Day 55

 

Today we went over to the Hackischer Markt in east berlin, right next to Alexanderplatz where the Television Tower (Fernsehturm) is.  Right behind the market is a collection of courtyards all hidden in a group of apartments/stores.  These are called the Hackesche Höfe (Hackish Courtyards).

On the way there, we walked through the Winterfeldtplatz, which is famous for having an open market every wednesday and saturday (the saturday one being a lot bigger).  They have venders selling everything from fish, flowers, hats, to jewelry and bread.  This platz is located exactly halfway between my apartment and the Nollendorfplatz U-bahn station, so I pass it every day.  Today was the first day I had my camera while the market was going on.

So after taking the U-bahn, we made a slight detour and went by the infamous chocolate shop Fassbender & Rausch, as Brigita hadn't yet been in.  After that, we took the U-6 up to Friedrichstrasse, and then walked the last half mile to the Hackischer Markt.

There are close to 10 Höfe located near the Markt, and each Hof looks completely different from the next.  All of these were heavily damaged during WWII, and being in east berlin, weren't renovated and rebuilt until the 90s.  Almost all of them were remodeled to look nice and new, however a couple near the back side were left as they were (see pics below), with crumbling walls, graffiti, and lots of poster advertisements (which actually blend in well with the graffiti).

Below are a few pics from the Höfe:

Inside the first Hof

One of my favorite pics from the day - in the third Hof

Inside a stairwell leading up to a very cool poster and book shop

One of the Hofs as they originally looked

A 15-foot tall statue that would actually open and close its mouth and eyes, and flap its wings (over about 15 minutes) for 50 cents, also in one of the Hofs that wasn't remodeled

We walked around the Höfe for a couple hours (including getting coffee at a cafe), and then headed back to the apartment later in the afternoon.  After we got back I went for my usual run, practiced for a couple hours, and then spent the rest of the evening upstairs at the Thiermeiers'.

   

Day 54

  

I'm feeling better today - the throat isn't as sore at least.  I'm still coughing, but I can live with that.

Today Mrs. Thiermeier, Nina, Brigita, and I drove to Potsdam!  I'd heard a lot of really cool things about it since I've been here, and as well it's historically pretty significant.

The drive there took about 45 minutes.  Potsdam itself is located southwest of Berlin, and is the capital city of the german state Brandenburg (of which Berlin used to be a part before becoming its own state).  We went first to Schloss Sanssouci.  This palace was modeled after the Sanssouci palace located in france.  The palace itself is  decorated in the Rococo style, which basically means lots of gold everywhere, even more so than in Baroque palaces.

Below are some pics of Schloss Sanssouci and the grounds around it:

Stairwell leading to the palace from the lower gardens

A Gazebo, decorated in the Rococo Style

The Orangerie

Hallway inside Sanssouci

"Chinese" Statues at the "Chinese" House

After we walked around the palace for a few hours, we headed into the city of Potsdam, and checked out the downtown area for a while.  Potsdam definitely has a different feel compared to Berlin.  It's not as tall (most buildings are 3 stories tops), and has a quainter feel (probably because most of berlin was rebuilt in the last 60 years, so it's just not that old).  Below are a couple of pics from Potsdam:

The "Holland Quarter", where a lot of migrant workers from the Netherlands lived in the 1730s.

Day 53

   

Today I woke up feeling pretty miserable.  I've been coming down over the last couple days with some kinda cold.  Basically I'm achy, have a slight sore throat (probably a slight infection), and am coughing a lot.  I decided to just take it easy today, so that I can recuperate faster and get back into the swing of things.

Asides from that, in the evening, we went to see Dirty Dancing, the musical at Potsdamer Platz.  The story was the same from the movie, just everything was done in german.  My biggest compliment to the show was actually the quality of the technical aspects of the show, and the overall production was spectacular.  On stage, they made use of 4 giant LCD displays as part of a background of a scene.  With it, they were able to give the show a much more realistic feel - like when they change the perspective of the audience on a character sitting down (like they rotate the character on stage from a back view to the side), the display changes accordingly, and you really get the illusion of a camera motion like in a movie.  Besides that the music was good, if not a little loud.  But definitely worth it!

   

Day 52

 

Today Mrs. Thiermeier, Brigita and I went over to east berlin to check out the famous Gärten der Welt (Gardens of the World).  

The drive there took about an hour.  After arriving we parked in a narrow parking lot on the side of the gardens and went in.  The entry fee was pretty inexpensive, only 3 euros a person.  

