Welcome to Europe

After a long day of travel and bad food we, my friend Amy and I (Amy and I went to high school together and have been planning to go to Europe for some time now, initially our plan included many more from our circle of friends and was going to span many more weeks...but finances, jobs, and life sometimes takes precedent over travel...so Amy and I travel on as the last two of that initial idea) finally arrived at the house of Bernhard and Barbara Otto in Berlin, Germany. My family met Bernhard, Barbara and their family (children include Matthias, Andres, Lena, Thomas, and Lisa, with the youngest being Thomas and Lisa at 16) four years ago in Taize, France. Since then our friendship has grown and continued, to the point that this is now the 5th time I have seen them in the past four years! The Ottos were (and are) extremely accommodating and hospitable, providing us with anything we could need. After we arrived , cleaned up, had some fruit to quell our hunger from lack of decent food, and relaxed a bit, we decided to go swimming. After a nice bike ride through the neighborhoods of East Berlin, we arrived at a nice sized lake. To try and set the scene a bit, the lake was tucked away in what appeared to be a small nature reserve/park surrounded by trees and field grass. There were several beaches on all sides of the lake where one could enter the water. And about half of the people at the lake were swimming or in some cases just standing...naked. I think technically calling this a nude beach would be a stretch, but for the purpose of this blog and all stories I will tell in the future, it was a nude beach. According to Bernhard it was not uncommon in Germany for people to swim in the nude, even if others had suits. As someone who is open to new ideas and accepting of other opinions and cultures I was cool with the idea that some people like to let it all hang out (or float out if they are swimming)...not so cool, mind you, that I joined the nudist cause (I had a suit on for the duration of our swim)...I did not make a scene, stare or act otherwise out of line. As for the actual swim, well the water was AMAZING. As a resident of Madison where the lakes are gross, full of living organisms like algae, and sometimes spawning diseases like ecoli, I am always a bit wary of swimming in natural bodies of fresh water. But this one was fantastic with cool water, deep in the middle and nothing weird about it (other than the nudist here and there). It was a great way to kick off our stay in Berlin. After we got home, the Ottos served us a traditional Berlin summer beer, called Berliner Weisse. It was a very light beer (almost bitter), that was mixed with a shot of flavored syrup (like an Italian soda). I imagine it is similar to Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, that mixes lemonade and beer. So as the sun set on our first few hours in Europe, we relaxed on the back patio with good friends and a German beer.