Berlin, last days

Yesterday morning after writing my post here I went out and went to the Turkish jewellery shop walking but taking a different route this time. I got the bracelet for my son and chose a pair of earrings for my daughter. She doesn't have her ears pierced yet, and I am sure on receiving this gift she will insist on piercing them soon, but I don't intend to do it for some years.

The Turkish shop owner was not there yesterday morning and I had to speak German with the two ladies. It was fun because I managed to make myself understood. I should create more occasions like this to practice my one-and-only non-practiced language. The day before, at the reception, I spoke some Norwegian and I was happy to see that I haven't forgotten that either. I should note down in my to-do list: a trip to Norway, soon, just to practice my language, what else?? :-P



After the jewellery shop I went into one of the Turkish grocery shops. They had practically everything from Turkey. Meat, cheese, salami, butter, yufka, canned vegetables, everything you can think of. I thought I was in heaven :-) But I didn't buy that much, only 4 packages of yufka (to freeze), a big can of feta cheese, a package of kasar cheese, two packages of olives (green and black), a package of thin bulgur (my mother makes delicious kisir with that) and a jar of hot paprika paste to be eaten with fresh bread, mmmmm... :-)



My hands were full with the heavy bags so I took a taxi and went back to my hotel to leave the stuff before going out again. It was fun to get out of the taxi in front of this fancy hotel with two plastic bags full of food ;-) The hotel was surrounded by a lot of policemen and men in black suits yesterday. Since we arrived there has been a EU conference in our hotel. Everyday we met people representing different countries of the EU, some at secretary some at Ministry level and yesterday was even more hectic with all the black BMWs and AUDIs with special plates parked all around the hotel area. Just when I was leaving two guys with professional film cameras in their hands were entering the hotel. I wonder what happened after I left.....



I walked to the Philharmonic Hall where the conference was, then down to Potzdamer Platz to meet Gabriele and Andrea. We had some lively discussion about the Italian husbands and their Mediterranean wives, and the problems that these wives have in Italy and how the husbands should deal with those problems, without any conclusion, as usual ;-) We ate our lunch in the few seconds during which we were listening to each other during the discussion. Afterwards Andrea went back to the conference and I took Gabriele for a tour. We visited the Sony center, admired the huge High Definition LCD and Plasma TVs, the new High Definition photo cameras and camcorders. Then we went to the Legoshop and got some Lego bricks for Iris (or for us?).



I made him walk for over an hour and took him to KaDeWe, the shopping center. Not that I wanted to do more shopping, but I wanted also him to see and enjoy this beautiful place. We first visited the floor where they have all types of delicacies from around Europe.. Chocolates, salamis and prosciuttos, pastries, wine, beer... We had to stop at the Lindt corner, our favorite chocolate. We took bitter chocolate with different flavors, with chili, sour cherry, lime, guava... I can hardly wait to try them all. By the way, the one with sour cherry and chilly (together) is Delicious!



After the travel into food land we went up to the top floor, the Wintergarten, with a ceiling of glass.. Watching the view of Berlin we sipped our huge glasses of weiss bier, and met our friend from Macedonia. Later, leaving her there in the chocolate corner, we went out and continued window shopping until we both became dizzy with all the colors, clothes and people around us. We ran back to our hotel to relax.. We finished the day (and our stay in Berlin) with a light dinner at a Greek restaurant which is right in front of our hotel.



This morning after then breakfast Gabriele went to the conference and I am here writing this post.. I began making our luggage in the morning. Now I will go up and finish packing. We will check out of the hotel at 14 and will be off to the airport. Tonight we will arrive Florence late in the evening and tomorrow we will get our children. God, we missed them!