Ampelmann

Finally done with all the big, must-see things in the city, today was a day of downtime that we were more than happy to spend leisurely. Our goal for the day was to get Laura's souvenir shopping done. She had some specific things in mind, and while I have had an incredible time in this city and wanted to get something, I had no idea what to get and I wasn't planning about stressing about it.

We started at Alexanderplatz and actually found what Laura was looking for (a really cool bag with the "divided city" screen printed on it) but decided to shop around for sizes/prices, and also I thought I saw a similar bag with patches on it instead of a screen print. So we left that shop and I found an ice cream place in Alexanderplatz with a large line coming out of it so I decided I'd jump on that bandwagon. I ate my ice cream outside watching the people and the fountain in the middle of the square. I love people watching. And ice cream. And eating/sitting outside in Europe.

Before continuing souvenir shopping, we went to the culture carnvial again so I could get some kind of exotic street food. I found an Ethiopian booth and for 3 euros I got a pita type thing filled with haloumi (fried cheese!!!), lettuce, and a sesame seed sauce. It was delicious!

Then we chased all around the city looking for more souvenirs, and finally Laura got her back and I found a little memento I liked too. See, when we first got here, we were crossing the street and I commented, "These are the cutest little street crossing people in the whole world! And since I actually have been around the world, Yes, I do feel justified in saying that." Well, on our guided tour somebody commented on the cute street crossing people to Stephanie, our awesome guide. See, in the States, we just have boring "WALK" and "DON'T WALK" signs in green and red, respectively. But here, in East Berlin, they have something called the Ampelmann. Stephanie told us that if a German comes up to us and and explains that the Ampelmann is named after German men being "Ample" not to believe them haha. Apparently, the red and green Ampelmann's that ditcate when you can cross are an extremely beloved cultural artifact of East Germany. Everybody LOVES this little cartoon looking guy, he's just so cute. In Dresden, there is a girl version who has pig tails, but here there's just the Ampelmann. Stephanie told us that we would see entire stores dedicated to selling Ampelmann stuff, they put this little dude on everything and then sell it. So, since I adored the Ampelmann, I got a little Ampelmann bottle opener. He's in the shape he makes during a green walk light, and front foot and hand are magically positioned perfectly to open bottles. A useful, small, light weight souvenir. Love it.

When souvenirs were accounted for, we went back to Steph's place and soon some other CouchSurfers came over with their host. They were two boys named Wolfgand and Kip. Kip is short for Christopher. Wolfgang started out as a joke freshman year of college (the kid's real name is Jakob), and it stuck "a little bit too well," and now that's what everybody calls him. Their CS host was named Sarah, and we of course welcomed having more people around! We all went grocery shopping together since a BBQ with tons of boys from Steph's flat was in the works in the courtyard below. Laura and I got some pork steaks and some German beer, Steph made this amazing salad, and dinner went quite well.

The coolest part of the night though was getting to watch the Champion's League final in Berlin. Not in some sports bar, like thousands of other people all across Europe, but in Steph's back courtyard. The boys had brought out couches and there were tons of lawn chairs out. They had a projector which projected the game onto a blank wall in the courtyard big enough for everybody to see well. It was a such a local thing to do - you definitely couldn't "try" to find an experience like this or read about it in a guide book. And....THIS is why I love CouchSurfing :) Haha. Still coming up with new reasons all the time. For those of you that don't know, the Champions League is what tons of European teams play in that you've probably heard of (Manchester United, Real Madrid, etc etc). Tonight's game was the final and the competing teams were from Germany (Munich) and Italy. I know I don't watch that much soccer on TV in the States, but for some reason watching it in Europe is so exciting. Maybe it's just because everybody is obsessed with soccer over here and have such passionate loyalites and the teams are so good that 90 minutes goes by pretty quickly. At any rate, it was awesome to watch that game in Europe!

Afterward, the courtyard was a royal mess but everybody just piled inside anyway, leaving uneaten sausages and empty bottles behind. We talked with Sarah and the boys for a bit, but they decided to try to go out clubbing and since it was already pretty late and since we were up til 5 AM last night I was not in any kind of mood to pay money to go to a club. So we called it an early night and stayed in with Steph, hoping to get a good night's sleep before our last day in this unique city.