Potsdam CITY OF KINGS!!!

Sooooo Potsdam. It is a very pretty place and I would definitely like to see it in Summer, but it wasn't summer when I went so tough luck me. Potsdam is a smaller city about 40km away from Berlin. It is when the Kaisers and all the Royal people lived, far away from those rabble rousing peasants. It has some... not castles, but palaces I guess? and other stuff. I didn't get to see much of it because when we left it was like 1pm and the sun sets at 4pm so yeah, lame.  This was back when I was still in the Hostel and I went with some of my hostel buddies (Vin and Brynn). They're pretty cool. We  started at the main palace (Sanssouci). There was not a whole lot of information around to tell us what was what and I really can't be bothered to look things up on wikipedia. But here was the view from the bus stop

What's all this then

Looking kind of cool huh? So we take a couple steps and BAM! Cool fountain.

Sup, I'm a fountain

You'll also notice ruins in the back right. So we cam to this ramp that looked like it went up into a court yard. But when we got closer it looked like there was a fence so Brynn and I decided there must be a different way in. Vin was not as convinced.

"C'mon guys, lets just check out. I am pretty sure we can get in*"

"Ummmm, not looking good here, but maybe*."

"Yeah, we can't get in through there*."

*maybe not actual quotes

So we continued our search for a way in. As we turned a corner in the road BAM! (there are a lot of BAM's in this one) Windmill?

Yes, a windmill.

So once again I do not know what this particular windmill is for, or why it is right beside a palace (of course the answers to those two questions are probably related), but I liked it so have another picture why not.

Oppressive windmill

So we did find a way into the palace (well the courtyard parts, you had to pay for the rest).  So here are some pictures for inside. I really do not have much to say here. It was cool and all, I just don't have much  information to go with everything. Next time Gadget, next time.

ummm yup

Cool path

Well my front yard may not have a reflecting pool, but it does have a novelty mail box.

Front steps

Oh, so yeah they had a bunch of Fig tress, no biggie

So we checked out Sanssouci as much as we liked and still had a little bit of time left, so we headed over to Potsdam University. 

This building is actually used for classes. I think more Universities double staircases and gothic statues, just sayin' 

So thats what little I saw of Potsdam. I will try to give a little bit more next time. 

and Scene!

ZOO, ZOO, and more ZOO!

So when Jo was visiting me we went to the zoo. I love zoos, but I have a problem where they also make me feel really depressed. I'll be looking at some animals and then start thinking "they're probably cold, do they have enough space, THEY LOOK LONELY I WANT TO HUG YOU!!!!!!!" and so on. Usually what happens when I do this is I need to look in some other direction and see something different and the process starts over again "poor elephants.. OOOOOOH GOATS!" So the follow are just some pictures from the Berlin zoo.

The Berlin zoo (Zoologischer Garten) is the oldest zoo in Germany and has one of the most comprehensive collections of animals (almost 1500 speices). It is pretty much in the middle of the city near Charlottenberg. 

When you get in, pretty much the first thing you will see is elephants (ELEPHANTS!). They were actually kind of sad, but still awesome. Here we have Jo making a new friend.

Brand New Besties

The elephants are pretty goat adjacent. The goats were cool, you can't see much of it from the picture below, but they had a whole artificial rock hill mountain thing with a cave. The goats know how awesome they are and make sweet poses. Pretty sure they are thinking "Oh, you're taking a picture, I guess thats cool, I'm just going to hop effortlessly between these rocks and around that cliff face. No big deal." So to summarize: I like goats.

Goats looking epic

Next up we cam to the lions. Most of them were inside, but a couple were outside, giving off a goat like attitude. At this point I would like to mention that there are pretty much no cages. There is a trench and a railing, but it would not be all that difficult (in my opinion) for these animals to make a leap of fate and try to make it over. I am also left wondering how many stupid children decided to just wonder into one of the animals pens. 

Stupid child: "Grrr I'm a lion too"

Lion: "ummmm no you're not, *CHOMP*"

Maybe that's how they get rid of all the stupid children here.

