Ruegen Island

in the TV tower
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Since I’ve just had the last week off of work I think it’s about time for another update. Not a whole lot of new and exciting things are happening- life is just going on, and I am slowly getting a little more comfortable living here.  I still don’t speak German and I don’t know if I will ever get used to the lack of sunshine but I wanted a change from my Santa Cruz life and this is definitely different! I have been feeling homesick, really missing the smell of the ocean and dry grass wet with fog, missing riding my bike through the redwoods, missing seeing the sunset at Natural Bridges but I know that will all still be there when I return. And hopefully I will appreciate it that much more.

Berlin and Hillary from the TV tower
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The most exciting news is that I have found some people to ride with- a nice group of mountain bikers, one who I met when I was here years ago for the Single Speed Worlds.  Last Sunday they took me to my first race, unfortunately not a cyclocross race (the ones I was supposed to do were canceled due to loss of their sponsors- I don’t know when there will be a cross race now) but pretty fun all the same. Sunday’s race was called the “Hill to Hill” (yes, there are a couple of hills in the surrounding area, 2, I think- neither of them higher than 300 feet but hey, they’re hills)!

The Eisenschweinkaders (or however you spell it)
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The race started at the base of one of the hill and then went along through the forest, alongside canals and lakes for about 60 Km. until the next hill, which was the finish. All of that flat hurt pretty badly but in my condition I think that any sort of race (especially 2 1/2  hours of a race!) would have hurt. I put forth my very best effort, though, and ended up the 3rd woman, for which I got back the 10 Euros I paid to enter, and a nice little trophy. I have to say that although the race roster said there were 8 women in the race I think there may have only been 4 of us but at least I wasn’t last! The whole thing hurt really badly- getting back into shape is really painful after a year off. I am paying for it now, too- on Monday I woke up with a cold and I have been under the weather all week.

riding
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I was all excited about going up to the Baltic Sea for a few days for my holiday-riding, seeing the sea, and being in nature during my time off. When it came down to it though I went but I was feeling so off the whole thing was sort of strange. I stayed in a little town near Ruegen Island- I wanted to actually stay on the island but oddly enough getting there with a bike on public transportation is impossible. In a country where you can take your bike pretty much everywhere that is very, very strange but true.

Bikes on the train
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All in all I accomplished my mission for the most part though-I did see the sea, I walked on the beach for a few minutes, I took a long bike ride through some pretty countryside, and I rested up. But the whole time I was pretty out of it- one morning I woke up entirely unsure of which continent I was on- and to tell you the truth yesterday I was pretty happy to be back home, sleeping in my own bed again.

Monday it’s back to work already- I am trying to figure out how to balance my life better- that was one of my main goals for my year off but alas, now that I’m back to work I am, as usual, trying to do too much and ending up exhausted and sick. One of these days I will figure it out.

Sunshine in Berlin
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The weather is turning cold and I am getting nervous about the winter. It is only October and it is as cold as Santa Cruz gets at her coldest- yikes! I just don’t know how people do it- my friends who I have been riding with tell me that they still go for rides in weather as cold as –20 Celsius! I just don’t really see that in my future but we’ll see.

Anyway, that’s about it from a sick me sitting on the couch, sipping hot tea. Just a few photos are up from the last month. http://www.flickr.com/photos/51763198@N00/