in his heart a man plans his paths, where he will go

but the Lord directs his paths...

2.1.09
1908 local time
ICE 1517 toward leipzig

today, i was awoken by some stupid alarm of peters at 7am...grr. especially because i didnt have to get up until 9. i got out of bed, prepped, and set out around 10 to get to the brandenburg gate at 11 for a free (whoop!) tour of the city. i thought that i would get to there with plenty of time to spare...good thing i left almost an hour early! at a little past 11, i got to the brandenburg gate, but the tour was running behind, so everything worked its way out! :) it was an interesting tour. we saw the brandenburg gate, the reichstag (german parliament building), the memorial to the jewish victims of the war, hitlers bunker, checkpoint charlie, the opera house, the museum island, and humboldt university, where albert einstein worked before he came to the united states; it lasted around 4 hours. at the end, lucy, our australian tour guide, told us the story about how the wall fell.

after the city tour, i went to alexanderplatz to buy a new räuchermännchen and went to the reichstag again to try to go into the top, but the line was too long, so it has to wait until next time...sad...but, that means there has to be a next time! ;) also, i wanted to go to hackeschermarkt to get a döner kebab, but that has to wait until next time, as well :( i will try to get back to do those things when i have time toward the end of my trip.

so, because i had too little time, i headed back to luises to get my things and to see her quickly before i left. when i got there, i realized that i had an extra hour than i had thought, so i ate dinner with her. then, i was disappointed because i found out via facebook that thomas still hadnt gotten his eurail pass and would not be able to meet me in weimar. laaaaaamesauce. outside of that, i was a little frustrated because i had already booked a hostel and everything...oh well. :/

now, i am trying to decide whether or not i will forego the things and rearrange my schedule to get to italy instead...it would be a big overhaul in plans, but at least i have until tomorrow morning to figure it out...

so, i am sitting now on the train, drinking a starbucks white chocolate mocha on the way to leipzig--with a stubborn taste of madagascar tofu in my mouth. :( what a day!! tomorrow MUST be better....

things of note:

~"happy birthday Jesus". was written on some windows in berlin facing the s-bahn for everyone to see :)

~at the new years party, we discussed a certain sentence with flamethrowers and told some...interesting jokes :)

~the americans on the tour said that i am not a real texan because i had no cowboy boots, no bucket (their word...i corrected them) hat, no big belt buckle, no accent, and i dont drive a truck. ha. :)

liebe grüße aus leipzig!