I have this lingering cold thing that doesn’t know if it wants to get worse or better. Instead, it’s just sorta… there. An annoyingly dry, scratchy throat with some cruddy drainage… a stuffy nose that’s not really stuffy so much as just… off. Ya know that NyQuil ad, the one that promises it’s “the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, aching, coughing, stuffy-head, fever, so you can rest medicine.” Total BS, it doesn’t seem to work for me… but their snakeoil promises are PRECISELY the outcome I want to have. Maybe I’ll try a bottle of Cabernet.
In any case, I didn’t do much today — my biggest accomplishment was laundry courtesy of my AirBNB host (who DOES have a washer… but he told me I needed to walk a minute to the local laundromat for a dryer). I did wander up to Alexanderplatz to try and get some better shots there… but A LOT of that area is under construction. They’re building a better Berlin, but like construction the world over, it’s a whole lot of hammering and beep-beep-beeping and rrrrrrr’ing and not much in the way to look at. But I at least took a better shot of the Neptunbrunnen… or the Neptune Fountain for us English speakers.
Amidst this post, I thought I’d toss in a few other stray pseudo Kevin’s Postcards from Berlin, a medley of photos that don’t belong really anywhere which means I guess they belong here.
When I was walking to the Berlin Opera, I knew I was getting close when I saw this restaurant… and the metro stop didn’t hurt either.
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The dinner of champions:
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Some signs at the Movenpick Berlin Hotel — first something about a 15 euro sleep experience. Let me tell you, I was billed A LOT more than 15 euros a night at that place.
Secondly there was this — I never met an hour that couldn’t be improved with chocolate.
As part of the Berlin Marathon security checks, we had to show our heat sealed participant wristband at a couple of checkpoints to get to the start line. Afterwards, I couldn’t get the damn thing off. I didn’t have scissors with me but I had a pair of nailclippers. Even trying to saw through that fabric was impossible. Eventually when I got to my AirBNB I took my host’s meat cleaver and sliced through it… didn’t even draw blood.
Speaking of the race, here are some shots courtesy of Lee Peacock from TravellingFit:
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I’m still not clear if this is a warning sign or a line of demarcation. Is it that pickpockets are known to be active in this area… or is it the boundary where pickpocketing is allowed?
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I don’t know what opera this is advertising, but it’s definitely intriguing. Maybe Lord of the Flies? Is there an operatic version of that? I was trying to think of another “pig” thing that might be a showstopper. Miss Piggy: An Opera About Moi?
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So I’ve been a little obsessed with the walk signs here in Berlin — the green man to walk versus the faux-crucifiction red man to stop. Turns out there’s a whole cottage industry that sells walking man merch… and I was intrigued by this sign of the world’s different versions of the original Walk-man.
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The breakfast of champions:
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Well then it’s not ALL pizza then, is it?
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This place features over 100 types of cereals… and like a morning themed Bubba Gump Shrimp franchise, you wouldn’t believe the number of dishes you can make with cereal.
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I’ll take two butlers, please. I have a lot of butling to do…
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I was interested to know more… until I found out it was all kinds of non-alcoholic lame. What self-respecting cowboy would go for this? Although, ya know, one does get parched out on the range.
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The songs I used to listen to are now on the classic rock/easy listening stations. And my clothes are apparently rare-vintage. What a drag it is getting old.
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SWAN!
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Oh, please, let all garbage trucks have punny names. “Whatcha driving today, Johann? They got you in ‘Tonnasaurus Rex’ or are you skippering ‘Trash-lyvania 6-5000?'”
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So this looks totally kid safe.
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Here Shane Black’s “The Predator” is known as “Predator Upgrade.” Based on my buddy Brent’s review, it’s more like “Predator DOWN-grade!” Zing!
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Man, I tried so hard to zoom out of the name “Dieter” on this but I just couldn’t figure out how to do it. Just know that I’m standing outside a costume shop called Dieter:
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Boat races, construction and Museum Island.
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Okay, so I see on my GoogleMap a place called the Deutsches Currywurst Museum and I feel like that is a must do… until I saw it was ELEVEN EUROS to go inside. I paid 24 euros to see an opera! I paid 19 euros to learn how to make cheese. Cost per minute analysis meant the Currywurst was THE WORST!
But some amazing merchandise… and I kind of regret not getting my photo with that weird Sausage mascot.
Unimpressed with the surrounding brat places by the museum, I decided to embrace the pun and ate at Checkpoint Charlie’s Checkpoint Curry. It was… dog-gone mediocre and overpriced.
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There’s a banned Disney cartoon wherein Donald Duck fights Hitler. The times they have a changed.
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I think I posted this to instagram already but there MUST be a better graphic for a physiotherapist.
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A gaggle of swans! No, a cygnet of swans, right? Nope, that’s just a young swan. Apparently it’s either a bevy, herd, or bank of swans but in flight they’re called a wedge or flight of swans. The more you know…
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I don’t know if this came out, but there’s a great half-moon there between the tree and street signs. My moon shots never take-off.
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Auf Wiedersehen, Berlin.
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And one final note – I went full on kitschy Berlin tourist and bought a piece of the Berlin Wall.
Sigh.
I’m a sucker… now where’s that snake oil?