The First Weekend In Germany
On Saturday I woke up feeling quite tired from the movie night at Svens that half our group went to, and i think everyone else that came probably felt the same. I told myself i was in Germany (!!!) and was immediately wide awake and ready for whatever.
At about 11 o'clock my host mother Gabi, my host sister Jessi and i drove to Potsdam for a girls day out ie. shopping. Gabi knew i'd be tired so she set out an easy-going day for me. We went to a mall called Sterncenter and i bought lots of clothes from H&M (hopefully not too much). Jessi and i bought each other matching bracelets that we must always wear to remember each other. :) Afterwards we bought some Jellybellies (which have slightly different flavours here) and a chocolate sundae from McDonalds. I still haven't tried the Magnum McFlurry which i think everyone else is dying to too.
It was five when we got home (oh, how time flies when shopping) and Jessi and i played Wii for a hour. I lost most of the time. :( We got changed for Marie's party but first the whole family and i went to see the Handball game between HV G.-W Werder and Grünheider SV at Ernst-Haeckel Gymnasium. I had never seen handball before and i had lots of fun cheering for Werder. I only saw 20 minutes of it but it seemed like Grünheider was always a little ahead.
Jessi and i left at halftime to go to Marie's party and we arrived fashionably late. It was outside and i was soo glad i brought two jackets and wore both. A big bonfire was set up with tonnes of wood around and awful music playing. There was lots of laughter and everyone got to know each other better. The food was mostly popcorn and salads, and the marshmallows couldn't be toasted as we were getting toasted ourselves in the heat of the massive fire. Overall, good party. :)
We got home at 11 something and i was very "K.O", as they say here. I passed out soon after and was woken up at 9-ish. We had another wonderful breakfast of cereal, a boiled egg, toast, bread and spreads, strawberries and red Christmas tea. Marcel (Jessi's boyfriend) accompanied us for the day.
We had a train to Berlin to catch at 10.20 and we were late. We broke a few speed limits and caught it just in time. We arrived somewhere and got lost for 45 mins in train stations (lol) but thankfully we didn't have any reservations for the day. Gabi and Torsten told us they had a surprise for me and Jessi didn't know either and spent the whole day guessing what it could be.
The first place we went to was Madame Tussauds. I had lots of fun taking silly pictures and learning how the wax firgures were made. Most of them looked really real but some people i couldn't recognise at all. I bought a photo of us all for keepsakes and i even got a wax hand of my own hand made. Marcel and Jessie got one of them holding hands. It only cost €7.50, unlike the bobbleheads of yourself which were €65 a pop. Its pretty cool, although hollow, and i will use it as a jewellery holder. Afterwards we got lost with the trains again for a while but finally reached Mariendorf at some point for the best currywurst in Berlin. We walked past a doner kebab shop that had 50 people waiting in line, and the queue for the currywurst at Curry 36° wasn't short either. Apparently lots of actors and congressmen come to eat lunch there too. All of us ate two currywursts with french fries, sauce and mayo. It was delicious. :D
We caught another train, to Alexander Platz this time, and it was now time for us to know the surprise. I had told the family earlier that a little goal of mine was to go hot air ballooning in as many countries as i could. They remembered this and decided to take me to the Die Welt Ballon (the world balloon) to view Berlin from above. Unfortunately it was a little bit too windy to go up. I was so happy that they thought of taking me that i wasn't even a bit sad that we couldn't.
We decided to go around the corner to visit Berlin's Fernsehturm (TV tower). After buying tickets we had some time to kill before we could go up so we bought some ice cream. I bought one with a flavour i had never heard before, and had no explaination, and also is the same colour as our nz to germany t-shirts. It was called Puffo, and tasted quite like bubblegum. My host family showed me the Weltzeituhr (world time clock) for a bit and then we went up the Fernsehturm.
The Fernsehturm is 40m taller than the Sky Tower and was packed. We could see everything clearly as there hadn't been a cloud in the sky all day and because everything is flat. It was breathtaking to see all of Berlin and more at near sunset.
- Niki.
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