Erfurt to Berlin 09-01-08

Please note- I am going to start including more German words into my blogs, they are so common to me now that to translate them is painful. I think Pat and Bernie are going to be everyone’s favorite people when it comes to reading my blogs with the ever more increasing Deutsch.
I am currently on the zug to Berlin. The thoughts going through my brain are repetitive and the same as so many other travelers that have been away from home for so long. One month. I have one full month behind me in Europe. I can’t help but sit here and wonder where my time has gone. I feel an excitement in me at the thought of going back to the US to go back to the world I knew before. It would seem that I have spent so much time here that my gestures are no longer American, and that I no longer have “I’m an American” stamped across my forehead. Everyone around me that speaks to me expects me to spricht Deutsch. They can tell I don’t belong to their city, but they don’t expect me to be foreign. It’s a rainy day and the train I’m on is going to stop in Weimar. I can already see the tower of Buchenwald. I do remember that day well. It is burned into my memory as the day that I honored the dead. I woke up in a mood to remember today. I don’t know why, but I woke up with an argument on my lips. It was one of the arguments I had about coming to Europe. I believe it was the one where I said “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” I have one month and all of that behind me now. It still seems odd to me. I walk around and everyone I meet in Erfurt, I ask “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” There’s nothing wrong with my Deutsch and I know that they don’t speak English. They were taught Russian in school, because this is East Deutschland. But I crave to hear them say “a little bit”. I crave those few words of my native tongue! I don’t need to hear it as desperately as I did 2 weeks ago while I was sick in Ilmenau. I find that the craving for my language dies a slow painfully heartfelt death. I want to cry- my yearning for English is that great! To me it is not the actual language or the music to it. I actually find it to be one of the less melodic and less pretty languages I have heard. To me it is a symbol of my world. A marker of all that is familiar and homely to me. For me to hear English spoken means I am one step closer to my world, my time, my family, my home. I still have a full week and a half to go before I go home, but tomorrow I will join the other half of my study abroad and it will all be in English.
Strangely, I have mixed feelings about this fact. I think and feel that in a foreign land the native language of that land should be the only language spoken, but it’s entangled with my ache for home. I guess the old saying is true: “You never know what you have until it’s gone from you”. Well, bless the powers that be! I have a luxury most people don’t. I have the luxury of being able to return to what I left behind, and I have that great luxury of being greeted home with open arms! Thank God for that fact! Now! Now, that I know what it is that I yearn and crave for from home I will cherish it all the more! One more thing is certain. When I return home, you will notice that I have left my loving obsession of trains behind with the Deutsche Bahn. It is a good way to travel and you do get to see so much of the country, plus you have the room to move, but I am so tired of trains and the DB.
I am most definitely on the Road to Shambala! (Needless to say I am a huge Three Dog Night fan!) I feel soo much better than I did! I sang, I danced, and it rained! People slipped and slid every where! It’s so funny to hear the Deutsch screaming and cussing about rain! Currently, the “essenzimmer” in the basement for fruhstuck und abendessen looks like a scene from Noah’s ark and all of the picnic tables can be seen through the windows acting as there own arks! It’s so funny! Let me start from the beginning.
