Lisbon, Portugal and Philadelphia to Virginia

Hello... if anyone is still there and is awaiting the "end of the story."
My apologies for becoming distracted and never finishing my blog!
Lisbon was a great city to end in. Ellen had picked out lots of places to see, which made my job easier. The history of the city is pretty cool, because nearly everything was wiped out due to an earthquake followed by a tidal wave in 1755, (I think that was the year.) The hostel we stayed in was also about the nicest, cleanest one, with the best huge bathroom, that I stayed in the entire time. If for nothing else, Lisbon was great to see just for the "look" of the city. The three sections on seperate hills, are actually very close and the tiles everywhere are amazing! Also, I loved the Cobblestone. Lisbon gives other European cities a run for their money when it comes to cobblestone streets.
Ellen and I had the full-out European meal with everything from Port Wine Aperitif, to dessert and coffee. I think the Portugeuse like to serve french fries with their pork... or maybe just to Americans. We went to "the smallest bar in Lisbon" which only serves shots of cheery liquoir, (well, I'm not exactly sure what it was... Ellen do you know?) and it was packed. I found it interesting that the streets are broken up into very specific shopping districts. For example, there were several stores in a row that sold buttons, followed by several stores that sold fabric, followed by jewelery stores and etc. There was one section that sold wedding dresses, although they were all closed when Ellen and I found them. The most interesting name of a weddng dress store was "Coquette." Now, after having the job I had at CW, I certainly know the definition of "coquette," and I really don't see it as a fitting title for a store that sells wedding dresses. hmmm.
The weather was gorgeous... a nice breeze and never too hot! Perhaps the most exciting (and random) part of the trip was going to see a bull fight! The entire time Ellen and I kept asking eachother if we were actually at a bull fight. I don't feel like stating my full analysis of how I feel about bull fights, but I will say that in Lisbon they don't kill the bulls, but they do seem to hurt them a great deal. However, I also think that watching the bull in a total trance with the madador's cape is like watching dancing... it was beautiful!
I left Sunday morning, July 29 at about 7:30 am (Lisbon time,) 2:30am EST. After my plane was delayed for several hours in Lisbon, I finally arrived to Philadelphia, where my plane was delayed for several hours again. Finally, after boarding the plane, I got to sit on it for about an hour while it taxied around before returning to the airport because the crew had timed out. So, after several hours of confusion I was able to book a flight to Newport News and I spent the night in the freezing cold airport. Finally, I made it to Newport News at around 9:30am EST, some 31 hours after I left! After traveling through Europe for 2 months, the most difficult part was trying to get from Philie to DC!
At least I made it home in time to leave again to California. But as for backpacking through Europe, that's the end of the story. Perhaps California will be the sequeal!

Barcelona and Madrid, Spain

Hola!!!!
Ellen and I are about to get on to a night train to my last stop, Lisbon! We have already walked through Spain.
After a very long travel day for Ellen--her plane ride sounded absolutly terrible with turning around after the plane was already air born--she finally arrived about 10 hours late, just as I was checking the status of her plane on the computer and growing increasingly worried!
However, she made it in time for us to see the big light show at the fountains by a museum in Barcelona-thanks to Jenny for the tip! We celebrated her arrival with sangria and chocolate con churros! Basically we continued our trip through Spain with a little walking, a little eating, a little walking, a little eating. I really enjoyed the Gaudi sights in Barcelona, as well as the view from the various mountains we were at the top of! Unfortunatly the cable car we were dying to take was not operating the whole time due to wind, and, in a bizarre circumstance, the power was out, (causing great confusion at every intersection,( all over Barcelona!
We absolutly loved Madrid! I didn't think I would like it as much as Barcelona, but I did, and perhaps more! The parks here are amazing! On our first day we walked the wrong way, and rather than end up at a the major Placa Mayor, we arrived at a great Park. We took a row boat around the lake and the weather was gorgeous. With Ellen here I was able to muster the strength for another great Palace--the Real Palace and museum--the Prado.
As I said, the weather has been spectacular, very warm but nice breezes and much lower humidity than I expected.
Well, I must be off, my time is up!
One more stop!
Adios!

Prague, Vienna, and Venice

A little late in coming, but here is the much anticipated Prague, Vienna, and Venice blog! I know that with the great anticipation for this blog, there will be a tough competition between it and the Harry Potter Book VII release! By the way, I could have purchased the book 6 hours before you in the States, although, perhaps not in English...



