Court! Birthdays! and Anniversaries!

Wow, so it's been a really long time since I've posted, but as most of you should know, I've not been in Berlin that much. First Krakow, then Spring Break, then Hungary and Romania. But! Now I've finally got some free time to at least start to write about whats been going on. I'm first going to write about Court's visit then our Spring Break. Then I'll fill you all in about my travels to Budapest and Transylvania.

Court arrived on Saturday, the 15th of March. At this point in time, the BVG was on strike again so there was no direct route to get from my apartment to Tegel Airport. I first had to walk to an S-Bahn station, and take one of the alternative trains to the Hauptbahnhof (Main Railway Station) and from there they were running some buses to the airport. Although her flight arrived about 15 minutes, it took a quite a while for her to come out of the terminal (the must of been slow with the luggage). She made a German friend on the flight and the girl helped her with one of her bags until she found me. I had to laugh when I first saw her face because the expression just spelled, "UGH! My Life!" I knew she was tired and had a long long long flight, but I was happy as could be to see her and justed wanted to give her a great big hug and kiss her! So I did haha. I explained that we would have to take a round-about way to get home since the transportation systems were on strike and we proceeded to my apartment. We climbed the stairs and Court noted that she really had to pee and was wicked tired because she didn't get hardly any sleep on the plane. Little did she know, that she had a surprise waiting for her.

So we walked in the door and she saw an envelope with her name on it taped to my door. She put her bags down, but instead of making her way to the envelope she ran to empty her bladder. When she was finished she removed the envelope, I put her things in my room, and she discovered the surprise. For our one year anniversary (which actually wasn't until the 24th), I booked travel reservations for us to go to Vienna and Salzburg, Austria and Munich, Germany together. She was very surprised and loved it. I apologized to her for not being able to get much rest and eleveate the jet lag, but we were flying out Monday. She then presented me with books from my grandmother, some birthday cards from my little cousins, a card and some chocolate from her parents, and her birthday and anniversary gift to me. I loved everything! She bought me a brand new and top of the line digital camera! And also got us tickets to go see Country Fest this summer at Gillette Stadium. The gifts were perfect. The rest of the day we just chilled, had dinner, and hung out in my apartment. On Sunday, we met up with a couple of friends and checked out one of the biggest Flea Markets in town, then I took her to the best ice cream place in the city. We packed and got ready for our trip and luckily found out that the next day, the BVG was going off strike and we would easily be able to make it to the airport.

So to fast forward through our trip, we arrived back in Berlin Saturday afternoon (the 22nd). We made our way back to the apartment then went and picked up some food for dinner and unpacked. Court made me a delicious pre-birthday dinner. She made a yummy meatloaf all by herself. It was delicious. We didn't go out or anything the rest of the evening, but just rested. The next day was my birthday and we didn't have any special plans and most of my group was still gone. But I did want to show her around the city. So she made breakfast, then we headed out. The weather wasn't too bad, but kinda chilly. I took her to Potsdamer Platz where I showed her remnents of the former Berlin Wall and memorials where the wall used to lie. We then walked a little ways to the Sony Center and checked out the square there. We proceeded to walk along the Tiergarten to Mitte where I first showed her the world famous Brandenburg Gate. I showed and explained all the buildings in Pariser Platz in front of the Gate and there were some breakdancers there that we watched for a little while. After that we decided to get something warm to drink, so we walked to the end of the Platz and went into the Dunkin' Donuts. This was my first time having Dunkin since being in Berlin. It's quite a bit different from home, and frankly, I like the Dunkin' back home better.

The rest of the time, I just wanted to show her Mitte (the city center). I walked her to the government district and showed her the parliament buildings and the Reichstag. We walked down Unter Den Linden and I showed her some embassies, the Ferrari store, Humboldt University, and then the Neue Woche (fallen soldier memorial). We walked to Museum Island from there and saw some WWII ruins and the Chancellors residence. After looking at a bunch of the museums, I wanted to show her one more thing. I brought her to the square in front of Humboldt University where a memorial to the book burnings committed by the Nazis is located. After that we went home.

Later that day, we went to one of my favorite restaurants for my birthday dinner. We went to Hell oder Dunkel and the food was great and we had some nice long conversations. Before leaving I heard from a couple of friends who had returned back from their travels and we made plans to meet up later. Then, I asked for the check and something I've never seen before happened. The waitress brought the check over, but she also brought two free shots of Jager over as well. I couldn't understand why they gave us the shots, as they didn't know it was my birthday. The only conclusion I could come up with was that it was also Easter and this was to celebrate the holiday. After dinner, we went back to the apartment. Brian returned shortly after and then my friends showed up. We all went to a local bar, Slumberland, and they bought me a couple of drinks. We didn't stay out long, and all headed home. It was a great birthday.

The next day was mine and Courts 1 year anniversary. Unfortunately I had a pre-departure meeting at 11 with my group, since we were leaving for Hungary and Romania the next day. The meeting was kinda boring and lasted way too long. After the meeting a few of us went to pick some things up for our trip then Brian and I headed back to our apartment. I did some work I needed to get done before leaving then we made dinner. In the afternoon I took Court to the famous Palace here in Berlin - Schloss Charlottenburg. We walked all around the outside of the palace and through the gardens. Then I took her to a traditional German restaurant near by where we enjoyed a beer and some goulosh soup. After that, we both wanted some ice cream for dessert, so we went back to Potsdamer Platz for Gillatto. The ice cream was delicious, at least mine was haha. Court didn't enjoy hers and I actually dropped the last of mine lol. The next day we unfortunately had to say our goodbyes, as she headed back to the States and I headed off to eastern Europe. The week was amazing and I had one of the best birthdays and a great anniversary. I couldn't have asked for more.