So funny story...

So if you know me, then you know that I can't live without my cell phone. I need it so much that I pay the extra fees to be able to have it over here in Europe. Again, if you know me, then you would know I am a huge clutz and drop everything. (By now you should have figured the story out.) Yes, when tossing the phone to Alyssa, I hit the ground. When I went to take a picture, I realized that the screen no longer works!!!! I can still get calls and see when I have a message but I can't read or type anything! Hopefully, I'll be able to get it fixed somehow. OOOPS!!!! So pretty much; FYI: my phone's not working right now for those of you who need to get a hold of me or the gang!

Tina's last night was last night. I can't believe it's already been three weeks!!! We've decided that she is officially the spirit of this trip, always having something to say and making us laugh. This morning I walked her to the bus stop to cathc the bus to the airport for the plane home. Of course everyone else is still sleeping from last night! In fact I have to get them up in about ten minutes because check out is at 10am! That and we have to load up on this amazing breakfast they give us here! So worth the 9 euro alone!!!!!!!!

To celebrate Tina's last night here, we decided to do it the old fashion German way, hit a beer garden. Looking fabulous we went to a very local spot, the six of us now. Ahh yes, Alyssa has joined our group!!!! The garden was filled with picnic tables and families eating while the children play off to the side. Alyssa and Christina tried this green and raspberry beer that Berlin is famous for, so can't remember the name!!!! In my opinion, it was ok. It just tastes like raspberry flavored beer. The night was pretty low key, keeping the conversations to the group. We also talked a bit with two German born men who now live in California. They gave us some good tips and tricks to get around. They also gave us some stories of German and Europe in general twenty years ago. By now you've heard us tell our stories on how nice everyone is, and how it is not what we expected. Especially with all of the horror stories we've heard. But apparently, in Germany years ago there was some kind of world soccor tournament in the country creating lots of tourists. This is when Germany realized that their attitudes and customer service skills needed an adjustment to better represent themselves. This meant that people working in any customer service field, i.e. a grocery store, bank, post office, are specifically trained on niceness, greetings, and working with tourists. If they aren't nice they can't get into trouble! Kinda of funny, but I guess some places are making a conscious effort to be more hospitable for tourists. These and other stories kept us engaged in conversation with these men for the majority of the night. I think I learned more about the culture last night, then I have in the past three days combined.

Alright, I just looked at the time. They are soo not going to like me waking them up! The days we travel are always the most challenging!!!

Berlin'in it out...

Ireland, I think of green; Paris, I think of fashion; London, I think of Big Ben; Amsterdam, I think of Bikes. Not going to lie, out of all the cities we’ve seen I’ve talked about how excited I’ve been this was so not the case for Berlin. When I think of Berlin I think of a large grey block. Nothing interesting, very stern unfriendly people, with a lot of horrible history. In a way I guess I was prejudging subconsciously. Either that or it could have been that I was missing the boys and that it was cold, raining and there was no park but I was miserable for the first day. I couldn’t get warm, I didn’t know the language and people seemed to be much ruder here than anywhere else. So I pretty much didn’t feel like doing anything! Although, I stuck it out, the people in our hostile turned out to be the most friendly people we’ve met to date. They were from everywhere, Cali, Texas, Canada! The next day we did a free walking tour with some of our fellow travelers, 200 people showed up for the tour and I was number 176. Obviously we weren’t going to be making the tour because our numbers were too high. Instead, we just tagged along with an earlier tour in hopes that we wouldn’t be noticed! We visited so much of Germany! Check out the pics on the website. When I get more time, I’ll try to tell you the stories of each site. The Holocaust Memorial was the coolest place here, this is where I came up with the idea of hide and seek (Christina will fill you in) Instead of Germany depressing me and reminding me of the bad things people are capable of doing, I almost feel like I was given a sense of hope. I really feel that the history behind such horrific events should be studied and understood to help guide us in the present! I wont bore you with my thoughts and theories but if anyone’s ever interested feel free to join me for a cup of tea!

Our night out without the boys was pretty fun actually, we went on a pub crawl with about 200 people. Apparently without bodyguard A and bodyguard B, we were much more approachable. We spent the night mingling and just having fun. Five bars in six hours, good times. It was pretty funny because the majority of the people we met were again from the Americas!!!! Here’s a quick cap of who we met: (this is more for my recollection though)

Australia: Cool, really good dancer, and super sweet guy!

Denmark Soldier: he was lost on the train and coincidently was staying at our same hostile so we took him back w/ us. He was home on holiday because he is a Srgt in Denmark’s military. Kinda cool hearing a different perspective on Afghanistan and Iraq stuff!

Holland Boys: I pretty much spent the entire night trying to learn four German words, thanks to the Holland Boys! They were also super sweet guys and looked out for us the entire night.

Cali Boys: They all turned 20 and were wicked drunk. I’m pretty sure the one guy wanted to make out because every time he would lean over to talk he would pretty much be spitting in my ear. And the boyfriend card has been played!!!!!

CANADA: We met a ridiculous amount of people from Canada! All seem very cool, but I’m starting to be able to tell the difference from the people in Toronto, British Columbia, and Quebec. Very different!!!

And of course there were tons of different people, I would definitely recommend the pub crawls for anyone interested in meeting a ton of people!!!!
Now that are time away from the boys is coming to an end, we’ll be meeting them tomorrow at our new hostel!

~cheryl