there are no wrong turns, only new adventures...

i'm here in some arcade in the middle of potsdamer platz with onlz 20 minutes left on my computer and it's quite different figuring out this german keyboard. regardless of the omnipresent barking dogs, this place is quite nice. there are a lot of neat stores and cafes. my favorite part however is the otto dix exhibit downstairs. i'm a bit surprised they have all these pieces of his in shopping centre. a part of me feels he may not be have been happy with that decision but well, hes dead, and lots of people who may not have been interested in him before may now have become fans.

today i woke up relatively early and went on a beautiful jog along some river. this was a particularly nice place because there were several other joggers there to make me feel safe, but it was also completely out of the way of cars. also, it was on gravel and dirt which is so much easier on the knees. this path led me all the way to the brandenburger tor and back, about 10 kilometers but quite nice.
but...i missed breakfast and these energy bars have been sustaining me for far too long.

in preparation for class tomorrow at the freie universität i made the trip over there to find my class. well, one wrong turn and i'm heading a few kilometers in the completely wrong direction.
thanks daddy for printing out that map with directions to the uni because without it who knows where i would be. my handy dandy moleskine berlin guide unfortunatelz doesn't cover that part in its map so i was a bit lost.
BUT, i withstood the head and fatigue (it reallz wasn't bad, my socks were just way too thick for this sort of weather) and got to my destination.
I tell you though, that is one beautiful university, and quite a scenic area in general.
It's funnz because every house i saw i pictured the harris family 40 years ago.

i had planned an itinerary to visit a special vegan grocery store and a vegan cafe for lunch. well, that train is not running until the 30th of october. while there is a bus running to the same place, something about me just greatly prefers the ubahn. perhaps because i have mastered(kinda) that form of transportation i don't want to learn a new one. well, typing that out kind of makes me realize thats a bit ridiculous. fine, you convinced me, i'll learn to use the busses... maybe...someday :)

so change of plans, and i decided to visit an indian restaurant, samhadi, at liepziger platz. Somehow that led me to this arcade i'm in and i've been on this computer for about 50 minutes.

when i get back to my hotel i'll update more indepth about yesterday.
but you know how i was whining about my luggage? It came that night! I went to bed at just before 20:00 and got a call waking me up at 21:30 that my luggage had arrived and was waiting for me downstairs. so alles gute!

i guess that scratches my plan of having to buy a whole-new-wardrobe... :) just kidding

but the next day i woke up, ate a good breakfast consisting of 4 pieces of bread, nuts and 3 cups of coffee. not exactly well rounded, this left me jittery for the rest of the day.
but i made the trek out to...somewhere, i forgot, to visit Hans Vegan Wurst Cafe.
After several wrong turns, back tracking and accidentally ending up at some stadium filled with drunks football fans, i finally made it to the restaurant.
i had a delicious hand made tofu burger with potato wedges. sooo tasty.

i explored around the area for a bit and then headed to Zoologischer Gartens where i walked around some more and shopped just a bit. KaDeWe, Kaufhaus des Westens is HUGE. I was floored to find out that whole building is just one departments store. My feet hurt so i didn`t go in but,wow. Plus i think everything maz be a bit too expensive for a student on a budget.

took a nap at the hotel that i now regret, and returned to Zoologischer Gartens for some dinner.
well in a sleepy stupor i mistook Kartoffel Salat for meaning just a plain salad. No, this was a mayonaise drentched, potato blob. And feeling inspired, i ordered a Berliner Pilsner beer. I figured being in germany it's mandatory to have a beer, right? Well, i snuck behind a corner, threw away my potato salad, and on the next corner i recycled my beer after a few sips. I don't think i can hack the beer, it's well, just not all that tasty.

had fruit and a LOT of nuts for dinner, plus, hahah an energy bar. and couldn't sleep all night.

i think that's the most of it.
pictures coming soon, i promise!

my long long LONG trip

Before I plunge into how long and exciting(aka.unlucky) my travels were let me preface this by saying that this blog will not be in german despite the title.  Regardless of how much i could use the practice and more able i would be to communicate my experiences here in berlin, this blog is going to be read pretty much only by people who don't speak a lick of german. 

