A Bike ride (and marathon) in Berlin - Part 2 - The Marathon and Beyond

Our next day in Berlin was a Marathon prep day for the marathon and so we had a lovely breakfast at a vietnams restaurant called Amy’s near our hotel.  Turkish and Vietnamese culture is very strong in Berlin, which is interesting, because it is a result of events of history. West Germans recruited Turkish to come to Germany to increase the labor force, and East Germans recruited Vietnamese for the same reason.  Of course, Vietnam is communist so had ideals that more aligned with East Germany, and the opposite was true for Turkey and West Germany. Below is a photo of a farmers market with tons of different foods from around the world. I got licorice from Scandinavia and falafel from Turkey!

After breakfast Kristyn headed to the hotel to chill and Carolyn and I had a swimming lesson (I am still an extreme beginner) at our hotel and then headed to Christiane’s apartment to make signs.  Christian lives on the 4th floor of her building and has amazing natural light and a very spacious apartment. It was filled with plants and colors, very “Christiane”. Lilian, Christiane’s boyfriend, is one of those people who can fix anything, and he created a clever sign post out of a trekking pole. The signs were beautiful, Christiane is super creative.  From there we went on a walk around Mitte, had a pastry, and headed by bike to this exhibit at a really cool library/museum called Stabi Kulturwerk.  The exhibit was basically the collection of the library but ranged in date from 15th century to the 20th century.  It had books, paintings, maps, all sorts of cool stuff from all different points of history. 

Carolyn and I had rented bikes for 24 hours from our hotel so we then headed back to the hotel for a pre-race dinner with the group.  It was a lovely evening, probably much less stressful for the non-marathoners, and we enjoyed plotting the course and figuring out where we would be able to see Kristyn and Lydia on the course. 

The next morning Kristyn headed to Brandenburg Gate at about 7:30 because she was in Group B, and Carolyn and I headed down to meet Christiane and Lilian and we were off! 

Our first stop was to km 6 (yes, it was extremely hard to navigate the course that was mapped out in km), where we saw the elites cruise through.  We saw both Lydia and Kristyn here which was awesome.  The crowds were so big though, and the roads were pretty narrow, so it was challenging race for the runners.  Also, it was uncharacteristically hot for October in Germany, comparatively it is 20º cooler today. But the four of us were biking all over the city trying to find them and wave our signs. It was so fun, and I loved the energy of the group.  Definitely no time to be tired, or hungry for that matter!  The runners finished in the early afternoon and we were able to chat about the race, how proud we were that they finished, and how hard it was.  From the plastic water cups to the fact that somehow Kristyn ended up running over 27 miles, there were lots of stories to share, and we are SO PROUD! 

Here are some amazing photos Christiane took:

After the race:

Our reward for marathon day was another trip to the awesome Italian restaurant for the pistachio pizza followed by an ice cream dessert.  Then Kristyn headed home and the cheer squad headed to Sisyphos, which is a Berlin nightclub.  This one is open from Friday night until early Monday morning!  Berlin is the home of electronic music so the nightclub scene is strong.  Lilian is a do and actually perform at this nightclub so we were able to get in for free.  It was a super interesting vibe - all abut the music for sure, definitely drugs and they make you put a sticker over your camera phone, absolutely no photos inside.  There were several rooms each with a different DJ inside. Different types of house music and different aesthetics for each room,and the art vibe was very cool.  They are open from May until December and then they renovate for the following year.  The style and what people were wearing was super eclectic, and a lot more comfortable than what I wore 100 years ago when I went to clubs. We were pretty tired but of course happy we were able to check this out!

Our final morning was just packing and meeting Christiane for breakfast at Amy’s again before heading to Hauptbanhof en route to München!