Can't Stop Grillin'!

I had a good Saturday. This morning, I went to breakfast with my buddy, Jay. He had only arrived in Berlin a few hours before we met up, so I'm surprised he wasn't more tired. But we had the chance to catch up over breakfast at a place called Keyser Soze in Berlin. Yes, it's just like the Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects. 

While we worked on our big breakfast plates, we caught up on baseball and a range of other topics. It was a lot of fun, and I'm hoping I'll get to hang out with Jay again soon. 

After breakfast, he had to go meet up his friend, so we walked over to S Oranienburger Str. We had both passed it individually when we both arrived, and apparently, we had both noticed the same thing on the corner of the street—a broken car, crashed upside-down on the steps of the corner building. What we weren't sure about was whether it was real or not. The red tape that had been in front of it certainly made it seem so. But upon further inspection, we realized it's an art exhibit.

Still, quite amusing. From there, we went our separate ways, though I may meet up with him and his friend tonight. We shall see.

I headed over to Schönhauser Allee though to pick up some food and drinks for my little grill party in Mauerpark with Rob and his son. He had already picked up a couple of one-time grills, so we were set. In fact, when I finally met up with them, Rob showed me all the delicious goodies he had packed—fresh lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, mustard, and other sauces. Plus we had hamburger patties, Swiss cheese, and the sausages and bread I brought. We had a feast.

Both Rob and I were shocked that Mauerpark was so empty on a Saturday afternoon though, and a really bright and sunny one at that. Honestly, it was so strange not to see more people out and about. The park itself looked like crap though—there was garbage strewn all over the place. C'mon, people...clean up after yourselves, please?

Nevertheless, Rob, Noah, and I had some good fun grilling sausages to start off with and then working on those delicious burgers. Man, I was very content. The only downside was the warm beer. I had picked up some beer at Netto, but they weren't cold. Bummer. At least the food was good. Noah enjoyed his Nürnbergers, I think.

I wolfed down my burger 'cause it was just so dang good. And of course, Rob had made the patties himself. We are going to do another grill party in 2 weeks, so I'm excited for that.

After the burgers, we also ate some Halloumi cheese, which you also grill for a little bit. Man, that stuff and the bread and the sesame sauce and a piece of lettuce...a serious feast.

After hanging out in the park for a few hours, we walked over to a cafe and Noah ate a waffle with strawberries, ice cream, and powdered sugar. Looked delicious. As Rob's boss's dog, Stella, slept on the ground (Stella came along for the day...seriously, a very obedient dog), Rob and Noah tried a little experiment with the Germans in the neighborhood.

As I've explained a few times before (I think), Germans tend to be a bit more distant at first. They don't smile at you on the street (if you smile at them, they'll think you want something from them and avoid eye-contact). So Rob and Noah decided to wave at everyone who walked by, just to see how people would react. Of course, since Noah's four years old and quite adorable, people were naturally quite friendly and waved back. I told Rob he should just do it by himself next time and see how people respond. Haha.

I finally got home around 6:30 PM, and I think our neighbors are having a grill party of their own downstairs on the lawn. Awesome. Lenz may be down there too, but I'm not entirely sure. Either way, I was pretty drained from the sun, so I went up to the apartment. After a bit of rest, I made dinner, and I tried the salmon again (I mentioned I was going to a few days ago, but decided to fry rice that night instead). I did much better today—both with the rice and the salmon. Good stuff.

Tomorrow, Brandon's softball team (the one I retired from) is playing a pretty good team in the league. So I'm going to go watch the game and hopefully pass on any helpful observations to Brandon and his teammates. Should be fun. Thankfully, it's also not terribly far from my neighborhood (only half an hour), so I don't have to commute at least an hour to get to their regular field at Tempelhof.

Then on Monday, it's off to Paris! Thankfully, Ariel (my friend with whom I will be traveling) and I found a really nice person on CouchSurfing.com, who offered to host us for our stay. She's actually American and seems really nice. I'm bringing her some bread from Germany as she requested. Should be fun.

Anyway, enjoy your weekend wherever you are!

Sam