Christmastime in Germany!!!

Berlin. What contrast from the Alps!

Let's start with Tegel Airport... WHAT A DUMP! but it's closing in 2012. Also, apparently there are no Asians here... People on buses stare at me, and one teen just bowed to me. WTF?!

Oh well, all is good. I'm staying at the most hipster hotel in existence.


I actually wouldn't mind an apt like this...


The next day I wandered around Kreuzberg for food. I had lunch at Il Casolare and followed it up with coffee at Fuchsbau:

^highly recommended coffee shop/bar.

I spent a very disorienting afternoon at the Jewish Museum Berlin (but more on that later). I walked to Checkpoint Charlie but there wasn't much to see...


I wandered some more and ended up looking for Christmas Markets...


SUCCESS!!! There were many pretty edibles and knick knacks!







Afterwards, I went to look for the Brandenburg Gate. While looking at my map in the U-Bahn station, a lady came up and offered help. I said that I was looking for the gate, and she pointed me towards another neighborhood and started recommending restaurants and bars. I put on my "confused" face and pointed to the correct area of the map.

Then she polited replied, "no, the gay district is over here."

;-) After the clarification, she told me the trains needed to get to the gate!

^hooray!

Next door is the Reichstag and the Holocaust Memorial. Unfortunately for the Reichstag, you have to book viewings of the dome through their website, and they were booked for the next two days.


Jet lag had started to kick in, so I returned to the hotel and had dinner at a great falafel place where you can mix your own falafel.

Ministry of Mountains

Following the work related activities, I took a sabbatical to Hogwarts the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland.


The goal was to either ski or snowshoe up around Eiger/Mönch/Jungfrau. However, nature had better ideas... The Alps hadn't receive much snow (if any), so none of the ski areas were open.

The first day was very foggy and wet, so the trains to the area summits didn't run.




It snowed on the second day. Boy did it snow...

^and Jungfrau or Schilthorn were still fogged out...


Since there was nothing to do in the highlands, I visited a neighboring town, Thun:

^Lake Thun.

Christmas Markets were in full force there and the old town had a "sunken street," where there's two levels of shops.




I climbed to Castle Thun, but it was closed.



On the third day, clouds parted, and one ski area opened! However, I had to fly out...


Zurich has one fancy airport!


Note: Interestingly, they don't have water fountains at the airport. Also, expect to pay at least 5 Swiss Francs for a bottle of anything... I found out that you're supposed to drink out of the faucet in the bathrooms, so bring a Nalgene!

As homeboy Arnie would say:

Q&A: You're from where?

A: Texas...

The French response:
"Ah, good! So you're one of the Americans that MOVED"

"In Europe, we like cities like Seattle, you know? It's very liberal, and you have the ocean and mountains. When we think of places like Texas, we think of... how do you say? ah yes, Rangers, Rangers, Rangers!"

"Who do you like better? Chuck Norris or Jean Claude Van Damme?"


The German and Brazilian response:
"Oh, do you shoot guns?"


The Japanese response:
...silence...

It's 3:30AM in Herborn...

...and I'm extremely jet lagged. Five days after returning home from Tokyo, I flew to Frankfurt. So far the experience has been full of:

1. Copious amounts of meat and potatoes.
2. WORKing while listening to music via Google Music*
3. Reading on the Kindle Fire (more on this later).
4. Caffeine.

On the other hand, the following have yet to be seen:
A. Colored vegetables.
B. Sleep.

Oh, there's also some wonderfully weird AWESOME show on MTV right now... Basically, two ladies are destroying Apple products! Competence was shown when naming the show, BIKINIRAMA (also see video below).

Note 1: Thora gets angriest.
Note 2: This isn't the most work-safe program/site.

obviously...




*Google Music works internationally!!!