So I’ve been going to a bunch of museums, you know, letting cultural treasures wash over me like a sweet, fine paste. They’re not the cheapest things to go to, and despite the fact that I can get in with a student discount, I always justify my purchase of these ~10 Euro tickets by hoping that some older people will look at me, standing there by myself, inches away from the GRAIN of the canvas, inspecting works with the most untrained of eyes, and say:

“Look at that delightful young man. Probably an aspiring critic of late-17th century Flemish and Dutch painters. We’re in good hands.”

That’s it, really. I shoot to please with the older crowd. If by chance there are some people my age or good looking gals hanging around, I shrug my shoulders at everything, walk over to them, and ask if they’ve seen the newest Banksy photos online. I GET it. I play the game.

Walked also by the Hotel Adlon, which during the 20s was kind of the place to be. You could find anyone from Charlie Chaplain to Marlene Dietrich hanging around there, and probably also some really bad people too.

Just down the street was this:

There was some kind of protest going on. Lots of punk kids. The punk movement really took hold of some of these assholes. One dude was missing an eye the other day, and from the looks of it, he stitched it shut himself. What you can’t see from this photo, however, is the square that the building faces. This is where the Nazis held the huge book burning in 1933: The Bebelplatz. As nice as this city is, it gets me from time to time when walking around downtown, or anywhere for that matter, to think that almost 80 years ago, the worst people of all time were just strolling around, shooting people in the streets where there are now guys pretending to be statues.

In other news, as the news breaks back home around 3am here, I’ve been having Paul Ryan/Michele Bachmann-related nightmares. No one here understands the peril that we are in. I’ll be back just in time for the election season mud slinging, and I’ll make sure to document the process of how to apply for a residence visa to any country overseas, as I would hope that, should this turn sour and we manage to vote in one of the several antichrists on the ballot, all of the people reading this will have the strength to pack up and abandon ship.