In Colorful Waters: My Weekend in Pictures

The summer weather decided not to stick around this weekend, so while all my friends in the US were sweating through temperatures of 100°+, we were bundled up in scarves and jackets and muttering under our breath about how ridiculous it is that our July suddenly turned to fall.

The slightly extravagant meal presentation at the Märchenhafte Ribhouse in Karow (that would be the Fairytale Rib House. Oh yes.) Ridiculous? Perhaps. But the ribs did not disappoint! And that coming from a girl who has lived in Texas, so I know ribs.

The aftermath of our rib dinner. Along with cheesy German table decorations in their favorite popular-in-the'90s-and-yet-the-trend-still-won't-go-away colors: red and yellow.

I was super excited to wake up early enough on Saturday to make it in time to the best bakery in our neighborhood (it's the oldest one in Prenzlauer Berg, since 1906!), only to find that they were closed for vacation. Sigh...

I did manage to pick up some über-patriotic American-style bacon though. Like I would trust any other kind.

Luckily, I also managed to find tasty potato bread at a different bakery to make french toast with. We'd seen Larry Crowne the night before and all I could think of afterwards was french toast. (If you haven't seen it yet and you liked That Thing You Do!, then I would highly recommend Larry Crowne. It's such a sweet movie.) (Oh also, good luck now try getting that song out of your head. I've been singing That Thing You Do for three days straight.)

I finally decided to go swimming again (I do have another race in less than a month, so I really shouldn't be skimping on the workouts now) and was beyond pleased to find the normally teenie bopper-ridden pool almost completely deserted on a cold Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately for me, I was not warned ahead of time that the pool is UNHEATED and the swim reminded me entirely too much of a polar-bearing incident I bravely endured once at summer camp.

My bike ride to see Harry Potter in 3-D (and in English, no dubbing accepted for that movie) took me past some of the city's loveliest sights, including the Brandenburger Tor...