Home Sweet Home

I flew home yesterday and got home around 6. It was a long day of travel. I got up at 5:30 a.m. and then got home at basically midnight (according to the clock my body is on right now) which was 6 p.m. here. I was out like a light by 9...or maybe earlier.
Anyway, it was a really good trip, but i'm ready to get back to my regular schedule.

Hope to see all of you soon and thanks for reading and posting comments.

Over and out.

Stace

Tour of Berlin- Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche

So one of our business associates in Berlin was gracious enough to take myself and one of my co-workers on a great tour of Berlin this morning by car. He used to live in former east Berlin and talked a lot about what it was like to live there. The picture you see is of Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche (and no, i don't know how to pronounce that) which is a church that was bombed in WWII by the US. Rather than restoring or tearing it down, they decided to leave it as a memorial.
We also visited other famous sites such as what is left standing of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, and the Berlin dome which is pretty cool. Berlin definitely has its own unique feeling- it's sort of 'funky' i would say- you see teenagers and 20-somethings with mohawks and pink hair, and funky shops everywhere.
Now if only i could remember everything that i heard today :)
Sunday is my last day in Berlin and then i fly out first thing Monday morning. It's been a great trip, but i'm ready to be home and see everyone.

Berlin Soccer Game vs. Turkey

I went to my first European soccer game on Wednesday night- Berlin vs. Turkey. I still don't understand the structure of the European soccer leagues, but it was supposedly a big game between the 2 teams. There is a large Turkish population in Berlin so the fans were about 50-50 for each team. The fans on both sides were very passionate and each had their own chants and songs, etc which added to the atmosphere. The picture you see includes flares that the Turkish fans kept lighting in the stands, which then covered half the fan-area in smoke. It ended 1-0 (Turkey won) with a penalty kick being the only goal- so not that exciting from a goal standpoint, but it was pretty cool to be there.

German...for 3 hours

I'm in my third German city in 3 days. I went from Munich on Monday to Mainz on the western side of the country, and arrived in Berlin last night (Tuesday night). I took the train from city to city which i really like. You are able to see some of the country and it's much more relaxed than flying.
I was in Mainz to watch one of my co-workers give a 3 hour product demo of our software to about 30 college professors...all in German. So, for 3 hours i got to sit there and try to pay attention as best as possible even though i really didn't understand what was going on. You have to make decisions like-'so, if everyone laughs, do i laugh with them to join the spirit of things, or do i just sit there with a blank stair on my face because i obviously don't understand what was just said?' You start to play mind games with yourself :)
Anyway, i'm in Berlin for the rest of the trip. Off to work...

Top of Germany- Zugspitze

Jeff and i did this a few days ago now, but still wanted to share. We went skiing at a mountain called Zugspitze, which is about 45 minutes south of Munich. Once there, you have to park the car and take a cable car to the top of the mountain (9,500 ft) and then take another cable car down on the other side a bit to get the ski area. So you are literally in the middle of the mountain range. When you look to the south all you can see are the Alps for miles and miles. Apparently you can see into 4 countries from the top- Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. The skiing was just OK- it's still early in the season here so they only had 4 runs open, but the scenery more than made up for it.

Thanksgiving at the Hard Rock Cafe

It was very untraditional, but we spent our Thanksgiving evening at the Hard Rock Cafe in Munich. I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do for Turkey day until the American couple we were talking to in our hotel (they were from Bloomfield Hills actually, have recently moved to Germany and are trying to sell their house in MI if anyone is interested :) mentioned the Hard Rock was serving a turkey dinner complete with stuffing, cranberry, pumpkin pie AND would be showing all 3 football games. Jeff's eyes lit up at the idea of watching football so that settled our plans. We hung out there all night and had a "pretty" good turkey dinner (was still nothing like grandma's) and watched the games. We were only able to watch to until the third quarter in the second game though with the time change. We had to catch the last metro train back to our hotel at 11:30 or fork out about $100 for a 30 minute cab ride (we stayed outside of Munich at a hotel on a small lake so we weren't right in the city).
I was thankful that Chris Johnson and Tony Romo played well (they are both on Jeff's fantasy football teams)... he he.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and miss you all.

The Hofbräuhaus Hood

Jeff and i went to the world-famous Hofbrauhaus this past week to have dinner and a few beers. When we arrived, they were herding us into a different door than what i remembered from the past. Assuming the section of the restaurant i had remembered was under construction (it appeared to be blocked off) we sat in a section that was less than desirable. It was cold (we had to wear our hats, coats and gloves throughout dinner), there was no polka band and no woman walking around in her dirdl selling large pretzels. No big deal i thought- we were still at the Hofbrauhaus. It was only just before we were leaving when we asked where the bathrooms were and walked to a different section of the restaurant, that we discovered the part that i had remembered. There was HEAT, a polka band and the atmosphere i remembered. So basically, we had just sat in the Hofbrauhas Hood! I felt like we had really missed the whole experience i was looking for, so now we need to go back. :)
Anyway, hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!