Day 10 - Berlin

Originally we thought we would be in Berlin for only 1 day. There are a few factors that we didn't see before arriving here though. The main issue is the fact that my computer still hasn't arrived... Ok, this is super weird. Literally just as I was typing that, the computer arrived. I am not joking. WEIRD! Ok, other factors for an extended stay include a free place to stay, amazingly cool people to hang out with, and the Germany-Turkey game tomorrow night!

Today was a pretty chill day for the most part. We stayed last night at one of Stephanie's good friend's place. We slept in for a change, and then made our way over to her place which is in the same cool neighborhood. Since Stephanie didn't get off work until 3 or so, the majority of our morning / early afternoon was filled with pastries for breakfast, catching up on emails, blogs, etc and watching episodes of season 3 of The Office. I am pretty obsessed with that show, so it was a great afternoon. Once Stephanie got back, we took off to grab a cup of coffee at an awesome little place called Bonanza (www.bonanzacoffee.de)

The reason I liked this place so much is because they have a very similar vision as ours. They spent about 3-4 years just researching, practicing, and training before opening up. Our timeline for Green Door Coffee is much faster than that, but they seem to have the same goal, at least coffeewise... To make a truly great cup of coffee! Our vision, of course, stretches even farther than that. We also desire to create a community and culture that adapts to our vision of being a green, organic, and sustainable business... So, it was a great little place with an even better flat white. Please take a minute to check out their website. You will see a picture of them working on the machine we are most likely going to use (Synesso).

What else, what else, what else..... next, we moved on Mauerpark. This is a really unique place that is covered in graffiti. It's hard to explain without actually seeing it, but the park is right next to some remains of the Berlin Wall (Mauer = Wall). You should take a minute and wiki Mauerpark. It's a really cool place where graffiti is quite the art form.

Just about the time we left Mauerpark, I was feeling the caffine from the coffee kicking in. I am not sure if I mentioned this, but they made an amazing flat white. For those of you that aren't super familiar, a flat white is the New Zealand / Australian version of espresso and milk. It has proportionally less milk than a latte, which I think makes it a little better. Ok... enough of the coffee talk, because I am sure there will be more in the future.

The final stop for the night was an incredible Vietnamese restaurant called Monsieur Vuong's. We ate here with everyone (7 of us total). I can't really put in to words how great this place was, but it was by far the best meal we have had... yes, even better than the peanuts I had for dinner on the train to Berlin. You basically have 2 options which change daily. Last night was either pork with rice noodles or chicken with rice. I did chicken, and was not disappointed. Josh did the same dish, but they did tofu for him. A few of us paired that with some white wine, and it was pretty dang perfect. Alright... after dinner we came back to the apartment for a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit (which I totally dominated) and then hit the sack. Josh and I are now staying on Stephanie's newly acquired couches (newly acquired meaning earlier in the day). I had the small couch. Apparently I am short... who knew. Bedtime = 2:30.