So I apologize in advance if these notes are rather short. I am writing as I am waiting for Ellen, who had some major flight delays. Boo.



Prague

Vic's visit was like a vacation! I know some of you are groaning that I am already on vacation, but there have been many times when sightseeing and getting from point A in Country 1 to point B in Country 2 has seemed like a difficult job! It was so nice to be able to rely on someone else for a bit and relax!

Vic arrived on Sunday, July 1. Is it terrible to say that I was pleased that he, too, had a little difficulty navagating the metro? I wouldn't want him to outshine my month of traveling skills on his first day! We went to a church for Mass where the main attraction is an infant Jesus people come to pray to and send in costumes for all over the country! (Perhaps the Prague's competition to little Manakin Pis of Brussels.( Of course, I made Vic climb a tower right away. We went to St. Nicholas' Cathedral for this, and the tower was suprisingly empty!

One of the things I loved most about Prague are all the beautiful gardens. There are so many of them! We climbed up around the Petrin gardens on our first day. At the bottom of them Vic found a monument to the victim's of Communism. Leave it to Vic to find that on our first day.

Throughout our next few days we made it to the Church of Tyn, where I was thrilled to finally find Tycho Brahe's burial, (a man I remember well from my 9th grade world history class for the detailed story of how he died when his blatter burst!( Imagine the excitment! We saw the Astronomical Clock Tower "do its thing" which involves some Monks circling around the clock... I must say not nearly as impressive as Munich. The clock TOWER was great though! We went to the Prague Castle, (of course,( which was an all day event. Our museum repitoire included The Communist Museum, (that I liked just as much as Vic!( and the Kafka museum, which was a little on the pretencious side, (imagine that.( Of course we strolled across the bridge several times, during various times of the day, and it was nearly always bustling! For a day trip we went to Karlsteijn Castle, rather similar to Neuenschweinsten, but Vic hadn't been to a place like it before. And good news CWers, there was an English tour in person not the little audio guide!



I was impressed with the food, although by the end we had overloaded on meat and dumplings... just preparing for my future Lithuanian holiday celebrations! It was great having Vic to go to places to eat with, I expanded my meals past cheap sandwich stands! In addition, Vic turned out to have a great passion for picking out places to eat from guidebooks, (they weren't always opened...( but aside from that, he was an expert.



One of our more exciting adventures included finding a dance club one night! We went to one place that had all the lights on and a few kids sitting on the ground who said it was closed but they didn't know why. ...Hmmm, we really didn't want to ask too much. The next place had a line with little teenagers being frisked for weapons... I suggested maybe it wasn't our style. We were about to leave when we noticed a laid back place with an odd combination of a window dancer, soccer game on TV, and dancing to pop music. The conclusion to the evening consisted of racing around for two hours searching for the mysterious Night Bus 53. Don't worry, we obviously found it as we are not still wandering the streets of Prague. We arrived home at around 3 30 am, which was ironically the time that we had to leave for our train to Vienna!



Vienna

The trains to Vienna at any normal hour of the day were all sold out, so we took a 5am train. (But at least I can say that I had the experience of taking a Czech Taxi Cab and paying for it... who knows how much more than I should have(

On the plus side, we arrived in Vienna pretty early, and had the whole day to start our sightseeing. I loved Vienna for its history, and especially music history. I think the Mozart Museum is one of the best museums I have been to in Europe. It just opened recently. We also went to Scholss Schoenbrunn, Maria Theresa's palace, which meant a lot more knowing the family a bit better from the Marie Antoinette Biorgraphy. The Schloss has an amazing garden with a maze that, I must say, is better than CW's Governor Palace. It took us, (and everyone else,( forever to make it through. At the end/middle there is a little tower that you can climb to see everyone else struggle to make it through! Also in Vienna I saw my favorite Chruch/Cathedral I've seen. Not the huge St. Stephen's, (way too many people there,( but a much smaller one, St. Michael's with an original organ, and a wonderful ambience. I should note though, St. Stephen's did have a great Tower!

We went to a show of a selection of Mozart and Strauss pieces at the Opera House! The Opera House is amazing. I was not the only tourist snapping tons of photos. And, they played the Overature to the Marriage of Figgaro, which Vic and I saw on our first date. We never expected to see it again a year and a half later in Vienna!!

On our last day we rented bikes and biked around the whole city, which included finally finding the Danube, and a downpour at the end of the day.

