I dew, Honey: Berlin 2010

Brace yourselves, it's going to be a lengthy post. In fact, I will probably break it up into two posts because you will definitely lose interest midway. Mostly because I have officially started to play my new favorite game that I like to call "Stamp the shit out of my passport."

So, Thursday night, when I should have been packing for Berlin, I went to see Chicago at the theater with Alyssia and Emily, and then out for drinks. It was a lot of fun but due to my procrastination, I didn't get to bed until 3am. I woke up to leave for the airport at 6am, thus beginning the longest, most sleep-deprived weekend of 2010.

The weekend started out exciting enough, with me making it to Gate 5A for the 9:20am flight to Berlin, Germany at 9:18. I wish I was kidding, but due to a small clerical error (and by clerical error, I mean me reading the wrong email and thinking I was flying a completely different airline) I took the subway to the wrong terminal in Heathrow Airport. I've never been so freaked out in my life and in the future, will be leaving for the airport 93 hours prior to my flights to avoid any confusion.

I then boarded what turned out to be the bumpiest flight of my life and eventually found myself in the Berlin TXL airport. The airport was so tiny there was a man practically greeting me at the door to the plane to stamp my passport (!!) and then I was on my way to find a cab. Now, normally this is a very simple task for a New Yorker but alas, Germans speak German and Genna does not. Sad day.

After finally finding a driver who understood enough English to comprehend "Here is the address," I was on my way to the hostel. Along the way, not only did this driver try to kill me via insane driving methods certainly not legal in the United States, he also taught me a few key German phrases I would need to know for my trip. Unfortunately, he spoke very fast so the only one that stuck was "Danke" (thank you), which i repeated multiple times throughout my trip after lengthy English sentences in order to sound like a daft tourist. When I asked my driver where he learned to speak English so well ("so well" being a stretch but his English was better than my German) he responded, "I wake up Monday and walk to English School." Well, more than I can say for myself I suppose.

When the cab pulled up to the address 20 minutes later, I see this tiny Arab girl running towards me jumping up and down, shrieking. First though, crazy person. Second though, obviously this is Camille. While the cab was still moving, she threw open the door and hopped in the back seat, attacking me with love. I cannot even begin to express how much I missed this tiny little person. And with that, the lovefest commenced.

Now, for those of you who know me, (and I hope if you're reading this, you do) you understand that staying in a hostel scares the crap out of me because I am afraid of people and dirty-ness. You also know that I am allergic to exercise. So, our hostel was up about 6 flights of stairs in the shadiest, grimiest building I've ever seen in my life. And then, when you open the door, it's full of people. Although colorful and adorable, I had a minor freakout session before Camille made me throw down my shit and get ready to explore.

The door to our Hostel

 Over the next 10 hours, Camille and I walked basically the entire city of Berlin. We saw the tents of Oktoberfest and stopped every hundred feet for delicious meals and treats, including a waffle so large I actually agreed to share it. We rode a Ferris Wheel (at the top of which I FREAKED out, and then at the bottom of which I told Camille I never wanted to get off) and walked through a park heading to the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately for my legs, Camille led us about 3 miles in the wrong direction because she held the map upside down. And of course, the whole time, neither one of us even took a breath we were talking so much. Not seeing each other since June had clearly not slowed us down one bit.

Oktoberfest Tents- View from Ferris Wheel

 
Finishing up in another post so you have time to rest after reading this one!