Shenanigans Crossing Borders

Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical”. 

And Vince Lombardi even went so far as to say, “Winners never quit, and quitters never win”

And a wise man (JP) once said, ”Only users lose drugs”

While most people would call it quits after walking all over the northern part of Berlin, attending 2 parties, eating a fair amount, and singing Channukah songs in Brandenberg Tor, we still needed to eat something. Say one thing about us, Baders don’t quit.

In search of some food, JP (as usual) found a lovely vegan asian place. We were the only family in there, and everyone seemed to be on a date. The space was warm, the adult beverages were delightful, and the food was delicious. Amusingly enough, a single patron who sat right next to us in the middle of our meal, started chortling during our conversations. Turns out, this guy next to us was hilarious, solo traveling from Portland through Spain before going back. We shared stories, and he strongly recommended a vegan donut shop (where he had come directly from because they close earlier than the restaurant). We parted ways, but not before taking a pic of his phones’ pic of the donut shops name (we’re so living in the 21st century). 

Back home, JP walked th dogs and everyone went to sleep! New level unlocked: Berlin Channukah!

As one day leads to another, our adventures continued. The next morning marked the first day we would use the public transit system. To prepare, we did like all other adults, and turned to YouTube to find some random video explaining how. With all the buses, trains, and walking about, this was going to be very useful.

Armed with more addresses to visit, we ventured out to see where Elyce’s Grandmother Ruth (AKA Great Grandma Ruth, GGR) and Great Uncle Walt (GGRs brother) lived at some point in their early childhood. Unfortunately, the girls were peaking in their incredulity and cruelty towards each other. The biting, fighting, kicking, screaming, yelling, name calling, taunting, flim-flamming…GAHHHH! Even on another continent this stuff never ends.

(And people say we’ll miss this stage?!?). 

Sadly, all of this bickering took a toll on Elyce, and she lost it.

To be honest, we know we are not teachers, and we are dragging our children through the childhood streets of deceased relatives. People that our children never met or knew (but were named in memory of). A major reason we came to Berlin was to explain the significance of being here: being in a country that wanted to rid itself of Jews. The significance of our family being here, alive, and thriving. The emotional roller coaster of dealing with these girls and our purpose, it hit a point where trying to explain this emotional weight hit a boiling point. Maybe the sentiment got through, maybe it just hit a brick wall.

The point being: sigh!

Between Ruth’s youth home and the place where she was supposedly born, we meandered through a park with a playground. 

Full stop!

We found a park with a zipline. And not one of those dinky little 3 meter ziplines. No, this thing had about 50 meters of cabling (that’s approximately 164 freedom units for y’all). It even swings when you get to the end, your momentum sending you back halfway!

Seriously, though, the playgrounds here are amazing, and built for you to earn your toughness. For example, the perimeter of one swingset/jungle-gym area was lined with cemented rocks. Sure, they’re smoothed down a bit to lessen the strike, but make no bones about it, these playgrounds are meant to help you learn quickly about falling.

Thankfully, nobody in our family tried learning the hard way how to not fall, and we continued walking and discussing if we thought Grandma and Uncle Walt used to walk these roads with each other, what they might have done, what it was like in the late 1920s.

Before we left the playground, JP noticed a bridge which crossed over to the cutest little island. The island was devoid much beyond a restaurant, walking trail, and what looked like a playhouse.

Eventually, despite all the whining, complaining, and horrible suffering our children endured, we made it to the house where Walt (probably) fell from a clothing line (while pretending to tight-rope walk). Family legend has it that he broke his leg from this accident, which caused a permanent limp. We scouted the house out, peeked into the backyard, and left.

After torturing our children enough with their own family history, we decided it was time to have some fun.

Did you know Berlin has a Computer Game Museum?

Neither did we.

But we sure as heck were gonna visit it.

Nostalgia city here we come! Who remembers paperboy? Tetris Arcade? They even have one for people 18+ years of age. 

Seriously.

And no, you dirty-minded fool, it has nothing to do with that.

This one is a tabletop game, with a knob and a button on each side. But the game’s objective is to see which player can withstand being electrocuted. 

You read that correctly. 

Quoting Wesley of The Princess Bride, “To the Pain!”

Turns out, feeling old, revisiting core memories, seeing setups that completely reminded us of our innocent childhoods plugged into Ataris, NESs, PS1s, etc. A replica video game hall, bedrooms and living rooms setup like just how we had them as kids, WHOA! They also had lots of different interactive exhibits explaining the history of different consoles and video games. This place was awesome! 

Maybe it helped that the girls’ next school cycle covers coding, so maybe it was a little more interesting for them, or just that they got to play videogames. (One could hope, right? RIGHT??)

All this done and back to the apartment before 3p, so JP could start working.

Welcome to our new routine.