Love the liver

Berlin, Germany

A few years ago, I took a big road trip out to the west coast with a group of my friends from Auburn. Along the way, we kept a quote book of funny things that people said throughout the journey. Damon and I are not keeping a quote book, but after last night we are thinking about starting one up. The first entry:

That looks like something off of Fear Factor. -Damon

We were fresh off the train from Prague and after traveling by metro and foot for two hours had finally reached Damon´s friend´s house. It was nearly 10 PM and we had not eaten all day, so we stopped at the only restaurant that seemed open. It looked great from the outside with a relaxing patio area and festive middle eastern music. We plopped our big packs down, ordered a German beer, and then tried to tackle the menu.

"Tried to tackle the menu" would be the key phrase from the previous sentence. It was a bilingual menu, but unfortunately for us that meant German and Arabic. Our waiter spoke a bit of English and so we asked him what his favorite is. He pointed to it and we liked the price, so we ordered two.

Fifteen minutes later and still waiting on our beers, our salads arrived. We had not eaten all day, so the salads of parsley, tomato, onion, cucumber, radish, and carrots looked delectable. Enter the Fear Factor quote. The waiter brings out our trays 0f food, and it is quickly evident to Damon that we are going to be eating liver for the rest of the night.

I have had liver before when I was a lot younger, and all I remember is that it is pretty try. In a previous post, I mentioned that I can no longer say that I do not like beets. Well, it is safe to say that liver can take its place.

I am sure that there are many reading this that have no problem with liver. I respect that and even applaud that. But on this particular evening fresh from eight hours of a journey, we were ready for something a little more appetizing. We did not get it. It was bitter and dry and in the end, we ate a combined 3 pieces (of the few dozen that were brought to us).

All was fine though. We ate our salads and pita, paid the bill, and made it safely to Pieter´s house down the road. What more could we ask for? Okay, maybe a large pizza from Austin Pizza Live would have made it better. But in the end, we had a roof over our head and got a great night of rest.

We have done quite a bit of touring around the city today, and are on our way to see the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Tomorrow we will get a tour from Pieter, which should be nice since he has lived in Berlin for many, many years. I hope to put some pictures online soon too. Get excited - they´re prettz good.

One more note: I only brought a pair of flip flops over here with plans on buying a pair of hip European walking shoes upon arrival. So I have been shopping for some shoes throughout the journey, and so far have only run across one pair of shoes in my size! This is probably not worth mentioning on the blog, besides the fact that it is pretty funny that I remain shoeless over here solely because of my long feet!