Day 14: HotelTonight

ALERT: I must add that, yesterday, I also went to the hardware store. It was farther than I remembered. And yes, that was me walking back with a mop in my hand. This pushed my day over 20,000 steps. Booyah!

So, Chris going back to work has been interesting. We're definitely missing him during the day. And for two nights this week, he's gone for dinner and bedtime, so it's a bit of a shock to our system, being without him for so much. We figured today was a good day for us to meet at his work. See HotelTonight's Berlin office, meet his coworkers, and have lunch with him. 

I got my photo of Chris as the HT logo! (left) The door to HT (middle) The kids (right)

The kids and I walked to his office at lunchtime. We were able to get a quiet tour of the office space (it was mostly empty with everyone out to lunch) and meet a few coworkers (and use a free bathroom!)

The offices are bright with wooden floors. Sparsely decorated. Clean.

It is in a building that is also with a few other offices and some residents. They think their offices used to be an apartment. It was either a very large apartment, or maybe two? There are many cool nooks and crannies in terms of side rooms here (for the server) and rooms there (for conferences). A nice kitchen with lots of drinks, and did I mention, free bathrooms!

There is a room dedicated to a ping-pong table. The kids were so excited to finally get to play! Funny side note: When meeting more coworkers, I asked them if they had any suggestions on where to find a sports store, where I could find ping pong paddles and balls for purchase. They hemmed and hawed a bit while they thought, one person suggested the Berlin Mall (a large walking area with lots of shops), but in the end, they all said, in unison, "Amazon." I'm in good company, Amazon is often my answer, too.

We enjoyed sushi rolls for lunch. They roll the sushi but they don't cut it into pieces, you get (maybe half) the roll and just nosh on it. There were interesting choices and we all enjoyed our meal (even though the bees were chasing the kids away every now and then).

After lunch, there were more coworkers returned from lunch. It was good to meet them all and put faces to the people Chris has been working with. They were all super friendly and willing to help if needed. Most of them are not from Germany. So, they are all pushing for us to visit their homelands as side trips (Austria, Czech Republic, and others). We're getting good advice and a lot of choices. We'll see. It's hard to not get excited by their homeland excitement and hard to not go out and see them all. But our pocket book and clock will force us to pick and choose. In any case, they are all nice people and Chris has a good office environment.

On the walk home, I had the kids follow my path that I've been taking on the way home from my morning walks with Chris. I had passed several parks and thought we could slowly make our way back home by briefly stopping at each park.

The kids complied.

First, a water park (with limited water turned on). Then some swings. Then another park with great "different" equipment to explore. Then a giant "web" to climb.








Then for the "hill" portion of our return trip. It isn't a big hill, but at the end of a hot walk, it can sure feel tiring. So, when we reached the top, where there was one more park to explore, we looked at it and I said we could either go home and try it another day, or we could make one last stop.







Xander was super hot and wanted to wait, but after I said there was a cool looking slide in there (maybe just one go on the slide?), Venice said she wanted to do just one slide and then we could go home. Xander hesitantly agreed. 

Um, hello! 30 minutes later, we left the park. Good thing we stopped, the slide was crazy fun for the kids. It's a pretty steep slide, I'm not sure the pictures create a clear picture as to how steep this slide is. The kids felt like, if they took a "luge" position, it looked like they were standing up.

They even got me to try it.

So, it was a good walk back with lots of exploring. And the best thing about getting back to our apartment, we get to try out our new Brita that Chris bought from Amazon.de (and had sent to the office, so yesterday it was a mop, today it was a package you saw me carrying all over town). The kids approve of the water coming out of the Brita. Yay! We might hydrate this family after all!

P.S. Tonight, Chris is out for a tech-meet-up, so we're on our own for dinner. Side note: Sometimes we get bored and play with the cartoon app:

Day 12: First "Real" Day

Today marks our first "real" day. Official vacation is over.

