Hot Dogs and Hot Dog Dogs

The dog population in Berlin seems to parellel chicago's. Except- the breeds differ from the ones that are prevalant in the states.
All of them seem to be a variation of the 'hot dog' dog, and all the others seem to convey a wiser look- attributed to their greyish, scruffy, longer beard hair.
American dogs seem to have a more vibrant, interactive, nieve, exploritive attitude. The ones in berlin have buisniess to tend to it seems:

they have buses:
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL144087920080901

and pay taxes:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9902E5DA143AEF33A25750C2A9679D94689FD7CF

Berliners like their Vices

There's nothing quite like a warm glass of wine in the morning. Of course I wouldnt know, but Ike felt it was necissary this morning cuz- it was just sitting on the kitchen counter, staling, from the night before.

Theres been a lot of new vices, and things i've seen since the start of my stay here. And in 8 days, i've seen a total of 2 cop cars, Zero fights on the streets, 2 kids doing coke in the midst of the crowd at a electonic club- dog poop littered about, recycling bins that separate green glass from white/clear glass, paper, plastic, and then the just plain rubbish. You can walk the streets with beers in hand, posess an 1/8 of green with no penalty, and you dont get carded for anything- (except for the hard liquors i guess)-

It seems as though people party much harder in Berlin. Any venue where music is being played, is filled, and about 90 percent of people are dancing. 3 o'clock is the appropriate time to go out at night. Anything before- is just plain early!

WG # 1

As romanic and nomadic as a hostel sounds... we were ready to retire to a WG. Its this system that they have - which like many other things here, makes a lot of sense. Its works like craigslist, but its specifically for finding and renting rooms that are furnished, include heat, electric and often include other roomates- and are w/o contracts (its basically like your subletting- but you dont have to bring all your shit there.

And for just 300 euro a month, we get this lovely room decorated with IKEA -its basically standard here- a cool german roommate- named Katha, and all the luxuries of german living, including a washingmachine in the kitchen.

(the first photo is a view out of the bedroom window)

BERLIN!!! but it was a bitter-sweet arrival.

We had finally made it- Deutchland! We got our passports stamped, and now- I have a total of 8 stamps, while Ike made 5. (pretty good for just beginning his international adventures just 3 weeks ago)

The day we were SUPPOSED TO arrive...

Youve heard of the Twilight Zone, even probably seen some episodes... but when it comes to actually being caught in it- its worse than you could imagine. I think we were half asleep the entire 24 hours that we were stuck in Stansted airport- London. We missed our flight to Berlin- on account of Air India. And the Germans had absolutley no sympathy- we lost the tickets. Period.

Long Long story short, we had to pay 800 extra bucks to buy new tickets to Berlin, send our luggage separately and after many many complaints, much angst and sadness, finally arrived in Berlin- 1 day later than expected. And after all the hell that we went though, London seemed much less attractive (as did we after the 40 hours of traveling).