Bike day trip: Müggelsee

I've been bitten by the travel bug again lately, and I've also had a strong urge to do more things outdoors. I've been cycling around the city a lot for transportation, and I thought it might be nice to do a day trip by bike. I haven't biked "just for fun" since I lived back home, and by "back home" I -really- mean it, because the last time was when I lived with my parents in Campbell River. Growing up, I used to go on rides all the time through the forest and through town, but in my adult life I've only used bicycles for transportation. Today changed that!

I researched online where I should go and how I should get there, and I decided that since I've never been to Müggelsee, it would be a good place to start. I took Europaweg R1 to the East, which I found to be a really great route. It's also possible to get there any number of other ways, but I thought I'd experiment with using the "official" bike routes, as I have ideas of maybe doing a longer trip later!

I started in Alexanderplatz, not really because it's better in any way, but the route runs through it and I live a 5 minute cycle away.


The cycle took me through Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg to Treptow, and I went through Treptower Park. I love this park, and I hardly ever go there because it's not in my neighbourhood. It's right on the Spree, and there are a lot of great cafes, beer gardens and boat shacks all along the river. One of the beer gardens has a stage, and there was a live jazz band playing. If I had been there to lounge around, I would have loved to have a beer and listen!

(Swan watching)




(I somehow find tagging an old, large tree like this to be really disrespectful, like tagging a church or a monument or something...I thought this tree was great though because you don't see so many large ones like this in Berlin)


(There are a few of these along the cycle route....I never noticed them before until I was looking for the cycling stuff!)


(A view of the abandoned amusement park, Spreepark. I find it really haunting, and it just looks like it was just left to totally rot. I have a love of things like this that are just left behind. It's like imagining what life would be like after an apocalypse).



I had to take a water taxi to continue my route. They are run by the BVG, but after almost 6 years living here, I had NO idea they ran water taxis at all! You learn new things when you cycle!



After getting lost for a bit, I cycled over through Alt-Koepenick, another place I'd never been before. I've been to and through Koepenick before but never this part. It's quite picturesque, and they were having some sort of festival going on. I walked through it a bit.


(Rathaus Koepenick)


(Not sure who this is....we have guesses that it's Hauptmann von Koepenick?)




(This part of Koepenick is so picturesque, but then you ride on and have these reminders that you're still in the heart of East Berlin).

Eventually I did reach the lake, and I crossed over the river just before it to poke around Friedrichshagen for a bit. It's an interesting district that used to be a haven for artists, and now it's still lovely. There are still a few run down buildings but a lot of really pretty ones as well. If I weren't so keen on living in the city center and wanted to live somewhere a bit quieter, it would be great! Afterward, I cycled around the lake and through the forest to Müggelheim, which sounded like an actual place but really wasn't.


(Brewery in Friedrichshagen)




(finally at the lake)


(more Friedrichshagen)


(I've always wondered, why are there Irish Pubs EVERYWHERE? Even in a minor suburb in Germany??)








(Attempting Americana in Mueggelheim)


(Told you, nothing here)



After a bit of riding around, I decided it was time to head home, as I wanted to get back in time to call my dad and say happy father's day. I passed a fruit stand, which is another thing I remember growing up in Canada. We used to drive along the old highway and sometimes in the summer, there would be fruit for sale from the Okanagan. At that point, it started to pour down rain (LITERALLY...I felt like someone was pouring buckets of water over my head!) It was a good time to pick up some fruit and wait until the rain got a lot less violent. It never stopped totally though and I was pretty wet when I got home, and happy to wear sweat pants and slippers!


(fruit!)


(After 50 km of cycling, this building in Friedrichshain made me dizzy!)


(Warm!)

Character Voice in Narrative

I'm reading a novel right now, and I have this thing where, when I start a book, I HAVE to finish it. Even if it's totally terrible. This one is terrible, and it's proving to be really difficult. A lot of me wants to shake the author for the following reason:

If you write your first person narrative character as an American, their voice SHOULD BE AMERICAN. Doesn't matter if you, the author, are British, or if the book is published in the UK. If can't make your character American, DON'T MAKE HER AMERICAN. An American would NEVER say "The third 'series' of Lost"....Series in American English means the entire show. It's the third SEASON of lost. We don't wear trousers unless we're old or it's formal, they're pants. We don't wear jumpers ever, they're sweaters. Disneyland is in California, and Disneyworld is in Florida. If you say Disneyland and you mean the one in Florida, you're wrong. We don't often "shout" at people, more commonly, we "yell" at them. Etc, etc, etc, etc.

I realize the author is British, and as the book is published in the UK I understand the use of British punctuation and spelling standards, but character voice should be true to the character's nationality. The character in question is American, but does not sound remotely American. Worse off, she doesn't even sound neutral...she sounds distinctly British. I just have to wonder, why bother? The character being American isn't even particularly important to the story, so I have to wonder why the author bothered and didn't just write the character's nationality into the voice she's clearly more comfortable using (British). Nothing wrong with that...I don't think I could write a convincing British character. The point is to know your limits and stick with them.

Health and Lonliness

There's nothing that will make you feel quite so alone as health problems.

Boys, if you're squeamish reading about women's health issues, you can stop reading here.

To give a bit of a back story, it's pretty likely that there's nothing seriously wrong with me. A couple of doctors (one of which was a specialist for the condition) suspect that I have endometriosis, a condition where the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. It's common; it's still little understood and often undiagnosed but it's suspected that between 10-15% of women have it. It's nothing life-threatening but it's unpleasant. I get bad cramping (among many other symptoms, which I wont get into), and if I'm off the pill it's absolutely unmanageable and not limited to -that- time of the month. The only way to truly diagnose the condition is through a laparoscopy, which involves surgically sending in a camera to look. I was hoping to get an appointment for one this summer. But as my pre-exam ended up being too painful, I have to wait. This is what's getting to me, and what's making me feel lonely. If I did the procedure this summer, I'd have my parents here and they could help me out. It's not a huge deal but I've had a couple of friends who have had them, and they told me that you need someone there with you for the first few days after because it's extremely difficult to get up and stuff on your own. They'd be here, and it would just be easier. Also, I don't have university to interrupt.

I know that it's not a long recovery period (I was quoted a week or so), and I have great friends here who I'm sure will be able to help. it's just given me that sense that I live alone, and that there's no one here automatically to help out when these things happen to me. I got the same sense last fall when I recovered from strep throat, anaphylactic shock and a cold all in one go.