Day 10

The weather was amazing today!  It had been cold and rainy pretty much since I got here, so having sunny, 70 degree weather was definitely a welcomed change.

To enjoy such good weather, we went to the Schlachten See (literally, the "lake of slaughter"...don't ask me how it got that name...) which is located in a very rich part of berlin.  The lake itself is fairly good sized, and has a trail around it that takes about an hour and a half to walk.

We got there early afternoon and walked around the lake.  There were quite a few types of ducks there that we saw, as well as a pair of swans.  After that, we grabbed a quick lunch at the cafe that was there.  I got a pair of brats with potato salad - quite delicious.

We headed back to the apartment late afternoon.  Nina and her mom wanted to go shopping for a dress, so we all headed back to the car and headed up to north east berlin, near the Brandenburger Tor and the Television Tower, to Oranienstrasse.  They went to a dress store for about an hour while I wandered around that area.

I first walked over to the Museuminsel (which was right down the street) and went inside the Bode Museum (has architecture, art, sculptures etc from europe).  Since it's thursday, entry to museums is free after 5 pm, hence I didn't have to buy a ticket.

The collections inside were really cool.  There was a collection of coins and medallions from various countries over the years (including full sets of german "tollars", which were the precursors to the US "dollar").  Also they had a lot of religious artwork and sculptures.

After that, I headed back over to Oranienstrasse and checked out an area where a lot of artists live.  Originally the building was some old structure (hundreds of years old I think), which was abandoned during one of the wars, and then occupied by students and artists back in the sixties.  It's about 5 or 6 stories tall, and outside around the first floor a lot of the people living there have little areas set up where they sell their art (os well as a few outdoor bars where you can get a drink).  Overall the place had a very eclectic and energetic feel, it's kinda hard to describe or really get though unless you see it.

After that, I met up with Nina and her mom again, and we headed home.  On the way, we ended up getting behind a rather hilarious vehicle (Rice people - you'll appreciate this):

Yes, in Germany you can drink beer and ride a bike at the same time!

So we got home soon after that, and had a late dinner of spaghetti, and salad.  We watched a bit of soccer coverage on tv (prepping for the world cup which starts in a bit over a week), and then headed to bed soon after.

Day 9

Today was my first day alone in the city!  Mrs. Thiermeier had some other errands to run, so I decided to go out on my own.  We had a pretty late breakfast – didn’t finish till noon…and then I left probably by about 1:30 or so.  I walked from my apartment up to Nollendorfer Platz and then took the U-Bahn (the subway, although ironically it runs above ground for the route I was taking today) to Potsdamer Platz. 

I walked around Potsdamer Platz for a while.  It was incredibly crowded (it was lunch time, which figures), but there were some neat things to see.  Interestingly, American style malls are catching on in germany, and there was one there at Potsdamer Platz.  There are a few differences though – the design is much cooler than most malls I have been in (the entire ceiling and most walls are purely glass), and the store choices are different.  In most US malls, you have to go elsewhere if you want to buy groceries – here they had a Kaiser’s Supermarkt within the mall itself.  Also, the food court idea isn’t really done – most places to get food have their own small seating areas, instead of general public seats for any restaurant.

I got lunch quickly while I was there – a good sized piece of fresh bread with some veggies and coldcuts, all for 2 euros!  Food is so cheap here!  I stopped at the suermarkt and got a drink as well.

After that I headed over in the direction of the Berlin Philharmonic building.  I wasn’t going to that building in particular, but rather to the Music Instrument Museum that is located right next to it.  Inside they have a rather impressive collection of classical instruments, dating from the early baroque to modern synthesizers.  Included in which was a Stradivarius violin (Cremona, 1703):

Now I would consider myself pretty well versed in what instruments are out there in the classical world, but there were some here that I had never heard of before!  There was a type of harpsichord that used the damper system of a piano (unheard of in harpsichord making technique), a double piano (it had two keyboards!), and several other instruments that looked utterly bizarre (one of which is included below - and by bizarre, I mean I have no idea how to play them).

