We woke up this morning in Berlin. Not at 11pm or 2am as our bodies tried to convince us to, but at 6am. We did it. But it’s been a struggle!
Things started out rough. Our check-in lady at Sydney seemed totally unsure whether or not our luggage would actually be transferred through to Berlin. Apparently “it might” but also “we don’t have an agreement with that airline so you’ll probably need to collect your luggage at Munich” and when informed that we would miss our transfer if that happened we were told that the travel agent had sold us what they call an “illegal transfer”. Well this was going well.
Thankfully Marthese was forceful and our attendant checked with her manager, and everything would be fine. But our anxiety had already started to kick in.
Next hurdle was the announcement from the pilot once we were on the plane that “due to an unknown technical problem, we’ll be returning to the terminal for our engineers to investigate.” Marthese and I looked at each other – what is going on today?
The takeoff was delayed by an hour as the engineers reset the systems in question and the plane was was given extra fuel, and that fuel was used to make up the lost time in the air. Everything was going smoothly again. This Qantas to Hong Kong flight was one of the best we’ve ever been on – excellent entertainment system with huge selection, best airline food we’ve ever had – it was stellar.
We indulged in a little Luxury Lounge action at Hong Kong (just a food buffet and a shower really) but the travelling was taking its toll. I was just coming off a huge day of work despite still getting over a cold, and was feeling pretty wrecked.
Our Lufthansa flights to Berlin then Munich were less eventful and less impressive, and soon we were sleep deprived zombies waiting for our accomodation on the streets of Berlin. Once checked in to our peculiar AirBnB, we decided to explore the neighbourhood a bit to try to stay awake and get onto German time.
Prenzlauer Berg is a funky suburb in the east, pretty much right on the brink of hip culture morphing into full gentrification. Dilapidated buildings covered in graffiti are directly across the road from gorgeous new apartment complexes. It’s a funky area, and we soon found ourselves strolling through a garbage strewn Mauer Park, which was a far cry from the bustling version we visited on our Honeymoon 3 years ago.
Well Marthese is back from her grocery store run and brought a lovely croissant and coffee for me, so I’ll terminate this rather uninteresting entry for now.
Auf Wiedersehen.
Elias Rambles 
If that’s uninteresting then I can’t wait for the next instalment. I hope you are fully recovered Elias. Travel is taxing on the fit and well. Love the photos already. Did you get woken up for meals as instructed? We saw Lego Batman on Sunday and joined Beth for delicious pizza at Osteria Antica near hers for dinner. Don was out skateboarding. We visited Oreo also. Cath and I fly to Launceston on Th at 3 pm and we will return on Sunday, probably with Zelda’s problem- extra weight!! Thank goodness it’s only three nights and not six weeks!
Thanks for this blog- I have been hanging out for it. Off to choir tonight. Yay!! Love to you both and enjoy the fascinating city you love, and all its changes, even in three years. xx