The sun shines in Berlin!

I finished my last entry before starting to cook...Well, I managed to make the second worst spaghetti of the world, at least it did not reach my expectations. But I'm always disappointed with bottled spaghetti sauce, so that might have been the reason – sadly enough it would cost a lot to make my own sauce, and I would have a lot of extra spices that I would not use for anything else, really. So the best solution would be either not to make any more spaghetti while I'm here, or experience with different kinds of sauces :) I think I'll go for the second :)
After dinner I sat down with a pint of Paulaner Dunkel Hefebier, a dark wheat beer, to watch Prison Break as usual. The beer was so delicious, and the first episode I watched ended with such a cliffhanger, that I had to stay for another more :) This made my early wake for the F1 Grand Prix in Suzuka quite bitter, but I had to watch the race live! It was not a really exciting race, but I like the German commentary a lot better than the Hungarian one, despite the commercial breaks (during a live, continuous event...bleh). There were two highlights for me, one was when the back part of Albers' car almost literally blew up in pieces, the other was of course the engine breakdown of MSC. Funny enough, I was doing the maths on what chances would Alonso have to win the final trophy if MSC took this race, but with Alonso winning and Schumi out on this one, the chances of the latter are purely mathematical. But, whatever happens, the finale will be a very interesting one!
After the race, I went to the bakery again to get my brötchen, but the girl who was there today spoke even less German than I do... that made me quite unsuccessful in communication, but I managed to get what I wanted – though it would have been better if they had labeled stuff properly, then I wouldn't have asked for one thing while pointing on something completely different :)
Having had my breakfast, I started for today's first stop: the Brandenburger Tor, or Brandenburg Gate. This is a symbol of various German victories, and also of the unity of the German nation, from the 19th century. So naturally it was quite important during the time Berlin was split and ironically enough the Gate was impossible to visit from either side. But now, as with all other areas of Berlin, it is completely rebuilt as are the surrounding buildings – I even caught sight of a Hungarian flag! After eavesdropping a few tourist groups, I decided I visit the nearby bell tower, as it was almost noon and I read that there's a five minute bell show at noon. Well there wasn't :) There were a few other tourists also waiting for it, but we were unlucky. So I went to check out the Reichstag building with it's famous glass dome, but when I saw the huge queue in front of it, I quickly made up my mind :) I only made a few outside photos...Probably I'll go back when I'm not alone, so I won't get bored to death while standing in line. I did some “exploring” in the government part of the city, checked out the new shiny buildings and the brand new Hauptbahnhof (main train station). It's amazing that the city has so many very modern and nice buildings, this is of course not the case at home. And all this in the middle of the city, next to the huge park called Tiergarten. Amazing.
While walking for the Siegessäule, the Victory Column I passed a motorbike procession (probably not the correct word :) ), there were an amazing amount of motorcyclists showing off their bikes and funny helmets... I have no idea why :) I climbed the stairs of the Column (it was a lot less than in the Stephansdom in Vienna), made a picture of Victory standing on top, and left for a walk in the park. I wanted to find an exhibition of old gas lamps, but it was simply not where it should have been. I've found a nice squirrel in place of it, but it ran away before I could take a photo – this one was red, while those in the garden of Schönbrunn Castle were brownish... Dunno why :) I did not chase the little fellow for long, as the lawn was not very tidy between the trees...these Germans seem to do “interesting” stuff in their public parks :|
Leaving the park I had a Cheesy Bacon Double Cholesterol Bomb at a Burger King, and took the SBahn to the Alexanderplatz. I had to change 3 times, there seems to be some heavy construction or whatever going on, it should have been one continuous ride. On the Alexanderplatz I saw the world famous whatever-player of the band Omega, László Benkő :) I think the band is having a concert here in Berlin, but I did not know it was now. Anyhow, he was in the second Hungarian group I met today, but I did not blow my disguise with talking to them :) I just held my English book on Berlin high and hid my Hungarian T-shirt :D
The Alexanderplatz is quite ugly, but comfortable at the same time...it resembles some run down 1970s districts of Budapest :) It was something like the center of the communist-era East-Berlin, and according to this role there are a few “shopping malls” and similar things. And an embarrassingly ugly and tall concrete TV tower. I even found a movie theater which had a
Hungarian name :) People didn't really understand why I'm taking a picture of such an ugly building :)
So, to cut this short... My feet were very tired again, so I decided to take the U-Bahn home. But,
before that I checked out the World Clock, which is a primitive public clock to show the time for all time zones. I was waiting for it to change the main display, but it did not do anything around 4
o'clock, so I just left. And, as I got home and got some rest, I went to the nearest free hotspot I know about to the Mutter Café Restaurant, where I just sat outside for while to post my previous posts (backdated, again, but written on the dates shown :) ), and to chat with friends at home. And now I'm going to wrap it up to cook dinner :) I came home through some Asian restaurant zone, but I trust my own cooking more than the taste of what I'd choose from those exotic menus :)

Byebye,
M.