Last Day!

Our final day, we got up at a reasonably early time.. got packed and checked out. Left our gear at the hotel so we didn't have to lug it around all day. Off to toddled for a little walk and take in the area, it was very peaceful out on the streets on this Easter Sunday.. we saw only one casualty so far.. but then it was before 9am!

We made our way through a park, which seemed a little shady.. but we made it through unharmed or undrugged.. or even unbottled! We made a mental note, to not go through there on the way back.. that mental note eventually failed us when we did.. whoops. 

We were at our destination! before 9am is apparently too early for most Berliners, as we barely saw anyone and the staff at the breakfast place seemed a little casual so we weren't so sure if the place was open.. but it was and we grabbed a seat and got our order on at restaurant  bASTaRd!
We ordered a good selection, as you can see here...

 

Emma also got a latte and I just had to try the milchkaffee.. which was ummm.. weak and not so good but I just had to give it a go. I will stick to my stronger tastier type coffee from now on. Still needing that coffee fix, we hit up FIVE ELEPHANT and grabbed a fruity drip coffee as well as a chocolatey drip coffee, we preferred the chocolatey, the fruity was a little too sweet, better suited to maybe an iced coffee?

We wandered about some more, checked out a couple of flea markets, where we grabbed a couple of really awesome prints for wicked cheap.. now we just have to frame them. Once we finished up with the markets, we moseyed on over to silo, for a flat white and slice of cake.. Antipodes does it better, in my opinion. It wasn't terrible, but Antipodes just do a mean as coffee!

We walked around a little before heading back to the hotel, we passed by the eggs again, here were no survivors. So we went and mourned them at the hotel with one last Mikkellerberger beer before setting off to the airport where.. I could finally partake in a currywurst!

The flight home was as swift as the flight over, we even got a 3 seater to ourselves. Lovely! But why can't we get an extra seat on the bloody long haul flight! Dangnabbit!

All in all I had a fantastic time, it was nice to get out and about in different surroundings. It was also nice to have gone somewhere we have been before so that we didn't feel l ike we needed to do all the touristy things. Instead we just got to walk around and take in all the street art, coz by golly, there is a lot! 

Here is a link for the photo's we took and posted on instagram while we were away, some you will recognise and some you will not! #joandemmadoberlin

Horsehead Mask!

After we spent many many hours on the grounds of the museum, inside and out, we headed off into the land of tourist.. there was a serious amount of people out today. The most we had seen so far. We stopped by and took a snap or two of the Brandenburg Gate..

Then battled the crowds and a deaf cashier at Dunkin' for a couple of Easter donuts, which were rather disappointing for my standards. I didn't like the shit that they filled them with.. too sweet. I like sweet but that was just too much and not tasty sweet. A bite of each was more than enough. They looked cute enough tho..

A little more wandering around and we made our way to.. some place that escapes me where we had a very easy to drink beer and some soup for dinner, which was very nice but the place was just too packed and stuffy for my liking. 

Refuelled, we headed back out into the world and gradually made our way back to the room for a little rest before hitting up the bridge for a little sunset action.. it was a stellar sunset this time around..

We couldn't resist but to take a couple-selfie! It is what we do, afterall! Yep, I know.. I am a goof!

While on the bridge, we saw a dude with a horse-head mask.. I wanted to try and video him but he just stood there drinking so I moved on... can you spot him?

After watching the sun go down, we stopped by one of the many bottle stores, picked up a couple of Fritz' and I caved, as per Emma's request and joined the big bottle gang! I walked the streets with a bottle.. unopened, coz I like to drink out of a glass.. which is something that I noticed over my time.. I would have to ask for a glass when I ordered beer at a bar, or at lunch. They would all look at me and say "sure" like it was a perfectly reasonable request, but you could just see that they were thinking.. "douche". I may not look like it, but I am in fact a lady, and beer just tastes better from a glass. Our last night in Berlin, we consumed our drinks out in the garden of the hotel before deciding it was a little too chilly and heading in for the night. Life can be pretty damn sweet sometimes.

Museum!

Today started with a bang.. or well a hump, if that's what you would prefer to call it.. or any name you'd like to call the horizontal dance. No! Dirty people! I am not talking about us! Our room neighbours were very frisky in the early hours. For a moment I thought that perhaps one of the frisky animals from the zoo yesterday must have checked in.. it is the season to be frisky I guess.

 
When these things happen, the only thing left to do is eat a white bunny.. chocolate bunny that is! Gosh, what sort of animals do you think we are?! We devoured the bunny in bed, after all it is Easter, the season of eating chocolate shaped in eastery things. OmNomNom!

 
Next stop: Antipodes.

