Jet lagged thoughts

So our guide told us jet lag wouldn't hit until day 2 or 3...I am up wayyy too early so figured I would jot down some thoughts and observations we have had about Berlin so far so I don't forget them!
Berlin is a really progressive and accepting city. 3rd most gay-friendly city in the world. Tons of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, a place for exploring many things. Apparently big club scene which we are not into and we haven't really seen that side of Berlin ourselves.
Biking is really common because the city is flat everywhere and set up for bikes. Bikes have lanes on sidewalks and on the street. The locals ride so fast. Didn't take long to realize we were not supposed to walk in the bike lane!
Walking considered strange. we were told a 20-25 min walk was "probably too far to walk" to a suggested restaurant so the reaction from the reception girl at the hostel was priceless when we told her we walked for an hour from the main city center back to our hostel last night.
Drinking openly on the street is totally accepted. Small markets or any place you can buy bottles have bottle openers hanging so you can open your beer and drink as you walk on the street. I have yet to have run across anyone who was really drunk in public.
Sirens sound just like the movies. We were woken up by one yesterday early a.m. super surreal
Hostel is really nice. Clean, big, bunkbeds, clean sheets, comfortable, we have a private bathroom. Good breakfast. we feel old because we are going to bed so early and not staying up late drinking or out. Met some nice Canadians yesterday in the kitchen making their own food. If we were here longer would be fun to do to save money and fun to shop at a local grocery store. Went into an Apotheke (drug store) to find tissue for Amy. They have most everything we'd need which is nice. Also walked through a grocery store that seemed like a Grocery Outlet back home. Made you walk through a turnstile getting in and only way out was through checkout line. we are buying bottled water in favor of refilling because its not standard to drink tap water. We tasted it and its fine but easier to buy bottles while out, esp on the train because their water isn't potable.
Lots of Australians here! And lots of people from x or y place, but living in a or b place and have an awesome mixed accent. Feel inadequate in our world exposure, understanding of culture, not knowing more languages. Cool to be around such diversity.
Not many children. Few babies. The few children we see are riding on backs of parents bikes, running around by themselves getting to school or even out late with friends walking around or are tourists kids. Strollers are not compact, rather large. Strange for such a big city.
Dogs everywhere, some familiar breeds like German shepherds, golden retrievers, smaller breeds, and some we haven't seen before. we think we saw a flat coat retriever, betty and Doug! Almost all off leash and well trained, well behaved. Know street safety, respond to minimal commands from owners. Fun!
Traffic is a little hectic. Most lights are easy to understand. Our guide helped us learn that unmarked or intersections with no lights or stops means the people on right have rightaway. Usually cars. People and bikes squeak thru whenever an opening, always waiting for cars. The cars don't wait for pedestrians unless.pedestrians have green walk signal.
A lot of construction! Berlin is in some crazy amount of debt even though Germany as a whole is doing well. For the last few years though they has been in worse state than now - now are on the up and up, so doing tons of street construction and restoration of buildings.
Fascinating to see all these historic buildings but all of them have been rebuilt numerous times (of course after bombings, etc) and include only parts of the original structure or statues, etc.
Berlin is new capital, for only 14 years, so lots of newer government buildings. Have walked by French, American, Spain, Brazil, Chinese, Lichtenstein & Canadian (and more that I can't remember) embassies. Fun to see the flags and different styles of buildings and levels of security.
Haven't figured out if our passes also work on the U Bahn, underground train, so hopefully we will figure a little bit more out about public transportation.
Attitudes about medicine are really conservative. Medications that are OTC like ibuprofen are sold in small quantity like 6 pills, for example. Our bike guide Alex said that his doctor prescribed him tea when he went in because he was really sick. :) Yet everyone smokes! Can't figure that one out, but Really different attitudes about medicine and food. Lots of local food from local farms, and we are enjoying (mostly Michelle and James) the really yummy full fat antibiotic free milk everywhere. Had to splurge on a German Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks (i know...) And it was amazing. Cornflakes and milk at the hostel was so good too. Felt like we were actually drinking stuff that was meant to be put in our bodies, and hasn't given us bad lactose reactions like we are having at home.
Surprised by number of Germans who don't speak as much English as we thought they would. On train getting in, guy checking our tickets and guy in food car barely spoke 2 words of English. We are learning some phrases and trying to speak more, which we can tell is appreciated. Helps having James along because he is so friendly and not afraid.to ask questions. Glad we are starting our trip all together so when we split for a few days this weekend we will know sort of what we're doing.
Tipping is not common, except on our tour and at touristy restaurants. We were surprised by our 19% sales tax on dinner, and were confused if.we should tip on top of that, but we did anyway, and I think that was the right call in the type of restaurant we were at.
Weather has been beautiful and sunny but chilly. Colder than we thought, but we all have good clothes just didn't bring enough layers out with us for all day.
We feel frumpy in our clothes because they are functional, and very PNW, and American. People are wearing lots of boots, skinny jeans, casual/dressy fashionable jackets. You can tell the American tourists by their Patagonia or Mtn Hardware fleece or down functional coats. Shoes aren't a huge deal. Most people are in some type of tennis shoe if they arent dressed for work. Cool to see how Berlin is a blend of different styles and culture.
Also interesting to see what parts of American culture have influenced and is a part of Berlin. Posters of Justin Timberlake and Katy Perry are everywhere, and random American music plays. Walked by a stand selling something that was playing Johnny Cash! Oh speaking of cash, they don't take cards anywhere in Germany.
Also, graffiti! Everywhere! We saw so much graffiti on the train coming into town, and on the bus to our hostel, and walking through the neighborhoods, we were shocked at how much there was and that it was on so many surfaces. When the Berlin wall was put up, graffiti on the Berlin Wall was a way of expressing oneself and feelings about the wall, and kind of grew throughout the city. More prevalent outside main core as usual but we were surprised how much there was! the city doesn't pay to get rid of it so it just stays there!
More later! Probably won't post again until we get into Munich to our hotel (if they have WiFi).

