Travel Time: 14 Hours, Time In Frankfurt: 5 Hours

Our high school friend Randy, who is currently working in Holland at the moment, decided to pay us a visit while we were here in Germany. The exciting parts of Düsseldorf can usually be seen all in one day and so we needed something to do. We opted to going to Frankfurt. Steph found a museum, called the Dialog Museum, that is a blind museum. It shows you what it would be like to be blind. They take you through parks, over a bridge etc. but it is all in the dark. On certain days, they actually give you food to taste. It sounded so cool and so we thought we would go there. We decided to get a head start on the day and catch a 9am train but, unfortunately, all the trains were an hour behind. Luckily, we were able to make the 10am but only to get off the wrong transfer stop. This error caused us to be another hour late for our next connecting train. Randy was happy though because he could have more German McDonalds, which is honestly the best McDonalds in the world. Finally, we made it to Frankfurt for 4pm. We reached the museum but there were no English tours that day. Disappointed, we went to do some shopping but there was one thing we found that would raise our spirits: German Bubble Tea. Steph and I couldn't get there faster! After months of being deprived of our liquid drug, we could finally have it. The Bubble Tea was, like, the best thing ever! Afterward, we crossed the street to catch the bus to the Frankfurt Altstadt, when Stephanie discovered a man who looked exactly like Hulk Hogan. He had the same tan skin, blond mustache shape, sunglasses, bandanna, the matching muscles to boot, etc. I didn't believe it and so I forced them to take the bus so we were never able to find out if it was him. The one positive thing about taking the bus at that time was a Bachelor party. One man offered us a beer and then the groom walked towards us. He was wearing a tan, sparkly State Trooper outfit that was obviously three sizes to small with a big box of random junk he was selling. He had to make some money to buy  things at the bar later that night. We bought the new Beck's Black current beer (which is disgusting) and wished him well. The shopping in Frankfurt is really great. There is so much there and they actually have shopping malls. They had a big event thing going on in the square and so there were lots of people, balloons, and fake tattoo artists. So, we shopped till we dropped and resisted the urge to get fake tattoos to freak out our parents. We then headed back to the train station and waited almost an hour to get to the ticket counter to buy tickets. We asked for the special deal for 41 euros but the man forgot to give us an itinerary. We went back and it turns out that we had to take five different trains and we would get home for 4am. I threw a fit in the Hauptbahnhof and then we were on our way. We figured we would sit in a bar for the hour and a half wait in Au. Au, as it turns out, is a small town that has absolutely nothing there. No restaurants, hotels or bars. So Steph and I had to sit around in our shorts at 2am. We sat in an elevator for warmth like homeless people. We were kicked out by a security guard an hour later. We finally made it home for 5am and we slept into the early afternoon. Randy, however, slept until 5pm.

