from Nov. 21st, 2007: ...and so it begins.

R and I arrived in Berlin yesterday about 10am local time. After gathering our bags we went to pick up our apartment keys and got a ride directly to the apartment. We were quite exhausted from traveling at this point but decided to walk around a bit, get some food, and shop for essentials. We recognized parts of the immediate area from when we visited here two years ago, namely a small park at the end of the block.


our street

We are very near Alexanderplatz and the GDR TV tower looms merrily overhead. For those of you who have been to Berlin, this iconic landmark will place our excellent central location.

By 6pm we just couldn't stay awake any longer and went to bed. Since we are 7 hours ahead of Missouri time, it was like we had stayed up most of the night until 11am the next morning only now it was 6pm.

I slept very heavily until abour 4:30am which I got up and decided to start it right with some yoga and a healthy breakfast of cereal and yogurt. We decided to buy some yogurt after discussions with friends and reading an article on the plane about the new wonder of probiotics. I usually do not like yogurt, but this yogurt...we bought at a local 'Bio' (pronounced like B.O.) or organic market...was really delicious! It was vanilla with little black specs which made me think that it was made with real vanilla beans.

After this breakfast, and a bit more sitting around, I decided to try and go back to bed for a few hours since it was only 6am. I fell asleep rather quickly and woke up a bit later after R, thinking it was late morning but it was 3:30pm! I had slept 9 more hours! I guess I needed the sleep...? I said when I went to Germany in the winter I wanted to embrace hibernating, but I didn't know it would quite be like that.

After getting up so late there wasn't much to be done today. We ate a lunch/dinner? at a corner restaurant, which had kabobs and pizza. There seems to be a lot of these mixed Mediterranean places around. Then we headed to an internet cafe but my computer wasn't charged and I couldn't plug it in so I didn't get much time in. Later we walked around Alexanderplatz to find an ATM.


our apartment

We had our first dinner in the new apartment this evening...a simple brown-rice-veggie-stirfry thing. The apartment is extremely simple and very modern-sleek. All the appliances are very small but sufficient for two.


our bathroom

There is a small washing machine in the bathroom by the toilet.


out kitchen

There is a very small dishwasher (about 18" wide) in the kitchen and the fridge looks like an extra wide cabinet (on the right) underneath the counter.

We spent the evening rearranging what furniture already existed in the front room; a large desk, a sofa/futon, and a small kitchen table with two chairs. We are ploanning a trip to IKEA tomorrow and needed to make a list of what we needed.