I walked Chris to work today. It was good to see where he'll be walking every day. It's a good walk, a solid 20 minutes at a quick pace. On the way home, there's a little up hill. When we got to his office, I resisted the urge to take his photo in front of the HotelTonight logo. It really felt like "back to school" or "back to work" day for him and I wanted to document it how I see all my FB friends are documenting their kids' first days back to school. But, as I said, I resisted. Too silly, embarrassing, what if a co-worker saw (and one did come up while we were talking, so, phew!) but... I regret it now. We'll have to recreate it later.

Map of one section of the Berlin Wall

As I explored my way home, I stumbled across a Berlin Wall "walk" that I'd been interested in doing (pictures here). I can't even explain what it's like to walk here, where it actually existed. It's too much to process. I've been other places with history and it's a similar feeling, just too hard to imagine all that occurred here, so long ago. And yet, with the Berlin Wall, it wasn't that long ago, and that makes it more painful of a memory. Walking past the Colosseum, in Italy, say, one can imagine the horrible violence that passed for "sport". It's awful, but so far removed from the lives we're living today. It feels very old.

But, the Wall, feels current. Historical pictures are in black and while, which gives it an older feeling, but it's not. Perhaps it's the phenomenon of how historical events that we live through have such a stronger impact on us than those of the past. So, having lived through the Cold War, Perestroika, and the fall of the Berlin Wall brings all this closer to reality and out of the imagination. In any case, it's definitely an experience to walk through and see the remnants of such an awful time.

A pretty trail nearby

On a lighter note, today's Berlin really seems to be rejoicing in the life that is now. As I've mentioned before, there are so many parks for children to play, parks for picnics, and green areas for fresh air.

There are always people milling about. There are countless sidewalk cafés with people eating at all times of the. I do wonder how this will change with the changing of seasons (if that ever comes, damn it's still really hot).

On a side note: there are so many smokers here. It doesn't seem as horrible as it was in Venice, Italy. But, there are still a lot of smokers here and there are more available places they are allowed to smoke (like at restaurant tables outside).

Rotating "egg"

After lunch, the kids decided they wanted to go back to the "Alice in Wonderland" park. This is the park where adults are not allowed and kids are encouraged to come and go as they please.

So, we headed off to the park. After a few minutes into my book (as I read in the shade along with the bees), the kids came back out. Turns out, you must have close-toed shoes to climb on their structures. Not a big surprise. We had heard about the Germans and their concern for children's feet! So, we left and went to a different park. Easy, since there are so many! We'll have to come back another day with sneakers on.

The kids found a way to practice their Circus Arts strength. Not quite the same, but it'll do for now. Just trying to keep in shape!

Circus Arts practice! 

And then home for me to cook my first meal (alone). I forgot to ask Chris how to work the oven. It's not as easy as you think. No words, just pictograms on the oven. So I picked what I thought looked like regular oven (heat from one direction, but that wasn't broil). Then, I used a convert-bot app to figure out what 350 degrees F is in C. Then, we were ready for baked potatoes. They worked! I'm a kitchen genius! Lecker (yummy)!

Day Two: Essentials

Day Two. A lot happened today. Here are today's highlights. Either read straight through, or just read the headlines and view pictures (like I do the news.)

WALKING THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

We were treated to a beautiful sunrise on our first full day in Berlin. I guess that's our treat for waking up so darn early. It was lovely to eat breakfast while watching the sun peak through the clouds. As soon as the sun did come out, however, it was a race to close the shades to keep it out, as it was another hot, hot day. Side note: the shades are electric-outdoor blinds. Pretty snazzy. We're wondering how much it would cost for us to get these for our house back home.

Above, you'll see a photo of the front of our building. On the left, a pinkish-beige building, on the right, an olive-green building. We're sandwiched in the middle. If you look closely, the door to our building is on the left. The larger opening in the middle is wide enough for a car to drive through (maybe to pick up the trash bins?), and then on the right, is a store front. We're not sure if it's a cafe, an office, or a furniture store, but this is where our contact was waiting to greet us. It's part of the building, for sure, just not sure of it's purpose. Anyway, those areas are all on the ground floor. Then above that is floor 1 and above that is floor 2, where we live. Now would you say we're on floor 2? Or floor 3? I say, technically we're on floor 3, but the elevator calls the ground floor "0", so we end up on 2. Either way, you can figure out where our apartment is.

