting on the back of the Sphinx. Behind him is a guy forging some imperial sword or something, and on his left is a huge statue of what we thought was Athena, and turned out to be Germania, standing triumphantly on top of a leopard.

Germania. (This time i'm sure)

Afterwards, we went back to our respective homes to eat, etc. Then we met in Kreuzberg, and sat in a kneipe (which is sort of like a bar/restaurant/sort of) Half of the group tried to go clubbing at some really fancy place but got turned away because of their shoes. (no tennis shoes allowed). Apparently the bouncer was like "shirt's good. pants are good. hair looks good. shoesssss...no" As they were walking up, they saw someone get out of a limo and into that club... not very student-friendly I think haha. Rest of us sat in a different lounge or whatever and talked.