I certainly ate my fill of schnitzel and Rider drink, beer mixed with Sprite. Oh, and how can I forget the best chocolate ever... Mozart Chocolate!



Venice

The ride through the Alps to get to Venice was beautiful and rainy. Arriving at the train station in Venice was amazing because we walked right out the there was the sun and water right in front of us!
I absolutly loved Venice! It was the most wonderful town just to stroll about in. The buildings were not as I expected. I thought they would be a little more "made up" but they showed their age and at the bottoms of many houses you could see where the water had worn much of the house down. I wondered how many of them looked on the inside, because I imagined some were in quite a state of disrepair.
Our hostel was in a great location, an easy walk from the train station, but in a nice little "campo" with its very own church and tower. We could see our San Geramia tower when we went up to the top of San Marco tower and looked out. San Marco square was huge by Venice´s standards, where there is hardly space for even the tiniest of squares. There was a free English tour of San Marco, which with its domes was unlike any other Church I had seen yet in my European travels. We decided should at least do one museum, so we went to the Academia, which turned out to be great because it wasn´t overwhelming, but just enough. They had paintings of events at Venice done in the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries, and it was amazing to see how much we could recognize from being in the same locations. Indeed one guidebook said that you could still use a pre-WWII map with great accuracy in Venice. (A good thing for us, with Vic´s 4 year old guide book that had caused a slight problem or two before.) The best part about Venice was just walking through the alleyways and getting lost weaving our way from one place to the next. At one point coming home from dinner we had a following of several families, obviously thinking we knew where we were going. Our following kept growing until a road we took ended in a canal... so we had to do an about face and walk back through them as they all wondered what to do next. I was shocked by all the families in Venice. I thought it was all for couples, but there were tons of families, with kids running all about!
I was in heaven with the amount of journals and leather bags being sold... Vic gets points for the number of journal and bag shops he went into!
Of course we went on a gandula ride... although during the day not at night for the sake of price. We shopped about for our gandula purchase... I had it in my mind that an older, jolly gandula driver would be better than a young guy. We found an old man, but he wasn´t exactly on the jolly side... perhaps this was after Vic got him down in price a bit!
Vic once again was on "operation where to eat" duty, and aside from the two or three places we searched for, and then turned out to be closed "for vacation" when we arrived, it all turned out great. Perhaps the most interesting meal we had was at a local spot without menus and very few tables. Vic ordered by pointing at the bar while I saved our two seats at a shared table with a Belgian couple who were artists. It turned into a rather interesting but enjoyable evening having dinner with the Belgians, who had never been to America but had quite a few things to say about the environment and how the Americans treat it. As I said though, they were super friendly, especially in letting us share their table, and we had good food, wine, and conversation.
On our last night there I finally tried the Venetians famous sardines, which were not bad. And I had a few glasses of their Bellini, a peach cocktail type of a drink. Also, the Venetians happened to be celebrating their big feast day on our last night there. We went down to San Marco, along with tons of other people to see one of the greatest fireworks shows I´ve ever seen. The fireworks were perfectly synced to a crazy collection of music. It made me think that perhaps I might want to be a firework choreographer if the film school thing doesn´t work.
To take a break at the end of our sightseeing we spent a day at Lido beach, (Vic has read Death in Venice, but I haven´t.) For those of you who know the reputation we have with beach weather, you will be shocked to hear that there were no storms and the weather and water were beautiful!

I cannot say which place I liked best. All three places were pretty different from eachother and I wish I could put pieces of each into all one location, but then it just wouldn´t be its own city I suppose! Anyway, of all the places I have been I think these three places were my favorites, and I know what many of you are thinking... "of course they were because Vic was there!" But actually the whole trip started with me wanting to go to Prague and Venice for the past few years, and I had looked into Vienna to be an au pair in at one point several years ago when I was trying to figure out how to get myself to Europe! So, these three places were a long time in the running as my top choices to visit, and I am so glad I did!

(Again, sorry for all the mistakes and typos, but as I only have 45 seconds to finish, post and log off ii have to run!!!)

Nice, France and Monte Carlo, Monaco!

