We, however, did not go skiing. Since we had a big trip to Egypt a couple of months ago, we decided to have a more low-key vacation this time. We went to Berlin for two days and then spent another two days in Hamburg with Dizzy and Sonja. .
Why Berlin? Because it's cool. Hannover is a nice place to live and all, but there is so much more to see in Berlin - there's a lot going on even in the winter. We'd gone in November because Brian had a training there, but there was still plenty we hadn't seen.
We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and our plan of wandering around until dinner time was somewhat wrecked by gale-force winds. We managed to break up the walking with a hot chocolate stop, a visit to a free exhibit on Chinese history at the university, some browsing at a fancy wine and liquor store, and a stop at the ATM. We talked about taking the subway but it seemed simpler to just walk to the next destination. Then we ended up at a fancy bar drinking fancy cocktail that we had definitely earned by walking into brutal head winds all afternoon.
We met up with Giulia, who you may remember from a previous post. She was there working at the film market which is part of the Berlinale film festival. Her job was to sell movies to distributors from different countries. So she would meet with somebody from, say, Slovenia, who wanted to buy an action movie. Giulia would convince them that it would become the most popular action movie in Slovenia, they'd make a deal, and the Slovenian would have to get it subtitled and distributed. Giulia is good at this because she speaks French and Italian. She is also good at convincing people they are buying the next blockbuster when she's only seen the trailer. We had dinner with Giulia and drinks at a little hole in the wall bar in East Berlin, near our hotel. It seems like a lot of places in Berlin are holes in the wall - a little dim and a little out of the way, but full of character and potential for a good time.
On Thursday we checked out the German history museum. It covers everything from pre-history to the 20th century. We knew there was a lot to cover so we skipped huge chunks of the 17 centuries, stopping briefly at the Crusades and the Reformation. We focused in more on the 1800s and I could still absorb information until just after World War 1. Somewhere in the 1930s it got a little blurry. Taking in a country's entire history was sort of exhausting, so we got lunch and headed back to the hotel for a nap.
The best part of our trip came that evening when we went to a Cuban bar. By coincidence, it was the 13th anniversary of our first date. We don't really celebrate that anniversary any more, but it did make us reminisce a little. Brian pointed out that on our first date, we went to the Olive Garden in Roseville in a borrowed beat up car (it was Dizzy's and it's name was Thunder Chicken). Now, 13 years later, we were heading to a Cuban bar in Berlin on the city bus. Two steps forward on the adventure side, one step back on the transportation side.
We knew they'd have food and live music. We did not know that Brian would smoke the best cigar of his life there, that it was the Latin American ex-pat hangout, that I'd get to speak Spanish to the waiter, the band leader, and a Guatemalan musician named Negro (who is white). It was a little island of fun on a cold night. I can't imagine that we would have had a better time skiing in the Alps. And I don't think that you can take the bus there anyway..
Here are a few photos:
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