After a 2 hour delay at the airport in Düsseldorf and a lot of confusion as to what was going on (announcements made mainly in GERMAN, which I don’t speak), I arrived in Berlin! The weather seems “cooler” for lack of a better word than most of the other places but it’s still very hot, and still very humid. My hostel (Lekkerurlaub) is one of the nicest ones I’ve stayed at – from the shabby chic decor to the espresso maker – and because I have my own room again! This hostel is really well kept and run by a nice woman named Kathryn who meets you at the door with a smile. She even makes you coffee in the morning since she doesn’t want you break her fancy espresso machine. Berlin is crazy cool in a way I can’t really explain, you just feel it. I even feel cool just being in this city. It’s got tons of street art and I love the vibrancy of the paints.
Today was a pretty rough day emotionally. I knew I wanted to see the Berlin Wall remnants and the East Side Gallery which has been covered in graffiti, turning something so evil and vile into something beautiful and worth looking at. I started at the Wall Museum because I thought I could appreciate better what I saw knowing the history of how the wall even came to be in existence. For 12.50 euros, you get admission to the museum and a souvenir of pieces of the wall. Throughout the museum, I started tearing up thinking about all those people who lost their freedom when that wall was put up. It made me sad to think crap like this happened but also made me extremely grateful that I have the freedom to travel where I want to and when I want to. It was a mixture of emotions cascading through me but this is why I travel: to see parts of the world and learn about other peoples’ history, not just my own. I want to see the good and the bad, in a strange way.
Here is the wall today (or what’s left of it I should write):
I think today is also pretty emotional for me as I have officially reached my half-way point on this first part of my world tour. It will all be over in <45 days and I’ll be back in San Diego for 3 weeks taking a vacation from my vacation. I’m glad I broke my adventure up into pieces as it would have been hard to keep going for a full 6 months non-stop.
Fun fact: German people are not afraid to tell someone they’re doing something wrong. Example 1: This woman on a bike rang her little bell to let people know she was coming and a man stepped onto the bike path in front of her. She slammed on her brakes (this makes it sound like she was driving but I haven’t ridden a bike in a long time so I’m a bit rusty on how the brakes work). She narrowly missed him and didn’t just take off. She stopped and began to yell at the man and another stranger tried to calm her down. At least that’s how I interpreted it (remember I don’t speak German) but I did hear her tell the second man “danke” so I assume he was on her side. I don’t think you’d say “thank you” to someone who doesn’t have your back.
Example 2: On a crowded sidewalk, a man is riding his bike when he really should have gotten off and walked or moved to the street. So I move out the way because I don’t want to die by “bike accident.” A German woman did not move. So he’s cruising by her and hits her in the leg with a grocery bag he has hanging from the handlebars. She starts yelling at him and I’m guessing she told him to move to the street (at least that’s what I interpreted with the word “strasse” which is in some street names. Again, I don’t speak German).
Do you see a theme here people? Men are doing something stupid and women are calling them out on it. I guess that’s always going to be universal.
There She Goes... 