had a weekend with mom

...and I thought it would be a good time to do away with sleeping.

I also thought it would be a good time to put together my own 72 hour tour of Germany's capital city.

Start your weekend late Thursday night by going out with some friends to a party called Chantal's House of Shame. (Needless to say I thought of my good friend of Chantel.) Apparently the shame part is not optional either. By 4am it is time to rush to the Hauptbahnhof to pick up your mother. Get there a few minutes late and frantically look around the mostly deserted train station to no avail. 1800COLLECT will fail my but your credit card won't. Thanks Visa. After a quick chat with your father, learn that she missed her train and is getting in 4 hours later. Great. Now catch a couple hours of sleep. Oversleep. Eventually find your mother standing by the Starbucks in the station. (Some things never change.)

Now get ready for three fun filled and walking filled days. Start early Friday morning with a visit to the Turkish market (buy tasty cheese, produce, and homemade Bourbon whiskey), cover the former DDR capital all the way to Brandenburg gate, and make a stop at the Holocaust memorial and Hitler's bunker (these two should really always be done in conjunction...it's amazing to see how each space is memorialized so differently) End day one. Woof.

Day two takes us further east to see the East Side Gallery and Karl Marx Allee. Eventually work your way up to the shopping in Hackesher Markt of Mitte. When it starts to rain head home and make dinner.

Now it gets sticky. You really haven't been doing enough, so decide to go out. It IS Saturday night in Berlin. One thing leads to another and you end up at Berghain. Serious clubbing until 8am.

Wake up at 11 and spend the entire day walking. This time take the U-bahn to the Mauerpark flea market (eat cult favorites currywurst and döner kebap and catch great deals later in the afternoon), jump the S-bahn to Potzdamer Platz and grab a coffee or four in the Sony Center (your only stop in the far WEST), and walk the Reichstag government sector (some of the most beautiful contemporary river side architecture you will ever see). Topped the day off with a production at Berliner Ensemble (this Sunday: Mein Kampf, a satire from George Tabori).

Make sure you stay up until 3:30 before you take your mother back to the train station at 8am Monday morning.

Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

Mauerpark

Got up at 7:15 today to go to the Mauerpark Flea Market. We took the train there with a 20% chance of rain, so we were pretty set on staying dry. By the time we got there it was raining. Fine. A little mud doesn't hurt. Except when you're wearing suede shoes.

Anyway. This flea market is amazing. Purchases:

Lizard(?)/leather vintage wallet (With necessary coin purse section)- €7

Leather backpack- €28

Lennon sunglass/clear plastic frame- €4 each

2 beer steins- €4

BIKE- €30

I managed to ask at each stand: "Wie viel kostet das?" Which I believe is asking "How much is that." I got numbers down, so I became the liaison between non English speakers and my fellow bike searching friends. I was proud to carry on conversation with my Bike seller as we talked about the weather and "wo ich komme aus" (answer: NYC).

Right, so now I have a bike. After bathing my suede shoes and soaking through the ass of my jeans I rode home with my new thrifty friends in the light rain. No deaths only one small wipeout between the 4 of us. Good to know: you can't ride with your bike tires in the tram rail lines in the street. Those are for trams. Also good brakes are really good for good bikes. Oops. Again, no death.

Verdict: flea markets im Berlin ist super!

The churchbells are ringing 12 times now. Must go off for another NYUinBerlin sponsored tour or the surrounding area. yay...