Berlin!

All right, SO I went to Berlin on Friday night with Lutz. We picked up Angie and little Christian in Mannheim and then drove to Nürnberg to pick up Manfried (sp?), who took the train there from Munich, where he lives. We continued on through the night, a good 600km to Berlin from the start, and we arrived around 2am. We dropped off Angie at her friend's place and headed to our stop. We stayed with family friends, a woman and her boyfriend and her two 18 year old twin sons. Only one of the sons, Vito, was awake when we got in. The boys all decided to drink schorla and bond until 5am! I couldn't believe it--after that drive and then running the race the next day. I stayed up until 4am, but then I had to call it quits seeing as I wasn't drinking NOR do I drink coffee to keep me up!

On Saturday, everyone, of course, woke up really late. But I got up at 9 and met the mom and had breakfast with her. Little Christian awoke shortly thereafter, but the other two slept in until noon. We hung around while they ate breakfast/lunch, and the little Christian and I set out on the city to go sightseeing. Lutz and the others went to pick up our numbers for the race, watch Vito's soccer match, and go to the sailing club. Little Christian and I went straight through the city, hitting all of the major sites. We even crossed over from West to East Germany! Haha. My feet were definitely hurting already at the end of this day, though, because Berlin is sooo big. We visiting the Victory tower, Holocaust Museum, Brandenburg Gate, Parliament, Castles, the Dom...you name it! It was a beautiful day, as well, so that made it even more enjoyable. We met the other back at the house around 6 or so and hung out for a while, putting our feet up. We went out to dinner at a pizzeria nearby the house. Big Christian finally arrived and met us there later around 10 or so. We all loaded up on our carbs before the big race and headed back around 11:30 to get some rest.

Sunday was race day! We all awoke just before 8 in the morning. All the boys decided to eat spaghetti with pesto for breakfast...pass! I had some fruit and rice cakes with peanut butter, and that was good enough for me. They also had coffee! No, thanks. I had my water! We set out to the train just after 9 and rode into town. When we got there, there were tons of people everywhere. The rollerbladers were warming up, and the handicapped people were getting ready to go. The little kids were also about to do their fun run! We figured out where to drop off our bags and decided on a place to meet. Everything was in order, so we found our starting point in section E. Little Christian was in section D because he's super fast. He beat us all by a long shot! We started out together and were like that for a while, but since they're all SO TALL, I couldn't keep up with my short legs. There were about 5 stations for water, tea, and EMS throughout the whole route. It was actually really awesome because it started out running through the Brandenburg Gate and then on through historic and scenic Berlin. At the same time, it was also REALLY hard because 21km is quite far to run. There were lots of people on the sidelines the whole way cheering, playing music, taking pictures, and collecting clothing shed from their running friends. I was listening to my Zune the whole time, though, because there wasn't constant music going on. I FINALLY finished with a time of 2 hour and 30 minutes, which really isn't so bad with all things considered. The other boys were about 20 minutes faster than me, but little Christian finished with a time of 1 hour and 46 minutes! So ridiculous. At the end of the race, you could see your time in the overhang. Right after passing through, they handed you a medal. There were stands for water, bananas, tea, and beer. Yeah, beer. Only in Germany, am I right? Who drinks beer after running 21km?!

So we got our bags and met up at the dedicated area, some big fountain. Angie and her friend were there--apparently they watched us run or something. We all went back to the house, showered and rested for a couple of minutes, and then headed to the sailing club. What a beautiful place! I was so excited to be on the water again. We sat in the sailboat for a while and visited with everybody as the sun went down. Ah, that was nice. Then, we split up and headed our ways home. We took Manfried back to Nürnberg, and then I got dropped off at W-IH around 1am.

Monday was REALLY hard to do ANYTHING at all! My whole entire body--especially my legs--were completely dead. Let's just say Monday involved a lot of sitting around and barely even leaving the house--we only left to go outside, and even then I just sat and watched Benji play. He understands, though. He kept telling me the story of how I was gone running on the weekend and now my legs hurt, haha. So funny. For dinner, I finally made the quesadillas using the tortillas mom sent. I drained the black bean soup I made last week and stuck them inside with some cheese. They were a hit with salsa and quark! Then, I went for a 20 minute walk just to get the blood flowing in my legs again. It was pretty hard to do, haha. I pretty much crashed in bed immediately after that.

So there was no gymnastics on Tuesday for the Easter holiday or something...even though Easter isn't until Sunday. Whatever. Benji still got picked up by Opa around noon, though. A SWEET Easter package came from my mom with LOTS of cool stuff in it for me and Benji to play with! I headed into town after lunch and mailed some boxes home. ONLY the post office is closed for lunch from 12:30-14:00, so I had to wait around for like 50 minutes until they opened again. I also got a bunch of postcards from Berlin mailed out. After, I rode up to the supermarket and got some important items needed for baking like eggs, yeast, and vegetable oil! I came home and immediately baked the Easter cupcakes from mom, decorated then with yellow frosting and sprinkles, and set them on a bed of green Easter grass (imported from Germany to America and mailed back to Germany, haha). Then I spent the rest of the day relaxing and cleaning up since I'd been gone so long, and the house was now almost a mess! Dinner consisted of test tasting a bunch of items for the After-work parties that Klaus is having for his winery. We had Quiche Lorraine, some broetchen, and some cheeses...and Klaus tried some wurst! Then we all hung out for a while before heading in for the night.

TODAY is Wednesday! Benji and Sib woke up really late today. When they got into the kitchen, he discovered his new Easter surprises from my mom. We pretty much had to immediately go outside and start blowing bubbles, haha. This was after a breakfast filled with a hopping bunny across the table! We also grew the dinosaurs from the little eggs, which he (and Klaus) thought was neat. He's now taking a nap, and we're heading up to W.TH after nap to have a play date with some boys, and they're going to eat cupcakes (not sure Sib will let Benji eat one, though)!