Dont fart on fashion shows

Arriving in Berlin we were welcomed by an incredible downpour, grey buildings, cracked concrete, a bleak scene with few people around – not what we expected but exactly what we expected.  There is an organisation for tour cyclists called warm showers, where the idea is similar to couch surfing, you provide a bed/couch and in turn when you travel you bunk down with other “warm shower hosts”.  We had contacted several warm shower hosts in Berlin only to find that everyone was going to a festival out of Berlin for the next week – damn European summer festivals!  Checking my email for the last time we found Gerald had replied offering to host us for our time in Berlin.  We were nervous but excited to stay at some random’s house and had prepared around a 1000 questions about Germany to bombard he/she with.  Gerald lives 10km from the centre of Berlin which meant we were still riding each day to stretch the legs and we saw many areas/suburbs of Berlin we would never have seen if we stayed in a central hostel.  Gerald lives in two bedroom apartment with a budge called Dicka and we’re sure he’s never cleaned the floors once.  It’s a difficult thing to do, stay with a stranger and not feel ALWAYS uncomfortable about being in their space.  However, Gerald gave us keys and some hot tips on where to ride and left us to it.  He helped us fix up the bikes (he works in a bike shop) and even took us to his sisters for a bbq German style.  The bbq was great fun until Cara mentioned to Gerald (who is about to cycle Perth to Melbourne) that there is a hill in WA that you can park your car on and the magnetic fields make it roll up hill.  Gerald was not sold on this story and googled the info only to find out it’s an optical illusion.  He then said in almost perfect English “can you explain what this means, on this website this man says – “My nephew loves the Australian Bush, does this means he’s into nature or a pussy magnet?  What does pussy magnet mean?” and that was when Curtis and Cara found a whole new level being lost in translation.  

Things we loved about berlin;

Street art
Photo booths
Boom boxes in trolleys
Abandoned swimming pools & theme parks
Underground Cinema in bushes
Bicycles everywhere (lots of bike envy)
Icelandic bands with keyboard guitarists
$1 wine jar
Tasty soup

Dogs (we miss gino)