The European Way

This week, we decided to divert from our usual gym workout, collapse in bed, talk about going outside, make dinner, and lie in bed some more routine and try something German: The Kino. Pirates of the Caribbean 4 came to theaters in Düsseldorf and since Steph watches all Pirates movies in theaters, we decided to try it. We nervously stood in line, trying to catch what other people were saying so we could mimic their German. Once we got to the front, I asked for two adult tickets and then the woman, foolishly believing I spoke German, started rambling on about something in very fast Deutsch. I shamefully asked her to repeat in English which she kindly obliged to. Turns out, in German Kinos, your tickets are numbered and so you can't just sit wherever you want and she just wanted to know if the back was okay for us. I guess Germans believe that the strain-your-neck-just-to-see-part-of-the-screen seats at the front are prime. As we began to leave her counter, she asked, in my mind a most condescending tone "You do know the movie is in German right?" I almost through a fit but politely told her we knew. Another thing about this assigned seating is that you must sit right next to another person which can be kind of awkward and annoying. I got to sit next to a teenage girl and her boyfriend. She occasionally liked to check her cell phone which was distracting but she didn't hog the armrest. Steph was a little luckier and got to sit next to the four hot German boys. The one sitting next to Steph checked his cell phone more regularly but, unfortunately, didn't have anything new. Steph would also like to point out that her seat-mate had arm to arm contact with her on the armrest for an extended period of time. The movie was good. For the most part, we were able to figure out what was going on but not why. It got really exhausting for both of us to keep translating every word. There was also a lot of action so that kept us into it. The movie was in 3D as well and so I felt like a loser, sitting there with my glasses and the 3D ones on my face. Ah, the wonders of contacts.
Another thing we have started doing is a nightly sauna and steam room. We weren't sure at first what to wear and so we opted not going at all. Steph started really craving it and so we finally decided we would go and wear our towels. Now, we have run into a lot of cultural differences here in Germany such as the opinion of McDonalds (not a fast food chain but a quick food restaurant), lack of Bulk Foods, fashion sense etc. but this was the biggest difference we have had to face. The first time we went, we walked in in our towels and it was just the two of us and so it was fine. The second time, there were naked ladies everywhere. In our gym, there is a room, adjacent to the change rooms and the shower room (no stalls, just open showers), with open space filled with lawn chairs and wicker lounge chairs with the sauna and steam on one end. The naked women were everywhere with all shapes and sizes, just chilling. We opted to wear our towels and we were the odd ones out. We could almost feel the judgment. One teenage girl went naked and then covered up when we were there and then stopped when we left. This got us thinking that they were probably thinking we were prudes or judging them. We felt bad but we wanted to go again. Tonight, we decided we would go again but this time, we would try it the German way: au naturel. There were quite a few women there and so Steph and I grinned and bared. It was awkward at first but there was no judgment the other women. It was a little weird but it feels better without the hot towel. One young woman decided to wear a towel and Steph and I found ourselves judging her. I guess this is just normal for Europeans and we North Americans are more self-conscious. It was a different experience for sure but it was nice to not feel judged by anyone as opposed to being judged for wearing a towel.

Today, we decided to take a trip to Bonn. It was a fairly cheap ticket, only 15 euros for both of us to go down by train. If you ever get a chance to go to Germany, go to Bonn. It is like a typical German town but with more of a modern twist. It is very pretty and cute. We went to see Beethoven's birth house which isn't as exciting as it sounds. We also went to a shop called Hussel Confiserie which is a big chocolate and candy shop. They have different chocolate models of soccer balls, animals and, oddly enough, sausage. Kind of sick, I think. They have three sections of "help-yourself-bulk" chocolates. One section is fancy truffles, one is chocolate-covered fruit and then the last is mini chocolate balls some of which were filled with rum, much to my and Steph's disgust. Then we found a cute little loose-tea shop. Steph bought a Japanese green tea, which smells amazing. They sold a bunch of their own euro-each individual ice teas. They had all sorts of flavours, which was kind of neat and very delicious. We walked around a little more through the shops and found our way to the Zoological University of Bonn's Botanical Gardens. Not as nice as I imagined but still pretty. One old German lady was staring at me for taking pictures in the public garden so that was a little awkward but other than that, it was a very enjoyable walk. We also read about this Irish pub called The Fiddlers on the internet that we opted to try. It was a couple hours too early for dinner when we arrived and so it was us and two German men drinking beer. We decided to try some drinks and so we asked about the some of the vodka cocktails (because we are way to into the girlie drinks) and discovered that they didn't actually have any of the flavoured vodka drinks. Steph went the rum and coke route and I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried an Irish Snake Bite which is cider and Heineken and, I think, a swirl of Raspberry syrup on top. I received half a litre of the stuff which was good for the first bit but the beer really came out towards the end. I ended up chugging the stuff but it was my first full beer and so I am proud...sort of. The food was really good as well. I went the American route and had a burger with fries and Steph tried the potato with chicken curry...very good. It was a lovely day until we reached the Bonn Hbf and had to wait an extra 15 minutes on top of our normal 30 minutes because the train before us was half an hour late. We decided to relax with another sauna treatment before heading back to bed and crashing for the night.  

