Red Jared and the Search for the NFL Draft (April 26th)

This was to be an exciting day for Scott and I. Not for anything Berlin, German, or even European.

No no, today was the of the 2008 NFL Draft. Our whole day was planned around watching it. The real question was: Where on earth, or should I say Berlin, are we going find it?

Today was warmer than it was yesterday, though it felt as if there was a 400 degree change intemperature between shade and sunlight.

We set off north and walked through Checkpoint Charlie, then found our way to Potsdam Platz.

Earlier that morning Scott had asked the guy who worked at the hostel, Alexander (who I called Zander), where we could possibly find NFL football. Puzzled, he said that the best place to find it would be at an American themed restaurant in Potsdam Platz called Play Offs.

This seemed simple enough...until we saw Potsdam Platz. It was HUGE! It was about 4 city blocks and there was no way to navigate through it. A nice tour guide helped us out and we eventually found it, but there was no time to linger because we were going on a tour at 1 o'clock.

The tour was of "Red" Berlin, what it was like there in post-WWII Communist controlled Berlin. Little did we know, at the time, that we should've gone with our first instinct of the 3rd Reich Berlin tour.

The reason for this was because of our guided named Jared; a seemingly straightlaced American from Indiana who claimed to have studied radical warfare and politics or something of that nature. Seemed like a good guide...but oh how wrong were we.

The tour itself was MASSIVELY boring as we would stop at a random huge building and be lectured about its history and what it all meant in the grand scheme of things. Mind you, we would never actually, ya know, GO IN the building, but simply be talked to about it.

Next building. Stop and talk about it.

Next building. Stop and talk about it.

Oh, and to add to that, we had to buy a one-day public transportation ticket that cost €6.10 in addition to the €10 euro we already spent.

Next building. Stop and talk about it.

And each buidling we would stop and talk about, Scott and I were becoming more and more bothered. By what? We couldn't quite figure it out, but there was something about Jared that just rubbed us the wrong way.

We didn't know it at the time, and wouldn't figure it out until some time after the tour, but we realized that Jared was just a big ole Red Commie!

As we went back over each of Jared's lectures we realized that they were just chalk-full of Communist sentiment. It bothered me a little bit, but with every passing hour Scott was infinitely more upset with him. I think it culminated with Jared's closing words about how the East Germans got screwed once the wall came down because they no longer had a home to live in and food on the table gauranteed for them from the government. What he didn't seem to delve into was the fact that they now had CHOICES...they could choose to leave if they wanted to, they weren't going to be forced to stay against there own will.

Thanks for the tour Red Jared.

Trying to calm ourselves, we were now in "Find NFL Draft" mode. Now you think we spent a lot of time trying to a good french meal in Paris, well I think we spent twice as long trying to find the draft. I bet we tried 6 different places...no luck!

One of the hardest things to when trying to find the Draft was how to ask if a restaurant or pub has it on. Should we ask, "Do you have the NFL Draft on?" or simply, "Do you have ESPN?" or what? It was very weird that people hadn't even heard of ESPN, but then Scott put it into context that we really didn't know what the Premiere channel (the "football" or soccor channel in Europe) was until we got here.

Resigned to just find out what happened on the internet, we logged on at a cafe and the Bills were on the clock. And it didn't take Scott long to go to nfl.com where, get this, they were showing the draft LIVE! Couldn't believe it!

The Chiefs had already chosen Glenn Dorsey at this time and the Bills took some no name corner who won't be able to outrun or outjump Moss. But the good news was that we found it and we got to watch a few more of the draft picks before the place closed down.

Man, that was a long and interesting day...

The Berlin Crawl (April 25th)

Jordan and I are cheap. So even though we had the option to stay exactly where we were another night, we decided to save a few Euro and head to a cheaper, much farther away hostel.

After getting lost and walking much farther than we need to (because we walked right past the damn hostel even making a comment about the sign out front that had the name of the hostel on it) we realized that we found it.

The Pantheon, Part II.

Once checked in to our empty and six person dorm we headed out on the town to learn about the history of Berlin through the delivery of Sandeman’s New Europe Free Tour.

The weather as usual (with it not being a travel day) was cold and windy and Jordan and I are dumb, so we didn’t have the proper warm clothing on. Lucky for us our tour guides Irish accent and history tid bits made us feel cozy.

Well, to be honest this tour wasn’t that great. It was more like our guide was reciting than story telling. But he was a nice guy (and not communist) and he was a fellow actor who for some reason moved to a German speaking country (which he doesn’t speak good German) to pursue an acting career.

I wonder if not speaking the language of the audience is like being a professional actor in the Iowa (lack of) market?

No matter how you deliver it, Berlin has some chilling history. From Hitler’s bunker to Check Point Charlie to the Death Strip, Berlin has a history unlike many other places in the world.

Once our overview of Berlin history was over it was time for Jordan and I to rest up for our big night on the town as we were to utilized Sandeman’s New Europe’s non-tour offering:

A PUB CRAWL!

Jordan and I are super cool people.

Added to that, Jordan and I are no doubt very out going but with this exception: When we are surrounded by ugly, non-cool people.

Alright, so that is mean, but it is interesting that it took a hand full of keg beers before we talked to any one (and they seemingly had gotten better looking). But the fun began once the alcohol was properly infused into our systems.

We met a ton of people on this pub crawl: A dude with his Russian femme fatale, two English dudes, a married Australian (he is the one with ring on his finger in the picture) making out with not his wife (same picture) and bunch of other people from all over the world who would take to long to write down (okay so I have a little bit of a memory fog).

We were drunk. The most drunk in all the trip.

