Another Sunday In Deutschland

As we have discovered, Sundays in Germany are very different from Sundays in Canada. For one thing, Sundays in Canada are full of shopping or seeing museums, eating out or even lounging around the house. In Germany, these options are limited to eating out and lounging around the house. Everything closes on Sunday and so we had nothing to do. We tried to sleep in to kill time but I awoke at 7 anyway and our new room-mate Disrespectful Brit decided to awake and be as loud as possible as he packed up his stuff. So far, my impression of British people has not been very good. After lying in bed for a good two hours or so, Steph and I decided to get up. Our new room-mate, Punk Australian, was still sleeping and we woke her up a few times. She was still drunk from the night before so she didn't seem to mind. Just like any other day, we went to Oranium for breakfast but this time was different...Sexy Florian was our waiter for the morning. As he has caught us staring at him a few times, we believe he knows our fascination of him and therefore did not come around as much or teach us new German words...guess it is time to leave Berlin. After breakfast, we chose to go to our old bakery to get Pain au Chocolat. To our great pleasure, Calvin Klein was there to serve us. I ordered in German and he didn't seem to excited about it so my German must be beginning to sound less Canadian. We walked back to our hostel in euphoria of the return of our old men and the Pain au Chocolat. We watched a movie and Family Guy all afternoon as almost everything is closed and had our new favourite new age German meal for lunch: Currywurst. Steph thought it would be a good idea to find our train station for tomorrow morning. I, thinking that there was no way we would be given a ticket for a train that came to another station without being told, thought it was unnecessary. Good thing we went because the train is actually at a different station and so we hopped on the S-bahn to the next station. It seems simple enough but I am so happy we went to find it the day before or we would have missed the train. Back in the hostel, we decided to do some traditional drop shots: Jagerbombs. The bartender made it for us and turned his back to the cash register to put the money in and once he turned around, we had drained our glasses. After the second round, the other bartender said something in German and our bartender stared at us, responding in German. Steph and I looked at each other and then to see what was behind us. The bartender then said "Oh no, I'm looking at you girls. You drink better than the men!" Feeling pleased, we stopped after the third Jagerbomb. Now we are headed for bed, praying to find a place tomorrow.

Lions, Tigers and Bears OH MY!

Once again we have extended our stay in the hostel, and so once again we must switch rooms. We rolled out of bed packed up our stuff and said a silent goodbye to our room mates. We brought our stuff down stairs and put it in the storage room for safe keeping. We hit up our favourite little breakfast joint for our tea/coffee and fruit bowls. Sexy Florian was no where in sight, but our other little favourite blond waitress with all the piercings was there, it is nice to be served by her rather than evil tall skinny blond lady. We were just finishing up and by "finishing up" I mean finishing our meals, there was still the whole hour we  wait for our bill; In Germany the waiters don't come over, you have to wave them down for EVERYTHING(even the bill) and they don't like to walk past. It is custom to sit and enjoy your meal and bask in good conversation with your company rather than to eat and run, like us Canadians. As I was saying we were just finishing up when the sexiest of sexiest of waiters walked in, Sexy Florian, Elise and I suddenly grew to appreciate the sit and wait custom of Germany. He wasn't serving today, he was putting one of his many other talents to good us... bar tending! After many many hours of begging Elise to allow us to go to the Berlin Zoo and Aquarium, we were off today! Elise has become some what of a professional of train travel so with a vague idea of the location of the zoo, we hopped on the next train and then three random trains later, we were there. The zoo was actually the best, Elise being the daughter of Theo Kwantes, put the DNA she was given to good use, Elise was our little animal photographer extraordinaire! I ,on the other hand, liked to give commentary to the animals. On our way home we stopped off to buy train tickets to Dusseldorf for our apartment showings on Monday. It was very painful to hand over 213 euros each but better than being homeless I guess. We stopped off at a very traditional restaurant of Germany on our way home: McDonald's. The food at McDonald's is at a much better quality than the crap we have back home. We came back to the hostel for a little power nap and a few episodes of family guy. Later that evening Elise and I headed down stairs for some dinner, another soccer game was one so seating was limited, we were cast away into the far corner of the lounge. The meal was not a pleasant one every three bites the group of German men crowded around the t.v. screen would scream and cheer and knocked poor Me and Elise out of our seats. So we gobbled up our food as fast possible before escaping to our room for some peace and quiet.

