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.

I'm Going to Pop You One in the Chops

Since the Sunday that Stephanie started her job, our weeks have become the same. Steph is picked up by her family at 4pm and I start my studies. At 10, Steph comes home and we spend a good few hours watching tv or cleaning up the apartment. As a result, we sleep in longer to account for the late hours we stay up at night. During the day, before Steph's work, I like to watch The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother auf Deutsch. It is interesting...even if I don't understand: The voices are much less annoying. Very soap opera-ish. My biggest fear is learning German via Big Bang Theory and end up speaking like Sheldon Cooper ;) Stephanie get Sunday and Monday off and so we took advantage of the spare time. It is too bad that she doesn't get another week day off because there is absolutely nothing to do on Sundays. So we decided to spend the day resting in bed and catching up on the season finales we are missing. Monday, we went out into the German world! Steph wanted to get her eyebrows done and so we headed over to Senzera: Bodylicious waxing and booked an appointment. Steph also needed to replenish her M.A.C supplies so we headed over to the only M.A.C store in Düsseldorf. We walked in and the Redhead-Witch came over to help us. She didn't speak much English so Steph kindly told her that she knew what she wanted. She headed over to the shelves with products and Redhead Witch yelled at her to get away from there and that the sample products where over on the other table. After a little confusion, Steph just told her what number she needed...and of course they were out. Young Asian Worker told us that there was a M.A.C counter in Altstadt in one of the stores. Steph was very frustrated that "All the Germans were as pasty pale as I am and take all the good foundation". So we wandered across town to try there. Luckily, they had the exact one. Afterwards, Steph needed to buy a bus pass and so we stopped in the subway station to buy one. Oddly enough, they didn't take Visa, only cash...even though they had a visa/debit machine. So we had to run over to the cash machine. After, we wanted to bask in the sun down by the Rhein. I found a German site that explains some of the German grammar and one of the sentences was "I am going to pop you one in the chops" which we repeated over and over. As we were walking, there were two Germans men walking behind us. They were walking behind us for about ten minutes and nine of those minutes we were talking about "popping one in the chops". I would like to pause for a second and try to figure out what was going on in their brains: They have two ENGLISH speaking females walking in front of them, and so they must think of the most interesting/sexy thing they could say in a second language to attract their attention. One of the German men (the sexy one by the way) came up with this one-liner: "Hey girls! Where's the sun?". We turned around and turned into Japanese School Girls and fell into a fit of giggles. His friend made fun of our laugh and that was the end of that. We repeated that wonderful line all day and tried to figure out how he thought that was a good pick up line. Got to give the man credit for trying. So we sat for a while and then we walked across town for Steph to get her eyebrows waxed. She always enjoys trying to talk to the German ladies because their English is very limited. We walked over to World Coffee but it was closing, we hadn't realized it has gotten so late. So we headed to the grocery store before it closed. I have discovered that all cheese is very cheap in Germany. I bought quite a bit of Edam cheese for 59 cents. Very surprising! So we bought a bunch of fruit and restocked our cupboard. We had currywurst again for dinner and then Grey's Anatomy to finish off the night. Now it is Tuesday, the beginning of our week, and so we are starting our cycle again. Unfortunately, we have discovered our apartment has an ant infestation. They are crawling through the grating in the bathroom and they crawl under the floor. We have discovered ant repellent and so I think our landlord knew about this problem before...Hmm