“It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves” -Andre Gide
This quote represents my life in so many ways. First the obvious that through travel I have learned more, and understand more about myself then I ever thought possible. I've also learned a great deal about other ways of life, and cultures. There are so many things that the average person does not see, understand, or realize. I think that once you are brave enough to place yourself outside of your elements only then will you be truly able to understand.
This is a blog about my little weekend trip to Berlin Germany. I went in order to run a half marathon which you can all read about in my running blog or just click here. I don't want to rewrite anything about the half marathon in this blog since this is my personal travel one, and the other one is meant for my running. Plus it was freaking long... so go read it there.
Berlin was a wonderful it was like 10 degrees Celsius outside, cloudy, windy, and rainy. Although it only rained in the early morning and late evening which was a god send for us! I went on this little journey with my new friend Sarah who I have mentioned I think, if not well here is a quick bio. She is doing the same thing as I am over here in Istanbul, she is from Iowa, we are the same age, and pretty much the same personalities when it comes to life, thinking, qualities, and all that jazz. (I said quick bio). We left Istanbul relatively easily on a late flight to Berlin. The hostel we stayed at was called Helter Skelter. It was super close to everything, we only took the metro once other then to and form the airport. Our first day there started out with a nap, I say this only because our flight ended up a bit delayed, the subway system from the airport to the hostel was confusing (thank god for all of Quinn's patients and wonderful teaching with how metro systems work or Sarah and I would have spent a lot of time in the cold and the rain of creepy metro stations.) We arrived at the hostel around 4am, took a nap, and began our adventures around noon.
The only thing I had to do for the day turned out to be awesome. I had to go pick up my packet and champ chip for the timing aspect of the race at this expo center. The expo center was one of the coolest places ever since both Sarah and I were able to get some free info, some free samples, as well as cool new running shirts! I even tried some energy gels (see running blog). Needless to say we got hungry and went on our merry way with bags of goodies. We did the general sightseeing, Brandenburg gate, Reistag, Holocaust memorial, most of the things that are touristy. We returned for dinner, and a quick short run, then decided "hey why not see some sights at night?" Which of course was a great idea.
The next day was race day... once again you will have to read the blog to see what I did during the race. After the race however, they gave me some free beer. I am really thinking there was no alcohol in it because first of all I don't think its healthy to give someone who has just ran 13.1 miles a drink that dehydrates you, and second of all one beer should have left me wasted after just running 13.1 miles right? Well I didn't feel a thing, if there really was alcohol I blame the 5 bananas I ate (in the 2 minutes it took me to walk from the banana stand to the beer stand... ya ... i know... ). I also was on a totally carb frenzy I asked to bratwurst stands to just give me the buns they use ( I was willing to pay for them, and the first one was like um no... ) I think I ate like 2 loaves of bread within 24 hours.
The next day was technically our last day, we had to check out of the hostel (which I forgot to mention was only 11 Euros a night and since we arrived at 4am the first day it was only 9 euros... deal). We decided that the best was to start the morning was to go to a museum. The one we went to was called the Pergamon Museum. Its part of like 6 museums on an island in Berlin. This particular museum had an amazing show of "Return of the Gods" hundreds of statues recreating a scene from a Greek era. Here are some of my favorite photos. I tried to be all photographer like....
The only thing I had to do for the day turned out to be awesome. I had to go pick up my packet and champ chip for the timing aspect of the race at this expo center. The expo center was one of the coolest places ever since both Sarah and I were able to get some free info, some free samples, as well as cool new running shirts! I even tried some energy gels (see running blog). Needless to say we got hungry and went on our merry way with bags of goodies. We did the general sightseeing, Brandenburg gate, Reistag, Holocaust memorial, most of the things that are touristy. We returned for dinner, and a quick short run, then decided "hey why not see some sights at night?" Which of course was a great idea. The next day was race day... once again you will have to read the blog to see what I did during the race. After the race however, they gave me some free beer. I am really thinking there was no alcohol in it because first of all I don't think its healthy to give someone who has just ran 13.1 miles a drink that dehydrates you, and second of all one beer should have left me wasted after just running 13.1 miles right? Well I didn't feel a thing, if there really was alcohol I blame the 5 bananas I ate (in the 2 minutes it took me to walk from the banana stand to the beer stand... ya ... i know... ). I also was on a totally carb frenzy I asked to bratwurst stands to just give me the buns they use ( I was willing to pay for them, and the first one was like um no... ) I think I ate like 2 loaves of bread within 24 hours.
The next day was technically our last day, we had to check out of the hostel (which I forgot to mention was only 11 Euros a night and since we arrived at 4am the first day it was only 9 euros... deal). We decided that the best was to start the morning was to go to a museum. The one we went to was called the Pergamon Museum. Its part of like 6 museums on an island in Berlin. This particular museum had an amazing show of "Return of the Gods" hundreds of statues recreating a scene from a Greek era. Here are some of my favorite photos. I tried to be all photographer like....
The statues are of the God of Medicine, and the God of sex aka Aphrodite. The others are slabs of stone with Greek writing on it, obviously. The museum was like a museum, crowded, long, lots of walking which I hated but loved at the same time. My legs were terribly sore from running the day before but I was trying to not be a baby and push through it. This turned out to be a wonderful thing to do since I seemed to have worked out all the lactic acid build up and literally had no soreness, no cramps or tight muscle that night! AMAZING! The main attraction to the museum is in the following picture. Its called Istar gate. It dates back to Babylonian times in, ironically an area close to where I am now. It was constructed in 575 BC, by King Nebuchadnezzer II.
We were pretty tired after this point and went on a walk to our favorite relax spot... Starbucks the great coffee culture center of the world! There was some regrouping, then a realization that if we wanted to get done all the things we still had planned we needed to book it! So off to one of the most amazing cultural experiences I have had in a while... the East side gallery....
Short history lesson for those of you that dont know this... Berlin after World War II was split half was occupied by the Soviet Union (Russia...) this was known as the East side. *I hope someone corrects me if I get this wrong, I am in no way a history buff and have learned this through small bits and pieces. The West side was occupied by the allies, (Britain, France, and the USA.) The Soviet Union made a HUGE wall... splitting the two sides and the East side was under strict control. Again, this is all post WWII and pretty much the cause of the cold war and its drawn out struggles. Now, the West siders decided that the wall was ugly and they hated the idea of having it so they decided to paint it, drawn on it, tag it, graffiti it. Today its about a mile long of still standing wall with gorgeous murals all representing some of the unfair, inhuman and unjust problems which were taking place on the other side of the wall.It was pretty amazing. This ended out tour of Berlin, but started an exhauting flight back to Istanbul and an even bigger struggle to get home.... but until the next blog.... kisses.
Short history lesson for those of you that dont know this... Berlin after World War II was split half was occupied by the Soviet Union (Russia...) this was known as the East side. *I hope someone corrects me if I get this wrong, I am in no way a history buff and have learned this through small bits and pieces. The West side was occupied by the allies, (Britain, France, and the USA.) The Soviet Union made a HUGE wall... splitting the two sides and the East side was under strict control. Again, this is all post WWII and pretty much the cause of the cold war and its drawn out struggles. Now, the West siders decided that the wall was ugly and they hated the idea of having it so they decided to paint it, drawn on it, tag it, graffiti it. Today its about a mile long of still standing wall with gorgeous murals all representing some of the unfair, inhuman and unjust problems which were taking place on the other side of the wall.It was pretty amazing. This ended out tour of Berlin, but started an exhauting flight back to Istanbul and an even bigger struggle to get home.... but until the next blog.... kisses.
No comments:
Post a Comment