Friday, August 27, 2010

Sports in the city

I already wrote about the pleasures of urban adrenalin sports and their number seems to grow with the size of the city. Since I moved to Berlin my sport life has blossomed. Not only I became even worse jogging addict and cycling maniac enthusiast (the latter is inevitable once you get on that bike), I also have the opportunity to do exciting city sports. Such as:

U-bahn surfing: survive the drive with a subway without holding on to anything (or anyone) and surf those waves of underground acceleration mixed with unpredictable movements of disorientated tourists. For details see picture above.

Spot the controller: is a common city sport suitable also for beginners. You don't need much, in fact you don't even need to buy a ticket. While enjoying all privileges of public transport, you will feel the adrenalin with each new stop, while wondering if there is a controller among passengers. You're right - they're not wearing uniforms.

Catch the red light: is a sport popular among car drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. True Berliners can't be bothered with insignificance of stopping at red light. Red is good. Red is sexy. Follow the red. Except when it's the color of cycling track and you're walking on it. Then you should run for your life. Which brings us to the most popular of all city sports.

Dodge the cyclist: Yes, we are insane. Not only will we drive on cycling tracks, we will also drive on pavements, roads, streets and pretty much everything on our way.  After all those road hurdles we need to cycle it out. Be scared. Be very scared.

Cycle hurdling: Coming somewhere easy and on time is boring. Therefore we need obstacles such as:
  • parked cars (upgrade: with opening doors), 
  • delivery trucks unloading their stuff, 
  • confused tourists, checking the maps, 
  • coffee tables/chairs, 
  • slow cyclists that drive in the middle of the track with the speed of injured chicken. 
You name it, we got it. Plain cycling is so 20th century, so bring it on!

Jump to the sound of sirens: I am pretty sure there is a limitation on how loud the ambulance sirens can be and I'm convinced that the ones in Berlin are well above any limit. So jump, as it will surprise you when you will at least expect it. Possibly when your mouth is full of coffee.

As you can see, life in the big city is never boring. Possibly life-threatening, but boring definitely not. Are there any other interesting city sports I've missed so far? Please, do enlighten me.

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