Overall, I was really impressed with the museum, the only annoying thing was that I couldn’t touch a single instrument!  It was very hard to resist the urge to play a few notes, but I held back.  The pics I took will have to suffice for now.


When I was done at the museum, I headed back to the apartment, practiced piano for a while, and went for a run soon after.  After I got cleaned up, I headed upstairs to the Thiermeiers for dinner.  Nina had a few friends over, so we hung out for a while.  They headed out later on, and I watched tv for a bit before heading to bed.

Day 8

The weather was a little better today than yesterday – not quite so much rain, still kinda chilly though (the temp hung around 50 all day, with a pretty steady breeze).  Mrs. Thiermeier and I went down to Potsdamer Platz again, but this time to check out the Unter den Linden area (near the Branderburger Gate – this time in East Berlin).  We took the S-Bahn (an over-ground transportation system) up to Potsdamer Platz and then walked the rest of the way to the Brandenburger Tor.  I had my camera today, so we took a slight detour so I could get a shot of the Reichstag.

After that we walked through the Brandenburger Tor, and checked out a mall that had a lot of car company showrooms inside (Volkswagen, Seat, Bentley, among a few others).  I was surprised at how many models of VW they have here that they don’t have in the US…the prices were much higher though.  One of the smaller VWs (about the size of the GTI), costs about 37,000 Euros, quite a bit more expensive than in the US.

After that we checked out Humboldt University and walked around the inside of the main building, (didn’t go to the rest of the campus).  I was surprised at how stark everything was inside, just bare walls and fixtures, all painted white. 

We didn’t stay to long at Humboldt.  We went out the back and walked down a side street, which put us near the Hedwig Cathedral.  That was quite pretty on the inside.  There was a large organ, and two levels of seating (on the main level, and some on the level below).  There were a few artifacts downstairs in the lower level as well (old bibles, Bishop’s regalia, communion cups made out of gold), which were quite cool.

After that we walked over to the Museuminsel (Museum Island), which is a small island located in the middle of a canal split in two in north east berlin.  There are 4 or 5 museums located on it, included among which is the Pergamonmuseum, which has quite a famous collection of Middle Eastern and Islamic Art.  We didn’t stay to check out the museum (it’s an all-day commitment), but got information about types of museum passes you can get.  All museums in Berlin cost money to get in, and there are different types of tickets you can buy – the one that I will eventually buy will be a 3-day ticket that gets me into all of the museums on the Museuminsel. 

We headed over to the Dom, which was truly breathtaking.  The interior was very ornately decorated, with paintings, stained glass, gold leaf, ornate wood work.  It had a really large organ on one side, and a very ornately  decorated altar on the other.

We also walked all the way up to the cupola of the dom, which gave really good panorama views of Berlin. 

We then walked over by the TV Tower on Alexander Platz and got some Döner for lunch.  Döner is a very popular food in berlin, I think Turkish in origin.  It’s basically a piece of naan with shaved meat (the place we went to used chicken and veal), a sauce (can be mild or spicy), roasted peppers, and other vegetables.  It’s served hot, but the veggies on it are added cold, a nice contrast when you eat it.

Finally it was getting late in the afternoon, so we decided to head back.  It was about 4pm by that point, so I decided to go for a run before dinner.  Dinner was also really tasty tonight – we had a chicken casserole with potatoes, cauliflower, cheese in a cream sauce, and a salad. 

After dinner I just watched some tv and sorted through the over 400 pics I took today…to be fair most of the pics was me taking the same shot 3 or 4 times – it was dark in most of the places I took photos, and I wanted to make sure each shot came out (i.e. shutter speed was very slow, which tends to blurring, as I had no tripod).

Day 7

Today was just a really dreary day.  It was cloudy, rained at times, and was cold.  I was going to go out at one point, but the plans got changed, and ended up staying in, getting caught up on this journal and getting in some more piano practice.  Dinner was great though - we had a vegetable dish similar to Ratatouille, some spiced meat, potatoes/French fries (they came out a bit crispier from the oven than intended), a cucumber salad with a vinaigrette dressing, and fruit for dessert.  After that we just watched the news for a while.  A lot is going on right now on tv, because the Bundespräsident of Germany just resigned today.

