Berlin.. strike two, you only get one more chance!

Ich bin ein Berliner! This is what everyone would say if they have ever visited this amazing city. We planned to stay for 4 nights but then we found out that Ms. Natalia Nieradka would be in Bydgoszcz visiting her mom so we decided to cancel the last night and meet up with her instead. It is too bad that we didn’t have more time because we really enjoyed the city.

The Berlin man! Famous street sign man who tells you when to cross the street!

We went on a walking tour to learn about the history of Berlin, the war, the wall and the comunist times. As most of the city was destroyed in WWII, the majority of the sights that you can see are either reconstructions of buildings from before the war, or buildings built after the war. 2009 is the twentieth anniversery of when the wall came down and there are only a few sections of the 156km of wall that existed.

Berlin is not a kind city for Chad. The first time that he was in the city in 2003, he ended up in the hospital for 4 days. This time around, again suffering from some minor illness issues, some of the activities that were planned had to be called off, and we spent at least one day just lounging around and taking it easy. However, we've decided that we will give Berlin one more chance before we give up on it for good!

The Liquidrome! No pics allowed inside (German FKK rules apply... ie no swimsuits neccessary)

On our last night, we went to the Liquidrome which is a sauna swimming spa for ‘urbanites’. see http://www.liquidrom-berlin.de/ This place was beyond cool, everything is designed super sleek and sophistimacated. There are 4 different saunas, one is a himilayan salt dry sauna, there is a humid sauna, a regular dry sauna and the crazy one where you enter for about 3 min and the temperature reaches 85 degrees Celsius! You go inside with a sauna expert and he increases the heat every thirty seconds by pouring more and more infused water onto the hot coals and then fans the air on you during each stage, oh man oh man it felt like we were burning alive, never have we felt such heat smacking you in your face and on your body…to top it off you have to be naked and certain parts seriously need to be covered because they are a bit to sensitive. The most amazing part of this spa is the large swimming poolThe large salt water pool is dimly lit and the roof is shaped like a dome, on the roof there is a light show and they play chill out music, the kicker is this, when you are in the pool you have spongy things you can put behind your neck and legs and float in the water making sure to submerge your ears into the water because there are speakers under the water and the music is so clear that it sounds like the music is playing in your head…what and experience! There was another smaller pool/hot tub outside which was an oriental theme with bamboo plants lining it. There was a super salt saturated secluded pool that was at the end of the hallway and seemed a little like something out of an adult movie. The last pool was only big enough for one person and it was filled with ice water for dipping into after the sauna. It was about 3 feet x 3 feet and about 4 feet deep, with a ladder to get into and out of it. Chad actually lasted longer in the ice water than Ewa did! All of the pools are salt water not chlorine so even more healthy! After Berlin off to Bydgoszcz!

Ewa, Nattie and Grace! (and a small child)

Bydgoszcz!
We left Berlin Early to meet up with Natalia and her Mom Grace in Grace’s home town. We were welcomed with open arms and it was amazing to see good friends from home. The stop-over was to be short but a lot of fun! We spent just a couple of hours at Grace’s home in Bydgoszcz, before we met up with some of Natalia’s childhood friends and were off in the car for a visit to the county side for a BBQ, a night of good conversation and many drinks! The farm that they live on was a nice break from all the cities that we have seen. We got chance to play with a few puppies and some kittens too! In the morning, nursing our heads, we found it all too quick that we had to get on the train again, but looking forward to Kolo, and meeting up with family again! See you in Vietnam Nattie!

Nattie and Grace!

Berlin.. strike two, you only get one more chance!

Berlin, Germany