Lion being all nonchalant 

Don't worry child, Come closer. I'm only going to clean you... with stomach acid

So we venture on and see more things and then some sweet giraffes. This is another picture where I want you to see more, but whatever. So the Giraffe house is like an Arabian palace and looks awesome. There was a way to get inside of it, but we couldn't find it. Very sad I know. Also in with the giraffes were these smaller guys that looked a bit like reindeer, but without antlers. they were pretty cool too

Good hay today

My favourite part was when we found the  Hippos. If you don't love hippos then check out the first picture below.

Yeah I know, awesome. This lazy guy above is one of the most dangerous african mammals, and he's adorable.  We spent a lot of time here, so much so we even saw a fight between a parent and there sassy adolescent child (pictured bellow), They were speaking hippo so I just ventured a guess as to what they were fighting about.

"You are too young to go to a concert alone"

"But it's Bieber, I have to go"

It's sad when families fight, moving on. So a little background for the polar bears (Eisbäre). A few years back the Berlin zoo picked up a baby polar bear (I don't know where from, just somewhere. Maybe ebay) and it was the star of the place for a long time. Knut (Ka-noot) as he was named, was a big deal. He's grown up now and chills with all the lady bears *high five*. I'll come clean with the picture below. My plan was just to say that it was Knut and play it cool. The truth is that I have no idea, there were four or five polar bears and I could not tell which was which, but hey this looks like a guy who is a stud. So if your a good physiologist and can tell male polar bears from the female without making them flip and spread then let me know.

"What's up, I'm just chillin' out water side"

While wondering around we started to here some sweet howling, we walked toward the sound and found a pack of white wolves all huddled close with a couple standing on a large rock all howling away. It was sweet. What wasn't sweet was the fact that I couldn't get a picture because 15 other people had the same idea and kept on getting in front of me.  I was able to get this picture below though, post howling party. One of the odd things about the wolf pen was that some guy was just wondering inside of it. He had a shovel and a zoo t-shirt so I'm guessing he was working, but it looked more like he was just killing time and hanging out with wolves

From the people that brought you "Where's Waldo" we now present "Where's Whitefang"

So penguins are awesome right? No one is going say otherwise, or fifty others will probably bust out a Morgan Freeman impersonation and break into "March of the Penguins".  But yeah awesome. These ones were not very energetic though, they were almost perfectly still. I took like ten pictures of them and they were in al the same position for everyone. It was crazy, maybe they were fake.

"Is it humans or t-rex that need movement to see?"
"I told you Todd it's humans! Now stay still and they'll go away"

Seals, clowns of the sea... Yeah I have not a whole lot to say about the seals. They were doing laps and jumps and it was pretty cool.

They have a huge aquarium as well and this is were pretty much anything with scales are. I will warn you, if you do come to the zoo, the aquarium is extra so just know that before sashaying on into the aquarium without paying. There were so many cool things in the aquarium, but I'm not sure if you have ever taken pictures through glass before, it doesn't always go as planned. Any way check out this... Alligator? That may also be a crocodile. Don't worry about it. 

"What's up"

One thing was this large swamp area where they had all kinds of animals inside. Including a bunch of crocodiles. Now that doesn't seem like the best idea ever, but I didn't see many random animal corpses so it must have turned out all right.

"I know I said I didn't want fast food, but this is ridiculous" 

So thats the zoo, much more to come. Hope the two or three people that read these are enjoying them.

summary

penguins = awesome

Hippos = more awesome

crocodiles = something that does not eat turtles

me = conflicted between delight and depression at zoo

and Scene

An American Thanksgiving in Germany with the French

Thanksgiving, it's all about football, family and being on the last Thursday of November. Ours had none of this. A friend of my roommates is American (kind of), he was born in germany because his Dad was posted in the American section of Berlin before the wall came down. That being said he has no accent whatsoever, when he speaks english it's like an American, when he speaks german it's like a German and when he speaks french it's like the French.  In any case Steve's family always celebrated Thanksgiving together here. Unfortunately this year his entire family bailed on him. Fortunately they had already bought all of the food for the meal. So Steve called up Marine and Tobi to see if he could have it at our place with a few friends. A giant free meal? I guess that's okay.

