Not Yet Settled...Free to Go: Night to Relax...Kinda

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Night to Relax...Kinda

Hello North America! (and any non-North Americans that I don't know about).

It's been a slow night over here in Berlin, which is fine by me. The past three nights there have been a couple of people over here from my company who are bidding on a different contract with RR...like always, I can't say what, but that wouldn't matter to most of you anyways. So anyways, pictures are at the bottom.

One of the guys who was with them, and who may end up coming over here to be on-site for that project, is a 40-50 year old contract worker that is fairly new to the group. He likes to have fun, unlike the other guys that came with him, so that meant that I had someone to hang out in Berlin with for a few days. We didn't do anything terribly exciting though.

Unfortunately, there weren't any good soccer games going on while they were here, so there wasn't as much craziness downtown this time. But we did go down there twice and looked around some of the areas that I had already seen, as well as a new market that I hadn't seen, called the Genarmen Markt. It was gorgeous. There are 2 cathedrals at either end, the Deutscher (German) Dom at the south, and the Franzosischer (French) Dom on the north. Then on the west side is the Konzerthaus (Concert House). These buildings were build around 1700, were destroyed during WW2, and have been rebuilt since.

We then went for dinner at the Lowenbrau Haus before heading to see the Reichstag again and then the fan mile. My co-worker wanted to pick up some shirts, so I got one as well. Before I forget to mention it, at the Lowenbrau haus I saw one of Berlin's famous 1 litre steins of beer, so I got a picture of one. They let me put my sunglasses beside it for context.

Anyways, running around being the tour-guide was quite tiring, because I really didn't know much more than the people I was leading around. But it was nice to have the company.

So tonight I have just been taking it easy. I bought some snackfood from a grocery store so that I don't have to be constantly ripped off when I'm hungry, then I went out to dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. The food was amazing, and I took a book along so that I wouldn't just be sitting there staring at other people. It is strange to eat out alone though, but by the end of this trip I will be used to it. After all of that, I came back home and have just been listening to some music, watching CNN, and posting pictures and a blog.

And that's about it. I'm looking forward to a busy weekend with a German soccer match here in Berlin that is happening tomorrow at 5pm. Saturday there are more games, but I may try to see more of the city. Then on Saturday I am going to try a different church in my attempt to meet some friends. Who knows what will happen, but as always, I will take any interesting pictures that I see, and I'll post a blog when I get the chance.