Ausfahrt....You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Another lovely day in Berlin!

I woke up this morning to the largest snowflakes I have ever seen in my life! It was so incredible. Then I had one of the best breakfasts I have ever had. So all in all it was a good morning. I am still getting used to being awake during the hours I would normally be asleep, but other than that, I'm doing fairly well.

Today we went to Potsdam Palace and actually stood in the room where Truman, Churchill, and Stalin sat down at that big huge red table. Don't be too envious because it was incredibly drafty in there because even though the entire building has central heating, the vents are not located in a very smart place in that room. Potsdam Palace is really quite nice and we saw a lot of pretty rooms and halls belonging to Prince Wilhem and Princess Cecilia. The best part of Potsdam though were the grounds, even in the winter, they are beautiful. Haiko told us that our tour guide was the best he'd ever seen and that she even put on an American accent for us. One thing I liked a lot about Potsdam was the libraries with the incredibly old books.

San Soucci was the summer palace of Frederick the Great. Sans Soucci literally means "without worry". So that tells you what kind of man Frederick was, lol. Basically, he liked the guilded roccoco art and stuff so we saw A LOT of guilded rooms, walls, etc. I mean gold, marble, and fruits painted everywhere. In a word...gaudy. Again, the grounds were so lovely. Everyone was laughing at me because I touched everything that could be touched at Sans Soucci. The walls, the statues, the marble, the furniture, the chandeliers, the curtains, the glass, the pictures. Speaking of which, some of the artwork was so incredibly beautiful and just captivating.

We ate at a pastry shop on Brandenburg St. It was good.

Okay, funny story of the day...well actually yesterday: On our way home from dinner, Hannah and I of course caught the correct tram. But when we got off, we were in the middle of nowhere and had to walk across this dark parking lot to get back to our hotel. About halfway there, this German man smoking a cigarrette appears and yells "Halo!" to us. We ignored him and started going as fast as we could towards our hotel. But we could not go very fast because the ground was incredibly slippery, lol. It was scary, but we laughed later. Also, whenever we are out, we get asked by peddlers and strangers if we speak English. I say nothing. Hannah lies and says no, lol.

Tomorrow we are going to Prague which is considered to be the most beautiful city in the world. I will let you know if that is true or not.

-ash