Day 1: Berlin

We woke up early this morning from jet lag, but all got great rest and were excited to start our first full day in Berlin!

Ate a quick breakfast at the hostel, then walked into the center of town via a pretty park, through some really interesting parts of town. Berlin has a large Turkish population, so there are plenty of Turkish markets, Turkish "pizzeria"and "kebap" places (thus, the choice in food from last night- a surprise, but soooo good). Realized we chose a hostel kind of far from where we spent most of our time today, but we have enjoyed seeing the diversity in the city and getting lots of walking in!

Took a bike tour from Fat Tire Bike Tours today - AWESOME! Hit the majority of the major points in the city, and we had a great tour guide who is originally from California (Most of their guides are native English-speakers). Learned a lot about pre-WWII Berlin, post WWII Berlin and Hitler's rise to power. Here are some highlight photos from our day! Ended with a great meal with traditional German food and bier, and enjoyed some bier from a freshly tapped barrel, signaled by a ringing of a bell!

On the bike tour, in front of The Reichstag

James giving a nice old man a high five

Enjoying the after-dinner walk with a pause in front of the Concert Hall

The Longest Day

We ate a yummy breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe in Seattle this (yesterday) morning before we left. we ran into friends and as we chatted before being seated, we were asked what we were up to for the rest of the day. "oh, just flying to Europe!" Ha!
We arrived early for our flight at Sea Tac, grabbed some lunch, then had a very nice flight with Iceland Air. Roomier than other flights we have experienced and they handed us water bottles as we boarded. Lots of in flight entertainment to choose from, movies, music, tv shows, etc. Along with the image of the airplane route. We all tried to sleep, since we have now arrived in Iceland in the a.m.
Poor Amy caught a cold right before we left so she is in pain with the flights. Loaded up with Benadryl though!
Now we are sitting waiting to take off for Frankfurt . They overbooked the flight and had to take some people off and then unload their checked luggage and reload all the luggage. It is SO hot right now.
Writing later...we were not as pleased with this leg of the trip as it was hot and crowded! Finally got to Frankfurt! Yay! Hurried over to the train station and tried to figure out how to board the train to Berlin that was leaving in 11 minutes! The information desk was super helpful, and we even had time to grab pretzel sandwiches! We hurried onto the train and had no idea if seats were reserved or not, so just grabbed a few and ended up just fine! We all got good naps in, as well as enjoyed the beautiful countryside.
Arrived in Berlin, had our first majorly confusing experience trying to find our bus to get to the hostel, then wandering around to find our hostel. Made it, and got the suggestion to enjoy "kebap" for dinner. Yum! Found a local pub to enjoy a beer, and now we are all crashig after being up FOREVER! More pics later!

Funny money and things

Tonight Jeff went to exchange currency, and came back with funny money!! Ha! It's so bright and colorful! US money looks so boring compared to the Euro and Swiss Franc. I can't remember if taking pictures of money is illegal or not, so I'm not going to post it here. ;-)

We are down to the last minute details - downloading Rick Steves' audio tours, music, books, movies (for those long flights) ... it sure is funny traveling with so much technology these days. Deciding which devices we're bringing is quite the adventure. I'm so grateful for all the book suggestions I got from Facebook land! And excited - I want to start reading the ones I downloaded now! But I read so fast, Jeff is making me wait.