The Gardens are basically a giant park with thousands of flowers.  In addition to just being a park though, there are several houses and courts build to give it an international feel.  It had an arabian house, a korean temple, a japanese garden, a chinese garden and several pagodas.  They also had a fairy-tale forest (where they have statues featuring characters from famous german fairy tales), as well as a hedge labyrinth.  Below are some pics:

Main Entrance

Arabian House

Courtyard in Arabian House

Flowers in Balinese Greenhouse

Balinese Greenhouse

Korean House

Zen Garden (Japanese House)

Chinese Tea House, Boat, and Pagoda

As you can see, the gardens really are quite something.  The whole thing was actually funded by the city of Berlin's government in conjunction with thegovernments of the foreign countries represented, i.e. a public park, not private.  I was amazed that the government puts that much money just into places for leisure such as this.  Of course, from the perspective of tourism, this would be a great draw for Berlin - however something to consider is that it's way off of the normal tourist track, so my guess is that it really was intended for the Berlin citizens.

Anyways, while we were walking around in the beginning (after seeing the arabian, balinese, and korean houses), we stopped at the cafe in the middle of the park to get something to drink.  Mrs. Thiermeier also got a slice of a strawberry apricot cake that was quite delicious.  After that we headed over to the japanese and chinese houses.

Behind the chinese house, there was a small pagoda (not the one in the picture) where they served food.  To my delight, I saw that they had a type of chinese dumpling that I really like, called Bao zi（包子）.  I ordered a couple as a late afternoon snack.  Mrs. Thiermeier and Brigita both got plates of fried noodles.  

After that, it was starting to get late, so we headed back to the house for the evening.

   

Day 51

 

Today we had two little outings with Brigita.

In the morning after breakfast, we headed via u-bahn to the Museuminsel, to check out one of the museums.  We tried first to go to the Neues Museum, but the line to buy tickets was insanely long.  We decided instead to go to the Altes Museum.  The line was a lot shorter.  Oddly enough, they actually sell tickets for the Neues Museum, so we got a few and went there instead.

The Neues Museum is famous for its ancient Egyptian art, including a famous bust of Nefertiti.  I got a lot of cool pics (below are a few), but they didn't let me photograph Nefertiti herself.  Oh well.  I'm sure it's online somewhere.

This is actually a real piece of "The Book of the Dead"

Of course it wouldn't be Egypt without a Sarcophagus

After finishing at the Museum, we headed back home and took a short siesta.  We decided later on to go to KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens, Department Store of the West), which is an incredibly famous store in Berlin.

The store itself is 7 stories tall.  Each story has different stuff, ranging from all types of women's fashion, men's fashion, shoes, kitchen appliances, home furnishings, in addition to one whole floor for specialty foods from all over, and then a restaurant/cafe on the top floor.  It was quite a sight to behold.  Below are a few pics:

We headed back and had dinner soon after.  It's still insanely hot out, to the point that we're not even eating hot dinners, instead having lots of tasty salads.

   

Day 50

  

This week I get to be a tourist again!  Nina's cousin, Brigita, is visiting until sunday from Bavaria.  Mr. Thiermeier says this will be a great opportunity for me to hear real "bavarian" german.

Until now, I haven't really heard many other german dialects spoken except for Hochdeutsch, and a lot of people speaking hochdeutsch with a regionally influenced accent.  This will be my first time hearing actual "dialect"!

Brigita arrived in the morning via plane.  It's a pretty short flight from Ingolstadt (where she lives) to here, only about 45 minutes.  After she got here, all of us minus Mr. Thiermeier headed over to Potsdamer Platz.  We ended up driving and parking nearby there, and walking the last quarter mile or so.  It was again brutally hot, so we stayed in the shade where we could.

It was hot...

At Potsdamer Platz, there is a theater where they put on a lot of musicals.  Currently they are showing the musical based on the movie Dirty Dancing.  We actually got tickets and are going to see it thursday night!  We all enjoyed standing inside the entrance to the theater (where the ticket counter is), as they actually have air conditioning inside...

After that, we walked through the Sony Center, and then up the road to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial.  After stopping for a minute, we walked over to Brandenburger Tor (took a few pics of course), and then over to the Reichstag.  Behind the Reichstag is a place on the river with stairs, ideal for cooling off your feet on a hot day.

My feet this time - and no, my leg's aren't actually that pale (the water's a lot darker, so to get the exposure right for the water, the legs came out looking a lot paler)

After that, we went to a cafe and grabbed something to drink.  We headed back soon after.  I went and did my daily run, practiced some, and then came back up for dinner.  I was surprised to see that Mrs. Thiermeier had cooked up some bavarian specialties, including "roulladen" and "knödel".

