I arrived in Vegas at about 8pm. By the time I got my car and got checked in to the hotel, it was around 9 and I was pretty hungry. I decided to go down to Nobu at the Hard Rock for some sushi. (you know how I feel about sushi, and the Hard Rock is a great place to find a good time.) I had a delicious meal, and was joined about half way through my hamachi sashimi by a stunning looking older man. Tom and I chatted and laughed as I finished my dinner, and a few more drinks, after which we decided to go to the pool side night club there in the hotel, Rehab. That place is nuts! I’d never actually been there before but had heard rumors. It was all the beautiful people with their after-market breasts and their scant designer clothing and trashy hooker shoes. Thankfully, I had my lucky skirt on. You always look hot in your lucky skirt. It’s the rule! We danced and drank and yelled over the music and danced more. At one point, we ran into Jeremy Piven…..literally! He spilled his drink all over my shirt. This turned into fountains of apologies and he bought us drinks and invited us to hang out in his VIP area and all that. We hung there for a while, but agreed that we felt like everyone was looking at us rif raf, and after about a half hour in the VIP area drinking their expensive drinks and laughing with our heads thrown back, we left. The people watching was great, and Tom was turning out to be a really fun guy.
Around 1:30 or so, I decided it was time to GAMBLE! We went out in the casino and played some roulette, and after uncharacteristically plunking $200 on the table, I walked away with over $1000! We were “that table” that you see in the movies with everyone laughing and screaming with joy. The table was hot. (I say that like I know anything about gambling or have much experience with it. I never gamble! It was sooooo fun!) Once I hit $1000 I decided to cash in and head over to see the Bellagio fountains.
2 things I have been deeply saddened to learn on 2 occasions late at night in Vegas. 1.) some of the bars in Vegas actually CLOSE (I learned this a few years ago) and 2.) the Bellagio fountains don’t do their little show at 4 in the morning. WTF?? I was in a lighthearted, spontaneous and highly drunken state, and when I spotted the maintenance ladder down into the fountain pool, I got a wonderful idea. Let’s SWIM! Tom apparently wasn’t much of a swimmer, so he just watched, and turned out to be a total tool as he scurried away when hotel security came to stop me from splashing around in the fountain pretending to be one of the dancing jets. Well, there wasn’t a sign saying “no swimming” or “no wading” or anything, and apparently that was enough of an argument to stop them from calling the police. It was a bit of a cold shivery buzz kill sitting in the security office at the Bellagio, so once they let me go and asked me not to come back to their nice little hotel, I went back to my hotel and ended the night.
Only in Vegas baby…only in Vegas! At least I didn’t wake up with Mike Tyson’s tiger in my bathroom! And now I have to go to a meeting, and pretend that my head doesn’t feel like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade isn’t going through it.
It was worth it! And later, I will go shopping!!!
(Well, as I said in my blog title....only some of it is true! I was actually in bed reading my book by 10pm, but the story sure was fun to write!)
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Time to go home.
4am, up and at ‘em. I had the typical post race/early flight interrupted night’s sleep, but managed to get a few good winks in. Headed to the train, got on the bus and to the airport without incident. Bought my last minute food souvenirs (no, not bread….gummi bears and Toblerone!) and boarded my flight to Brussels. I stayed awake during the entire 3 legs of the trip, knowing that this would afford me a very good night’s sleep when I got home, hopefully putting me in a good position with the time zones before heading 3 more hours west to Vegas the next day. I had about 4 hours in the Chicago airport that turned in to 3 by the time I got through customs and passport control and got my bag rechecked. I took advantage of the in-terminal wifi and went through all my work e-mails, making me feel better about only having 4 hours in the office the next day.
I got home at 9pm, tired but satisfied. It had been a fantastic trip. Oh, did I mention that I e-mailed my friend Corey from the Chicago airport? He and his family are moving to Mumbai and they just happen to have a marathon in January….. Continent #5…coming up!
I got home at 9pm, tired but satisfied. It had been a fantastic trip. Oh, did I mention that I e-mailed my friend Corey from the Chicago airport? He and his family are moving to Mumbai and they just happen to have a marathon in January….. Continent #5…coming up!
Monday, September 21, 2009
RACE DAY! Berlin Marathon, Continent #4
The race started at 9am. How civilized! The start was a block or 2 up from Potsdamer Platz, so we met at around 7:15 and walked over. We took a few pictures on the way up to the start. Matt and Adriana were actually not running, but there to support some of the runners who run for High Cloud, the charitable organization that Matt and Adriana are the founders of. There were 40,000 runners in this race, so by the time we got to the Platz, there was a herd heading towards the Brandenburg Gate and the starting area. That’s one of the good parts about big races, there’s no question about where to go!
We split ways and I went into the runner’s area. It was very well organized, with signage telling you where to check your bags, and where to go for each corral. There were TONS of people there, and there was a lot of spandex! Of course, the obligatory porto-potty line, people warming up, all manners of stretching and all the pre-race energy you find anywhere else! I could have been anywhere in the world at that moment, felt right at home. The morning was warming up nicely, so I got all situated and checked my bag, and headed to my start coral, way in the back! The good thing about a huge race like this is that no matter where you are in the pack, when there are 40,000 runners assembled with a singular goal, the energy is there. Everyone is very excited.
With the starting gun, they released a huge bunch of red balloons. Now keep in mind that I’m probably 30,000 people from the actual starting line, so they were pretty far away, and I had about 20 minutes to watch them drift and swirl as the media helicopters flew in circles around the start. Finally, we reached the starting line and we started to run. We’re off.
