Kyle’s European Adventure

Today is the day I move into my Berlin apartment, and it marks a change in how life has been for me so far. The big difference – no internet! I’m pretty sure I’m an internet addict, and I spend far too much time online every day. I know what a distraction it is for me when I’m home in SF, and since arriving in Berlin, I’ve spent far too much time on it. So, when I found out that the apartment I was looking at didn’t offer any connectivity, I decided that was a REALLY good thing. This way, I won’t have the ‘tubes distracting me and wasting my time. No point in coming all the way over here, just to spend each day frittering away on the net.
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I found a place to buy a bike (I think). There was a bike repair shop that I found, and while the guy working there didn’t really speak english, I was able to explain that I’m going to be in Berlin for two months, and wanted a really cheap bike. And then he tells me that he finds old and broken bikes, repairs them, and sells them for cheap. So, I picked a frame that looked like it would fit me, and it should be ready friday. Once I’ve got that, I am going to devour this city – I want to pick a different neighborhood each day, and just go ride around it. This is easily the most bike friendly city I’ve ever seen. Every street has a bike lane, the intersections have bike signals, and there are bike racks EVERYWHERE.
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Last night, Carsten took me out to the borders of Berlin to his best friend Alex’s house. We sat on the patio, drank too much Prosecco, BBQ’d sausage, and talked until the wee hours. It was fun to listen to them speak in German, but I’m not NEARLY fluent enough to follow when they speak full speed. The wasps seem to love Carsten as much as he hates them, so he provided endless entertainment screaming and running away from them all night.