G E R M A N Y **berlin* & *dessau**

greetings faithful blog followers :)

we would like to extend our sincere apologies for leaving you all hanging without an UPDATE! the past few days. internet has been scarce and our adventures have been thick! but here i am again, opening your minds with my perspective of our time in BERLIN, GERMANY!!!

MONDAY morning, we treked from our lovely hostel in amsterdam (where we shared a room with two california girls! ((i asked if they felt awesome for havin the summer's hottest hit "California Girls" by katy perry singing about them...they said of course! they get all the praise: example 2 = the beach boys' tune!)) ) to the train station!! this was to be our very first rail experience on this journey. we had purchsed unlimited rail passes to last a 15 day span, so we basically had to show up and hop on! one littel glitch: the passes had to be "validated." hm. doesnt sound too hard, we mused. HOWEVER. and oh what a HOWEVER. when you want to catch the 6:58am train and the service office doesnt open (despite the workers that are there fifteen minutes in advance. grr.) until 7am...a problem bubble arrises and squishes its way into your perfectly planned out day. seriously. there were a handful of other backpackers wanting to catch the early train from amsterdam to berlin and simply couldnt because their passes hadnt been validated. (aka: match passport to ticket and stamp - a .0000000003 second process.) us four actually hopped onto the 6:58 departing train, thinking we might just stay on and if we were asked along the way, explain our plight. well. we didnt end up staying on that train. we somberly scooted off just before the whistle blew. we made our way to the office which was just opening its doors and validated our flippin tickets. then waited for 2 hours till the next train came to wisk us away from the land of poor service and grouchy locals. without another hiccup, we arrived in berlin about 3:20 pm and started our exploration of the cosmopolitan area.

TUESDAY was spent in two large chunks. 1. FAT TIRE BIKE TOUR from 11-4 alllll around the city and 2. meeting up with cassandra and joe's friend, Isaac (who is darin and my friend now too!) who is attending school in Berlin for composition this summer. this day was phenomenal. due to limited time and space, i will let you know that A) we learned a LOT about the city of Berlin!!! and i love it :) and B) because of my innate and well-fostered love of photos (thanks mamma!) i completely wiped out whilst attempting to snap a photo of my three dear friends biking as flower children do throughout the parks of Berlin. yes, i lost control of the bicycle because my left hand was holding as i twisted back to take the picture - my bike went off the (really large, ha) sidewalk and after it caught the fence, i did a flip in the air, landing ever so gracefully on the ground, camera down. three bruises (the biggest being my pride) and a broken bike (which did not result in a fine) later, we continued on our way. but dang it all, i got that picutre, my camera survived, and it was good!

WEDNESDAY was a day full of TRAVELING ON THE TRAIN! and holy cow. this day was absolutely JAM PACKED with crazy happenings and helpful characters. this is seriously too long and complicated and intricate and juicy to type on the blog. an accurate summation would be: this day was a rollercoaster ride of emotions that included racing from one train to another after a derailment, being beyond completely confused by the german language of which none of us speak a lick, meeting nice angels on earth that pay for unexpected taxi rides, translate that we need to switch trains, etc... and arriving in prague with a not so amazing greeting. best part of this day that i will share with you all: Oswald Boelcke's Memorial site in Dessau, Germany. Boelcke=BOHLKE in ancient slash actual german terms. you guessed it, my great great great (maybe another great) uncle has his very own memorial place in the quait down of dessau, germany for being the very first flying ace, who also trained the red baron :) this part of our wednesday was especially amazing. once we finally arrived in the town, we rented bikes (for only 4 euro each!! with a lot of hand motions to the store dude as we dont speak the same language) and peddaled off to find the memorial. about 2 miles later, we arrived at the gate woo! cassandra went to open the green entrance that appeared to be locked but, to our delight, opened without a squeak. visiting my ancestors memorial was quite moving. no, i never knew him. my dad never knew him. gramps martin never new him. he died quite young, actually (consult wikipedia for more details :) )but he is my blood, and how sweet that he is honored in such a way all the way over here in europe!!! i snapped a plethora of photos and took a short video to share with my bohlke -and all interested parties- family. i feel extremely greatful to have had the opportunity to visit this place. i am fairly certain i am the first to make the journey from our branch of Bohlke's in the states. i know that all of my family would be touched by the experience. maybe some of the members that would have been most interested have passed from this worldly life, but we were all there together in spirit yesterday. i was the vessel, but we all met oswald together.

on that pleasant note, i'll sign off for now. hope this blog tides you all over until our next opportunity to write a love letter to you. have a great thursday! keep praying for us - remember, a lot LOT LOT of yesterday was left out, but we know we got through because you all keep us in your thoughts :)

love from a second-floor internet cafe in prague,
laura