Day 6

Today we met some friends for brunch at a nice cafe in Kreuzberg (another district in Berlin, about 10 minutes driving, NE of Schöneberg).  We picked them up from their apartment (right across the street from Timo’s school) and then drove most of the rest of the way there.

About 5 blocks away from the cafe, the road was actually blocked off!  Apparently, today was the day of the Berlin Bicycle Marathon, which is either 60 or 120 km (I never got a definitive answer from anyone about how long it was).  So, we walked the rest of the way to the cafe after parking the car.

The cafe itself was about 2 blocks from a very popular park in Kreuzberg, where a lot of the youth in Berlin like to hang out (I’ll get to this in a bit).  I ended up ordering the “Spanish Breakfast”, which entailed a basket full of Brötchen (fresh made bread), and a plate with different cheeses, a bit of salami, and fruit.  I wasn’t exactly sure what made it “Spanish”…it seemed pretty german to me.  Regardless, it tasted great, I just thought the naming was kinda funny.

When we left the cafe, the riders in the marathon were actually passing by.  So we got to watch them go as they rode on.

A bit later, we walked over to the park I mentioned earlier.  Apparently, originally there used to be a lot of empty houses (empty after the second world war) there, which were taken over by a bunch of students back in the 60s.  Basically, the students just moved in, and refused to pay any kind of rent or for any utilities.  So to retaliate the city (not exactly sure who was behind it) had the houses demolished, and a park was put in instead.  Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera on me for that part, cause there was some cool stuff to see (art, sculptures, a circus, bridges over the Canal, political rallying areas, among other things).

The weather started to take a turn for the worst, so we headed back to the car (not quite in time though – we got rained on quite a bit on the way walking back), and drove home.  After that, I hung out in the apartment for a while, got some piano practice in, and took a nap.  That night we had dinner, and then went for our usual walk (this time up near Potsdamer Platz, and around the embassies).

Day 5

Today was quite a lot of fun.  In the morning, we drove to the stables where Nina keeps her horse, and helped get a stone wall built around one side of the jumping pin.  This involved first digging the rocks out from this massive pile of dirt, grass, and rocks.  The pile originally was just rocks, but since it had been sitting for 5 years, Nature kinda took its toll on it.  To dig them out, we had a large tractor that would shovel a scoopful of dirt out of the pile, and we would pull the loosened stones out of the dirt.

Then we loaded the brushed-off stones back into the shovel of the tractor, and the tractor carried them to the wall where other people put them in place to make the wall.  After the stones were put in place, they put more dirt in between the cracks to act as a sort of mortar.  On top, they planted little vine plants that will grow and hold the stones together as the wall settles.

It took about 2 hours to get the wall finished.  After that, they built another circular stone wall around a 30,000 L gas tank in the ground (essentially to protect it from the horses.  There were enough stones left over at the end that they decided to just make a 1.2m diameter fire ring in another part of the yard.  After we were done, Nina wanted to ride for a bit, so Mrs. Thiermeier and I walked around the town where the stables were located (which is about an hour north west of Berlin).

The town itself was really nice.  There was an old church with a beautiful organ inside (but they closed shortly after we got inside, so couldn’t stay long),

a tower with a stork nest on top,

an old Law School,

a lake,

among other really cool looking houses.

After heading back to Berlin, we actually went off to another place for dinner.  We had been invited by family friends of the Thiermeiers to attend a house-warming party for the daughter of the family they knew. 

The apartment itself was really nice – it had wood floors, high ceilings, and rather large rooms.  There were about 20 people there, all of them really friendly (they all knew the Thiermeiers as well).  There were a lot of hors d’oeuvres and desserts, and also there was the Eurovision singing contest on TV (if you’re not familiar, youtube it – it’s basically American idol, but where each contestant is an entire group, and each group is representing one of 25 countries in Europe) which we watched for a while.  It was pretty cool, Germany ended up winning!  I actually was rooting for Russia and Portugal, but Germany’s group was pretty good as well.

