Ich Bin Ein Berliner

From Prague, I took a train to Berlin where I would meet my friend from high school, Micah, at the train station. The ride was about 5 hours, and went by really fast. I was reading my book and when I looked at the clock I was like, "whoah, we're almost there!" Guess that'll happen when you are used to 19 hour rides... But I prefer the shorter rides, that's for certain. So I met him at the station and we took the metro to his apartment. It's a really nice place he has. South Berlin, one roommate, his own room. Full kitchen and bathroom. Nice place. After a little settling in, we went to get a case of German beer to have. That night we ended up having a crazy fun dance party with his roommate. Good times of singing and dancing.

The next day, Micah had class from 2-8 so I had some time to kill. After I did some laundry, I went to do what I do in most cities; wander the town for a while. Micah had given me a metro map and wrote where the Berlin Wall was so I started in that direction. I didn't really know where I was most of the time but I just kept close to the underground and would match stations to my map to find out where I was. I walked through a Christmas market on Alexandarplatz and got my first German brat. Tasty. Then I kept on walking because for as far as I've gone, I was only half way... I got to the station Micah said it was by and wandered around there for a while. I would have thought that being something that seems kind of important and could be a tourist attraction, there would be signs pointing to it, but no such luck. So I took the metro back because I had walked about 4km to get there.

When I got back, I went online and found that the Aussies from Budapest were going to an opera then going out after that night. So I decided that I would meet up with them after the opera but they didn't really give me clear directions on which one it was. So after a bit of searching and guess work, we found one so I gave it a try. I got off the train and took a right and walked till I found an opera house. I waited there for 20 minutes or so and no one came out (part of the guess work was that we knew it got out at 22h00) so I was majorly bummed and didn't want to go back so I went for a walk instead. After a walked a few blocks I came across another opera house that had just let out. Darn! So close! Still missed em though... So I kept going on my walk and had a nice time wandering in the dark.

I have been wanting to go to a German Christmas market for a while because everyone says they're so great. So Micah found one online and we went there, and it was totally lame and dead. Bummer. Micah's roommate Hannah came with us and knew of a gay and lesbian museum so we were like, what the heck, why not? It was an interesting exhibit thing, yeah, interesting... And a little boring, but maybe that's because everything was in German so I could only look at the pictures. Whatever. After that we wandered around so more looking for a German restaurant but came up short, so we had kabobs instead. That's basically German.

Today, Micah and I went to see the Berlin Wall since I missed it when I tried. Now I had someone who knew where it was! When we got off the train, we got a currywurst each and some famous shop. I dunno, but it was good! Then we started off for the wall, but when the wrong direction... So much for knowing where he was going. But after a short right turn we randomly ended up at the wall! How convenient! It was cool I guess. I peeled a little of the wall off and Micah yelled at me, but then he realized it was just paint and then didn't care as much. There was at least an inch of paint on there. We thought the whole wall might have been made of paint, then we wondered how they did the first layer...

Well, after the wall, we found 2 playgrounds and played on them for a while. I like playgrounds, who says they're just for kids? Eh, I'm basically a kid anyway. Then more wandering around Berlin. After all the walking we were getting tired, thirsty, and bored of the area we were in so we decided to jump on the train to a new area. We also bought a Beck's Green Lemon beer. If you can call it a beer... But something unique to Germany (I think) is you can drink pretty much anywhere. On the street, the metro, bus, whatever! So we took around "beers" on the train and headed off. When we got off and walked a little, we ended up find a 2 Christmas markets. So we walked that for a while. I don't remember why, probably cuz we didn't have anything else to do but then we went into the mall next to the market and it had an awesome fountain in it. I probably can't describe it very well, so I won't try and leave you all in suspense!!! Eh, it's just a fountain, don't get all work up. I think we went to another place and found yet another market. On the day that we weren't even trying we found a bunch of nice markets! What's up with that?! Don't ask don't tell I guess.

After wandering around the market and smelling the good smells, we were getting hungry so headed to a German restaurant. I like to sample the local food, and I couldn't skip out on sausage, kraut, and beer now could I!? I got a brat with potatoes and kraut and apple strudel for dessert. It was all really good! Especially the kraut. I know! Since when have I liked kraut?! Does it matter? No. So it was a good meal and then we headed back to his place to relax the rest of the night away.

Since the market smelled so good before, we went back to indulge in some German market food. I got a half meter brat (long, but skinny), some pocket kabob type thing, and chocolate covered strawberries. All delicious. Then we went to his friend's apartment to watch some soccer. After the game was over, I noticed that he had a Sega Genesis (but over here it's called a Megadrive). So we busted that out and played Sonic 2 for a while, along with a few other games, but I like Sonic, so there. But that was a good time. We then went to a dance club and danced the night away. There were 2 floors; one was a normal type dance floor and music and the other was playing some techno polka stuff. I liked that one better. So it was a fun time too. Then we went back to his place because it was late and we were tired. Crash.

Saturday was a very laid back day. I spent the whole day reading The Green Mile and finished it. Micah was doing school work so there wasn't much to do. When we were both done we cooked up some dinner, yeah, it was pretty good, mostly because we can cook pretty good. Jealous? After that, we went to a party someone invited Micah to, I tagged along because I could. It was a pretty laid back party. I felt a little awkward though because of the language everyone there could speak at least 2 languages (minimum). But dancing is a universal language so I did that. It was another late night and I was heading to Brugges in the morning. Time for bed!

I woke up early (8am! Well, I have been sleeping in lately) got pack, said ciao and went to the station. It was a 9 hour ride to Brugges and for most of the trip I was facing backwards. I don't like to face backward! I get sick feeling... So I tried to ignore it and sleep but it was a long time to just sleep! I got in around 18h30 and went to find my hostel. The directions from online said to look on a map. How helpful. For some reason my compass wasn't working right or I wasn't reading it right because it took me far to long to get going in the right direction. So eventually after walking around most of the city, I found the hostel. After putting my stuff down I went to get dinner. I found a nice little restaurant not too far away and had a good little 3 course meal. Delightful! Sleepy.

The next morning after breakfast, I circled places I wanted to see on my map. I saw Michelangelo's Madonna statue and went on a beer tour. I also rented a bike but needed gloves so my hands wouldn't freeze so I picked up a nice pair that worked very well! After the tour I got some fries and headed out on what ended up being about a 40km bike ride. I rode from Brugges to the North Sea and back. It was a nice easy ride but I must have bruised my butt because I am not used to sitting in bike seats and I'm sure that one wasn't designed with distance riding in mind. When I got back, I went to a little cafe that was suggested on my map and got a huge bowl of spaghetti that made even me think that I should have gotten the small one. It was only 5.50 euro though! And I finished it pretty easily, after all, I had just rode 40km! I also got a cherry beer that was quite refreshing! Then I returned my bike, showered, and read (since I finished the Green Mile, Micah traded me one of his books) until I feel asleep.

Since I only have a few days left, I only spent 2 nights in Brugges before moving on to Brussels. I will only spend 2 nights here as well. Then Paris for one night then I will be back in the US of A. So I got into Brussels after a really short train ride (45 mins is much better than 40 hours) and found my hostel. After checking in, I walked around Brussels and I think I covered the whole city, so now I have to figure out what I'm gonna do tomorrow! Oh well, it's a nice city so I'm sure I can find something! Right now I'm gonna go find a restaurant and have some mussels for dinner! Should be delicious!