Ryan Hellyer

Hiking in Berlin

I experienced hiking Berlin style today. In Berlin, hiking means to go for a walk in the “wilderness”. In Berlin, “wilderness” refers to the bushy bits between the buildings 🙂 We took the train to the outskirts of town, then meandered our way through the suburbs, into some beautiful small parks with lots of bush, stopped for ice cream near the local palace then headed over to a lake. The weather was not compatible with swimming, but it was definitely compatible with walking. Lots of fun 🙂

Selfie plus a view of the lakeside from onboard the ferry 🙂

Großer Müggelsee, a lake on the outskirts of Berlin

The “hike” included some city streets, just to spice things up a bit.

This freakishly huge beetle looked like it was about to eat me ailve. The locals didn’t seem alarmed, so I’m assuming it is harmless though 🙂

Wendenschloß, an old palace.

Rathaus Köpenick, the local townhall.

Hiking in Berlin

Selfie plus a view of the lakeside from onboard the ferry 🙂

Großer Müggelsee, a lake on the outskirts of Berlin

The “hike” included some city streets, just to spice things up a bit.

This freakishly huge beetle looked like it was about to eat me ailve. The locals didn’t seem alarmed, so I’m assuming it is harmless though 🙂

Wendenschloß, an old palace.

Rathaus Köpenick, the local townhall.

Obstdöner party

We had an obstdöner party at Sara’s place 🙂 An obstdöner is a fruit kebab, and they taste amazing!

Cherry Court Lodge

I have vivid memories from my childhood. One of the things I remember most vividly, is having dinner at Cherry Court Lodge in Dunedin, where my Dad worked from around the time I was born until I turned five. I still recall having frogs legs for dinner. I don’t know why I liked them so much, but it might have had something to do with the attention I got when I selected it off the menu.

Fast forward 30 years, and I was having dinner in a nice French restaurant in Berlin, so I figured I’d tackle that age old delicacy which I hadn’t tried since those early years. It still tastes pretty good. There aint much meat on those bones though. It’s probably fine for a four year old, but this 34 year old needs a lot more than frogs legs to fill his puku these days 😉

Fruit kebab

Berliners are very proud that their city is the home of the Doner kebab. Little did I know, that they also do fruit kebabs here, which are even better than the meaty ones 🙂