So the city of Berlin is AWESOME. Everyone should visit this place in their lifetime because it is full of culture, good eats, and history. It is mesmerizing in the most unique ways and the people we have met thus far have been great. But you want to hear the specifics!
Sunday morning we were a little done in from the night before but we had a great recovery breakfast at a small shop down the street...WAFFLES! To be specific a delicious waffle with Nutella spread folded over banana and strawberry slices and drizzled with chocolate syrup. Great start to the day. After destroying that we went back up to the flat to grab supplies and decide on our plan for the day.
After putting together our day bag we decided to check out Trentower Park, a large park that runs alongside the river on the east side of Berlin. There were a lot of people and it was a very warm day so we took a cue from everyone we saw and each grabbed an ice cream cone at the front of the park (Karmen got blueberry cheesecake and I got chocolate chip, I know you were curious.)) After some walking around we settled on a shady spot at the water's edge to do some people watching and Kindle reading.
We saw a couple boats but mostly people on the water were kayaking, paddle boarding, or peddle boating. We were jealous but also content where we were in the shade. After our stomachs started rumbling we decided to not go back the way we came (for some crazy reason) and did a LOT of serious walking before coming to a quaint Italian restaurant somewhere on the water front where pretty much no English was spoken by the server and the chef had to come out and help us! Damn Americans I know. We ordered a delicious italian style pizza with prosciutto, parmesan, and arugula. They eat mad arugula over here.
We found our way to a train and made our way home from there to relax and do some more reading before calling it a night. After of course a little research on where to find Karmen a cheese plate for Monday's breakfast; we decided on a place called Cafe Rix. (Yes, we eat cheese for breakfast here) :) Pictured in our album Is the delicious cheese and bread plate we ate which included: mozzarella, goat cheese, some sharp cheddar?, brie, swiss, and grapes. After a relaxing meal, we began the hunt for Michael's guitar. A search to no avail due to high prices, we decided to head home and relax.
On the way back to the flat we stopped by a grocery store to get some random things and essentials we'd not had a chance to pick up before we left. We brought all the stuff back and had a couple hours to kill so we took showers (bought some soap at the store as we had just run our. We've been showering guys come on) and did a little more reading. I read a lot, so you are going to read about me reading a lot, but then as night came on we decided to go to a rooftop garden bar Karmen's friend Ul Wie recommended.
The rooftop bar is called Klunkerkranich. It was a little tough to find (no GPS usually we have to go it old fashioned with a street map and an address) but after asking a friendly couple of gentleman we were pointed in the right direction. We arrived at our stop and were facing a giant shopping mall that was open, but all the stores were closed. We had a bored security guard point us at the escaltor after asking directions "it's easy" he says, but we're heading to a rooftop bar so this makes sense.
From the escaltor to the elevator to a quick wait in line we arrived at Klunkerkranich, the rooftop garden bar about 8 stories up at the top of this big shopping mall. The rooftop was large sporting various plants all around the edge of the rooftop and the raised center platform that had more seating. The reasonably priced bar inside (though for some reason karmen got twice the liquor in her gin and tonic that i got in my whiskey ginger) was beside a dance floor with a few couples swing dancing to the lively music. We found a seat near the edge where we had a view of the city and soon began talking to some nice people across from us.
Valentine was on the last day of her visit from Belgium with her friend JP who is here studying German. They were hanging out wit a local master's student Marleen. All 3 were very nice and we might even go visit Marleen in a few months in Italy once she has settled from her move! Around 1 am the bar was closing and we had to catch bus home. Our luck it stopped at the end of the line about half as far as we thought it would go.
A friendly young German guy offered to help us out so we walked around the city center with him chatting while looking for bus stops, the occasional bathroom, and just generally being lost without being too worried about being lost. Later than we should have we decided to part ways and find our own way home. So I found a map, pulled out my compass, found my bus stop, and got us home completely exhausted just in time to watch the sun came up as we collapsed onto our bed, too tired to even wrap our arms around each other.
Needless to say on Tuesday we just needed a rest. We woke up pretty late and tried to get our lives together a little bit. We took our laundry down the block with the detergent we bought the day before and took care of that while drinking a lemonade beer and, you guessed it, reading. After hanging our clothes to dry and the flat we had our appetites and went down to a spot our friend Cole recommended to us for Taco Tuesday: Santa Maria in Kreuzberg. While the tacos were small, at 1 euro a piece you can't really argue and we definitely ate our fill. After a quick stop at a nearby T.K Maxx to get Karmen another pair of shorts we headed home, already exhausted again. We spent a couple hours watching Wet Hot American Summer and went to bed.
Until.the next one, that's plenty for now
