Berlin #2 - Alte Nationalgalerie and Bosch

Just winging it on 5 hours of sleep, it took a while to get 'up and at 'em'. First full day in Berlin proved to have a rocky start - I was too anxious about my braces to try and approach the 'tougher' foods like toast, fruits, hams and cheeses. I ate what cereal I could before somewhat grudgingly adventuring out into the cold Berlin weather with the group. 

Temperatures were 2-5 degrees C which was certainly a wake up call, fingers numb within minutes of walking towards the tram station. German transport is infinitely more efficient than Cornish transport - we missed one tram but the second one was there dead on time. We hopped on and rode until our stop, at which point we unwillingly left the relative warmth of the tram carriage to walk down to the Alte Nationalgalerie, a walk that was well worth it. 

We crossed over the river Spree to 'Museumsinsel' or Museum Island - Its well deserving of its name with the Alte Nationalgalerie as well as the Altes Museum, the Berliner Dom, the Neues museum, and the Pergamonmeseum all built on the island. The architecture alone is worth marvelling over. 

After a kerfuffle with the tickets and then the lockers we were released into the grandiose gallery with the instructions to meet at the Fernsehturm at 1:45. The first hall had amazingly intricate and detailed marbled statues, one of which is the picture above (Kranzwerfende Viktoria by Christian Daniel Rauch). After that were a confusing arrangement of halls with paintings of various scales and complexity - all fine art and of a considerable age and value. The gallery is well worth a visit for anyone wanting to view a range of fine art paintings and sculptures, the ground floor alone has an extensive collection, albeit a tad confusing layout. 

After eventually finding a way out and upstairs it was a chore getting all the way up the marble steps to the top - the staircases are just as grand as the building and a difficult trek for a student with little sleep and even less food in them. Nonetheless I persevered and was rewarded with a fantastic portrait of a dog with sausages - after the statues it was undoubtedly my favourite part of the museum since I'm 100% an avid dog lover. For anyone curious a link to the painting in question is HERE. After wondering around the even more curiously laid out upper floors, I bought my postcards and left. 

A chance to wonder around Berlin was definitely ruined by some rude 'signature collectors', whom I later found out to be scammers, that tried to convince me to give them €20 for 'deaf children'. It was the first day in a new city and after 'escaping' with my money and belongings and far more anxiety than I wanted. I ended up buying a few bits of stationary from my favourite store at the moment, Muji, and attaching myself to my lecturers after that. It didn't turn out too badly, one of them introduced me to a 'currywurst' - sausage with ketchup and curry powder. While I'm not normally a fan of hotter food it was something I'd love to try again. 

Having settled and become infinitely less anxious, we set off for 'Bosch: Visions alive'. I feel I can sum the show up with both 'bizarre' and 'intensely interesting'. Prior to this I was entirely unfamiliar with his work but if you're a fan of 'odd' and somewhat religious artwork it's worth a look online. The creators of the show had animated his painting and created a movie out of it, the accompanying track adding to the uniquely weird feeling of the exhibit. I would adore to go again, just for the sheer experience of watching such an unusual piece of art come to life. 

We finished the day with a trek to the impressive Brandenburg Gate, the poignant Jewish memorial to the left of it and then wondered to the Reichstag building - a markedly imposing piece of architecture and certainly something that stands out in the cityscape. After getting enough photos of all three there was a wild journey of getting lost, figuring out where me and a few others were, getting back to the hotel and ordering a very much wanted dominos to finish the day.