The course was flat as that crepe I ate the day before. (YUM!) and it went through the city, by all the great sights. What a beautiful city. There were TONS of bands and drum groups. The bands were mostly jazz 4 to 6-somes with brass, guitar and drums. Some were really swinging, and some were very much on the beat and with the sheet music and very German. It was really fun though. I’ve always been a huge fan of the drum groups, and these were absolutely awesome. A lot more women drummers than I would have expected, probably half and half, and the women were generally older. It was pretty cool! The German version of “Towanda” from Fried Green Tomatoes. I love the energy that comes out of those drum groups, and there were probably no fewer than 18 in the 26 miles of the race. There were definitely more than 1 band or drum crew per mile. Sometimes your ears just finished hearing one group and you’d start hearing the next. It was very entertaining.
There were fewer water stops than I am used to, but it wasn’t bad. A lot of people were wearing water belts. They clearly had read the course map. (oops….note to self!) They grew more frequent as the miles wore on, so that was good, and again, it really wasn’t a problem at all. I just grabbed 2 cups at each stop. They had a German electrolyte beverage that after I tasted at the expo I decided to forgo during the race. Nothing new on race day! I had my e-tabs anyway, so I was set.
The course was marked in kilometers of course, and while counting down kilometers is more fun because they’re more frequent, there’s more of them, so it seems to take longer , though they sped by in the end, which was nice. 2 other European differences I noticed, there weren’t as many female runners out there with us, and there was a LOT more compression gear than you see in the US. WOW! Early in the race I was passed by a guy I named “SCUBA Steve”; a very lean older gent dressed in head to toe black compression gear with yellow stitching. He really looked like he was in a wetsuit, and it made me laugh to call him SCUBA Steve. Of course I took his picture! It made me laugh even more when I passed him at 35K!
So the race was great. I forgot how sticky the aid stations at 40,000 person marathons get. At the end they started handing out SpongeBob Squarepants sponges that people could use to cool themselves as it was pretty hot. I sponged, then grabbed 3 for gifts for a few people I know! Weird yet heartfelt gift! I shoved them in my Spibelt, and ran on. (if you don’t have a Spibelt yet, they rock!) Finally, I got to 41K and I could see the Brandenburg Gate. I picked up the pace and zoomed past probably 100 people in the last kilometer. Some people say I should use up that juice on the course. I say, finish with flair! Running through the Gate was pretty cool! This was the 20th anniversary of the first time the marathon was run through the gate after the reunification of Berlin and after seeing Checkpoint Charlie and the wall and all that historical stuff the day before, it felt really cool and meaningful.
Then I spotted the finish line, and that became more meaningful! I jetted across the line, and was very happy to stop. The finish was well organized, and I got my medal (with the face of the 2008 World Record holder and Berlin Marathon winner on it….coincidentally he had won that day too!) and my little food bag (with water, and 2 delicious little chocolate buns. Man I love the bread in Germany!) and headed to get my checked bag. I found a spot on the grass to sit and chill for a few minutes. I mopped off my salty sweaty face, changed my shirt, ate my buns (did I mention how much I love German bread?) and watched as no fewer than 4 people unabashedly disrobed in some fashion of another. (Grandma took off her sports bra right there, and Klaus removed his sweaty running shorts…..and his drawers! I saw 2 kinds of buns that day and it made me giggle! We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!)
After a nice little rest and quite a show, I felt ready to head back to the hotel, get cleaned up and resume my touring. I walked back to the gate, and had a very nice German man take my picture with it (one of the pitfalls of traveling alone is that you either strain your arm from all the self portraits, or you have to struggle through the pantomime of “Will you please take my picture” while trying to convey your creative vision for the shot.) I was planning to walk back to the hotel, but as soon as I walked through the gate, realized that I had no idea which way to go, no map with me, and the direction I would have guessed to go was blocked by the race course. Bing….U-bahn station!! Berlin’s fabulous public transportation system to the rescue! Well, as brilliant of an idea as it was, many others had it too. The station was PACKED and the trains were on a Sunday schedule, so we stood there sweaty and tired and sore and uncomfortable for about 17 hours. (probably on 20 minutes, but it sure felt longer!) Luckily, I had stashed my second chocolate bun from my post-race food bag in my backpack, so I pulled it out and escaped into a little puff of German joy! (did I mention how much I love German bread??) Finally the train came, but I wasn’t one of the ones who made it on, so I waited for the next train. Mercifully, the station didn’t fill up quite as much this time, and the second train was very close behind, and I went back to the hotel.
I touched base with Adriana and Matt, hopped in the shower and got cleaned up and out we went. There are several boat tours in the rivers that run through the city. We grabbed a quick post-race sushi meal, and found our boat. It was a lovely float down the river, past the sights and of course, they served beer! The tour was a perfect 1 hour long. When we got off, we decided to head over to the chocolate store that they told me about earlier. Aside from the bread (I love German bread!), the German’s make great chocolate, and aside from the Nutella (which is a food group all its own) I hadn’t had anything chocolate at all (aside from the post-race buns….from my food bag.)
On the way, we passed the Jewish war memorial which I’d seen in passing on the way to the race that morning and wondered about. Matt and Adriana had gotten the scoop about it during the day. It’s a huge grouping of coffin like rectangular cement blocks, arranged in rows with slightly unevenly tilted tops and sides, all different heights, made to symbolize the bodies that were piled up in the burial areas during the Holocaust. From the street, it looks like they’re all about 2-3 feet high and straight across, but when you walk between them, the floor slopes up and down to a point where they’re up to 12+ feet high making you feel a little claustrophobic, like what I imagine you’d feel like if you were lost in rows of corn, but everywhere you look, there was a way out, a symbol of hope in the dark deep scariness perhaps. Very creepy and poignant and a good place for quiet contemplation of the catastrophic mistakes made in history. It afforded a very interesting view from all sorts of different angles and was a very cool memorial.nce we left that, we set our sights back on the chocolate shop, which we realized was a bit farther away than I originally though, and then realized that it was probably not going to be open at 7pm on a Sunday. We settled for some photographic silliness with a huge bear in a store front, and another banana and nutella crepe (I’m going to get myself a crepe maker and a subscription to the Nutella of the month club. Man they’re good!) and of course, a beer! We sat and chatted and laughed as the sun set on a gorgeous night that was ending a beautiful day. We walked back to the hotel, I packed, and set my alarms for my 4am wake up, and hit the sack.
