prenzlauer berg

This is the building where the apartment that we rented was located in, it's the one with the lit windows on the third floor above "le poulette."

in brief, this is the layout of the first few days.
saturday - got a ride out to the Newark airport from and caught the flight, it was pretty uneventful. they played that will smith movie "pursuit of happiness" which, needless to say, i didn't watch. we had brought along the first season on "rome" to watch on the laptop but there was some weirdo stuff happening with the media player so that didn't work out. instead i read about the history of berlin.

sunday - we got into koln, with the time change, around 8am. our plan was to catch the train to berlin but we decided to try and book a flight instead...no luck on that end as the early flights were full. so it was off to the train station, which was conveniently located... at the airport. we hopped on the train and caught a bit of sleep after a tasty breakfast of fruit and breads. we got into the city around 3 and caught a cab to meet with the guy whose apartment we were renting (pictured above) he was super nice and gave us some recommendations for places to get something to eat as we were both pretty hungry. after a shower and a change of clothes, we went out in search of something to eat. after walking around for an hour or so, checking out the imediate neighborhood of prenzlauer berg, we ended up a small cafe where we enjoyed a lamb ragu over homemade pappardelle and a pizza topped with bresaola and arugula. after eating we met some dudes sitting at the next table who were nice enough to write down a bunch of stuff to do while in berlin. advice from the locals is invaluable advice. afterwards, we got the check and wandered back towards the apartment. stopping briefly for another drink at another cafe in an attempt to fight the jet lag that robin and i were both feeling....later days to follow. in the meantime, some pictures from the first few days are up on flickr already...