If that's a meatball....what is a hamburger?!?!

Let me begin by saying....German internet is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than Spanish internet! (notice my excitement) haha

I do not understand German that well, so this added to the austere of today’s events; in fact I only know how to say hello, thank you, exit, and your welcome. The German language is so complex and very different from anything I have ever seen…the words are very long and sometimes there pronunciation ignores the traditional phonetic rules. In my short time here so far I have observed that the best way to pronounce the words is to look for the major vowels and ignore all of the other letters.

We started the day off with our free breakfast “buffet” at the hotel, most of the food was “cold” but it was still very delicious. They offered assorted deli meats, bread, cheese, fruits and then they had cereal with milk, yogurt with a selection of dried fruits and rolls. Even more important they had hot tea and coffee…guess which one I had?!

The metro system here in Berlin is very different from Barcelona’s, at least half of the system is operated above ground on elevated tracks…it was a different perspective seeing the city from an elevated view. We visited a part of the Berlin wall today…it was very somber and eerie to be standing next to a structure with such a rich yet painful history. The majority of the wall obviously was torn down, but parts of it were kept and turned into monuments/memorials. The craziest part was standing in what was the “no man’s land” between the two sides of the wall; this area was strictly a space in between the two walls on the West and Eastern boarders of Berlin where guard towers, anti-automotive systems, and barriers stood to prevent people from crossing. Later we visited various parts of Berlin…this city is huge! We still have not even covered half of the city, Berlin holds about the same amount of people has Barcelona however it is spread out in double the area. Had my first “sit down” meal here in Germany tonight…it too was delicious. I thought it was humorous that the description of the meal in English was, and I quote: “2 meat balls ‘German style’, fried egg, and fried potatoes”. What was humorous about this description is that the “2 meat balls” were actually two hamburger patties, and the platter (notice I say platter and not plate) was gigantic; it was easily the most food I have eaten in one setting in a long time…

The food here is so delicious and it offers a nice break from my monotonous “pasta” dinners!

Tomorrow we visit the City of Potsdam…more to come!

 Olympic complex...designed to receive the bid for the 2000 Olympics

 Back of Berlin Wall (I think this was the West portion)

 Middle or "no mans land" in between the two barriers that were the Berlin Wall.

 This subway station was known as a ghost station, because it was blocked from access during the separation of East and West Berlin