Berlin Week... three??

Man, time is unfortunately flying by over here. My friend Jenn has gone home to Canada and we did a ton of good stuff this week. The weather was so, so beautiful... big blue skies and fluffy clouds. It was 23 degrees and sunny all day on Sunday!!! I think I got a bit of sunstroke, strange but true that I was happy to have it.

Went to the Museum of Decorative Arts which was awesome. Stuff ranging from the 1400s to present, and they painted a realistic and kind of hilarious picture of the 80s. Truly a decade when you have to wonder what we were thinking...

But mostly it was just totally beautiful and amazing things. Crazy handmade compasses from the 1500s, furniture, glassware, vases, utensils, tea sets, shoes... the kinds of things that I love most in this world.

Also did my first adventures into Berlin shopping. Oops! But look at this vintage shop! How could I resist? And this was probably about a third of their selection of boots. Needless to say, I will be returning home a little richer in footwear.

Saw some pretty amazing things this week. There were the standards, like segway tours. Then there were these cheesy tours that you can do on bicycles built for 6 people; a big tacky spectacle, really. So imagine how I felt when I saw this cycling BAR -- built for 12 people who pedal while sitting at a bar and being served beer. Only in Germany.

While the food continues to be mediocre at most restaurants, there were some highlights. Lattes are really delicious and I don't even like lattes that much. Tried some good traditional german food, including bavarian meatloaf which kind of tasted like a premium hot dog loaf, but ten times more delicious. And we happened to be walking through an outdoor market the other day, in search of a snack and I came upon this and before my common sense kicked in, I had ordered what appeared to be a bread and cheese kebab which was then dipped in batter and deep-fried. It was delicious! But after I got home, I realized I had hit rock bottom, and so I went for a run. The Beat the Berlin Belly fitness routine has begun.

Needless to say, we've still been cooking for ourselves a lot. We also tried some Turkish food which was delicious -- there is a huge Turkish community in Berlin so it was nice to see some food with some real love (and real vegetables) put into it.

We went back to the jewish memorial at night to see what it would look like and let me tell you, it was about a million times more scary.

Berlin has started to seem smaller and more familiar as we start to get our bearings and put the puzzle pieces together. Going out on epic walks through the city and stumbling upon some really great things. Like neon-lit buildings, or monuments with bullet holes. So much history here. Like the other day when we happened to walk past this... a beautiful hotel had been bombed during the war and parts of it remained, so they put the inside outside in this display for all to see. There's all sorts of 'half bombed' things that have been preserved... it may only be a portion of what was once there but it's a reminder of what happened here and gives the city so much character.

And we now have bikes! I bought mine from some shady vendor at Mauer Park, that huge Sunday flea market. Yesterday we went to put air in our tires and it was like my tire started to grow a tumour in front of my eyes, this big bulging air pocket formed inside the tire and then it totally exploded! It sounded like a shotgun went off in the street. Resulting in the first investment in this temporary bike with the addition of a new tire, which Dave put on for me. What a man, what a man, what a man. What a mighty good man.

:::::::::::::: SEE MY BERLIN WEEK THREE PICTURES HERE ::::::::::::::