"They'll be like, "Was that a vuvuzela? Oh wait, it's just Matt."

When we arrived in Berlin on tuesday we quickly found Matt and went to go get food. We were starving from not eating all day (since we didn't want to pay for train food.. And puffins only taste good for so long), so Matt took us to this restaurant where they make your pasta fresh in front of you. There was a huge "Q", but there were gummy bears to eat while we waited so it was totally okay. At this point in our trip seeing food that only cost about 6 euros was great. 6 euros any where else would've only bought us a tiny bottle of water. After we finished our meal we went to an Irish pub to watch the last 30 minutes of the Netherlands vs. Uruguay game.. the Dutch won. Hoorayyy! From there we went to Matt's, met his room mate Veit (pronounced 'Fight') and went to bed. It was a long day and I gladly welcomed the sleep.

Yesterday was our first full day in Berlin. The first thing we decided to do was wash our clothes. What an adventure this would turn into. Luckily, the laundrymat is only across the street from Matt so we didn't have to spend money trying to find out. No matter, I ended up using about 15 euros to try and wash my clothes. Fail. First, I put my clothes in the big washer.. Because I didn't realize the two sizes had different prices. I just put them in, put some money in the box on the wall and hoped it would start. 6 euros later and my clothes were still dirty. Nothing had happened. So what did I do? Put in 8 more euros. At least this time it was working.. Until I realized I didn't have soap. So I put in a 5 euro bill because I was out of coins. 1 euro for soap (that is apparently free), so I should get 4 back, right? Nope. 5 euros later and I only have a cup of soap. Luckily an 8 year old boy helped me get my change back. High five for him for saving the day! Sam had a little better luck with his clothes (learning from my mistakes) until he hit the button for a lot of soap and he only had the small cup. It over flowed. Well done.



Things settled down after that and drying the clothes was not a problem. At least I got clean clothes out of the deal. While we waited we went next door to a little shop and I had a real croissant, and what happened? A surprise nutella middle!! YES. Nutella is a big deal over here and it's now my favourite thing. Kinda. Well, it's my new peanut butter. Speaking of new favourite foods, next to the laundrymat is a little turkish restaurant called "A La Turk". There I had my first schnitzel. Woop! It kind of tasted like a healthier chicken nugget haha. And they also have these stuffed peppers that are super delicious. Yummm. Every where you go here has good, cheap food.

After eating we went to Alexander Platz and walked around a bit trying to figure things out. There we saw the world clock, Alexander Platz, a park where something sad happened (but we're not sure what exactly), and we went in a rebuilt church that was possibly called Ephraim-Palais.. We couldn't really figure out what it was called since it was all in German. But it was a rebuilt church. From there we went to two other really neat buildings that we don't know and sat and rested for a while.


(One of the fancy buildings we found)

Before we knew it 3:30 had rolled around so we headed back to Matt's in hopes of meeting up with him. No so much luck. So instead of moping around, we decided to be productive and go buy food just down the road. While we were there we found white, crustless bread. Win?

We got back from the grocery store just after Matt had gotten back. We quickly ate and headed out to meet Matt's girlfriend, Ola, before going to the fan mile to watch the Germany vs. Spain game. I was cheering for Spain, but I wasn't really allowed to cheer since the Germans would have beat me up apparently. A few brave souls chose to wear Spanish flags though. Way to be fearless! If anyone was watching the game, I'm sure you saw it was rather boring until 15 or 20 minutes to go and SPAIN SCORED!! The whole fan mile was quiet, and Matt and I, along with a few random Spanish fans around us had a mini celebration. Luckily Spain held on for the win. There were a LOT of sad German fans walking around. Some people were even crying. Bummer :( There were a lot of broken German flags on the ground, too. We swiped some so we could pretend to be German fans and be sad with everyone. I'm sorry Germany :( But yes! Netherlands vs Spain! Wooppp. I think it would've been more fun to watch the final if Germany had won, but I wanted Spain to be in the final. I'm putting my money on the Netherlands.. What I learned from this new football experience is that it's the most fun to watch games in Paris, celebrate in Groningen, and be a German fan in Germany. After getting a little lost we found out way home, ate some food, and went to bed. Another eventful day in Europe :)


Today has been some what slow. I went inlining with Matt and met one of his team mates, and since then I've showered and ate lunch. Sam, Ola and I are off to meet Matt in a little bit where we'll be able to meet the little kids he teaches :) Cuteee! I'll keep you posted on how things turn out.

Wish you were here!