Knödel (on the red plate) are a kind of large potato dumpling.  They are made by cooking potatoes, mashing them, adding a little flower, salt, and a couple other spices, rolling the mash into balls, and cooking them in hot water.  Roulladen are pieces of meat rolled around a pickle, and then cooked in the oven in a water bath.  It tastes incredibly good, a bit like beef stew.  Besides that, we had the normal salad and drinks.  

I stayed upstairs for a while, then went downstairs to go to bed.

   

Day 49

   

For more than a week, it has been brutally hot here in berlin.  According to the Thiermeiers, it hasn't been so hot here in more than 10 years.  We've had several days in a row of temps over 100, and every day has been at least 90.  Unfortunately it hasn't been cooling off at night, so opening the windows doesn't cool the apartment down at all.  I've been lucky being on the ground floor, so it stays noticeably cooler than in the Thiermeier's apartment (usually is about 5 to 10 degrees cooler).  But even my apartment is getting hot.  So, to try to beat the heat, the thiermeiers and I went to a lake to go swimming for the day.

We ended up driving there, instead of taking the u-bahn as usual.  It took about 30 minutes to get there (not including the time to pic up one of Nina's friends who was coming with us).  After parking, we had to walk for a stretch through the woods to get there.

The lake is called Teufelsee (Devil Lake).  I'm not sure where the germans got the naming system for their lakes, but it's rather hilarious.  One lake is called the "slaughter" lake, and this one is called the "devil" lake...

The lake itself was really nice, albeit incredibly crouded.  Also, a lot of nudists were there...new experience for me.  The water was really comfortable though, perfect for escaping the heat.

I went swimming for about an hour, and then came back on shore and read under a tree for a while.  I'm still working my way through The Languages of Japan (a descriptive grammar of Japanese and Ainu) by Masayoshi Shibatani.  Shibatani is one of my professors next semester, for a class on the structure of japanese.  Since I have absolutely no background in the language (and they recommended having 2 years), I figured reading the textbook ahead of time might be useful.

After we were done swimming, we stopped at an old factory that was converted into a wildlife preservation/school/cafe to get something to drink as well a slice of cake.

Here are some pics from there:

The Old Factory

In the Gardens

Bees!

Amazing clouds

All the pics were taken on my new camera.  It does actually a surprisingly good job considering how compact it is.  

Day 46

  

Today went down to the area around Schlachtensee (specifically in the area near Nikolassee S-Bahn Station) and went swimming.

I left late afternoon (around 5), and took the U-bahn from Nollendorfplatz to Zoologischer Garten, and then took the S-bahn from there to Nikolassee (about a 20 minute ride).  At Nikolassee, I met up with Mark, one of the people I met at the Fanmeile the other day.

We walked from the s-bahn station to a grocery store about 20 minutes away to get some stuff to drink (it was quite hot out).  I didn't bring my camera with, so unfortunately I don't have any pics of the cool houses in the area.  This area in particular is one of the wealthier parts of berlin, so there are lots of houses everywhere, featuring some rather cool looking architecture.

After going to the grocery store, we walked a ways more and finally got to Schlachtensee.  A couple of other people were supposed to come, but they ended up not showing up (apparently this happens a lot according to Mark).  Regardless, the water felt great, and we ended up hanging out by the water for a couple hours.  After that, we walked to a burger king and grabbed something quick to eat, and then headed home.

  

Day 44

  

Today was a big day for Germany, the semi final game of the World Cup.  Germany vs. Spain.   To commemorate the game, I went with a group of friends to the infamous Fanmeile (Fan Mile) to watch.

Since the game wasn't going to start until 8:45, so we met up at around 7 at the Bellevue s-bahn station in Tiergarten, about a 10 minute walk from the Fanmeile itself.

A few people ended up running late, but we were all there by about 7:30 or so.  The group this time consisted of Sam, Pina, Nathalie,three friends of Nathalie (didn't catch their names), and their friend from school Mark.  Now, language-wise, we had to decide what language to use as a group, as everyone had a different background.  Nathalie is half indian, half french, and speaks french at home (and also german, growing up in berlin).  Two of her friends are native to french, and speak german ok.  No english.  The third friend is from the UK, so speaks english and decent german.  Sam is best with Chinese and English, and speaks decent german as well (not fluent, but she understands a lot).  Pina is from South Africa, and speaks a language from there (that I can't remember the name of - all I know is that it is not a click language, but incorporates a few clicks into itself through borrowed words from click languages) as well as Afrikaans, Dutch, German, English, and some Spanish.  Mark is from Switzerland, and speaks Swiss German (which is very different from the official dialect of german in Germany), English, and Hochdeutsch (the official dialect of Germany).  So we decided that german was the common factor and stuck to a mix of that and english throughout the night.  Or at least that was the plan.  I ended up mixing all three (english, german, and some french from time to time) depending on who I talked to.

