I’ve been having so much fun that I’ve totally fallen off my fitness regime and thus been eating everything in sight and doing no exercise. I’ve sort of loved it, but my body feels lethargic and misses the healthiness so today was catch up day.
We had parked right next to Neun Garten in Potsdam, so I rolled out of bed, popped my trainers on and went straight out for a run. In the back of my head I knew I had 11 miles of training runs to catch up on (a 5 mile and 2 X 3 mile), but as 4.5miles was the longest I’d run in months I thought I’d just see how it went.
Over two hours later, through 3 gorgeous parks with lovely palaces, pyramids, trees, lakes and rivers, I eventually rock up home having ran a half marathon and felt great! Running really is a great way of exploring a new city.
We then met up with Heike and took the pups to Sanssouci Park, and had a two hour stroll through the magnificent palace grounds.
We then had a late lunch at a Russian cafe called Cafe Matschke and I got to try Borscht – totally forgetting it was a beetroot and cabbage soup and I don’t like beetroot. Mark said my face dropped as soon as it arrived as it dawned on me what I’d done. In fairness though it was fine, and I’ve ticked another tourist to do box 😂
After a quick nap and meditation, I met up with Heike again and we caught the train to Berlin to attend an ecstatic dance event. This is not something I’ve ever been to before, and I was a little nervous as it’s a bit hippy and out of my comfort zone, but it turned out to be the best dance night I’ve ever had!
You start by sitting, lying or standing in a room with around 160 people depending on the size of the event and you are talked through a ‘grounding’ and connection with mother earth. You can choose to move slowly in any way you wish. Then in this instance there was a live band with amazing drums, percussion and a steel drum that built up the music in waves from slow to full on high energy.
It is definitely best to embrace this new experience and just go with the flow of it. You very soon lose your inhibitions and get completely absorbed by the music. As someone who has been teased for dancing like a chicken with my elbows, it was so liberating to know there was no ‘wrong’ way to dance and no expectation to dance with anyone else. I closed my eyes, felt the music and it took over my body in the most freeing way.
If it had been filmed I’d likely be mortified by the moves and shapes I was pulling, but with no phones or worries about others, you just do whatever your body feels. Towards the end I nipped out for some water, and Heike joined me. I was on cloud nine, ecstatic and just felt so alive. Thank you so much Heike for introducing me to this! We enjoyed a hot cocoa (no alcohol event), wound down and caught the train home. I got in just before midnight and was nattering away at 100miles an hour telling Mark all about it. It’s always a difficult balance of wanting to share the joy I’ve felt, but knowing it’s not something he is keen on doing/experiencing. We are going to research more science talks and activism events as currently activities have been skewed in my favour and I don’t want Mark to miss out. If you are open to unusual dance events though, I would highly recommend! I’m already eyeing up another on Sunday morning 😂
SofaWolves 