Peace Out Berlin

Party on the S-Bahn

Cold, tired, wet, and slow.  Yesterday in Berlin reflected how we were feeling (not that drinking the night before helped). We took a trip out to a nearby suburb, Potsdam where we marveled at the peculiar architecture of the city. A past emperor decided to build the town’s structures to imitate buildings from all over the world. Nothing seemed to belong, which was exactly what he was going for. Due to the inclement weather and our lack of vivacity, we decided we would rather be idle tourists on a bus rather than drowned rats on bikes. With our international student cards in hand we received our first discount of 3 Euro :) We have been quite the proud, penny-savers!

Potsdam's own Brandenburg Gate.

 

Oh my! Bus tours rock! (not)

The city was beautiful with many palaces, gardens, barracks, arcs to the city, castles in the hills, and elegantly built mansions lining the streets. Although we could not get many decent pictures from inside the bus, we were still happy to have experienced the town with our headsets set to English and droopy eyes scanning the scenery.

After returning from Potsdam on the S-Bahn, we were feeling hungry and no more awake than when we left. Set out in search of a new hair dryer as we overheated ours the day before, and an optimistic dinner of salad, we hit up a department store. What type of department store, one with 5 floors nonetheless, doesn’t sell hair dryers? Preposterous! Not to mention Janelle’s fury that her hair straightener doesn’t work over here. Helloooooo one month of bad hair days!

Wake up sleepy head!

Heather bored on the S-bahn.

We left the department store with some cream cheese dip and bread sticks in hand and ended up finding a great little Thai restaurant on a side street close to our hostel. The food was absolutely delicious and served by a friendly man from Thailand who (guessed correctly by Janelle) had come to Berlin in pursuit of a love affair sparked with a tourist on vacation in Thailand. We decided we will only be bringing men back to Canada if they can cook as well as he did.

The rest of our evening was spent reading, blogging, finishing Janelle’s billing for work, facebooking, and sleeping (or trying to, at least). This was what we would be doing at home on a day like that, and exactly what we needed to refuel for today’s train ride to Prague and adventures in sight.

            This morning we woke with rain on the windows, a grey sky once again, and weather forecast from Prague not looking any better. Heather seems to have contracted a sore throat today so we may be taking it easy once again. We have finally made it to our seats on the train after annoyingly seat hopping due to everyone stealing or switching seats. Eventually a German mother took control and puppeteered the passengers into their rightful places. Danke! We are happy that we are simply moving towards Prague together, regardless of where we sit. “I would rather starve than miss the train” – as quoted by Heather. Well put!

            We have an “EPIC BIKE TOUR” planned for 5pm tonight with subsequent traditional Czech dinner and pub-crawl. Hopefully Mother Nature will be in better spirits this evening and let these girls have some fair-weather fun!

Farewell for now friends and family, we shall catch up with you when we get settled in Prague and have found our energy once again.