Hello from the Cote d' Azur. (For once I'm on an English computer, so that o should be owith a ^, for all of you who are keeping up with my poor grammer and spelling.)
When I planned for this leg of the trip I knew that I wanted to see some part of the French Rivieria and that I needed a place between Venice and Barcelona. I picked a great spot. Nice is has been an excellent spot to relax for a bit, because I know that once I arrive in Barcelona and meet Ellen it will be a whirlwind eight day adventure before I board the plane!
My hotel location is amazing, just a short walk to the beach! So, I spent a great deal of time yesterday reading (HP VI again in preparation,) and writing in my journal on the beach. With my amazing travel sense I left my wallet and everything at home so with my key pined to me, I could get in the water! It is the brightest blue I have ever seen. The beach is rocks, not sand, and although my guidebook described how this could be unpleasant, it is actually great for traveling because it means no sand anywhere! Amazing!
The promenade, (which rather reminds me of some places in Southern California, perhaps I am just getting ready to think about moving,) is filled with pine trees and is beautiful at night. Also, my hotel is right next to the famous Hotel Negresco. I know some of you like to see if you can sneak into hotels to use the bathroom, but I haven't tried it with this one yet.)

Today I went to Monte Carlo in Monaco! (Thanks for the tip, Alicia.) I suppose I should have expected a super clean, chic place, but I thought it would be a little more 50's-esque. I found the Casino, but wasn't dressed to the standards of entering, and seeing that my funds are slowly going, it was probably good that I didn't spend the day gambling. For those of you who have seen me play poker, you will understand:) It was a picture perfect place, but it took me a while to find the area they push all the low price tourist outdoor cafes into for lunch. But guess what? I found a cheeseburger place... okay, call me lame, but I have been traveling for almost seven weeks, I deserve a cheeseburger. Also, I have noticed that I cannot keep track of what language I am supposed to be using anymore... I am so confused of where I am at what time anymore!!

Hopping on and off trains feels pretty routine now, I went to the station at Nice and to Monaco, (its own country, by the way,) and back without even really thinking!

I did have one first on this leg of the journey though... my laundry was going so well until now.
I have a new wardrobe of a greenish tint to an ivory color of shirts, underware, and even my new leggings! Well, at least I only have ten more days... and it was time for a change anyway:)

I still hope to take some time to update my blog with Prague, Vienna, and Venice... we'll see!

Tuscany, Italy-- Florence and Pisa

I am still alive!
Yes, in case any of you were worried, considering the two plus week blog absence, I am still alive and traveling.
I had a vacation from my vacation when Vic came, so I also ended up taking a two week vacation from my blog.

Now I am in Florence--Firenze Italy! It was a change to my plans when Ellen decided to fly into Barcelona to meet me for my last week, thus giving me an extra few days before heading to Barcelona, as I had previously scheduled.
I arrived in Florence on Sunday July 15. I was excited about the hostel I am staying in-- a 17th Century restored mansion in the heart of Tuscany. Of course, I realized the ideal is a bit better than the reality, because with sharing a large, extremely hot room with a dozen other people on a small bunk bed and seventiesoriffic bathroom tiles it doesnàt exactly feel like an old mansion. The outside, however, is gorgeous.

Today I went to Pisa. When I left Venice yesterday I still had not decided if I would take the trip. (Only about an hour away, unless the train is late and slow...) There is so much to do in Florence, yet the lore of the European travel destination hotspot of the Leaning Tower was too much, so I ventured to see it. I am certainly glad I did. As a lover of climbing towers, Pisa was the best one yet. You can actually feel it leaning when you go up! You are throw down one side and then have trouble getting up the next when climbing! Of course, I took the obvious pictures of trying to push the tower back up... along with the fifty other people doing the same thing.

Florence was entirely too much to see in an afternoon. I barely made it to the Duomo in time, and climbed its tower. After two climbs in a day, I had a huge gelato cone in the gelato capital of the world. (I made sure to hit that.) No art museums, but there are statues of naked Romans all over. It was a great city to walk around, but I will have to come back to see it all.

Tomorrow I go to Nice to rest before Ellen comes to Barcelona!

Munchen und Fuessen, Wed. June 27- Sat. 30

Gruss Gott!

As soon as I arrived in Munich, my first German class dialogue test came back to me:
"Guten Tag!"
"Gruss Gott!"
"Ich heisse Christine, wie heiss du?"
Bavaria is Gruss Gott country!

I'm sorry Munich, I enjoyed you very much, but I think I had a few distractions that prevented me from absolutly loving you as a city! With only one day to see Munich and one to see Fuessen, combined with being nudged in between visiting Elizabeth in Berlin and getting to finally see Vic in Prague, Munich really did not get a fair chance to make the impression as the best city in Europe. All that being said, I did enjoy myself and made my way all through the city in my day that I had.