Weighed our packs last night and packed them with every single item we plan on taking - they both weighed in slightly under the "max", and then Jeff researched the details on the baggage policy for EasyJet, the small airline we are taking 3 times in between countries. He found out there is NO weight limit for cabin luggage, aka "carry on"! For our long trips there and back on Icelandair, we get to take 2 bags as carry ons, so we can separate our stuff into our backpacks and "personal bags" (purse for M and tiny stowable backpack for J) that we plan on using for day trips, so the weight thing isn't an issue. A big HOORAY!!!!

Now the only thing that's left to do is...

WAIT! 4 days!!!

Getting closer!

Practicing many things tonight. Packing and repacking my bag, blogging with photos via my phone... We will have to figure that out, but in the meantime, I will just have to reference the pics since I can't put them where I want them.

So this afternoon I decided to really look at what I had packed, because I really really really want to bring my boots. So I pulled out a couple more shirts, socks and other items, and I found room for them! They actually pack down pretty small so I don't have to wear them on travel days to save space, unless I want to! Yay!

Picture 1 is of what I will likely wear on travel days. Biggest shoes, jacket, and bulky clothing. Pack weighed in at 21.6 lbs with extra liquids, so I should be okay!

Picture 2 is of everything in my pack. Clothing, toiletries, electronics (minus my kindle and cell phone), shoes, etc.

Picture 3 is of all my clothes. I think I still have a LOT of clothes, and I want to bring one cardigan, but I can't figure out what else to cut out so I can fit it in.

This is my "I hate packing" face...

We are 9 days away from departing! We are sooo excited! But as I expected, I am having a wardrobe crisis now that the trip is getting closer! Did I mention that I actually hate packing? I really have a hard time with not being able to change my mind about what I want to wear or with changing weather conditions. I like to be prepared and have choices, and packing light light light makes that difficult!

Well, I think I narrowed things down, but as soon as Amy gets here and shows me what she packed, I'm sure I will want to completely rethink everything I decided on! Ha!

For accountability's sake, I will share that I decided against my boots! This will be really helpful for space but I will miss the option. Of course, I suppose there is always the "option" of finding some awesome ones over there... ;)

Test run

All right - here goes nothin'! Last night we pulled out our packs, and did a test run. We don't have quite everything we need and are planing to get before we leave, but we tried putting everything in our bags, subbing some things for items we know will be in there later.

Here's my bag, stuffed with all the things I pulled out last night - it didn't include any toiletries, electronics, or paperwork, etc. but there felt like there was plenty of room to still stuff things in the corners. It weighed 18.6 pounds, so I still have about 3.5 pounds of flex to still be able to carry on those budget airplanes...

This picture is sideways, but it is a general look at some of the clothes I was trying to fit in. I used packing cubes, and I'll post some more pics later, because we might need to borrow some smaller ones from my parents, but I fit a surprising amount of clothes in my pack by rolling and stuffing them in the packing cubes. More than I thought, but it will definitely still be tight. I think I've narrowed down my shoes, too, to Toms, Chaco flips or sandals, Born Boots, and my low Keen hikers. Will wear all the heaviest/bulky stuff on travel days, but I'm really glad I got this pack - I put my Keens and my toms in the lower "sleeping bag" compartment, and the outside front pocket is perfect for stowing my flip flops, a rain jacket, beanie, etc.

Jeff's pack weighed in at 16.7 pounds - same deal. Not all the exact items were in there, and no toiletries or electronics, but I think we're both in pretty good shape!! We both eliminated at least 2-4 items of bigger clothing, 2-3 pairs of underwear/socks each, since we are planning on washing clothes every couple days in the sink.

I will need to pick up a more versatile pair of jeans, that I could wear by themselves and tucked into my boots. Also, need one or two more quick-dry, mix & match-able tops. Other than that, I think I'm pretty good. Looked at the weather last night, and it's going to be between 50's and 60's the whole time in almost all the places we'll be. A little warmer in France. This is why layering is important! We still could run into snow in Switzerland while hiking, and pouring rain in Scotland while hiking, and be hot in France! Who knows - we'll keep our eye on the weather.

24 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And 23 days until James & Amy come up to Seattle, and we will probably second guess everything we all decided we wanted to pack once we look at each other's gear! HA! :)