Stranger in a Strange Land: Ich bin ein Berliner... :)

Hey all! I realize that I've been seriously neglecting my poor blog as of late, and I have to apologize to all of my dear readers... The summer season is upon us (FINALLY!) here in Friedrichshafen, and we've been keeping quite busy taking part in all of the summertime activities available to us over here... Rock climbing, hot air ballooning, concerts, festivals, you name it... So, hence the reason for my lack of posting... Please don't give up on me though! :) I have lots of pictures that we've taken and lots of posts in the making... It's just taking a little longer than normal to get everything posted on here! :) So, please be patient with me, and I promise you won't be disappointed! :)

And, as promised in my last post, here are the pictures of our most recent trip to Berlin. What an awesome city it is! If you ever get the chance to travel to Germany, I highly recommend checking out Berlin... It's a very unique place to visit! :) So, without further ado, here's our picture recap of our weekend in Berlin... Enjoy!!

The Berlin Fernsehturm (tv tower)... The tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) administration who intended it to be a symbol of Berlin...

Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral)...

Our Berlin crew... Well, minus Brian, who took the picture. :)

The Brandenburg Gate... It is a symbol of Berlin and it is considered to be the main entrance into the city. It is actually considered to be one of Europe's most famous landmarks!

The statue on top of the Gate...

We were in Berlin during the World Cup... On Saturday we were in search of a place to sit down and watch Germany play Argentina in the quarter finals of the World Cup... The city was filled with excitement and it was extremely difficult to find a place to sit... We started searching for a place 2 hours before game time, and all that we were able to find was outdoor seating directly in the sun (mind you, it was over 100 degrees that weekend... yikes!)... The city had so many locations such as this one set up for people to watch the games, and every single one of them was packed!! After a great deal of searching, we ended up finding ourselves a small, out of the way, bar/restaurant to sit and watch the game out of the sun! :)

We had front row seats... Nice!!

I love this series of pictures! This was actually the first goal that Germany scored in the game... Look at the intensity on everyone's faces...

Mueller kicks the ball towards the goal... The excitement is mounting...

... And he scores!! :)

After the game, everyone took to the streets, chanting and singing national anthems and songs... There was so much German pride that day! It was such an exciting time to be there! :)

Let's Go Deutschland!! :)

Typical Berlin... :)

The East Side Gallery... They've turned a portion of the Berlin Wall into an area for artists to paint murals... Some of the murals are pretty amazing!! :)