SO I'm out all day doing.. well something I don't really remember. To make the story more interesting we will say that I was out training chimps to use jet packs while operating surgical lasers. Yeah that sounds about right. When I get home it is about 4:00pm and steve is pulling into the driveway just as I am getting in.  I help him bring everything in and then it turns out that the Turkey is still completely uncooked. Just so we are clear, it wasn't cooked and still needed more time, he had not started to cook the turkey at all, or even prepped it.  It turns out steve had never made a turkey before or any other part of a thanksgiving dinner. Don't get me wrong, Steve can cook, just he underestimated the amount of time everything takes. So me with my, "helped make a couple turkeys" busted on the cooking scene. Steve had planned to have dinner at 7:30-8:00.... that wasn't going to happen. I show steve all the tricks I have learned about making turkeys: butter and seasonings underneath the skin, basting, some other things I think I made up, you know all the staples of making a turkey. So we finally get the bird into the oven at about 5:30, and know to attend to everything else to be done. Here's a list of the things that needed to be cooked (all from scratch with nothing prepped).

1. sweet potatoes
2. cranberry sauce
3. potato roasties
4. peas in some weird white sauce that was really good
5. Carrots
6. Gravy
7. Stuffing

So Steve and I took the initiative and booted everyone else out of the kitchen for most of the night. To be honest most of the things did not take very long, it was a lot of waiting for the turkey. The Cranberry sauce was awesome, it have orange zest in it so it was a really nice mixture of sweet, sour and bitter citrus. The sweet potatoes were done with garlic, which doesn't sound like it would go together, but it very much does. The Roasties were just simply tossed in garlic, herbs and olive oil and baked. Carrots were just boiled, because that is how carrots roll. The gravy was really good because we basted the turkey with a maple sauce and that was al in the gravy. The stuffing in my opinion was kind of gross, it was mostly ground pork, and I am used to bread crumb stuffing, but thats me. Then there were the peas. I don't understand it all that much, but after the peas are cooked you add ingredients into them to make a white sauce that is mostly flour, and somehow it turns delicious... My guess is witchcraft, early american pilgrims were all about the witchcraft.

So we wait for the turkey, and wait, and wait. Everyone got to the house and were all waiting (expecting dinner to have been ready at 8:00) and staring at Steve and circling the kitchen. In attendance were the four of us who live in the house (Marine, Tobi, Bertron, and Me), Steve, Jessie (friend of the house. fun fact: She's from poland), and two of Steve's friends who were visiting (I don't remember their names, they were french and they rolled with that). So almost half of those in attendance were french, not so bad. The problem is that everyone except for Jessie and I spoke French ( the two nameless frenchies spoke english but no german). So you would think that seeing that sue to all the language problems that english would be the way to go so that everyone could understand, but no. French dominated that night, and nothing against the language (it's next on my list of languages to learn), but Jessie and I were both sitting pretty awkwardly doing what little we could to steer the others toward english, or at least german, I can keep up sometimes when it's german. Neither of these happened. The food was good (as was the wine) but the conversation remained out of reach. It's one of those odd moments when you really wish that you had a more multicultural upbringing, especially when it comes to language.

Also one small moment to be judgement about the french couple that came (they were together by the way). The girl was 20, and the guy looked to be in easily in his mid thirties. I've been watching Mad Men lately and some of the relationships in that show creeped me out less then this one. OK judgement time over.

So re-cap

Me = still unable to understand french
thanksgiving = delicious
Steve = now knows how to make a turkey
the french couple = kind of creepy

(PS: Sorry I forgot to take pictures of any of this, do not worry the next few post I have planned have pictures. YAY!!)

Scene

Just some pictures

So I have been taking photos sporadically and have shared none. I will be putting more up soon (as well as taking more) but this should tide people over for now.

The first two pictures are from the Hertha BSC game at the Olympia stadium.  The first shows the teams taking the field with their flag wavers going strong (no joke many of the fans had flags twice the size of the ones you see these official guys with). The second is just a random action shot from the game... I mean it was taken just seconds before the winning goal. 

So what in the hell do we have here? This is a picture of a mirror cone inside of the Reichstag (federal government building). It reflects natural light into the chambers below so that they do not need artificial light, well during sunny days at least. 

