Germany, HO!!

Day One: Berlin, Deutschland

All right, it’s been a tad bit longer than I wanted to write this blog, so I’m scrapping my first attempt and trying again… In other words, I’ve hit a moment when I just feel like writing what I remember and all the awesome stuff, but informally and probably random. Please do not be surprised if I end up ranting myself away into a void of confusing sentences. If I go there, well… whoops.

I’m going to write this all at once, but for your sake, I’ll split it up a tad so it’s not so overwhelming. My story begins on the 18^th of April (yes, almost a month ago. Ignore that). I took the day to finish up my last little run-arounds and whatnot before hopping on a plane and somehow flying down to Berlin, Germany. Now, if you’re ever in Europe, you must travel. Flights are super cheap (especially if you book even just a month in advance) and it’s beastly. A whole bunch of different cultures are just a hop-skip and a swim away (the swimming is kinda mostly for places like the United Kingdom. That whole being an island thing gets in the way sometimes). Flying to Berlin only took an hour. That’s right, you heard me, AN HOUR. That’s less time it took me to fly down to Washington D.C. from Cleveland, Ohio. I mean, I know the States are huge, but really?

I saw these on my way to my flight. Queen mask? Creepy.

Anyhoo, I got in super late because that’s how cheap flights work: they’re either really early or really late. You’ve got to be super lucky to get one at a “decent” time (or you know, pay more). The airport was small and pretty self-explanatory. You leave the plane, go through some dinky security and BOOM! There’s the door, have a nice day (note: this comes with a nice big friendly German smile). I went over to the information desk and found out how to take the trains into the city. Let me tell you before I begin on this: trains suck in Germany. They don’t always do what they’re supposed to. That said, I’ll continue…

It’s now about 11:30 at night, which I thought was an hour ahead because who knew Germany was an hour ahead of England? I didn’t, but fortunately, all I really needed to know was it was late. Any other information would have just been nifty. I started towards the train station, and a woman who had gone to the info desk before me came to speak with me. She was dressed as your usual European (scarf and messy bun with some nice clothes flair) and she was a tad bit shorter than me. Her accent was hard to place, but slightly French.

Turns out she was Swedish, but lived in France because she’s an opera singer. How awesome is that?

Her awesomeness aside, she was totally lost. She came to Berlin to meet a friend, but her buddy hadn’t helped her much, so instead she chose the random American…? Yup, there’s strength in numbers when you’re a tourist. At least you know they’re making stupid mistakes too. I told her what I knew about the trains, but then let her go. I had stayed too long in London to be overly nice (oops), but don’t worry, we ended up hanging out a lot more. I headed underground to find the train, bought a ticket and headed for the platform. Trains had gotten a lot less complicated after working with the Underground so long, so I was somewhat confident… until I came to a crossroads.

Two signs said they went to the right train, but they went in opposite directions. By the looks of it, they actually looked like they both headed up to the same platform, which helped… but didn’t. I was standing between the two stairs trying to decide which would be more efficient to try when a woman came up behind me. She was English, but had been living in Berlin for awhile. Her back story is she makes films and documentaries for a living, and she was just coming back from interviewing one of the ex-husbands of the woman her documentary was about. Turns out, the woman had a couple ex-husbands, and it sounded like the men told some interesting tales.

Berlin!

*took a pause here to nom on some fantastical Turkish delight and get sugar all over me…*

Ugh, okay, back to my story. The woman came up to me and asked if I was confused, which I guess was obvious because I literally kept turning my head back and forth between the two signs. She led me up the choice on my left and told me to take the next one. Turns out she was riding the same train, as well as the opera singer! The train came surprisingly soon, but and we hopped on. Then a message sounded over the PA system telling us something, but it was muffled and of course in German. The Englishwoman translated for us, and said the train was just going to chill a bit before heading out. “Welcome to Berlin!” the Englishwoman chuckled, “Where the trains are crap.” That last part I paraphrased a little, but you get the idea. I checked my watch worriedly because I knew I had a certain time to check into the hostel (which… oh man, it was awesome. Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself) before 11:30pm. Unfortunately, my watch was telling me it was 10:30… meaning it was already 11:30. I could call and tell them to wait, but my little watch told me I still had time, so I let it go.

Finally the train decided to leave, but then was like, “nah, I don’t want to go all the way to where I’m supposed to go because it’s late and I’m lazy… for a train.” So we had to hop off a little bit earlier than expected. I had no fear though, because the English woman easily led us two unfortunate tourists to a taxi, and since my hostel was on the way to where the opera singer was going, we shared it. The ride was barely seven Euros for me to get there, and I was happy to know I made it.

All right, now I can tell you!! I’m so excited, can you tell? I got my luggage (a little duffel bag I learned to hate by the end of this trip) and said good-bye to the nice woman, wishing her luck on the rest of her travels. I then passed through the East Gallery Wall and towards the Spree River, which cuts through Berlin. That’s right, my hostel was a BOAT. A boat full of awesomeness! If you ever go to Berlin, stay at the Eastern Comfort Hostelboat. Totally worth it; decently priced, nice accommodations, and an amazingly nice staff (well, it’s Germany, everyone’s nice…).

Me and the awesome boat/hostel

I went in and they were waiting for me, seeing as I was an hour later than I thought. Fortunately, my travel buddy, Rachel, had gotten there way before me and warned them I might be coming late. They said it was no problem, but did creep me out a bit when I walked in and they were just like, “Oh, you must be Mary!” What an experience, let me tell you. I know my name is common, but not that common, jeez!

(Quick explanation: Rachel had spent the previous week with her visiting parents, who took her to Paris. She decided instead of coming back to London, to just pop over to Berlin instead and meet me there. Her flight came in super early, so she learned a bit about Berlin before I arrived, which came in handy).

The moment all was settled, I climbed onto my bed and let the rolling waters outside lull me to sleep. I was excited for the next day, no matter what was in store.