In Love with Berlin

Despite missing friends & family, issues with visas, Deutsche Bahn strikes, subletting, poor pay, missing our belongings, language barrier, uncertain future, no animals....We love living in Berlin. A city so filled with art and culture sometimes it is literally bursting out of it.

Thanks for the video Travis

Kids from Köln

Our relationship with Thomas is complicated. He is my parent's foreign exchange student from Köln Germany (known in English as Cologne), that arrived while we were still in Berlin, that is now back in Köln, as we are back in Berlin for the second time. So he's our foreign exchange student- kinda.

We saw his home & family as we rolled  through Köln in November and were excited to host him in Berlin. He wrote us two days before.
"Can I bring some friends?
Oh. Um...ok sure. The more the merrier!
Can they stay at your place?"
Teenagers.

Love letter to the Northwest

My aunt & uncle are planning a trip from N California up to Washington in April & were asking what things they should do. Suddenly, I was waxing poetic about the Great Northwest, our forsaken home.

"...beautiful places with breweries. Snoqualmie Falls is really pretty- bigger than Niagara. The restaurant's there have killer pancakes. There is a tiny brewery in town that makes a mean sandwich & tasty IPAs (http://www.fallsbrew.com/).

Bellingham is where I went to school, about an hour & half north of Seattle & it is a stunning beauty. It sits on the bay looking out at the San Juan islands and is a quirky college town. Larrabee Park is my favorite place to gaze out at the water. Plus- Boundary Bay Brewery is very popular (http://www.bbaybrewery.com/).

Bellingham- view over the water

Leavenworth is also always fun. Touristy, but a good time, with tasty German food & pretty mountain views."

Leavenworth

Oh Northwest, you are so lovely. We've been in Berlin for 3 months now and are truly enjoying  the city, the people (not joking), the food, the experiences. We love being abroad, and more importantly being here in our adopted city.....but, there really is no place like home- is there?

Seattle Thunderstorm

For more NW Brewery love, check out our Brewery Road Guide 

And the destination is...

Feel a little bad saying this considering the votes, but Mr. Porter & I are headed to England in April!

Greg, Ian's dad, is visiting in the summer & is dieing to go to Italy. Thus, we will go on that trip, but just a little later in the year. We have only spent a long weekend in London, so we are excited to see more of the city and do some day trip.

A Hate Letter to the Ausländerbehörde

So the day of the visa appointment finally came....and went...without us getting our visas. BLARG! We know standards have been raised, but we were much more prepared than when we received our visas in 2008. We had an appointment, a list of required documents, official German insurance, and a smile.

Apparently when they sent us a list of required documents they thought it was very efficient not to ask for some beforehand and just see if we telepathically foresaw them being asked for.

How to Toss a Pizza Pie

Last night we made some AMAZING pizza, courtesy of my Uncle Dave's (should be) Famous dough recipe. SO good! And my Uncle Dave even sports a mean toss technique. Check out the apprentice, Ian, at work.

Perfect Gift

We are going to a new Irish friend's birthday tonight & we were brainstorming about what to bring. Then it hit us:

Stars & Stripes Bourbon

We once saw a crew of Russians wheeling a whole shopping cart of this & bottles of coke out of the Real grocery store. Perfect.

We also do classy drinking sometimes, like when we went to a very refined whiskey tasting in Berlin. More often, we just drink on the UBahn for the UBlau.

Turnhalle - Day at the Gym

Thursday is the day Ian takes the kids to the gym, or turnhalle. Hilarity ensues.

"There is a game where one little kid gets a tail.
How do you attach it? Do you velcro it or something?
No- just stick it down their pants.
What?!
Well, they are wearing tights and...anyways. Doesn't matter. The kids aren't too bright, they are supposed to catch the fox, so the 'fox' runs in a circle and they all chase him. I'm like 'Just cut him off! Work your angles!'

So little dumb Mina is the fox. Saphire, our little Canadian princess, starts running straight for her. Mina ran smack dab into Saphi in a hit that would have made the NFL highlight reel. Mina laughed and Saphi just looked at us sucking wind. 'Whew!' Whew!' In the meantime, Darius saw a kid standing by himself and decided it was the perfect time to push him down. 'How does that hardwood taste?"

This is a Thursday in Ian world.

Hertha v. Union - Berlin Football

We heard about this game before we even came back to Berlin. West Berlin's team, Hertha did poorly last season and was regulated to the 2nd league. On the east end of Berlin, the old iron worker's team Union did very well and was promoted to second league. For the first time ever- it would be  

Berlin v. Berlin

We went, we saw, it was epic. I will let the pics & videos speak for themselves.

Ready for some Berlin madness

Apartment Tour #2: Prenzlauer Berg

2nd apartment, 2nd Tour. This tiny abode was our place in Prenzlauer Berg for January.





Want more pics and stories of apartments in Berlin? Click the apartment label for full gory details of our many, many moves and read What Moving 6 times in a Year has Taught Me.