Time To Hit The Treadmills

Today, we decided to go and sign up for a gym pass. The Germans seem to be big fans of the gym and so we thought it would be a good way to get fit and potentially meet some people. There is a woman's gym by our apartment and so we thought we'd go check it out. It was not what we bargained for...
My only experience with gyms were with rec centers or expensive exclusive ones...this is exactly what the Düsseldorf woman's gym was. We quickly learned that Germans do not do gyms but do "Fitness Centers". Normally, you can't sign up for a month by month pass. Instead, you buy 6 or 12 month packages so the lady helping us, Vanessa, was very confused by our request for a month by month. We asked for the price and she said she would tell us...after a tour of the facility. The place is amazing. They have mostly cardio machines (being a woman's gym and all), a room for aerobics, personal trainers, a kid's daycare, a juice bar, and a sauna/steam room complete with tanning. They also have a bunch of DVDs for you to rent for three days for free. New movies by the way. Her English was good but she needed to use quite a bit of German and so with our knowledge of both languages, we were able to communicate quite well. She told us about how the gym is more family oriented and that it was better to do work outs without men. We sat down with her after the tour and she told us how things were normally done. We explained our situation and she got on the phone and got us a month pass...which was 80 euros each. On top of that, we needed to pay a 50 euro registration fee and a 75 euro starting package. We were on the verge of declining when Vanessa brought her supervisor in to bargain with us. In the end, we got about 150 euros off of what we were originally supposed to pay with everything included, an extra month free, and a VIP pass into a disco club the gym is sponsoring. We also can go to any "FitnessFirst Fitness Center" in Düsseldorf and the surrounding municipalities. It was a pretty good deal I would say. We were very lucky. Word to the wise, always hesitate and say it is too expensive...when it comes to German gyms anyway.
We also moved back into our old place which was kind of sad. The place looks amazing and clean. The mattresses have been replaced with nice, new ones which is good but it will be sad to go back to single beds. I shall miss our bathtub and Tassimo machine but the Tassimo will be most missed by Steph who will quickly fall into caffeine withdrawal. I wanted to ask if we could take it with us but Steph thinks that we shouldn't ask...

The Love Shack

This past week, Steph worked more than her usual "new" babysitting hours and so we would go out in the mornings to World Coffee and sit for a bit until she heads off to work. The employees at World Coffee defiantly recognize us now and so I think it is time to switch coffee shops. We also got The Sims 2 and so there have been many late nights spent on my laptop. In Düsseldorf, their spring is like our very hot Victoria summer and so we have been adapting to the heat. I quickly realized that I packed mostly for winter, which only lasted a month for us. Now we are in over twenty degree heat. I think we will get very brown. Turns out H&M is our Old Navy and has super cute, summery clothes for very cheap. This is good for Steph as she needs to wear something other than the track pants she packed. On Sunday, we decided to take advantage of the intense heat and head down to the "beach". The "beach" is really a bunch of sand patches by the Rhein. It turned out to be much better then expected. If you block your peripheral vision with your hands, you can pretend you are actually on a real beach. So we packed a picnic lunch, which turned out to be afternoon snacks, and headed down. Currently, The Düsseldorf Eurovision Song Contest (I think it is like American Idol but MUCH smaller) is causing us much grief. We needed to take the bus to the beach but the buses no longer go the same routes as before and go in a completely opposite direction. There are no signs or notices explaining this and so we have opted to only go to places we can reach on foot or by S-Bahn. As it turns out, these fake beaches are quite popular and they were almost completely full. One family was even having a barbecue on the beach. Steph and I tanned in the sun until two young German boys decided to start playing soccer near us. For fear of being hit in the face, we packed up and went home. It was the best Sunday we have had thus far in Deutschland.
The rain in Düsseldorf is the oddest thing ever. It will be very sunny and within five minutes, it will start lightly raining and within thirty seconds will be pouring buckets. In a fifteen minute walk home, we experience sun, heavy rain, and my second ever thunderstorm. It was pretty cool. There is supposed to be another thunderstorm this week.
Due to the Eurovision Fest, we have been temporarily kicked out of our apartment. There are people coming to see the finals and they have booked our place. We must be good tenants because our landlord has allowed us to stay in his Studio Apartment. We think he uses it for some storage and for when they have family over. One downside is that to get to our place, we have to go through part of his and so we can watch our landlord and his family play outside...only a little awkward. It is fully furnished but not quite something one could live in permanently. If I could combine the two apartments, we would truly have a perfect apartment. The bathroom is a big bathroom with a tub!!!! How I have missed taking bathes. Our beds our two comfy futons which is nicer than our two, hard-mattress single beds. We had to get up early this morning to move our stuff and what we saw in the apartment surprised us. The apartment decoration is stuck in the 60's and the colouring is red, white, and black. We have heart shaped lamps, pictures, crafts, magnets etc. The sheets are red and the kitchen accessories are red from kitchen chairs down to the utensils. We have a jukebox, an old arcade game, different 60's advertisments, a record player etc. Steph has named the apartment "The Love Shack" and has been singing the song all day...much to my annoyance. It is really nice as a temporary home but I miss our big kitchen with our oven. One of the downsides is that we are not sleeping alone. In two big, glass cupboards houses multiple antique dolls of all shapes and sizes and an assortment of stuffed animals. Kind of reminds me of one of those horror movies where the dolls come to life in the middle of the night and kill people...

