Before arriving in Berlin we had a brief tour of the former bombed out city of Dresden. I should mention that two important events transpired on the bus ride from Prague to Dresden. 1) We pulled into a gas station in the back where the big rigs go and saw a German trucker going cowboy style in the parking lot. We parked in the spot behind him and had a good laugh. But then, as if straight out of a National Lampoon's movie, another bus packed with Chinese tourists drove in and took the parking spot in front of the trucker. I could tell they had an even bigger laugh than we did. 2) I broke out of a Tetris funk once we crossed the Germany border and set a new record for consecutive times beating Level 9 High 5. In Dresden I picked up the indispensable German phrase, svi veiner bitte (literally, "two hotdogs please" but understood in the local tongue at the braut stands as "the really long hotdog folded in half and placed inside a french roll"). It was cool to see the buildings in Dresden how they had just used recycled limestone left over from the bombings in their rebuilding process.
Berlin - Here we finally got set up in a proper hotel, complete with bidet and sauna. It also had a flat-screen TV ideal for watching MTV Germany's top 20 including a Tommy Reeve video who everyone kept saying looks like a sexier version of me. Walking around Unter den Linden street was pretty nice. It leads to the university square where the Nazis burned the thousands of books, and to the Berlin Schloss castle along the River Spree, and eventually to the famous TV tower and Alexanderplatz. The shopping was meant to be like Rodeo Dr. or something but I wasn't all that impressed. I guess the fact that the dollar is sucking it up these days made it hard for me to make good overseas purchases (the only souvenirs I ended up hauling back were a Manchester United hat, an extended shoe horn at the All-A-Euro store, and a free pen from the hotel). We also took a tour of Potsdam and saw Frederick the Great's summer Sans Souci palace, as well as the Cecilienhof where Stalin, Churchill, and Truman met to decide the fate of post-war Germany. Touring the Berlin Wall was cooler than I expected. The countless murals spread out all over the wall are surprisingly decorative for such a somber, morose site.
The flights back were a drag, as they always are--a missed connection in JFK and a 3-hour delay on the runway. But it's good to be back. "We are American, because you're in America, okay. Greatest country on the planet."
Miscellaneous Highlights:
- We lose sight of Desi in his forest-green outfit
- Exact Change: The Berlin Miracle(s) - When it came time to shed our Euros I went into a market with all my remaining change (E3.77) and picked up 2 bags of Gold Fischli, a Cherry Coke, and some Yoghurt Fruchtbonbons. When I got to the cashier she said E3.77. Later, at the airport, we all chipped in with our bills and coins and bought a communal Burger King order. We each put in our order and took our E10.56 to the counter. The total came out to...E10.56.
Favorite Albums of the Trip:
- Sonic Youth Rather Ripped
- Liars Drum's Not Dead
- Bob Dylan The Times They Are A Changin'
- Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare
- Elvis Costello My Aim Is True
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