While I’m exploring Berlin today before The Hive Conference this weekend, I asked Ashley to do a little guest post. Ashley’s American but lives in Berlin with her husband and their adorable new puppy. She’s a photographer and writes a beautiful blog called Chasing Heartbeats. Thanks, Ashley!

Berlin truly shines when the sun is out, and I am SO excited that Emily and the rest of the bloggers will be able to experience my city with the gorgeous weather forecast for this weekend.  Berlin is a pretty big city and there are always so many different things going on, it is always hard to choose how to spend our days here – sometimes it can be a bit daunting!  These are a few things that I make sure to do with visiting friends.

A trip to the top of the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) – While I am normally not a fan of spending my hard earned euros for a trip to the top of a building surrounded by tourists, the fernsehturm offers unparalleled views of the city and connects the diverse districts which make this city all that it is. Curry 36 in Kreuzberg – Currywurst is undoubtedly Berlin’s most famous dish.  Definitely not a healthy choice, served up with a heaping plate of french fries, but a must try when visiting the city.  At Curry 36 they offer up Organic Sausage, which is my personal favorite.The city is divided in half by the river Spree, and when the weather is nice, my favorite way to watch the sunset is with a stroll along the river bank or a picnic in one of the many city parks.  Be warned that if the temperature breaks 65 F, the parks will be full with people soaking up the sun. As a photographer, the c|o photography museum is my favorite place in Berlin to find inspiration, but it is always a hit with my non-photographer friends.  The museum is housed in the old Royal Post Office building and the peeling paint on the walls only adds the allure of the place.

Berlin is definitely not as famous as Munich for its Biergartens, but the Prater Biergarten in Prenzlauerberg is Berlin’s oldest beer garden dating back to 1837.  Spending a warm afternoon with a  beer under Prater’s chestnut trees is pretty hard to beat.

Thanks for having me Emily!  I am so excited to show you a bit of my favorite city!

I’m not a bucket list kind of girl.

I make tons of lists. One day I’ll have to show you. I make multiple lists every day – chores, projects, ideas, reminders. Lots and lots of lists. I even make lists of goals for each year. But I don’t truly have a bucket list of things I want to accomplish in my life.

And for the record, I just don’t want to do scary things. Heights? Not my thing. Scary movies? No thanks. Bungee jumping? Nope, nope, nope.

I do not have a list of things I need to do in my life that are scary – just to overcome the fear. If it’s something that’s going to scare the living daylights out of me, I’m pretty sure that’s a sign I shouldn’t do it.

So when I boxed for three rounds in front of about 400 people last Friday night, that was probably not part of my general life-accomplishments plan.

But man, what a rush.

Let’s back up for a minute so I can explain how the heck this all happened. If you’ve been following along with FCV, I talked about why I started the boxing training here, but I didn’t really give you the news that I was participating in the fight. I think I was in denial until I actually stepped into the ring. Once we started sparring in training, it became clear there weren’t enough girls to fight and that I was in whether I liked it or not.

And let’s just say it was more like not. I think I sparred two times, and both times I got nicked in the face and panicked and nearly cried. Between the mouth guard and the head gear strapped around my neck, I felt trapped. I’m not naturally aggressive. If you hit me in the face, it makes more sense to me to turn around and run the other way than to hit you back. So that may have been what happened in my only two sparring sessions before the real fight.

Fast forward to the Friday night fight. We had shiny boxing outfits and three rounds of ninety seconds in front of 400 screaming friends and family. Michael and I practically didn’t speak for weeks because we were both so nervous. I was so nervous my hands shook for at least three days before the fight. Michael sighed every twenty minutes for a week.

So on Friday night, here’s what happened. There was an enormous boxing ring set up in a hotel function room, filled with the friends and family of the thirty fighters. At 8pm, we paraded around the room in our shiny red and blue boxing gear. My fight was fourth. I took a few big hits but didn’t back down. (My heart is pounding just thinking about it!) I held my own and landed a few punches as well. In the end, I didn’t win, but it was by majority decision, not unanimous, so that means I won one of the rounds!

But it might as well have been an all out victory for me. I didn’t panic. I didn’t make a fool of myself. And I was a whole lot tougher than I thought I ever could be. The next day, my body felt like I’d been in a car crash. Neck, shoulders, arms, even my nose. Sore and creaky. But I did it. And if there was a fourth round, I would have won it!

{Or maybe not, apparently I punch with my eyes closed!}

After my fight, we still had Michael’s to get through. His was the penultimate fight of the night and by far the more exciting. And even better? He won! He did so great and even looked like a real boxer out there. Which is probably why he’s got a bruised face and I don’t. But the other guy looked much worse, I heard he had two black eyes to Michael’s one.

All in all, it was an incredible evening and we’re both just a little bit proud of ourselves. It was a night for the bucket list – or maybe to start one at least!

And that photo there proves I still have all my teeth!

Special thanks to my dear friend, Sebastian (with me above), for the amazing photos. I’m so glad it was captured!

Don’t worry – I survived my boxing match on Friday night. I’m just a little behind on my presentation for The Hive, so you get rhubarb today and boxing tomorrow! All the gory (well, not really) details, I promise!

The taste of rhubarb reminds me of late spring in Maine. My mom would send one of us down to the edge of our garden to cut the stalks with her big serrated knife, and she would make rhubarb pie for my dad’s birthday. Every year I’m tempted to buy a rhubarb seedling to plant in our garden. I always stop myself because I know it will take years for it to grow large enough for a whole pie. Some day, I’ll have a big, huge rhubarb plant at the edge of my garden and I’ll make pie every May and think of Maine.

In the meantime, I pick up a few stalks from the grocery store and make this simple baked rhubarb parfait. Perhaps the best part? Michael has no interest in it, so it lasts so much longer!

Simple Baked Rhubarb Parfait

6 stalks rhubarb, chopped

2 tsp coarse demerara sugar

plain or vanilla yogurt

granola (see below for my favorite recipe)

Layer the rhubarb on a sheet pan and sprinkle the sugar over it evenly. Bake at 350F/180C for 30 minutes, or until the rhubarb starts to break down.

Once the rhubarb has cooled, drop a few spoonfuls into a dish or cup. Over it, spoon the yogurt as the second layer. Top with granola and enjoy!

Granola:

3 cups oats (I used the inexpensive, quick-cooking stuff from the grocery store)

2 tbsp sesame seeds

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup honey

3 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup almonds (slivered or chopped work equally well)

1/4 cup hazelnuts (again, whole or chopped work equally well)

Combine the oats, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and salt together in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, canola oil and vanilla extract. Pour the honey mixture over the oat mixture and stir well to combine. Layer the mixture onto a parchment lined sheet pan and bake at 350F/180C for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, sprinkle on the almonds and bake another 5 minutes. Add the hazelnuts and bake another 5 minutes. Allow the granola to cool completely before eating or storing in an airtight container.

Happy Monday, everyone! My Monday is nearly over, but I wanted to check in and share this little video Michael took on our road trip this weekend.

We took two more little mini videos while we were away, and I’ve shared them on the FCV Facebook page. Hop on over to take a peek!

I have so much more to share with you, including lots more photos. But today was flew by in a flurry of projects, so hopefully I’ll have those to share tomorrow!