We stayed at the party till about 1:30, and then headed back.

Day 4

Today I slept in quite late, didn’t even get up till near noon (I guess I’m still not over my jetlag yet).

Last night when we were out walking, we passed a gym nearby to the apartment (about 5 minutes away).  Since I needed to go buy some groceries at a store near there today, I stopped in and had a look around.  The facilities there were all really top-of-the-line…they even had a juice bar on the first floor.  I talked to a representative from there about what it would cost to work out there (anticipating it being outrageously expensive) and found that it was actually quite affordable!  So was able to sign up for a two-month membership for what it would have cost to work out for 2 weeks at the gym near my house in NC.  Great Deal, I think.

Later this afternoon after going through some emails, I had a bit of down time, so I decided to try the gym out.  The equipment was all really nice.  They even had a place on every machine to insert kind of an electronic key that records all of your workout info (like amount or weight, reps, duration, what machines, etc), and as well you can program workout routines for the cardio machines into it.  Pretty cool.

Anyways, I couldn’t stay long, as I needed to be back at the Thiermeiers’ by 7:30.  Mrs. Thiermeier and I drove to the local Bauhaus (basically Home Depot or Lowe’s) to get some work gloves.  After that we came back, had dinner and went out for another walk, this time all within Schöneberg (the part of Berlin where I live), just showing me some more places and other stuff around.

Day 3

Today wasn't quite as busy as yesterday, which allowed me to get caught up on my sleep a little. Early afternoon Timo and I headed over to Ku'damm (short for Kurfürstendamm) to check out some of the sites and meet another friend for lunch.

Ku'damm is this giant shopping area (one of many in berlin), where you can find a mall within 500 feet in practically any direction. Also there is the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtnis Kirche (the memorial church for Kaiser Wilhelm), which is pretty cool to look at. Unfortunately, most of the church was destroyed during a bombing during WWII, and wasn't rebuilt. They still have one entryway and tower with original art inside that was preserved. Below is a picture of the tower.

After checking out the church for a bit we headed over to KaDeWe (pronounced "kah-day-vay", Kaufhaus des Westens - Department Store of the West) to meet up with Sam, one of Timo's friends from Berlin.  We ended up going to this great italian place not to far from KaDeWe for lunch.  Timo had to leave before too long (had a flight to catch), so Sam and I walked around Ku'damm for a while checking out the sights.

We eventually took the U-bahn (subway) back, and I had finally a little time to do some unpacking.  Later I had dinner with the Thiermeiers, and hung out at their place for a bit.  Mrs. Thiermeier, Nina (her daughter) and I went out walking later to show me more of the immediate area around the house.  This walk wasn't quite as long as our walk the first day (which went from our place at Goltzstrasse all the way to the Brandenburger Tor and the Bundestag/Reichstag and back, about 5km each way), but still covered quite a bit of ground.

Day 2

Today was even busier that yesterday!  I got up about 10 in the morning (felt like I still hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep), had breakfast (more rolls, cold cuts, preserves, juice, etc - amazingly delicious), and then met Timo at his school at 11:30.  I met him there, wanting to see what a german school looked like.  Turns out, they're really not that different.  The main difference is the physical footprint in the ground of the school is smaller (not as much lateral space in a big city), so the school is 5 stories high.  Below is a pic of one of the hallways.

After a quick tour of the school, Timo and I met up with his brother quickly, and then met up later with another friend Julian.  We ended up heading down one of the bigger roads in one of the shopping districts, and checked out things in a few stores.  Before too long we stopped and got a Currywurst (sausage with curry seasoning and a thick tomato sauce on top - a traditional Berlin food).  It was actually quite good...I'll have a have a few more while I'm here.

After that, we ended up heading to Julian's house and hung out there for a couple hours.  I discovered how bad I truly am at Foosball after loosing several games in a row.  Before too long it was dinner time, so we headed over to a Biergarten near the zoo and had pizza.  Soon after we walked over to Ku'damm with a few other friends for icecream.

