Back to Berlin...and BEYOND: visitor

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Friday, October 12, 2012

On the Hunt for Mexican Ingredients in Berlin

While we were excited to see our favorite German, Mr. Thomas, back in Berlin, we were a bit stumped on exactly what we should do with him. He has visited us in Berlin a few times now (& we visited him in Cologne) and while the city continues to amaze, we want each visit to be spectacular.

Luckily, Thomas came with built-in interest. After a year living with my burrito-loving family and just off another year in Mexico City, he was as crazy for Mexican food as most of us expats. It was decided. We were going to climb our mount Everest. We were going to attempt the impossible. We were going to find real Mexican ingredients in Berlin. Hopefully the hunt wouldn't kill us.

A Day Without the Internet

Because of stupid reasons, the internet company needed to turn off our service yesterday to switch over the contract. I was mostly prepared, or as prepared as you could be to have a long day home alone without internet, like in the bad old days.

USA, USA, USA - An Expat Return home

We're back!

Back in the land of big coffees, big American breakfasts, big cars, vast lands, Mexican food, livestock, childhood friends, homesteads, driving, BBQs, Oscars, TV, and FREEDOM. We are back in American & couldn't be happier.

747!

Vienna: Much more than a little Sausage

Ian & I were excited to return to Vienna as we have been there several time and indulged in the cafe culture, oohhhed & ahhed at Stephansdom, and ate and ate and ate. But returning with the parents this time, we realized we actually hadn't spent much time in this Austrian wonder. In our usual whirlwind fashion of travel we had been here on our way elsewhere, but only actually stayed for 1 or 2 nights. This was an egregious error that needed correcting and we couldn't have been happier with our latest experience.

As always, what follows are our highly unscientific, capricious ratings of "The City of Dreams" (home to Sigmund Freud).

Vienna Ratings:

Bratislava - Not as Bad as People Say!

We continue on our tour of central Europe with the p's & give our biased, unprofessional opinions of Bratislava, Slovakia.

Stepping back in Hungarian Time

My parents aren't ready to give up on car trips, even when traveling in Europe. While Ian & I are full fledged fans of train travel and have a growing love for cheapo plane trips (yes- even Ryanair & EasyJet), we have to admit seeing Europe by car is an entirely different experience.

Gardens in the Rain: Berlin's Botanical Garden

I had a dilemma. My parents were visiting, but Ian worked during the week. What to do that wasn't going to make him crazy jealous, but entertain them. I got it - Berlin's Botanical Gardens!

Unfortunately, there was a hitch. It was raining. A lot. We're from Seattle, but c'mon Berlin. Good sports that they are, they accompanied on my fools errand and we got very, very wet. Trying to keep up our spirits, we tromped though the soggy grounds. I apologized. A lot.

Yeah, those are raindrops

Visiting Halfway Around the World...

Snohomish is a small town in the State of Washington (NO! Not the capital). About an hour away from gorgeous Seattle, it is known for antiques, quaint Victorian housing from it's time as a lumber town, and a charming 1st street that is often used for filming idyllic Americana.

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Paired with last night's karaoke escapades and tomorrow's flight, I got a little John Denver on the mind:

We are taking the parents to their 4th-6th European country. Flying to Budapest & spending a few days there, then a day in Bratislava, then Vienna. Some new, some old for us, but I am sure it will all be fabulous. Especially since having them here has been so fun-filled in boring 'ole Berlin.

Placing Poland: Szczecin

The parents are here and on day 5 of European travel. We have big plans for a trip to Hungary, Bratislava, & Vienna next week but since we are so close to Poland, why not a day trip? We didn't just want to hop the border for some nowhere, so we set our sights on Szczecin (auf deutsch Stettin). It reportedly had a Duke's castle, a tourist map with red line guided tour, and was only about 2 hours away. Plus - the train ticket was a Brandenburger ticket, meaning it would only cost 28 euro for all 4 of us to travel there & back. Bonus!

It didn't turn out exactly as we hoped, but was still an experience. Once again, we have decided to rate the cities we are visiting with our parental units. This town might not have stacked up so well, but there is more to come.

The Parents are Coming, The Parents are Coming!

