snow day

it has been a crazy weekend; let's start at the beginning maybe?

tay arrived here on thursday night and we did little but eat oreos and cuddle. it was so nice to see her because she is amazing, and she also knows me really well. there's something about being abroad that is strangely lonely. on the one hand, i absolutely love meeting lots of new people and being able to experience a city without feeling tied down, etc. but on the other hand, it's also very hard to be away from people who you feel absolutely comfortable with. oof, sorry, a little off topic maybe. all i'm saying is, there are several people very far away from me right now who i wish were here.

on friday, taytay and i went to the east side gallery which stretches along part of where the wall used to be. it's basically an outdoor exhibit of artists from all over the world who are celebrating openness and the fall of the wall, etc. i hadn't been yet because i wanted to save it for tay's visit but i really loved it; i'm sure i'll be back again. we then trekked very far and took the ubahn to the holocaust memorial, which many of you probably recognize from photographs. it's a great exhibit. as you walk inside it slopes gently downward until the huge blocks of grey stone tower over you. some people experience the memorial as interactive (they climb on the blocks or run through it); others stand quietly and lean on the stones. it snowed all day on friday so this time the stone blocks were covered with about four inches of snow.

we also went into the underground exhibit that accompanies the memorial, which i have also done once before. it's not very big but it is incredibly sad; this time was especially hard for me. i highly recommend the exhibit and the memorial but i don't think i'll go into the underground part again, for a while at least.

friday also involved a lot of food; we started off with delicious croissant and pretzel+coffee and then, after the memorial, we headed over to the turkish market again so taylor could try the flaky spinach cheese thing. i cannot for the life of me remember the name of it, but it is seriously delicious. we also drank marzipan liqueur with susi and bjorn, shared a pizza and drank the most disgusting margaritas ever. but, of course, we were together and so it was magical.