The Epic Trek to Berlin

Let’s just start by saying that despite having a nearby airport, we started our journey a full 7 hours before even getting on a plane. It was cheaper to fly from Boston, which is over an hour away, but the main issue was that our flights from Providence kept getting changed and then cancelled. So we got a ride from my mom to the commuter rail, then took the “subway” (really a glorified bus called the Silver Line) to the airport with enough time to check our (one) bag and get through security. I was wearing my boots that lace up pretty high, plus a belt, since everyone knows you’re supposed to wear your heaviest items on the plane. This made going through security even more of a hassle than usual, but it was Matt’s backpack that got hand-searched. Dinner was $32 worth of raw vegetables and dressing, plus a string cheese. Oh, and Matt got a little cheese plate thingy. I split my Latuda in half, knowing I wouldn’t be able to sleep on the plane and not wanting to experience any akathisia. Once on the plane, I downed it with 2 Larabars and the rest of my pills. By the time we got to Iceland at what was 2 in the morning for us, I felt delirious. I sent Matt for an iced coffee while I waited with the bags and we were both freaking out at how long the coffee was taking with our plane already boarding and no way to contact each other (our phones stop working once we cross over). And I had 4 bags instead of 3 because the under-the-seat-in-front-of-you space was much smaller than usual on Iceland Air and we had to redistribute stuff from our backpacks into my emergency carry-on bag. It’s this extremely thin but surprisingly strong Urban Outfitters freebie bag that thank god I had stashed in my backpack for just such an emergency. I had expected to use it at the baggage check where you never know what they’re going to weigh- carry-ons and personal items included- and transfer stuff from the possibly overweight suitcase, Matt’s carry-on, or the backpacks. You hear a lot of advice on packing that says to roll your clothes or use packing cubes and all that’s well and good, but the real trick is keeping everything underweight. I could easily fit 65 pounds in a suitcase, but they only allow 50 before the astronomical fees come into play.

By the time we got to Berlin, I couldn’t tell you what was in which bag and that’s not normal for a control freak like me. We succumbed to getting a taxi from the airport to our hotel rather than the subway and a bus and a walk. For some reason, adding a night or two to our month-long stay at an Air BnB was going to cost like $800, so we got a hotel for the first and last nights. Upon arrival, we crashed into sleep for about 4-5 hours. I don’t think I’d gone all night without sleep since college, or since the last time we did this, so I was feeling rough. We got up around 7pm German time (6 hours ahead) and went out to a very nice dinner. I got a Caesar salad with chicken, and the chicken was deep-fried in Panko. There was a lot of creamy dressing, cheese, and croutons involved, too. Since it was my only meal of the day, I let myself go and ate most of it, hoping I’d come in under 2,000 calories. I took my Latuda as soon as we got back to our room and went right back to bed. The next morning we - no joke- went to the fitness center and worked out. I had rearranged our routine so that Thursday was a planned day off, but Friday was on again and by god, we did it. I took a cold shower (Germans aren’t as shameless with their AC as we are in the States) and tried to reassemble our luggage. We’d already thrown all of our travel clothes into a laundry bag to be burned later, so I stuffed that into the magical Urban Outfitters bag, filled in all the nooks and crannies in the suitcase, and gathered all our chargers and devices. All this on no coffee and no food. We checked out, grabbed a taxi to our Air BnB (where they let us in early) and stood on the street with our luggage for about 15 minutes or so. The owner/manager zipped up on his bicycle and let us in where I was openly underwhelmed. Matt commented later that he doubts whether an Air BnB cleaning fee has ever actually been put to use. The place is tiny, but excellently located near the heart of Kreuzberg. It’s coffee shop Mecca, and that was our first stop before the supermarket. We only had a fifty-Euro bill on us at the coffee shop, but the owner said we could just come back to pay when we had change, which of course we did- with a tip for his kindness. Back at the apartment, Matt mopped the floors and cleaned the kitchen while I wiped down every Ikea surface in the place. After a nap and a frantic search for pre-paid cell phones (my old SIM card stopped working), we unpacked our clothes into the one slim wardrobe and this weird red shelf. I just left everything rolled up, so it works like a filing system (see photo). Today we slept until 1pm, went for a run/walk in the park across the street and are currently imbibing our second coffee of the day. Everyone here seems to speak English, but I’m pretty chuffed that we’re not automatically dubbed as Americans and spoken to in English first- the way they do in Paris. Here they speak to us in German first, and considering the diversity here, I think we might even pass as locals. So far, so good.