Yay! Monica!

Monica and I have taken TONS of pics (thanks Dad, that camera has gotten sooooooo much use!). Some of the following are from the two-hour bus tour we took yesterday where we saw many sites of interest and even drove down the Reeperbahn (red light district). In the pics you can see Monica's view of the Michel, or Saint Michael's church, very famous here. We also have Mon and I in the bus, the singing man with Santa in the underground, snow on trees near the harbor, a canal, and a biker following our double decker bus. What fun!

Then yesterday Monica and I met a friend of mine, Suz, for a coffee and Christmas markets. We went to one of my favorite cafes, Cafe Dilo, which is Turkish. Mmmm. She took some pics of the food. So yummy! And then we have pics of them eating Gruenkohl (cooked green cabage, a very traditional thing here) with Wurst (sausage) and Bratkartoffel (fried potatoes) and also of us all drinking Feuerzaugenbowle (similiar to Gluehwein but it's the one where they add the sugar and it lights up with fire! Megan, do you remember that in Tueb?).

And finally this morning we got up way too early to make it all the way to the Fischmarkt (fish market). In summer it is from 5-9 am and winter 7-9 (only Sunday mornings) and you are supposed to go party all night on the Reeperbahn and then hit the market for breakfast. We went to a movie last night (which was in German and I got to translate, because the English films they were showing were boring) then came home and slept, and got up early instead of partying. It was freezing cold (some of the canals are starting to freeze) and slightly commercialized, but great fun! We got salt water pearls at a crazy cheap price. Can you imagine? Very cool!

Currently Monica is jet-lagging majorly and sleeping. I'm trying to find a cheap enough place for us to stay in Berlin. We are going for two days after Christmas so she can get some history and proper tourism in. It's a wonderful city with so much to see!

The pics below are of eel (ew!), a view of a few stands, and us first thing in the morning and quite tired.