Day 19: The Lazy Day, or Not? (venice)

Today was supposed to be a lazy day… Xander and I started the day off by playing on our Minecraft server (this is a video game that is roughly comparable to legos), Glass Matrix. Then when mom got back from walking dad to work we made pancake crepes. I call them this because they were made from pancake batter but we had not bakings soda so they turned into crepes. After that we just sat around, doing whatever we felt like, which was of course more electronics. At the time it was stifling hot, so we didn’t feel like leaving the apartment to do, well, anything. 

At some point I got hungry, so I suggested we try a vegetarian noodle place just below our apartment. But again, it was so hot that soup sounded unpleasant. so we went to a place called Ha-an Sushi instead. Xander and I shared 3 roles. The Tiger role, the Dragon roll, and the Ha-an extreme. The Tiger role had fried shrimp on the inside, as well as cream cheese and cucumber, and salmon wrapped around the outside. The Dragon roll was the same as the Tiger role, but instead of salmon on the outside it had eel. The third was the Ha-an extreme. This role had shrimp, cream cheese, green onion, cucumber, and avocado. and on the outside it had tuna and salmon. Mom got the spicy tiger roll with tuna, green onions, and more. Then Xander and I walked home as mom went out to get kitchen supplies. 

When mom got home we hung around (you guessed it, more electronics time) and finally at 17 o-clock (5pm) mom and I went to the store. We got ingredients for stroganoff and we also got nail polish. As we walked through the store, we had to get creative. We had to use powdered cream of mushroom soup or creamy vegetables as a substitute for the cream of chicken we get at home. We also took FOREVER to find the sour cream. Mom was afraid to ask for it because last time it was right in front of the lady who she asked and so she got a funny look. We also got baking powder and baking soda, but they came in super small packets, you had to buy like 20 to make half a cup. 

What I think I looked like
running on the sidewalk.

As we walked down to the checkout we saw it. The rain. It was pouring down everywhere! We Skyped Xander to close the windows, and it turns out he was even smarter than us and he realised to do it long before we did! Then we walked out of the store and started to run. As we ran I saw lightning. We got to the garage of the apartment and saw someone was smoking on our doorstep. Part of me wanted to tell him to get the heck off our porch and take his cigarette somewhere else, but the polite part of me refrained, (side note, I would not have said get the heck out, I would have a different word, but this blog is not the right place to write it… :) 

As we walked into the apartment, I got out of my wet clothes and into dry ones. Mom started to cook and Xander and I sat on the couch and cuddled under a warm blanket. Then mom called us to the kitchen. As we ate the stroganoff it tasted so much like home. The only difference was that this time the sauce was more of a soup, but who cares? It tasted delicious!

After that, dad came home and we all went to bed. The end to a not so lazy day.. (but really, we were super lazy)

Day 3: First Run (Chris)

Woke up at 8am this morning, after a pretty solid sleep. Also, cooler temps this morning, even found that I pulled the duvet on at some point. Yea! Couldn't sleep longer, so got up to fire up the first shot on the new Nespresso machine, and then head out for a run!

On my 40 minute run, I learned a lot! I realized what a great location our apartment is in - very close to lots of things. I started running down Kastienenallee, immediately finding there was an ATM 50 feet from the apartment that we simply hadn't seen yet. Next up was a burrito place (can't wait to see what that'll be like!), and sushi. Also, what was great to see was all the cafes that were already open with people having breakfast or coffee and a pastry. We hear everything is closed on Sunday, but knew it wasn't truly everything, so interesting to see how much.

And then I was down to Torstraße and Rosenthaler Platz within 4-5 minutes! Instead of running down Torstraße towards the HotelTonight office, I kept on down Rosenthaler Str do the Hackescher Markt. This is area has a ton of shopping, including seeing a Nike store and some other gringo (what's the German term?) stores, a large outdoor set of big outdoor cafes, etc.

One somewhat surprise is just past the Hackescher Markt under a bridge I saw some bums sleeping. I've also noticed a couple folks begging or similar. My prior impression was that this simply didn't exist here, but obviously that's not true. It's nowhere near the level of most US cities, but it's not non-existant. From here I popped down to the Ampelmann Strand on the river.

The Berliner Dom was easily visible from the strand. Yet another surprise at how close this was (I was maybe 10-15 minutes into the run at this point). I ran towards the Dom and over a bridge. Passed by various museums, and right by the TV Tower (Fernsehturm). I wound my way and began back up Prenzlauer Allee. Definitely some touristy stuff here. Eventually I crossed Torstraße again, which gave me a bearing, and then found my way to Schönhauser Allee which I knew would take me back. 

Up Schönhauser until I reached our market. I then went along Schwedter Str (our street!) to Choriner. Choriner eventually leads the beautiful Oderberger Str, but I skipped that and headed back down Kastanienalle and home, realizing the highly recommended Babel restaurant is about 50m from our house. I've heard this Mediterranean place is great, but a bit crazy on the service (they apparently very strongly steer you to the combo plate, and expect you be ready to order immediately :) We'll have to test it out and add our own review.

By this point I'd run/explored for 40 minutes (4 miles), and things were warming up again. I'm quite excited to see this work out and that, as I hoped, this is going to be a good way to explore the city. Today we'll probably walk over/past the HT office, hit Rosenthaler Platz, maybe eat at DuDu (kids top request :) and then pack, as we head to Venice early tomorrow morning! And now I shall have another Nespresso (this thing is going to be dangerous - I can still make a better shot on my home setup, but the convenience, simplicity, speed, and relatively decent espressos are an alluring combination).