zeke and wendy

at the pergamon museum where we ran in 45 minutes before closing and dashed through the ancient greek and roman collection.

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we did manage to run through the gates of Miletus (120 AD) and the Ishtar gate of Babylon (575 BC, ordered by King Nebuchadnezzer II)

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some favourites

for further inquiry: emperor caracalla’s infamy 

and in case you’re not up on your roman emperors, here’s a portrait gallery/timeline

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Berlin Trip (Day 3)

We woke up on our third day in Berlin determined to hit up a German flea market we had heard about. Our friend Rich was especially determined to find some Nazi artifacts, which you apparently have to ask secretly about because hardly anyone displays them out in the open. Sure enough, when he asked vendors about souvenirs from the Third Reich, a few of them looked side to side, then pulled out a secret box with a few items here and there, most of it vastly overpriced (a Nazi phone book was around 140 euros). There were plenty of other gems to be found as well, such as this vast array of fur coats that left Wendy simultaneously intrigued and squeamish:

Zeke also found this sweet top hat:

And Wendy sizing up some classic Bavarian clothing:

After the flea market we were ready for lunch, so we tried to track down a restaurant that served traditional German cuisine. On the way we were happy to see a familiar cultural institution, Dunkin Donuts! (They don’t have these in Manchester, just a ridiculously overpriced Krispy Kreme). We took a few pictures just for you, Sandy!

We also passed the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on the way which is one of the only buildings preserved in the Breitscheidplatz in Berlin since WWII. Part of it was destroyed in bombing raids in 1943 but the spire is still standing.

Our traditional German meal was excellent (less so for Wendy, as vegetarianism is about as popular in Germany as salsa dancing). Zeke tried a Berlin ale and pork schnitzel covered in marinated mushrooms, maybe his favorite food of the trip.

But we had something even more fun in store for dessert: a visit to the Ritter Sport store!!! 

This place was amazing! Not only did they have seemingly every flavor of Ritter Sport ever created, but they had something even better - a chance for you to create your own Ritter Sport flavor!! Can you tell we were excited about this?!

While Wendy went with a more adult mix of almonds, hazelnuts, raisins and dark chocolate, Zeke’s mix was comical enough that when he ordered it the guy behind the counter actually stopped to ask “is this for your little brother?” and couldn’t stop laughing when he found out it was actually for Zeke. Zeke’s bar was milk chocolate with gummy bears, jelly beans, mini-marshmallows and colored sprinkles with even more sprinkles on top - so yes, it’s basically his favorite candy bar ever.

We also posted a few more pictures from the Ritter Sport store in the slideshow below. Is it sad or awesome that one of our favorite visits of the entire trip was to a chocolate store?

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make your own Ritter sport!

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Berlin Trip (Day 2)

after staying at kristi’s (see her below, the proud former resident of scranton- hence the shirt) we all woke up and headed to Potsdam, just outside of Berlin.

the weather was lovely and simply perfect for wandering around the baroque and rococo palaces of Potsdam.  see the slideshows for lots of pictures of the palaces and the beautiful gardens surrounding them. 

after walking around the chocolate shops and small boutiques we stopped for lunch where wendy had, among other things, a green beer called Berliner Kindl.  it is a Berliner Weisse where you order either red or green.  i believe they translated that to mean with added raspberry or herb flavours.  it was good and curiously enough, served with a straw.  zeke had a fairly traditional wurst with pomme frites (basically a hotdog and fries- not to sound unappreciative of the foreign culture).

we never really got used to the german language during our time there, and street signs were of constant amusement to zeke.  he thought it was funny that a lot of them end in “fahrt”- see below.

also, since living abroad we’ve noticed the different marketing strategies of subway restaurants across different cultures.  in the US we have jared, the guy who says you can lose a gajillion pounds by eating subs.  in the UK they have “treat yourself” as a slogan for subs slathered in mayonnaise and advertise chocolate muffins, cookies and sodas as part of your meal.  in Germany we found: the subway mascot (see below). weird.

during our time in germany we also noticed that the people were very quiet.  it seems like something you’d take for granted, but when all of sudden there is no noise on public transit- you really notice it.  we americans were always the only ones talking.  maybe they’re quiet because of threatening signs like this on the trams:

ok, i don’t think that sign has anything to do with the prohibition of talking, i think it’s something about riding without a ticket (which is “EXTREM UNCOOL!”).  and yes, it is possible to get away with riding without a ticket because it is seemingly all done on the honor system.  there are no turnstiles!  can you believe they just trust people to be honest and buy the appropriate ticket?  however, there is always the threatening sign that at any point an inspector may come through, but we didn’t see one.  i don’t think this approach would work in england or the US.  although it’s a simple anecdote about transportation, i think it says something about the culture more broadly. 

so back to our day… toward the end of our time in Potsdam we headed to the Dutch Quarter.  it was really quaint and we even stopped for dutch treats (see the slideshow below). 

then we wandered back into Berlin and saw a few shops and an unique alley filled with graffiti (that we took lots of pictures of and will post soon).  i will not to go on a tangent here too, but i think graffiti can also say a lot about the spirit of a culture and its class systems and politics. 

at the end of the night we found ourselves extremely hungry and right outside of a cozy-looking italian restaurant.  so, as you can guess we rushed right in and were so glad to enjoy pizza.  in NC we were spoiled by eating a pizza every week at IP3 and in manchester we haven’t found anything that comes even close.  this wasn’t IP3, but it was really delicious.

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downtown Potsdam, just outside of sanssouci

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inside the park sanssouci

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at the sanssouci palace in Potsdam

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at “the New Palace” in Potsdam.  all of these palaces are so close together it’s like a royal gated community.

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at the chinese tea house in park sanssouci, followed by lunch in downtown potsdam

4pm

the postdam church of peace in sanssouci- where we took lots of pictures and acted silly

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in the dutch quarter in potsdam where we enjoyed yummy dutch treats, like poffertjes!

4pm

graffiti in Berlin

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I’m (kinda sorta) lovin’ it

The weather in Manchester today was absolutely amazing, so we felt like we had to spend at least a little bit of it outside. (Note: our bodies must have adjusted to England’s climate, because even with this amazingly warm weather, the temperature was still only 59 degrees. For reference, the low in Chapel Hill today is 59 - it’s 78 there right now.)

Still rocking the sweet mustache and soul patch combo from the boat-themed party we hosted last night for Andrew’s birthday, Zeke decided to wear shorts for the first time outdoors.

And Wendy even got to wear flip flops with her ensemble:

Where was the final destination on our little walk? McDonald’s. Sounds weird, I know, but we heard that they were featuring Cadbury Egg McFlurries for a limited time (maybe with all the leftover eggs from Easter?) and thought a warm day would be a good chance to try one. Here’s the advert beside the register:

And then we got the gooey treat in our hands, and it still looked promising…

Then we took a few steps over to a sunny spot in front of the Whitworth Gallery , where Wendy tried the first bite. What’s the verdict?

Cadbury McFlurries from Zeke Smith on Vimeo.

How could they screw up something so promising as a Cadbury Egg combined with ice cream? Well, for starters, they don’t even use Cadbury Eggs. It’s just pieces of Cadbury chocolate and orange “fondant sauce”, whatever that means. So… kinda lame.

But, be not deterred, faithful blog readers - we heard of another dessert place nearby that takes an actual Cadbury Egg and blends it into a milkshake for you! Rest assured we’ll be trying that sometime soon, and bringing you the full report when we do.

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