Berlin

Thanks to everyone that enabled me to take this trip – especially my wife Jen, who was selfless enough to allow me to take this trip without her.

East Side Gallery

Berlin Hauptbahnhof – the largest train station in Europe. It’s quite impressive in its size and feels much more like an airport.

Tiergarten – the park just in front of the Brandenberg gate. The parks are stunning when covered with fresh smooth powder like they were while I was there. The scenery was just as foreign to me as the culture. Here you see the first glimpse of how I promised Jen she would be with us:

Brandenburg Gate – Rain or shine, I think there are always people around this gate.

Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) – Walking through this place made you very uneasy. It was a bit disorienting at times while in the middle of it.

Christkindlmärkte (Christmas Market) – There were a lot of Christmas markets. We attended quite a few in Berlin and the famous large market in Nuremburg. These were a lot of fun. I ate lots of sausages and breads, the best hot chocolate in the world, guaranteed, and struggled to find a piece of chocolate that wasn’t loaded with rum.

das Essen – Food was a big target of mine while there. I hear Germans “only eat meat and potatoes” and frankly that generalization isn’t too far off the mark. My ideal cuisine!

die Geschichte – Spending time in a country with as much history as Germany is a clear reminder of how young the United States really is.

Lochgefängnisse – While in Nuremburg, we toured a medieval dungeon under what was once a monastery, then became City Hall in the mid 1300’s. This was genuinely the creepiest place I’ve been to in a while. It might’ve had little to do with the dungeon and more to do with the lady giving the tour only in German that sounded like she smoked twelve packs a day since she was 2.

There were too many paintings  to photograph at the East Side Gallery, but I took some shots of a few remarkable ones:

A quick list of impressions this trip has left on me:

1. I’d like to live in a big city some day.
2. Public transportation is abysmal in most of the United States.
3. Shreveport is a very dangerous city compared to Berlin.
4. Die Erfahrungen sind wertvoller als Besitz.

An opportunity like this has made a much greater impression on me than anything I’ve got sitting on my shelf or in a closet. Thanks to my friends that had me along. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Hayes for sharing their son with us while they were visiting. Most of all, thanks to my wife for encouraging and enabling me to take this trip.

Thanks, friends (including Ben and Elena, not pictured!)

NOTE: I’ve linked to all of the panoramas I took in a separate post here: Berlin – All Panoramas.

Mmmm and Protein are Inversely Proportional

I enjoy a good cup of yogurt once in a while. I my recent effort to eat smaller portions and more frequently, I bought some yogurt as a breakfast/morning snack option. Per my brother Ryan’s suggestion, I grabbed a few of the Greek yogurt cups. They have something like 12 or 13 grams of protein in them and they’re only $1 at Wal-Mart. As far as yogurt cups go, they’re terrible. As far as protein sources go, they’re amazing! This has led me to the following relationship:

Note that as the quantity of protein in a food rises, the tastiness plunges. That’s not to say that things with protein aren’t tasty. Steak is both high in protein and very yummy! But if you take a steak and pour protein powder on top of it, you’ve ruined a perfectly good thing.

On the other hand, if you could somehow extract all of the protein out of a big fat juicy steak, you’d have mana from heaven.

On your next visit to the grocery store, find a product that has a second “healthier” version with lots of protein. Buy both and alternate bites. I bet the protein enriched version tastes like Mountain Dew if citrus were poop.

The secret to building a lot of muscle is simple: sear your taste buds.