berlin

we i finally made it to berllin it was great! every train we took beginning friday in gmund was delayed. we were scheduled to arrive at brian's door at 11:30 we didn't make it till 3 a.m. i'll let you imagine how upset and tired we were. BUT: we had a chance to do laundry! as you know there are no laundrymats here in gmund so we all took our entire wardrobes to berlin. i haven't carried a pack that heavy in a while. it's so nice to smell good again. mostly i smell here. not by choice. europe smells like an ashtray and B.O. plus we have to hand wash our clothes so they really don't get all that clean. but i'll be clean for a while. once in berlin and awake we met up with dan, kelsey, and joe. we walked around all day in sprawlling berlin and saw the sights. that night the girls and tony decided to take a night train home. i wished they could have stayed but they had to do "homework". whatever that is. anyway i planned on staying till wednesday because of the donavan frankenriter concert on tuesday night. so the next day brian, meredith and i walked around some more and found the bauhaus archive. i bought some really cool posters. it was a great change of pace to be in berlin. it was a lot like new york in the way that we had to take the underground everywhere and walk a lot. brian and i went for a walk around potsdam the next day. potsdam is bigger than gmund but there is less to do if you can believe that! it got really cold the first night we were in berlin. i think winter is here so we found a winterfest and had some hot apple cider.

i had a great birthday in berlin. the night of my birthday we went to dan's apartment and hung out then went out. we found this great club with a band. our german friends, brian and i were the only ones who wanted to go in. so we did. the band was great. they were american and played 50's style-hair-slicked back music. complete with an upright bass. we had a great night. that night we stayed out too late and missed the last train back to potsdam so we ended up staying up till 7am and catching the first train back. for my birthday brian and meredith took me to the hard rock cafe for a tasty burger and fries and all the ketchup i could eat.

the last two days i spent in berlin were the best. we went to see the blue man group. to my suprise we got fourth row seats the same day of the show and at student prices! it was an amazing show. it was all in german and halarious. but i'm sure it would have been even funnier if i understood what was being said. the show was about 2 hours long and totally interactive with the crowd. they came into the crowd 3 or 4 times and near the finally they strung these white banners all the way from the rear of the theater to the stage. music screamed from the stage as strobe lights flooded the theater. it was crazy and a great finally that brought everyone in the theater into the show.

my last day in berlin, the one i'd been waiting on, didn't let me down. brian and i borded a train a few hours before the show and got off at the last stop in east berlin. east berlin is still really different than west berlin. we stepped out of the train station to find the venue and it was right there. we thought we'd have to search all over town for it like everything else but this time it was easy. we had about 2 hours to kill before the show so we walked around this shady part of berlin with street markets then ended up just chilling at the train station. we had a pizza and some beck's. we went to the venue at 7 and were very suprised at how "cool" this place was. it was normally a dance club that they turned into a concert venue. the lighting was low and colored. there were black leather sofas lining the back wall and two bars. white buffalo opened the show. he was pretty good. he looked like santa clause and had a hell of a smokers voice. donavan and his band took the stage around 9 and played an incredible set. i would say there were no more that 150 to 200 people in the entire place. so it was a comfortable show and enjoyable. all the germans knew every word of every song. i was impressed. it was a great night. the next morning it was time to head home and do "homework".