back to work.

So...if you can tell by the last week of pictures, we've been on vacation in Berlin while we've had guests... which was amazing and fun, but now it's back to work. Double-time. So I will be in the library (below) and training, cooking and eating in my spare time before my parents get here (in less than three weeks!) for another round of super-fun adventures. :) liebe Grüße.

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Brunch, Mauerpark, Karneval der Kulturen

 Sunday we got up, went to Kollwitzstr. in Prenzlauerberg and had brunch at Anna Blume. I was here with Audrey and Sue a few years ago and remembered these amazing towers of breakfast - fruit, cheese, cream cheese spreads, olives, marinated vegetables, meats, cheeses...lecker. And served with a basket of German rolls and bread, and scrambled eggs. After that: Mauerpark, the flea market and then open-air karaoke. Then back to Kreuzberg for the Karneval der Kulturen: a parade, which turns into a huge street party.

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Prenzlauer Berg, Mitte, Oper

 Another perfectly sunny, slightly cool Berlin day. We first headed to Prenzlauer Berg, walked along Kastanienallee, stopped at the Prater Biergarten, the oldest Biergarten in Berlin, and got a sausage. Michael got a Schwarzbier as well, a "black beer". Then we stopped at the Bernauer Str. Berlin Wall memorial, walked around the park there a bit. It's turned into a really great site - definitely worth visiting. Then Brandenburger Tor, the Reichstag, the Holocaust memorial. Home to put our feet up for 45 mins and change, and then back into town for the opera. Sandra suggested we get tickets to "Die Liebe zu drei Orangen," a satirical comic opera by Sergei Prokofiev, influenced by surrealism (1921). It was so much fun. This particular staging was so fun and whimsical. They had huge props that made the actors look little (including a giant rolling pin that rolled across the stage), and bright colored costumes. A great experience.

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the grungy underbelly of Berlin

We started the day with a trip to the Turkish Market in Kreuzberg. Got some Lakritz (licorice), a spinach-feta pastry, and enjoyed just wandering through.Then we headed to Mitte, where we visited the Kunsthaus Tacheles, a graffiti-covered artist house. Then we walked down Auguststr, which is filled with galleries. We had a little break at the garden of Clärchens Ballhaus (a cheese plate, a shared pizza, some German beer) and then walked through the shopping district of Mitte. Then took the train back down to Kreuzberg, walked down Oranienstr., had dinner at Katerschmaus (Kater Holzig) - an amazing former soap factory right on the Spree river. Ended the night at a bar on Oranienstr....a great day in Berlin!

a string exhibit at a gallery on Auguststr.

heiß. heiß. heiß.

This week it is getting hot. Coinciding with the last two weeks of triathlon training. I went to the outdoor pool yesterday- and even saw another guy swimming butterfly. :) I still couldn't handle the cold pool (17 C), but did a good 3K in the other pool.

And today I went to the Badeschiff (the pool in the Spree) with a friend, got some sun, enjoyed some awesome people watching.  I think 1 in 2 people in Berlin has a tattoo. At least. It was crazy.  A few characters out there. The pool is not a pool for swimming swimming, but for taking a dip and cooling off, and enjoying the view. You can see down the Spree to the Oberbaumbrücke and Fernsehturm, and it's pretty awesome. The pool water was pretty blue-green, and I kept looking over the side at the nasty river water...I will be swimming in that? Technically no photos allowed, for whatever reason, but I took a few steathily.  We got there around noon, and it got continually more packed...when we left there was a line to get in. Afterwards we got some Italian ice cream, house made and a scoop for 1 EUR - doesn't get better than that!

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