We've been in Berlin

Hey folks - Sorry for the lack of updates recently. We've been gently nudged by a few of you. We're glad you're reading!! Our schedule has been full of Berlin sights, nightlife, and concerts, all of which we'll blog about very soon. Also, in news of the stinky, we lost a bunch of pictures thanks to a memory card malfunction, so there's a gap in our pictures and not many in this blog post (but plenty available on our Flickr site, to the right). We're still hopeful we can possibly recover them...Also, in the news of the friends and family, we miss everyone a lot. Anyway, let me pick up where Karina left off, from Cologne...

It was our longest train ride to date. Or maybe it just felt like it. We were anxious to get to our next destination, the place we were staying the longest: Berlin. We've been trying to take advantage of our time on the train, finding something productive to do while sitting still. Drafting blog posts, emails, perhaps sorting pictures. If we were working on a Mac, we'd probably spend some time with Photo Booth. It's amazing how useless a computer feels without the internet. Some trains have wifi, but of course they charge.

This was our first ride in the first class of a train, thanks to the folks at Rail Europe. It's not that it was all that uncomfortable in second class, but boy, leg room sure is nice, as is not wrestling for the arm rest with the guy in the seat next to me. I also enjoyed the absence of any smells reminiscent of body odor, or any just-as-offensive fragrance used to cover up said body odor. So yeah, I guess I'd say first class was nice.

After about four hours, we finally started seeing signs of the sprawling metropolis that is Berlin. And then, in the distance, we spotted the Berlin TV Tower, a massive structure erected by East Germany in the 60s. It remains today the tallest structure in all of Germany. Last time we were here, I don't think I ever made it to the base of it, but it can be seen from virtually anywhere in the city. It looms over Mauerpark, a former Berlin wall "death strip" turned urban green space. From elevated S-Bahn lines, it can be seen shining in the gaps between apartment buildings. Visitors to the dome atop the Reichstag can either look down onto the German Parliament, or Eastward to the tower's impressive geodesic sphere. I would liken it to seeing the lake at the cabin up north, or the skyline of your home city after being gone for awhile. After three-plus weeks of being on the go, no home base, in places that were - for me anyway - completely foreign, it felt good to see a familiar sight.

When we arrived at Berlin's Central Station (Hauptbahnhof), we transfered to an S-Bahn train, then to a U-Bahn train which should have taken us within just a couple blocks of our destination. Little did we know that the track was under construction a few stops before ours, so we were forced to exit well before we wanted to. We had the option of transferring to a replacement bus service, but when the first one filled completely up before we were able to board, we decided to make the final haul on foot. With, once again, the heavy duffels on our backs, and the day packs on our fronts, we set off on the very doable 2km stretch.

Of course there was a catch: we told our accommodator we would arrive at the doorstep at a certain time, which had passed about 45 minutes ago. Hoping he'd still be there when we arrived, we speed-walked to the apartment, as running with the weight on our backs would have certainly killed us. (All the while, I should mention, more replacement U-Bahn buses, the ones we could have been on, passed us on the street. So that's fun.)

We finally arrived, ragged and sweating, and the caretaker, who was very nice given we had left him waiting for at least an hour, led us to our home away from home for the next month. After sharing small, scantily-designed bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and general living spaces with perfect strangers for the better part of a month, the new place seemed unbelievably large, even though it's essentially a studio. Our own place!

After our travels we yearned for a home-cooked meal, which we could finally cook with our newfound kitchen. After a quick trip to the grocery store, we made a quick batch of spaghetti and salad, and, since it was a Friday night, watched an episode of TPT's Almanac before going to bed, ready to explore Berlin in the morning...