Anytime I travel overseas the first few days are always a conflict. I've learned to plan for the first day to be lost to jetlag and sleep, but then when it is, I still feel guilty about it - that I've wasted that day. My natural tendency to be a night owl, coupled with the fact that I enjoy nightlife when traveling to other cities doesn't help things, because its all too easy when your body's still on US time to be out and about and suddenly discover that its 4 or 5am before you know it. So suffice it to say that I didn't make it out during daylight on Wednesday. My day "started" with some doner to get some food in my body - admittedly doner isn't really German fare, but its not commonly found in the US, so I still feel like its still 'local' eating over here. I'll write more about it later... its so ubiquitous here that it deserves its own post. Once I had that base, I joined my friends Richard, Kai, and Heinrich and more of their friends for Stammtisch - their weekly gathering to drink cheaply and socialize. Essentially, their version of a beer bust. From there the night was essentially pub-hopping throughout the neighborhood, meeting new people and running into others I've met before. The night (morning?) ended once again much later than I had planned, but was great fun nonetheless. As for the pics - I don't think I mentioned on here that I have been taking some German classes (very very basic - enough to recognize prices and order food, but not enough to really converse), but its fun to recognize words - and the german word for elevator is one of my favorites - Aufzug - literally "uptrain". Always makes me grin at the end of the night.