back in the Bay!

i'm finally back in the bay area after my seattle/germany travels. i only have 17 days until i have to get on a plane again... argh.

what now you ask? i need to find myself a job!

happy birthday to my Monster of all time!

On our way home

figuring out the Leipzig WC's

in Germany they keep things clean and orderly by having public bathrooms that you pay for. i know they have these in other cities (and they are gross so i was not so sure about giving it a try) so i made Dave go first just to make sure. i eventually gave in and it was A GREAT SUCCESS!

Day 8: Berlin: Day in Leipzig

Leipzig is a sort of college town just south of Berlin. well, i say "just south" but it's a similar distance away from Berlin as Los Angeles is from San Diego. anyways, Leipzig is where J S Bach (or Johann S. as we so lovingly call him these days) lived and worked during most of his life. the St. Thomas church (pictured above) is there and we were super excited to be able to go to the place where Bach made his amazing works of music.

also in Leipzig are Schumann's house and Mendelsshon's house.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof

this was our very favorite train station in Berlin. we took the S-Bahn (a local train like Muni) there to transfer to the ICE (a super fast train that goes all over the country) in order to spend a day outside of the city.

Where's the Peanut Butter in Berlin?

why, it's on the USA shelf of course! you can find it between the mircowave popcorn and frosting.

i must also note that while places like the USA and Asia had their own shelves, Ketchup also had its very own.

Day 7: Berlin: German History Museum and the Schloss Charlottenburg

today we went to the German History Museum. among many other interesting things there we saw a very cool map. it was a relief map of europe and it had the changing country borders projected onto it dating back to the roman times and cycling up to the present year. you can imagine how long Dave and i stood and watched it. yeah, twice through.






then in the evening we went out to Schloss Charlottenburg. it is a really cool palace in the western part of Berlin. we went there to see an amazing concert with a piano and string quartet. other than it being unbearably hot the music was beautiful.

Bebelplatz

Bebelplatz... current home of the traveling united buddy bears! 150 countries have one. I'm standing between Norway and Austria and Dave is standing between Cuba and Croatia. Of course the US made a statue of liberty bear.

Conference dinner at the Zitadelle

German Product of the day

if you happen to want to eat at Burger King in Berlin you won't find just a regular old chicken sandwich. it will be longer than you're used to.

don't worry, we didn't eat there.

Day 6: Berlin: Tiergarten, Swimming Pool and the Erotik Museum

today was the hottest day of the week so far in Berlin. for those of you melting back home, you can relate with a hot, urban-humid, upper 90's kind of day. after the conference talks in the morning all we could do in order to stay cool was have a picnic in the Tiergarten (the GG Park of Berlin) and then go to a public swimming pool.




then, just to keep with the "hot" theme we decided to check out the Erotik Museum. it was not as neat as what i remember from the Sex Museum in Amsterdam, but it was still interesting.

The Reichstag at night

one way to cool down

Day 5: Berlin: Scheunenviertel

today we walked around the Jewish neighborhood of Berlin called the Scheunenviertel. in addition to stopping at the Neue Synagogue which has been rebuilt since its distruction during the war, we also visited an old cemetary which now only has one head stone (of Moses Mendelssohn) because the rest of it had been destroyed.

We have a Ventilator!

German Product of the day

if you are going to use body wash in Berlin you might end up smelling like a City Flirt! "Dusch Das" translates to "Wash That" hahahaha.

Mattie... we tried!

Mattie, we went to BOTH Circus Hostels in Berlin and no one knew anything about a little vegetarian place with little lights or candles or anything! I asked many people, you can ask Dave. They all thought I was crazy! We couldn't find the place... but we sure tried. Sorry Mattie. But hey, the wild goose hunt was fun. :)

Day 4: Berlin: Alexanderplatz

Alexanderplatz, a public square situated in East Germany. It's so amazing to notice the communist influence in the Eastern sections of the city compared to the West.

KaDeWe

At the "Harrods" of Berlin, KaDeWe, we found lots of yummy stuff in the specialties food store on the 6th floor. Of course I got very excited about the little european cereals and Dave sniffed out the cheese from meters away! See, I said meters... you liked that, didn't cha?

Day 3: Berlin: Kurfurstendamm and Checkpoint Charlie

the Ku'damm (or Kurfurstendamm) is a major shopping district in Berlin. our flat is right near there so we have been walking around there a lot. the picture of that old church looking building is of the kaiser-wilhelm-gedachtnis-kirche and it was bombed during the war. it is left in this now very modern plaza as a reminder of what happened.

also you see that we went to Checkpoint Charlie, the place where people could cross back and forth from East to West Berlin. that was a really cool spot to see.