I got off the train in the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. I was overwhelmed! I now know what Napoleon or Alexander the Great felt when they first began to understand what it would take to form an army and storm a city! I had a tremor in my bones that wouldn’t stop. When I saw the shear size of the train station I knew I had underestimated this city! It was five levels tall and on the first level was the train station for IC/ICE trains. Then 3 levels fur Kaufen and the top level had more trains. The top level is for the tram! Can you imagine my shock to know I had 4 ton trains above my head and beneath my feet! That station is an engineering marvel! I know! I watch it being built on a Nat. Geo. Special! You should see the roof! It’s pure glass! The special was from 2005. They were in a race against the clock because they wanted it to be done in time for the FIFA world cup. I don’t know if the y did finish it in time though. But it looks so good now! I figured out very quickly that it would take more balls to continue on than I thought it originally would! It took me 30 minutes just to get my head on straight enough to realize I forgot to plan my entrance into Berlin! Every where I have gone I knew what to expect, what I was in for and what streets I needed to get where, but I forgot to do that with Berlin! So, I put my head back on my shoulders and walked to Pizza Hut which was next to Burger King. I wanted American advice on how to make my entrance! So, that was the perfect place to get it! I just hung back for a bit waited to hear someone struggle to order, jump in line behind them and say “that sounds like English to me! Where ya from?” They said Florida. So, I got pizza hut sat down at a table near to them and waited for an opportunity to open up a conversation as to what method of transport they liked best. (I know- it sounds like stalking, but how else was I going to get American advice? Hold a sign over my head that said “Americans come here to help me!”?) They were leaving the stadt and going back to Florida. They gave me every map they had and no longer wanted/needed and maps are not free/cheap here! So, I began to plan my entrance. But the best thing they did for me was to remind me to find the tourist bureau! It was not easy to find either! After about 15 minutes of wondering about without hope of a reprieve I pulled my self into a corner and allowed my front heavy suitcase to fall over and tossed a map over it. I was Alexander the Great trying to fell the Walls of the Persian Empire! The station is so big they have two Deutsche Bahn Reise Buro on every floor! I went to 2 of them asking where the Tourist info counter was. Finally I found it! It was the very last store in the front corner on the street level shopping center! Once again I was Napoleon and I was seeking the advice of a trusted advisor! She just didn’t happen to speak very good English. But I found out both of my destinations were in Ost Berlin. Turns out my Hostel is further into Ost Berlin than my hotel for my 2nd study abroad! I needed to go to the Ostkruez S-bahnhof. I need to take the S-bahnhof and not the U-bahn! Can you imagine being such a big city you need to have 3 different types of train traffic! But I bought my karte for huete und am Morgen fahren. For each bahnhof I need to walk ein halb km to my hostel/hotel.
The S-bahn was the train traffic above my head. I had to go up to Gleis 15 and take either the #5, 7, or 75. She recommended the 75. I took the 7. It worked out fine. From what I saw of the city I am very impressed. Once again I am very taken by the graffiti! The shear amount of detail is very impressive! Also, the buildings are very nice in West Berlin. Here, in East Berlin, you’re better off not knowing. I know why we are staying in East Berlin though. It’s cheaper. The west is over run by 5 star Hiltons, Ritz Carlton’s, etc! No way U. C. can afford to stay there! I am glad I arrived alone though. According to the syllabi my group is arriving from the airport by taxis! That is going to cost a fortune! I can imagine it will be €10 per person compared to the €2.30 I paid and I only need to walk halb ein km. I find that to be a small price to pay. What they are doing is absurd! If they don’t take taxis we could see so much more! I hope Tod Herzog is financially smarter than Richard Schade! (Schade was originally leading the tour but had to drop out for health reasons. “Sehr schade!” A little play on words- Schade is his name but schade auf deutsch is “too bad”.)
So, now I’m at my hostel and in one piece. I wasn’t pleased when I arrived. My entrance wasn’t smooth. However, the real challenge is when I got the key card for my room telling me I’m on the top floor (4th) with no elevator, no bell hop, and a tight cork screw stair case! Also, for the building I’m currently in- the rooms are 15 feet tall by 7 feet wide. I’m in much better shape than I was before I left the US! When I first started climbing up the stairs in Ilmenau with my suit case I was exhausted after the first floor! Now I don’t get tired until the 3rd floor and that is with my 25 pound bag on my back and my 35 pound suit case in my hands! By the time I get to where I’m going my arms are jello! So much for my baby soft hands also. I now have calluses from hauling/pulling my suitcase and my hands haven’t seen an ounce of lotion in a month! So as I sat in the room and looked out the window at 4:30 PM, I thought I could have stayed the night in the Hauptbahnhof! It would have been easy. It’s open 24/7 and I would have enjoyed it more, it would have been cheaper too and my arms wouldn’t feel like jello! But I collected my self and I stopped being intimidated by such a simple thing as a few buildings! I walked out side.
