We are already in Germany?

Kim and I made it to Berlin on Wednesday night after a long journey of delays and unexpected stops in strange towns. We are staying with a good friend, Staci, who graduated from Purdue 3 years ago and is now living in Germany. She is a very daring and patient girl to offer to host us for the five days we decided to stick around. So far it has been a lot of fun and very relaxing after many days of hostel hopping. We are staying in her dorm room (she is currently working on her masters) which is quite small but if it can fit a Vawter, it can house a family of 12. The day after we arrived Staci had to work since she expected us a lot later than we had lead on in the beginning of the week. This was okay cause Kimberly and I got the chance to run around and look at some real touristy things that Staci for sure didnt wanna see again and again. Things have definitely got a lot more interesting here cause you dont find as many people who speak english and the ones that do you find yourself doing a combination of pictionary and sign language more than speaking actual words. We got to experience the taste of a famous Currywurst and walked down the street with an ice cold beer with no worries. The things we saw for the few hours while staci was working was definitely an eye opening experience. Although we have seen it in history books and on the big screen, seeing land marks such as remains of the berlin wall and holocaust memorial are unreal. Berlin in general is just a different kind of city, walking and biking around gives you a sort of vibe that is unexplainable.

Today was a different sort of day. We chose to keep it a little more low key since the weather called for unbearable heat. We were able to borrow some extra bikes from some friends of Stacis and boy do they REALLY bike ride around here. Last night we only had two bikes for the day so we had to get used to one person sitting on the back where a basket would potentially go. Somehow I seemed to be the guinea pig in this experiment. Lets just say it ended in tears--but the good kind of tears. Kim and I were unstoppable and I am sure we had the whole neighborhood on their balconys by the time we got the hang of it. I know ive mentioned this before with bikers in europe but damn, you gotta watch your backside or else youll find yourself face down waiting to be peeled off the sidewalk. Now when it comes to actually biking next to these people you gotta make sure you keep the pace and utilize those little bells you thought you would never actually use for a real purpose. As we were headed off to get the 3rd bike we conveniently passed a piercing shop...ill let kim tell you about that one. Then we were off to the canal area where for a few euros we went out onto a dock to lay in the sun and attached was a swimming pool that was actually set into the canal...i dont know, its weird! By the end of that it was later in the day and I was soo exhausted from the heat that I could barely stay awake to bike home...dont worry, a fire was lit under my___by the time we hit the bike trail. We will be up before the sun tomorrow since we are catching an early train up to northern germany to spend the day on the Baltic Sea in the expected mid 90 degree weather. Tomorrow is of course the Germany-Argentina game so the atmosphere around this place has already begun to get a little tense. I am sure no matter what the outcome this place will be insane. We will spend the 4th of July with our fellow American and head out to Prague on Monday morning---heard that place was awesome. We will, once again, be unstoppable!!!