in this is hope: berlin ist sehr kalt (25/3)-day2

[my very belated post...]

free & easy day... started off super free. we were supposed to leave at 930am and walk slowly to visit the inside of the places we walked past the day before on the tour. BUT. cos most of us were doing quiet time in the morning... we started off with a mini-cg thing...

"so. share what God imparted to you in your qt"
"what are you expecting from God this trip"

and i was super blessed by it. nothing better than good sharing... no. Godly sharing to start off the day =). now this was what i missed most about not being in singapore. not having a group of people to really talk to. not just to complain about the day or things that have happened... or to worry about things to come, but having people around you who would remind you of Jesus, all He has done in your life, the hope you have in the future... and point you to the cross instead of letting you sink deeper and deeper into yourself. awesomely blessed... to have this opportunity to go travelling with this bunch of people.

so. Berlin was forecasted to have snow storms the 4 days we were there... but the 1st day was a perfect sunny day (cold. but sunny.) during the sharing... for the question 'so what are you expecting from God'... ame said 'i want snow'. and snow it did! beautifully... yet light enough so it wasn't a nuisance. we then went to the Berliner Dom (that we saw from the outside the previous day) - and it was so free and so easy that we just stopped to play with snow and take photos =)

you'll never see this in spore ever.

evil eugene & the snow mountain

group photo! (with the church in the background)

this reminds me of a korean drama thing

how to resist jumping shots?

and so. instead of queueing up to go to church (hehe..) we had to pay an entrance fee to get in cos it was a tourist attraction. needless to say it was grand.

and yet and yet. looking at it from the outside, then going in, i couldn't help but wonder... why in the world did they build such ornate churches? couldn't the money be used to do something better? was this just glorification of man - that the priests at that time were big-shots or something... who had the power and authority to 'show off'...

or looking at it - was i supposed to be happy? happy that the church was big enough to require a large building... was this a reflection of God's blessing on the church? no doubt it was really affluent then. i couldn't decide...

many interesting conversations as we climbed to the top of the dome to check out the view. with an interesting staircase experience - cos the stairs weren't made for more than one person to climb at a time and there were people coming down the stairs as we went up (had to squeeze onto this small landing platform to wait for people to pass. lol)... also... i was thinking that it would be quite amusing if someone attempted suicide from the top of the dome (it's taller than 7 storeys i think =P) haha... come to church to pray for deliverance... then see how beautiful it is, get depressed cos you're poor... then commit suicide... whoops. defeated purpose here.

we were then running late from what we had planned... so skipped the national museum building tt was next to the church and went on a hunt for the 'pasar malam' we spied on the walking tour (some tentage that is.) but but. we walked and walked and walked... and at alexander platz found that the tentage was probably something part of the shop that we mistook for a pasar malam thing. oops. by then it was close to 2pm and we were hungryy... and then God led us to this cool Bavarian restaurant... check out the food *drool*

crispy pork knuckle (Bavarian style)

pork knuckle in the style of the Berlin area

assortment of sausages (bratwurst!!)

happy anticipatory faces =D

next stop after we were filled was the jewish museum. they had a special exhibition going on - on cliches over the years... mainly dealing with jews & christians. the exhibits were... strange to say the least. but oh so true.

guess what this is...curly hair...? hmmmm...

"Israeli artist Tamir Lahav-Radlmesser asked friends and acquaintences throughout the world for samples of their pubic hair. ...humourous portraits whose uniformity thwarts any attempt to draw inferences about the individuals portrayed."

you dig my nose and i'll dig yours XD

"Dennis Kardon responded to the stereotype of a 'Jewish nose' by multiplying it... The result is a sculpture of forty-nine 'Jewish noses' that challenges the cliché... show(ing) the absurdity of such thinking."

all the skin-tones of the people in the world

we took.. really long at the extra exhibition - really took our time there - but finally went on to other parts of the building. one was this dark cold room with a single source of light - where they put you in there for 10 sec and let you reflect on history and the deaths. smart i say. a really cheap exhibit to maintain... and really ... the experience of being cold, what with the sensory deprivation... claustrophobia of circumstance.

then there was the garden of exile... with alot of concrete pillars out in the cold. walking through it made me wonder whether the jewish artists really liked concrete or something. that. and the other exhibits took so much time that we didn't get to see the full permanent exhibit - only saw the back half of it, recovering of the community after the Holocaust (ohwell.) but the whole thing was rather poignant... and really made me reflect.

completely unrelated to reflection... this really reminded me of the walls in CS =P

please donate to charity...

extra exhibit 1: act dao

extra exhibit 2: bored.

the exhibit that really captured me, though, was this:
"Menashe Kadishman's installation 'Shalechet' is first a memorial to the Holocaust. But he reaches beyond this and dedicates it to all innocent victims of violence and war. He requests that visitors walk upon the work. The title 'fallen leaves' raises suggestions both of negative predestination and of hope for new life in the coming spring"

hear the wailing cries of the dead
the screams of the innocent - unheard.
watch. as we tread over them, forgotten
building our lives upon their misery.
listen.
lest we forget.

---

then we went into the museum gift shop... and i saw this notebook... that i really really wanted to buy. but it was so expensive 0_o... 8 euros... and i was giam siap and decided not to get it. aww.

when we came out of the museum... it was snowing again!

so pretty =)

dandruff?

decided to 'try our luck' to go to parliment house and check out the night view from the dome... it was pretty late and the place closed at 10pm, but cos we were so cold... we decided to head into dunkin' doughnuts for a snack before proper dinner (and warm up). 'cos we were so 'chill' about time, we ended up reaching the parliment house 15 min before 10... where the people outside told us that it was closing and that it would be impossible to get in. junli... the woman of faith... was amazing... and psycho-ed us... just do the singaporean thing, queue, and see whether we get in. if we can't then too bad. (amazing again, that everyone was relaxed... even queueing lol. trust God to get us in =P)

fattening fooood! *yum*

distracted by the Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) on the way to parliment house

the flag outside parliment

view from the dome

seats of parliment

waiting-for-train faces

went back happy and satisfied... and went to get dinner from the mexican restaurant across the road from the hostel - awesome company, awesome food =).

went back at the end of the day to use our one-for-one beer vouchers at the bar in the hostel... and everyone being non-drinkers well... ended up playing uno to force-feed the beer lol. and i kena so many times -_-". i think i drank one litre... that is, the one big mug in the pic.