Berlin

This weekend was fantastic. I know I seem to be saying that a lot but it is so true. I don’t know what I am going to do when I have to stay in one place for more than 2 weeks.
This weekend I went to Berlin with my roommate Maggie. Her boyfriend’s sister, Tracy, has lived there for 4 years so not only did we have a place to stay we also had a personal tour guide. RIGHT AFTER class on Thursday Maggie and I ran up to the bus stop and headed for the train station so we could catch a train to the airport. After many hours of traveling and sitting around waiting we were finally in Berlin and thank God Tracy met us at the airport because I am pretty sure we would have never met her at her home otherwise. Tracy lives in this great neighborhood in downtown Berlin. Most people who live there are younger and there is just so much energy around there. Maggie and I hadn’t had much lunch so when we got there we bought some Kebabs and I got Budweiser, but not any Budweiser, the one that was bought by the European company. It was good, more than anything I was excited to try it because so many people had told me to.
On Friday morning we woke up and had homemade cappuccinos on her balcony. It was beautifully warm out and it was so much fun just to people watch and bask in the wonderful weather. We then went out for breakfast at a small restaurant. As we were eating little birdies kept flying down to our table and Maggie had to guard our breadbasket. We decided that Friday would be our day to do all of the typical touristy stuff so that on Saturday we could do our own thing. We walked all over the town looking at buildings, rivers, art, ect. It is so different from Italy because everything was bombed out during the war so nearly everything is new. There is a totally different vibe there too. The men aren’t greasy and sleazy, everyone’s styles are stuck in the eighty’s, and most people are much nicer than Italians. It just made for a great experience. We went to an old dilapidated building that a bunch of artist squatted in until it became theirs. It is all spray painted, the outside has HUGE lawn art, the inside is full of studios, and “offices”. It was really fun to go through it because once again, it is totally different from Italy and the art was VERY modern.
I wasn’t able to totally get away from the Italians though because on Friday as we were walking through a park we saw a few guys laying around without their shirts on and I leaned over to Tracy and said, “I bet they are Italian’s,” and sure enough as we got closer they were. One of them runs over to us and asks us to take a picture of them. Maggie just looks at them and said, “of what? Wait a minute it is on video what do you want me to do?” The guy just takes the camera back and says, “Never mind, can we take a picture of you?” We let them. I wonder what Italian men do with all of the pictures of American women…do they have a creeper album too?
After that we went to a bar that is out on the lawn over looking a river and we had this thing called a Berliner Kindle. It is a light beer with raspberry syrup. Now before you make any judgments, I thought it would be gross too. It wasn’t bad it was just very sweet. It was light and nice and perfect for laying out on a lawn in the sun. I noticed that drinking is perfectly accepted in Germany, people are allowed to walk down the street drinking, you can pretty much drink everywhere in Germany.
On Saturday it was our day to do the typical things Berliners do. We went to the market, it is sort of like our version of farmer’s market. This was about 3 blocks long and there was food, fresh fruits and veggies, !MEAT!, little restaurants, and jewelry and knick-knack places. It was great to walk through and try all of the different food. I ended buying this little jar and sauce that you put on crackers. It is totally different and I am going to bring it home for people to try. For lunch we had curryworst, which is sausage with ketchup and curry powder on it. Again I know you think it is probably gross, but don’t knock it before you try it. We also shared sauerkraut and fried potatoes, a typical German meal. We spent the rest of the afternoon going into vintage shops and finding the worst outfit we could. I found these platform shoes that added about 9 inches to my height. I am pretty sure they were for men though because they were a size 13. Creepy!
Maggie and I went to mass in the evening and I let her find the one she thought would be best. When we get there it is a retirement home, the next youngest person was a priest who was around 60. Not only did we not understand anything they said, they were 50 years older than us. I felt very out of place.
For dinner I got another traditional German meal, I had schnitzel! It was so good and I am sad I can’t get that here.
Sunday we just spent the day traveling. We had to get up at 5:30 in the morning and let me tell you…It sucked. But it was funny because people were still everywhere drinking and talking still continuing the party. Tracy told us it is like that every Friday and Saturday.
It was a fantastic trip and well worth all of the money I spent.
Now last night we had an earthquake that started about 30 miles south of here. It hit around 3am and I didn’t wake me up. It was 6.3 magnitude, how did I not feel it? I want to feel an earthquake and I missed it…lame.
If you couldn't tell...I didn't die or get injured so please don't call my parents. Unless you want to bother them.


The Alps

I don't need these platform shoes









Maggie is defending our food