Erin: "We're staying on the beach, in tents." Katie: "Wow. That's intense."

It seems fitting since my favorite television show, Lost, had its series finale this week, that I should preface this post with a similarly titled problem I have run into here in Berlin.

True Life: I get lost everywhere I go.

Pictured above is a map of the Berlin public transportation system. As you can see there are many options of places to go and lines to take, all of which can guarantee the following:

1. To smell like smoke.
2. To smell like numerous other boorish stenches that are ususally masked by the excessive smoke smell, but occasionally break through and catch you mid-yawn. Gross.

3. To not actually take me where I want/need to go. Sometimes I think this place is worse than Hogwarts. Like, "Ohhh....poor Harry....sorry those staircases keep moving on you. Maybe you should try living in a city that has your name on some sort of blacklist at transportation headquarters allowing every u-bahn, s-bahn and bus you attempt to ride to get re-routed to the farthest spot from your intended destination."

Pretty sure Voldemorts not dead, he's just found a new job running the Berlin bus system.
Avada Kedavra old man, Avada Kedavra.

Anyways, I bet you are thinking that, based on how long that "preface" was, this is going to be a really long blog post. Corrrrrrect. I always think its funny when people apologize for their long blog posts. It's as if just by posting it, they think the reader is obligated to completely read it all. Good news: you're not. It's a free country! (is that a valid 4th grader slam in Germany too?) BUT, I promise if you keep reading, you'll like what you see, even if you don't like what you read. I went to two beautiful cities this last weekend: Lübeck and Potsdam!

Lübeck: (its in Northern Germany)

The buildings were incredible! All of the streets looked so unique and everything was very well preserved.

This is my friend Michael Warden. Every trip we go on, we make a sign that says "Welcome to sunny_______." So far, of the three trips we've been on, all three have poured rain.

We are leaving for Prague tomorrow and there are death threats against us touching pen or paper the whole four hour train ride.

This was the drive. Fields and fields and fields of yellow. It was so beautiful that I had to take a picture every time we drove past a new set of them. I thought it was a good idea at the time to take so many that later I could recreate the drive in my mind. But, in reality, I could probably just print this exact picture out 49 times and accomplish the same thing. 3 hours of this kind of beauty is nothing to complain about however. There was a lot more to Luebeck than photographed here. I recommend Wikilooking it up.

Potsdam:
Potsdam is a place just a few minutes outside of Berlin. We got to see Frederick the Greats excessive estate here and spend the day wandering through his perfectly manicured and somewhat ostentacious but certainly breathtaking gardens and palaces.

It really was (I think this is the 4th time i've said this in the 6 total blog posts i've done) the most beautiful place I've ever been. (I really think I mean it this time)

*Yet another disclaimer. I wrote this blog post last weekend and forgot to post it! Lets be honest, the only person who is really mad about this is Denise Wade. Hold your horses Denise. Another one is on it's way shortly!

Love, Katie