"If that ball goes on the track I'm going to eat it"

Yesterday we awoke to a cool temperature for once. It was a little cloudy and windy, giving us a much needed break from the heat. And because of the nice weather, we decided to head into town. But not before we stopped at A La Turca. It had been 3 days since we had eaten there, so we felt it was needed. I don't know what I'm going to do when I leave Berlin and I can't go there anymore.



I had never felt like more of a tourist then when we took pictures of this place.. Especially because I looked super American that day. Anyways, we hopped on the tram, dropped off some postcards at the post office, and then we were off to the mall at Alexanderplatz to find a clutch. After an hour and a half of searching I came up empty handed :( Oh well. So off we went to the DDR museum. It was the first museum we could understand, allowed pictures, and said you could touch what ever you wanted. They had pull out shelves and cars you could drive, too. Wooo! I'm still a child. After that we wandered outside and across a bridge where we came across a man playing the cups. We're not sure what else to call it. But it was like Miss Congeniality was going down on the bridge. Skills.



From there we went to the Berliner Dom, which is a giant church. It's beautiful. I took some pictures, but they don't really do it justice.







At the top you can go outside and walk around the edge. It was so neat! You could see the whole city. And the wind was nice, too ;)





It was kind of late when we left, so we headed back to Matt's so Sam could get ready for his big night at the club. We got on the tram and headed for home. As we stepped off the tram we heard someone yelling to us. Who did we see? Matt. At a la turca. So of course we had to eat there again ;)

Right now Sam is sleeping and I'm patiently awaiting the club report. I'll let you all know the details when I do ;)

Wish you were here

"Didn't you ask for peas?"

Today was a day full of walking. We first went on an adventure to find a museum that was suppose to be full of Berlin's history. Along the way we found a hidden door.. it was super James Bondish.



Anyways, we found the museum, went in and found not many people spoke english.. Which made things a little difficult because we had no idea what they were saying to us. We walked around the museum and decided it was not at all like the description we had read. Of course, maybe it was like the description, but since everything was in German it was hard to tell. But by what we were looking at, we didn't think it matched up. The best part was the face we found across the street.



At this point we were already some what tired of walking, so we found the U Bahn and mastered that. It was great. However, we didn't get too far. We ended up by the Sony Center, and then walked about another 20 minutes or so to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial. It had 2,700 cement blocks in remembrance of everyone who died. I thought it was awesome looking. And really fun to walk through!





After chillin' on the blocks for a while we were starving, so we went to the U Bahn and found some cheap food. They are masters at their sandwiches here. Seriously. Yummm. After finishing our meal we got on the subway and headed for heckshamarkt? I can't really say it, so spelling it is a challenge.. But anyways, that's where all the cool shops are. So we went on a mission to find the birkenstock store (again). Sam finally got his new shoes! And then we switched objectives.. We were looking for a new clutch for me since mine was destroyed by the water I spilt in my bag :( Ahhh. It's falling apart. So sad. Unfortunately, that mission is so far unsuccessful.

Sadly, we had to leave town because Sam wanted to go back and rest before his big night at the club. Little did we know his night at the club would change into something completely different. We met Matt Chocolat at his house, and then we went back into town to go see the free side of the Aquadom (Which is like underwater world.. but it has an elevator surrounded by water instead of a tunnel you go through). It was actually pretty neat. I think I saw a puffer fish swimming around in it :)



After that we went to a restaurant by the spree (a river through the city) and had some of the best (and most expensive) ice cream ever at one of the beach bars. It was soo much ice cream and soo good. Mine was called Caramel crunch I think.. Caramely goodness pretty much. Matt Chocolat had death by chocolate.. How fitting, haha. And Sam had a milk shake.. but we quickly made him get a giant ice cream.. and he got one with nuts in it. I swear there were sun flower seeds in it. From there we went to the mall (which I did not see earlier other wise I feel my clutch search would've been more of a success) and found a tattoo place. Since then we've been trying to come up with a good tattoo idea for a certain someone.. but I'm keeping this all top secret so it'll be a surprise if/when it gets done... Like potentially tomorrow. On our way out we had finally found someone selling bratwursts! I had been waiting to find someone selling them so I could have a german one. It was funny because it doesn't fit in the little bread they give you, so it's kind of awkward looking, but oh well. It was delicious :) 1.50 euros well spent! Sam and matt patiently waited for me to get one and then we hurried over to catch the tram to get back to Matt's house since he has skype dates. Popular fella'





Tomorrow's going to be a busy day!

Wish you were here

"If you buy these, you are euro"

Yesterday was a slow day. It was 102 degrees again so we spent a good chunk of the morning inside hiding. But after a while Sam and I thought we should be more productive, so we went out on a walk to find the Stasi museum by Matt's house. After walking around for 15 or 20 minutes we finally found it, but unfortunately I couldn't go in because I told Matt I would meet him at 4:30 for a workout and the tour was just a little too long. However, Sam went and said it was pretty intense and he doesn't want to go back. I can't really say more than that though since I wasn't there. But I thought the outside was pretty scary looking.