And here we have the Reichstag itself, standing very strong and all imposing. What up Angela Merkal, how are things going? Oh yeah, not that great.

This was just kind of cool. It is an art school near Oriengenburg str.  I like it.

Once again, just a picture I like, we were in Mitte when I took it, but I could not find this place again if my life depended on it. The big statue in the corner had a coin operation on it, but it was out of order. I really want to see what it does (it's about 15ft high). 

So there you are. More to come, maybe tomorrow 

3 weeks later

Ok some my last post just wen up today but mostly because I forgot to post it before, most of that happened like 3 weeks ago. so I'll do a quick recap to now

Saw gas light anthem and they were sweet
Went to a bar with a bon fire
found a place to live YAY!!
Two days later my Canadian friend dropped by (what?)
We went to the zoo (sweet)
I need a job badly (not sweet)

So I'll go back about a week and start then. My friend from University Jo came to visit me and it was super fun. It stalled a lot of my ability to look for work, but the probability of me doing that wasn't great so whatevs (yeah I busted out an abreve what are you going to do about it). So I went to pick her up at the airport and she walked in and there were hugs and oh my gods, and then I had to give her an ultimatum. I had been invited by some people to join them to go see a football game (not american football, but soccer football... also not soccer baseball). We did not have enough time to both go to my house  and then to the game so we had to choose a quiet night in, or a rowdy football game (while carrying luggage). Obviously we went to the game. It was fun, there was giant sausages and litres of beer all over the place. The game was in the olympia stadium which housed the 2006 world cup championships... and also the Olympics in the 1936 olympics I guess).  We decided that seeing we were in Berlin we should cheer for the home team (although I have no idea where the visitors were from so it was probably for the best). The  home team was Hertha BSC (I do not know what the BSC stands for), there was a huge fan base for them and all of them were synchronized which was almost as fun to watch as the actual game. It was kind of sad to look over at the visitors section of the stands and see a patchy group of people holding one raggedy banner. So in any case we (Berlin) won so who cares about those losers.

Unfortunately for Jo the entire time she was here it was raining (at best misting) so a lot of the more fun things to do went undone. Although I did teach here the fin art of what has become known as (by me at least and maybe one other guy who I think said it and I stole it from because i'll never see him again) "Riding Dirty". What is this you ask? Well in an earlier post I mentioned how I have no idea how the transit works here, since then I have been enlightened on the matter. Here is a brief tutorial.

First you buy a ticket from an automated machine, these can be for hours, days, months or even a year. Once you have bought your ticket you can just hop on a train or bus right? WRONG, you need to validate it, (get a stamp, these machines are also automated) the stamp tells you where and when the ticket was validated.
Now you might ask "if it's all automated then why would I even bother" well sorry there impatient Irene, I was getting to that.
So you do not need to show your tickets UNLESS you happen to be there when one of the random ticket checkers bust out into the scene. These guys are dressed in casual cloths and have nothing to let you know that they are legit other then a badge (well maybe a laminate). If they check your ticket and you either don't have one, or it isn't validated BAM! 40 euro fine.

So in getting back to the point, riding dirty is using transit without tickets and taking your chances. But I have become pretty good at this. I got Jo to also ride dirty with me, after most of the trip having to buy tickets. Obviously the first time we do this is when one of the inspectors comes out. So they start checking tickets on the end of the train car, Jo and I are in the middle, he is getting close. Suddenly the train reaches the next station and the doors open, the checker is two seats away from us...
Me: "well this is our stop Jo"
and then we make a break for the door and make in time to elude the checker, living to ride dirty another day.
So that was a close call and we were lucky, but I may not also be so I have since compiled a short list of tips for riding dirty in Berlin.

1. Look at your fellow commuters
Check around to see who is getting on the train car. Do they look like they are actually going somewhere? All of the checkers I have seen to date fall under this description (disclaimer: I doubt all checkers fall under this description so be safe): Male, 25-35 years old, riding alone, no bags or other personal property.

2. Look for where the most people are
If you're in a crowded train car it is less likely that a checker will take the time to check tickets closely so you could get away using an old ticket (although this is not the best choice at any time). Also if they are checking the tickets properly then you will have more time to make an escape.