If anyone is reading this waiting to hear exciting European transportation stories, you might be upset to hear that I had an incredibly easy time finding my hostel. It was right across from the gigantic hauptbahnhoff.. with any food you could want at a train station... and only took about five minutes to walk to. My gosh, what a relief. I have realized that being in a hostel next to a train station does have its advantages--Five minutes to find as opposed to two hours, for example-- but I have also found that the areas next to the train stations are dirtier and a bit dicey. Apparently the section I stayed at in Munich was supposed to be next to some dicey "erotica" centers, but the only thing I saw were tons of African men always standing right outside my hostel... which happened to be next to a "Call to Africa" calling cafe... I'm not joking. By the way, I think that Munich must have stolen all the internet cafes from Paris. They are everywhere! Every other store is an internet cafe of some sorts. You can also buy underware, books, gadgets, and other random finds at these internet cafes.

Rather tired, I didn't venture out until Thursday morning. I actually considered taking one of the Free Tours that many of the hostels, or cities provide. I have never taken one, because to me, they seem somewhere inbetween a U-Guides UVa tour and a Colonial Connections or Maximum Ghost tour. I realize that many of you don't know both, or either of these groups... but just think of an excited, show-off cheerleader type giving out false information. So anyway, I have yet to take a tour... but on Thursday I had a blast following a few minutes of several different tours. There were tons of groups and individuals, (like myself... although remember I was floating between the groups,) all staring up at the Glockenspiel waiting for what my book called "The most overrated show in Europe." Yes, highly overrated, but coming out the clock were dancing coopers!! Yes, the highlight of the clock's little play were dancing coopers... will someone please pass this info. on to Marshall?

I climbed the St. Peter's Church Tower. I'm always up for a good tower climb, and this had to be one of the highest... and best. It was a lot safer than the climb to the top of the Church Tower in Amsterdam, (where my guide said that he was sure climbing to the top would not be allowed in the US, given the conditions,) and I think higher as well. I have found that towers are great for orienting yourself to the city! I found my next stop from it, the Viktuelien Markt. (I hope that spelling is close, I am not looking at my book right now.) It's a huge permanent farmer's market, with lots of... bier, pretzels, and sausages! I was proud of myself for getting the Bavarian/Munich musts of food-- a weisswurst, (white sausage,) pretzel, and a bier. I did get the small beer- which I think is about two pints in the US... or for those that know the Leafe... a mug on mug night. So, obviously, Christine did not opt for the classic beer stein size. The "small" one I had at noon though, was enough to send me off to Munich for the rest of the day with a bit of a buzz. I walked down to Odeonplatz where I thought it might be wise to get a large thing of water, and perhaps another bready pretzel. The University in Munich is beautiful... although to me looked very much like Stanford! No, I swear it's not just because I was thinking how I would see Vic in two days... all of the red tile on the roof looked like Stanford's buildings. I walked through the main Garden, where I didn't see any swans, and I'm positive I was supposed to see Swans! Although I made it up to the Olympic Village, there was nothing going on there except for a "Spain Expo," and I decided that I would simply wait for two-three weeks before seeing Spain. I thought perhaps the huge park where they have Oktoberfest might be nice for sitting and reading... but it seemed more like a huge, empty torn up field waiting for throngs of drunks celebrating Oktoberfest! I guess one would have to be there in Sept/Oct to actually get any use out of the park.

I saw very few dogs in Munich. Jenny, this is obviously not the place for you.
I did see the most amazing street musicians I have ever heard. I heard everything from Spanish guitar, to string and woodwind ensembles to a guy playing on a grand piano in the middle of the street!! And, they all had their CDs for sale! Munich is obviously very serious about their street musicians. Jared, perhaps a place for you and the band;)?

