Yes, I know I am behind. Deal with it.

Tuesday:

I’m pretty sure I slept like a rock.  It’s my first day on my own here in Berlin.  It’s kind of scary…I’ve never really fully traveled alone.  I’ve always been with a friend, school, or family.  So this is a totally new experience for me.

Luckily, Adam made me a nice map so I could easily find the bus stop for the first time and navigate to his office easily once the bus dropped me off.  It made my first day out alone a lot easier. I met Adam and one of his colleagues for lunch.  We went to a soup place which was very nice.  I had grandma’s soup which was a veggie based soup.  Afterwards we walked over to a chocolate shop for a piece of chocolate.  Adam and his friend had to head back to the office for rest of the day so I was off to explore.

First I found myself at the Bebelplatz—the memorial for the infamous Nazi book burning.  I wasn’t totally sure what I was looking for except that it’s a “square piece of glass in the ground”.  For some reason I was expecting something a little more extravagant, something a bit larger.  There were a lot of tour groups around so it was a little difficult to navigate around them to find what I was looking for.  But here you can see the square glass memorial.  Sorry for the glare, but that’s what happens I suppose.  You can see in the reflection that there is also a lot of construction going on here.  But the memorial is a glass covered bookshelf area.

After I visited the Bebelplatz, I wandered around outside a bit.  It was a beautiful day and a great day to wander about checking out the local architecture.  It’s clearly a touristy area.  I wasn’t the only one with my camera out.

I eventually found myself at the DDR Museum. They recently renovated and expanded to twice the size it was previously.  The way it was described to me I didn’t expect much.  However, this was a lovely museum.  I really, really enjoyed seeing the daily life in the east, a socialist state.  You can read about it in books but it’s not the same…being able to see things that the common person had, how they spent their time, what they wore, the cars they had it is totally different seeing it than reading about it.  This museum brought that time to life for me.  I’m at least a little familiar with how West Germany’s life was.  Most of my family still lives in Germany and lived in west when the wall was there.  Granted my memories of West Germany are from my childhood but they are still memories of the west nonetheless.  The only negative thing I have to say about this experience was that there was a very large school group there.  So I was fighting to see exhibits.  The teenagers were not really super excited to see this stuff; they were more concerned with filling out their assignment sheets.  I wish I had been there when it was a little less packed.  But it was still a very nice experience.

Next I ended up in the German History Museum.  This museum is beautiful.  It’s very large and very well organized.  It covers the past 150 years of German History.  I’ll admit, the super early stuff in the first century AD isn’t very interesting to me other than looking at the pretty stuff.  All the stuff from that time period looks the same to me regardless of the location.  I know there are many differences, but it’s not in my knowledge base or interest.  I have some interesting pictures from the museum but I’ve not gone through them yet.  I’ll probably post some of those in a later blog post.  It was very interesting seeing a lot of the stuff they had.  I also a saw some medical stuff that was super interesting, at least to me.  Honestly, this museum is so large that you really need two days to see it all in detail.  But it’s a lovely museum.

After the German History Museum, I met up with Adam and he gave me a small walking tour before we caught the bus to go home.  We stopped at the Brandenberg Gate which was another tourist hotspot.  There were a lot of touristy activities going on there…Berliner Bear, large bubbles for kids, etc.  And I of course snapped a photo of the Famous Hotel Adlon—made famous by the crazy Michael Jackon dangling his baby from a window. I have loads of photos here from the kids with the bubbles, but I still have to go through them.  Again, stay tuned for photo updates in a later post.  We saw the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a holocaust memorial site.  This is an interesting outdoor memorial made of large blocks of varying sizes placed systematically on wavy ground.  The further you went into the memorial the larger and colder the blocks became.  It was a bit overwhelming emotionally and spatially.  Especially with the loads of running kids.  You had to walk through carefully not to get plowed over.  Again, photos to be posted later.

Once we got home we made a stuffed pumpkin for dinner.  We stuffed it with bulgur and veggies. It was absolutely delicious.  I have a feeling that I should try and make this for Dustin.  I think he’d like it.  We watched some television and went to bed.  Oh, and my glasses are being delayed in customs.  Fantastic.

Monday:

Holy $h!t they cram a lot of people on these planes.  When I was little I felt like they weren’t too bad.  I slept easily and usually had a free spot next to me so I could lay down.  Now the flights are always full and I’m bigger…so things seem so much smaller.  I’m sure at some point along the way they crammed more seats in to the aircraft but whatever.  I was stuck between two tough guys…so they kept invading my personal space.  The sweed on my left was friendly…but he was kinda gross.  He was using chewing tobacco the whole time…and that’s really icky.  The flight itself was pretty smooth.  I even got my vegetarian meal.  Although for breakfast they gave me some egg sandwich thing…and I definitely don’t eat eggs unless they are in some sort of baked good.  When there was about 2 hours left in the flight I started getting stiff and antsy.  I wanted to get off the plane and wiggle about.  I slept for about 15 minutes at some point but the rest of the time I watched horrible movies.  I had fully intended on catching a nap in the next terminal when I could stretch out during my 5 hour layover.  I did notice however…Delta has a “comfort economy class”.  I saw this as a possible upgrade.  After seeing it, I think it is worth the 100 dollars.  It looks like a first class area to me.  I’ve not traveled in first class a whole lot but it looks really similar.

