Day 19: Berlin - Dinner and a Spa (Last Night)

For our last night in Germany, we headed to Oranienburger Strasse - a stop we always went through on the subway and referred to as "Orange Burger Strasse" - to eat at Hasir Turkish Restaurant. Berlin is actually home to the largest population of Turks outside of Asia Minor, so there are tons of doner kebap food stations. But this was actually a fancier, sit-down place with very formal-looking Turkish waiters carrying around huge platters of meat. We had the mixed grill for two - a sampler of all sorts of meats and vegetables and salad, and a great Turkish red wine.

If you know Chris, you know he's a sucker for any type of sauna/spa/massage, but rarely gets to indulge. Europe has lots of spas, baths, etc. and he'd been wanting to go to one the whole trip. If you know me, you know I'm not very good at relaxing, much less paying for relaxation... but he talked me into it. So we took the subway south to a local favorite, the Liquidrom. There are several different pools, saunas, and lounge areas, but the highlight is this large round saltwater pool where you float around and there's underwater music and colored lights on the dome ceiling in sync with the tunes . (They have a DJ on the weekends.) I won't go into all the details, but it was a pretty crazy couple of hours in this clothing-optional bathhouse. The intensity culminated in the Finnish sauna with the 11pm"infusion"- honey poured over our heads with 210 degree air thrust at us by the pool boy/masseuse. There were moments when we actually thought we would pass out and die. Seriously. Intense.