3. Never sit on the ends
So yeah, go to the middle of the train car, this way no matter which the checker starts at you should have enough time to get to the next stop and get away.

4. Stay away from the bus
Some buses you can get on the back door and you're golden, but most you need to pass the driver and show your ticket as you enter. If you have an unused ticket then the validator is right behind the driver and they will know if you didn't do it.

5. I don't speak no German!
Yeah so guess what, the fines are not immediate, so if you get caught plead ignorance (and act it out like no ones business). Do you know a few phrases in German, well you better forget them. Even if you still get the ticket it is pretty easy to have it bumped down to 7 euros from 40, but even easier to throw it out and leave the country. If you are just visiting then this is my suggestion.


So yeah that's about it for now... except I'm finding it hard to find peanut butter here, which sucks because I put it on everything.  Also I do need a job so if you know anyone in Berlin who wants to hire someone with poor German and a winning smile then send them my way... No? yeah I figured.

So
me = unemployed
Riding dirty = better believe it.
Jo = Back in the Canada
Ha Ho He = Hertha BSC

SCENE

Finding a home

For a little while (about 1 week) I wasn't sure if I was going to be staying in Berlin. It doesn't have a lot of jobs, everyone speaks english  most people speak english and I'm not used to staying in actual cities. After a week I was hooked, it is such a fantastic place and the people are great and it is all in all amazing.  The hard part is that I cannot afford to live in a hostel forever (and I wouldn't want too either), thus I needed to find a place to live. I was fortunate to run into someone who was doing the same thing and they knew of a good website (wg-gesucht.de). Basically it is a site where people who already have apartments will place adds for free rooms (this is not only for looking for a long-term place to live but some people will seasonally rent out rooms). So no lease to sign (woo). In case you are wondering a wg (vee geh)  is what they call a place where people rent out the rooms in a shared apartment or house instead of renting the whole place.

So I spent about a week running all around Berlin ( I got to know the transit pretty well). Most places were in the main city part and were ok. Although my favourite viewing was one place in Pankow (incase you know where that is) when I was invited to check it out by the owner, but the owner was in India, so her sister was going to show it. No problem right, well yes. Her sister spoke no english at all, once again no problem,  I know enough german to get the gist of what is happening, Wrong. She did not speak much german either, she was Russian, and as a result that is what she spoke, a language I know nothing of. So she pressured me (I think) the entire time about "denk Sie schnell" pretty much telling me to decide quickly. I had, the place was terrible so the answer was no. In the room where I would be sleeping there was a giant furnace. I know what your thinking "thats great, you'll be so warm" but unfortunately it was a coal furnace, so I would have to occasionally feed it coal (ridiculous). Then there is the bathroom, this room was about one square metre. You could sit on the toilet and wash your hands at the same time. When I saw my first thought was "ummm, wheres the shower" a question that was soon answered by climbing a small ladder in the kitchen that went into a small room above the bathroom. There is was, a five foot high ceiling over a tiny tub with a removable nozzle. Living in the ritz indeed.

The next day I went to see another place in Blanchenfelde (once again in case you really want to know). I didn't know until I got here but it was a family who rents out rooms to students and the like. So I get there and it is a pretty nice place: back yard, beautiful kitchen, bike included, close to the city trains. But once again things took a turn. The family consisted of a mother and a daughter, there was already a guy living in one of the rooms, but he wasn't around so whatever. The daughter was 14 and her and the mother were non-stop fighting the entire time I was there. Now I have lived with two teenage girls in the past (my sisters) and I really did not plan on willingly going back into that. But the mother could not take a hint. I was trying to leave and she kept on pressuring me "you know sometimes I get concert tickets, maybe you could have some", "maybe I know people that could hire you... if you stay here". Then I told her I would be in contact but I had a couple of other places to look at, that was a poor choice.
"Where are they! No you don't want to be there.", "that place isn't so nice". It took me 2 hours to get out of the house, I was half convinced something from the movie "Hostel" was about to happen.

