Ryan and I have finally made it to Berlin and it feels like just as quickly as we arrived, we have to leave again. A spontaneous decision to visit Hamburg (which we will NEVER regret) meant that our time in Germany's capital was cut to a mere 1.5 days which was barely enough time to skim the surface of this amazing city. We had yet another amazing CS host, Eike, who lived in a character apartment with two flatmates.

Since we had so little time to spend in Berlin, Ryan and I took full advantage of Wednesday and were out sightseeing from 8:00am-7:00pm. Our morning started with a delicious coffee at a corner cafe (have I mentioned how good the coffee is in Germany?) and some hearty bread with Nutella. For me, the best part of this day was that Eike lent me his DSLR which meant not only was I exploring Berlin, but I was doing it through a respectable camera lens (sorry mom, your Olympus is just not the same as shooting in RAW). In the afternoon after going to Checkpoint Charlie and enjoying a gemüse dӧnner, we made our way to the ---- which was the starting point of our guided tour of Berlin. This was not an ordinary tour...it was a couch surfing tour! Fergus, a member of CS, provides free walking and biking tours of Berlin to couch surfers. There were at least 20 of us who showed up to this event which brought us past some of the main historical landmarks of Berlin. Fergus' knowledge of history and the city was incredible as he shared the story of the city from its early beginning to today. We saw the ---, parliament building, hotel where Michael Jackson dangled a baby from a window, the memorial for the murdered Jews of Germany, stood on top of the bunker where Hitler spent his last days before committing suicide, and of course, the Berlin wall. One of the weirdest things was that there is an election occurring soon in Berlin and so the city is plastered with candidate posters. A party still remains called the Nationalist. Their political posters feature politicians on motorcycles with the slogan "New Gas" which in the opinion of most, is not the best choice of words.

Every stop we made had a story to it and as we walked through history, it became apparent how significant the city is not only to Germany, but the rest of the world as well. 1.5 days is not enough to truly appreciate it and if we have the chance, Ryan and I will definitely return. Our night was capped off by ANOTHER gemüse dӧnner and at this point, our legs could barely hold our weight long enough to stand in line. We were supposed to play beach volleyball with Eike and his friends but were so exhausted we had to call it quits. So, we crashed hard and before we knew it, our time in Berlin was over.

Just a little addition here ----

Since arriving in Germany, Ryan and I have been doing our best to learn the language. This has been tricky, and even hilarious at times.

Example 1: Requesting the bill from a bar in Bonn

The German word for bill is Rechnung which is pronounced RESH-nung. When it came time for us to leave, Ryan requested the bill but instead of rechnung, Ryan had a slight mis-pronunciation and actually said RECTUM. The bar-tender thought it was hilarious.

Example 2: Distinguishing between making JOKES and making SPERM

When we were standing in line for a gemüse dӧnner with Eike and Mel I said, "Oh, I am just joking" and then wanted to know how to say it in German. In German, the work for joke is "Witz" (pronounced VITS). Ryan and I were then saying "witz maker" (VITS Mah-Ker) as in we are making jokes...or so we thought. There is a very fine line between "witz" and "wix" (VIX) which actually means sperm. So, we are standing in a line full of people saying "We are sperm makers!"

Ya, we are awesome.