Arrival

After school the Monday I last posted, Olga and I bought vanilla and strawberry ice cream to eat with our blueberries. we went home and she made chicken-honey-mango-cinnamon-rice stir fry and that was delicious. i also had some scrambled eggs and talked to mom on the phone while i quickly packed. I was going to go to sleep early but then Aidan texted and said that he wanted us to go to Whitethorn and have free dessert. So we told him to collect us in about an hour and I went and quick showered and got ready. Lydnsey yelled from downstairs if we had turned anything on and we said no, confused. we went downstairs and the light in the washroom had turned on by itself and the fan was smoking and smelt like electrical fire. The light popped off and we called Robert Wainwright and he said he'd be over at 9.25. Aidan texted and said his meeting ran late so he couldn't come get us. Olga and I moped around the kitchen, being all dressed up, and stood up haha. I texted (the other) Robert and Chris Ellis to see if they were working/where they were. Robert was in Dublin till Thursday. Robert got there and disconnected the fan and light, apparently it turned on due to wherever that leak was from. We told him about being bummed over being stood up for our dessert party and he said we could come out with him because it was his turn to do the lotto and he'd end up at Monk's. So we got in his car - Mazda 6 with red dash lights. He had Guns n Roses in the cd player. We drove around to several places getting tickets and we changed the CD to Red Hot Chili Peppers. Chris texted back after a bit & I told him we'd end up at Monks. We got there and Curnán was working which was nice. Olga sat with Robert and two other older gentlemen and I sat at the bar with Chris and Curnán. He started inventing drinks for us to try. My favourite was the soco & some kind of soda. Robert & Olga & everyone left and we turned off the lights & locked the door and hung out for a bit more at the bar and then they both walked me home.

Olga made omlettes and I got my backpack. The bus arrived (4.15) and we talked on the bus for a bit & eventually I fell asleep. We got to the airport (Dublin) and checked in. Security was tighter than the last time I had gone through but it was still fairly quick. We saw a guy who looked just like Philip's doppleganger. I had a bacon & salad sandwich & Bulmers and then we sat in the waiting area. Olga drew a picture of Noah & I that I have to remember to scan because it was really quite good. We decided that when we get back to the states we want to take a road trip up to Nova Scotia. I got a window seat - 27A. Flight 332 - Berlin SXF (Schoenefeld). Actually we are very lucky because apparently Aer Lingus was going to be on strike but they broke right before our departure date (over the weekend). Supposedly there were still some issues with air traffic controllers, but we didn't end up having any problems. I slept on the plane but my knee got really cramped and hurt. We got out, went through customs, got on our bus. The time change made it an hour later.

Random facts thanks to our sort-of tour guide:
-3.4 million people live in Berlin
-Our airport was in former East Germany, south of the city center itself
-15% of people are immigrants
-Many are Turkish, then Polish and Russian
-Many Polish Berliners only work there during the week and go back 60km to Poland on weekends
-Berlin is the 2nd largest country next to London
-Polish people used to be notorious for stealing cars there. They had a joke of a public service announcement that went, "Come visit us in Poland, your car's already here"
-she said she told that joke to a bunch of people from Poland and they laughed and said "Those were the good old days, now the Ukranians steal our cars!"
-15% unemployment
-Economy is recovering although not nearly as good as Celtic Tiger
-36% green
-7% water
-900 sq kilom.
-No closing hour for pubs/restaurants
-mostly no smoking, or separate rooms
-some pubs have "heating mushrooms" patio heaters to stand around outside
-to make new words they combine words to describe it, which is why many words are so long
-Prince of Monaco was there that day

It was raining a bit, but much warmer than Dublin was. I was excited that they apparently had a nightlife there, as opposed to London. A building to the right of the bus, steel concrete covered in limestone tiles, was built by the Nazis. Hitler wanted buildings to look like Roman ruins hundreds of years later.
The architecture in Berlin is so great because they had so much room to work in. Potsamer Platz (spelling?) was a desert from the war. They made a new city center there. The first traffic light in Europe was put there in 1924.
We saw an ad for Germany's Next Top Model - they were prettier than the american version

We got to our hotel and Kristen, Carra, Hanna, Raychel, Morgan and I settled in. Rayray, Hannah, Morgan and Carra slept. I looked through a bunch of cool handouts. We met upstairs at 6 to go on a walking tour led by Tim. Olga and Martina had found a sushi place and also Olga got an oriental dress that Martina said she'd kill her if she didn't get haha. We followed Tim to Checkpoint Charlie. There were a lot of architecturally amazing apartment and office buildings, many of which had red, blue or green tinted windows. We followed him around a bit more and then were too hungry so Martina Olga and I took the Ubahn back to our hotel's neighborhood. We saw Angel Shannalia and Aoife on the way to sushi. Olga and I successfully converted Martina into a sushi lover. Then we went to try and meet up with the other 3 girls...

and that is where I must leave you, in anticipation, to wait for the continuation of the story!