We got to the Fanmeile about an hour before the game started, so we found a good spot in front of one of the displays and watched the pregame entertainment (a few live singing acts, among other stuff).

There was a lot of people there - I heard they were expecting about 300,000.

The game itself was ok, germany didn't play as well as in prior games, and ended up losing.  After the game, there were a couple of fights, but nothing dangerous.  Just funny to see people get so worked up over a game...

After everything was done, we just headed our separate ways.

Day 43

  

I slept really well last night - around 11 hours - the result of being a full-time tourist since Thursday.  It was really fun having my friends visit...wished they could have stayed longer.

During the day, I took it easy (usual routine: practice, run, read, etc), and then got ready to meet up with Sam and some friends later in the afternoon.

Sam had been chosen for a photo exhibition featuring models covered in oil (actually maple syrup, but looks like oil in the photos), kind of emulating animal-like poses.  Tonight was the opening of the exhibit, and there was an open house that I was going to with her and friends.

I got ready to go, and headed out around 5:15.  On the way there, I had to make a stop at the Sony store at Potsdamer Platz, namely to buy a (smaller) camera.  Essentially my big camera does take great photos, but it's not feasible to take along when I go out with friends and stuff.  I found a good quality "point-and-shoot" for a decent price (about 100 euros), and went ahead and bought it.  I was surprised at how many controls the camera actually had (for those of you who are camera savvy, it gives you exposure, ISO, and white balance, along with an "easy" mode (which I shall never use...tried it and it overexposes everything a whole stop), as well as some cool preset scene modes that I can see myself using time to time).  Nevertheless, with proper control, the camera takes great pictures.  The only annoying thing with it being so small, is that I can't take pictures with an ISO over 400 or so (even though it meters up to 3200), as the rendering of the pixels start making it look like the set from a horror film.  Seriously.

After setting up the camera (which also came with a free 8GB memory card = 2000 pics @ 12 megapixels, about 4 MB per shot) I headed to Alexanderplatz, where I met up with Sam, Pina, and Nathalie.  Since we got to the exhibit about half an hour before opening, we went to a cafe to get something to drink.  Soon after we headed back to the exhibit.

The exhibit itself was really cool.  There were 16 (give or take, I didn't count exactly) photos, all with black backgrounds, black and white.  Sam's pic was on the first wall you see as you come inside the exhibit.

Sam with her picture (on the right)

We stayed at the exhibit for over an hour, talking to some interesting people, including the photographer, and the lady who did most of the editing for the exhibit.  It was overall quite fun.

After the exhibit, we went back to Potsdamer Platz to grab some dinner.  We ended up going to Maredos (a steak house).  We stayed for probably 2 hours or so, having a good time.  After that it was a bit before midnight, and we all needed to leave so we could still catch the U-bahn to our respective homes (they don't run for long after midnight).

   

Day 42

  

Today Valerie and I got up a bit later again, and had breakfast around 10:30.  After that we headed over to Potsdamer Platz so that Valerie could see it again in a bit more detail (yesterday we had to rush off to catch the tour at Brandenburger Tor, and had to skip Potsdamer Platz).

While at Potsdamer Platz, our first stop was at H&M, a clothing store that sells pretty trendy clothing for really cheap - I ended up actually getting two shirts and a pair of jeans, all for under 40 euros.  After H&M we walked around the Arkaden, aka the giant glass mall.  Valerie ended up buying a couple of souvenirs, and as well we stopped at an "american" restaurant (kind of a weird mix of a burger joint, sports bar, and diner) to get burgers...this was more as a tribute to Independence Day (and we couldn't find any good burger places yesterday).

By the time we got back to the apartment, it was time for Valerie to get her stuff packed up, and then take the U-bahn/bus to the airport.  We left around 6:45, and got to the airport by 7:30.  After that, I said goodbye to Valerie and then headed back to the apartment.

The rest of the night I just took it easy, practiced some, watched some tv, and then went to bed a bit earlier.

Day 41

  

After being full time tourist for 2 whole days now, we decided to take it a bit easier today, so that we didn't completely wear ourselves out.

We woke up and had breakfast around 10:30, and then headed out over to east berlin by about 11:30.  We took the U-bahn over to the East Side Gallery area.

On the street in front of the gallery, there was a big street festival going on - mostly painters displaying and selling their works.  Also in the middle of the street, there was a big sheet of paper that everyone could paint on.

