once upon a time in brandenburg

I'm once again blogging earlier in the night than usual, but tomorrow we will all return to regularly scheduled programming - aren't you excited? Today was our last full day in Germany, and we spent it in a v. depressing way by visiting Sachsenhausen, the concentration camp intended mainly for political prisoners on the northern outskirts of Berlin. I visited it ten years ago, when I came to Berlin on my college research trip and spent several depressing days visiting nazi era stuff before meeting up with the boys for a v. different experience at the Love Parade. This time, though, we did a guided tour, and the tour guide was quite good; she's been a guide here for over five years, and while I didn't really learn anything other than a few anecdotes that I hadn't heard before, it was still a worthwhile way to spend a few hours.

And now, I'm hanging out while Chandlord goes to a modern art museum, which i had no interest in seeing; lucky for her, she befriended a girl on our Sachsenhausen tour who wanted to go, so hopefully she has fun. Then we will meet for dinner, which can't possibly rival last night's experience - we had a v. extended two hour tea at a Tajik tea room that felt v. East German to me. It was on the second floor of a building that the reunification rebuilding mania seems to have missed and the service was slow, but it was awesome. The Tajik themed room was a gift from the USSR at some point in the seventies, and after the exhibition that it was used at, it was turned into a tea room. I had two servings of their bedouin tea, which is Assam mint tea with a shot of bright green peppermint liquor (which I'm happy to report I was able to drink, despite my bad encounter with peppermint schnapps so many years ago), and Chandlord and I befriended a Japanese kid and his family who ended up sharing our table, since the place was packed. Then we went to a gayborhood and had dinner - our first attempt was thwarted by the fact that they only served meat (which reflected the clientele, ha), but we ended up at a decent Thai place, which was enjoyable, before heading back to the apartment and to bed (for Chandlord, at least - I stayed up and finished reading a book called DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth, which is sort of like Hunger Games but not as good, although I did enjoy it and will read the next one when it comes out).

And now, I shall enjoy a glass of wine and think about gargoyles while I wait for Chandlord. We shall be back in the US tomorrow!