Internet...Can't Live Without

This last week was a frustrating one for us. On Monday and Tuesday, we spent some time lounging around the house (since Monday was yet another all-German-stores-aren't-open day) We caught up on more Grey's Anatomy, House, and Desperate Housewives and on Wednesday morning, I was going to catch up on some of my Facebook messages when a big, blaring phrase "account blocked" popped up in my browser. The page was in full German and I was given four different numbers to call: 2 for Arcor(?) and the other two for Vodafone. I tried to fiddle around with it a bit but I couldn't get past the page, much less translate what the said page was telling me. So we opted to take our laptops to World Coffee and hope that our internet would be back on at home. World Coffee likes to masquerade under the false identity of "Free Wi-fi Zone" and so much to our frustration, you must pay to use their internet. 1 euro per hour doesn't seem like much but I refuse to encourage this day light robbery. I tried to hack into other W-Lans but I was unsuccessful. Steph went and paid the euro. Once home, we hoped that all would be restored but we were very, very wrong. This continued for the next four days. We went to tell our landlord and each time, he said it would be fixed. If we went up again to tell him it wasn't working, the door mysteriously wouldn't open. I had an apartment viewing early Saturday morning and so I was most frustrated with the internet problem. On Thursday,  Steph came home with some interesting news. Her "nanny-family" asked her how she thought the job was going. Steph said she liked it a lot but she didn't want to move in (a tiny issue) and her "nanny-parents" had already decided that they didn't really need to have an Au Pair after all. They really liked her and the girls liked her and so they want to keep her on as a babysitter three times a week. They are paying her a little bit more (around the same as a high paying Canadian babyitting job). Steph's "nanny-father" suggested we do some tutoring and gave us an ad in the Neuss paper for people who are looking specifically for English tutors. He even offered to put the ad in the paper himself. He is all for helping us which is super fantastic. We, of course, will do it ourselves but use him when necessary. On Saturday morning, we tried to find a coffee shop that would be open because Germans like to sleep in on Saturday mornings. Steph had the idea that Starbucks would be open in the morning so after a mini argument on the street, we headed to Altstadt Starbucks and, thankfully, it was open. I quickly wrote down the instructions and we headed out to Pempelfort which is only 5 minutes out of Düsseldorf's Downtown. The apartment was very nice but very small. The lady wanted us to pay the damage deposit and the four months rent all up front before she went to work in France. We were not down for that. Luckily, I received an email from her stating that she gave the apartment to some one who could speak German. After the apartment, Steph went to work and I went to home to clean. By Sunday, the internet was still not working and that was very frustrating. We spent most of the day out and about, wandering around all the closed stores in Alt Stadt. Then on Monday, when we arrived home, our internet was back on and it was glorious. We also discovered a bit of an apartment scam. We have discovered an number of ways to tell if the apartment ad is a scam:
Clue #1 - The English is really bad
Clue #2 - The person gives way too much information without you asking for it
Clue #3 - They are mysteriously out of town for some business trip for an extended period of time which is nearly always a bit longer than what you wanted to stay for.
Clue #4 - If they mention any postal service...don't even bother finishing the rest of the email.
Clue #5 - If the place seems to good to be true, it is.
Our particular "future landlord" claims to be a civil engineer who is currently in Cyprus who wants us to check out Moneybookers who will take care of the whole transaction. He also gave us the full address and Steph and I went to take a look to see if he really lives there...and surprise surprise, his name wasn't on there. Man, I hate those apartment scammers. They always dash my dreams...

