In Berlin

As promised, here is my recapping of my trip to Berlin.

Had no problem with the trains to Berlin, made all my connections just fine and got there on time. Only trouble? Evan though I didn't get in until Sunday (not Saturday) so he wasn't there to meet me. Yup, that was fun. Got a nice long tour of the main train station though. It's very nice. Eventually I got a hold of Evan and made my way by metro to his place. He lives in SW Berlin, in a nicely residential area right next to the Botanical Gardens. His the house he's sharing is awesome- very European cute. For example, here's the kitchen:
Anyway, we had a chill evening on Saturday. We BBQ'd brats 'n chicken 'n stuff and drank beer and eventually went to bed. Apparently, I snore.

Sunday morning Nicole arrived from France. We got our lazy asses in action and went into Berlin (about 20-30min by metro from Evan's place) and went to see the Berlin Wall. The West side is covered in murals and the East is absolutely blank.

West

East

At the end of the wall, tucked in along the river, is an African bar called Yaam. I'm not sure if 'bar' is the right term for it though. It's more like a small African/Jamaican village with little huts with kitchens, bars, a stage, sand volleyball, and soccer.


We had some Jamaican food there and played some sand volleyball- reliving our days at Collage Place in Tucson from last summer.

We got back on the metro and went to see some more sights. I'm still not exactly sure what this one is, but it's visible across Berlin. A old soviet TV tower maybe?

What's cool though, is that on a different side of the city near the main museums, it lines up just perfectly with the old church here.

And here's Nicole posing in from of another museum on the lawn.

We walked and walked and walked and came across the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out the window....

Which happens to be right next to the American Embassy...
So at this point it's getting toward evening (even though the sun is still high in the sky. European summer days last FOREVER) We decided to go to a beer garden near Evans place. Along the way we found these awesome chairs at one of the metro stops:

Are they not fabulous? I mean seriously!

The weather was perfect and we had a lovely snack outside in the beer garden's patio. I had a Berliner Weisse Grund (half beer half green soda). It was actually really good!

After that we went back to Evan's place and made a big, awesome dinner. One of Evan's friends, Sabine, came over and played cards and drank a LOT of wine with us. Overall, a delightful evening.

The next day, Nicole, Sabine, and myself went into Berlin and went shopping. Very girly, I know. But lots of fun. Plus I found a great dress for clubbing that night :) So around 11pm, after making another great dinner at Evan's, we headed back into Berlin to experience some German night life. I looked way hot (pictures on Nicole's camera only, sadly) and danced my feet raw. I've also learned that strobe lights are not good for my vertigo...but that's beside the point. 3:30am rolled around and we left. I had to go pick up my bags from Evans and then head to the train station to catch my 5:30am train. I didn't quite make that one, so I ended up taking the 6:30 train out. This is me after a night of dancing and zero hours of sleep:

Coffee=gooooood.

Anyway, made it back to BFHolland by 1pm, finished the work day and then slept the fuck out of my bed. I call the weekend a success.