Finally I went to a place in Kleinmachnow (you know the drill), a small suburb type area whose claim to fame is being the half-way mark between Berlin and Potsdam (woo!).  The two that were renting out the room are a young couple (late twenties) Marine and Tobi. She's from France and he is a native Berliner. the house is beautiful, with a private bathroom for me and a giant furnished room. So when I walk into the place Tobi greets me and asks
Tobi:"So you are Canadian?"
Me:"umm, yeah"
Tobi:"Do you like ice hockey?"
Me:"ummm, yeah"
Tobi"This is good"

I found out later that he plays for his work team. So I stayed for a bit and we talked and they were all pretty nice. I even met Tobis' parents while I was there.

The Next day I get a call form Marine letting me know I could move in the next day.  I was super pumped.

So recap

Russian woman = WHAT!?
The Mother = WHAT!?.. do you mean your not living here
The Daughter = something high pitched I can't decifer
My new roomies = sweet
Me = housed

and Scene

Dance at it

So I've now been in Berlin a few days and here is how it has gone. Sunday was pretty cool. I spent a bit of the day wandering up and down the street my hostel was on seeing if there was anything cool about (there was but at the time I didn't know). I was down in the Hostel bar for a while where there was a big group from a Belgium Product design course. If that sounds pretty vague to you then your in the same boat I was when they said that, the Fredric started to explain it too me
"we think of things people don't have and then think about making them"
"... so your an inventor, You can go to inventor school!!"
" Um, Yeah pretty much, engineers don't like us"

So a little later I met up with a group Aussies I met in the Hostel earlier and we went to HORST. This club in Kreuzberg. So to get the ambience, it is about 1am and  the entrance to the club is down an alley under a train bridge. There is a large man in from of a door that almost blends into the alley walls ( I don't think I would have noticed the door even if I new where it was). This man at the door looks like he hates everything that is happening around him. he pushes us on through to a dimly lit (even for a bar) space that is composed of two areas. One has a bar in it and some couches (not too interesting). The second section has a DJ in the corner (no one paying him any attention) and across from him a twenty foot high wall of speakers. No speakers anywhere else, just the one wall (this speaker wall is actually what is creating the two sections). House music is blasting out of this wall and everyone is just dancing at these speakers... not dancing by them, but dancing AT them. So we dance WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
After a while we go for a sit down where some of the other people in our group were already sitting. One of the girls is being hit on by a German guy (he introduced himself as L'arron?).
"Where are you from?"
"Canada"
"How do you like Berlin"
"Well it's only my second night, but it is nice so far"
"It's your second night and your here, very nice!"

So being there impressed L'arron, so yeah I'm kind of a big deal. We got tired at dancing at the speakers so we headed back and slept, mmmmmm sleep.


The next day I slept in to destroy some of the jet lag and then on to wondering. I decided to go on a free walking tour met someone named Ice.... for reals they told us they always wondered the meaning "So I looked it up and apparently it means frozen water" *big laughs from the group*  although the next day when I went on a different tour with the same guide she told it again. You now how some jokes just keep being funny.... this joke is not like that.

The second tour I went on was really cool (the Alternative tour). It was mostly about the street art scene and the varying forms of underground culture and art. One stop that made a pretty strong impression on me was at Tacheles. This is a building that has been around for a long time (1800s... ish) and has had uses ranging from sticking it to department stores, housing prisoners in world war two and a few other crazy things. When the USSR fell in 1990 like many building in east Berlin this building was abandoned and then like almost every single building in East Berlin at the time artist came and squatted. The building became a hotbed of art and culture for Berlin and the city liked that. After awhile the company that owned the building at the time gave the artists a ten year lease (1 dollar a year). The lease has been up for some time and over the course  the deed came into the hands of a bank that wants to sell the building to some hotel. The artists have been fighting it ever since, even though everyone is in their favor  the main problem is that no one (including the Berlin government) has enough cash to pay off the bank. So if you get a chance I urge you to come to Berlin and check out this landmark of culture that could soon be housing fat tourists (I'm not fat so i can say that). Or better yet  go to www.tacheles.de and support them (you do not need to pay money to support them, moral support more then welcome).


So in conclusion
Tacheles = super sweet
everywhere in East Berlin = presumably housing squatting artists (well maybe not)
Me= tired
speakers = get all the attention
djs = can sit int eh corner and do their damn jobs

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND

scene