We’re getting into the swing of it now! Despite the weather being quite gloomy and drizzling, we had a day of productive planning, wanderings and all-round nerdism.

Our first stop was the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the main station in Berlin, to buy tickets to Dresden in a few days. Rather than catch the subway there, we took a lovely walk from Prenzlauer Berg to the Mitte, and stumbled on lots of nifty stores and curious sights on the way. This is definitely the way Marthese and I prefer to travel – discovering sights on foot while on our way somewhere.

We sighted the Reichstag from the HBF so trotted over there to book tickets to actually go inside on Thursday. Past the Brandenburg Tor and the unshakeable sense of Deja Vu, we stopped at a curious museum dedicated to Willy Brandt, a former West Berlin Mayor and quite a significant figure in the city’s reunification.

A familiar stroll down Unter Den Linden took us back to Friedrickstrasse, the place where we buy shoes. So we bought shoes. Or as the Germans call them: schuhe. We then got confused by the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn all over again, but figured it out enough to get us to Friedrichshain, where Marthese had found the most hipster bookstore in Berlin – Fine Bagels. We had a pretty great lunch there (Tez opted for a “fancy” cream cheese bagel while mine had piles of pastrami) while checking out a bunch of books.  Seemed a place designed for tourists or expats, but was super cool.

And just around the corner from there, Marthese proved to be a wife with much patience and great value, as she accompanied me to the Computerspielmuseum Berlin – a computer game museum! The place was a blast, tracing a history of digital games with physical consoles on display, installations with significant game boxes or videos playing, a mini arcade, and recreations of “gaming in the home” throughout the decades. While I played with an oversized joystick, I caught Marthese having a go at a dance dance revolution machine. I have photographic evidence!! She also played a really old Pong machine with me! I got to play a Commodore 64, a NES and an original Playstation…. IN A MUSEUM. Kind of my dream. The whole place was extremely interactive and their attempt to codify this emerging medium was quite insightful and has me re-thinking some of what I ought to consider in game design.

A few U-Bahns home and we’re prepping for dinner and tomorrow. I can’t believe we get to do this for 6 weeks!