After taking a look at the festival, we walked up the mile-long stretch of wall/graffitti that makes up the East Side gallery.  This time we stayed on the opposite side of the street, actually giving a better view than I had last time up close.

After checking out the East Side Gallery, we headed via s-bahn back to Stadtmitte to go to the really amazing chocolate shop there (i.e. the one with the sculptures of the Reichstag et al. inside).  We got a box of 12 truffles (3 each - and they're not as big as american truffles) to enjoy as a dessert in the afternoon.  After leaving the shop, we went back to Gendarmenmarkt and sat in the shade of some trees for a while.

Matt needed to head to the train station before dinner, so we headed back to the apartment around 4:30.  Matt and Nick then went together to the Hauptbahnhof to head back to Karlsruhe and Dortmund respectively.

After they left, Valerie and I got swimstuff on and we went over to Schlachtensee to go to a good-bye party for a friend of mine, who was heading back to Switzerland next week.

We took the subway all the way to the end of the line to Krumme Lanke, and then walked another mile and a half to get to the lake Schlachtensee.  Once we were there, I called my friend to find where they were exactly on the water.  Unfortunately, they took a different route than we did to get there, so they weren't exactly sure where on the lake they were in reference to the cafe we were at.  So, it's not that long to walk all the way around (it's a good hour or so walking at a brisk pace), and we set out walking.  The annoying thing about Schlachtensee is that once you think you're about to get to the end of it and start heading around the other side, it opens up again and goes further on.  After about 45 minutes of walking, we came to a place that sounded like where my friend was describing, but they weren't there.  Also, they weren't answering their phone.  Needless to say, we never found them.

So, we decided to just find a nice place on the shore, and just go for a swim and then head back.  We did just that, swimming for about half an hour, and then walking back to the u-bahn station were we got some dinner.  Valerie had her first Currywurst, and I had my first turkish pizza.  Both were very tasty.

After that we headed back to the apartment and turned in for the night.

   

Day 40

  
Since we stayed up pretty late last night, we ended up sleeping in "late" till about 9:30.  I got a shower and got breakfast ready.  Since it was both matt and valerie staying, it would have been a bit crowded upstairs - instead we ate out on the table in the garden.  Breakfast was the usual: a bunch of different types of really good, fresh bread rolls, butter, 5 types of jam, juice, milk, etc.

The three of us headed up to the Potsdamer Platz area - abbreviated this time though, as we wanted to try and catch a tour of the central city (same tour I did several weeks ago with Sam's friends).  We were running a tiny bit late (hard to get out of bed...), and ended up catching the tour at Brandenburger Tor (only 10 minutes after when it was supposed to start).  After about 15 minutes though, Matt (the one wanting to do the tour) decided he had already heard everything the guide was saying (having already read up on berlin before getting here), and we decided to ditch the tour and do our own thing.  So we showed Valerie the Jewish Memorial (you have to see that while in berlin), and covered a few of the same things that Matt and I hit yesterday (minus the gargantuan history museum).

We walked over to Gendarmenmarkt and went up the French Dom, which has a tower that offers an amazing view of the city (again, no camera...).  We stayed up there for about a half hour, as it was the first shade we had found that actually had a nice breeze (being up a couple hundred feet will do that).  After finally cooling off, we headed back down the long stairwell and out onto the Markt.  We then headed down Friedrichstrasse over to Checkpoint Charlie.  Now I had already been here before, but I hadn't been inside the museum there.  We went in (and paid the really expensive ticket price, 9 euros a piece) and spent about an hour and a half looking around.  The museum itself was set up in this old apartment building, with really bad air-circulation.  It was hot outside to start with, but it was probably a good 20 degrees hotter.  After a while, we realized that there was no way we were going to be able to stand there and read every piece of information (every wall was completely covered from floor to ceiling in stories), and called it quits at around 4:30.

At the same time we were in the museum, the World Cup game between Germany and Argentina was playing.  Typical Germany - there was a tv in every restaurant and bar (i.e. everywhere), and judging by the way people were cheering (which I could here from inside the museum), I accurately predicted that Germany scored 4 times (every time there's a score, the cheers get deafenig).  After getting out of the museum and enjoying the "cool" outside air, we caught the closest U-bahn station and headed back to the Nollendorfplatz area to grab some dinner.

While we were on the u-bahn, Matt's friend Nick called and said he was in the area, and wanted to know if we wanted to meet up for dinner or something.  We said ok, and he met us about half an hour later.  We picked him up from the Nollendorfplatz station and grabbed dinner at a good Döner stand near there.  Dinner for 4 euros is just my style.