There was pie on the menu this time around so of course I just had to have a pie. One must never pass up the chance to eat pie! I even got to try some homemade chilli sauce that was spicy and delicious! I would have liked to have taken that home with me. Would go lovely with some runny fried eggs or poached! Yumm! Emma got avo toast again, and we shared the yoghurt, honey and fruit.. and also a slice of raspberry and banana loaf, I turned my head for just a second and the slice was nearly gone! We of course downed a flat white or two.. each. And water! This is the only coffee place that seems to serve water with their coffee and I love that they do! Anyways, here is the morning pie-porn..

Feeling very satisfied, we said our farewells, it would be our last meal and coffee at the joint until next time.. which can't come soon enough! Not planned yet, sadly... maybe another Christmas visit? I did love the atmosphere in Berlin at Christmas. Remember this? [photo]

We made our way out to the German Museum of Technology where we got overloaded with so much stuff, and totally overloaded with German. Info was all in German, some bits and pieces not, but mainly German. Makes sense for a German museum, but not for one that caters to tourists.. or maybe tourists don't frequent there? We had a good time walking around, there was so much to see. Some awesome.. some not. Sadly the brewery was closed for reparation or something. Anyways, here is a taste of what we witnessed..

 

How awesome is this?
I would totally love to live on a boat that gets around..
via hot air balloon that has a rooster on top!
Cock-a-doodle-doooo

And speaking of awesome! How awesome is this car!?!
I am so in love with it, and I was shocked to read on the Wikipedia site that only 100 were made! I guess the problems with the steering and cooling really let this awesome looking car down! Bummer really, I would want one.

 

 

 

Dalek!

We left the zoo, feeling a little meh about the experience so we headed to Antipodes for a little pick me up in the form of a flat white and cookie, and then another flat white. You really can't stop at just the one. The coffee there is really great and the service is just as great. Always feel great leaving that place, I would be there daily if I lived in Berlin. Just deliciousness and their décor is rad!

We set off feeling a little better and grabbed a burrito from Dolores. Spicy spicy goodness! We had previously hit up this place on our last visit to Berlin, it was so good and great value for money that we just had to do it again. This time I got a burrito bowl, which was a new experience and I was once again feeling very pop worthy with the addition of burning lips! 

Our evening ended with what started as a stroll along the wall, on the other side of the road coz, well.. it's less hectic and you get a different view than up close and personal.. and having to stop for everyone who is taking photos. It ended with a race against the big bad grey rain cloud! We won! We got back to the room dry. We did actually get stopped along the way by some dude saying something while holding up a bottle in one hand and a bag in the other. No idea what he said, it was enough to say no thanks. Perhaps he saw that we were bottle-less (remember how I mentioned in a previous post about everyone having large beer bottles?) and wanted to rectify that for us? It ain't right unless you have a large bottle of beer in your hand! We also walked through some beachy sandy area, where loads of people were having a good time. It's quite interesting to stumble across these areas that people have made from abandoned areas. It made us ponder how one goes about laying claim and if the city would ever claim it back. The discussion was short, coz well we didn't really know how to answer our own questions.. ponder-ment. Hahaha. 

Berlin really is a great city, full of life! It's a great little getaway and pretty darn cheap too, which is always an added bonus.

Animals!

Today we planned on hitting the zoo so once we got up, we took the easy option and  headed down to overeat at the hotel buffet breakfast where I had a delicious assortment of goodness. I had one banana too much. I thought I would burst! We headed back to the room to lounge our bellehs a while before heading off to the zoo.

The zoo was a mixed bag. It made me happy and sad many times. We were mostly gutted by the fact that they had only one kiwi and it was hidden in a box and could only be seen via tv screen. According to the wiki site, it's supposed to have seven. Even their info centre didn't know that they had a kiwi, let alone supposed to have several. The lady seemed shocked to discover that they did have one after looking on the site for us. Their info centre wasn't much for info. I'm not sure what it was for other than yearly passes. In general, it seemed that the zoo wasn't good on the ole info giving, when we got our tickets, we were given a couple of little booklets, for starters.. one would have been enough! To be honest, none would have been perfect. All they were, were things about other touristy things to do. I thought they were going to be zoo related, but no. Not even given a map and the only map that we found was one right at the start that we had to take a photo of.. not that it helped much coz it was so jam-packed and small. Berlin Zoo, fail on the info stakes. All was not lost tho, we managed to navigate around and see things, as you do and we did get to see a Kea, or well 2. And a old lady talking to them, more so one than the other and she was even able to touch it's beak! Touch. It! She was pretty awesome and was having loads of fun, can't blame her. 

