Museum Marathon and Missing Running

My apologies for not blogging yesterday. I was out for most of the day and by the time I finally got home, my headache was so bad that the mere thought of looking at my bright computer screen was unbearable.

However, the first part of the day was incredible! On Saturday, I had bought a pass for the museum island here in Berlin and I was so excited to go, I could barely handle it.
The museum island is basically an "island" in the middle of Berlin, surrounded by the river "Spree".

Source

I only made it to four museums in the six hours I was there, but there was so much to see, I could have spent an entire day at each of those four.

The ones I saw were the Old Museum (Das Alte Museum), the New Museum (Das Neue Museum), the Pergamon museum (Das Pergamonmuseum), and the Old National Gallery (Die Alte Nationalgalerie).

The Old Museum was the first one I went to, and it really made me miss my bff, who is getting his PhD in Classics and who is studying ancient vases. There were more vases from Greek antiquity in the Old Museum than I have ever seen in one place - and one was prettier, more decorated, and more fascinating than the other.

This one was my favorite:

I wish I could tell you a more sophisticated reason, but I just liked the drawings and colors. 

This was probably one of my my favorite marble works: 

The Medea Sarcophagus.

The way the Greek myth of Medea is illustrated on this sarcophagus is just remarkable to me. Just look at the details, the gestures, and the transitions between the scenes! 

Next on my "list" was the Pergamon museum. I didn't hang out there for too long, because the air in this place was really bad. It was hot and there was clearly not enough oxygen. 

To me, the most impressive at this museum was the Ishtar gate. It is one of the gates to Babylon that, after it had been recovered, was shipped to Berlin and reconstructed within the museum. 

I then proceeded to the New Museum, where I truly wish I could have spent more time. There, among other things, you can see the entire collection of the Egyptian Museum - including Nefertiti (Nofretete). 

Trust me when I say that it would have been worth just seeing this one piece yesterday. The beauty that this bust of the former Egyptian queen reflects is just mesmerizing. I could have stared at it forever. It is not permitted to take pictures of it, but that's okay. I am sure that I haven't seen it for the last time before we move back to the U.S. (Be prepared, future visitors, this Egyptian lady is on the list of things to go see when you come to Berlin!)

Last, but not least, I went to the Old National Gallery, which holds lots of pretty paintings! I especially enjoyed the works of my favorite German Romantic painter, Caspar David Friedrich. 

However, I know that all tastes are different, so I decided to not post pictures of specific painters, but objects that plenty of paintings had in common - puppies!

Having such a bad headache yesterday is really telling me that I have to wait with my first run even longer and that my cold is still sticking around. It stinks and I miss running quite a bit.
Today, Lucy and I went for a 3 mile walk and the entire time I thought that the route we took would be incredible for running. On top of it, we passed 2 really awesome running stores.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that next week, I will be posting about my first mile around the block!

P.S. Since it's Monday, I don't want to forget about the Minor Victory of the day. For me, it was definitely, sleeping 6 hrs in a row for the first time in a week! Shooting for 7 tonight! :o)

Happy Monday, everyone!