 After spending the weekend with Jana, Heike picked me for a week of travel. The first city we headed to was Berlin. Jana set us up in some guy's apartment for only 15 euros per night. We got kind of lost driving into Berlin. I don't recall what this thing is, I think I took a picture of it during some tour.
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 This is a picture of some memorial to some building that was knocked down. They didn't want to rebuild the entire thing, so they just rebuild the corner. I think the building had something to do with art (Heike, is this right?).
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 This is a nice picture of an office building in Berlin. There is a lot of building going on in Berlin. I found the architecture to be beautiful. I liked all the little notches on this building.
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 This is the trendy office building of Deutsche Bahn (German Train in english). The German's seem to like their trains. I took trains all over the country so I can also appreciate them. Very nice.
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 Heike likes to take pictures of strange things. When I got my film back from her, I found all kinds of pictures that I had no idea she took. Here is an example. I know nothing about this old German man.
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 I'm having some kind of pastry for breakfast in a little bakery. I ate something like this almost every morning. My typical daily food on the trip was a large breakfast of fresh rolls topped with Nutella, meats, and cheeses; some enourmous pastry; skipped lunch but had some kind of ice cream in the early afternoon; and then a late dinner. I never ate so well.
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 Heike and I took a bus tour of Berlin. In the background is Potsdamer Platz. I think there is still part of the Berlin wall here. We walked around this stop earlier and checked out some art and all the building going on.
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 The last city I went to was Hamburg. Its a huge port city. Here is a good view of some ship coming into the port. Heike and I stayed at her brother Sven's dorm. Sven's room wasn't big, and I slept on the floor, but it was free and interesting to see how a German college student lives (although Sven recently graduated).
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 American fast food culture is definitely attacking Germany. I thought this was espically interesting. It seems that Burger King bought this old building (probably it is hundreds of years old, and full of history), and turned it into a fast food restaurant. Its no wonder the Germans scaulk at our culture, but as you can clearly see, the place is buzzing. If you look close, you can see me sitting to the right of the lion statue.
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 In Hamburg, the public transportation extends across the water. We were waiting for the ferry to come and pick us up, and give us a little tour of the harbor. I remember sitting on this boat tie thinking about the trip.
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 Heike must have taken this picture as we were walking up from the port. In addition to guided tours, Heike and I took the ferry around the harbor in Hamburg. If we saw a stop that looked interesting, we got off and explored. I remember walking around these nice houses along the harbor.
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 On our little exploration of the city, we got a little tired from time to time. We stopped for a little rest and some coffee. This coffee shop was charming. I also ordered some potato skins, but they weren't much like the ones you get in the states. They had mushroom sauce and all kinds of other interesting toppings; quite enjoyable.
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 Heike loves to take pictures, but she doesn't much like to be in them (in case you haven't noticed that this is the first one she is in). Heike made dinner for Sven and myself everynight, and in the morning she would always be up before me, and go buy fresh rolls for me so I would have them when I got up. She took such good care of me. This is the common kitchen in Sven's dorm.
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 A rare sighting of German's in their stereotypical dress. It was about 10 in the morning, and these guys were already drinking and womanizing. They were preparing for a festival that night. There was a concert in the square in front of the city hall. I remember listening to the band's introduction, I couldn't understand a thing of it. All the Germans were cheering as the intro guy talked about the band. Then, they started singing, and to my surprise they sang everything in English. They weren't very good, I thought it was so interesting that I was probably one of the few people in the crowd who could understand them. The next morning Jana, Heike, and I left for Frankfurt. I thought we had plenty of time to make the trip, but we ran into a lot of traffic jams. We tried to go around some, but it began to look like we weren't going to make it. The memory of Jana and I in the back seat, and Heike in the front seat pushing this old car as fast as it would go is burned into my memory. When we weren't in gridlock, we were going over 100 mph, which definitely wasn't safe in this car. We got to the airport about 50 minutes before my flight was to take off, but it was too late, they wouldn't let me on. So, I decided to make the most of my extra day in Germany. I got some hotel rooms for us, and we decided to go out to dinner. We stayed in a kind of small town between Frankfurt and the airport. The hotel's clerk suggested a nice little restaurant in the town saying it had a nice atmosphere. We spent at least an hour walking around this little town looking for it. Finally Jana asked a guy driving by, and he offered to give us a ride there; sketchy, but effective. I found this place charming. I had a big plate of lamb chops. I also found it interesting that they played 80's rock in the background. We were sitting in a dark little place that was absolutely wonderful, great food, and to help set the mood were such songs as Jessie's Girl and Centerfold. I don't think the Germans had any idea what they were listening to. I'm glad I missed my plane.
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