After being full time tourist for 2 whole days now, we decided to take it a bit easier today, so that we didn't completely wear ourselves out.
We woke up and had breakfast around 10:30, and then headed out over to east berlin by about 11:30. We took the U-bahn over to the East Side Gallery area.
On the street in front of the gallery, there was a big street festival going on - mostly painters displaying and selling their works. Also in the middle of the street, there was a big sheet of paper that everyone could paint on.
After taking a look at the festival, we walked up the mile-long stretch of wall/graffitti that makes up the East Side gallery. This time we stayed on the opposite side of the street, actually giving a better view than I had last time up close.
After checking out the East Side Gallery, we headed via s-bahn back to Stadtmitte to go to the really amazing chocolate shop there (i.e. the one with the sculptures of the Reichstag et al. inside). We got a box of 12 truffles (3 each - and they're not as big as american truffles) to enjoy as a dessert in the afternoon. After leaving the shop, we went back to Gendarmenmarkt and sat in the shade of some trees for a while.
Matt needed to head to the train station before dinner, so we headed back to the apartment around 4:30. Matt and Nick then went together to the Hauptbahnhof to head back to Karlsruhe and Dortmund respectively.
After they left, Valerie and I got swimstuff on and we went over to Schlachtensee to go to a good-bye party for a friend of mine, who was heading back to Switzerland next week.
We took the subway all the way to the end of the line to Krumme Lanke, and then walked another mile and a half to get to the lake Schlachtensee. Once we were there, I called my friend to find where they were exactly on the water. Unfortunately, they took a different route than we did to get there, so they weren't exactly sure where on the lake they were in reference to the cafe we were at. So, it's not that long to walk all the way around (it's a good hour or so walking at a brisk pace), and we set out walking. The annoying thing about Schlachtensee is that once you think you're about to get to the end of it and start heading around the other side, it opens up again and goes further on. After about 45 minutes of walking, we came to a place that sounded like where my friend was describing, but they weren't there. Also, they weren't answering their phone. Needless to say, we never found them.
So, we decided to just find a nice place on the shore, and just go for a swim and then head back. We did just that, swimming for about half an hour, and then walking back to the u-bahn station were we got some dinner. Valerie had her first Currywurst, and I had my first turkish pizza. Both were very tasty.
After that we headed back to the apartment and turned in for the night.
