Berlin, the 1st and 2nd days

On our first day in Berlin (Wednesday) the sun was shining and it was quite hot. Gabriele went to the conference early in the morning and I got a map from the reception and began walking. My aim was to go to the Turkish area and see what they have to offer :-)

For the ones that are familiar with Berlin, our hotel is in Budapester strasse. I began walking towards the south east from our hotel, towards Kreuzberg, the Turkish part. Not after long I began seeing the first ladies with the headscarves and the first Turkish cafe shops (kahvehane) with men sitting inside drinking tea and playing cards! Just like in Turkey! Then the number of the shops that had Turkish names increased and the Turkish jewellery shops appeared, then came the Turkish groceries with all the colorful and fresh vegetables placed outside, and the salesmen shouting as they do in the Turkish markets, only this time in German. I entered in one of the Turkish jewellery shops and chose a bracelet for my little one, I ordered them to engrave his name on the bracelet, paid and left. Today I am supposed to go and get the bracelet.

After the Turkish area I decided to go back to civilization and began walking up towards Potzdamer Platz, the area with the postmodern glass buildings. I didn't stop there either. After a few phone calls I found out that the wife of a Turkish friend is in Alexanderplatz and she is waiting for me. Not listening to the painful cries coming from my poor feet I changed my direction towards east, target: Alexanderplatz. I went all the way up Leipziger strasse, then turned left to Friedrich strasse (one of my favorite streets here in Berlin), but then decided not to lose a lot of time there and changed direction again towards the east. Three hours after leaving the hotel I was in Alexanderplatz, all tired, melted under the extreme sun, my clothes all wet with sweat, my feet bleeding in some places, my brain cooked, my face red.... and with an urgent need to go to the bathroom!

I said 'hello' to our friend's wife (we met for the first time then and there), and said that I had to find a toilet! What a first impression I must have made ;-) We entered C&A and went straight up to the floor where they had the bathrooms. It is so strange in this country that you have to pay for the toilets that are in the shops, in McDonalds etc. Anyway, I was more relaxed ;-) We bought some shorts and T-shirts for our little sons (she has a son that is born around the same time that our daughter is born, and a younger son that is born around the time our son is born, what a coincidence!). After a light lunch right there in Alexanderplatz (under the hotel Park Inn, which we remember always with a smile on our faces from the time we stayed there in the summer of 2003; I will tell you another time why that smile) she left with some other Turkish friends and I decided that it was time for me to go back to our hotel now that I was kilometers away, it would take me quite a while to walk back.. But I really didn't have the force in me to walk back... I decided to take a taxi back to the hotel. The only problem was that I didn't have any cash on me! Then I remembered having seen a little sticker on the window of the taxi that we had taken from the airport to our hotel that said that we could pay with our credit cards. God save the credit cards and the guy who invented them!

I didn't know where I could get a taxi so I began walking towards the museum area, in the direction of our hotel. After a while I got lost! I had the map in my hand but the tiny streets that I was walking through were not marked on that map! I just had to continue my walk with the gut feeling, trying to remember the times that I had walked through those streets 4 years ago. Finally I came out to the main street in Unter Den Linden (the linden trees do not leave me alone in Berlin, neither. It smells of linden everywhere also here.) I checked the map and found out a taxi stop was pretty near. When I entered in the taxi I gave out a huge breath. I was literally exhausted. It was around 14:45 and I had been walking since 9:30, sitting only for 20 minutes during lunch. Walking under the sun, over 30 degrees centigrade...

I arrived at the hotel, refreshed myself with some cold water and went out again, almost immediately, this time to meet my best friend from Norway who is also here for the conference. We met in Kurfürstendamm and went to Starbucks to have a cup of coffee and a good chat.. Afterwards we did some windows shopping and some real shopping ;-) I went back to the hotel around 18:30, took a fast shower, changed and got out again with Gabriele to attend the opening ceremony. It turned out that they didn't have enough spaces in the hall for the ceremony and we couldn't enter. It was no loss, was even better, so we had more time left to be spent with our friends. We went out with our Turkish dentist friends and went to a cafe/restaurant at the Sony center at Potzdamer Plazt. We finished the day there....

Yesterday when I woke up I couldn't walk! No wonder.... The day before I had walked so much that all the muscles in my legs were hurting. But of course this didn't stop me from going out and hitting the streets again ;-) I was out with two Turkish friends the whole morning on Kurfürstendamm, the shopping street. Our main target was KaDeWe, the biggest shopping center of Berlin, so they say... It is quite an elegant shopping center. I mainly did window shopping but had to buy some presents for my daughter otherwise she will be very angry seeing the things I have already bought for the boy.. I bought her a small bag to carry her snack everyday to school. I also bought the matching snack box and a little thermos to put her milk or juice. When we were in the toys department I couldn't stop myself and bought also a construction set for her. When I was little I loved playing with construction sets, making pulleys, constructing strange vehicles etc. I hope she also enjoys this new toy. And I had to get a miniature bus for my son, he loves playing with his miniature cars..

We ate our lunch at a Chinese corner in KaDeWe. When we got out the rain was pouring, so we decided to go back to our hotels. After two days of intense walking (and shopping) I was quite tired. I found myself in bed.. I slept for about 2 hours, then took my shower, Gabriele arrived, we got prepared and went out to attend the President's reception at the concert hall of Berlin. Since it was raining very heavily it was impossible to find a taxi. We waited over 15 minutes in front of the hotel in a queue before we got our taxi.



The concert hall is a very huge building, very stylish. The problem was that the reception was extremely crowded. We had to wait in line over half an hour to get a plate of food and finally when it was our turn to food was finished!!! At least there was a lot to drink, though we still had to stay in line for that, too. I met many old friends from Norway, Norwegian and non. We had great laughs, lot to drink, pain in the feet because of standing son our feet all the time, but it was worth it. When we came back to our hotel it was after 23, and being the lazy people we are, we went straight to bed instead of sitting at the bar or going somewhere else to enjoy our child-free time..

This morning we woke up to cloudy skies, but now that I have been siting here over an hour writing this post it has changed. There is sun shining and I think I should use this opportunity to go out and enjoy Berlin. This is the last full day I have here. Tomorrow evening we will be travelling back home.