Brits and Their Cellphones

Today started out pretty much the same as every other day except for two things: The Brit Girls and cellular devices. The two lovely Brits we share a dorm with decided to go out for the pub crawl last night and as a result came traipsing through the door around 6:30. There was, however, one problem: Only one Brit Girl. The other Brit Girl was MIA. So because Short Brit Girl was so distraught over coming home without her friend, she asked The Asian Who Doesn't Speak English where she was. I was awoken to: "Hey, do you know where my friend is? *sob* Do you know where my friend is? *sob* Do you know where my friend is? *sob sob* *slams bathroom door*". Of course the only logical thing to do when you have lost your friend on the streets of Berlin is to ask the only person in your hostel who A) doesn't speak English and B) Was in the hostel sleeping the whole night. At exactly 7am, Tall Brit Girl came waltzing through, slamming the door shut behind her and proceeded to get into bed. By quarter after, the Short Brit Girl was in bed too and both were sound asleep. As soon as this happened, their cell phones went off. Normal people, or at least the ones I know, would turn off the offending noise completely and resume their sleeping pattern, this was not the case. For three hours, their phones went off simultaneously resulting in the awakening of everyone else in the dorm room by 9 o'clock while the Brits slept. Not a good start to the day. Afterward, Stephanie and I resumed our usual habit of stalking Sexy Florian, the waiter, via fruit bowls but alas, we were sadly disappointed again. On a different note, our friendly Female Waitress put a large piece of metal through the middle of her nose yesterday...it looks horrible. Once we finished our two hour breakfast, we wandered back to the hostel to look for apartments. This has become quite a stress in our life as all the apartments are now renting mostly for April. After looking up 4 different sites, we came across one that was put up at 8:30 this morning. As a result, we have a showing on Monday and another showing from a different lady whose parents live in Vancouver. She seems pretty keen on us as we are both Canadians living in Germany who don't really speak the language. Both apartments are very nice and in our price range. I guess when life closes a door, God opens a window. We spent most of the day emailing back and forth and so not a lot was done. At least our apartment appointments are in order so that is one less thing to stress about.

Much More Than Desserts

Today was a chilly one, we woke up fairly early... well earlier than usual 8:30ish. We stayed curled up in our beds just to watch one episode of Family Guy then bundled up to brace the cold outdoors of -11 degrees. When we reached our destination of our favourite breakfast restaurant and fruit bowls we were very saddened to find out our blond sexy waiter, Sexy Florian, was once again not working. We were truly starting to consider the possibility of him no longer being employed. Elise and I thought it would be a good day to practice riding the Subway trains since it was too cold to walk anyways. We have mastered the art of trains(which is really ironic because we will be on one soon (lol Harrison)). We shopped for a little while today, Elise and I are on the search for "fairly" priced winter jackets. For dinner Elise tried schnitzel for the first time... it was alright. After dinner we thought it would be a good idea to possibly go out for Dessert, so we walked down to our favourite little breakfast restaurant on the corner, we were pleasantly surprised to see a tallish blond extremely sexy waiter walk by as we received our desserts... our faith in Sexy Florian that was once lost has now returned. So of course perverted remarks were made all evening. We headed back to our hostel after with a smile on our faces and feeling of satisfaction, not from the delicious desserts but from the sight of our beloved waiter.

