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.
