Moving Day

This morning Jake single-handedly moved all 4 of our suitcases - and both giant bikes boxes - to our new flat... via his bicycle. In just three trips! Even the Germans thought this was insane, as evidenced by the granny who stopped to watch the spectacle. We have no idea what she was saying, other than "bike" (das Farrhad) but it was easy to tell she was completely baffled.

Go pants!

Tuesday night

Tuesday we had a yummy dinner at home (complete with weisswein schorle!)

Followed by a bike ride to Treptow Bridge, where people congregate to watch the sunsets.

Tiny bike!

One amazing thing that I've noticed in Berlin is young, and I mean young, children riding bikes without any training wheels. (This bike isn't even the smallest I've seen!) These kids can't be more than 3-4 years old, and they will be riding along 20-30 feet ahead of their parents like it's no big thing. And sadly, they have much better control over their bikes than I do.

Sunshine!

Guten Abend! The warm weather finally arrived, and Jake and I spent most of the weekend and Monday riding bikes and lounging in the park European style.

First things first though - our Kinder Egg (see earlier post) turned out to be a Kinder Treat - boo! Total fake-out.

On Saturday, the first day of true summer weather, we headed to the park. (oh, and there was totally a shirtless German dude lounging on the grass in this pic, but I used my fancy new "content aware" filter in photoshop to delete him in 1 click. True story.)

The past week has consisted mainly of running more errands - setting up bank accounts, phones, etc - and working 8+ hours a day. But we have found time to play dominos, eat dinner, and hang out at our local biergarten.

Guerilla Gardening!

saw this little guy yesterday on my way to the store :)

Weekends in Berlin

On Friday Jake and I went out for drinks. I've been really jet-lagged, so this was my first official big night out. We stopped into a few really cool spots - the first was called Goldfish, and had an awesome lounge-y vibe. Unfortunately once it got crowded the smoke became so thick we had to leave. We headed over to a very cool bohemian cafe, where we drank beers with names I couldn't pronounce. Then we headed over to Fueurmelder, which is a bar decorated like an ode to pyromaniacs. By this time I was getting really tired, so we headed back home. Though of course once I was tucked safely in bed, Jake headed out to the all-night club Berghain ;) Sadly he didn't get in (again... he was 0 for 3. But Saturday night he finally made it!)

Saturday it was pouring down rain, so we laid low. Well, ok, I laid low and Jake went on several bike rides and, er, local bar tours. So on Sunday, after sleeping in once again, we headed out for the day. (I seriously need to get on a normal sleep cycle soon. Playing dominos until 4 am is NOT helping.) We ate some excellent lunch at a place called Asian Wok - fantastic green curry - and then wandered through Friederichshain, taking a few snaps along the way.

Convenient

We discovered that the ultimate biergarten of Friedrichshain is located just steps from our flat. (and Jake wants that bike.)

Markt

One of our first ventures was going to the "markt" - I was super excited about the chocolate.

Jake was super excited about the beer.

We're Here!

Jake and I arrived in Berlin exactly one week ago today. So far the experience has been amazing - lots of sleeping though! We are loving our temporary flat, the neighborhood, and being in Germany! The language barrier has not be a problem at all - every single person we've encountered speaks English better than we do :) The flat we're in for the first month is amazing; it's incredibly close to everything we need, as well as in the area we were already familiar with (Friedrichshain). On June 1 we will move to a new (enormous!) flat - so please come visit!!

tschüss!