A bleak day in Berlin

Saturday has been plagued by gray skies and cold rain all day long.  We, the group of students and professor Freeman, still went out exploring the city and sights.  But before I get to that, last night we celebrated a birthday of one the girls in our group (Marissa).  After a long search and heavy debating, we ended up at an empty bar just a block from our hotel.  Jeez.

From left to right:  Maria, Laurie, Marissa

Cheers!

Then everyone got hungry and wanted a kebab from the place next door.  I was a little grossed out by the giant slab of mystery meat...

Saturday was a day of crowded metros, walking around Alexanderplatz, bombed out churches, rowdy football crowds and exploring flea markets.

Professor Freeman and Matt.

We headed into Europe's largest department store, KaDeW.  This store has seven stories, the last two of which are full of food and beer.

These guys were guarding the giant pretzels you see in this next picture.

This pretty much sums up Germany:

There were moments of temptation, but I stayed strong.  I've always had a really bad sweet tooth.  And as a recent convert to veganism (it's been almost two months), it's been really hard to find anything sweet that doesn't contain animal product (gross).  I think the temptations will diminish with time, but I can't lie and say that I don't miss Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream or Oreo cookies.  The urges can be tough, especially when I'm in a city where I'm surrounded by confectionaries.  But I faith that I can change my life, and I strongly believe in the lifestyle I'm practicing.

Looking down the escalator:

Bombed out church in the center of town.

Then, we went to the train station for a quick bite to eat, and there were a bunch of people cheering for their football team.  That's one of the amazing things about Europe:  people can have rallies and celebrations without the authorities/police/security freaking out about it.  The pep rally went on for a while before the police walked out.  And there was no shoving or disruption.  The fans just disbanded and headed to the stadium.

After a disgusting Thai food lunch of curry basil vegetables, we headed to a flea market.  I didn't even want to take a picture of the lunch I had because it was so gross.  The vegetables tasted old and felt soggy, and the sauce was unbelievably spicy.  One of the girls on my trip even said that my food smelled like "a pet shop."  I'm pretty sure food isn't supposed to smell like that.
Anyway, here's the (overpriced) flea market.

There was all sorts of crap stuff for sale.

In a few hours a group of us are heading out to a pub to watch the big football match that's taking place in Berlin.

Question:  How do you handle temptation with food?  How often do you get urges to "cheat"?

Tschau!