Rostock can be Chilly in January

I got more use out of my zoom lense yesterday that perhaps I ever have before. Yep, I got an opportunity to do some "wildlife photography" during our trip to the Berlin Zoo. In general, it was a typical zoo experience, with the one major exception being that we got to see KNUT! In case you missed it, this polar bear (Eisbär) captured pretty much the whole world's attention about a year ago when his mother rejected him and was the center of a controversey over whether or not it would be ethical to raise him without the guidance of his proper mother. Wherever you stand on the issue, you have to admit that Knut is both cute and crazy. We must have hung around the polar bear area watching him amuse himself for at least 15 minutes. In that time I got some pretty crazy pictures of Knut being Knut and I can't wait to share them.

At this point in my entry I can literally feel my Englisch falling away, and I appologize for the effects a German environment is having on me. In any case, today Tommy, Annie, Rachel, and I decided to take an excursion outside the city of Berlin. The original plan was to go to Poland, but that fell through for being too large of an undertaking. Instead, we decided that we would all like to see the Baltic Sea and hopped on a train and headed for the end of the line: Rostock. Unfortunately, we had all slept in and we didn't arrive in the costal town until 3:00 in the afternoon. If Rostock is anything in January, it's frigid. Our spirits were dampened as we fought a bitter wind in oder to get a look at the town. After a late lunch we got on the local train system to get to the coast, but by that time it had already become dark. After one premature disembarkation and a twenty minute wait for the next train, we finally made it to the coast, the sky and the water pitch black. The part of Rostock that is by the sea must be very nice in the summer, as full as the harbor was of sailboats and as well stocked as the streets were with restaurants, but in the winter all the ships were in and the shops closed up. Still determined to make something out of our trip, we headed towards the beach, heads bowed against a wind that seemd to grow stronger the closer we got. We ended up hiking accross a giant sandbar to a lighthouse that was hard to photograph at night. By this point, we had lost all sense of sanity in the face of such rediculous conditions and, fearing we might all be blown into the water, we retreated to the safety of the train station. 3 long hours later, here I am, safe, sound, and warm in the relatively balmy city of Berlin, no worse for the wear, but perhaps a little disappointed. Oh well... at least I can say I saw the Baltic Sea, if only three or so feet of it!