There was loads of copulation happening at the zoo, I guess it is the season but this one moment was particularly funny.. I look over and see a couple of ducks, one mounted upon the other, mating stylez. Upon closer inspection, as in I just opened my eyes I discovered that they were different species. The next discovery was that they were both males! But wait! There's more! Next thing I know there is a third duck in on this action! That poor little girlie duck was at the bottom of this ménage à trois! Anything goes at Berlin zoo! What happens in Berlin zoo, stays in Berlin zoo? I then grabbed Emma and pointed her in the right direction for her own discovery! Which went pretty much the same way as mine, apart from her wondering why I was pointing out mating ducks... not like it's a new concept! But, then. she. saw!

Here's a bunch of animal photos..

We got to watch these dudes being fed, and the one on the left going into the water was hilarious with his not so graceful jumps into the water. Adorably cute!

 

Black Swan!
Isn't it stunning?!

 

This dude, was SO cranky! I tried to feed him and all he wanted to do was eat me. He came straight through the bars and right for my privates! How rude!

 

Never come between a bear and their log!
"Oh Log, How I love thee!"

And this little shit was messing with us. We were both trying to get a really rad shot, and he wouldn't come so we would walk away and then he would come. So we would go back and, yep, you guessed it. It pissed off and then on the very last attempt, the little shit swam way under the water and past us. The cute little shit! haha

Chocolate!

I mentioned the chocolate shop in my previous post, we got a few Easter eggs for ourselves to try. We tried them once we were home and here is the verdict on what we got..

We started with Marc de Champagne, which was about as gross as any booze filled chocolate. I don't get the appeal to be honest, but we always seem to have to give them a go.

Next we thought we would go with something that would be yummy to wash the taste out.. turns out we were wrong about what we thought Knickebein was. It was a little boozy also and just as gross, if not worse!

We figured we couldn't go wrong with Rahm Caramel, coz you know.. caramel has to mean caramel! Right?! and yes, right! It was quite a nice caramel too.

We had a lemon one, Zitronen Sahne. so we thought it was best to give it a go before we ran out of something nice to wash it away.. you know, just in case it was toilet cleaner-esk. Which, it wasn't. It was surprisingly good. I'd even have it again! It is not often you find lemon things that taste good.

We then moved over to Melba! Which was, as expected, goodness!

Lastly, we have Cappuccino Creme, which was purposely saved until last, coz how often is a coffee chocolate a dud? Like nearly never! And totally as expected, it was deliciousness. 

And that concludes our Easter chocolate munching.. we were pretty restrained.

Hops & Barley.

5pm finally rolled around, Hops & Barley was open! We headed in for a beer. The bar lady, needs some lessons on serving I think, she was quite horrible. The beer was great, the service was not. For that reason alone, I will never set foot in there again. Service is part of the charm of craft beer and there is so much great craft beer out there these days that one doesn't need to put up with an abrupt and off putting server. Perhaps I have just been spoilt with the fantastic service I get at Mikkeller? Perhaps, it is that you don't see much craft beer there as everyone just picks up a large bottle for $1-2? Who really knows, but regardless.. there is no excuse for the pisspoor service that woman displayed.

A little more walking was on the cards, stopping by the supermarket before heading back to the room, which seemed to be very swift. I remember it taking a much longer time the last time we were here. Perhaps it was the snow, or perhaps it was something else. Or perhaps it was a combo but it was so fast this time around.

Speaking of snow, it's hard to know what is worse when walking around here, at times it felt like the snow actually evened shit out coz OMG! These streets are damn uneven! Which is partly why Emma kept attempting to break herself. It's actually impressive that she hasn't hurt herself.

This time around at the supermarket, I said no to the mystery meat.. even tho it kept calling out to me. I'm a sucker for mystery meat but I just couldn't take it again to get a dud. Especially a dud as bad as last time, that stuff was terrible. It was pretty hilarious tho, but I just wasn't willing to have another bad morning. I guess you could say I have grown. haha

Earlier, I mentioned how people can pick up beer quite cheap here. A large bottle under $2, which means you witness every Tom, Dick, Harry & Jane walking around with large beers, drinking away. Sadly, it also means that there is a heck of a lot of broken glass coz these people don't seem to know how to use a rubbish bin. We saw a lot of dogs out and about, and I can honestly say that I wouldn't allow my pup to walk the streets of Berlin without booties to protect their little paws from the mass of broken glass.

On one of our train rides today, Emma got to sit by a quite little pup named, Sally. She was totally into getting some pats and each time Emma attempted to stop, Sally would look up with those puppy eyes as if to say, did I say you could stop?! It was totally adorable. I was a little bit jealous lol

Emma also took this awesome shot, before getting on one of the train rides.

After a little relax time in the room, we headed off to the bridge to watch the sunset.. sadly clouds had come out to play so not much was to be seen, so you know what we did? Yep, we toddled off and walked around some more. Where we discovered a little slum area.. we didn't go in. We headed back to the bridge to check out the lights and watch a little rock, paper scissors... 

