THE IMPORTANCE OF PREPARATION

I decided to spend time in August preparing for my year of exploring and filming parks by doing some trial runs.

My thought has been to spend between 4-8 hours each week exploring the parks.  What I’m realizing is that just getting to the parks can eat up hours of time.

Berlin, is 891.8 km in size, or 553.6 sq miles.

That is almost half the size of London but 9x the size of Paris and over 8x the size of San Francisco.

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So planning trips to the outskirts of Berlin will involve long bike rides in good weather.

In poor weather I’ll have time for a good book while I’m on a train or bus.

Last weekend I went to Peacock Island, Pfaueninsel (which I LOVED!) and somehow I misread the distance and thought it was a 13 km (8 mi) ride but it turned out to be closer to 30 km (18 mi).  I had planned to bike back to Friedrichshain to meet up with friends for an outdoor film but ended up running out of time and catching the S-Bahn for part of my journey.  It is amazing that no matter where you go in Berlin, you’re not far away from public transport.

Yesterday’s ride to check out statues took me a lovely 18 km (11 mi) but then I decided to bike through Brandenburg to check out a Mexican restaurant called Green House California, located just on the edge of Berlin in a town called Glienicke/ Nordbahn, in a glass house.  I wouldn’t recommend the restaurant but the ride was nice.

By the time I returned I had gone 50 km (30 mi).

And I had captured very little on camera because

Mille – Statues – Restaurant – Home

50 km (30 mi)

LESSONS LEARNED

BRING MOSQUITO REPELLANT, CELL PHONE CHARGER & BUS STOPS

After days (actually months) of summer rains, the mosquitos have been out in force, at least in the forests north of Berlin.  It was challenging to film as I was being bitten on my arms, legs and even face!

As for the charger (and map), I keep running out of battery as I use my phone to navigate.  It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t keep getting lost.  Several times I wondered if I’d find my way home.

It did happen once in winter, where I ran out of battery and was in a new location.  Luckily I had remembered this tip from a Brazilian friend – all the bus stops have maps.  So if I’m in Berlin, I should be able to navigate one bus stop to the next.

PATHS GET EASIER

Yes, paths get easier after taking them once or twice.  My ride out to Peacock Island was pretty easy until Grunwald since I’ve been out to Tuefelsberg several times now.  I had no idea how long Grunwald was, until biking the distance, and I kept thinking I had overshot my exit.  Nope.  It’s really long.

Biking up to the statue garden was also much easier since I’ve done parts of the route on different occasions.  That didn’t prevent me from getting lost at the last junction and ending up on a mountain bike trail in a forest full of mosquitoes.

I like the adventure but I also enjoy having some idea of where I am going.

SUN BRINGS SMILES

On Sunday everyone was smiling again.  The first time I experienced contagious public smiling was the first day of sun after many months of clouds.  It was in Map.  I think we all thought it was going to be summer.  Instead we had to wait until August.  But sunlight does bring joy any time of year here in Berlin.

Sunday was another after the rains day.  It turns out, there are many opportunities for smiles in summer – as there are lots of rainy and cloud covered days.

This makes me wonder, can I capture that feeling of sun and share with people in public in the winter.