Other than that we didn't do much yesterday. Today was better though. After an early morning workout, Sam and I met up with Ingo and he took us into down town Berlin. After eating a quick lunch we discovered there was a whole other part of Berlin we were missing out on. Good thing Ingo took us there- it had all the good shops! The Original Adidas and Oakley were my personal favourites. The Adidas store was great. We found this hilarious full zip sweatshirt thing, without sleeves and a full zip hood. Sam said I looked like a tennis shoe when I was wearing it. The Oakley store was awesome, too. No, nothing was in my price range :( but it was sweet because upstairs they had a little Oakley history museum type thing. A little time capsule. There were glasses from 1980 to now. We also found a Birkenstock store for Sam (since he has completely worn his out), and all the shoes are MUCH cheaper here then they are at home! Which is the first for anything. Ingo said the sales tax here is at 19%. Ingo also pointed out these golden bricks in the ground. He said on them are everyone's name who were taken from their home and put into camps. The bricks are outside of the house they were taken from and they stay there as a way to remember them. After walking around and shopping a little, Ingo dropped us off at the train station and we were off to the Olympic Stadium (Thank you Ingo for a fabulous tour!).





Since Sam and I are now pros at public transportation (and with a little help from Ingo) we were able to easily find our way to the Olympic Stadium. It was amazing. The inside where the track is is beautiful. Apparently they still use the soccer field for a team they have here (which is really popular.. although I can't remember it's name..). The more popular use was in 2006 for the Fifa World Cup. It still looks amazing though. Outside we found another running track, a bell, some monuments, and a bunch of other neat things. However, Sam's favourite part was the swimming pool with all of it's diving boards and diving platforms. It's really cool! They let you swim and dive in them and everything. Unfortunately we didn't have swim suits.. But that didn't stop Sam. Off he went to jump in! He wanted to go off the high one, but it was closed by the time he got there, so he was stuck jumping off of the shorter diving board. He said it was still really fun though. I couldn't go in without paying, so I stood on the outside, took pictures of his jumps, and met some locals. Sweet :)





Oh! I forgot to mention that while we were in the soccer team's gift shop we decided to act out the world cup final (Netherlands vs. Spain). If you saw the game, you will understand this picture.



After Sam's little swim we hopped back on the train and headed back to Matt's. We were going to go to a restaurant that sold everything I should try (such as crocodile..), but prices had doubled since he had been there last, so instead we headed to one of Ingo's favourite restaurants and ate a bunch of good Italian food (we needed a break from A la turca).

I am so blessed to be here experiencing this. I really hope you're all enjoying these posts so far.
I miss you all so much <3

Wish you were here..

"If I start choking, don't save me"

Today was pretty slow. We woke up to the morning heat and found out it would be 37 degrees out (98 degrees fahrenheit) today. Whoaaa. So after a slow morning, Matt took Ola to the bus station, and then him, Sam and I were off to the beach.. that cost 4 euros to swim in. But it had a water slide! Being there reminded me so much of being in Minnesota (except that there were hundreds of people at this beach since there's only one lake instead of 10,000). Dirty lake water.. yumm. How I miss you Minnesota.. but still, my heart is here. We spent our whole day on the beach soaking up the sun and trying to get tan. Eventually Sam and I ended up swimming out to the middle of the lake (Matt didn't go because he was afraid of the seaweed). Once you're in the middle there's some buoys and a lot of people were floating on them if they didn't have a tube or something else to rest on. So I went to rest on one, and then some lady came and just took it away from me. I was kind of confused.. I said I didn't speak German and didn't move. But I was buoy swiped anyways. Oh well. I can handle treading water. They looked exhausted.



After a long, hot day at the beach we headed back to Matt's where we changed and head to A La Turca (of course) and ate and watched the football game. Yaaaa Spain! Way to pull out a win!! I thought Holland would win, but then after seeing their tactics I wanted Spain to win. Besides, the octopus said Spain would win so who was I to bet against it? Espana 2010!!



Oops, I forgot to mention we put our clothes in the wash at the laundry mat next to A La Turca before the game. So when the game ended we went to get our clothes out of the washer, but too bad we didn't know the laundry mat closed at 11. Of course we got there at 11:05. So as I type this, our clothes are sitting across the street locked in the washers. Sweet! I'm not having too much luck with washing my clothes. Oh well, if that's the worse that's happened to me I'd say things are going well.

Tomorrow's suppose to be another hot day. I think Sam and I are going back out to find the museum we couldn't find earlier this week. And then perhaps a post office. And of course I have a workout with Matt to look forward to.. which should be a suffer fest since it's jumps.. and I've never done a jump workout before. Awesome.

Oh! And here's the attack penguin picture I promised



Wish you were here..

"What kind of animal is that?" "A dog, obviously."

Yesterday Sam and I were unsuccessful at finding the museum, so we went to the Tiergarten because it made the list of things to do in Berlin if you're only there for two days. Soo off we went. Turns out it was just a garden.. Which was pretty and all, but.. ya know. We also found some fancy gates! But we don't know what they're called. After that we just went back on the train and wandered around downtown, looked at cool buildings, found a funky car, a BAR BIKE (which I thought would fit better in Groningen), and I got to try some sort of buffalo sausage with curry. Prettyyy good :) On our way to catch the tram to Matt's we happened to wander past a Marijuana museum.. With a gift shop.. And marijuana growing inside. I'm not exactly sure what I think about this, but it was funny. I wonder what was in the gift shop..