Nick, Valerie, and Matt

We then headed over to the Gedächtniskirche for the concert.  They were still selling tickets when we got there, so we asked for 4 tickets at the price Hennig mentioned (15 euros each), and we got our tickets!  The concert was really good.  The only bad thing was that Germany had just clobbered Argentina 4 to 0, and everyone was outside the church celebrating, really loudly (vuvuzelas galore).  The walls of the building the concert was in were pretty thick, so they caught almost all the noize, but the vuvuzela noise always cut through.  At times we'd be listening to the piece played, and wonder why one of the french horns was out of tune...wait a minute, that's not a french horn!  The funniest times where when the vuvuzelas were actually in tune and playing in the right key for the piece (this actually happened in 3 of the pieces!).  The concert lasted about an hour and 15 minutes, after which we headed outside and up to try and get the last tour of the Reichstag before they close at 10 (it was 9:15 at the end of the concert).

The platz at the church was completely swarmed with people.  There was a lot of food vendors, live music, and a swinging chair ride for people to ride on.  It was pretty insane.

After cutting through the mobs, we got to the S-bahn station, and headed up in the direction of the Hauptbahnhof, in order to get a direct connection to the Reichstag.  Everything went well catching the necessary trains, however we got to the Reichstag right as they put up the rope, cutting the line off for the last people to go in.  We were pretty disappointed that we couldn't go in and see the Glass Cupola on top.  But we ended up going out on the massive open lawn in front of the Reichstag, and just chilled there for a few hours.  It had finally cooled off a little, so sitting on the grass felt incredibly refreshing.  While out there we just talked for a while.  Valerie and I tried taking long exposures of stuff with no tripod...needless to say we got some pretty bad pics (some kinda cool though).  A couple came out well.

After that we headed back to the apartment and watched Ghostbusters!  We watched it on my laptop this time though - bigger screen (my tv is tiny) and in color...

   

Day 39

   

This morning, Matt and I had breakfast upstairs at the Thiermeiers pretty early (at least, early for me...) at around 8am.  After that, we headed up to Nollendorfplatz to take the U-Bahn to Potsdamer Platz.  I showed him around there, including the massive mall, Sony Center, and the building of the Berlin Philharmonic.  Unfortunately the Phil is on break right now, and there's absolutely nothing going on in the building for the remainder of my trip.

After that we walked up the road to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburger Tor, and then kept walking along Unter den Linden.  I also showed him where Hitler's Bunker was located (where he finally kicked the bucket - ironically is now a parking lot for the Jewish Memorial and Museum).  We walked along the road and gawked at some of the tourist traps (one of which a half-kilo hamburger for only 30 euros!).

We walked then to the German History Museum.  This museum is enormous on the outside, and even bigger on the inside!  They have an entire inner court that should be open-air, but is glassed in.  It's the oddest feeling walking through because it feels like outside (with all the heat and sun), but with absolutely no wind, and an echo.  The museum itself however had some really spectacular collections, including medieval german weapons and castle designs, a hall dedicated to advertisements from the Weimar Republic (1920's), lots of historical art (royal families, etc), among a ton of other things.  The museum seemed to go on and on and on...we left after about 2 and a half hours.

It didn't help that it was incredibly hot.  We went to find a grocery store after the museum to get some cheap drinks (why pay 3 euros for .2 L of something when you can get 1.5 for less than 1 euro at a grocery store).  I knew of one off of Friedrichstrasse.  We headed that way, passing Gendarmenmarkt (where the German and French Cathedrals are, as well as the Concert House), and the Ritter Sport store (see previous post).  Now the last time I found the store, I came across it completely by chance (I just remember the general area where it was, not the address), and we ended up not finding it.  So instead (completely parched by that point), we finished the last of the Apfelschorle that Matt brought, and got half-liter sodas at a cafe.

After that, we went to check out Ku'damm.  Now normally I would have taken the u-bahn to get there (6 stations from potsdamer platz), but I also knew it was possible to get there walking.  Since we were already next to Tiergarten (a massive park in the middle of the city), we just walked along the perimeter until we got there.  It didn't take that long, all in all 40 minutes, but it was all in the shade, with a pleasant breeze.  Plus we got to see everyone coming to go to the Fanmeile (Fan Mile), which is about a mile of street closed off in the middle of the city, with massive screens to watch the World Cup.

Funnily enough (tangent), I've only been talking about the world cup the entire time it's been going in german (with friends/family I'm staying with), so I wasn't sure of what it was even called in english.  Most of the day I just called it "Worrrrld...meisterschaft" (Weltmeisterschaft in German) - I had to ask someone what it was actually called... 