We split ways and I went into the runner’s area. It was very well organized, with signage telling you where to check your bags, and where to go for each corral. There were TONS of people there, and there was a lot of spandex! Of course, the obligatory porto-potty line, people warming up, all manners of stretching and all the pre-race energy you find anywhere else! I could have been anywhere in the world at that moment, felt right at home. The morning was warming up nicely, so I got all situated and checked my bag, and headed to my start coral, way in the back! The good thing about a huge race like this is that no matter where you are in the pack, when there are 40,000 runners assembled with a singular goal, the energy is there. Everyone is very excited.
With the starting gun, they released a huge bunch of red balloons. Now keep in mind that I’m probably 30,000 people from the actual starting line, so they were pretty far away, and I had about 20 minutes to watch them drift and swirl as the media helicopters flew in circles around the start. Finally, we reached the starting line and we started to run. We’re off.
The course was flat as that crepe I ate the day before. (YUM!) and it went through the city, by all the great sights. What a beautiful city. There were TONS of bands and drum groups. The bands were mostly jazz 4 to 6-somes with brass, guitar and drums. Some were really swinging, and some were very much on the beat and with the sheet music and very German. It was really fun though. I’ve always been a huge fan of the drum groups, and these were absolutely awesome. A lot more women drummers than I would have expected, probably half and half, and the women were generally older. It was pretty cool! The German version of “Towanda” from Fried Green Tomatoes. I love the energy that comes out of those drum groups, and there were probably no fewer than 18 in the 26 miles of the race. There were definitely more than 1 band or drum crew per mile. Sometimes your ears just finished hearing one group and you’d start hearing the next. It was very entertaining.
There were fewer water stops than I am used to, but it wasn’t bad. A lot of people were wearing water belts. They clearly had read the course map. (oops….note to self!) They grew more frequent as the miles wore on, so that was good, and again, it really wasn’t a problem at all. I just grabbed 2 cups at each stop. They had a German electrolyte beverage that after I tasted at the expo I decided to forgo during the race. Nothing new on race day! I had my e-tabs anyway, so I was set.
The course was marked in kilometers of course, and while counting down kilometers is more fun because they’re more frequent, there’s more of them, so it seems to take longer , though they sped by in the end, which was nice. 2 other European differences I noticed, there weren’t as many female runners out there with us, and there was a LOT more compression gear than you see in the US. WOW! Early in the race I was passed by a guy I named “SCUBA Steve”; a very lean older gent dressed in head to toe black compression gear with yellow stitching. He really looked like he was in a wetsuit, and it made me laugh to call him SCUBA Steve. Of course I took his picture! It made me laugh even more when I passed him at 35K!
So the race was great. I forgot how sticky the aid stations at 40,000 person marathons get. At the end they started handing out SpongeBob Squarepants sponges that people could use to cool themselves as it was pretty hot. I sponged, then grabbed 3 for gifts for a few people I know! Weird yet heartfelt gift! I shoved them in my Spibelt, and ran on. (if you don’t have a Spibelt yet, they rock!) Finally, I got to 41K and I could see the Brandenburg Gate. I picked up the pace and zoomed past probably 100 people in the last kilometer. Some people say I should use up that juice on the course. I say, finish with flair! Running through the Gate was pretty cool! This was the 20th anniversary of the first time the marathon was run through the gate after the reunification of Berlin and after seeing Checkpoint Charlie and the wall and all that historical stuff the day before, it felt really cool and meaningful.
Then I spotted the finish line, and that became more meaningful! I jetted across the line, and was very happy to stop. The finish was well organized, and I got my medal (with the face of the 2008 World Record holder and Berlin Marathon winner on it….coincidentally he had won that day too!) and my little food bag (with water, and 2 delicious little chocolate buns. Man I love the bread in Germany!) and headed to get my checked bag. I found a spot on the grass to sit and chill for a few minutes. I mopped off my salty sweaty face, changed my shirt, ate my buns (did I mention how much I love German bread?) and watched as no fewer than 4 people unabashedly disrobed in some fashion of another. (Grandma took off her sports bra right there, and Klaus removed his sweaty running shorts…..and his drawers! I saw 2 kinds of buns that day and it made me giggle! We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!)
After a nice little rest and quite a show, I felt ready to head back to the hotel, get cleaned up and resume my touring. I walked back to the gate, and had a very nice German man take my picture with it (one of the pitfalls of traveling alone is that you either strain your arm from all the self portraits, or you have to struggle through the pantomime of “Will you please take my picture” while trying to convey your creative vision for the shot.) I was planning to walk back to the hotel, but as soon as I walked through the gate, realized that I had no idea which way to go, no map with me, and the direction I would have guessed to go was blocked by the race course. Bing….U-bahn station!! Berlin’s fabulous public transportation system to the rescue! Well, as brilliant of an idea as it was, many others had it too. The station was PACKED and the trains were on a Sunday schedule, so we stood there sweaty and tired and sore and uncomfortable for about 17 hours. (probably on 20 minutes, but it sure felt longer!) Luckily, I had stashed my second chocolate bun from my post-race food bag in my backpack, so I pulled it out and escaped into a little puff of German joy! (did I mention how much I love German bread??) Finally the train came, but I wasn’t one of the ones who made it on, so I waited for the next train. Mercifully, the station didn’t fill up quite as much this time, and the second train was very close behind, and I went back to the hotel.
