Adventures in Euroland: Day 7

FINALLY have internet again!


I will post my posts with pictures as I have time. I have written several but was not able to post them till now. I would like to post them with pictures, so I may spend a day or two catching up.

My one souvineir is the Swasian Swatch! It's super nifty. Swatch is a Swiss Watch company (hence the name, Swatch) and I declared it Swasian because it has an asian theme but it is a Swiss Watch. Hence, Swasian. SWASIAN SWATCH! I am declaring it my one souvinere from the trip. Food over here seems to be incredibly cheap, but everything else is very expensive. My watch was 48€. But I also expect it to last me a really long time. Plus, it is white and blue with a dragon on it, and neat modern looking Kanji on the face of the watch, so it was well worth it to me. I have had a hard time finding anything I thought would make a good souvinere for the family back home when I was in Bad Bentheim, but maybe I will have more luck here in Berlin.

Still very gloomy weather, lots of travel today. Took the rental car back to Amsterdam to turn it in and took the train all the way back to Berlin. A good 8 hours of travel. Yeehck. On the plus side, I think trains are really cool and we need more of them in the US. They are so awesome!

I have to say, I am very glad I am not having to travel solo. It is very intimidating for me, having been born and raised in a country where we speak only one language, to suddenly be thrust into an environment where English is no longer the primary language. Not everyone speaks my language. Announcements are made at the train station and signs are posted that I cannot understand. Its just unsettling because I feel lost and ill-prepared and at times it is kind of overwhelming.

I can only image what tourists must feel like when the come to the United States. There are a lot of places that post signs in several different languages. Sometimes even in English too. That would NEVER happen back home. We gripe about having Spanish subtitles on the signs at Wal-Mart because, "This is AMERICA, we speak ENGLISH here!" I really need to travel more and see what life is like on the coasts or if this is strictly a mid-west attitude.

Arriving in Berlin, was crazy. The city is HUGE. We got off the train at the central train station. It was MASSIVE. Like, 4 or 5 stories and trains arriving and leaving on every level, stores everywhere. It was NUTS! Definitely overwhelming because I had no idea where to go and couldn't read any of the signs. Thank goodness for pictograms!!! I never realized how helpful the little man and woman signs are and the like, but thank god for the graphic designers who made them and worked to implement them universally. They are a LIFE SAVER.

Nick and I made our way out to the front and got a Taxi. Our driver did not speak English, but Nick is pretty good with German numbers and was able to give him the address of our hotel, so we got there no problems.

Our hotel is CRAZY COOL. The pool is on the 8th floor! No joke. It's awesome. Everything is super modern and designy looking.  Here are pictures of my sweet and awesome room:

BED.





View from the window of my room, it looks down into the lobby.









There is a phone in the bathroom next to the toilet... you know... in case you have to talk while you're on the John.

Designer faucet.

Again with the glass and no shower curtain/door. Although this shower head makes it a rain shower. It's really cool.

TOWEL WARMERS!!! <3

These people know how to stock a mini fridge. See those bottles of water? Don't be deceived. They are 'mit kohlensauer'. That means they are SPARKLING WATER! EWWW!

All light switches in Germany are square buttons. (The one's at the hotel in Bad Bentheim were too, but they were not this fancy) These people like their buttons. Buttons to turn on the lights and to flush the toilets.






We were exhausted and starving so we dropped our stuff off and went out for food. We ate at a nice little cafe where the service did not take quite so long as it did in Bad Bentheim. I brought my pocket guide along, but they had a menu in English available, also in French and Spanish and German and Italian. Wow! You would never find that in America. At least not any parts of America that I have lived in. Well, as mentioned, maybe in Spanish in some parts of the country, (or perhaps in Japanese on parts of the west coast) but I would hazzard a guess and say that most Americans are stubbornly set in the idea that we speak English in this country. Period.

I went out on a limb and ordered water tonight. It came still and in a bottle. I almost wept when I drank it. No nasty carbonation, no apple flavor, just pure sweet delicious bottled water.

So Berlin seems like a really cool town and I am looking forward to getting to see more of it tomorrow. The fashion is different here, people seem to care a lot more about their appearance. Well, maybe not a lot more, but I would say the sense of style is more sophisticated here. I have noticed LOTS of girls with very short hair, especially from the age of what appears to be mid 30s and older, but even lots of younger ones too. I'm not sure if this is just common here or if it is a current style trend, but there are very few women with long hair. I have also noticed there are lots of make up or cosmetic stores EVERYWHERE. Pretty much on every corner it seems like. Sandwiches seem to be a very common food in Germany. There are sandwich shops all over the place too.

That about sums up my first impressions Berlin and its people. Bad Bentheim the people were friendly for sure, but there is definitely the big city feel to Berlin.I am really looking forward to the museums tomorrow. At some point this week I am going to try some German beer too. Although I will probably stick to ordering mostly wine. It's actually cheaper than water to get wine with dinner. Crazy, huh? Water is 2 or 3€ for a tiny small bottle and wine is about that for a quarter of a liter. 5€ for half liter. Looking forward to seeing more sights and eating more delicious food.