I wanted to check out something on the north side of Tiergarten, but every time we tried to head that direction, it was either closed off for the Fanmeile, or led to a tunnel (part of the autobahn).  We tried walking a ways on the sidewalk into the tunnel, but I remembered that it was a very long ways to the other side, and that we probably needed to turn around.

So we FINALLY made it to Ku'damm.  We checked out the Gedächtniskirche, and found out that there is actually going to be a concert there tomorrow night.  The concert itself is going to feature 17th and 18th century composers with an orchestra all dressed up in baroque court costumes (white curly wigs and all).  The tickets were expensive though, 27 euros a person!  However, with a stroke of luck, I talked to a man about the concert, who turned out to be one of the people in charge.  I explained in german that we'd be interested in going, but that it was just out of our price range.  He said there was a student deal for 19euros, but that he'd give it to us at 15 a piece.  I was pretty happy with the deal.  He said to come back tomorrow and to either buy the tickets from him, or if he's not there to ask one of the people selling tickets to give us the discount, saying the "Hennig" said it was ok.

So looking forward to a good concert tomorrow, we headed to grab something to eat.  By now it was already about 7:30, so we needed to eat and head back to the apartment.

We stopped at an Imbiss and both got Currywurst with french fries.  It was rather tastey (as always), and really hit the spot.  After that, we headed back to the apartment and relaxed a bit (we'd walked quite a few miles already today).  At around 8:45 we went with Mrs. Thiermeier in the car to pick up Valerie from the airport.  The carride was fun...Matt doesn't speak much german, and Mrs. Thiermeier's english only a little better, so I ended up interpreting everything for the first half of the car ride...which I was fine doing, but it was just a bit redundant saying everything twice.  Mrs. Thiermeier then told me it was alright, that she could usually understand enough of what Matt and I were saying in english that I didn't need to interpret everything (she'd tell me if she didn't understand something).  

So we got to the airport after the 25 minute car ride and went in to wait for Valerie.  She was to come in at 9:30.  Her plane touched down on time, and we picked her up and took her back to the apartment.

That night we watched Good Morning Vietnam (a dvd I picked up (legally) for about 3 euros last week) on my TV.  Oddly enough, the dvd player in my room only sends a black and white signal to the TV (the cable is in color, so I know it's not a problem with the TV), so we watched it in black and white.  It actually gave it a cool old-timey feel (suitable to the time period).

We stayed up pretty late watching the movie, but got to bed soon enough.

Day 38

   

Today was fun - it was my parents' 21st anniversary (!!), and also Matt arrived from Karlsruhe!

The early part of the day I spent finishing getting the apartment ready.  Since both Matt and Valerie were staying over the weekend, I would need to use the bed in the extra room as well (which normally Johannes (Apartment owner) just keeps for himself), which entailed changing the bedding on his bed, as well as getting the futon in my room set up with bedding.  I also wiped down the kitchen, swept, vacuumed the carpets, and let the windows stay open all day to get good an aired out.  Luckily it wasn't too hot yet (this weekend is supposed to be brutal!).

Matt came in on the train pretty late, around 11:30 pm.  I met him at the Hauptbahnhof, and then we took the U-Bahn back to the apartment to get settled in.

Day 37

  
Didn't do much today (I'm just taking it easy this week, as this weekend it going to be very busy with both Matt and Valerie here), asides from the usual reading, practicing, watching a movie, and taking a stroll later on in the day (I try to walk some every day).  Also went to the gym and ran as usual.
 

Day 36

   

I had a pretty low key today as well, which involved me reading some more, practicing piano for a while, and then taking a short stroll around downtown.

My stroll was a bit interesting though.  I started out taking the U-bahn from Nollendorfplatz to Potsdamer Platz, and walking from there to the Brandenburger Tor, and on to Unter den Linden.  I made a quick stop at this rather amazing store I discovered.  There is a brand of chocolates in Germany (and as well are available in the US) called Ritter Sport, well, I actually found a Ritter Sport store in berlin.  Needless to say there were a couple of thousand bars of chocolate inside...and I might have bought one or two...the chocolate it really tasty to say the least!

After that I walked down Friedrichstrasse.  I knew that there is a Music Conservatory in the area around Charlottenstrasse (one street over from Friedrichstrasse), but I had been unsuccessful in finding it.  I asked around a few places, and was actually able to find it.  I went inside and looked around.  The building itself is not very wide (the size of an average store in width), but continues up the entire building (around 7 stories) and goes back quite a ways.  

The building was actually kinda grungy on the inside, however once you get inside the offices and practice rooms, it's actually quite lovely.  I was able to see the inside of one professor's office, which featured new wood flooring, several large windows (with a lot of natural light), and clean white walls, with cool looking crown molding on the corners on the ceiling.  The studio had 2 7-foot Steinways in it, both in phenomenal condition (according to professor, all the studios had pianos just as good).  So all in all, it looked like a pretty good school.

