DAWN: On walking….

On the plane to Berlin I thought I’d be brilliantly clever and take some Tylenol PM to help me sleep *disclaimer: this blog doesn’t endorse or condone taking drugs in order to sleep at all but I was really going to be tired* Unfortunately even the best plans go awry and I arrived in Berlin with about 15 minutes total sleep to cover the past like 24 hours. Normally for a college student that’s not a problem at all but I’m one of those college students that really enjoys sleep and then we also had to jump right off the plane and start going. If we’d slept it would’ve screwed up the sleep patterns so it was best to just start hitting the pavement of Germany hard core style.

(At the Berlin Wall)

While my feet, knees, and mind rebelled severely against all the walking, it was totally worth it. Berlin has some beautiful buildings and it was amazing to see them all. When we got to Berlin all the people running around speaking German and being all….well, German… was a little bit of a shock. But since that day I’ve decided I thoroughly love everything about this country. Being here has made me understand how unhealthy a lot of American lifestyles are (definitely including my own). While German food is not necessarily the most health conscious (what with the bratwursts and whatnot) they definitely make up for their food by the amount of walking and biking they do. Everyone walks and bikes…everywhere. I think I made a comment to Herr Coffman that, “In the next war that Germany is in they’re probably going to ride their bikes into battle instead of tanks because it’s more friendly for the environment.”

So the walking tour of Berlin set the tone for the rest of our trip and got me prepared for what the rest of the trip was going to be like. Now I actually *gasp* don’t mind walking and quite enjoy it. Although I wouldn’t go crazy with that and say I’m going to give up on my car when I get back to America because quite frankly in South Carolina its madness to say, “Oh I’m going to walk to the mall.” Especially when the mall is twenty miles away and uphill most of the way. But while here in Germany walking to the mall isn’t a big deal and it’s quite enjoyable.

Bis Spaeter,

Dawn