Oh no! It's a tie! However, it is not always a tie! [photo]

Bed was calling so off we went, showered and put my ankle brace on. Yep, my ankle still likes to show me who's the boss but I don't mind coz I still had a fucking good day. Oh and it turns out, I got a little burnt today. Of course I did. It's what I do.

I shall end this post on some more awesome street art.. coz, why not?! 

Chicken-y!

The day started slowly with a little lie in, we are on holiday after all! But once 7am rolled around we figured it was best to get a wriggle on with the showers and stuff to get out the door and on the way to Antipodes.
Speaking of the shower, our room has a window that allows a clear two way viewing of the occupant. I had a little too much fun with that while showering and all Emma could do as she lay in bed was shake her pretty little head.
Once the fun was over, we headed off into the Berlin hustle and bustle. A little walking, a couple of trains, a quick couple-selfie.. 

 ..and we were there at Antipodes for some fresh foody goodness and of course, fantastic flat whites! We started with the coffee and then loaded up with... well, look..

..just total yum! I downed a second coffee before grabbing an afghan to go go from their selection of home baked biscuits.

With our bellies full, we headed off and after a little walking we arrived at another coffee place... Bonanza! Coz you know, one can never have too much coffee. (Cue shaky hands!) At this coffee place, Emma grabbed a latte, me another flat white and a couple of bags of beans to take home. For the record, I preferred Antipodes' flat white.
We continued walking the streets and taking in some sights, much street art. Berlin is filled with it and there is a lot of really great stuff. 

We even managed another couple-selfie!

And stumbled across this chicken-y gem! Perhaps my bike could do with such an adornment? lol 

We gradually made out way to the chocolate shop, to purchase some chocolate for ourselves and the parentals for Easter. Nommies... hopefully.
With our chocolate in hand, we decided to head back to the room to unload and have a little rest. A well deserved rest.. it quickly became lunch time... or well a late lunch coz it was well after a normal lunch time so off we toddled to find Kimchi Princess. To get there we apparently had to go thru a pushers street. Ok, I don't actually know if it was but a couple of guys approached us and said stuff, that I could not understand. I ignored and continued on. I did see another dude fiddling with baggies and stuff, which I could only assume was drug related... but I'm no expert.

Anyways we got to where we needed to go, with a little... tiny even, detour from a place that was being renovated. In we went for a little Korean foodage and beer.
A little ice cream was in order so we called into a little ice cream joint that Emma had heard good things about for a couple of scoops..

Beetroot and wasabi - which was really quite good. It was such a unique flavour that we had to give it a go and it paid off.
Cherry - which was great and complimented the beetroot one well. It was creamy and delicious.
With some more walking on the cards we walked around and enjoyed the little shops, made a few little purchases here and there.. one being an aero press coffee maker, yep coffee again! We also grabbed another bag of beans coz.. we can!
With our little bags in our hands we had about 20mins to kill before Hops & Barley opened for a beer so you know, we walked around a little more. Emma managed to not break her ankles, even though she was threatening to many times throughout the day. If it's not me, it's her BUT if Hank is with us then Emma is safe, coz it is Hank who takes that role. However, mostly.. it is just me.

Michelberger!

We got the cozy room this time around, next time we will 'splurge' a little and get one of their themed rooms, but for this trip, we decided cozy was what we needed. Some cozy closeness, together. It's good for the soul and relationship.

The room didn't have the epic body wash container but hey, shit happens. It did however, have the most epic of wallpaper! I mean look at this awesomeness!
The room has a bed, a window sill to lounge upon with a couple of cushions. A basin in the room with mirror, the bathroom was small but had all you needed along with the epic window so I could lay in bed and watch Emma shower! Cozy! Oh and of course there was a tv. How epic is this wallpaper?! Love love LOVE it!

This is what happens if you don't do as the sign says...

...creepy people peek into your room!

I just love this hotel. Even if the room is on the other side of the building and it feels like we have to walk miles to get to the room.. a little extra exercise never hurt anyone... especially when they sell Mikkeller beer at the bar! Earn that beer I say.. and perhaps a slice of cake.

I will say this tho, after spending 4 nights there.. this side of the hotel is noisier than the other and I would probably want to stay on the other side when we go back again. I did enjoy the mucking around in the halls on the walk to the room tho, but I would prefer to not hear the noise in the courtyard. It wasn't terrible, or too loud, it was just there and a little annoying for a nanna like me.

I do wish that they would have decent pillows tho, hotels just never do good pillows. In what decision making mind when deciding on pillows do you think that a pillow that has no support and just deflates the second you touch it is a good idea?!

We finished our day by heading down to the bar and partake in a couple of mikkeller beers and a slice of cake. 17 hours after we awoke we finally retired for the night. It's been a long day and we have barely scratched the surface of our holiday. 
Happy days!