Doors painted with our street name and neighbourhood. (left)
Ample Man alerting pedestrians to stop. (right)

We spent much of the day walking (Chris and I both clocked over sixteen thousand steps) around the neighbourhood. I am completely mixed up as to what is North, South, East, and West. I typically have a good feel for where I am if I have an ocean to keep to the west, or a mountain range to keep to the east. But here, it's very flat and I haven't gotten it figured out yet. So, as we're walking all over, I haven't gotten a feel for if we're headed south or north, east or west. I'll get there, but for now, it's very disorienting.



FARMERS MARKET

At the Farmers Market: Venice ate raspberries (left)
Chris and Xander got sausages (Chris got currywurst from "Restaurant Zander"
Chris and Diana shared a falaffel sandwhich ((right)

We decided to check out the Farmers Market today. We figure we'll probably be going here once a week. We also thought that if we walked in a zig-zag fashion, we'd see more of the neighbourhood and would possibly find stores for the future, or stores that we need now. It was perfect. We walked past several parks, markets, and we found a housewares store. where we bought ice-cube trays, glass bottles to hold water in the refrigerator (the kids are more likely to drink the water if it's cold, and we, also, enjoy the water being crsipy-cold on hot days like today), a few bowls (the apartment only came with two cereal size bowls), and a few other items.

The worst part of the Farmers Market is our discovery of bees. It is bee season here and they follow us everywhere. They smell American blood and love us. So, eating outside is hard, eating inside is hard (no screens anywhere so bees everywhere) and the kids are afraid, the younger one more. So, it has been tricky to eat in peace.


ANOTHER MARKET and HOME DEPOT
While on our way to the farmers market, we came across another market. Not surprising, Chris had see this market when he visited on his own weeks ago. But surprising to be discovered so close to our apartment. Side note: we stumbled across two more markets within a few blocks from our apartment, so we'll have many choices on where to get food depending on what we want or where we are when we want something. We looked around this market on the way to the Farmers Market, and then on the way home, we actually shopped there.

Venice photographing Xander on the merry-go-round. (left)
Xander turning the hand crank to make the merry-go-round go around. (middle)
Venice photographing the "stair-less" escalator we used about 10 times today. (right)

This market, is particularly large, bright, open, fresh, and clean. It had everything you could need (except salt, we spent a lot of time looking for salt and couldn't find it!) We bought a lot of groceries here today. Waters (to taste test at home, so the kids will actually drink some), snacks, cheese, other drinks, apples, tomatoes, and more. On the top floor, there is a small area for kids to play while the parents shop. It overlooks the escalators. There is a net beyond the tall window, I figure, it's to catch any child deciding to climb over and jump or fall.

After a brief rest, we were deciding what to do before the stores closed. We didn't think the family had energy to do the last two errands of the day (obtain fans and an espresso maker). Triage time. I was sweltering in the heat, so I begged for fans. Chris found OBI was a hardware store within walking distance, so we opted to go there. Is it international for hardware stores to be orange? Can't help but think of Home Depot. And when we lived in CA, there was OSH. Anyway, OBI's website had several fans to choose from, but when we got there, they only had the 13" fans available. Very tiny. But I was desperate. We also got a few other items (hangers, trash bags, but we decided to wait on a broom or mop). We had to keep in mind that we were walking home. So far my backpack has come in handy and is working well.


FUNNY LABELS AND SNACKS
We're on the lookout for funny food names. At the big market, we found BioLust (The company name), which Venice thinks sounds like a name for a perfume. And Xander saw "Finger Noodles".

The kids have also been wondering what kind of snacks from home will they miss and what will be available here. We were on our way home, when we had to stop for more drinks, to keep us hydrated, and we stumbled across a few tasty snacks. Venice was super delighted to find OREOs here. Phew! We did buy some. They taste the same. We also found some chips (which we did not buy this time) called "Western Style Sweet and Spicy" (which looks an awful lot like BBQ flavour from the picture), and an entire case of Ben and Jerry's ice cream! We didn't have time to look at all the flavours of ice cream, and to be honest, I didn't think to look until we were home. I do wonder if they have any flavours different than the U.S.?

