Berlin, Day 3

Berlin, Day 3

As I write this, I am laying down on the bed in a 6 person dorm contemplating what to do on our last day in Berlin. It is also our last day of the entire trip of the summer of 2011. Part of me wants to see more of the city, and part of me wants to let it all set in that we are leaving. It has been such a great time and like other trips in the past, you want to remember them as vividly as possible. So much in fact, you want to go back to the exact same place and try to relive the same thing. I have heard from others, since I have never tried that before, that sometimes it will be a poor experience. This is because you have the memories that were there from the first good experience and when you go back to relive the same thing, they might be changed in an undesirable way. So that leaves me with trying to bask in the memory of the now, trying to just enjoy what we have done and seen, and know that it will never be replicated in my life this way ever again. Times and circumstances change, countries change politics, money comes and goes, health quality is unforeseeable, and the sun might just burn out someday, so you gotta just do what you can. By the way, my sister Angela told me that the sun would burn out when I turned 25. I was 6 years old at the time and I have been worried about it ever since. Now that I have passed that age, everything is bonus time and I am just trying to do the best with it. Thanks Angela.

Today was something simple and fun. We rented cruiser bicycles from the hostel and hit the town. Something as simple as riding a bike, something I do 5 times a week back in Vegas, took on another meaning today. Previously, we had only walked the cities in Europe, but now in Berlin with super cool bike lanes, we were able to cover some serious ground. The weather cooperated and the bikes were great. Katherine rocked a pink cruiser. I had a grey one with yellow wheels, and Andrew had a purpose built commuter cruiser complete with rear rack and fenders. They were heavy, but handled the cobble streets just fine. Some of you know that I love bikes. Well, I have 7 in the garage right now. I use them to race, commute, travel, and explore mountains. Some in parts. Some race ready. But, today I saw something else a bike could do. It gave us the freedom to move wherever we wanted to go. Sounds simple, but we could go up sidewalks, over areas with people, ride in traffic with cars, pass through tunnels, cruise over bridges. In total, we went about 30 KM. I saw more of a new city at one time thus far on the trip. It was overwhelming! Also, extremely efficient. And... it looks like everyone else in the city has caught the bug. The city of Berlin is the flattest place I have ever ridden. Never once did I feel that we were going up a hill. Never did we sweat. Our booties hurt towards the end, but it was worth it. Bottom line: if you live in a flat city, get a bike, if not, you are missing out. If you live in a city with hills: get one anyway!

We had a double dose of extreme Berliners out today. One was a lady that heard me talking about a place being closed that called themselves a "Biergarten." I will not go into specifics, but I made a joke to Katherine about them taking time off before dinner. The lady heard me say something about "beer drinking pansies." She then fired off a rude comment to me under her breath. So I gave her a little too. No profanity. It makes people more mad not to use it. And... She hit the fan! It was worth it, but left a bad taste in my mouth about Berlin city folks. In a way that's too bad since I have not met many people in the town, and now I was thinking everyone was listening and hated us. So then I thought....

Earlier on the bike ride around the town I stopped to look at my map. I do that quite frequently since I want to see where were are, and what we want to see. This time, we stopped in a quiet section of town among the trees. A man came beside me and rattled off something in German. All I could make out was "helfen.". I kindly said, "nein, danke." But, I realized that he just wanted to help and make sure that we were taken care of. It is difficult to outweigh a nice encounter with a bad one. This time, I had the angry lady after kind guy by a few hours. But, all I could do after the lady's confrontation was let it burn for a long time. The kind guy, I just thought, "oh, how nice," and forgot about it in a few minutes. I see this too often in many aspects of my life and others. People can tell you, you did a good job, or, I liked that. You don't seem to pay attention, or just blow it off. But if it is a negative comment, or someone wants to point out a negative thing, it lasts forever. It might be that I am overcritical, we know that already, or just more fuel to show that negative things out last the positive. Hopefully, I can realize this in the future and let positive things have more power that I give them credit for. But, part of me thinks that the encouragement is "fluff" anyway. People don't really mean it, do they? It's easier to say something nice, but to fire off a negative thing, they must really have a reason. I don't know. I see it in the reviews of hostels. Most places do their very best and are very accommodating, but if one person has the slightest thing wrong, what do they do? They write about it and spew their mouth off. This is normally the case when you talk with other travelers. So, when I have had a great encounter with someone, I try to pitch their place to the best of my ability. This was the case in Selcuk, Turkey and Brasov, Romaina and Dubrovnik, Croatia. When people are more kind than the norm, I thank them profusely and tell others I see. But, is this just blown off the way that I take it? I would hope not, but if someone writes a bad review, this must hurt if you really care about you place. I see this at school among teachers. The negative comments have 10 times the power of the positive. I am not talking critiques, but jabs and people being downright rude. Be nice out there. Just because.

So, the day consisted of the bike ride. We also got a shirt for Andrew, and I got a shirt with the East German "Ampelmann" on the front and back. Its a cool looking man they use in the street lights. We ate again at the Kabab place down from the hostel. The Turkish dude Gokhan, has bills from other countries in his restaurant. I had to offer a 2 dollar US and a 2 Lev Bulgarian bill for his collection. It made his day. Hopefully he remembers that and let's our good conversation and friendliness outweigh the customer that whines about his food.

Tomorrow, we might extend the bike rental and hit 2 last museums. We want to end with a bang, but still gotta get to bed early to make the plane the next morning.