It has been a lonnnnnnnggggg 11 months of Skype video chats, e-mails, and occasional phone calls. But today, my parents are an 1 1/2 away from taking the last leg in their long trip from Seattle to Berlin. I am picking up some flowers, then picking them up at the airport. I simply can't wait. I don't know that I have ever been this excited to see them. Ever.

Mum/Father of the Bride

The parent's visit in Spring 2008:

Hertha game where Dave Ball impressed us by ordering a mass

Wandering around Alex

Family photo at Brandenburger Tor

Our road trip through Southern Germany and through the Rhine...

Burg Eltz

Zell, Germany

Countless German vineyards

Heidelberg, Germany


Nuremberg, Germany

And my latest favorite of them in my beautiful home state of Washington:

We are going to do more fun things in Berlin, skip over to Poland, and take a trip through Hungary, Slovakia, & Austria. But best of all, we are getting a little time to spend together.

Oh - and they are proving word title holders for best parents ever in bringing over our cat Bella! Me-ow.

Love you mum & daddio!

(To get an idea of the teariness of the hello, check out the good-bye: Leaving for Berlin)

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Summer in the City

Between our bouts of travelitis we have managed to eek out a little bit of fun in Berlin. It's not a bad life

Pics of "Sommer in der Stadt"

Our U-Bahn stop for our place in Wedding

Enjoyed a wet but wonderful 4th of July with Greg, Americans, and an Irishman. We even got Greg to drink a beer!

I'm apparently working on perfecting the "Boo the night is over" Look


One of my favorite things on earth - marking with a red star where we've been on our Europe map.

Thomas visited with his friends from Brazil

We took them to Kunsthaus Tacheles. Built as a department store in the Jewish quarter, served as a Nazi prison, was partially demolished, and is now occupied by an artists collective. Continually threatened with eviction, you can now just wander in on a week night to live music, independent shops, and wild art. .http://super.tacheles.de/cms/

They liked it.

Also showed them around the lovely city...well they were good enough to do some self-touring too

Making an effort to take as good of photos of the city we live in as the cities we tour

Living in Wedding, we've been spending a lot more time in the more touristed downtown. It's actually kinda badass...for the West

Love the U-Bahn windows

I've taken pics of the Memorial for Murdered Jews so many times and finally have one I really like.

The Fernsehturm, Brandenburgor Tor, & Caller.

After all that Berlining, Tiergarten Quelle was in order. Visit us & we will do our best to take you here.

Dave's first going away night we ended up in the basement of a gallery where we sweatily danced as the ceiling dripped. Sounds gross, but it wasn't.

I've been bugging Ian about this for a while. I simply cannot live without an animal- and even though Bellatrix the skank cat is on her way with my parents in October, we were off to the Tierheim. Way off- this place is on the outskirts of outskirts for Berlin.

But so worth it! We got a bun. He was kind enough to carry some bottle home for us as we ran out of hands.

Prost to the new addition - Herr Schmidt

Sadly, one of the latest changes is that our Irish friends have now officially left the mainland and are back in Ireland. At least they are just a RyanAir flight away. And why is he wearing that Holocaust victim/prisoner outfit? Nice enough to give us a few of their things before leaving. I'm afraid we did not take the costume.

Bye to the Irish...until next time

As always, there are more pictures of debauchery here.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Airport Goodbyes

Oh man I love the airport. Always a bit of tension, but you know you are on your way to somewhere new. I guess that's easy for me to say as I am usually the one leaving.

My mum & dad are visiting my Aunt & Uncle in Northern California and it was so good to see them all. Video chat can often seem so intimate, regular voice chat is the route we usually take. Kinda makes days like today when I do try to look more presentable for our chat more special.

Plus- my mum reminded me to look at some shots she had posted from my nephew's visit.

Look at that handsome family! My dad, Gavin, & Kyle

Becoming One with the Tourist Hordes in Cinque Terre

We knew it was going to be bad. Italy in June-July. But Greg is a schoolteacher & Italy was his #1 destination. So we took a deep breath, loads of planning, and became one with the mass of tourists.

And it wasn't as bad as we feared. Lots of it was unbelievably awesome. And Cinque Terre, where we've been a few times before, wasn't the mass of old people and blank eyed tourists we thought it would be...ok it actually kinda was. But it is STILL so awesome we loved it. And got burnt to a crisp. A good time was had by all.