This is where things change. Two buildings down is the local supermarket. I felt like I was walking into the Kroger in Coryville. (Needless to say this is not the perfect area. Let’s face it, it’s East Berlin. Go ahead Pat, tell Mom how bad the east still is after 18 years of re-unification.) So, I was in the “Lild” market and I find that a 1.5 liter of Pepsi is 25 cents cheaper than a 1.25 liter of Coke. I got the Pepsi. Also, I splurged and paid the €2.45 for the 320 grams of plain M&M’s. I think you can figure out very quickly that M&Ms sind teuer heir. They aren’t fresh either. They were shipped from France where Euro Mars Inc. is based. Coke is based in Berlin and it’s very fresh, aber auch teuer! By the time I got through line at 17:50 es regnet sehr viel!
This is where my day turned around! I waited for about 20 min. for the rain to stop or let up and it wouldn’t. So, I rolled up my pants, popped out my umbrella, and just began laughing! I was laughing at all of the people cowering in the windows and door ways all because of rain! As I walked I had fun dodging the rivers of water (all of the drains were clogged/backed up for some reason). As I walked into the parking lot of the hostel I see that it’s a complete and total washout! I saw a few points of high ground and picked my way through! The way I had to go reminded me so much of the dance from “Singin’ in the Rain”. So, I let the exuberance from the movie flow through me! I got to the ‘check in’ building with minimal water wear while everyone else in there looks like they just took a shower or got out of a swimming pool! Also, the floor of the building was covered in a half inch of water! The staff are doing all they can to battle the flood and the guests are just being obnoxious and soo needy! At first I walked into the bar and asked fur abendessen. Sie sagt auf deutsch it’s in the basement of the main building and some other stuff. I have time to kill. So, I sit down and watch the guests dart to and fro and slip and slide and curse and scream auf deutsch. I began busting a gut laughing! It felt so good. But I began to feel bad because the staff were battling the flood where I was sitting. I didn’t know if they thought I was laughing at them or not. So, I grabbed a broom from someone and began helping. They said it wasn’t needed. Again I played dumb and sagt auf schlecktes Deutsch “many hands make small work”. They didn’t understand and let me help. They told me I could have a free drink from the bar. I asked if I could stay free as a joke. They said no, and I said I don’t drink. (I left all alcohol behind me in Ilmenau. That little bender is over.) I told them nein danke, and kept working. We had 3 mops and what seemed to be an endless supply of bed sheets. But it was endless, because I don’t have sheets on my bed right now. It’s fine. It’s only for a night. I’ll be out of here by 7:00 AM and on to the next place any way. (Plus, sheets aren’t free.) When the rain stopped I walked out side and saw the basement version of Noah’s Ark through the windows. I laughed turned around went back through the building and went to the Pizza place at the corner of the parking lot. I’m still surprised! I got a calzone. It was very good and given the line they had and how full the dining room was I got my food so fast and very fresh! Es war nicht teuer! Es war nur €2.10, and given that I had my Pepsi (€0.85) with me dinner was cheap! I can’t believe even including my S-bahn tickets (not including Pizza Hut) the M&Ms were the most expensive thing I have bought heute!
Currently, ich bin in mein Zimmer mit 2 Deutscherin. Ich denke sie sind Mutter and daughter, aber ich weisst nicht. Either way they asked me about the up coming election. I told them I need my CNN fix to know. I can’t believe I am missing the coverage of the Republican National convention! We have a small 10 inch tv in the room. But it’s too high for us to reach, and we don’t have a remote or a chair tall enough to reach it! When I first got into the room and saw that, I figured out very quickly that if I wind up in hell- that tv would be apart of my hell! It’s sad isn’t it that I am that much of a news fanatic?!?! I think it’s time to call it quits don’t you? After 7 pages of very little importance, it’s time to say Good night! Gute Nacht! Ich leibe ihr! Tschus!