I caught the u-Bahn to the zoologischer garten thinking I would like to go to the zoo at some point, but I knew it was closed this late. I was expecting it to be a little bit more difficult to find the zoo when I got off the train, but I walked up the steps out of the station and boom, the zoo was right in front of me. Looking around I took stock of the scenery. This area was some of the most urban/ industrial I have scene, matching that if Alexanderplatz. This isn’t a place to find traditional architecture and cafes (unless it’s McDonald’s) but rather stores, lots and lots of stores. One building had too many stores to count, so I snapped a pic; got the Mercedes logo in the background too. Oh, there was also a theater nearby, the zoo palast, which was actually the first movie theater I have scene, and not like a stage theater. I’m thinking of seeing the Jungle Book sometime soon, so maybe I’ll go here. I checked the tickets 18.50, that’s pretty pricey. They seem to offer a couple extra things in addition to the ticket for that price though, probable a drink and a snack.

I wanted some coffee, but I knew I was going to have to settle. As in Dunkin Donuts settle. I like my coffee sweet, they make donuts, they can do sweet coffee, this is my logic. As I pull the door open and walk in, some kids behind me approach, and stupid, STUPID me decides to be all nice and shit and holds the door open for them. They are immediately followed by four more of their group, all going to dd’s, all ordering whole boxes of donuts. It took quite a while before I finally got my beverage. Once I did so I did more exploring. I saw that there is a huge train station there, right next to where the u Bahn gets off. There was also a big church in the middle of all the big hotel buildings which seemed so out of place, yet so perfect. Snapped a pic. There was a cool building next to it too with a bunch of lights, which actually turned out to be stained glass windows. From afar I thought it was a mosque, but at the entrance it was simply another church. Standing outside the doors I could hear someone hammering away at the organ in there. Didn’t sound very pleasant. Moving on.

I walked a little way, looked down at my phone to see what the streets were called. This ones called Kurferstend——“Excuse me, parlez vous francais?” I look up, two girls are standing there looking at me. “Uhhh….. Quick remember something, what we’re all those years of French in high school good for?” More stuttering by me, they start listing off different languages; Japanese, Spanish. English? I say. Ahhh English. They spoke pretty much fluently. Paris, like the city and sounds different, and Ronja, with a j as in job sound, were two students from Copenhagen out wandering about. They had been here for a week for their class, this was their last night in Berlin. Eventually, we sat on the steps, me drinking my coffee, which was terrible by the way, them their monster energy drink. We chatted about random stuff, until I found out Paris had been in Brussels a mere block away from the attack when it happened. She said when the bomb went off in the morning, she thought her mother had fallen over. When she went down to the street, everyone was crying. She admitted that when she gets nervous she starts laughing. So she was laughing while everyone was crying. She had been at that terminal the day before.