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Fun fun fun!


So I just saw the cutest thing. So there is this older couple who lives in our apt building and are super friendly and nice. I was walking back from the store and noticed the older lady come out on the balcony above our apt. A few seconds later the older man walks out the front door, walks a few steps down the side walk then turns and blows a kiss to the lady before continuing on his way. It was so cute! I thought I hope I am as happy and sweet as they are when I am their age. It was like a scene from a movie. It really made my day.


Now what we have been up to. It's been pretty cold and snowy until this week. I think spring might finally be here! The weekend after we returned from Seattle was quite busy. That Sat we had the long night at the museum - something like 70 museums open until 2am and the ticket included a shuttle bus between clumps of museums. We started the night off out at Charlottenburg Palace as I have wanted to go inside ever since we rode past on a bike ride last year, so I thought this would be the perfect time to check it out. It was also like the last stop on the one shuttle line so it would work out nicely.


Unfortunately it was kind of boring inside. Yeah there were a few cool things, but I would have been upset had I spent the entrance fee just for that. Maybe it is that we went to so many way cooler places in Paris, but I was disappointed.

After the palace we headed across the street to the Brohan Museum which is an Art Noveau and Art Deco museum. I really enjoyed wandering around in here, though you were not allowed to take photos. They had a lot of cool room setups and it was really interesting.


After that we headed down to Classic Remise Berlin which is just a big warehouse that is a car showroom/workshops. You can really go anytime and check out the cool older cars. I enjoyed it as I really like older cars, and will definitely stop by again. After this we stopped by 7xJung which was...odd. They had a few rooms set up with different things in, but it was a lot of audio to listen to on headphones and then like one room was set up like a locker room kind of with benches and some gym stuff. We didn't spend much time there.


I was probably most excited for our next stop - the aquarium! I love the aquarium as well...I don't know why. I was hoping this one would be good and well...it was disappointing. They didn't have very many cool sea creatures. The coolest were probably the jellyfish:





Or the seahorse, but they didn't have many. The other thing I didn't like about it was the tanks seemed way too small for most of the fish that were in them. Like one had this pretty big fish in, but it was tiny. Like the fish took up half the room...it just made me sad for the poor fish as how can they swim around in that? They did have three floors however and the second floor was reptiles I believe which was alright.


The top floor however was insects and bugs and was probably the best part. In the picture above behind the guy holding the kid is a large tank that had tons of ants in it. Then around the room I noticed these clear plastic pipes that ants were crawling around in. Then you can see the metal tube in the photo above - well that was just open with ants crawling all over it! They also had this picture frame with this huge spider in (alive) just out in the open you could almost run into it and things like that. I thought that was a pretty cool display. Overall though pretty disappointed with the whole thing (plus there were WAY too many people there and they were annoying me. It was really the only place we went all evening that was crowded).

Leaving the aquarium we stopped by the Haus am Lutzowplatz which I really liked. No photos, and there was this odd performance piece going on while we were there (this one lady standing there just repeating the same work over and over again for like 5 min then switching to a different word or phrase. It was odd). Around the space were lots of cool woodcuts and Typographies. I really enjoyed them.









After that we headed down to the Musical Instrument Museum. They did have a lot of interesting instruments, and some concerts going on while we were looking. They also had this giant (2 story) machine that would play like all these different instruments, but it was made out of wash pans and stuff. It was interesting and I wish we could have hear it play.


Then we spied in St Matthaus Church, but there wasn't really anything inside.



So we headed over to the Film Museum. It is in this skinny building and it multiple floors and kind of a weird set up. There is a large section on German Cinema and man do they like their mirrors! The first photo above is the entrance walkway which is curvy and all mirrors and made me a little dizzy. It was very confusing. There were also lots of displays with mirrors reflecting different things, and some costumes from famous movies. I enjoyed it and might have to go back and check it out again.


We then rode over to Nikolaiviertel which is this small neighborhood that is all old timey (apparently it is Berlin's historic district and they have and they have a large history festival every year that we will have to check out). We went in the NikolaiKirch (church) as we walked by and it was odd. Like they just had some folding chairs set up and I am not sure if they really have mass there or not. They did have some art on display, but the inside really wasn't that nice. Not like the ones in Austria.


Then we wandered around a bit trying to find the Zille Museum which was interesting. More mirrors! Apparently Heinrich Zille is famous for making humorous drawings of people who are in very unfunny situations. Afterwards we popped into the Knoblauchhaus, one of the few preserved middle-class houses from 18th century Berlin. It was pretty simple inside, but free to wander through anytime and kind of interesting in how plain everything was.


We then walked over to the Ephraim-Palais, and that photo above, according to the guidebook, is considered one of the most beautiful corners in Berlin. I don't know that I really agree, but what do I know. Inside was a few floors of modern art on display and I really enjoyed it. I did see one thing I thought odd though. It was freezing outside so everyone was in winter coats, but super warm inside. Almost all the places had coat checks that you could use. Well this one lady hadn't used the coat check and was just wearing her coat. Well I saw her take off her coat and carry it draped over her arm as apparently she got too hot. Well right away one of the people working there goes over and tells her she cannot carry her coat around, she must wear it or put it in the coat check. I just found it odd as there were just huge paintings on the walls so it is not like she could steal something. I don't know why that was.


Then we made our way over toward Museum Island to finish out the night. We did stop at my favorite museum we went to - the DDR Museum. I loved this museum - it was an "interactive experience of everyday life in East Berlin." There were lots of drawers to open and learn thing, you could listen in on telephone calls, pretend to drive one of the cars, go through a living room and kitchen to see what was in it, just lots of fun things. My favorite museum in Berlin hands down. I had so much fun wandering through there.


