Jallo!
For those of you who haven’t heard, Nell’s luggage went missing during her flight into Berlin on account of an epic windstorm. Epic is no exaggeration; I was almost blown over a few times. Because of this, the airport was unable to unload any luggage from the airplanes for the entire evening. Upon Nell’s arrival, she was instructed to fill out a baggage claim and return the next day. We were assured that her bag would appear by 6:00 AM the following day.
The next morning, we returned to Tegel Airport. We learned that all 4,000 passengers who had lost their bags (roughly 12,000 pieces of luggage in all) the previous night were searching for their bags as well and that we would have to be patient. Apparently, they had mixed all of the bags together into one, large pile.
The next day, we revisited the airport, only to be informed that her luggage would definitely not be available until after Easter. At this point, we were beginning to panic. Nell was set to leave for Eastern Europe on Monday. She was experiencing the ultimate backpacker’s nightmare of losing her backpack.
On Monday, we took the train to Tegel yet again. The situation had not improved and did not seem likely to improve for another week or so.
Today, Nell made the executive and badass decision to set off on her travels without her luggage. It will be a practice in minimalism in any case. She left for Prague today and I am now without my travel buddy of the last 2 and a half months. We plan to reconvene in May in the beautiful country of France.
Despite all of this, the past week has been beautiful. We saw the Berlin Wall, went clubbing, ate Döner, went to about a million markets, sat on a rooftop, and even frequented the touristy area to see the Congress building and the Holocaust Memorial. Mostly, the past week has involved me falling unconditionally and irrevocably in love with this gritty, loud, covered-in-spraypaint city.
Today, Viv and I were passing by Friedrichstrauß and stopped by to see the famous “museum island.” The buildings in this particular district are rare in that they were built before the second World War. This means that they survived pretty intense bombing. The walls of many of the buildings were stained black, a reminder of the history that Berliners walk past every, single day.
One of the most interesting things about this city is its recent and violent past; particularly the ways in which it has recovered.
In other news, I have acquired a lighter from the first World War that looks like something belonging to Albus Dumbledore and also learned the best way to nod and smile and make it look like I speak fluent German without uttering a single word.
Tschüss!
Lola
A Grand Day Out 