Here is how my day went, and be ready to get impressed by the amount of hours awake

--3:56 am, Thursday, 28 August 2008....california.

woke up before my 4 am alarm because of a bad stalker dream,

peeled myself out of bed and started my long travels.

after removing and replacing several items in my suitcases for questionably no reason, i already weighed all my baggage the night before, i realise now in my morning stupor I removed essentials such as eyebrow tweezers, sunblock, facial mousturizer and more for no reason. too late now! i'm already in berlin:)

--8:30am

finally board the plane, happily and on time.  You will realise soon that this was not a theme of my travels.  i initially sat next to this friendly orange haired lady who kept talkin about how much she loved germany.

-as the flight seems like it should be coming to an end we get an announcement about the air traffic at Newark airport and were forced to kill tim in the air.  this made several other passengers nervous, especially those trying to catch a flight to Milan.  After hearing them complain i became nervous myself.  this is when i realized the girl sitting next to me was also heading to berlin. after some major stressing, a long time spent taxiing and serious elbowing me and my new friend Aleksandra (polish) ran our boots off to the gate. 

--5:02pm Newark, NJ

our plane left without us.

worst part is it left the gate at exactly 5pm and didn't wait the extra 2 minutes for us to board.

oh wait, it gets worse, the plane spent 1 hour taxiing around the runway.

luckily we got a flight from newark to frankfurt and from frankfurt to berlin.it was expected that we would arrive in berlin only 2 hours later and that we would be provided plenty of time to make our connections.

--7:30pm  Newark, NJ

our plane closed its doors on time but did not depart similarly.  we again were taxiied around the runway for about 45 minutes and then there were cargo issues, and on top of that, paperwork issues.  one would assume the paperwould would need to be figured out before all the customers load the plane.

either way, this made me and aleksandra very stressed for time upon our arrival in Frankfurt.

--11:19am Frankfurt, Germany

after going through customs and two security lines we were finally headed for our last connection.  after being heavily scolded in both english and german about how we were too late and not going to be allowed on the plane, alexandra and i were both handed first class lufthansa tickets.  i guess the grumpy old chap was too distracted that he gave us wayyy better tickets than we paid for.  but thats not to say we didn't deserve them!

it was luxurious, i want to take first class all the time now.  warm toilettes, chocolate, friendly stewardesses, leg room.

--13:17 Berlin

both pieces of my luggage were lost.  apparently one was supposed to be on the way to my hotel and the other piece was just completely m.i.a.  She assured me that my one bag would be returned today, but low and behold no luggage :(

at least i packed some extra clothes, but i guess people in germany don't wear flip flops because i keep getting confused stares directed at my feet.  in addition, its been sprinkling off and on, and leggins and a thin, long tank top just isn't going to cut it.  

but my hotel is quite nice! the man working the front desk is so helpful and friendly.  I appreciate so much how he makes an effort to get to know his guests. 

but for one reason or antoher i have gotten very paranoid about someone stealing my stuff.  Perhaps because all my other stuff went missing.  but this has caused me to feel the need to hide my expensive things.  the fear of theft is rational but berlin seems quite safe so far.  

people are kind of in their own world, but i'm finding it refreshing to just be completely on my own.  looking for shampoo, bodywash and lotion (things the hotel lacks because i do not consider a bodywash/shampoo/lotion to be either of the three) i allowed myself to get lost and then found(with a map).  I got some coffee but didn't have much of an appetite so i got only rice bars, an apple and this healthy bread stuff.  I now regret that decision but sleep cures all and once the clock hits 7pm i am out.

i uploaded some pictures, i'm just wayyy too leepy to upload :)

and i'll keep posting

love,

becky