Our trip to Berlin...

We went to Berlin on Friday, September 22, 2006 for 4 days. We were quite lazy this time round and didn't plan at all, which was a big mistake. The Luton airport parking was completely full! We packed our backpacks an hour before we left, and I forgot my hair brush and towel. Arg. But we managed to get a ride from our co-worker, booked a taxi for our trip back and buy some towels in Berlin. So we everything worked out. All good.

Berlin was just as I had remembered it to be, awesome! We arrived at our Berlin flat at around midnight and there were still many restaurants open. I was able to get us some take out (Pizza) with my limited German. Lot of normal people were in the restaurants and on the streets at this time of the day. I felt quite safe walking around at night.

We were in Berlin the same weekend last year but I remembered it as being much cooler. We had to figure out how the heating worked in the apartment last year. This year, we had to open the windows. Walking around the city, I was sweating in my T-Shirt the entire time. Even after it got dark, I didn't need my jacket.

Saturday we slept in till 11am (would of been only 10am UK time), we didn't do too much because Bo had to run the next day. The only thing we needed to do today was to go and get the Marathon package for Bo (getting his number and chip) at the Berlin Vital. They have the Registration package at the very end of the buildings so you need to walk through all the sports vendors first. The buildings were huge. I think my legs were quite tired after that long walk. Afterwards, we walked into a street festival of some kind. Didn't finish walking through that though. It was really long and Bo should probably take it easy. We called it a day after 8pm.

Sunday's the big Marathon day. Bo got up at I don't know when, I think it was around 6am to prepare himself. I was still sleeping. He left at around 8am, I did manage to wake up and say 'Good Luck!' to him before he left. He didn't need me to go there since the most I can do is to walk him to the runners entrance. I'd have a hard time keeping up with him to cheer him on.
Eventually I got up sometime after Bo left. The Marathon was on TV and I looked out for him but he didn't wear anything noticeably funny so I didn't see him. I saw some guy dressed like a bottle of shampoo, another guy was dressed like a smurf, there was several Vikings, but no Bo. I bet if he dressed like a beaver, I would of had a better chance on spotting him.

Bo officially finished the Marathon in 4:17. He's somewhat pleased with his time and was 10 minutes faster than last year. He expected to be faster because the route was flatter in Berlin compared to Dublin. However, no one anticipated on how hot that day was. The Dublin one was not as hot, so it was easier to run in. After the run, Bo rested in the finish area, ate some fruit and chocolate and got a free massage. I met up with him almost 2 hours after he passed the finish line. For obvious reasons, we didn't do much that day and was home by 6pm. Bo fell asleep almost as soon as he sat down. So I went down and wandered the East Berlin streets by myself. I walked passed several streets of restaurants (lots of Pizzarias) before a little Thai place caught my nose. I managed to order some take out with the little German that I know, but luckily, the Thai guy knew a bit of English.

Monday, September 25. The day after The Big Run. Bo status: He got up before me and was hobbling around the apartment. It was kind of funny watching Bo walk down 8 flights of stairs as he hugs the rails. (Our flat was on the 4th floor with no elevator) We went for a late breakfast at the same cafe that we went to last year. It was a grand breakfast and was once again, the most nutritious one I had since that last time we were here. The difference this year was that I was able to read most of the items on the menu, so was able to omit items that I didn't like. Last year was random finger pointing at menu items because no one at the cafe knew any English. We got a basket of bread and each plate contained about 4-5 different types of cheese, 4 different pieces of fruit, 2-3 different types of sliced meat, and a hard boiled egg. Bo bought the Morning Berlin newspaper and found his name in the Marathon section. He's ranked at 14 thousand and something place. Yeah it's a big number, but there were probably over 20 thousand runners. They said the Marathon hit their target of 40 thousand people (where it was capped) Some where Rollarbladers that bladed the marathon distance on Saturday. The runners and walkers were on Sunday.

After the wonderful breakfast, we headed out. We trained to the city centre and caught the Number 100 bus that took us around the city. I thought I'd give Bo a break from walking, so we did some site seeing on the bus and got off at a stop by KFC. Bo really likes KFC, so we stopped there for lunch. I started to people watch and I think I can confidently pick out people that were running in the marathon the day before. Those people would most likely have the following traits: hobbled around, hobbled around in runners or sandals, wore a heart rate monitor watch and hobbled around, and a big give-a-way was the "Berlin Marathon Finisher" T-shirt.

The KFC was by a really old Church that looks like it was bombed in the War, and no one restored the hole on the tower. We watched a group of street dancers doing their routine and I think they were one of the best that we've ever seen. I wonder how much they would be able to make doing that number over and over again? I suppose it's quite a touristy area so there would be alot of different people watching the show. They are quite talented. We did a bit of shopping, there were many top shops in this area. Afterwards, we headed over to PotsdamerPlats, an amazing plaza. We sat at one of the cafes to relax and kill some time before we went for an original language movie. We paid 20 euros for 1.5 pint of beer, 250ml apple juice, some wings and fries. This was about average price for 2 drinks and a small snack in a touristy area, but at the restaurants by our flat, we would be able to get 2 entres.

We watched Miami Vice in a theatre in the Plaza that shows original language films. This film came out not too long ago. I guess movies come out at an even later time in Berlin compared to the UK. The movie was entertaining and was exactly what we expected it to be, a shoot em and shoot em again movie. By the time we got back to our flat, it was nearly midnight. It was a long day, and we did more walking than anticipated. I was surprised to see how well Bo held up. He's usually only hobbling in the first few minutes of walking, then he walked somewhat normal. It was late so we decided not to have a restaurant sit down meal and opted for some takeout instead.

Tuesday, September 26. Bo update: still hobbling. We'll be flying back to the UK at 9pm in the evening so we still have time to play around in Berlin. My original plan was to go to the Berlin parliament on Monday, but an hour of wait turned us away. Today we made it in after a 30-40 minute wait. After going through security, we got shoved into this huge elevator that took us up to the roof. There were many people waiting to go up so they tried to pack in as many people as possible each time. I suspect many people were praying for the elevator to take us up without a hitch. There was absolutely no room in there to even faint!

The roof gave us a panoramic view of the city. From outside the parliament, it looked like there were people on an escalator taking them up the dome, but no, there was no such luxury. We snapped some pictures then went to the restaurant on the roof for a drink. I figured Bo needed a rest before we walked up the parliament dome. Half way up and looking at the centre of the dome, the shape reminded us of a kabab. The top of the dome was another panoramic view of the city, not too much different from the view on roof, except that we were a bit higher up and there was the glass that separated us from the view.

We didn't do much afterwards and arrived in the airport at around 19:30 then found that our flight was delayed by half an hour. However, the pilot managed to get us to UK 30 minutes early. So we made it there in half the flying time! But it took us an hour to get through customs. WTF, if we were in Heathrow, it would have taken us 10 minutes to get through (we would be allowed into the UK residents line)... but in Luton there was no such thing. There were the EU Nationals line or the Non EU Nationals line and it took them forever to process Non EU Nationals. Arg. Eventually, we made it home at around midnight and went to work a few hours later.