This past weekend I decided to opt out of the school trip to Dresden because it was pretty expensive. Instead, I went on an evening bike tour with Toni. It was much better for me personally compared to the big group tours. Toni helps me understand her German and makes it much more personal and interesting. She knows a lot about Berlin, and I think she would make a great professional tour guide.
So, we rode bikes. Toni rode her mom's bike and I rode Toni's. Problem #1: They are much taller than I am; their legs are much longer than mine. Problem #2: the bike seats do not adjust. It took a little while before I got the hang of it. I had to have the right pedal at a certain height for me to be able to push off from the ground, mount the bike and pedal to gain enough momentum to keep going and prevent myself from falling off. I got better as we went on.
Most Berliners use public transportation and bicycles to get around. It is not uncommon for a person to not own a car. My family doesn't, that I know of. The great thing that the city of Berlin has done for bikes is create extra wide sidewalks and occasionally a bike lane on the roads. On every street I have come across, there has always been an indicated place for bikes to ride, either on the street or on the sidewalk.
So Toni showed me around Potsdamer Platz. This is a popular area for theaters. They were having the premier of the new Transformers movie at one of them. We got there when they were in the process of rolling out the red carpet. We didn't stay to watch, because neither of us cared to see any of the actors. Potsdamer Platz was also the first place I saw the Berlin Wall. Amazing.
We also rode through Tiergarten and by the Brandenburger Tor, where most of the celebrations for "Christopher Street Day (CSD)" were taking place. CSD is the day that Berlin celebrates homosexuals. It seems that Germany and the US have similar views on homosexuality. Berlin seems to be very accepting of it, because Berlin is a modern, new aged kind of city. I have heard, though, that many of the smaller towns in Germany don't take too kindly to homosexuals. So, we rode through all the celebrations and whatnot, and Toni pointed out many important buildings like the Reichstag and the Kennedy Museum while giving me little tidbits of history
We were out for about 2 or 3 hours. After I got used to the bike, I found that it was extremely comfortable to ride on. The seat was big and it rode very smoothly making the 2-3 hours seem effortless. Why don't we have more bikes like these? Berlin is also very flat, which might have contributed to the effortlessness.
That was the tour with Toni. On Sunday, Toni had a bunch of her friends over to watch the "football" game. Football being soccer of course. It is really much more sensible to call American soccer football instead. They use their feet all the time. How often do players use their feet in American football? Field goals, kick-offs and punts. That's not even 1/8th of the entire game! Anyway, I digress....
There were people over for the football game Sunday. It was the first game of the FIFA (women's) World Cup. It is in Germany this year, and of course the first game was in Berlin with Germany playing Canada.
When Germany is playing football in a situation like this, it is popular to get together with a bunch of friends and watch it on TV. So, this is what happened, except none of Toni's friends were really watching the game. We were all gathered around the TV, and I think I was the only one paying attention. I think they just use it as an excuse to all get together. They talked the whole time, and I was the silent one because they talk fast... I was trying to follow what they were talking about, but I couldn't keep up. I caught words and phrases every now and then, but it wasn't enough to understand the bigger concept.
After Germany won (2-1), they all left. It was quite the interesting experience. That was the extent of my weekend.
The word for this post is Fußball, pronounced fooz-ball. This, naturally, means football which is known in the U.S. as soccer.
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