Nursing Myself Back to Health in Berlin
Ryan and I spent six days in Berlin mostly relaxing. We learned quickly that our hostel is used mostly for school trips when we stopped some people running by our room. The sixteen year olds were from near Cologne and gave us our first German beer-Berliner. We chatted with them awhile to let them practice their English, but they were drunk and hung up on the fact that its illegal to drink in the US until youre 21, but are able to drive when youre 16…
Every morning I would wake up in a different mood I was the day before. One morning I would wake up wondering what the day would bring and then next wondering what I was doing there. Im pretty sure that my joke of a mattress I was sleeping on was helping my negativity…
When I discovered there was a kitchen in the hostel, I got excited, since I hadnt cooked my own food in almost three weeks. I didnt realize how much I needed to do that. We hurried to the supermarket, just outside the hostel, and bought eggs, peppers, tomatoes, a bag of oranges, and 5 minute noodles. The omlette we made was probably the best tasting Ive ever had, mostly due to the fact I cooked it myself. After we both felt more energized from our brunch, we headed out and wandered the Berlin suburbs for eight hours. We were exhausted and fell asleep so early. I could feel sickness coming on, where my head was hurting and I was starting to feel a scratchiness in my throat.
Next morning I awoke to Ryans face in mine, seemingly yelling, Rise and Shine We hurried to meet up with the free tour of Berlin and spent the next four hours being paraded around by an Australian student who definately knew her German history. The most interesting thing we learned was that the tearing down of the Berlin wall was an accident. A misinformed man whose name I forgot gave a press conference and when asked when the wall was coming down, he said Immediately, instead of saying something more along the lines of To be determined at a later date, which he should have. Oops. So, the destruction of the wall was a bit of a mistake, but a good one. I think. Ha.
Since it was Saturday, we were planning to go out, but after we napped a bit, since no one goes out before midnight in Berlin, I was not ready to go out drinking. I dozed off, and when I awoke Ryan was tying his boots. I was glad that he didnt mind going out alone, since I was too tired, and didnt want to accelerate my sickness. Plus, I wouldnt have been fun.
I woke up the next morning feeling OK but lazy. Ryan slept most of the day and I read. I took a nap and woke up hating life. I knew going home wasnt going to make me feel better, but I felt that if I stayed I would be wasting my money, going from place to place feeling numb. I expressed my feelings to Ryan, and while he looked everywhere but my eyes, he told me to do whatever I had to do, and if he had to travel Europe on his own, he would do it. I knew then that I had to feel better, but I knew this was something I coudlnt force myself out of. Time is the only thing that could.
We went back to our room and read and a French guy walked in. The bed that he wanted was made, but we thought that the lady hadnt cleaned the sheets off it, so he took the sheets off and used his own to make it and folded his covers back just so. He told us hed be back. While he was gone, a family came in and the daughter hopped into the Frech guys freshly made bed. When the guy came back, he was really upset, and struggled to tell her in English that he paid money for the bed, and her response was that She paid money too, and sounded like she was laughing. He left in a storm, came back with fresh sheets and spat on her as he made the bed on top of hers. She just lied there, but after he got into his bed, he leaned over and started saying things to her in French. She got up and moved into bed with her mother, while she and the girls father just lied there. I couldnt believe that they didnt do anything. I have no idea what the man was saying, but he sounded very angry. Once he fell asleep, he made these crazy noises that kept the entire room up all night. It wasnt snoring, as snoring is more constant as the mooing\moaning noises he made. It was ridiculous. When he woke up at 5, he started speaking very viciously to the girl again. I told him to be quiet, which he did, but still continued to speak very nastily to her and seemingly to her family. Wierd.
When we woke up we met our nice roommate, Nicholas from Luxembourg. He was trying to get a job in Berlin, and had interviews lined up for the entire week. Ryan and I left for another walking day, in search of the bus station we were leaving from the next day. After we found it, we headed back, but stopped at a supermarket en route. We picked up rolls, cheese, salami for Ryan, potatosalad, and yogurt and feasted at a park across the street. Everything was so tasty, especially the potatosalad-it tasted like there were chunks of pickles in it. We wandered for the rest of the day and lazily sat in a park for a while. I was starting to feel alive again, but I didnt want to say anything to Ryan, in case the feeling was temporary. When we got back to the hostel Nicholas was there and feeling very chatty. We started talking about our travels, and where hed worked, in Africa ,and some islands off Portugal that I had never heard of. As he was telling me about these places, I found myself smiling alot, and feeling excited. I was back and that made me happier than anything.
We decided to continue our conversation in the hostel bar, where we had four beers each and closed the bar. I forgot about the effects of German beer and wondered how I would wake up the next morning, as I was feeling pretty damn good. Surprisingly I woke up before my alarm, packed, and we headed out for the busstation to get on a bus that was heading for Prague.
Tags: Europe
lauracat
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