Paris and Berlin trip

It was not a trip per say. It was mostly “business”. Well, Berlin was kind of a real trip, I did some sightseeing but too much because I have to go back there on Monday and will have time to see some sights. I only went to Berlin because flights from Berlin were ¼ the price flights from Hannover and I was not going to pay 600 Euro for 45min I needed to be in Paris. I had only one thing in mind when I went to Paris. To buy those awesome chewy fruit bonbons! No seriously, I went there to defend my thesis. Plus some other errands. I went to Berlin on Tuesday evening, spent the night in some sketchy hotel (but not as sketchy as the hotels I used to stay in when I was not a mature adult. When I went to run that marathon in Nice I spend in the hotel that had the sign on a door saying that the establishment is closed by some kind of governmental agency until further notice and the owner had one eye. I was seriously little scared to stay there. And I was scared to drink water there so I did not drink almost anything in last 12 hours before the marathon and I was incredibly thirsty at the start) and then flew to Paris in the morning. I needed to go to the bank, however there they told me that I need to go to “my” branch. But my branch is in Versailles and there was no way I was going to go there and then back. Grrr. I will deal with the bank stuff over phone. Then I went to have lunch with my family. It was nice, I have not seen them in almost two years and lunch was great. Too bad I could not stay any longer:( My aunt is over 90 years old and I might not see her again. Then I went to do the defense. It went pretty well. My profs liked it. They have not asked me a lot of questions about the actual work. You know those genial economic models that you have to read at least 28 times to understand how the hell that researcher came up with that formula? My model is either similarly genial and thus the profs just decided to better leave it alone. Or it is just too confusing. Even I have to read it 28 times before I understand how I got it. So now I officially have Master’s degree! And it did not even hurt that much:) Then I had almost 3 hours till my flight back so it was time to stuff my face with Champs Elysees nutela banana crepes! But at first I stopped to get those chewy bonbons. Seriously. They are on the top of my list “why should I move to France”. I love Starburst chewy fruit bonbons but these French ones are divine!!! They have them only in few stores though and I know only two of these stores in Paris and one in Versailles. Unfortunately they did not have them in the store I went to. And you will not believe this but I did not go to the other store. I know. So unlike me, I know. They have something similar so I bought those and it turned out that they are the same kind only in different and SMALLER!:( packaging. So at least I have those. I wished I had bought more:( Oh well. Then I bought a crepe at Champs Elysees and I still had some time so I did the tour by the Eiffel tower. Because no matter how much I bitch to everyone how horrible Paris is, seeing the ET in the distance never gets old. Never! I love it. By the way, those Champs Elysees crepes are to die for. I do not know those folks put into that nutela but I can eat then every day. Too bad they cost 4Eur, which was little too much for me when I was living there, earning 400Eur and paying 450Eur for my rent. They are a must if you go to Paris. Unless of course you have a lot of money to waste and then you will probably go to Le Fouquet. My father’s cousin and his wife told me a funny story. You see, they are around 60 and they have lived in Paris and near Paris their whole lives but they have not been to the ET until last month. Can you believe that? :) But then they did it big style and they went to get lunch at Jules Verne restaurant. You know, that I do not know how many star restaurant on the second floor of ET where you pay 150Eur for food for a person. They said that there was a Russia couple (an old Russian millionaire with his 20 something years old wife) and an American couple. And the American wife drank two large glasses of coke with her meal! With $200 meal! So funny. So that was Paris. I saw almost all my old stamping grounds. Who knows when I go back. Berlin was nice. I left the hotel at 9am and did not have bus to Hannover until 5pm. So I spend over 7 hours walking around with two short sitting breaks. My poor feet. I think that I need to get new sneakers because I could definitely tell after so much walking that they are not good anymore. I walked around Tiergarden, Siegesaule, Charlottenburg. I am planning on going to Check Point Charlie museum and up the Siegesaule on Monday. I did not have enough money to go yesterday and I wanted to leave something for Monday because I will have again a few hours to kill. Ok, so that was my short trip. US embassy on Monday. Wish me luck.