The Arrival of the Deutsch Bank

We have began an official scientific experiment. Our hypothesis: Sexy German Waiter only works part-time Thursday to Saturday. Perhaps he works nights but we were sadden by his absence. Breakfast just isn't the same without him. Steph decided to expand her palate with inspiration from a little German boy the other day: A pizza. This, however, was not just a round, normal pizza. This was a huge oval pizza on a cutting board. Steph proudly ate 3/4 of it. After that, we were off to find the Deutsch Bank that was supposed to be by the Brandenburger Gate, which it was not. However, there is a very rich looking hotel in the Platz by the Gate that had a red carpet rolled out leading into the entrance of the hotel. There were reporters and a video camera and people crowed around. Steph and I thought we should wait but the call of money in our money belts was too strong. Earlier, we had found a new shopping center called Potsdamer Platz (not in Potsdam of course) and thought we'd check it out. Much to our distress over the absence of the DB, we decided to window shop instead so then we braved the subway. After being in Paris for a week and becoming quite the subway master, I assumed that my confidence would spill over into the German subway...no such luck. In Germany, there are two different subways: The S-Bahn and the U-Bahn, a bus system, and a railway which looks a lot like the SkyTrains but with two levels. This makes traveling a little more confusing. After studying the Information map (and a little luck), we found our way over to Potsdamer Platz. As we crossed the street, searching for the Shopping Center, I saw it; big blue letters spelling DEUTSCH BANK. We nearly cried with relief. After spending about 6 hours trying to find one over the span of three days, there it was and we didn't even know it was there! We rushed in to the ATMs but unfortunately, and I almost screamed, our cards didn't work in their machines!!!! Tomorrow we shall go to the place the lady at the bank told us to go to get it checked out. After an uneventful window shop, our legs were frozen once again. We Victoria girls aren't used to this bone-chilling weather, especially when there is no snow (to which we are grateful) and so we tired in for the day. As all our old French room-mates left today, we were greeted by new ones. We have Fake Blond Scotsman who is very nice and is living in Berlin to do a degree...Steph believes he is slightly sexy and all natural blond. We have our First American who is very funny and goes along with our quirky jokes. He has the hots for the Australian but as she leaves tomorrow, he is out of luck. We have The Two Brit Girls who seem nice and sweet and last but not least The Japanese Who Doesn't Speak English and also doesn't like Currywurst which is a sausage in curry sauce. It isn't an Asian curry but more like a barbecue like sauce. We all sat down for dinner together in the Hostel and had a very lovely evening. Steph and I ventured out to Häagen Dazs for dessert which was good but not the best tasting ice cream ever. I personally prefer Marble Slab. Now it is time for bed and we must catch ourselves up on Desperate Housewives after which we will watch Family Guy as we are now going season by season

Tag Sieben

Today was a beaut, woke up to the sun shinning bright, which is a little pain when we were trying to sleep in but never the less some vitamin D is always good :) We woke up tired though, the night before everyone in the room had a little bit of a restless sleep due to the loud, boisterous snoring of the older french Gentlemen, well everyone except the culprit himself. This morning was the usual, took our time around the hostel getting ready and then headed down to our little breakfast place on the corner for coffee/tea and our fruit bowl. Once again the sexy German waiter was not there, keeping our fingers for tomorrow. After breakfast we headed back to the hostel to do some laundry and search for some apartments in Dusseldorf. Right now apartment finding is seeming like an impossible task and to add to that stress we are still awaiting our visas and it is looking like that is going to be another week or so. Our new Aussi mate invited us to join her on a walking tour, we gladly accepted her invite. It wasn't one of those normal history ones but this one was called "alternative" in which it's a tour of/about all the graffiti and street art around Germany. They brought us into this building in which Elise and I believed to do something with some sort of cult turns out it is just an art studio for street artists. The tour was very interesting but our whole bodies turned blue from the cold, we felt as if our extremities were going to fall off. As Elise put it, no need for exercise to lose weight, the cold will just freeze any excess fat and it will break off. We were glad to get back to the hostel to defrost, instead of venturing out for dinner we decided to stay in and eat. Food at the hostel is very cheap and actually quite good. Elise had a burger with fries and I currywurst and fries(oh so delicious). The meals were good and freshly cooked and only cost us 9 euros all together. Our aussi friend wanted us to meet some "new blokes" as she put it but Elise and I just retired to our room for a nice night of Family Guy.