Today started off early with a morning workout in the heat. After that Matt, Ola, Sam and I went to the Berlin Zoo. It was huge and had SO many different animals! Half of them I didn't know, and the other half I had never seen before. There were penguins, llamas, alpacas, kangaroos, hippos, emus, and a million others. I felt bad when I saw the kangaroos because I ate their friend the other day. Kangaroos- I am sorry, but he tasted good. I will remember him forever. The best part for me was that the animals were always really close to you. So the penguins would get in the water and swim around and be right next to you. And Matt said I could touch them. So finally I did and it was so soft! So another came by and I tried to touch it again and it nearly bit my hand off. Attack penguin! Luckily I lived to tell the tale. There's a picture of this but it's on Matt's camera, so I'll have to show you all later. Also, my level of childness has just gone down.. or up. Which ever way is closer to being a child. Because at the zoo was a petting zoo! Cute little animals :) A goat jumped up on the fence and was at eye level with us! He was pretty cool. And Colton- There were no attack goats this time.



After spending 5 hours at the zoo we decided to call it a day (or maybe only because the zoo was closing..), so we went down the road to Vapianos for dinner. Yumm. They make some good food. And they had Mezzo mix! So I was happy :) I now have 3 things I eat/drink too much of. Once we were full we hit up a ... museum of sorts... and then we went to find a place to watch the football (soccer) game. At half time we decided we were all exhausted and just wanted to head home. On our way to the tram we passed a group of people dressed in full body German flag suits. I thought they were awesome. I wanted Germany to win as soon as I saw that. In that same place we saw a giant pile of shoes with a 'UN' in the middle of them. I guess the United Nations set up a safe zone for some people so they were telling us that they did that. On the other side of the street there were horse drawn carriages and who did we find in the drivers seat? The best driver ever- A puppy! It was adorable :) After stopping to take a picture we quickly left and headed for the tram trying to beat the post game traffic, and luckily we made it before everyone else could get on. The whole ride home was vuvuzela free :)





A long, productive day in Berlin :)

Wish you were here

"It's weird to think they're going to be real people someday"

Yesterday Sam, Ola, and I got to meet Matt's kids that he teaches. They were all so cute!! Especially Tilman and Merlin. That's right. Merlin. They all loved to run around yelling at Matt saying, "Matt matt matt matt matt matt" and he would say, "what?" and they would say, "matt chocolat." Rhyming four year olds. Brilliant! Actually, the whole situation reminded me of that family guy episode where stewie goes to Louis and is like, "Mom. mom. mom. mom. mama. mama. mom..." "WHAT?!" "...Hi." I hope you know what I'm talking about. Anyways, back to Berlin. After we had a picnic with lots of good food (everything from cookies to sushi to apples) we went to Matt's school, grabbed his stuff, and we were off. We went to this old graffiti filled building that smelt really bad. Honestly, if I was adventuring Berlin on my own I would not have gone in there. It looked super sketchy. But Matt took us in and despite the smell, it was actually really cool. Upstairs there were people selling jewelry and other crafts, as well as art for sale. Downstairs and outside there was a bar and a group of people playing football (soccer).



From there we went to Check Point Charlie and the Berlin Wall. On our way there we went past a Mini Cooper dealer. There was a mini cooper sideways on the wall, so naturally we had to take a picture of us holding it. Tourists. Here's how mine went.. Me holding the car, me hitting my head on the car.. twice.. Then me falling over.







Anyways, after that we kept walking and came across the Berlin Wall. It was really weird to see it in person. It was a little surreal. A lot of history and a lot to take in and understand. I always 'understood' the Berlin Wall, but when I saw it in person and the real separation it caused it really hit me. One day your town is one, and the next day there's a wall you're not allowed to cross. Many people were separated from their family and friends for almost 30 years. It was a lot to take in and I can't really explain it, but you should try and visit there sometime.





After that we went to the Sony Center in Postdamer Platz where we ran and found food. We ate at an Australian restaurant which was very good! (The food just keeps getting better) Soo what do you eat at an Australian restaurant? A Kangaroo wrap of course (the crocodile was too expensive to try). I felt bad eating a kangaroo. It just seems like one of those things you shouldn't eat. I haven't even seen a kangaroo before! But it turns out Kangaroo is actually really good! It tasted like steak and chicken.. Kind of. Either way it was great. Above us was the top of the Sony center which changed colour while we sat there. It was really pretty and switched from blue to pink. Luckily Matt's camera skills allowed me to capture this moment.



From there we left to go home. Another late night in Berlin. Another great night in Berlin. Now we're sitting here relaxing a little bit, taking today easy. Matt's gone at work and Sam and I are trying to figure out things to do in Berlin. I think there's a museum near by we may go check out.. I'll keep you posted.

Wish you were here

"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!