At our 5^th and final stop of the pub crawl, Jordan and I decided to head home. So Jordan head off in front of me, just a few steps behind I was, then suddenly I am outside the Club and Jordan is NO where!

So I just start drunkenly yelling his name as if he were Lassie.

Nothing (except a few awkward looks from passersby).

So I got a hot dog from a vendor close by. I sat on the curb and ate my hot dog.

No Jordan.

About 15 minutes passes and one hot dog before the pub crawl leader sees me when he peeks over the fence that holds people in the club and keeps people out (oh Berlin, when will you learn).

He asks me a few questions, I answer and he tells me to get back in the club. I hope this is where Jordan is.

And just as I past the threshold of the door, I find Jordan staring intently, not in search for me, but in the line of an amazingly hot bar dancer in a pink bikini. I stare too.

Jordan takes a few pictures.

We laugh a bit about getting lost from each other and stumble our way to the train station stopping only to get a picture with our Pub Crawl leader who was still doing his best Wilson impression from Home Improvement.

Did I say were drunk? Because we were.

We withheld the urge to pass out on the train but soon gave in to the passing out need once our heads hit our pillows in our still empty six person dorm.

Ah.

Ich bin ein Berliner (April 24th)

Scott and I awoke from our romantic and cozy little B & B refreshed and luckinly NOT spooning. After flirting with the idea of buying a few gifts from Annaliese, Rick Steve's best friend, we decided against it hopped on our train to Berlin.

It's hard to remember cause it was so long ago, but I believe it was an insanely nice day. I know this because we were, of course, traveling. It's been the weirdest thing, but we swear that every single travel day has taunted us with it's nice weather...and then it's either cold or rainy when we have a full day in a city. Oh well...

Come to think of it, I believe the day started out rainy. We were on our first train and we were stopping at a station in the middle of nowhere when one of the passengers heads for the door and trys to tell us something....in German. Very confused, we soon gathered that we were to get off the train. We didn't really know what to do at the point so we got off and followed random people pointing us in different directions until we found a guy standing outside a bus. He was to drive us to the next town where we would then have to wait for the next train.

Now I have recalled this seemingly minor blurp of our day because we stopped and got a beer while we were waiting and took our only picture of the day. I know, it's just a lame shot of us drinking a beer, but man! don't you just feel like you are there with us???

We had heard a lot of cool things about Berlin. Our tour guide, Matt, told us that it was kind of like San Fransisco in the sense that it was kind of always changing. The most bizarre thing we found was that the Wall came down less than 20 years ago. It seems so long ago when you put a number on it, but it was actually VERY recently. They say that although the physical wall is gone, a sort of "Wall of the Mind" is still there for some Berliners.

When we got in, we made our way to Circus Hostel, which believe it or not, isn't really a circus...LAME!!! With that false advertising, we agreed to stay there only one night (which had nothing to do with that being the only night there was room in the hostel).

As with Munich, the first thing we did was set out for a Biergarten and found a very nice one about half a mile away. We got our food and beer and in theory it should've been the same experience as it was in Munich, but it wasn't. Berlin is actually quite different from Munich. They are both completely different types of Germany.

Munich to the south is located in Bavaria, while Berlin to the north is in the Prussian region (i think that's right). Munich felt much more "German" to Scott and I, or at least what we believed Germany to be. Everyone seemed jolly and happy, people shouting Pröst all around as they clanked their beers together, enjoying the festivity of the meal as people had done for hundreds of years before them.

However, in Berlin, culture seemed much more modern. People smoking and enjoying a quiet conversation over coffee was a stark contrast to the boisterous climate in Munich. It's a hard thing to describe, but the two felt very different.

After dinner, we updated our blog, which as you can see is badly in need of updating again. The night was spent drinking a beer in the lounge of our hostel listening to an Irish band. Again, didn't feel very German. Even the beer didn't taste quite the same...

We headed up to the streetside patio to finish our drinks before we went to bed. I quizzed Scott about a few facts that I read from a pamphlet I had gotten at the hostel. The most interesting one was about howKennedy's famous words, "Ich bin ein Berliner" literally translated.

No, it wasn't "I am a Berliner" as was his intention. It apparently translates into, "I am a jelly donut." I have no idea if this is actually correct, remember it was in the pamphlet, but nevertheless the crowd understood what he meant and everyone in Berlin cheered him.

As we drously checked the time on our watches (10:30pm), a tune came into my head. Indulging in the moment, Places Productions sprang to action and created the greatest song ever created, no big deal.

Eh hem...

One beer makes me want to go to bed (Scott falsetto: go to bed)

One beer makes me want to lay down my head (Scott falsetto: lay down my head)

Right now

(Scott falsetto: right now)

Right now

(Scott falsetto: right now)

I know everyone is dying to hear it and I'm sure you'll enjoy it when it comes onto your local radio station. But if you don't get a chance to hear it, have no fear....WE VIDEO RECORDED IT!!!!!!

Knowing there was no way we could ever top that, we went to our room which was brightly lit by a huge billboard and went to sleep.

Places Productions across the globe

Alright, we have been terrible at trying to keep up with our blogs. But please don´t lose heart, they will be coming.

Quick update: Scott and I went from Berlin to Amsterdam, and then to Brussels a few days ago so Scott could catch his flight home.

Currently Scott is on hour 83 of his 167 hour journey home. With any luck, he should be home by Labor Day.

Devestaded by Scott´s departure, I went on a 48 hour bender and woke up in a gutter in Heidleburg, Germany. Word is to the North there is a land full of Scotts, so I will head there in search of guidance and answers.

But seriously, blogs will be coming pretty soon...as long as I can avoid French Keyboards.

And don´t stop checking just cause Scott left, cause he will be blogging about his days alongside mine...he promised.

PP