On Friday I went to Fuessen, but only for a few hours, as I was able to return to a hostel in Munich for Friday night, (to catch my 6:45 am train to Prague this morning.) Fuessen was beautiful... a little less crowded and ritzy than Heidelberg, but just as touristy. Mom and Dad, I think you would really like it there. The castle was an easy bus ride from the train. (EASY bus ride!! I know, the transportation on this trip was not too good to be true... because it was true.) Unfortunately for the Japanese tourists, they still struggled and asked ten billion questions to everyone. (But, then again, nothing different here;) I figured out how to get to the castle by following tons of other tourists who were going the same way. Now I hope that I would have done this no matter what my previous experience... but after working for Rev. City and listening to the question from the stupid person that asks, "where's the next scene?" while a hundred other people in front of him are all moving in the same direction to the next scene, I knew it was best to just follow the crowd.
Thanks to Chris, Rachel, and Paul for putting it in my mind to go and visit the "Cinderella Castle" the Neuenschweinstein Schloss. The castle was gorgeous, but even better was the walk and hike around it. Finally I saw tons of Swans, (hence the name of the castle--schwein.) I also thought about how lucky I am to have grown up in such a beautiful area as well. I think I took the mountains for granted when I was little!
It was as I was about to go into the castle that I had a huge scare. Many of you (non CWers) will not understand this fear--but count yourself lucky. I was positive I heard Felix's voice giving a tour! There was someone who sounded exactly like him! I quickly shot my head in every direction, (trying to figure out what direction I should NOT walk in,) until I calmed down when I saw that it was not, in fact, Felix. But he sounded just like him... maybe he has a voice-alike giving tours in Bavaria!! Ahhh!

Well, I have arrived in Prague. Had a wonderful train ride in with a bunch of the ditziest Irish girls I have ever met. Transportation to here was okay, not nearly as easy as Munich... but after walking in the wrong direction... only once... I made it:)

So closes the first leg of my journey. I imagine that the second will be quite different... with Vic here for fifteen days and Ellen here for nine... but I'm sure just as many adventures!

Berlin, Germany

Hallo from Berlin!

Ahhh, Berlin--a city best appreciated with a great guide who gives you a place to live for a week, great food, and intellecutally stimulating conversation! I do not think I would have appreciated Berlin as much if I had been the typical tourist, (that I am in other places.) Wait, actually I am not the typical tourist anywhere, I am an exceptional tourist, and budding travel expert! However, Berlin has so very many neighborhoods and lacks the major city square-tourist hub of other heavily touristed cities. I was not sure about the city at first, but I fell in love with it by the end! I understand why Vic lived here for a semester and wanted to move back and why Elizabeth does not want to leave!

I had a handful of places I knew I had to see, courtesy of Vic's constantly growing list. I strolled down Unter den Linden--the most heavily tourist section of town. I even got Elizabeth to act like a tourist--taking pictures under the "Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go to Berlin" sign, well, until she saw people of academia she knew and we had to run away;) We checked out the Wall remains at Potsdamer Platz, and adajacent monuments. There was a neat monument at the Bebelplatz, which consisted of empty bookshelves underground that you look at through glass on the ground. Doesn´t sound terribly exciting... until you think of how many books could fit on all those shelves, and the meaning of how many were burned by the Nazi youth. I climbed the Reichstag, (I think that´s a requirement,) and walked through the Tiergarten. Going by Vic´s suggestion, Checkpoint Charlie´s museum was interesting, but also one of the most cluttered museums I have ever seen! It was a bit interesting to come out of a museum that talked about how many people died around the area trying to escape and now the place is filled with vendors selling old East German memoribila.

In addition, I found the strip mall after strip mall where the Wall and space between the Wall once stood rather fascinating. There was construction everywhere. I tried to imagine Berlin when my brother first visited it about fifteen years ago. What a fascinating history.

Elizabeth, her sister, and I all went to Potsdam on Saturday. The Schloss Sanssouci was probably the best castle I have seen... although it is not a castle at all really, it was a summer home for Frederich II. I found it an appropriate place for Sukey to spend her summer. It was beautiful, and a wonderful day, save the massive rain-thunder-lightning storm that blew in quickly, turned our umbrellas inside out, and soaked us all.

I would have to say that one of the best parts of the week was going to one of the Turkish Markets... they had everything from olives to underware, including some tasty fried and syruped sweat bread. Another great treat was the bratwurst from the neighborhood sausage man. Perhaps not a highly intelligent man, or just one willing to take risks for his job--as he straps a gas burner to his back--but never the less, I ate my share of some great sausage on the street... and the photo proves it! Even the sausage, however, did not compare with the wonderful breakfasts of rolls and Elizabeth´s Grandfather´s homemade honey. It was the thick cream of the honey, and absolutly the best food I have had here. (Her grandfather is Swiss, to give proper credit.) I would say that it is worth the trip to Berlin just to have some of the honey, but as I ate almost all of it, you might have to visit her Grandfather in Switzerland. If you are planning on visiting Berlin though, I reccomend staying with Elizabeth!