I touched base with Adriana and Matt, hopped in the shower and got cleaned up and out we went. There are several boat tours in the rivers that run through the city. We grabbed a quick post-race sushi meal, and found our boat. It was a lovely float down the river, past the sights and of course, they served beer! The tour was a perfect 1 hour long. When we got off, we decided to head over to the chocolate store that they told me about earlier. Aside from the bread (I love German bread!), the German’s make great chocolate, and aside from the Nutella (which is a food group all its own) I hadn’t had anything chocolate at all (aside from the post-race buns….from my food bag.)
On the way, we passed the Jewish war memorial which I’d seen in passing on the way to the race that morning and wondered about. Matt and Adriana had gotten the scoop about it during the day. It’s a huge grouping of coffin like rectangular cement blocks, arranged in rows with slightly unevenly tilted tops and sides, all different heights, made to symbolize the bodies that were piled up in the burial areas during the Holocaust. From the street, it looks like they’re all about 2-3 feet high and straight across, but when you walk between them, the floor slopes up and down to a point where they’re up to 12+ feet high making you feel a little claustrophobic, like what I imagine you’d feel like if you were lost in rows of corn, but everywhere you look, there was a way out, a symbol of hope in the dark deep scariness perhaps. Very creepy and poignant and a good place for quiet contemplation of the catastrophic mistakes made in history. It afforded a very interesting view from all sorts of different angles and was a very cool memorial.nce we left that, we set our sights back on the chocolate shop, which we realized was a bit farther away than I originally though, and then realized that it was probably not going to be open at 7pm on a Sunday. We settled for some photographic silliness with a huge bear in a store front, and another banana and nutella crepe (I’m going to get myself a crepe maker and a subscription to the Nutella of the month club. Man they’re good!) and of course, a beer! We sat and chatted and laughed as the sun set on a gorgeous night that was ending a beautiful day. We walked back to the hotel, I packed, and set my alarms for my 4am wake up, and hit the sack.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Touring Berlin
So I had my packet, I knew where the race start was (and when!) so I was free to play all day. I decided to kick off the day with a double-decker bus tour around the city. They have these buses that stop at 15 different places that you can jump on or off whenever you want. I picked a few places I wanted to stop and had my plan. Well, because of street closures for the marathon the next day, they were ending the tour at 2, so I abbreviated my plan, and planned to go back after 2 and hit the other sites via U-bahn. Easy enough! I hopped on at 10, happy that the bus tour started at a church that I wanted to see and mall phantasmagoria place that several people said I couldn’t miss (Ka De We…..seriously, don’t miss it…but I’ll get back to that in a sec.) and started my tour. The bus is equipped with headphones and you can get the audio tour in 5 different languages. It was great! I rode for a few stops, enjoying the open air top deck of the bus, and the sights, and hopped off at one of the art museums that I wanted to see. I strolled around with the free audio tour at the museum and enjoyed some seriously cool artwork, including a bunch of Rembrandt stuff. (my mom always took us to the art museums when we were little, and being an art history major, she knew all the artists and we’d ooooohh and ahhhh at the ones she seemed particularly impressed with. Well, I didn’t have the external cues this time, so I gauged importance by whether it had a little audio tour number by it or not! (and if I liked it!) It was a gorgeous gallery, with some really great art.
At about noon, I hopped back on the bus. The last stop (15) was a palace that I read was pretty neat, so I decided to ride around to the palace (about an hour and a half ride) do the palace, then head back to hit the Jewish museum and a few other places I wanted to go to. We rode by a place where there is still a large section of the wall standing, and checkpoint Charlie, and a bunch of other reminders of what this city used to be. Fascinating and scary and wonderful to see how far it’s come. It really is a beautifully modern and wonderfully clean and positive city. We rode along the river and saw the boat tours (on the plan for after the marathon) and all the outdoor cafes with lounge chairs on the shore. Beautiful!
I got to the flea market at stop 14 and decided to change the plan. The palace was going to be a lot of sightseeing, and I might not get to some of the other stuff that I wanted to see more, AND stop 14 was at a cool outdoor flea market that looked like too much fun, so I jumped off the bus and found the wildest collection of crazy crap you’ve ever seen on sale in the middle of a city anywhere. There were several guys who had doorhandles. Tons and tons of doorhandles on their table and nothing else. There were knife, fork and spoon guys. Vendors with furs and furnature. Old toys, china, dusty old jewelry, and generally a whole bunch of crap that was really fun to poke around.
Once I was bored with that, I grabbed a bread with cheese and a bottle of water, and wandered through the Tiergarten, the largest public park in the city, with tons of paths and lakes and lovely trees. It’s the central park of Berlin. I got totally lost, but didn’t really care and finally figured out where I was, and wandered back to the place where the tour had started, the Kaiser Wilhelm Kirche (church) and SHOPPING! But first, I had to sample some more of the local cuisine and sit on the steps of the church and enjoy my Nutella and bannanen crepe. OH MY GOD I’m in HEAVEN! Banana is good for potassium for race prep….crepe is carbs, right? And Nutella is just good for the soul! It was great.
The old part of the church is totally in ruins. Half of the top is busted off, the stone is all broken but there is still a main area on the ground floor that you can tour around, read about the place, and the ceiling and floor mosaic are beautiful! Gold and intricate. Gorgeous. The new part is in stark contrast on the outside. They are a completely different look, but the new part is so cool! It looks like a high-rise apartment building from the outside, with teeny tiny windows going all the way up, with a little gold cross at the top BUT when you go inside, you realize that the windows are all a deep blue, and when you’re in the actual worship hall, everything is a deep blue, like you’re underwater. It was REALLY really cool! That was my kind of church!
