Berlin Recovery

FIRST OFF: the 'z' and 'y' keys are switched on this keyboard. If i mess up, translate accordingly!

We just got into Cologne (which is apparentlz an englishified verson of Koln, which is where we really are) this afternoon. The biggest shock of the trip so far happened when we got off the train... you walk out of the train station and IMMEDIATELY you see the huge, gorgeous, awe-inspiring cathedral. Everyone around us noticed our incredibly blatent staring and started offering their opinions on the best place to see the cathedral ("go around left!" " walk to the front immediately, it is so nice to see it from there!" awww).

Berlin was (perhaps unsuprisingly) a FANTASTIC time. It is a bit grittier than the other cities we've been in (especially coming from Paris), but in a way that made it all the more endearing. We stayed in a brightly coloured hostel in a really excellent part of East Berlin. Vanessa was there, which was endlessly exciting! The weather was really hot, so Kaleigh actually abandoned her one sweater and I switched from my single pair of pants to shorts. AND we did laundrz. Trust me, that is a BIG DEAL. Yesterday, I went to a concentration camp in the morning and met up with DrHlady and Vanessa in the late afternoon. I'm glad I went to the camp, although I certainly wouldn't call it a happy experience.

Today is some kind of holiday in Germany called 'men's day' or something, where the entire point is that boys get drunk and walk around the streets. I am not making this up. All the shops are closed and everything. So last night was pretty much a weekend night in Berlin, and Kaleigh and I found our way into some kind of vaguely hilarious reggae show where the music was great but an overanimated man in a green shirt kept running around the stage occasionally shouting german phrases at the unresponsive crowd. That actually makes less sense the more I think about it! But the place itself was quite exciting, and we made some Berliner friends.

We wandered all over Berlin and saw a bunch of the history-sights as well as some awesome neighborhoods. WAY more than in Paris, we hit the language barrier. I know somewhere around 4 german phrases, two of which are yes and no.

Ok. Now we are going to go walk up the 509 steps of the tower in the cathedral. I am weirdly excited for this!