Upon suggestion from Adam, I didn’t fool around with wandering around much until I made it through passport control and customs.  So I just hopped in line and swiftly made it through.  All I knew is that I was exhausted but needed to move my stiff old body.  Luckily my new gate was a nice little walk away.  I found my gate and then found this nice little lounge.  The lounge had bright green chairs, trees, bean bag chairs, and lounging recliners.  Although I didn’t see the lounging recliners until I left to board my connecting flight.  That’s too bad because I couldn’t get comfortable to sleep.  So I just watched the sunrise through the windows and people watched.

My flight from Amsterdam to Berlin was pretty uneventful.  It was about 55 minutes from takeoff to landing.  My only complaint was being seated between two dueling farters.  It was pretty smelly.  The old guy on my right wins though…I’m pretty sure his insides were rotting.  I was able to read a little and I also closed my eyes some to try and rest. LOL

I thought it was interesting that baggage claim was right there at the gate.  Seemed like a good idea.  I quickly got my luggage and we were on our way.  I believe my first comment on exiting the airport was, “Gee, it smells like a urinal patty out here” or something like that.  It really smelled like toilet water.

After a short transit to Adam’s Palace he let me unpack a few of the things I brought for him and then I took a much needed shower.  I probably smelled worse than a Frenchman.  At this point I’m pretty much feeling like a total zombie.  Much of the rest of the day was a blur…  I remember eating a late lunch at an Indian place.  Going shopping a bit for some groceries…and then we came back for a nap.  As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out.  But it only seemed like 5 seconds before Adam is coercing me into getting up.  He says I need to get up so I can get on a normal schedule.  He should know, being a king traveler.  But I also know that I’m a girl that can sleep 20 hours without getting up, not even to pee.  But I got up…or my body moved to the couch and I believe I slept despite Adam saying, “koko are you awake” every 20 seconds.  I responded verbally that I was awake but I am certain I was sleeping.  I don’t even remember going to bed really…

My zombie analysis of Berlin Day 1: Tegel smells like a toilet.  I love seeing flowers hanging from balconies and windows.  And I’m thankful Adam doesn’t have an inspection shelf toilet.

Sunday:

Today is a traveling day.  I had planned on getting up early.  I was to have breakfast with Dustin and we were going to the Halloween store to look for an Amy Winehouse wig.  But alas…I had trouble sleeping and then once I was asleep I over slept.  By the time I realized that I had no time to do the things I planned, we were already making pumpkin waffles on the waffle iron.  Before I knew it, it was time to leave.  Then at the last second I knew that my glasses were missing.  We searched the house top to bottom but they were nowhere to be found.  I knew I had them when I drove to Bath and Body Works and Target on Saturday night…because I drove and I don’t drive without my glasses.  Did I take them off at one of the stores??  Doesn’t seem likely, but who knows.  Needless to say I grabbed an old pair of glasses and headed out the door.

We had cut things so short that Dustin didn’t even have time to park in the garage so he could walk me into the airport.  So he dumped me at the curb.  He did stick around for a few seconds so I could curbside check my baggage.  Luckily, I had already checked in online so I had my tickets handy.  We said our goodbyes and parted ways for my two week trip to Germany.

I made it through security quickly and grabbed a seat in the gate area.  I called Dustin and he promised me he’d look for the glasses once he got home.  It seemed like we searched everywhere…

My flight from Indy to Detroit was pretty uneventful.  It was a short 37 minutes from takeoff to landing.  Not even time for a beverage cart!  I had a bit of a wait between Detroit and Amsterdam.  So I grabbed dinner at some Mediterranean Grill place and had some falafels.  In the mean time I got a text from Dustin saying he called both Target and Bath and Body Works and neither had my glasses.  Then the next one was that he found them…in the closet.  WTF.  It all became clear.  When I was packing for my trip, I took my glasses off in the closet to try a shirt on with a pair of pants to see if it worked or not.  Since that was out of my normal routine, I would have never usually put stuff there, or think to find it there.  Dustin said he’d overnight them to me on Monday once a shipping place was open for business.  I got a hold of Adam so we could get all the appropriate information to get the glasses to me promptly.

Now I sit and wait for my flight for Amsterdam.  I’m excited!!

**On a side note, I hope I have a little time to work through some of my photos from the Canada trip.  I know I’ll have a serious backlog of photos once I start snapping in Berlin!