After that I headed back to the apartment, and had dinner.  Stayed up a while longer watching TV with the Thiermeiers, and after that went to bed.

    

Day 35

  

Today I confirmed with my friends Matt (from high school) and Valerie (from Rice) are coming to visit over this soming forth of july weekend!  I'm pretty excited about having them here.  Matt is supposed to arrive thursday night via train from Karlsruhe (where he's working this summer), and Valerie is flying in Friday from London.

I spent most of the day cleaning up the apartment a bit, as well as trying to figure out some stuff we could do over the weekend.  Later in the afternoon I headed over to Potsdamer platz and hung out for a while (mostly just chilled enjoying the breeze and shade) and read more of my book.  I'm almost done with Stones into Schools now.  My next book will be The Languages of Japan by one of my professors next semester Matt Shibatani (basically it's my way of getting caught up in a class where I'm supposed to have 2 years of japanese already before taking...).  The professor already told me I'd be fine taking the class - which btw. is called "Structure of Japanese", which covers the grammatical structure and other aspects of modern Japanese, however it's not actually a japanese language class, it just covers aspects of its grammar from a structural point of view - but it might help if I read the textbook over summer before the class starts.  Hence, it's my next book.

  

Day 34

  

After yesterday's long day, I stayed in most of the day taking it easy.  It was nice and cool, so I could let the apartment air out (necessary every 4 or 5 days).  Also practiced piano quite a bit in the afternoon.  Other than that just got a lot of reading done, and enjoyed the day.

Day 33

  

Today was incredibly long.  It started bright and early (about 8:30am) with a quick shower, breakfast, and then out the door.  Why?  I had made plans to meet up with Timo's dad (Detleff) at around 10am to go for a 3.5 hour cruise of Berlin's canals and river.  

We met up at Hansaplatz U-bahn station, walking over into Bellevue area of Tiergarten (all areas within central Berlin), and walked down to a dock next to the Spree (a river that flows through the city).  We ended up having to wait about half an hour for the tour to start.  No problem though - I always prefer to be a bit early and wait than to be late.

While there, we met up with two of Detlef's friends, one of whom was a neighbor.  They both were incredibly nice and provided fun conversation during the cruise.

The cruise took off promptly at 11am, and started driving clockwise around the city.  The driver provided commentary as we went along, a lot of which actually in the local Berlinerisch (berlin dialect of german).  Detlef also speaks this dialect natively, which I got to listen to all day! Surprisingly it had a lot of features that Dutch has, i.e. using "t"s in a lot of places where Hochdeutsch (the "official" dialect of german) uses "s"s (examples: saying "wat" instead of "was" (which means "what"), or "det" instead of "das" (which means "that")).  Needless to say, after the afternoon was over, I had a lot of data I could work on in analyzing differences between different dialects and different languages (moreover, why Berlinerisch is easier for a Hochdeutsch speaker to understand than Dutch).

Anyways, back to the tour...below are some pics:

Berliner Dom (left)

Our Cruiseboat

Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Train Station)

Free loader...

A cool locale on the side of the river

Oberbaumbrücke

Me with Detlef's friends

After the cruise was over, we headed over to Detlef's mother's house for coffee and cake.  Another one of Detlef's friends joined us there as well.  Everything was incredibly delicious.  The cake was a light sponge cake on the bottom layer, topped with sweet cream, fruit sauce (rasberry I think), and sesame seeds - no pics, sorry!  We stayed there for a few hours talking, and then all of us (except for Detlef's mother) walked to the U-bahn to head over to Neukölln to check out a big street festival there.  We went into a few stores and bought some stuff, and then grabbed some dinner at this really great Thai place.  While at dinner, I got a call from some other friends, and made plans to meet them later that night.

After dinner, I said goodbye to the group, and headed back to the apartment.  I showered (was pretty nasty after sitting out in the sun all day!), changed, and went to meet my other friends at Ku'damm.  

We were meeting up to go to the club Maxxim.  There was supposed to be a fashion show that Sam was in, and we wanted to see her.  Unfortunately as we got to the door of the club, the door guys said that it was "ladies night", i.e. no men allowed.  We thought this was odd, as the website said that men could get in, but they just had to pay a little more.  In any case, the guys couldn't get in, so we just hung around for a while until  the show was over.  I heard it was really good, but haven't seen any pics yet.

After that, we hung out for a few more hours, just talking and walking around.  After a while, people were starting to get tired, so we headed our separate ways.