A full day in Berlin, and heading home
Trip Start
Jul 22, 2006
1
13
Trip End
Aug 04, 2006
Berlin,
Germany
Friday, August 4, 2006
Alicia, Howie and I found a place to grab a bite. Alicia wanted to go shopping so Howie and I headed back to the square where Brandenburg gate is. He wanted to explore around that area, but I needed to crash. I grabbed a Starbucks frapp before my scariest moment- finding my way back to the hotel through subway and bus... ALONE! I asked a woman who told me to get on the train with her and basically follow her, so I did. We had to take one sub and transfer to another one to get to the area where I would catch the bus. I got off at the stop she did but for some reason did not keep following her, and was on my own again. I asked someone which sub to get on, and they said the next one. As I waited, some guy came up to me, right in my face, and started speaking in another language. Looking back, I think he was probably another lost backpacker (he had big bags), but I was a little creeped and just said no and basically ran away to a crowd of people.
01- soccer ball TV tower
I found the bus, almost got off one stop early but luck was with me and I made it back. After a big farewell dinner, we headed out for a night of bar-hopping. It was a lot of fun, but I got a little bit emotional and spent the latter part of the night crying because I really did NOT want to go home and face the shit I would have to deal with. After some tearful goodbyes, I finally headed back to the hotel.Up early for the last buffet breakfast. I cannot believe how sick I was of them at this point. I drink nonfat milk, which was never provided, so I refused to have it. Well, all I was craving was a giant bowl of cereal! Seriously. Only a few people had early flights, so we said more final goodbyes. There were 5 of us on the same flight home so we had decided to take a cab. However, there was NO way the 5 of us, plus luggage, would make it, so we had to take 2 cabs. The girls were smart and the 3 of us shared one, reducing costs.
After an uneventful flight to Amsterdam, we went through the wrong doors into luggage claim (we didn't have to) and had to walk all the way around to our gate again. We had some McDonalds - I just wanted to say I ate some in Europe! I got a cheeseburger (no mustard or onion!) but they took so long I ended up getting it for free. Even better! Upon checking in, they changed my seat number on the ticket. When I got on the plane, it was an emergency exit seat- I was psyched! But someone was already sitting it in. I didn't totally mind since it was an old sick person who needed the space, but I had to stand around basically until the plane was about to take off before they shoved me in an available seat, beside an irate woman who got mad at me for not yelling at them too for taking us out of the emergency exit aisle. Anyways, after takeoff they stuck her in a crew chair, so I had a window seat and was able to stretch out a little bit into her seat. Too bad it took me about 4 hours to realize the arm went up. I couldn't really sleep much on the whole flight home! It took me about 2 weeks to catch up on sleep, but overall, it was probably the most amazing time of my life so far.