After that, it was time to shop! I’d picked up an adorable black hat the day before while poking around in the shops at Alexander Platz. I was in search of a cool jacket, or scarves. Well, I found an adorable argyle sweater, but no jacket. Oh well, I’ll just have to go shopping some more at home!
Then to the famous Ka De We food floor. Someone said it was like Dean and Deluca and crack. Someone else said it was like nothing you’d ever seen before. Well….they were right! The 7th floor of this huge department store was all food. High end grocery store food, prepared foods, stop and eat there foods. Moet had a little bar area. There was seafood, grille, meats, asian, wurst (of course!) an egg stand, enough cheese to stop up the whole…well, you know. They had everything! I of course had asian because when in Ro….whatever! I love Asian food, and had already had my typical Berlin dinner. Plus, one of the things I read is that Berliners love all kinds of ethnic foods, and Italian and Asian restaurants were more plentiful than traditional German restaurants. So I had a lovely little dim sum plate and a Tiger beer that went down very smoothly….so much so, that I had another. Then it was time to move on, but I must say, if you’re ever in Berlin, go to this place. It was insane.
So, hopped back on the U-bahn, and off to Checkpoint Charlie and the Jewish museum. Checkpoint Charlie was a famous “border” crossing area between West and East Germany. The little guard shack and signs were all still there, and a big display talking about the wall and East and West Germany and all that. Oh, and from the sublime to the ridiculous, there was a guy standing by this display giving out flyers to the Curry Wurst museum which was right around the corner. You’ve got to be kidding me! I popped over, but it was 11 Euro to get in. Seriously? $15 to see a sausage museum? Well, the outside was nice. Then I headed through Checkpoint Charlie, and down to the Jewish Museum.
Who knew it was Rosh a Shanna? And of course they’re closed on Jewish holidays. I was bummed because this is supposed to be a really neat museum with some very poignant use of space and structure. Well, the outside was cool. I’ll hit it next time.
At this point it was about 6:30, and I was ready to get off my feet, after all, I had a marathon to run the next day. By the map, I was a close hop skip and a jump back to the hotel, so I set off again to wander my way back to the hotel. I suddenly found myself way off from where I thought I was, but a few minutes later I was back on track, and walked through some very nice neighborhoods along the way. Also saw where someone had graffiti’d “tomato”. Now what do you suppose would possess someone to graffiti “tomato”?? And a fun playground that I’m sure my nieces would love.Back to the hotel, laid down for a nap, and then went down to the outside courtyard in the hotel for a nice pre-race dinner (and beer!) I had some of the best tomato soup I’ve ever had in my life, and snacked on a flambé torte or something like that. It’s a pizza basically. Mind had crème fresche, chicken, corn and cheese. It was delicious and enough for an army! I sat outside wrapped in the blanket they had on each chair (nice touch as the evenings were a bit chilly) and read my book, enjoyed my beer and the quiet. Ahhhhhhh.
Then Matt and Adriana got back from Prague, we caught up for a few minutes, made plans for the next day and headed off to bed.
At about noon, I hopped back on the bus. The last stop (15) was a palace that I read was pretty neat, so I decided to ride around to the palace (about an hour and a half ride) do the palace, then head back to hit the Jewish museum and a few other places I wanted to go to. We rode by a place where there is still a large section of the wall standing, and checkpoint Charlie, and a bunch of other reminders of what this city used to be. Fascinating and scary and wonderful to see how far it’s come. It really is a beautifully modern and wonderfully clean and positive city. We rode along the river and saw the boat tours (on the plan for after the marathon) and all the outdoor cafes with lounge chairs on the shore. Beautiful!
I got to the flea market at stop 14 and decided to change the plan. The palace was going to be a lot of sightseeing, and I might not get to some of the other stuff that I wanted to see more, AND stop 14 was at a cool outdoor flea market that looked like too much fun, so I jumped off the bus and found the wildest collection of crazy crap you’ve ever seen on sale in the middle of a city anywhere. There were several guys who had doorhandles. Tons and tons of doorhandles on their table and nothing else. There were knife, fork and spoon guys. Vendors with furs and furnature. Old toys, china, dusty old jewelry, and generally a whole bunch of crap that was really fun to poke around.
Once I was bored with that, I grabbed a bread with cheese and a bottle of water, and wandered through the Tiergarten, the largest public park in the city, with tons of paths and lakes and lovely trees. It’s the central park of Berlin. I got totally lost, but didn’t really care and finally figured out where I was, and wandered back to the place where the tour had started, the Kaiser Wilhelm Kirche (church) and SHOPPING! But first, I had to sample some more of the local cuisine and sit on the steps of the church and enjoy my Nutella and bannanen crepe. OH MY GOD I’m in HEAVEN! Banana is good for potassium for race prep….crepe is carbs, right? And Nutella is just good for the soul! It was great.
The old part of the church is totally in ruins. Half of the top is busted off, the stone is all broken but there is still a main area on the ground floor that you can tour around, read about the place, and the ceiling and floor mosaic are beautiful! Gold and intricate. Gorgeous. The new part is in stark contrast on the outside. They are a completely different look, but the new part is so cool! It looks like a high-rise apartment building from the outside, with teeny tiny windows going all the way up, with a little gold cross at the top BUT when you go inside, you realize that the windows are all a deep blue, and when you’re in the actual worship hall, everything is a deep blue, like you’re underwater. It was REALLY really cool! That was my kind of church!
After that, it was time to shop! I’d picked up an adorable black hat the day before while poking around in the shops at Alexander Platz. I was in search of a cool jacket, or scarves. Well, I found an adorable argyle sweater, but no jacket. Oh well, I’ll just have to go shopping some more at home!
