Visiting the countryside

One of the lucky aspects of having had my guests here was that we were able to visit places outside Berlin easily using their car. So we used the opportunity on Saturday, and took a ride to Potsdam, to check out the Schloss Sanssouci, or, translated from German and French, the Castle of No Worries :) This was the summer residence of Frederick the Great, and it is an amazing place. The castle itself is only one of many in a huge garden, though most probably this is the most decorated one on the inside. At least this was the only one that was open to visitors, as the main season is over now. So we took the guided tour inside this one castle, which usually happens in German, but in our group basically no-one spoke that, so our guide kindly switched to English. It was a bit embarrassing though that since she believed I spoke both languages, at some points when she did not find the proper English word, she was more or less expecting me to translate it from German... Of course I explained that my skills are not quite on that level yet, but still, it was strange :) The guide was good, nevertheless, and she gave a good insight on how the rooms and the castle was used back in the time. The rooms were decorated in rococo style, and despite this some of them did not lack good taste completely :) Of course every possible surface was gold-plated or painted with very bright colours or decorated by animal figures, but it looked nice anyhow :) Strangely enough there was no mention of Frederick wanting to spend more time in the Rheinberg Castle instead of Sanssouci, as the Rheinberg guide had told us :)

After the castle tour we went walking in the gardens, and checked out a few more buildings from the outside, including the pretty disgusting Chinese Teahouse. We were told before that in that age rich Europeans loved to copy Chinese style or use Chinese elements in their art, well, this house the worst example of this habit :) Though I guess under certain circumstances, like during a carnival or something, this still could look a bit less strange.

It was not that easy to find our way back to the car, but when we did, we headed back to the town of Potsdam, and had a delicious döner for dinner. And, more importantly, we spent an hour at the Cafe Laila, having a delightful cappuccino and some tasty dessert. I was quite satisfied with all this :)

We left Potsdam, and headed for the town of Brandenburg, though our book on Germany did not mention anything special about it. It was a very good idea to visit it nevertheless, since it has a very nice and big old part, with lovely little streets, nice buildings and old churches. It was a nice walk in the town, even though it was quite cold. After our walk we just did some shopping, and headed home to have a nice dinner and a few beers :)

Sadly, my guests had to leave this morning, and what's even worse, they had to leave at 7... So we were up quite early, they were packing and I was paying attention so they don't take any of my precious crystal vases by mistake :) It was fun not be alone for a while, and it was a bit strange that they are leaving and I am staying here...even though I feel quite like home in my small apartment by now :) But, all in all, it was a good experience, and I'm really looking forward to the next time someone decides to take the trip and visit me :)

Sunday was very dull, it rained all day so I did not take a walk outside, just took a rest and spent the day at home. I was actually planning to go to the movies, but my monthly ticket for the public transportation expired, and I was not able to buy a new one :( All the vending machines refused to accept my Visa card, a 100 Euro bill was too big for them and on Sunday I did not find any shops which looked like they could give me some change for my bill. Of course I could have bought a single ticket or something like that, but that would really have been a useless expense, especially with the movie ticket being quite expensive itself. So I just came back home to watch TV, I watched a show on farm vets and one on why chili is so strong... An afternoon well spent, eh? :) I also figured out how I'm going to get my monthly ticket tomorrow in the morning. Actually I'm not in a too good mood because of this, since my company basically left me out of this month's “extra cash because you are working in Germany”-payroll. It's just an administrative hell, and probably I did not shake the hands of one of the devils in this hell firmly enough. So I will have to get some Euros from my Hungarian bank account, which of course will cost me some extra money and extra hassle. And of course nobody told me I'm left out of this, I just know because I asked someone to get my Euros for me (it's handed out in Budapest), and he was told there's nothing there for me. Well, I know I will get it next month, but it's a bit unnerving :) (BTW I know this story is almost incomprehensible, but that’s just life transcribed :) )

And now, being quite sleepy, I'll probably check if there something on TV about the exciting secret society of postal workers or something...Not that I'd need help falling asleep :)

See you!

M.