Elise at Berlin Wall

Tag Sechs

Today we had a bit of an earlier start thanks to the Disrespectful Spanish Guy. He stayed all up all night talking on the phone, even when everyone is in bed around him trying to sleep, and tried to sleep in till 1 in the afternoon and glared at the people who were up at 11. So this morning, his last day, he crashed an banged around the room and slammed the door shut at 9 am. So Steph and I lounged around a bit, enjoying the freedom of being the only ones in the hostel room. We went to Oranium and the waitress, who has been working since we began our new habit, asked us if we even needed a menu. Steph and I proudly ordered auf Deutsch: "Ich möchte ein Fruchtetopf und ein Kaffee/ Grün Tee". Then we went to on a (long!) walk to find the nearest Deutsche Bank as that is the bank that sisters with the Scotiabank and we can pull out money for free. Every German we asked gave us different answers with different areas it was....or was not. We never actually found it in the end but after an hour of searching, you stop caring. We bought a new hairdryer and transformer as Steph blew hers and we are still astounded at how cheap it is to buy those things. Then we walked over to the Aqua Dom which is a big fish zoo. It was very neat in there. They have fish tanks that you walk through and they have all sorts of different fish including sharks and sting rays. It gives Undersea Gardens a run for their money. They had a big room which was a maze of mirrors which you had to keep your hands out in front of you or you'd bang into the mirrors. Then at the end, they have an elevator that went up into a a giant fish aquarium. It was very cool. Then we went for another walk around a different part of the city (not very nice) and ordered more drinks auf Deutsch and went home when our thighs were about to fall off. On the way home, Steph stopped at a take out pasta place and it was the best pasta we have found yet. Now we are back in the hostel and resorted to our 2nd new habit: watching movies on the laptop before bed.We have four new "friends" to our number. Kendra, The Canadian studying in Norway, leaves tomorrow which is sad and a new Australian Working In London is here and she is VERY outgoing. Three French people are here but they don't speak much English which makes me wonder how they are getting on if they don't speak Deutsch either...

Tag Funf

B.O.R.I..N.G... that is how I would describe our day today, we didn't do much at all today, I slept in till 11:30 then Elise and I headed out to our favourite breakfast spot, we were incredibly disappointed  though cause our favourite sexy German waiter did not work today :( We went to go buy ANOTHER transformer since once AGAIN it blew up and killed my hair dryer. Elise and I assuming the mall would be open since the sign state open from 11 - 6 but turns out the mall is only open for window shopping and to our surprise quite a few people where chilling around the mall peering through the windows of the closed stores, Elise and I did not take a fancy to this activity so we just headed back to hostel for a quick nap(since Elise was not feeling well). After a quick nap we headed out for Dinner with one of our fellow room mates. Lately we have been harassed on the street by this Turk who was insistent on getting us to come to his Indian food restaurant, he has been counting the number of times we have been passing by and not stopping by for a bite to eat and reminding us of it... so to calm his little Turkish heart we decided to go. The food was excellent and the look of the place was enjoyable to the eye. Afterwords we headed for a little walk and to go to the Reichstag(German parliament building) but turns out we needed to book a week in advance so we weren't able to go. We headed back to the hostel, our body parts turning blue from the cold and stomachs full from dinner to enjoy a nice night of family guy.

Tag Vier

Day 4 and we did pretty much the same thing as yesterday. We went to our favourite restaurant again for our fruit bowls but Steph went a little out of the box and ordered the British Breakfast...never doing that again. However, we didn't only go only for breakfast but for our sexy new waiter who teaches us Deutsch. New phrase of the day: Auf Deutsch? Ein Rechnung! Which was unpronounceable to us. Then we went back to our favourite mall and to the media store where we argued over which transformer to buy as our laptops were going to fry. We took a gamble and it paid off. Then we shopped a little more and came back to our hostel and an old pessimistic British man has joined our pack. He has been to Dusseldorf so I inquiringly asked him what it was like. He responded with "Not much there since the bombing so it isn't very nice". He also looked down on us for not being picky on which job we want. He seems like a lovely chap. I'm sure tonight will be very nice. For dinner, we tried out a new American Sixties restaurant. It was very cool in there. Every bench seat had their own jukebox; 3 plays for a Euro. Steph asked the host if the machine worked and he said "Only after the soccer game". Steph thoughtfully asked when it would be over and offended the man so much that he spared her a look before walking as far as he could away from us. Never comment on Germans and their soccer or "football" as our new Canadian room-mate would say. It is very nice to stay in Hostels as you meet so many different people...except the occasional pessimistic Brit