Our final stop was the Altes Museum, Greek, Etruscans, and Roman art. They had some very nice displays of sculptors and jewelry and it was a nice museum. We probably could have ran through another museum on Museum Island before heading home (we had about 15 min left) but we just called it a night. Man we did a lot in 8 hours, way more than I thought we would. I really enjoyed wandering around and checking out all the museums, even though we didn't even get to half of them. We are going to have to do it again in the fall.

After that exciting night we had David Hasselhoff to look forward to the following day! We got their early and walked along the East Side Gallery since we hadn't really checked it out yet. Below are some of the photos from that:














Then finally it was time for David Hasselhoff! Boy was it amazing. Like so unbelievably amazing. I loved it. We got there early and were standing around where people were congregating by this little yellow bus. It was so nice - there were a ton of people but everyone was super nice and courteous. Like everyone wanted to get as close as possible, but everyone wasn't pushing and shoving trying to get closer. You had plenty of room and it was just so different from any other crowd of people I have been in. We stood there for a while and everyone was excited and then finally he came out and got in the little yellow bus. Then he spoke a little bit then started to sing his Looking for Freedom song which was amazing! So so bad, but so so good! I could not stop laughing. It was hilarious. And ridiculous. And like the best thing ever. I am so glad we were back for that as it was incredible! Then the yellow bus started to slowly drive down the length of the East Side Gallery so everyone is slowly following it until he got out of the bus and walked the rest of the way. Amazing. So many people and so so good!

The following weekend was really productive. We went down to Ikea to look for some shelves for Raymond's things, and more chairs and I got some baskets to put my fabrics in which is good. Then we rearranged the house which I am now loving how it is set up. I had my craft table in the bedroom, but it was just so dark in there I never really used it as I didn't like sitting in there. So we moved my table into the spare room where we had the guest bed and we weren't really using. I love it now! I spend most of my day in my craft room working on things (it is where I am sitting now to type this up) and it is just so much better. Much better use of our space, and I actually like the guest futon in the other room we put it in. It is also darker for people when they stay, and can still be shut off from the rest of the house to give people some privacy. Above is my craft room with my robot pictures on the wall. It is perfect as it just gets great light all throughout the day. Raymond can sit in the front room with the blinds closed all day in the dark and not care. I can't do that. I need my natural light! So it work. I will have to try and get the other rooms organized and pictures hung and then I will post photos of the other rooms in our apt. So the other day Raymond and I were talking and we walked by this place that had a loft and he is all we should add a loft space to the craft room, then I can put my stuff up there and we can work in there together! Then we were joking how hilarious that would be that we put everything we can into the smallest room we have and leave the other huge rooms empty. People could come visit and we could give them a tour like this is the only room we really use, and yes it is tiny! He is silly.









The next day we walked up to the park by our house to visit our goat friends. I don't know why there is an enclosure with goats at the park, but there is and I like to go say hello. They don't make any noise, and they have crazy eyes! As you can see there was still quite a bit of snow and it was pretty cold outside. It was sunny though, so everyone was out and about. Really it wasn't bad out, but there was a wind that was bitterly cold, so everyone was all bundled up. Well there is a beer garden in the park and it cafe and when we walked by the cafe there were a ton of people sitting outside in their winter gear soaking up the sun. It was a little silly. We also walked by this one place that was set back from the street a bit and there were two people in shorts and T-shirts sitting in lawn chairs soaking up the sun. That was ridiculous! I was freezing! How can they be out in summer wear?





The following weekend was Easter and Raymond had a 4 day weekend. We hung out around the house working on things Fri and Sat, but then Sunday I made Raymond go for a walk with me to a park a little farther from our house that has a palace in it just to check it out. It really isn't that far, but we had never explored it. It also was starting to warm up so it was a perfect day for a walk. There was a play area there with this weird gate thing. You could push all of the wood pieces around in a circle if you wanted and I am not sure what the point was. I mean I guess it is fun to move wooden pieces around? It was odd.


There were also many things you could push around in a circle. The one above was at an angle so on one side you could touch the ground, but then on the opposite side you were too high. Fun!


Then we went in search of the palace, which was inside a walled area through this gate. It wasn't very exciting and I didn't take any photo of it.







Then on the way home we walked by our goat friends again since it was on the way. You can see the snow was starting to melt. Still cold out, but above freezing. Last week though it finally got warmer, and it is now quite warm outside. I don't need the layers upon layers anymore! I walked to the store this morning and almost died with my hoodie on. Last weekend we were pretty busy working on the backyard. Since the snow was finally gone and the plants had died down over the winter we started digging it up. The whole yard was pretty much weeds so we needed to just try and get all of it out so we worked just clearing the entire yard. We worked all day Sunday until I was so sore I could hardly do anything. My hands and forearms hurt so bad if I moved them. Monday they were much better and we worked some more Monday and yesterday trying to get it all cleared so we can plant the grass seeds. There is still a little bit to do, and then clear out the garden part so I can plant my vegetables I started, but that will have to be later. I am just really excited to have a back yard! It will be so nice to be able to sit out there and eat dinner in the backyard (my favorite thing about warm weather is eating outside - I eat every meal I can outside when it is nice enough. I love it! Really I think I just love being outside). The neighbors have all been very curious as to what is going on. As I work all day I can see them come by and spy over the fence at everything and talk amongst themselves. Man it is going to be so nice! I cannot wait! But I am about to head off again tomorrow, so it will be May before I get to really appreciate it. On that note I think I will end. It will be sometime in May before I get to update this again. Hope everyone is having a great spring! It is gorgeous here now and I am loving it!! Oh and tonight we are going to our first concert here. I am way excited. We are going to see the Rumor Said Fire, a band from Denmark that I love. Should be lots of fun!

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