Baby UBlau: U55 & U4

"Good decisions" aren't my strong point. I'm in for adventure, making every day count and a bit of the crazy. Thus you might not have noticed my absence for the last few months. Maybe I finally lost my hold on reality or the Ausländerbehörde had enough of our shenanigans.

But no! We kinda, accidentally made a great decision. We had a baby. And she's awesome.

Unsurprisingly, it's taken a lot of time and I've got a new hobby of writing about her - a lot. If you wanna know about what's it like to have a babe in Berlin, I share an occasional helpful post amidst weekly videos and an astronomical ton of nonsense at In Berlin, Baby.

Another thing taking my time is work. I am writing/editing/content managing my Po (booty - learning new baby related words) off. I put up 10 Germany Travel articles a month at about.com, direct Insiders Abroad and their quarterly magazine, manage EasyExpat part-time and contribute to German-Way. This is hard work on top of watching a beautiful little lady!

And perhaps worst of all, this work stuff is eating up the things I used to write about here on the blog. Now I have to professionally present how to go to the movies in Germany or why I have come to appreciate the low water levels in toilets. In short, there is a lot less swearing.

But then we do something so ridiculous, so utterly useless to anyone but us I say, "Ah-ha! This is a post for Back to Berlin..and Beyond!". The recent such adventure, the first since the birth, is a Baby UBlau.

The U2 UBlau

Once again, we took to Berlin's UBahn to drink and rate our way through an entire line's stations, simultaneously horrifying and amusing our fellow passengers. It's fun for everyone.

Riding Berlin's UBlau

The UBlau. Where we ride a line of the U-Bahn from start to finish, getting off on every stop to discuss, rate, take a pic, and drink. Don't worry, this has been tested on humans. We're not barbarians.

Why would we do this to ourselves again? Haven't I said we're crazy? (Exhibit 1, exhibit 2, exhibit 3...or just read the whole blog). We've done this before, so how bad can it be?

Testing Out the U-Blau

What to do on a Saturday night? 

What to do?

What to do?

What to do?

What about a drinking tour of the U-Bahn? OK! Let's call this an art project so it doesn't sound so...alcoholic.

I am skeptical about how this day will go

Berlin: By Foot, By BVG, By Bike, By Car, By Boat, By Train, By Plane

I've talked so much about our adventures outside of the city lately (like new favorite Naples), I haven't been giving Berlin it's due.

One of the reasons it's one of the greatest cities in the world is transportation. Much of our problems with life in Seattle revolved around the mundane issues of how to get around. The city is surrounded by water as it is sandwiched between the Puget Sound and Lake Washington (among other bodies of water). Everyone has to funnel through certain areas, navigating the crisscrossing bridges. Gorgeous, but also capable of creating volcanic fury-inducing traffic jams.

And it's not like there is great - or even decent - public transit to rely on. A light rail system is being implemented, and we do have the laughable monorail from the world's fair, but buses are the main mode of public transport. They come in about 20 minute windows (if you're lucky), and are often crowded with the unwashed, the mentally ill, and the clinically dangerous (just check out The Stranger's frequent articles). We laugh (cuz if we didn't we'd cry) about our fancy neighborhood of Queen Anne having a higher crime than our "ghetto" kiez in Wedding.