Days One and Two

Whoa. Ok. So. Yeah.

Day One in Berlin:
I got into Ostbahnhof on Saturday evening at 6.17 pm. And I made my way to Alexanderplatz to check into my hostel (CityStay Mitte). Checked in and Chris met me outside at 7. We reunioned by talking about the red sandstone memorial to a Revolution (which one I don’t recall, sadly). Then we walked to a department store to buy wine (yes, you can buy wine in a department store) and then took the U-Bahn (the (mostly) underground train, as opposed to the S-Bahn, the (mostly) above-ground train) to his apartment, which is down the street from The Dark Duck, a bar. We agreed that it was a nice thing to live down the block from The Dark Duck. He feed me chicken pot pie. Yum. And then he took me back to my hostel because I had noooo idea where I was.

Day Two in Berlin:
So, my hostel is really trendy. Very hip. There is a bar in the front, where the reception is. And everyone speaks English. I was in a room with two girls and two guys last night. They are were really quiet and I only spoke to the guys: “Hello” and “Forgot the sheets” when I left the room this morning. The shower was funny. You had to keep pressing the plunger (I guess that is the best word) to keep the water running…you know, in a public bathroom, you press down on the thing above the faucet and the water comes out…what is that thing called? Anyways, so now I am having breakfast and killing time while waiting for Anne. The breakfast buffet is pretty cool…I think it is free too (later: nope, 4 euros)…musli and yogurt and sausage and cheese and bread and marmalade. Very German. And tea and coffee. Forgot those.
Anne will be coming soon and then we will go to Potsdam to see Schloss Sanssouci and the Neues Palais of Frederick the Great.

Later: All done with the Palais and (some) of the grounds. A Very Pretty Place, that. The grounds were designed Linné, who wanted to keep the place as natural as possible, but still have impressive buildings. The Chinese Cupola is a good example. Forest forest forest.
Fancy Chinese Cupola. The tour of the Neues Palais was terrible, though. No pictures allowed (took some anyways…take that, tour guide) and the tour guide was terribly unhelpful and there were screaming two-year olds. Grr. But, here is a photo of the Shell Room. Enjoy!
After the tour, more grounds were seen and then we had ice cream. Back to Berlin to celebrate Chris’ birthday with cookies (a Betty Crocker mix sent from the states…WHOOOO!!!) and wine. And then back to Anne’s place.
A word about Anne’s place. I have a room and a mattress! And there is constant hto water because the place has its own water heater. And there is a wireless hotspot in the room that I am in that I discovered and so we both take ridiculous advantage of that. Her roommate is very stressed right now, but we don’t see much of her anyways. And Anne is too cool for words. She is letting me stay for free and we are going to travel and we cook. And then we eat what we cook. So much easier to cook when there is more than one of you. And we listen to awesome German ‘bubble gum’ pop music while cooking.