PARKS
So, on all our excursions today, we saw many, many parks for kids. Some seemed to be locked, as far as we can tell, some are only open certain hours, others were possibly schools. But there were many that were open and the kids tried as many as they could. It's fantastic to have so much within walking distance.

The best park, which we'll have to visit again, had a water feature with a water pump and natural surroundings to create water ways in the sand. At this same park, live two rabbits, whose names I'm forgetting. They are fed on Tuesdays and Fridays, so perhaps we'll go back to see them fed. They are giant rabbits... maybe 30 pounds each? There was also a section that was currently closed, but had open hours we'll try another day. It was a large area to be explored by kids. The sign, as far as we could translate, said kids 3-16 and specifically said no parents were allowed in. Kids don't have to announce their entry, they just go in and out without telling anyone. Our kids really want to go back to explore this area, it looks great with tall wooden structures to climb and more.


RESTING, MOTORCADE AND DINNER
In the afternoon, we all rested. I went into the backroom to "read"... but fell asleep instead and took a nice nap. When I woke up, I found out that Chris had gone back to our local little store to buy a few things we needed (laundry detergent, kleenex, and more). Nice for things to be taken care of and nice to catch a few Z's.

Later, Chris decided last minute to make a mad dash to the espresso store, since they wouldn't be open on Sunday (as most stores aren't). It was after 6 and the store closed at 7. It is a 15 minute U-Bahn ride (the underground train) to the Gendarmenmarkt (high end shopping area). Venice decided to go with him. Xander wanted to stay home (he was melting hot). I stayed with Xander. The kids aren't quite ready to stay home alone. Understandable.

Dung beetles.

So, Xander and I watched a little TV, trying out all the TV stations we could find. We found that many stations repeated, some up to around 15 times! They really want us to watch that cooking show! But I finally found Comedy Central (and watched a few minutes of That 70's Show, an episode I just happened to have seen recently. I understood one line, "Ich bin sehr kalt." (I am so cold.) Yay, me! Ha. But then we kept changing channels, I was convinced there had to be cartoons somewhere. Not sure if I'm right in thinking the vocabulary and language will be easier to understand or if I'm wrong because cartoon mouths don't make the right "mouth movements". Anyway, we stumbled across The Simpsons. Couldn't understand a bit of it.

Turned one more channel and found a kid's channel. The show was Maja and the cast is a bunch of insects (bees, beetles, flies). After a few minutes of watching the current episode, we realised one of the bees farted. Did we really just hear that? As far as we could understand, this bee had a farting problem and everyone was offended by the smell. He was sad to be stinky. So he sought help in finding someone who made him a tincture to drink and he was all better. Then he could have ice cream. So maybe he really was lactose intolerant. The next episode, was even funnier. We realised it was about their friend, a dung beetle, preparing for a feast. So he was rolling dung balls from a giant heap of poop. His friends thought it was disgusting and a few flies landed on top of the big pile to have their own picnic. Xander and I thought it was disgusting! It definitely had us laughing and feeling grossed out at the same time.

Motorcade, as seenfrom our living room (left). Dinner time (right).

During one of these episodes, we heard a lot of car horns beeping. We went to the window and there was a motorcade of sorts. Lots of cars with flags on their cars, motorcycle escorts, more flags. The most prominent one was yellow with a black hand showing "four". I Googled and found that two years ago, on August 14, there was a massacre in Egypt by the police against protesters. No one is certain of the true origin of the hand symbol, but it was used by the protesters and supporters of the victims and protesters involved, as a peace symbol and solidarity. So, I guess the motorcade was a "parade" of sorts to commemorate this event.

After a quick shower, it was time to start dinner. Our first home cooked meal in Berlin. Chris and Venice returned, successful from their espresso endeavour. Chris helped finish dinner and we had a nice evening at home. Phew, it was a nice long day of shopping, walking, and exploring (and sweating).