Berlin Day 1 - Museums!

So I reached Berlin safe and sound, after the ICE train and taking a few trains without paying for the ticket heh.

I met with Swantje, my friend from my days at Bosch (where I worked after 'A's), and she brought me around Berlin!

For the first day, we explored 2 museums on Museum Island - Pergamon and Alte Nationalgalerie

The Ishtar Gate of Babylon. Heard King Nebu's name a few times

Something from the Roman Empire.

One of the many frieze(s), which depicts significant stories of Greek mythology. In this stretch, it shows the war between the Greek gods and titans.

Selfie with a lion from the Babylonian gate because they were supposed to be scary and ward off enemies.

Indian art, most of which depicted vices like smoking and getting high

I like the Pergamon because I am slightly familiar with Greek mythology and the Babylonian period. There were Islamic art and Indian art too, though I didn't appreciate them as much.

After which we proceeded to the Old National Gallery, which mainly showcases paintings and sculptures from the 19th century. Apparently, all of these were donated by a banker. So bankers were crazy rich back then, just like today haha.

I liked this style of painting dots of contrasting colours (ie pink and blue dots on a green tree) so as to create a more realistic picture when the viewer looks at it from afar. Should try that if I paint something someday.

The sculptor did this in response to his son's death. The top part are The Fates (or Moirai) that control the thread of life. Many stories have spinoffs of them (Disney's Hercules, Percy Jackson, Macbeth). The bottom shows Hades tearing his son away from Ares.

We slept in the afternoon and missed the opportunity to explore the Neue Museum with Egyptian art, which I might have enjoyed too - Horus and Iris etc. I think this comes from reading Rick Riordan's books that modernize Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythologies.

Oh this was me finishing spare ribs for 9eur. It was good meat, I was so happy.