A Weekend in Berlin

The Pretty View from our Jail Cell

Since it was Easter holidays and we were planning on having one of our German friends come down, Steph decided to book off Wednesday to Monday for holidays. The friend, however, didn't end up coming down and so we were left with a lot of booked off time and nothing to fill it with. Steph, not wanting to go back to work on Tuesday and announce that she didn't do anything in the booked off time, decided that we should go back to Berlin. So we quickly called up BaxPax, our last hostel, to get a room. Unfortunately for us, it was all full in the Downtown and the Mitte BaxPax. So sad. We failed to realize that it was the Easter Long Weekend and so many families and tourists are traveling and probably booked the hostel weeks in advance. So, with heavy hearts, we scoured the internet for other hostels in Berlin. Most of the hostels are fairly expensive and/or already booked and so our hunt continued. Finally, Steph found the International Youth Hostel of Berlin. It had space and the man on the phone told me it would only be 18 Euros a night including breakfast for each of us. For two nights, that is pretty darn good but the downside was sharing a room with ten other people! Not a big deal as we were really only there for sleeping. So on Friday, we headed down to the Hauptbahnhof. During the Easter long weekend, in Germany, the stores are only open on Saturday and closed for the rest of the holidays but not, thankfully, in the Hauptbahnhof. The DM (German equivalent to Shoppers Drug Mart) was open and so I went to buy earplugs. I figured that if we were sharing a room with ten other loud, boisterous teenagers, this may be a must. Then it was five hours to Berlin. We started watching Dirty Dancing but the laptop battery died and so we had to resort to making conversation...which quickly turned into listening to our iPods. Finally, we were home again. We arrived around dinner time so we thought we would find the hostel, drop our heavy backpacks and head out again. It took us a little while to find it but we had previously been around the Potsdam area and so we found the hostel fairly quickly. The hostel was a huge cement building with tiny windows.  The first words out of Steph' mouth, when we arrived at the building were: "OMG, it's a jail". As we got closer, a group of about six teenagers were walking in front of us. Our automatic thought was: "These are the party kids who will be keeping us awake until three in the morning". Steph wanted to turn around and find another hostel but we really had no other choice. We walked into a very nice lobby and to our left were computers, a cafeteria, a bar, a number of doors leading to the different rooms. We walked up to the desk and were told to fill out a form because we didn't have a membership. I thought it would be a good idea to put our German address as opposed to our Canadian one but I was sorely mistaken. The Sexy But Incompetent Youth informed us that if we had a German address, we must pay more for the membership...which we didn't know/want to have to buy. So it turns out the 18 dollars we were promised was actually 18 dollars, plus the membership, the stamps per night, the key deposit and the towels. Steph was infuriated that we had all these hidden costs but we had no choice but to pay them. Sexy But Incompetent Youth then directed us to the cage filled with linen and pillow cases and instructed us to make our own beds. Feeling very uneasy about this whole mess, we slowly climbed the stairs in much trepidation of what we would find in our dorm. We walked in and were greeted by a older man with long, straggly locks and glasses whose name was Mark. We quickly found out that he was there with his daughter/girlfriend Salmon Pants. She wore the beastly-est tight, salmon coloured pants and had a perm. Steph says that it was sad to see such a nice girl living with such a tragedy. The relationship of Mark and Salmon Pants is still unknown. Steph and I were fortunate enough to get bunk beds next to the window, excluded from the rest of the room. There were two showers and a bathroom which were in the room which was a nice change from the last room we stayed in in BaxPax. After throwing our stuff in the lockers, we headed out to Oranienburger Straße which is our favourite street in Berlin...or the one we spent most of our time on. We enjoyed looking at the changes that occurred since we were last there. In February, I promised Steph that we could go to a Thai food restaurant for dinner but we never ended up going. Steph has held onto this promise and so we went to a little cute one by Oranium. It has a couple tables outside but the restaurant in underground...very cute. We were greeted by Metrosexual Thai Man With Style and Thai Girls With Short Skirts. It's food was very delicious. We are never skimped when it comes to food in Germany. The only problem with that is that we need to finish our plate or else we cause offense. Sometimes this is a very difficult feat especially when one has no men around to help. After dinner, we walked by Oranium to see if we could spy some of our old waiters. As we approached, we saw the tall, sexy body and the sexy smile of Sexy Florian. Our hearts melted in the street. After walking around and seeing all our old "hang outs" such as the 24/7 mini-market, we headed back to the hostel. After being inside our room for about five minutes, we quickly realized that we were sharing a room with Friendly Grunges. Most of them were smelly and thought that showers were an unnecessary part of personal hygiene. They were, however, very friendly and we received many smiles and hellos. In our last hostel, we had free internet access and just needed to ask for a new code every 24 hours and we assumed this one would be the same...we were sorely mistaken. Sexy But Incompetent informed us that the only W-Lan (Wi-Fi) they had was on the computers downstairs and pointed to the list of extremely over-priced prices. I, refusing to support this daylight robbery, decided to steal W-Lan from some other source or at least attempt to hack into theirs. I was unsuccessful in the hacking but I did find "AP- Potsdamer Platz", a public wi-fi. I was overjoyed by this finding but upon further inspection, Steph discovered that most sites are forbidden and streaming video is very slow. I never knew I could appreciate our crappy, slow internet until I discovered "AP-Potsdamer Platz". After an unsuccessful attempt at watching Grey's Anatomy, we headed to bed.

