A Walk to Remember

As you might realize by my blog this morning, I spent the morning in bed.  It was wonderful and incredibly productive.  My first accomplishment was re-reading the 30 pages my grandmother sent the Prenzlauer Berg museum in 1996.  From her stories, I re-drew the map of her neighborhood since a lot of the streets have new names.  Now I know that her first home was in what is now Kollwitzstrasse.

After drawing the map, I started looking for information online that would not have come up when searching from the U.S.  I soon found her aunt and cousin on Wikipedia! Their names are listed as Jews killed in their neighborhood, incredible.  After about 30 minutes, I also found that my family information in now on myheritage. com.  Now this is big news for me because this was not the case 6 months ago.  I will be subscribing soon to see and email whoever has updated the information.  This has brought me to another point.... is it possible that some of my grandmother's friends are still alive and living in Berlin?  I have started the search, but I am still looking to find last names and helpful information.  Overall, it was a very productive morning!

At noon I met up with Colby at one of the MILLION vietnamese restaurants around my restaurant.  Berlin is FULL of Asian restaurants, on my block there are 3 or 4 vietnamese places!!!! Since today is freezing, I decided on a tea and our lovely waiter tried to bring us a heater.  Since it was out of gas, after attempting to light it for 5 minutes, he gave up and took our order.  While we ate, he WALKED somewhere to get more gas and brought it and lit it.   By the time he was done, so were we! Poor man... he tried sooo hard. By then, it was snowing some outside!!!!

I officially drink tea, and this set was precious

Our view of the snow (you can't see) from the vietnamese restaurant

After we finished eating, we headed on our walk to Alexander Platz, where there is a big train station and Colby planned on buying is month long student train ticket.  We lined up, he got to the counter, and we were told we were in the wrong line.  We moved to the next counter and he was told he needed proof of study.  Since he is not actually studying here (he is interning) they needed that contract, his passport, and a passport picture.  Since Colby didn't have a picture, we were directed to a photo booth to get one done.   The booth said it did not take change! The cost was 6 euros for 4 pictures, so Colby had to go buy a coke (where they complained that he didn't have smaller change) in order to get change.  Once he got the change and headed into the booth, the machine ate his 6 euros!!!! Poor Colby! We quickly headed upstairs and found an actual store where he took his pictures (they turned out great so he was happy)! After he had the picture, the actual process was fairly easy. Now he will have the student card and can buy the discounted tickets for every month. I will have to do the same, but am postponing it for a bit.  

Once the bureaucratic process was done, we headed on our walk to the Brandenburger Tor (the Brandenburg gate).  I don't really feel like writing a history lesson, but the whole walk goes through very historic places, as well as the "museum islands."  Its a wonderful walk, even when it is freezing outside.  We saw the Berliner Dom (Cathedral) and many other beautiful buildings! 

View of the Berliner Dom from  a distance

Berliner Dom 

Berliner Dom 

After making it to the Brandenburg Gate, I felt like the touristy pictures were a must! 

Colby is a master photographer

Brandenburger Tor

Post taking the touristy pictures, walked to the Holocaust memorial and then headed back to Prenzlauer Berg. 

Holocaust Museum

The walk from Prenzlauer Berg there is 3.8 miles (according to google map). Sooooo we walked 7. 6 miles today, at least! Not too bad!  

 Once in Prenzlauer Berg my goal was to find Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake), which is the easiest thing to do here!  I can just hear my Oma saying, "queres Kaffee und Kuchen?" I think Colby will soon be sick of hearing about her, but then again, I also think he will soon be sick of trying to follow my train of thought as I babble on constantly and aimlessly.  Every time I start spending more and more time with someone I appreciate my close friends more and more, since I see what they put up with!!! I am so grateful that Colby is here and is putting up with me, I don't know what I would do without him!

Our Kaffee und Kuchen was delicious! It was actually sachertorte, which is actually Austrian and is a chocolate cake with apricot jam and dark chocolate icing! Delish, and only halfway ok because I don't think it had MSG or  high fructose corn syrup and I walked like 7 miles.... Half way acceptable.

The precious cafe... It underground

Sin... but it's all natural... right?

After our lovely food, we came back to my apartment and caught up with our lives at home.  Now, I'm in bed again, but for the first time since I got here, I am NOT exhausted! Jet lag, I think I have beat you!!! Or maybe because I had coffee for the first time in 2 months... we shall see! For now, here are a few pictures!

Reichstag