Berlin Biatch!

Hey everyone. Are you excited to here about our Travels? I hope so!

Well, I let you know that we all arrived in Berlin yesterday. It was a very hectic day, but not at the same time.

After I left you, I went and got settled into my room. Our room is a bit larger, 6 girls in this room. But it is going ok. No problems yet. After we took a little time to settle in, Felecia surprised us, by taking us on a one hour boat tour on the Spree River. It was very nice. We saw a lot of buildings. We are pretty close to everything but Ka De We and the stuff next to it.

After the Spree tour, Matt and I came back to the Hostel and decided we would be food, since we hadn't eaten lunch like everyone else.

All I could think of was trying to get cheap food, so I took matt to what I thought I remembered as a cheap place to eat: Potsdamer Platz, I was wrong, I got it mixed up with Alexander Platz. Potsdamer platz is where the Sony center, Gemelde Galerie, etc. are. It is a high class place. Well, matthew and I went into the sony center and we decided to eat at the same restaurant my mother and I ate at when we were there last summer (Alex's). We each had spaghetti bolognese, with nothing to drink. The food was good, but the portions could have been more. We took a stroll around the Sony Center and we saw that there is a Cinema Star Imax Theater there, and guess what? All films showing there are in their original language! So we went and saw the new Indian Jones in English!!! I really liked it, and I think Matthew liked it too! Good Action!

After we got out from the film, we decided to walk a bit. We walked to the Brandenburger Tor (The Brandenburg Gate), on the way we stumbled upon the memorial for "The Murdered Jews of Europe." It is an interesting memorial with huge square blocks of varying heights over a wide expanse. It is very ease to lose someone in there at night of they don't stick close by.

We got to the Brandenburg gate and we saw that it was all set up for the European German Football showings. There were 3 huge screens spread out from the back of the Brandenburg gate to the Victory Column. There is a huge stage, food and beer stands as well as a huge ferris wheel 4€ per person. We did not go. However, we did walk from the back of the gate to the Victory column. Quite a walk, at least 30 mins or more.

When we got to the victory column, we found a bus, took some alternative routes and made it home.

6-25-08

Today, I woke up at 7:30, showered, and ate breakfast at 8:30. After Breakfast, we took a 3 hour tour by bus. We saw basically anything that was worth seeing in Berlin, The Berlin Wall, The Kaiser Wilhelm Gedenknis Kirche, The Sony Center, The Dom, The Reichstag, The Brandenburger Tor, etc. It was a very nice tour.

After the tour, we went to a restaurant called the 12 Apostles. It is a pizzeria and pasta place. Lunch was on Felecia, and drinks we on us. Basically, just like that night in Dresden. I had a very tasty yellow and green pasta with awesome tomato based sauce and mushrooms. Matthew had a very spicy pizza. We each had one pils to drink. Personally, I hate the Berliner Pils, I think it tastes awful.

As I was trying to feed Matthew some of my pasta, I spilled it all over his Germany T-Shirt that he was wearing for the soccer came against Germany and Turkey. He was not happy.

After lunch, We came back to the hostel, I hand washed his shirt and jeans and dried them with a hair dryer. It was my penance since I had told him not to spill on himself and then I went and did!

Finally, I had it all done and we did a bit of shopping, not much, me really, Matthew just came with, to keep me safe and keep me company.

When we were finished with shopping, we went back to the hostel to get ready to go to the Brandenburg Gate for the game. Of course, our group got going way late, so we got there and we couldn't get in at the first check point, nor the second or third. Finally, we stole through the trees of the Tier Garten and we found an opening. Matthew and I had to leave the group behind in order to do so. Too bad, but we wanted the experience.

Well we got it, we were stationed at the 3rd screen back, the one closest to the victory column. It was hot, people were pushing, people were disorderly, it took forever for the game to start. When it did, we had several mishaps, including a vendor stand collapsing from fans standing atop it! When I say people, I mean like 50 people on top of a thing the size of my kitchen, which is very small for those of you who know.

When Germany would score, people would jump up and down in joy, which to be honest, they jumped up and down on my exposed flip flop feet. It was a good time, but when we started, we had a pretty good view, and by the end we had been pushed into the view of a vendor and couldn't see much. We only stayed until half time and then we left, which was also an adventure.

We got on the subway and basically ran back to the hostel after getting out of that mess from the Brandenburg Gate.

When we got back to the Hostel, we stood in the entry way to watch the end of the Game!!! Germany won 3-2!!!!!! Yay!!!! Germany is going to the finals on Sunday!!! We are so excited, because we have watched all the games and taken part in the EM for this year. I love soccer, I wish it was America's favorite sport!

So that is what has happened to far. I hope that you are all doing well and that life is fairly simple for you. We are doing well, tomorrow, Thursday, we go to the Museum of Film and T.V. as well as Checkpoint Charlie. I am excited for the first, but I have already been to the second.

I will update tomorrow with all of our exciting news. I believe that I will have no time to upload pictures anymore. This makes me very sad, because I so want to show you all what we have been seeing in these last few days here. I will try, but I cannot guarantee anything!

Yay Germany!!!! Berlin is awesome. Hopefully tomorrow after the museums, we will try to take in the Charlottenburg and grounds and for sure the Reichstag at night!!!!

Take care everyone. We have less than a week left here!

Biss Dann