Metropolitan Madness and Glory

Huge imposing church and trees!

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If you haven’t noticed, I have fully settled into the Italian lifestyle over here and have become very lax on keeping up with my blog entries. As Dad asked me the other day, “so you lost internet for the week huh?” Well, no not exactly. I just didn’t get around to writing anyone back with all the reading and talking and hanging out I had going on. It’s not that we don’t care over here, it’s just that now things don’t really have to happen right away, I mean eventually, if it’s important enough, it will get done. Case in point…this blog entry. So before I waste any more of your American time, allow me to tell you about Berlin.

Berlin happened about a month ago now, yet the important parts still stand out in my mind. I remember that this city was a glorious metropolis, a booming combination of sixties architecture and hustling yuppies.  There is an alternative edge here that is hard to find anywhere else in the world…but these people are determined to be known, and to be tolerant of anything and everything that comes their way.

Jewish memorial

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We arrived in Berlin fresh off a train from Hamburg in one of the biggest, no I take that back, the biggest train station I have ever seen. I felt like I had been transported to the future as a stood in a glass and metal dome with four different levels and trains going every which way. Liz and I tried to take in the scene and quickly found a bookstore from which we bought the “Let’s Go Berlin” book. As usual we followed our routine…buy the book, eat some food and figure it out. Sushi was on the menu today, once again not Italian…thank heavens. Using the handy dandy guidebook we found the most direct route to our hostel and took off navigating the metro system of Berlin. After a few wrong turns around one particular square we found our way to the JetPak hostel. This place was ultra modern and owned by the cutest Spanish woman ever. After settling in and checking email we made a tentative plan for the weekend and began again to explore this new corner of the world.

Four leaf clovers around the world!

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We headed first for the Jewish History museum because both of us had heard great things about it and what we had heard proved true. The museum is huge, almost too much to navigate, but we learned a ton about the history of Judaism as well as modern day attempts at education and struggles. Three hours later we emerged into the dark streets wondering where the time had gone and laughing at our obsession with museums. As we flipped through our book looking for the next stop we discovered that this amazing metropolis actually had movies in English! We hopped the next train to the Sony Center…a futuristic shopping area that is very reminiscent of America. We bought tickets to a late movie and found a place called Andy’s diner around the corner. The evening was rapidly turning into an American success and as we slurped cokes and munched hamburgers and fries we couldn’t help feeling confused and giddy by the Western influence.

The movie we saw was “The Black Dahlia.”   Not really that great of a flick, but can you believe that these people spoke English and were on a big screen? You would have thought we had never seen a movie before, but after living in Italy for a while, even the most day to day things seem extraordinary. The movie was a success and we made it back to our hostel to crash before another big day of touring.

An early nine o’clock wakeup call was in order because we were going to take a four hour tour at ten. We rolled out of the hostel and headed to the meeting point which happened to be close to a Dunkin’ Donuts.  Now normally, this establishment would not faze me in the least, yet in Berlin it is one of the few places that have offered me a full cup of coffee in months! I jump on the opportunity and arrive at the meeting point in full American style: jeans, North Face, and jumbo coffee, and this time I reveled in it.  

For the rest of the day Liz and I toured Berlin with a small group and a great tour guide. This whole tour was more than worth while; we hit all the major sites and heard great stories. At times our tour guide had us riveted and he would finish a story to a resounding sigh or cry of relief from his apt audience.   Seeing the Berlin Wall and Hitler’s Bunker were just a few of the hi-lights that sent tingles up my spine. Talk about a city with a complex and twisted history…Berlin has something for everyone. 

Our tour ended with a mind blowing recount of the fall of the Berlin wall. Even though I knew the wall had come down, I was on the edge of my seat all most cheering for the people who stood on the wall and knocked holes into it with sledge hammers. It was a great finale and left the two of us smiling and gesticulating over the unknown complexities of history for a good twenty minutes. After the tour we headed over towards a mall as I tried to get in touch with Gregory Smith who is living in Berlin for the year. We planned to meet Greg for dinner and did some shopping in the meantime.

One of the random facts I remember about this shopping excursion is that I was really, really hot! I know this is completely irrelevant to you, but unlike Tennessee Williams suggests, in my memory, not everything happens to music…I thought I might suffocate.  Irregardless, we made a good start on our Halloween costumes and then met Greg and his friend for dinner. We ate at a Thai place and had great dinner chats and caught up on life post Charlotte. After dinner we went out around the city for a bit with Greg as our guide and had a great evening. It was fun to catch up with an old friend in a new place.

Early the next morning Liz and I said our final goodbyes to Berlin and headed for the airport.  However, little did we know that today was daylights savings time. We wondered for a while why the woman at the desk looked at us as if we had two heads when we tried to check in. Turns out we were about three hours early. This is a fact that we did not discover until about four in the afternoon once our flight had been delayed for three hours.  

In the meantime we attempted to pass the time in the airport and both shelled out a good amount of cash for books in English to keep us occupied. While we were sitting on the floor reading the most beautiful little German girl walked past us with a golden grin. She had short brown hair and wore a little jumper with striped tights. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, and she was quite taken with the two strange blonde girls who were sitting on the floor. The girl walked past us once with her mother and later they passed us again. At this point the girl, who must have been about three or four stopped and just grinned at us. She grabbed her mother’s hand and pulled her down and whispered in her ear…and then the mother was approaching us. At first she spoke in German but our puzzled looks convinced her to switch to English at which point she said, my daughter just wanted to tell you that you are so very beautiful. We could not believe it, we just smiled and uttered our thanks and mentioned how gorgeous the child was as well. These words from the mouth of a little angel had caught us extremely off guard, but what a complement! Finally after hours of waiting and of delays, and of time confusion we were in the air bound for Rome. Our trip was coming to an end but we had seen so much and learned even more. At this point we were both travel weary and were ready to be home, but the last leg had to be made from Rome back to Perugia. After a full day of traveling we arrived home again around eleven o’clock. The fabulous adventure was behind us but we knew there were more good things to come.

 Now see, that little story was well worth waiting for, wasn’t it?! Take a little of that American time and pocket it for yourself, and by pocketing it I mean just sit on your sofa, or your porch, or your single bed in that dorm room and stare off into space. The brain likes this, I promise.