Nachdem Amsterdam, Brüssel, und ein andere schöne Tag!

Amsterdam and Brussels were fantastic. The car rides there and back were a little long, but needless to say I had no trouble falling asleep in the car, as I usually do during long drives (... only when I'm in the back seat). We definitely walked through the Rotes-Licht Viertel (Red-Light District) and saw our fair share of our "Women of Negotiable Affections" and Coffee Houses and that kind of stuff. In Brussels I had enough Belgium Chocolate, saw the typical tourist sites, and fortunately RAN INTO THE COOLEST "SCARE CROW" MAKING CONTEST EVER. So on the Grand Market Place stood a bunch of numbered scare crows, each made by a different, and after looking at all of them (for free) you could pay 2 euros to vote for your favorite. The charity who made the scare crow which received the most votes got some decent sum of money, so the scare crows were of high quality! There were ginormous ones, one made out of only a bike, one with a billion international flags so tourists could stand in front and take pictures (good idea, we definitely took advantage of this one), one made of just a 2D piece of green board, one of only soda cans and was R2D2, and a whole bunch of other Belgian-Waffle themed ones. It was great timing for us to come. Belgium was pleasant, except for that it was a bit difficult to communicate with people!

and... well, shoot. Tonight was a great day. Ellen and I went to Prenzlauer Berg, this incredibly hip part of Berlin, and walked around. We stood in front of an Indian Restaurant for a little too long, so the guy came out and showed us the Menu. We said we had already ate, but were curious as to when the Happy Hour was. He said, "Für Sie... jetzt," or "For you... now." We went in, tasted some juice, and then left to explore the rest of the Prenz-Berg. I finally bought an awesome tiny Lonely Planet guide to Berlin, and to all of its hip places. I'm definitely excited to check some of these places off.

I ended up hanging out with the son of my uncle's friend in and around the middle of Berlin for the evening. He kept asking me what I wanted to do, so I pulled out the Lonely Planet book to see what was nearby--and lo and behold stood the Erotik Museum. We went in. It was surprising to see so much art devoted to the sexual positions, and it was even more surprising (for me anyway, since I know very little about the history of sex) to see that most of the pictures were from Japan or China. It probably has to do with the fact that neither of these countries are largely Christian and thus don't have a huge taboo on sex.

After our sexcursion, we went and had dinner with our families. We had a mix of German, Chinese, and Indonesian food in my uncle's friend's flat. Apparently Berlin apartments are all designed identically--my uncle's apartment and his friend's have the exact same room set-up, even though they live in different complexes. This guy lives on the top floor of his complex (5th story), a building with only stairs, and has a family of only doctors. It was a familiar, all Indonesian setting with Indonesian and Deutsch been thrown around. It's sad to think that I can barely speak Indonesian at all, and can only understand it. I can speak Chinese and German better than Indonesian, but can understand Indonesian better than I can speak Chinese or German.

Bis nächste mal..