Day 32 - Berlin, Germany

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Morning: Did I mention last nite was a late nite? Yes, when our host told us that the supermarkets and shops will close early at 2pm today, I could only drag myself up at about 11+am. Planning to take it really slow today and luckily the first time the smell of coffee woke me up. Ya, since starting this trip, I've been drinking at least a cuppa coffee per day outside to taste how each country make their coffee but never at any host's home. This day's coffee smell is nice and strong so I couldn't resist but to ask for a cup from Johannes. Oh yes, we haven't really chatted properly w him yet since last nite so this morning was a proper intro breakfast. Johannes works at his own corporate travel company arranging for them when they come to Berlin for business trips, lives by himself in this nice and high apartment near the city and cycles to work at his spacious office in town. He has already hosted lots of people from all over the world and seemed to be a very experienced host. Anyway it was Saturday and the sun is nice and hot, so he said he will bring us to the supermarket, join us for a walk around his area and then prob drop us somewhere later.

Afternoon: So we got ready quickly and went out to the various supermarkets, planning what to cook for him tonite and of course our signature Chicken Curry is a must-have and my stir-fry always changes according to what i can find at the Asian supermarkets. We finished the grocery buying and brought it all back to the apartment first before going out for the walk at Tiergarten. Walked past the beautiful river w lots of people sunbathing, a kids carnival and reached the Victory monument right in the middle of the huge garden. Lots of people are there cos it's a Saturday and the weather is really good so we continued on to the Brandenburg Tor to get a quick bite before Johannes left us to go home and rest. By then, it was almost evening time so we hurried to the WWII War Memorial jus nex to the Tor and took lots of pics there. The memorial is prob more arty and seems more like a park for people to play in than a war memorial shld be but nevertheless we practiced some lighting and angle shots from there cos of the blocks of wall all around. We then quickly walked on to Potsdamer Platz, where there are lots of modern architecture and esp the Sony Centre which looks amazing interiorly. They have 2 model Speed Racer cars on display so we quickly stand in awe to look at them, very slick and bright colours!

Night: We walked quickly around the various designer blocks and decided to start walking back cos we've gone pretty far from where we started. We walked thru the huge Tiergarten again and thru the river and finally back home to start preparing dinner at 9pm. WY cooked the curry while i prepare the stir-fry and we end up finishing an hour later at abt 10+pm. In the end we ate the dinner and ended up renting a movie at the nearby video shop and watching it till 2am!

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