Then to the famous Ka De We food floor. Someone said it was like Dean and Deluca and crack. Someone else said it was like nothing you’d ever seen before. Well….they were right! The 7th floor of this huge department store was all food. High end grocery store food, prepared foods, stop and eat there foods. Moet had a little bar area. There was seafood, grille, meats, asian, wurst (of course!) an egg stand, enough cheese to stop up the whole…well, you know. They had everything! I of course had asian because when in Ro….whatever! I love Asian food, and had already had my typical Berlin dinner. Plus, one of the things I read is that Berliners love all kinds of ethnic foods, and Italian and Asian restaurants were more plentiful than traditional German restaurants. So I had a lovely little dim sum plate and a Tiger beer that went down very smoothly….so much so, that I had another. Then it was time to move on, but I must say, if you’re ever in Berlin, go to this place. It was insane.
So, hopped back on the U-bahn, and off to Checkpoint Charlie and the Jewish museum. Checkpoint Charlie was a famous “border” crossing area between West and East Germany. The little guard shack and signs were all still there, and a big display talking about the wall and East and West Germany and all that. Oh, and from the sublime to the ridiculous, there was a guy standing by this display giving out flyers to the Curry Wurst museum which was right around the corner. You’ve got to be kidding me! I popped over, but it was 11 Euro to get in. Seriously? $15 to see a sausage museum? Well, the outside was nice. Then I headed through Checkpoint Charlie, and down to the Jewish Museum.
Who knew it was Rosh a Shanna? And of course they’re closed on Jewish holidays. I was bummed because this is supposed to be a really neat museum with some very poignant use of space and structure. Well, the outside was cool. I’ll hit it next time.
At this point it was about 6:30, and I was ready to get off my feet, after all, I had a marathon to run the next day. By the map, I was a close hop skip and a jump back to the hotel, so I set off again to wander my way back to the hotel. I suddenly found myself way off from where I thought I was, but a few minutes later I was back on track, and walked through some very nice neighborhoods along the way. Also saw where someone had graffiti’d “tomato”. Now what do you suppose would possess someone to graffiti “tomato”?? And a fun playground that I’m sure my nieces would love.Back to the hotel, laid down for a nap, and then went down to the outside courtyard in the hotel for a nice pre-race dinner (and beer!) I had some of the best tomato soup I’ve ever had in my life, and snacked on a flambé torte or something like that. It’s a pizza basically. Mind had crème fresche, chicken, corn and cheese. It was delicious and enough for an army! I sat outside wrapped in the blanket they had on each chair (nice touch as the evenings were a bit chilly) and read my book, enjoyed my beer and the quiet. Ahhhhhhh.
Then Matt and Adriana got back from Prague, we caught up for a few minutes, made plans for the next day and headed off to bed.
Friday, September 18, 2009
First day in Berlin!
17 hours and 2 stops later, I got to Berlin. (I got a great price on the ticket, but had to stop in New York and Brussels before getting there. All part of the adventure.) I had slept on the overnight flight from NY to Brussels (I’m blessed with the ability to sleep on planes) and read my tour guide book on the Brussels to Berlin flight, so by the time I arrived at Tagel airport, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the city, the sights I wanted to see, and how to get around. I’d checked the website for the hotel and it said the Potsdamer Platz U-bahn was right next to the hotel. (that’s Germany for subway!) I would take a bus to the zoo U stop, then pop over to Potsdamer and viola, I would be there.
I was very pleased with myself that I had managed to pack everything in a carry-on bag. With 2 connections, I wanted to be sure I carried my running shoes and gear with me in case they got lost, so I took my expandable roll-a-board (did you know it’s called a roll-a-board, not a roller board??) and jammed it full enough that it would fit in the overhead, but still leave expandable room for souvenirs!
So I got to the airport, through passport control and customs and found the bus and the subway. It was so easy! I was very excited, but a little nervous about this trip. It was my first overseas trip by myself. I had traveled a ton with friends, co-workers and family overseas, but this one was by myself mostly. I had friends who were also going to be there for the race, but they had other plans for most of the time there, and “meeting up” always turns out to be less easy than it sounds when you’re planning. I was excited though. I could totally work on my schedule, do the things that I wanted to do, eat, sleep, tour, play, whatever totally on my own whim. This was good, and Berlin turned out to be the PERFECT city to do it in.
I arrived in Potsdamer Platz like a recent college grad arriving in the big city. It’s a huge square with big buildings and lots of cars and lots of streets going off of it. I turned around and around taking it all in, and wondering what the heck street I was supposed to go down. That’s ok, I’d looked it all up online on the hotel website, and I was good to go. Luckenwalder Strasse. I’m good. I went around the platz once, and didn’t see it, but I did get a glimpse of several chunks of “the wall”. I had read that there are pieces of it all over, as a reminder of what the city used to be like. There was some really cool graffiti on the pieces in the platz there. I looked on the little map in my tour book, and didn’t see it. Finally I went into the Ritz Carlton on the square and asked the Concierge. He was very helpful, and showed me where it was….about a mile away. Now I was REALLY glad I’d packed in a small rolling bag! That’s ok. It was a gorgeous day, a beautiful city, and I had nowhere to be in any sort of hurry.
I meandered down the street by a lovely grassy area outside some office and residential buildings. Down the street past some construction (Berlin is ever growing and improving!) and to the very pretty river. Across and down and I’m getting tired, AND I’ve passed 2 of the U-bahn stations that I actually went by while on the train headed to Potsdamer Platz. Ok, just a little annoyed at this point (tired after 17 hours of traveling, and dragging a bag down charming yet not particularly smooth sidewalks!) and it wasn’t looking right, but I kept going. I finally found Luckenwalder Strasse, and low and behold, with bright and wild murel on the wall was my hotel. It turned out to be a lovely hotel right across the street from a different U-bahn station, which turned out to be very convenient (once I knew which one to go to. Grrrrr.)
