Berlin Journal Entries Potsdam, and another Restaurant story..

Donnerstag, July 3, 2008
Thursday

On Thursday, we decided to take a walking tour to Potsdam. This was a city that is outside of downtown Berlin, that has a lot of history: from Prussian Palaces to the setting for the Potsdam Conference, where Allied Powers decided what to do with Germany after World War II. The town also has an old KGB Prison, in the Forbidden Village - where NO ONE but the SOVIETS were allowed access for over 50 years.

The tour was really cool, but it was very long and very, very hot. Although it was weird to think about it being hot, AND say it was only 30 degrees.. Celsius. We were all dripping - it was gross. We had a break for lunch in Potsdam. We didn't know where to go but when we saw the word "Cheeseburger" and huge 1.0 Liter bottled drinks, we got excited. It was a Turkish Cafe. We ordered 2 hamburgers (they didn't have cheese), and bought a humongous drink for each of us. Yay.

When we got our hamburgers, I realized that the bottom bun was very hard. But I really thought that maybe Germans liked their bread that way? How was I to know? So I just ate it; we had walked for forever and ever and ever so it was good to just sit down and eat, and drink something. One of the workers, however, must have noticed that it was hard to bite and asked more than once if the food was good. I kept saying that Yes, yes it was good.. And explaining that I was just exhausted. They didn't buy it. Finally, he came over and took my hamburger out of my hand, and took my plate away. He noticed how hard the bottom bun was, even knocked on it, and showed everyone that I had lied about it. He said to Ashley, "she very big liar." He wanted to fix me something else. I wasn't sure what to say. He had me try some of the chicken Döner they had, and fixed me some of that. It was huge. We now had spent almost all of our break time and had to leave. We got our hamburgers for free, and only had to pay for the Döner, and the drinks. Maybe it's good for a budget to always act kind of dumb.

Me, with my Döner chicken and gynormous Coke.

Also, the Turkish man asked us where we were from and when we said the US he said "me too" But then he said the US was also another name for Turkey? No idea.

Sanssouci Palace, means "without a care" in French
(this particular Emperor, was obsessed with France & Versailles)

We then went to Sanssouci Palace, that was really pretty. Then our tour was over and we all got onto a crowded hot and stinky bus to the train station. On the bus a German man said "you look hot" and I did.. it was so so hot and gross! I just said, "Ja" DUH it's hot outside!

Brandenburg Gate

July 3, 2008

Once we got back to the Hotel, we laid around for awhile and then went to go see the Brandenburg Gate. There was a lot of security and red, white and blue balloons around. I had heard our guide say something about the US Embassy being reopened when we were on the train. Apparently, this is where it is. WE were still able to look at the Gate though, so that was good. We decided to goto the Reichstag nearby. The Reichstag is a government building with a viewing area on top, like a dome, you can go up for free and see the different buildings from up there. It was pretty cool.

View of Berlin, from the top of the Reichstag

We were then starving and left to find a place to eat. Ash had thought she had seen a Burger King by our hotel. But after a long walk, it turned out to be a sign for all the Burger Kings in Berlin. OH well. We decided to just have Eis (ice cream) at Dioiras, where the service apparently always sucks. The lady acted like she didn't understand me, after I was already halfway through my order. And she had understood the first half! But a nice English-speaking German man was there and explained to her I wanted two of the same, (of what I had already ordered!) cookies ice cream. Geeze..

For more of my pictures in Berlin, click here for my first album: Ich bin ein Berliner, and here for Berlin Continued or here, for my Berlin photo slideshow.