The Kindness of Strangers
Oct 5 to 7
An early morning start on Wednesday, my flight left at 8, so I was at the airport by 6 am.So nice to stay right at the airport, and have just a five minute stroll to get to the check-in desk. Tuesday evening I was feeling like I did not want to go to a new place, and just stay in England, but tickets were bought and places were booked so I pulled up my big girl panties and got on with it. The flight was good, only an hour and a half, and pretty full. Once we landed in Berlin, I found the sBahn, which is the LRT of Berlin, as I was standing in line to buy a ticket to get to the city, a young man came up to me, gave me a ticket which was still valid and had lots of time left on it. Saved me from trying to decipher the machine. I only had to make one change to get to the stop that my apartment is near to, so that was pretty easy. But then when I got to the street that my place is on, I turned left instead of right, and ended up a little lost for awhile, until I figured out how the numbering system worked. One side of the street went lower number to higher, the other side was the opposite. Someone was waiting to meet me when I finally got to the right place. She seemed to only speak German, so we communicated by pointing, nodding and smiling. The apartment is great, in an older building, very high ceilings, garden doors to a juliet balcony. Stairways are wide in the halls, unlike in places I stayed at in England.
Yesterday I explored the neighborhood, lots of cafes and pastry shops, found a grocery store, so got some provisions, mmm German chocolate. Today I will go and book my bus to Krakow, and maybe hit a museum. I have booked a walking tour for tomorrow, all about the Cold War, and on Sunday a tour to Dresden.
One thing that surprises me is the amount of english words there are on stores, signs and directions. Even listening to people speak, there are english words thrown in, it reminds me of Dad speaking Slovak to Baba and Grandpa, with english words when he did not know the slovak one. I wonder if it is because of the EU, will that change with Britain opting out?
Sun is starting to shine, it has been raining since I got here, so time to get a move on.
An early morning start on Wednesday, my flight left at 8, so I was at the airport by 6 am.So nice to stay right at the airport, and have just a five minute stroll to get to the check-in desk. Tuesday evening I was feeling like I did not want to go to a new place, and just stay in England, but tickets were bought and places were booked so I pulled up my big girl panties and got on with it. The flight was good, only an hour and a half, and pretty full. Once we landed in Berlin, I found the sBahn, which is the LRT of Berlin, as I was standing in line to buy a ticket to get to the city, a young man came up to me, gave me a ticket which was still valid and had lots of time left on it. Saved me from trying to decipher the machine. I only had to make one change to get to the stop that my apartment is near to, so that was pretty easy. But then when I got to the street that my place is on, I turned left instead of right, and ended up a little lost for awhile, until I figured out how the numbering system worked. One side of the street went lower number to higher, the other side was the opposite. Someone was waiting to meet me when I finally got to the right place. She seemed to only speak German, so we communicated by pointing, nodding and smiling. The apartment is great, in an older building, very high ceilings, garden doors to a juliet balcony. Stairways are wide in the halls, unlike in places I stayed at in England.
Yesterday I explored the neighborhood, lots of cafes and pastry shops, found a grocery store, so got some provisions, mmm German chocolate. Today I will go and book my bus to Krakow, and maybe hit a museum. I have booked a walking tour for tomorrow, all about the Cold War, and on Sunday a tour to Dresden.
One thing that surprises me is the amount of english words there are on stores, signs and directions. Even listening to people speak, there are english words thrown in, it reminds me of Dad speaking Slovak to Baba and Grandpa, with english words when he did not know the slovak one. I wonder if it is because of the EU, will that change with Britain opting out?
Sun is starting to shine, it has been raining since I got here, so time to get a move on.
posted by Judith at 1:49 AM
2 Comments:
Glad to hear from you, was wondering how you were getting on in Berlin.
Way to go jude...sounds great
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