Fall Break!

So this past week was our family vacation in Berlin! Berlin was great. It was beautiful and big and had tons of great places to shop and eat. Everything a girl could want! But it was also a little overwhelming. All of the people and stores and cars and languages. There was literally SO much to take in and it was exhausting and wonderful all at the same time. 

On Monday we arrived, took a look around, and visited a few malls.

Tuesday we did all of our sightseeing. We bought tickets for a bus that drove to all of the big sightseeing spots (the Brandenburger Tor, Checkpoint Charlie, etc.) and you could pick which ones you wanted to get off at and spend a little time looking at and then which ones you didn’t really care to see. It was a great way to see all of the big tourist things, especially since it was raining. I felt really sorry for all of the people who decided to take bike tours! We visited the Ritter Sport Shop, where I got to custom order my own candy bar (which was really just an hour of waiting in line, 30 seconds of picking my ingredients, and then 40 minutes of waiting for it to be finished… but it was yummy!).

Then Wednesday we visited the Berlin Aquarium and Zoo and did a lot of shopping! My host dad had picked out a Turkish restaurant ahead of time that he really wanted to eat at. After walking, riding the U-bahn, riding the S-bahn, and walking some more (mostly in the wrong direction) we FINALLY found the restaurant (after an hour or two). We stood outside, read the menu for a few minutes, and then decided to go somewhere else. I certainly got my exercise this week!

Thursday we headed back home, but not before stopping at this big huge dome called Tropical Islands, which actually is an indoor island. It was so crazy to walk from 10 degrees Celsius into a building that’s 28 degrees. We changed from our winter jackets into our bathing suits and went for a nice swim. It was really cool!

It was nice to come home though, and to be in my own bed and not have to walk so much. It was also really nice to realize I now think of this house as home and this bed as my own. I’m certainly getting comfortable here, and to think that my year here is ¼ over is scary!

Today is Friday and it was a pretty relaxed day at home. I unpacked my bag and hung up my new clothes. I’m about to eat dinner, get ready, and finish off the day with a Kirmes Disko in one of the neighboring towns with friends from school and friends from church!