my parents arrive in Berlin!

 My parents arrived today in Berlin! After meeting them at the airport, and dropping off the luggage, we headed out into the city to see some sights. First: Gendarmenmarkt, then Bebelplatz, the Humboldt University, Neue Wache, Museum Island...It was hot. 32 degrees C, which is about 90. We took a break for some water and boat-watching along the Spree. When we headed to Schloss Charlottenburg, there was a freak thunderstorm and a little rain, which helped cool things down. The park was so beautiful and it was a nice change of scenery from the loud city center. We ended the evening with a Schnitzel dinner at Schnitzelei.

 

Neue Wache

 

Berliner Dom and Fernsehturm (TV tower)

 Below you can see people cooling off in the shade on Museum Island

they don't even look jet lagged! :) Having a great time!

 Jägerschnitzel!

 below, Michael's ginormous Schnitzel

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.

Swimming Lessons

 Yesterday I went for a swim at one of the public pools near us, for the first time since September, and remembered why I haven't been swimming since September. I just don't get it, but Germans don't lap swim like we do, and it frustrates me beyond belief! On the pool schedule it very specifically said "Bahnenschwimmen", "lap swimming." So I pictured some kind of order for more serious swimmers. But no lane lines! And I was the only one swimming front crawl and/or doing flip turns. Everyone was swimming breast stroke. Which is not only slow, but you take up way more space and kick out towards the people next to you. So when there are no lane lines, and the whole ordeal involves swimming around people, it's even harder. I felt like I was doing open-water swimming, because I constantly had to poke my head up and make sure I wasn't going to get kicked by breast-strokers or ram anyone. Well, when I started doing my laps, and throwing in some butterfly, I think people moved away from me towards the other side of the pool. So I did end up getting some space and it was okay, but I wish there were some lanes and some circle swimming. Is that too much to ask?

This is what I am talking about: breast-stroke-swimming Germans

Once, a few years back, I was at a pool where a mom was teaching her kid how to swim. And she was teaching him breast stroke! I just thought it was so strange. I taught a lot of swim lessons, and in the US we teach kids front crawl first: making them put their head under and learn how to breathe, which they hate. I was thinking about it... I suppose breast stroke is easier to teach if your goal is just to stay on top of the water, not to swim efficiently. I wish someone could explain this breast stroke thing to me.

This photo above is the Stadtbad Neukölln, also not too far from me. I want to try to go this week. It looks so beautiful. It was built 1914 and is largely preserved how it looked then. They have a big and a small pool, at the time one for women and one for men. I was looking at the schedule and noticed something very German and very Neukölln/Kreuzberg: They have one special hour for women in the sauna, the rest are mixed. There is also one swimming time just for Muslim women. Also, note on the website to the right for a Kreuzberg pool, they allow "Burkinis" during the women's swim time. I had to google it to see what it looked like...
And...(here's the German bit)...in Neukölln they have 4.5 hrs a week for "FKK" swimming, or swimming in the nude. You'd never see that in the US in a public pool!

P.S. I signed up for the Berlin Triathlon (June 3), so now I have to start swimming again!

Schwarzfahren - Riding without a Ticket

http://www.rbb-online.de/nachrichten/vermischtes/2012_04/berlin_beim_schwarzfahren.html

During the entire week that my family was here, we rode trains daily and were never checked ("controlled") for a ticket. Granted our trips were usually pretty short and on local trains (you always get checked on the high-speed, expensive ICE and IC trains). And it was on and after Easter, so maybe people were on vacation. Also when my friend Jessica was in Berlin, around New Years, she got a week-long ticket and never got controlled.

But it still surprised me a bit, so I thought I would do a little post on it. In Germany you don't show a ticket to get on the trains (to compare: on Amtrack it wouldn't be possible to board without a ticket, and on many subway systems like New York and Chicago there are barriers before you enter the subway system, you have to have a ticket to get in), so it is possible to ride without paying a ticket and risk getting caught. (I think the Minneapolis rail system functions similarly.) In German, it's called schwarzfahren, literally "riding black" (in the sense of "black market," illegal behavior).

If you are caught, it's a 40 EUR fee in Berlin. A one-way ticket costs 2,30 EUR. So if you can ride 18 times without getting caught it's worth it. But it is stressful when you don't have a ticket and you have to look around and make sure the controllers aren't coming. Usually you can see them coming. But I was on the train the other day and they were waiting outside the train, getting people as they were coming off and checking to make sure they had a ticket. The guy next to me was flipping out, "What? Now they're controlling out of the train? I can't believe it! I haven't paid for a ticket in two years..."

some funny ads in the trains trying to encourage people to buy tickets

I just heard on the news this week that in Berlin about 6% of passengers ride without buying a ticket. The BVG website (Berlin Transport) says that this costs them millions of Euros a year. Another news source says that German transport loses 350 Million a year because of Schwarzfahrer. In Berlin they are talking about raising the fee to 60 EUR to discourage schwarzfahren.  In Hamburg they started making all passengers get on on the front of the bus, so they have to show or buy a ticket from the driver.  In Berlin, there is a Facebook page Schwarzfahren Berlin with 13,871 "fans." People riding the U-Bahn or S-Bahn with a smart phone can put in where they are controlling. They also have discussions about what happens if you get caught a second time, or whether it's legal to control outside of the train. Kinda funny.

Berlin Half Marathon Registration at Tempelhof

This was really cool--for the registration for the Berlin Half Marathon (Sunday), they have the expo/registration at Tempelhof Airport. I had never been inside the building, so it was cool to see. Also amusing because this was the first German race expo I have been to, and some things struck me as particularly German (the big beer area, a little German honey stand). We went and picked up our race packets, t-shirts and got a Wurst. A strange feeling, to be walking around an empty, deserted airport!

One more hilarious thing I just had to add...In our race instructions we have a very explicit warning not to go to the bathroom in people's yards due to incidents from previous years! HA! It also asks you to police other runners...yikes...