Day 1: In the air. On the road.

What time is it!? It’s barely 8 PM and I feel like it’s 2 AM! I hardly slept on the plane last night and we’ve been busy ever since we hit the ground. Both flights were really nice and the entire trip was without hiccup.

We landed in Berlin on time and were connected with Schylie immediately after Christie got her suitcase from baggage claim. Words would fail me to describe the great joy I felt to be reunited with Schylie after all these months. I’ve missed her very much and am glad to have this time with her.

Getting from the airport to our lodging was quite the do! I don’t read German very well and most of the people I asked for help were simply unhelpful. Should we take the bus or call a taxi? The bus would be cheaper. Which bus? I ask the man and he speaks to me condescendingly, as if I’m a child who should know better, and tells me to go outside and take the bus to Ferkensherflugenstrassedameplatz…. Ok. It wasn’t quite that long of a name, but it sure sounded like it. And every time I asked him to repeat it, it just got longer–and more difficult for me to try to repeat. I gave up on him–with a smile and a danke schoen–and decided to head out side and have Schylie look up the email from our airbnb host to see if he gave any directions. He did. So I took the laptop to a terminal man standing by a ticket machine and pointed to the name of the place to which we needed to get. He kindly directed me to the machine and told me what tickets to buy, and where to catch Bus 109. Within a few minutes we were loading on the bus. I told the driver where we needed to go, thinking I had the pronunciation close enough–but no cigar–not by a long shot. He asked if I meant Archdinstramdans… whatever it was!… and I kindly replied, “No.” Then I pointed to the place on his screen of stops and he said, “Oh,” as he likely thought to himself, “Why didn’t you just say so!?”

Like a hawk, I watched the names of the upcoming stops as they filled the screen. There was no way I was going to miss our stop! After about 20 mins we were off the bus and standing foreignly in front of another bus stop sign wondering, “What do we do now?” We looked at our hosts instructions: “Take the U 1 to Kerflurstr… and then walk on Polters… to 103.” Ok, so I’m thinking “the U” means an underground line. No it wasn’t an intuitive insight. I just looked over Schylie’s shoulder and saw a big blue U on a sign at the top of a set of stairs leading down under. “Just like the Tube in London,” I thought.  “Do you speak English?” I asked a lady standing at the stop with us. “Yes I do, but I’m catching this bus coming now, so I only have a second.” “Can you tell us how to get to (pointing at the computer screen again. I found it worked much better to just let them read it than to try and say it).” “Oh yes, you need to that that Underground line there (blah, blah, blah).” Okay, so at least we were on the right track.

We went down under. Uh, which side of the tracks? The place names weren’t helpful. I found a map and realized that we were at the end of the line. Seems simple enough. The next train that comes by, just get on it. It did come. And as soon as everyone was off, we loaded. Whew! That was easy! I heard a man yelling over the speakers but naturally I ignored him. He was speaking German–which means he certainly wasn’t speaking to me. Suddenly a kind young man grabbed Schylie’s arm and gestured for us to get off the train, pointing to the train on the other side of the tracks. Guess it wasn’t so easy after all.

Well, at least now we were on the right train. Next mission: figure out where to get off. We were looking for Kerflurstr… You know the place, right? So we just kept riding until we saw that word on a sign outside on the wall. When we did, we got off. What a comfort it was to look up to the signs and see the name of the street our lodging was on, Potsdamerstrasse. So we followed the arrow to the Augsang (exit), ascended the steps to the street level and found ourselves on Potsdamerstrasse. I looked under the street name to see the numbers of the block addresses listed and deciphered that our place was a half-block’s walk away.

At the airport I screenshot the “let yourself in” directions from our host. It was 5 pages long with pictures and descriptions because it included a lock box, with 3 keys in it, 4 doors, and 3 flights of stairs. So I went to photos and followed the labyrinthine instructions to let ourselves at 4PM. Thank God!

It was immediately obvious that we didn’t get the room that was in the picture online. Our host rents 2 rooms and we got the “B” graded room while (as we learned after dinner) 2 other ladies got the “A” graded room. Our room is a bit shabby and dusty, as if it hasn’t been used in a long while. But… no matter. We’re so thankful to be here and with the windows wide-open now, it’s starting to cool down a bit. I pray we can can all sleep well tonight.

After cleaning up, we headed out for dinner, determined to stay on our street. We walked up and down it a few times, narrowing the options between the restaurants in which we sorta knew what we were getting (we could make some sense of the menu) and those which we had no idea what they were serving. We opted for Lulu Guldsmeden (which was also a hotel), a Nordic cuisine, with a waiter from New York. Schylie ordered one of the vegetarian options: onions with pickled seaweed and buckwheat. Christie ordered the fish entree: plaice with cucumbers and rhubarb. I ordered beef cheeks with slaw and greens. An interesting cuisine to be sure, but we each enjoyed our meal and cleaned our plate.

More than that, we greatly enjoyed the waiter and he offered for us to use the hotel’s taxi service to get to the airport next Wednesday. Thank you Lord! I didn’t want to attempt the train and bus routine, especially in reverse at 4:30 in the morning.

After dinner we made our way back underground to buy the bus tickets for tomorrow. We’re heading to Alexanderplatz for a concentration camp tour. And now we’re back at the hotel and settling down for the night. Thank you for your prayers. We’ll keep you posted as we’re able (we’re limited by wifi, of course).

God bless you!

Daddy, Schylie, & Christie