Tag Drei

Well I am writing this blog a little late because of some complications with the laptops, well actually the voltage converter not only did it explode my straightener it also does not charge our laptops at all, we can have it charging for about an hour and the lap may only have probably enough power for approximately 10 minutes. Today Elise and I are going down to Alexanderplatz for some shopping and we are hoping to find a a new more reliable converter. So about yesterday.... Elise and I seem to have gotten in the grove of things, we now have our new breakfast spot picked out called Oranium, at first we went there for the food and now we go for the sexy blonde waiter who likes to teach us German :D He taught us how to ask for the bill and Elise already knew how to order in German so now we are trying as much as possible to only speak German when we go to the restaurants... I am slightly failing but it should become better. We now are no longer needing a map and are finding our way around pretty easily. So far we have been only shopping at one mall but it is quite large and is 97 percent full of new stores that we have never seen before so even though we have gone there every day it hasn't gotten boring. Bakeries and cafe are very common in Germany they are like the McDonalds of North America. I have found my favorite bakery, it is just around the corner from the hostel, the man that works there is extremely tall and very muscular and tanned and wears a tight Calvin Klein shirt... I like to refer to him as "Calvin Klein". We extended our stay at the hostel and because of that we had to switch rooms, the room that we now are staying in smells of manly b.o. mostly because when we first arrived in the room all our new room mates were all men. We now though have another two girls stay with us, we refer to them as the "party girls" because they sleep all day and go to the clubs all night. They are here from an media school for the Berlin film festival. They have invited Elise and I to go clubbing with them tonight, Elise and I are considering their offer.

Tag Swei

Day 2 and we are hitting the ground running. We went to the SWAP office today. When we walked in, we were expecting a front desk, multiple computers with other SWAP participants gathered around but it was on the fifth floor, two room office that reeked of cigarette smoke. The coordinator was very friendly and had lots of advice. We told us that German is not just one language that everyone speaks and that there are different dialects. For instance, someone from Southern Germany cannot understand the German of someone from Northern Germany and again from Switzerland and it continues. He said we should have no troubles finding a job even if you don't speak German. He told us about the different taxes and Social Security Numbers we will get and it seems simple enough. We then found our way to the Shopping Center after getting lost from the Google maps. Apparently, the Alexanderplatz we typed into Google was the subway station, not the mall so an hour on our feet later and two very nice Germans, we saw the sign for H&M and we were on our way. Stephanie tried to order her favourite Starbucks drink and  thank goodness for English speaking Starbucks workers. Stephanie's straightener also blew up this morning even though we have the converter...it was a very sad day. We went shopping for a new one and we bought one for 14 euros and they ranged from 20 to 50 Euros which was different from Canada. After the mall, we got lost again on the way back but eventually found our way. Hopefully tomorrow will prove to be a better day ;)

Tag Eins

After 9 long painful  hours on a plane Elise and I have finally made it to Germany. There is nothing much to say about the flight because it was pretty average, watch some movies, eat horrible food and listen to some tunes. Elise slept most of the way, she woke up for a bit only to partially watch the movie Due Date, which I actually highly advise by the way. We got off the plane and were completely stumped, I guess in Germany they have some sort of cab system in which the cabs line up and first come first get fares. 3 cabs drivers yelling at us in German later we finally found a cab that was happy to take us. The cab driver spoke very little English; when I asked him `how long the ride was?" he responded with "what is this?". The hostel is very nice, it slightly smells of smoke but is clean and has a friendly atmosphere. There are 8 of us total in our room, 1 girl from Montreal(who is also part of the swap exchange), A boyfriend and girlfriend from Australia, 2 girls who speak Spanish (where they are from is unknown) and a Asian guy. We spent the first night in our room just chatting with our room mates and watching MacGruber. In the middle of the night I needed to get up and use the washroom, as I was about to open the door it swung open and I bumped into the Australian guy in nothing but a pair tiny tidy whites... I was soon to learn that privacy was not an issue.