The next day, we discovered that some hostel guests are very open. Steph walked out the bathroom and was face to face with the Israeli woman standing stark naked in the room even though there were other men were around, one being her husband. Also, none of the Grungies liked to shower in the mornings and so we had both bathrooms to ourselves. Afterward, we headed out to Oranium again to have our usual breakfast. There was only one waitress we recognized who we are unsure whether she recognized us. It was lovely to fall back into our old tradition. Afterward, we headed over to Alexanderplatz because there was an Easter Market going on. The flats I was wearing were starting to hurt my toes so we went into New Yorker to find me some flip flops. I admit that this is probably not the shoes I should be wearing when walking all day but it was better than getting more blisters. Steph found some cute jean capris and then we continued our shopping excursion into the Alexa mall. Steph then found some cute shorts so now she has something more summer-y to wear than the pants that she brought. The weather is very hot here. I believe it was 25 degrees though it felt hotter. Steph had an old work friend who just moved to Berlin and so we met up with her later in the afternoon. The market was very cool. It had a giant beer garden in the middle, a mini bungee-jump-off-trampolines for children, a merry-go-round, and a number of different shops selling everything from clothes and jewelry to sausage and cheese to cotten candy and wooden trinkets. Lucky for Steph, there was a crepe stand. The last time she was able to have a crepe was during Karneval so she couldn't control herself. She got her typical Nutella and Cherry and ordered me an Eggnog and Nutella crepe. The lady serving looked at Steph and asked if she was 18. Steph, caught off guard, panicked and said: "Yes...Oh wait, no. I'm..uh..um..ninnnne...teen. Uh Nineteen." This did not seem to persuade the woman of her true age and so she asked for ID as I killed myself laughing in the background. The Eggnog did not taste like the Canadian Island Farms I was expecting and it was the most repulsive thing I have tasted. It was like eating pure rum that numbs your mouth. I also hate rum so I ended up squeezing the "eggnog" out and eating the Nutella instead. Alexanderplatz is a big square surrounded by tall buildings of different shops, restaurants and businesses. There is this one glass skyscraper on one of the sides of the square and they were free-falling people off it (with bungee cords of course). It was very neat to see but you have to not have a fear of heights to be able to do it. After wandering around a bit longer, we headed back to Oranium to show Steph's co-worker our favourite restaurant. As she had only been in Berlin for a week, we needed to show her where to eat. In the

