Ostern

Happy Easter!

Matthias and I woke up early today and had breakfast in the hostel. I found a church nearby (called St. Matthias, actually) and we decided to go to the 11 am mass. Since we had awoken so early and Matthias wasn't feeling too well we thought we'd hang out in the room for a little while and rest. Three hours later we woke up, missed mass, and lost our early morning start.

So, then it was time to make up for lost time. We headed for the zoo. The Berlin Zoo was very nice. We saw Knut the polar bear who was a huge hit. There were people everywhere! (Knut was born at the zoo about 2 years ago and highly prized. He's like the pandas at the national zoo. The Berlin Zoo actually has a panda but virtually noone was watching him. The 2 new baby tigers got a good bit of attention and we actually watched the wolves get fed dead chickens and hens. Kind of crazy, but amazing too.

After the zoo we got on the local bus that they say gives a good oversight of the city. We drove around and saw the major sites we planned to visit tomorrow and then got off to explore the Sieges Säule. This was the first time I noticed damage from the war. There were bullet holes in the sides of the building and in the decoration.

After that we headed to Potsdammer Platz and visited the Sony center ...just some cool newly constructed buildings and, according to Matthias, the largest construction zone in Germany for quite awhile.

For dinner we went to a German restaurant. Matthias had some wienerschnitzel and I had the Puten ge schnitzeltes. The other view for the evening was the street lined with prostitutes in thigh high plastic boots.

Matthias finished Box 1 of the milchschnitte and we headed to bed.