Pergamon Museum/ Why we won't be invited back to the Pergamon Museum

The reason we won't be invited back...

Mandy peering around a column at the Pergamon Altar

Me at the Ishtar Gate

BERLIN! (Swamp City)

Brandenburg Tor

Berlin was amazing. It is almost as if that city wanted us to suceed and have amazing fun times. The only thing that thwarted us (me) was the train system.

I am using my Germany pretty sucessfully to my utter delight. I am sure what I consider to be a great sucess on my part is probably viewed as an adorable infirmity by the Germans. Nonetheless-- we are getting where we need to be.

We went on the free tour that ended up lasting five hours... so we got our money's worth. Plus our tour guide was a delight. He eagerly led us around Berlin showing us everything from the Brandenburg Tor to Museum Island. Below is a picture of the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) with a mighty Mandy in the foreground.

We are like Odysseus with lip gloss

"All we thought was: hey, let's be Odysseus. Let's be Byron. Let's be Don Quixote, Huck Finn, and Jack Kerouac all rolled into one-- except with lip gloss."
and exerpt from Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
by Susan Jane Gilman


We arrived safely in Berlin and managed to make it safely to our hostel-- which was a bit further from the airport than expected.

I only have pictures of the inside of the hostel because the outside was... a little depressing. Lets just say it was in the eastern part of east Berlin.

The inside, however, was delightful. We were housed in the Sesame Street wing. Both of us were dead tired when we got to the hostel but we had to smile a bit when Cookie Monster is right outside your door.

Our room was not as innocently decorated. On the wall was a giant painting of a demon-possessed cowboy, a skeleton, and a disembodied eye driving some sort of hell-car towards a haunted house. I think it was Berlin's way of saying "Welcome to Berlin-- sweet dreams!" We embraced the cheerful hellscape, however, and promptly slept for 14hrs.




NEXT DAY: Berlin!

Video Post

found on the "Drawn" blog (http://drawn.ca/)

Entertainment Weekly-- you are on notice!

Things have been tense with me and 'Entertainment Weekly' for a while now. First-- the obsession with Twilight/vampires. Stop giving covers to them! Why doesn't 'Glee' have a cover? Second-- they spoiled the end of 'Battlestar Galactica.' That is a wound that can never be healed. My love for all things pop culture brought me back, though.

But EW has finally crossed the line. The current issue features a spread on The Beatles (what with Rock Band coming out and all of the old albums being re-released) which is great. The treachery, however, came when they compiled a list of the top 5 worst Beatles songs.

Now, I am not so blinded by my love for the Beatles that I don't acknowledge there are a few songs that... probably... weren't so great. There are some bad ones. I admit that! I wasn't prepared, however, for EW to assign the number one worst Beatles song to..."ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE!"

Seriously?!?

The reason being is that it has been played ad nauseam to the point of parody... um-- except NO! Your criteria for "worst song" is how beloved it is?

Nice try, jaded people at EW.

I'm going to go now and have an orchestra play along while I sing about how awesome love is.

Jerks.

Helado!

My sister (the industrious one) is taking Spanish classes at a nearby college. She is still in the early stages of learning the language but is super eager to inject it into everyday conversation. Our conversations go like this now:

Me: Hi, Catherine.

Catherine: Rojo!

None of it makes any sense and usually when I have her translate it for me-- it still doesn't make any sense (see above). My favorite, however, came today when she suddenly appeared in my room and announced the following:

Catherine: No, tu no eres baja y fea.

Me: ...

Catherine: No, you are not short and ugly.

[exit Catherine]

Thank you, Catherine.

In the beginning...

I am about to go to Europe for three months-- from September 22 to December 22. My travel-buddy (and alpha-friend) Mandy and I plan on flying into Berlin and moving on from there and by 'move on' I mean have kickass adventures.

This blog will be where I post everything so family, friends, and complete strangers can see what I am doing. Ideally there will be pictures and stories and it will be interesting. My goal is to make it interesting-- otherwise, why bother?