We see London, We see France...: Berliner Kindl

Hallo!

Sorry it's been awhile but we were too busy exploring Europe...A tough life. As soon as we were done school before the break Sabrina, the German Assistant at Katie's school, and her boyfriend, Phillip, picked us up and we were off to Allemagne (Germany). The car ride to Freibourg was entertaining to say the least. Philip speaks pretty good English and was listening to some sweet tunes. We were exposed to some German rap but also we heard a lot of English rap, well mostly Ice Cube..."Hello, i started this gangsta sh**..." and then he politely asked if he could "pump up the volume", it was a bumpin trip... all we needed were some shocks for the tires Holla!
We stayed the night at Sabrina's house in Freibourg because the full trip to Berlin would be a 9 hour drive. So that night we explored the town and went to the Christmas market, yes there are Christmas markets everywhere in Europe! It was really romantical. We went on a swan/swing ride ( like the swings at Crystal Palace) where we were both covered up with a nice velvet blanket and then we both tried our first German Sausage... YUM! We headed back to Sabrina's (who was really sick so she went straight to bed) and got some sleep for our long journey to Berlin the next morning.

The trip to Berlin was reallllllllyyyy long and by the end of it we knew all the lyrics to all ice cube songs! We met Billy, Mary Elizabeth's cousin at the S-bahn (subway) and he took us to his humble abode to see his kids (Lily and Liam) and wife (Monica). We didn't actually stay at his house seeing as Monica's parents were staying there. We stayed a few blocks away at their friend's house Tamara.
Mary E and I shared the guest room and a bed, well a mattress. The bed frame broke literally 3 times the first night there. So the next night we just pulled the mattress onto the floor and in the morning before Tamara could see we put the mattress back on the be

d. It was quite a process every morning.
The first few days we spent exploring the city. Berlin is huge and the transportation there is awesome. It would have been really confusing if it wasn't for Billy and his sweet google maps. He did a lot of cutting and glueing for us, it was much appreciated. Anyways we made our way to Check point Charlie, Brandenbuger Tor, the German Parliament, Sony Centre and the Jewish holocaust memorial. It was a really long day but pretty entertaining. We saw some interesting fashions and al there was this one lady who was asking everyone for money! It was sooo frusterating because she must have asked up 100 000 000 000 0001 times if we spoke English and everytime we acted as though we didn't, get the point lady!
In germany they celebrate Christmas morning Christmas Eve. So we helped Lily decorate the tree before we all sat down to a big dinner, of Fish and veggies but as we all know Katie has small allergy to fish, and so she had BBQed Pork Chops. It was a long supper because right in the middle they stopped and opened presents. Lily went with Billy to deliver presents and when she came back there were all these presents under the tree for her. She was so excited. She

opened all the presents and the present from us was opened first. Before she even knew what it was she claimed it to be "What I've always wanted". It was really cute! Also Billy and Monica gave us a little souvenir from Berlin, two bags. Also Mary Elizabeth was pumped for her little package from home. So she was opening it and she pulled out a bib for Liam, a puppet for Lilly, Christmas napkins for the Billy and finally a travel sized scrabble game for Mary Elizabeth (she's not a fan of regular scrabble) It's what she's always wanted!!
So on Christmas day we headed back over to billy's for yummy Christmas dinner. Monica's parents are Romanian so we didn't really have a traditional german christmas meal, but a romanian one. We had Duck, bread ball-thingy's and red cabbage. Katie was not a fan of the duck, but she did try it. Also she couldn't handle the cabbage... so somehow it ended up on the napkin beside her... unfortunatley Katie then had to go to the Bathroom. Then Christmas night we headed into town and saw the movie Avatar in 3D.
The next night we went to a BURLESQUE SHOW. It was really classy, when we got there they had a guy taking pictures like a paparrazzi and then he sold the pictures at intermission. It has to be said that Mary Elizabeth fit right in at the Burlesque show because she ordered a vermouth on the rocks... like a classy old man. Then we went to a club called 40 seconds. It was ont eh 6th flook of a building and had a balcony for the smokers that looked over the entire city. It was really classy.
The next day Billy took us on a tour of the City. He took us to see part of the old Berlin Wall which was pretty neat and he also took us to a quaint little cafe where we had waffles and hot chocolate. The cafe had really old furniture that didn't really match but gave the place character. He also took us to the Ghetto part of Berlin. We wouldn't have been able to see this much of Berlin without him! Although he really wants us to come back in the summer because there's a lot more to do in the summertime.

Main points of Berlin:

Buddy Bears! They are everywhere. They are these big bears all over the city. There was an exhibition of Buddy Bears a few years ago. There's a bear that represents every country and they are suppose to represent the togetherness of the world. Anyways they were suppsose to only be around for a the exhibition but they decided to keep them up!
Berliner Kindle. This is a beer that is popular in Berlin. It's basically beer with syrup in it, you can either get raspberry syrup or some sort of green syrup. It's not too shabby.
Laundry. At Tamara's we asked to do some laundry and she had no problem with it. She doesn't have a ryer which was sort of a bummer because we haven't had the luxury of a dryer in forever... but anyways we were excited about the washing machine, our clothes would actually feel clean... well the washing machine took 2 whole hours!!!! Man, we couldn't believe it!
Caroline. She's Tamara's little girl and she is adorable. She doesn't speak English so when we were babysitting we just kinda made faces at her and chased her around. And the one time Katie sat on her was awkward because she cried. But she was quickly forgiven.
Liam and Lily, Billy's kids! Liam is only 3 months but adorable! He loved Mary Elizabeth because he fell right asleep in her arms! And Lily, it took her awhile to arm up to us but she is so sweet. She loved playing Mary And Joseph after going to church and seeing the skit put on by the kids Christmas Eve. She would come up to us asking if there was any room for her because she has a baby on the way! Really funny!