katie's birthday continued

so i feel like we did like 87 things this day.
probably because it was SUCH a nice day so we walked everywhere.

after the park we started walking to the Brandenburg Tur and on the way stopped at the Sowjetisches Ehrenmal. Below was one of the tanks that was on display there, there are 2 tanks that are on either side of the monument. according to one of our friends, Mahesh, (he is this crazy guy from israel and "knows" something about EVERYWHERE and everything that we go/do. so not entirely sure if this is true. but sounds likely) this was the best tank that they had when they fought in the war. The Sowjetisches Ehrenmal was created in memorial of the over 300,000 soviet soldiers who died at the battle for Berlin at the end of WWII. It is also a cemetary for about 2500 soviet casualties. interesting eh?

so here we are acting like tourists and taking a picture.

our group!

now, on our way to the Brandenburg Tor. just a little bit further.

this was the first time any of us actually paid for a bathroom...

turns out it was one of the coolest bathrooms she's ever used. music, voices telling her what to do...we might go back.

the Brandenburg Tor (Gate)

it was completed in 1795! great yeah?  it is ALWAYS shocking to me how old some of these things are. and how amazing they are. until 1989 it stood as a divider between the East and West side of germany, but between 2000 and 2002 was restored and now is here for us to enjoy!

we tried to get a picture in front of it but unFORTUNATELY for the general public none of the 3 turned out with us all looking normal. so we'll skip that.

whatev's i'm posting it. for posterity.

ignore the squinty eyes.

NEXT! Holocaust-Denkmal

 this is a memorial that was built in 2003 in commemoration of the jews that were killed by the nazi's between 1933 and 1945. it's right next to the brandenburg gate, which is nice for us, and sure makes for great pictures.

it was over 200,000 square feet and it was really pretty cool, the ground sloped down and did all sorts of crazy things as well as the heights of the cement blocks being varying heights. pretty cool.

while enjoying our lollipops we decided to make a photoshoot out of it...

friendss

tired of the lollipop pictures are you? okay, fine.

so pretty

hannah!

this is for you!!

here is where the bunker was where Hitler committed suicide...

NOW we're on our way to a birthday dinner for katie!!

we went to a place called Vapiano's for din din.
Sehr Lecker. (real good. okay it actually means very delicious. but still)
it was italian and they made your pasta right in front of you!
minor complaint, the tables were minitaure sized. but let's be honest here, most things in germany are.
um ALSO, please note that this was the first and only ice water i've had in germany thus far. I MISS ICE WATER. i am such an ice water snob. well, was i guess. can't do much about that now! first then when i get back to the states, grab myself an ice water. chomp on some ice. mmm.
where were we...
katie's birthday.
pasta.
oh and katie had this realllyyy good pizza that i will definitely be having when/if we go back there. i don't really remember what it was or i would tell you. something maybe with spinach? yeah, sounds right.

creeper nick in the background...
but we're still friends.

yay happy birthday katie!
21!

whew and that's all for today.
oh except for the best part of the day where katie came to our house after our fun filled day to use our internet (the beers still aren't home yet) and see all of her birthday wishes from friends on facebook. (hah that's not really the reason she came over exactly, but let's be honest, how many birthday comments are there. she just wanted to write her family) THEN she left our house around 10ish. well...we get a knock on our door around 11ish...we're kind of freaked out? i mean who could that be really at 11. so we answer the door and it's katie! hah surprise. there was some mass confusion with the buses and a bunch of people were stuck at a station soo...naturally she came back to our house!

we had a sleepover. a happy birthday sleepover.
it couldn't get any better than that.