spring/summer, all the restaurants have "patios" which consist of blocking out most of the sidewalk for the tables and causing crowds of pedestrians to walk in the street if there are more than three people walking. We opted to try sitting outside, a phenomena that we can't really do in Victoria due to the bugs but this is not the case in Berlin. There are essentially no bugs and it is sometimes too hot to eat inside. There was a soccer game on and so most of the people who were inside were not there to eat. Steph and I were very disappointed to see that none of our favourites were there. We proceeded to tell Steph's co-worker all about our times in the hostels, Oranium, and Germans in general. By the time we got out of the restaurant, we had been there for about four to four and a half hours. By the second hour, we saw Sexy Florian, serving the tables closer to the street. I mentally kicked myself for not sitting in the middle of the outside tables instead of the closest to the inside. He came over to watch the game or stand with his back to Steph pretending not to recognize us, no doubt. He was working after all and once he started talking to us, he probably couldn't stop. That is our story and we are sticking to it. It was a very enjoyable evening full of sexual comments focused only on Sexy Florian. Our night in the hostel was spent almost exactly the same as before and we were asleep before eleven.
We decided that we would try out the breakfast in the morning to see what it was like. Steph was fearing the deli meat, cheese and buns meal that Germans love to have and so I was sent downstairs to investigate. There were two buffet tables and the first was filled with, you guessed it, meats, cheese and buns. The second was cereal and some fruit. We opted for Oranium again. As we were having our last meal in Berlin, again, the waitress who served us from our previous trip came over and said "Ah, you girls are back again!". Turns out many of the older waiters were "let go" including our favourite Susie, and new ones were added. I was sad to hear Susie was gone and tried to hide my relief that Sexy Flo was still working there. As we left, she said she hoped to see us again. Very cute. So we headed back to Düsseldorf and as much as it is nice to be in our real German home, it sure was nice to be back to our original.

Lego Giraffe In Potsdamer Platz

Short Days, Long Nights

This week has been a fairly uneventful one. Steph has been working most of the week to make up for the six days off she will have over the Easter long weekend. Once again, when she comes home, we stay up until the wee hours of the morning and then sleep in. We ventured down to Altstadt only once this week. There was a group of boys doing break-dancing or something like that and it was gathering quite a crowd. We came at the tail end of it which was too bad. They started up again as we were leaving but we didn't stay to watch. Another favourite pastime of ours is to go to Steph's favourite coffee shop: World Coffee. Steph has become quite enamored with one of the men who works there and so she must go there every day to see him. I am only guessing here, but I believe that since we go there everyday and we are probably the only people who order in English that we are very recognizable. One of the girl baristas started up a conversation with Steph on our third day in a row. I think they like the opportunity to practice their English. We discovered on day four that we are not the only regulars at World Coffee. Steph's Sexy World Coffee Man comes in on his days off to sit and study. Steph watches him and tends to stop paying attention to the conversation at hand. This continued until one unfortunate day when he walked beside her and she discovered that he is only an inch taller than her. I think he lost a few points with her but she still insists on going everyday. After our coffee, we head home and Steph goes to her nannying and I start my studying. I have decided to incorporate German television into my studies and have nightly shows that I watch during the week. On Tuesday, I watch The Simpons and a little bit of Two and a Half Men. Wednesday is Grey's Anatomy and Thursday is Germany's Next Top Model. Friday night is game show night. I watch Who Wants To Be a Millionaire which is very annoying to watch because the host believes he is super funny when he's not. Even the contestants get irritated with him. My favourite is Die Perfekte Minute. It is a very strange game show where there are two contestants on a team (they aren't competing with other people though) and they have to do a task in one minute. The tasks are very strange. There was one where the contestant had post-its stuck to her back and arms and she had to shake them off without touching them and keeping her arms straight. In another one, the contestant had to roll a golf ball down a paper towel roll into a basket on the other end of the table. Another one had the contestant blow cocktail umbrellas out of a straw and get them to land in the champagne glass with the umbrella facing down. They look super difficult but it is fun to watch.
Unfortunately, our apartment is being rented out for Europafest and so we will be unable to stay. Our landlord gave us the option of moving into the next apartment while "ours" is rented out and then move back in when the festival is done. We decided to look at more apartments for the time being before taking him up on his offer. It looks like most apartment owners will keep the place furnished as long as you pay 500 to 1400 Euros for it (that is the least and most we have seen) on top of the damage deposit etc. Fully furnished, we are discovering, are very hard to come by. Yesterday I found the perfect apartment. It is fully furnished, in the middle of Düsseldorf, nice furniture, big windows etc. but it is only available in September because the owner has to go abroad. It was very sad. We are going to keep an eye on it. So far the apartment hunting has not been very successful but we do love the apartment we are in so I think we will end up staying, which isn't the worst thing by any means. I would like to move into a smaller apartment closer in town but I think that will be very hard to come by.