Checked in without incident, and my first thought upon entering my room was, “it’s someone’s job to design carpet patterns…..I think this designer had a bad day!”
Other than the wild carpet, the room was lovely. I was all sweaty, but I wanted to get to the expo to get my stuff in case for some reason I had to go the next day, and/or so it freed up the whole next day for touring. I changed and headed right out the door for the expo. I was doing the jet lag reduction strategy I learned from Sandy the astronaut that I went to Iraq with. You stay up through the night until it’s time to go to bed in the new place, then you’re so exhausted that you fall right to sleep and sha-ZAM, you’re acclimated!
The expo was being held in the old airport. I thought this was a fascinating and wonderful idea, and couldn’t wait to see how they did it. Unburdened by my luggage, I decided to continue my walk. It looked like another mile or so to the airport, and ended up being a very nice walk. Tons of people on bikes, and great little shops and cafes. Really a nice town.
I got to the expo and sure enough, it was in an airport. Conveyors, and ticket counters all transformed into spots for signage and information booths, etc. On to the terminals and out into the hangar where the expo was actually being held.
The Berlin Marathon expo shares with a rollerblade marathon expo/demonstration area, so it was HUGE! There was the covered outdoor area with a huge beergarten and eating area, demonstration area for skates and bmx type bikes, then the typical marathon expo crap. The difference was all the international marathon booths that there were. Oh the ideas. My list of “must-do” marathons just doubled!
I got my packet, then moved on to my first beer! I was a happy camper! Then before long, my first beer was gone and I was sad. It was time to head back to the hotel, drop my stuff and go see what this city was all about, so I hopped on the U-bahn from the airport (a lovely walk, but I wanted to get on with it) and dropped my stuff at the hotel.
Then off to Alexander Platz and the TV tower. My tour book had recommended this as a great place to get a top notch view of Berlin from the highest point in Europe actually. It was very cool! The platz was huge, with lots of cafes and shops, and a mall with a big fountain and courtyard with a few groups of street performers. I bought my ticket to go up in the tower, but had to wait about 45 minutes until it was my turn. No problem, I’ll go have another beer! I found a charming little place that boasted lots of wursts and biers on the chalkboard on the sidewalk. PERFECT! I went in, sat down and ordered a Berlin specialty, Currywurst and a big Berliner beer. (I know, curry wurst sounds disgusting, but when in Rome….) It was actually delicious, and accompanied by some traditional sauerkraut and kartoffelsalat. (potato salad) Yum! The bier was also alarmingly large, and when I finished and headed back to the tower to head up, I was definitely feeling good. (though one more and I probably would have made Alexander Platz my sleeping area for the night, which would have been fine because there’s plenty of green space all over. I could have found my own little patch of grass, curled up and taken a nap, but no, there was a city to see.)
I got in line and headed up. Very organized, very technological and modern and very German! The tower in 208.95 meters high or something. The elevator goes up very quickly, earpoppinly fast in fact. It was pretty cool. Then it dumped you out into the top silver bubble thing where you could walk around and get a 360 degree view of the city. I walked all around 2-3 times (passing up the temptation of settling on the side with the cocktail lounge for a drink) and checked everything out. There were some really neat rooftops (weird? I know!) where they had grass and neat hang out areas. You could also see the wind farms off in the distance, and the river was beautiful with the late afternoon sun glinting off it. You could also get a real sense of the old vs. new architecture in Berlin. There are some ancient elaborate buildings right next to totally modern and funky ones. Really fun to look around.
Once I had finished there, I went down and went in the shops for a bit. I had tried to get in touch with my friends, but wasn’t hearing back from them, so I figured they were doing their own thing, and besides, I was pretty tired, and wasn’t sure I was up for chasing anyone around anyway, so I headed back to the hotel, took a shower and got organized in the room and ready for bed. Matt and Adriana did finally call around 8:30 from the hotel. They were headed to Prague at 5:30 on the train the next morning and weren’t going to get home until 9:30 or so, so I said I would see them the next evening and went to bed. Needless to say, I slept like a rock, very pleased at how quickly I’d gotten comfortable running all around the city, eating and drinking and touring. I’m a regular grown up!
I was very pleased with myself that I had managed to pack everything in a carry-on bag. With 2 connections, I wanted to be sure I carried my running shoes and gear with me in case they got lost, so I took my expandable roll-a-board (did you know it’s called a roll-a-board, not a roller board??) and jammed it full enough that it would fit in the overhead, but still leave expandable room for souvenirs!
So I got to the airport, through passport control and customs and found the bus and the subway. It was so easy! I was very excited, but a little nervous about this trip. It was my first overseas trip by myself. I had traveled a ton with friends, co-workers and family overseas, but this one was by myself mostly. I had friends who were also going to be there for the race, but they had other plans for most of the time there, and “meeting up” always turns out to be less easy than it sounds when you’re planning. I was excited though. I could totally work on my schedule, do the things that I wanted to do, eat, sleep, tour, play, whatever totally on my own whim. This was good, and Berlin turned out to be the PERFECT city to do it in.
