Berlin is doing all sorts of strange things to prepare for the World Cup this summer. It's offering courses to teach grumpy German service workers how to smile , it is offering English lessons to public transportation workers. Some local bloggers are also starting their own initiatives. One blogger lends a helping hand and a healthy dose of humor to visitors by offering an English translation of the city's U-Bahn map for those attempting to navigate the city's subway network.

The results are downright bizarre, as literal translation can sometimes be. "Unter den Linden" becomes "Under the Limes," "Anhalter Bahnhof" is transformed into "Hitchhiker Station" and, most confusing of all, "Klosterstrasse" is turned into "Abbey Road." Click on "die englische Netzspinne" on the left-hand side of the page to download the map .

Possibly even more surreal is the German translation of the London underground map . Although "Totenschinken Hofstrasse" and "Legionsburgplatz" are only marginally more difficult to say correctly than the original English names.

Africa Extreme

Nothing like a short bike ride to get the blood flowing. But what about a really, really long bike ride -- like the entire length of Africa  for example? On Saturday, the fourth annual "Tour d'Afrique" is set to get underway, an 11,900-kilometer (7,438-mile) bike race from the pyramids in Egypt all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the African continent.  Of course, if you don't want to race, you can just ride along for the fun (and excruciating pain) of it -- for the small fee of $8,800 per person. Lion repellent not included. A bit more detail on the race's 99 stages can be found here.