Day 3 – Where’s Waldo, um, my luggage?
It pays to push through as long as possible on day one to deal with jet lag. I am waking up after a solid 5 hours of sleep to a concert of birds and an especially happy pigeons that I am originally mistaking for an owl.
I am meeting a childhood friend who still lives in my street for a four mile morning walk to catch up. Lichterfelde, the part of Berlin in which I grew up with, gives my fairytale vibes of “Dornröschen” – “Sleeping Beauty.” Everything looks like it has been preserved but grown over with trees and nature. Especially, and always most amazing to me, the area where the wall used to be, is grown over by a forest. They left a piece of the original in walking distance from the house I grew up:
By 10:30 I have not received a call when they would drop off my luggage. So I am calling the main line again, I am given a choice whether I want to speak to somebody in German or English, I first choose English. After 45 minutes I hear the connecting ring, only to be hung up on right-away. Ouch. My second try, this time choosing German as target language, runs for 55 minutes as I write this, And I got a shave, shower, and second morning coffee in while being on hold.
A competent friendly attendant is with me after 1h 7m and immediately notices „hmm, you said you want to pick up the luggage so it is marked wrongly.“ Having now spent 2h 5 min in that phone on hold (while doing other stuff in parallel) it takes another 75 minutes later I have my luggage. My brother took me to the airport, I was ushered through the „Trottel Tür“ – meant for people that went through customs without picking up their luggage – and have mine within 5 minutes. Phew. That could have ended worse. The couple next to me is not pleased learning that their luggage is still in Copenhagen, and the place is a zoo mid day on a Saturday. One has to be very balanced and calm to work here.
The day peaked at 95F – ouch – so we replace lunch with some light fruit and have dinner at „Weißes Rössl,“ not at the Wolfgangsee, but in Lichterfelde. I am refreshed after a brief 1.5 h power nap and my brother and I are planning the night. We decide to takeout easy and save the cocktail bar hopping for another night.
Closing the night with Nick Cage‘s surprisingly great and fun „Massive Talent“ and a German drink new to me, definitely not really vodka. With an evening stroll I am above 20K steps today. This is surely makes up for the „Ritter Sport“ chocolate I had 😉
StageAficionado 