grüße von Berlin

Hallo all... well the good news is I have not forgotten all my German. I have successfully asked for directions, ordered water without gas (those of you who have traveled with me in Europe know just how much I like my natural water), and followed along pretty well on Ufuk's tour at the Jewish Museum. Ok so maybe I'm more familiar with German words from the Third Reich, but still I'll say I'm pretty impressed with skills.

Just about 24 hrs on the ground here and I've had a good sleep, gotten to know the beautiful neighborhood of Shönenberg, Berlin (full of quaint cafes and shops) and of course spent most of my day already meeting with the educator from the Jewish Museum and examining their fantastic collection (do you expect anything else from me really?). My good friend Ufuk (thanks Casey for letting me borrow him for a few days) has been a wonderful host introducing me to a whole new side of Berlin.

We started our day with an Anatolian breakfast... full spread of amazing breads, cheeses and honey. I'm sure the tables around us in this Kreuzberg cafe could not understand why we were speaking English. As in Germany with my Syrian good looks most people mistake me as Turkish:)

Ok so I'm off to explore the decades of the Berlin Wall. You know me.... I just love a good history museum. It's so great how you can tell which streets were originally from the East by the traffic light... for those of you who have been here you know what I'm talking about, and for those of you who this makes no sense... you are due for a trip to this fabulous city.

Maybe by the next post I'll have figured out how to upload pictures... or at least ask permission before trying to connect my camera to the computer... I put on my stupid American hat when they started yelling at me. I just kept saying "Ich spreche nicht Deutsch" and they have not bothered me since:)

Thanks for all the notes...keep 'em coming!

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Almost ready for take off...

Well thanks to a generous grant from a local organization who has sponsored my upcoming trip to Europe, in a few hours I'll be officially closing up shop here and spending the next 5 weeks on the road-- yes you heard me 5 weeks. I don't think I've been on a trip this long in years (maybe even since summer camp).

I guess no one can blend Holocaust and genocide studies and traveling like I can. First stop Berlin, Germany. Then on to Poland, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the the beaches of Croatia (that part is vacation).

So in just a matter of hours I'll be somewhere over the Atlantic. Follow my travels and check out the blog to see what I am up to.

PS: See the link on the bottom of the page where you can follow my journey on the map.
Stay tuned....

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