I arrived in Potsdamer Platz like a recent college grad arriving in the big city. It’s a huge square with big buildings and lots of cars and lots of streets going off of it. I turned around and around taking it all in, and wondering what the heck street I was supposed to go down. That’s ok, I’d looked it all up online on the hotel website, and I was good to go. Luckenwalder Strasse. I’m good. I went around the platz once, and didn’t see it, but I did get a glimpse of several chunks of “the wall”. I had read that there are pieces of it all over, as a reminder of what the city used to be like. There was some really cool graffiti on the pieces in the platz there. I looked on the little map in my tour book, and didn’t see it. Finally I went into the Ritz Carlton on the square and asked the Concierge. He was very helpful, and showed me where it was….about a mile away. Now I was REALLY glad I’d packed in a small rolling bag! That’s ok. It was a gorgeous day, a beautiful city, and I had nowhere to be in any sort of hurry.
I meandered down the street by a lovely grassy area outside some office and residential buildings. Down the street past some construction (Berlin is ever growing and improving!) and to the very pretty river. Across and down and I’m getting tired, AND I’ve passed 2 of the U-bahn stations that I actually went by while on the train headed to Potsdamer Platz. Ok, just a little annoyed at this point (tired after 17 hours of traveling, and dragging a bag down charming yet not particularly smooth sidewalks!) and it wasn’t looking right, but I kept going. I finally found Luckenwalder Strasse, and low and behold, with bright and wild murel on the wall was my hotel. It turned out to be a lovely hotel right across the street from a different U-bahn station, which turned out to be very convenient (once I knew which one to go to. Grrrrr.)
Checked in without incident, and my first thought upon entering my room was, “it’s someone’s job to design carpet patterns…..I think this designer had a bad day!”
Other than the wild carpet, the room was lovely. I was all sweaty, but I wanted to get to the expo to get my stuff in case for some reason I had to go the next day, and/or so it freed up the whole next day for touring. I changed and headed right out the door for the expo. I was doing the jet lag reduction strategy I learned from Sandy the astronaut that I went to Iraq with. You stay up through the night until it’s time to go to bed in the new place, then you’re so exhausted that you fall right to sleep and sha-ZAM, you’re acclimated!
The expo was being held in the old airport. I thought this was a fascinating and wonderful idea, and couldn’t wait to see how they did it. Unburdened by my luggage, I decided to continue my walk. It looked like another mile or so to the airport, and ended up being a very nice walk. Tons of people on bikes, and great little shops and cafes. Really a nice town.
I got to the expo and sure enough, it was in an airport. Conveyors, and ticket counters all transformed into spots for signage and information booths, etc. On to the terminals and out into the hangar where the expo was actually being held.
The Berlin Marathon expo shares with a rollerblade marathon expo/demonstration area, so it was HUGE! There was the covered outdoor area with a huge beergarten and eating area, demonstration area for skates and bmx type bikes, then the typical marathon expo crap. The difference was all the international marathon booths that there were. Oh the ideas. My list of “must-do” marathons just doubled!
I got my packet, then moved on to my first beer! I was a happy camper! Then before long, my first beer was gone and I was sad. It was time to head back to the hotel, drop my stuff and go see what this city was all about, so I hopped on the U-bahn from the airport (a lovely walk, but I wanted to get on with it) and dropped my stuff at the hotel.
Then off to Alexander Platz and the TV tower. My tour book had recommended this as a great place to get a top notch view of Berlin from the highest point in Europe actually. It was very cool! The platz was huge, with lots of cafes and shops, and a mall with a big fountain and courtyard with a few groups of street performers. I bought my ticket to go up in the tower, but had to wait about 45 minutes until it was my turn. No problem, I’ll go have another beer! I found a charming little place that boasted lots of wursts and biers on the chalkboard on the sidewalk. PERFECT! I went in, sat down and ordered a Berlin specialty, Currywurst and a big Berliner beer. (I know, curry wurst sounds disgusting, but when in Rome….) It was actually delicious, and accompanied by some traditional sauerkraut and kartoffelsalat. (potato salad) Yum! The bier was also alarmingly large, and when I finished and headed back to the tower to head up, I was definitely feeling good. (though one more and I probably would have made Alexander Platz my sleeping area for the night, which would have been fine because there’s plenty of green space all over. I could have found my own little patch of grass, curled up and taken a nap, but no, there was a city to see.)
I got in line and headed up. Very organized, very technological and modern and very German! The tower in 208.95 meters high or something. The elevator goes up very quickly, earpoppinly fast in fact. It was pretty cool. Then it dumped you out into the top silver bubble thing where you could walk around and get a 360 degree view of the city. I walked all around 2-3 times (passing up the temptation of settling on the side with the cocktail lounge for a drink) and checked everything out. There were some really neat rooftops (weird? I know!) where they had grass and neat hang out areas. You could also see the wind farms off in the distance, and the river was beautiful with the late afternoon sun glinting off it. You could also get a real sense of the old vs. new architecture in Berlin. There are some ancient elaborate buildings right next to totally modern and funky ones. Really fun to look around.
Once I had finished there, I went down and went in the shops for a bit. I had tried to get in touch with my friends, but wasn’t hearing back from them, so I figured they were doing their own thing, and besides, I was pretty tired, and wasn’t sure I was up for chasing anyone around anyway, so I headed back to the hotel, took a shower and got organized in the room and ready for bed. Matt and Adriana did finally call around 8:30 from the hotel. They were headed to Prague at 5:30 on the train the next morning and weren’t going to get home until 9:30 or so, so I said I would see them the next evening and went to bed. Needless to say, I slept like a rock, very pleased at how quickly I’d gotten comfortable running all around the city, eating and drinking and touring. I’m a regular grown up!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Let's go to GERMANY!
I ran around in a flurry getting things done before my trip. Lots of work items to finish up, packing, cleaning up the house, and checking and double checking my packing to be sure I had everything. At 11am I sped out the door, had to drop by the office, grab something, go to the bank for a handful of cash, then off to the airport. I got there in plenty of time to get to the gate and chill, and send a bunch of e-mails reminding people that I was going to Germany! I was very excited.
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