Advertisement
Published: August 24th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Charlottenburg Palace
This is the Palace that's about a 2 minute walk from my house So where to begin eh?
Well the last day in Canada was one of the hardest things that I've ever had to go through. I feel like I said more goodbyes in one weekend than I've said in my whole life. However, for me it makes the trip a little easier knowing that I will be coming back to see such good people.
I don't remember much of the first leg of my journey from Moncton to Montreal minus the pleasant woman from Hamilton that I was sitting beside who had been vacationing in PEI. When I answered her question about my future plans for university with Memorial, I had to laugh when she replied: Oh! New-found-land! I find it funny that even people as close as Ontario can't pronounce one of the provinces in the Maritimes.
Once I arrived, I found my gate to Franfurt pretty easily and decided to have some supper before the plane ride. After China, I realize how generally terrible plane food is and although my chicken baguette fries and ice tea came to almost twenty dollars, I think it was worth it. I believe the best part of sitting in the airport was
The First Supper
This was my first real meal in Berlin and it was pretty good! the 'people watching' as my mom would say because being in the international section of the airport I got to see a variety of different people.
On the plane ride over to Frankfurt, I sat beside a very interesting man from Montreal who taught at Laval University in Aerodynamics! I soon found out that he was on his way to Stockholm, Sweden to attend a conference on turbulence (which he researched and specialized in) and then was on his way to Munich. The only complaints that I have of the plane ride was: 1) My feet were cold the whole time 2) I found it hard to fall asleep. Other than that it was fine.
Arriving in Frankfurt was a bit mind boggling just because of the sheer size of the place. The man I sat beside had mentioned that it was one of the biggest airports in Europe and I was soon thrust in the middle of thousands of people all going every which way. Despite the chaos, all the gates were clearly marked and it only too me two escalators, two elavators, a futuristic moving hallway and a 5 minute walk to get there!
I
My room
This is my new room! slept right through the plane ride from Frankfurt to Berlin and had no trouble finding my bags when I arrived at Tegel Airport. My host mom, Claudia, met me outside the baggage claim with a big smile and a warm hug. I haven't taken any pictures of her yet but she is about 5'9 I think with blonde hair and an infectious laugh. Her english is pretty good compared to everyone I've met so far and she's been asking me lots of questions and making me feel right at home. We took a short bus ride from the airport to her apartment in Klausenderplatz which has a little garden and a park with little shops scattered in amongst the apartments. Claudia's apartment is quiet cosy, with a living room/dinning room/bedroom, my room which is bigger than my own at home, a tiny kitchen and bathroom (about the size of closets to be honest) and then a spare room which she boards to students.
My first night in Berlin was pretty quiet, Claudia made a delicious meat/potatoe stew and rice with a salad doused in vinagrette. It was at this time that I met a guy that had boarded with
Main Room
This is the living room/computer room/dining room/bedroom Claudia for two years named Nezaro from Damascus, Syria! With just me and Claudia living together it's nice to have someone else around my age to talk to. I feel like he is almost a seregate host brother because he is so close with Claudia. It's very interesting to listen to him talk about Damascus and to learn about the Middle East from something other than the news!
Yesterday, we did a little shopping around Klausenderplatz. There was little bit of excitement in one of the drug stores that we were in when I watched as a man went ridged and then fell to the ground in an epilleptic seizure! Thankfully though Claudia is a nurse and came to the rescue until the paramedics came but it was quite the event. For supper we had the leftover stew from the night before and had Nezaro over for company again.
I think the highlight of my trip so far is the 'Old person' disquo tech I went to last night around midnight. Claudia is a bit of a home-body but she does like to go to one disquo tech with friends so she invited me along and of course
Kitchen
Part of the kitchen I had to say yes! Claudia doesn't own a car (and in a big city like Berlin there's a lot of people who don't) so we got out some bikes and rode through the deserted streets of Berlin to the club. I dont think you've lived until 1) You've riden through the streets of Berlin in the dead of night and 2) Seen middle age Europeans dance! The disquo tech was pretty small and fairly quiet with maybe thirty people or so but the lone people that were dancing made up for the lack of exciting atmostphere. I've never seen 5 people on a dance floor all dancing by themselves and seemed perfectly okay with it! I spent the longest time having to look away from the dance floor because I was about to burst out laughing. My favourite though was one middle aged woman with short blond hair sticking out with gel that had on a black long sleeved shirt with black feathers around the cuffs and neck with high mom jeans and leopard print patches all over her pants. If anyone is a Sex and the City fan, it was Charlotte in the episode when they go to
Kitchen
A little bit more of the kitchen Statton Island and she gets drunk and dances by herself. Just picture that but.. worse.. and .. extremely.. European.
So, after all the excitement from last night, today is a pretty quiet day with the exception of Nezaro's sister from Damascus coming to visit with her two year old daughter Maria. Maybe the cutest little girl I've ever seen, and all she speaks is Arabian! I think they are joining us for supper so that should be fun.
Well, hopefully I've filled you all in on my first couple of days here. School starts on monday so I'm excited to see some people my own age but also pretty nervous. I havent had real first day of school jitters in a long time! Some things to look forward to though: on saturday Claudia is taking me to Night of the Museum which is one night every year in Berlin all the museums open late and you only have to buy one ticket to go to any of the them you want so pretty much my dream come true (I hope to hit the Egyptian one and the Picasso one as well as others) also Nezaro say's that he'll
Bathroom
Still havent mastered the European shower yet.. take me to a more youthful disquo tech on thursday and on friday Claudia is taking me to a family reunion! She say's that her mother is renting out a castle (yeah.. a castle? haha) for all the guests to stay in and there will be a tour of the town (three hours outside of Berlin by train) and then a party on saturday night.
Anyways that is enough typing for one day!
Auf Wiedersehen!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.143s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.1016s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Scott
non-member comment
YAY!
I'm so happy to hear your having an amazing time, and just on the first day too haha, Claudia sounds like a hoot! keep me up to date!