Berlin is truly another world - huge and overwhelming, not to mention the language barriers. While I can figure out many European romance languages just from my knowledge of French and English, German doesn't work that way! I find it disconcerting because of the inability to just have basic courtesies, as well as conversations. I can get by and figure important things out fine, but there's a level of depth missing. There are so many places here and all of them busy on all nights of the week - late. Places don't even open until 10pm and then stay open until 7am. Its like being in a casino in Vegas where you lose all sense of time until suddenly you look at your watch and go 'holy crap its 5am!'.

One fun place I stumbled across yesterday was a restaurant called "Raststatte". I have no idea what it means, but from the graphics on the menu, I like to think that it means 'rest stop'. The place was full of kitsch from the waving cat to the deer head to the rubber duck. It turns out that this was a German tapas restaurant. (Many of you know there's not much I like more than tapas!! woohoo!) It also turns out my guessing at German on the menu wasn't so great, so I ended up with variations of beef and potatoes. That plus the fact that tapas for one doesn't really work. Two dishes and you're done. Nonetheless, it was a fun experience, and naturally the hefeweizen here is great!

Not to sound like a lush again, but I just found out that this weekend is Starkbierfest in Munich! woohoo!