Afternoon with my Friend

Today I met up with a friend that was on summer course with me in Berlin, who also moved to the city this year. It was a really fun afternoon. We started by meeting up at Alex(ander Platz), everyone here calls it Alex. The TV tower never becomes a boring sight. 

It was nice to see some buskers out in the chilly weather. It is one of my favourite aspects of Alex and in the winter you don't see nearly as many. Really great music too. 

On our way from Alex to the Museum with the Egyptian exhibit, we stopped at the hotel that has the aquarium in it.  You can pay to go up into it but it was expensive and we were trying to get to the museum. It was defiantly beautiful to see though. Such gorgeous fish. You could get a room in the hotel that looks right into it!!

We finally made it the museum, it has the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in Europe (i believe). It was really fun and I enjoyed looking at all the artifacts. I also signed up for a year museum pass, so now I can go to any of the state museums any time I want! 

We walked to dinner after the museum, and saw Alex again at night, so beautiful, you can see the Farris Wheel in the background at one of the christmas markets. 

Dolores is my favourite place to eat in Berlin. It is pretty cheap, and ridiculously delicious. Build it your self burrito, basically you get to pick what they put in it and how they make it. It is massive, they do not skimp on the ingredients at all...feels so dense. The atmosphere is also really enjoyable, very friendly people. In the summer this place is packed, but in the winter is was remarkably quiet for a change :)

Early Christmas Surprise

This morning I woke up to find n advent calendar out side my room!! So sweet of Julia to do this for me, really made me feel at home. The things inside are really awesome. Chocolate, nail polish, christmas ornament, cream, hand warmer; just to name a few of the things :) 

Really amazing early christmas gift :)

First christmas market

This weekend was the local christmas market. This will probably be the first of a few posts on christmas markets.

It was a tiny market put on by the church. From the sound of if, the market was a charity oriented market.

I learned that some of the treats that are traditional for these markets are this fried potato cake served with apple sauce, as well as mulled wine. The potato thing with apple sauce, was super good...it somehow reminded me of my childhood. I really didn't like the mulled wine, which probably had to do with disliking red wine to begin with. The mulled wine is made from red wine, heated with spices added to it. 

The market also had these cute old men dressed as santa claus, creating a santa slot machine. You give a dollar to the charity and then you get to pull one of the santa's arms, and they jingle around, and when they stop they pull an object out of their bags. If they all pull out the same one, then you win a treat, if not you win nothing but good will in your heart. 

For my first market it was really adorable and quaint. It was a good starting point for the holidays!!

A Friday Nights Shenanigans

Friday nights are always a time of adventure having. A friend of mine messaged me, saying he had an extra ticket for the new Hunger Games movie...wanting to know if I would like to join. Of course I said yes and departed to meet him and his friends at the theatre.

The coolest thing about the popcorn here at the Potsdamer Platz theatre, is that you have two options... Sweet or Savoury! Sweet is a little bit like caramel and savoury is very salty. I usually go the savoury route.

The movie was okay, I'm not the biggest fan of the franchise. Potsdamer Platz is gorgeous this time of year, so many lights and a light christmas tree in the middle of the building.

After the movie we ran across the street where a big tubbing slide had been constructed. We went down, so much fun! It was pretty tall and you got going reasonably fast!

After sliding we adventured around Alexander Platz, ending the evening at a pretty cool bar. On our way to the bar, on the subway, there was a vending machine. But not any old vending machine, one that vended... BOOKS... So awesome! They were all in German, but needless to say, very good idea.

One if the guys at the bar was an amazing magician!! He could make the ink on the card swirl while you didn't take your hand off the card... Magnificent!

Thanksgiving Round 2

Thursday was American Thanksgiving here at the house. Julia and I spent the whole day cooking up a storm. I made a "pumpkin" pie (using squash since there were no sizeable pumpkins available) and turkey cupcakes! They both turned out really well! It was a really great night; amazing food, good company and stimulating conversation (well, when it was in English lol).

After dinner I met up with a friend here in the city and got to check out a neat little hole in the wall bar.

Thanksgiving Round 1

American Thanksgiving is upon us. Yesterday B's class came to the house for thanksgiving lunch. The turkey looked gorgeous. A difference I noticed was that people here don't use stuffing, and if stuffing is made, it is placed on the outside of the turkey.... Interesting.

















The class showed up with flowers for Julia, it was adorable. For a class of 24 7/8 year olds, they were all really well behaved and the lunch went really well!!

It was also delicious.

Berlin Aquarium

Today the boys had the day off school, so we decided to head down to the Berlin Aquarium. The aquarium is one of the most biodiverse aquariums in Europe. Although I enjoyed looking at all the pretty fish and lizards, there wasn't a lot to interact with. Having been to the Vancouver Aquarium, which is very informative and interactive, this aquarium left a little to be desired for. None the less, it was a really enjoyable time. There were some really colourful fish and some really big fish as well. We also saw Turtles, P's favourite. Seeing the jellyfish never gets old, they are just so gorgeous.

After the Aquarium we walked around the area, checking out the LEGO store.