That would be “Beauty &The Beast” in German. I think. Yo hablo espanol y no aleman. And that would be “I speak Spanish (it’s true) not German”. Okay, enough of the language lessons. I’ll let you pick up Rosetta Stone instead of listening to me ramble.

Today’s post is about beauties & beasts I have encountered the past couple of days. It is in German because I will also include some beauties and beasts from today’s flashback – Berlin, Germany! I don’t expect you to follow along with my logic. I just hope I haven’t lost you and you will still read this post. Pretty “bitte” (or please for us non-Germans)? 😉

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Beauty: Having a playdate with a good friend yesterday afternoon to help keep me busy.

Beast: Deciding to meet at the park in 90 degree weather and sweat bullets just after showering.

Beauty: Having some time to read my new book. Caught by Harlan Coben, which is very good already.

Beast: Having to read while sitting in my car waiting for my friend and her parents to show up 45 minutes late for us to pick up her wedding dress.

Beauty: Seeing my friend in her dress. She really does look amazing!

Beast: Listening to her comment on her weight and how “Oh my I will have to get it taken in and I thought I might not fit in the four” over and over and over and over. A couple times is fine…but this was overkill.

Beauty: Being invited to go to dinner with her and her family. That meant not having to cook and being able to avoid rush hour traffic on my way home. I’m in!

Beast: My friend choosing Taco Mac, which I have never really liked. My dislike was further deepened when I ordered the California Portabella Mushroom Wrap that maybe had 5 mushrooms in it. The rest was soggy iceberg lettuce, a few onions, and a tomato.

Beauty: Going to yoga to reenergize.

Beast: Feel reenergized just to have to turn around and go grocery shopping. Grocery shopping with a budget where you can’t buy a ton of fun foodie items is not as fun as it used to be.

Beauty: I had my first Oats In A Jar experience. Wow. That was very filling. Definitely a beautiful thing.

Beast: When it ends.

Beauty: It’s Friday!

Beast: Only two more days until Mother’s Day. Get things in order to love on your momma. I bet she needs it!

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Now it is time to Flashback to my stay in Berlin and all of the beauties and beasts found there. It was an interesting part of the trip, that’s for sure.

Beauty: Arriving to Berlin after a long train ride. Our train to Berlin was almost 3 hours late for departure…meaning we were waiting on a train platform until 2:30 am before leaving. We were happy to finally make it.

Beast: Despite being exhausted, we decided to walk to our hostel. Wouldn’t you know we walked to the wrong Baxpax location…12 miles out of the way.

Beauty: Receiving a free drink upon our arrival because the hostel clerks felt sorry for us.

Beast: Making our way to our rooms and having to shower together. I do not remember WHY we had to shower together…but it was in my journal. LOL

Beauty: Going on a free tour to see lots of interesting places. Brandenburg Gate – Dead Man’s Land Memorial.

Beast: Knowing how much sadness is tied up in Berlin’s history and seeing evidence of it everywhere. Berlin was by far the least beautiful place we visited because it is still rebuilding from WWII and the Cold War.

Beauty: Being able to have a laugh at how the Berlin Wall “came down”. It was apparently an accident. One of the officials was giving a press conference about plans for new lessened restrictions that were supposed to be instated gradually. The story goes he wasn’t well prepared and when asked when the changes were going to happen said “Right now”. People flooded the gates; the guards felt they had to let people through; and the rest is history.

Beast: After leaving such a “victorious” memory, going to the Holocaust Memorial. They have a bunch of uneven blocks that are supposed to resemble a massive graveyard and the uneasiness that time period represented in the world. Inside they have names of all the Holocaust victims. It would apparently take 6 years, 7 months, and 27 days to read through all of them.

Beauty: Being amidst the World Cup excitement.

Beast: Being amidst the World Cup excitement. It was madness in the streets!

Beast: Having to pay to pee in public restrooms.

Beauty: Figuring out that McDonald’s have restrooms that you can easily use for free. I don’t think I was ever so happy to see Golden Arches.

Beauty: Heading to Italy next.

Beast: Already being 1/3 of the way done with our trip. Stay tuned for the remaining flashbacks!

• What restaurant do you hate others suggest going to?
• Have you ever been in a city when a major sporting event was going on? Was it exciting or a pain? Or have you ever actually attended something like the World Cup?

Good morning! It was brought to my attention that my most recent post had some publishing and commenting issues. It was a difficult post for me to write and publish, since it is very open about some of my experiences with binging. It is also a post I wanted to be sure went out to you all, since it shows that I do not have this intuitive eating thing down perfect and some of the things I still struggle with. Please CLICK HERE to read if it did not show up in your Reader, you were unable to comment, didn’t see it on my blog, etc. Thanks! I will be back in a little while for a Flashback Friday and more fun post. Happy Friday! 🙂