It was quite a long day, covered several miles - and I'm still getting over jet lag.  But the apartment is really comfortable, and it looks like it's going to be a pretty amazing summer.

Day 1

So today my plane arrived in Berlin.  I left North Carolina in the mid afternoon yesterday (after waiting 3 hours for my plane to be allowed to take off - problems at the airport in Newark made us wait), and then transferred in Newark for my flight to Berlin.

The trans-atlantic flight left late afternoon, around dinner time.  The seats were better than I was expecting, but still not comfortable enough to get any substantial amount of sleep in.  The had a meatball dish for dinner - it wasn't that bad.  After dinner I watched a few movies on the tv screen they had in the back of the seat in front of me.  The sitting around me were all german natives, so I got to warm up my german a little before getting to Berlin.

All in all the flights together lasted about 13 hours.

I landed in Berlin at the Tegel airport, a smallish airport in the northwest part of the city.  The airport itself is in the shape of a circle, with all the gates coming off of it like flower petals.  Getting through customs didn't take long, there were only 3 people in front of me in line.  After that I just had to get my checked baggage and then go find Mrs. Thiermeier.

I am staying this summer in my own apartment, however I will be eating most meals with a host family, the Thiermeiers, who live in the apartment above mine.  They are good friends with one of my friends (Timo) that lives in Berlin - Timo was the one that set all of this up.

Mrs. Thiermeier is the mother in the family, and she said that she would pick me up from the airport.  After a few minutes I found her, and we headed in her car to the apartment.

It's not a long drive from Tegel to the apartment, only about 20 minutes.  On the way we passed a lot of older buildings (apartments, businesses, shops, among others), and everywhere there were tons of trees.  Apparently Berlin is supposed to be incredibly green.

We finally got to the apartment.  I was really eager to see it, as I hadn't even seen a picture of it up till now.  When we went inside my first thought was "I wonder which room is supposed to be mine".  We went through the entry way, and there was a large foyer on the other side.  On the right were two rooms: the kitchen through the first door, and another room through the second.  On the left was an office through the first door and my bedroom through the second door.  The bathroom was connected to the foyer as well.

I was shocked to find that the entire place was mine for the summer.  I had been expecting just a single room, and I got 4!  Also, to my amazement, the guy who owns the apartment is apparently a music teacher at one of the high schools, and he keeps two grand pianos in one of the rooms - one of which is a 7-foot steinway!  He told me I could practice whenever I wanted, which is perfect as I need to practice every day.

My room itself is also pretty large.  It's about 15 feet square, and 12 feet tall.  As you walk in there is a desk right in front of you, to the immediate right a place to hang up clothes.  Further in on the right is a large futon.  On the opposite wall next to the desk is a TV with cable and a dvd player, as well as a stereo.  My bed is located in the loft, which you get to by climbing a tall ladder next to the futon.  The room also has a door and window that together take up the entire height of the room, and both can be opened in various ways to let in air.

After I got settled for a bit, we went upstairs to the Thiermeiers' for breakfast.  On the way home, we had stopped at a grocery store, and bought some bread rolls, butter, fruit and juice for breakfast.  The rolls were really amazing!  They were all made fresh that morning and had unbelievable taste.

Timo came by for breakfast as well.  After breakfast Timo showed me around a bit, and took me to go buy a month-long subway/bus pass.  To get to the store, we had to take the subway (the "U-bahn" (lit. "under train")) several stops until we got to a BVG store (BVG = Berliner Vekehrsbetriebe = Berlin Traffic Company), in which we could buy the pass.

When we came back, I was pretty wiped out from the traveling and ended up crashing for a few hours.

By the time I woke up it was already dinner time, so I came upstairs and ate.  Dinner was really good.  We had a salad and chicken cooked in a creme sauce with bacon.  Yum.  For dessert we had a kind of sweetened lemon creme/yogurt.

All in all the day was very full, and quite exciting.  I still can't believe that it worked out that I could live in Berlin - it was honestly the last thing that I expected to work out.  But it did, and here I am.  Now to take advantage of the opportunity.