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The sleeping situation improved last night. I managed to get to sleep at 11.30, then slept through to 8.30. I felt much better in our meetings today as a result. Yay.
And the Blockstream meetings went fine. I have an increasingly large pile of notes for things to write about, I have good knowledge on how our products have done in the last year, and I conducted the other interview I needed to do for an upcoming article.
Then in the evening we had an adventure!
Christopher had previously picked out a "gaslight museum" in the west of the tiergarten. It's a path with almost a hundred classic gas lamps from all over. I put out the call this evening to head over there, get dinner, and walk the path, and was thrilled to get several other people interested in joining us. In the end, we had seven: me, Christopher, Rusty, Christian, Jonas, Russell, and his SO.
I was surprised that everyone was enthusiastic to walk out there, despite it being about two and a half miles, but they were anxious to stretch their legs after a day cooped up inside. My kind of people! So we had a nice, slightly adventurous walk out. Through Brandenburg Gate, and into the Grosser Tiergarten, and the adventurous part is that it was rapidly getting dark and so the paths more and more dim as the evening progressed.
We eventually saw an "S" stop, marking our exit from the park. (Yep, we totally could have taken public transit there.) My first pick for restaurant was too full, but my second pick, a hotel restaurant, even had a table for seven waiting for us. It was simpler food than the German extravagance I've been seeing. Most folks had black angus burgers. (Germany seems very beef heavy, which is the one thing I don't like about it thus far, as beef makes me sick.) I had a turkey club that included bacon and egg, so perhaps it was still a bit extravagant. And, we also had lots of great conversation. As I said, these were my type of people, several of whom I really click with.
The gas light museum was unfortunately disappointing. At least 50% of the lights, perhaps as much as 75%, weren't running. Many were also damaged. Some thought it was vandalism, but it could also have been lack of care, of some combination. In any case, many of the most classic gas lights that met my internal definition of what they should look like were dark.
Then our true adventure began, because everyone was also up for walking back. I'd previously looked up the Tiergarten after Dark, and people said it was safe, but very dark. And that there were foxes. We saw no foxes.
So followed most of an hour stumbling back and forth on crooked paths in the dark, lit only by iPhones, which only showed several feet ahead. Dark looking trees surrounded us. Nearly invisible pools and ponds shimmered past us. We saw one bunny and many bicyclists. We saw a guy looking for the "biergarten", who angrily told us it was a joke name when we asked him about it, and when we pointed out where it perhaps was, was afraid to go there because he was scared of the dark. We walked over and around a cool stone bridge and along a nice stream where someone saw a magic carp, and it took me a while to realize he was talking about a Pokemon. It felt like a long wander through limbo, but with much more laughing. Really, a great experience.
Eventually we returned to the streets and walked back through the Gate and toward our hotel like regular human beings.
And the Blockstream meetings went fine. I have an increasingly large pile of notes for things to write about, I have good knowledge on how our products have done in the last year, and I conducted the other interview I needed to do for an upcoming article.
Then in the evening we had an adventure!
Christopher had previously picked out a "gaslight museum" in the west of the tiergarten. It's a path with almost a hundred classic gas lamps from all over. I put out the call this evening to head over there, get dinner, and walk the path, and was thrilled to get several other people interested in joining us. In the end, we had seven: me, Christopher, Rusty, Christian, Jonas, Russell, and his SO.
I was surprised that everyone was enthusiastic to walk out there, despite it being about two and a half miles, but they were anxious to stretch their legs after a day cooped up inside. My kind of people! So we had a nice, slightly adventurous walk out. Through Brandenburg Gate, and into the Grosser Tiergarten, and the adventurous part is that it was rapidly getting dark and so the paths more and more dim as the evening progressed.
We eventually saw an "S" stop, marking our exit from the park. (Yep, we totally could have taken public transit there.) My first pick for restaurant was too full, but my second pick, a hotel restaurant, even had a table for seven waiting for us. It was simpler food than the German extravagance I've been seeing. Most folks had black angus burgers. (Germany seems very beef heavy, which is the one thing I don't like about it thus far, as beef makes me sick.) I had a turkey club that included bacon and egg, so perhaps it was still a bit extravagant. And, we also had lots of great conversation. As I said, these were my type of people, several of whom I really click with.
The gas light museum was unfortunately disappointing. At least 50% of the lights, perhaps as much as 75%, weren't running. Many were also damaged. Some thought it was vandalism, but it could also have been lack of care, of some combination. In any case, many of the most classic gas lights that met my internal definition of what they should look like were dark.
Then our true adventure began, because everyone was also up for walking back. I'd previously looked up the Tiergarten after Dark, and people said it was safe, but very dark. And that there were foxes. We saw no foxes.
So followed most of an hour stumbling back and forth on crooked paths in the dark, lit only by iPhones, which only showed several feet ahead. Dark looking trees surrounded us. Nearly invisible pools and ponds shimmered past us. We saw one bunny and many bicyclists. We saw a guy looking for the "biergarten", who angrily told us it was a joke name when we asked him about it, and when we pointed out where it perhaps was, was afraid to go there because he was scared of the dark. We walked over and around a cool stone bridge and along a nice stream where someone saw a magic carp, and it took me a while to realize he was talking about a Pokemon. It felt like a long wander through limbo, but with much more laughing. Really, a great experience.
Eventually we returned to the streets and walked back through the Gate and toward our hotel like regular human beings.