Busy weekend

Hello,

Sorry, again for the gap in new posts but this weekend was a busy one! It began with the Christopher Street Day Parade which is supposed to be the biggest Pride Parade in the world but, in my opinion, I prefer the Toronto Pride Parade. It may just be that April and I attend the parade in Toronto together and that would, of course, make it more enjoyable :) The "parade" was more of a march of a bunch of drunken people, some dressed in costume but, unlike other parades, this one didn't really have floats or distinct groups leading various groups. No Family Pride, school groups, church groups, or great costumes and floats. Miranda was more disappointed that there were no nudes (haha). However, one thing this parade does do well is the great big party at the end of the parade. A huge section of Tiergarten Park is sectioned off with hundreds of vendors, thousands of people and a great big stage with music and dancing. I saw the coolest the grill. JD, you would have loved it! It was a huge round grill that hung with chains over a pit. They were, of course, using the grills to cook all kinds of wurst of which I just had to partake of along with a beer. Overall, it was a good experience however, I was a bit disappointed.

On Sunday, I had planned to attend the Dom for church but, I ended up being more than 1/2 hour late so I didn't want to disturb everyone and walk in that late. I will definitely attend next week at the Dom. Instead, I walked over to a nearby hostel and sat in the lobby reading some pamphlets. It was quite the snazzy hostel! I then, took some reading material across the street to the park outside Marienkirche. I lazed on a bench and decided I would sign up for a bike tour of Berlin when I get back from Krakow next week. I think it will be a good way to meet people or at least be able to speak to others while I am being a tourist and checking out the sites. I am looking forward to it.

Sunday afternoon we all met up at Brandenburg gate with some of Miranda and Yianni's friends and their two little ones. It was chaos there with more than half a million people there by 4pm and the game wasn't to start until 8:45pm! So, we quickly decided to move elsewhere, preferably somewhere a bit less crowded and a bit more kid-friendly. We eventually ended up at an outdoor pool. Some of us had to swim in our underwear but it was definitely a tonne of fun.

Sunday evening was the big game. We, at that point, were at our usual restaurant/game-watching hot spot (the place with the cocky Italian waiter) where we had dinner and then stayed to watch the game. Unfortunately Germany lost 1-0 which was very sad but I think what is even more sad is that there will be no more Euro Cup games! Whatever will we do with our evenings?!! Nemy again made it through the whole game and was a great fan. This morning she slept in until 11am!!!!

We are off to Krakow, Poland tomorrow. It's about a 4-5 hour drive and we're leaving bright and early so we should have some time for sightseeing tomorrow. I am really looking forward to seeing Krakow and also for a change of pace. It should be great. I will do my best to keep blogging while I'm away.

Sorry this entry isn't quite as detailed as usual. I find it difficult to be detailed when I wait so long to tell stories and then have a whole bunch of events to talk about in one blog.

Happy Canada Day tomorrow to all of you living in my "home and native land" :)

Miss you and please enjoy the festivities for me.

Love,
Jenn(ifer)