i think there may have been a meeting somewhere in the city yesterday. one where they all decided to give me whack directions at every turn...either that or i wasn't paying attention. or both. or a million other reasons i just couldn't find where i was going.
i had been congratulating myself on the quick study i had been on learning the s-train, the underground, etc. and thinking how i was pretty proud of myself on learning the maps. yup. i was.
then i decided, as a last little adventure, to try and find KaDeWe, continental europe's largest mall...now why would i want to go to the biggest mall in all of europe? one: my pal mike had just been to berlin and said it was insane and b: well, i have my reasons. and i'll tell you this, once i found it, it's huge. and it's a big square building that houses all the brands that you would find at say macy's or the bay or old eaton's but also all the holt renfrew brands and fancy pants stuff. and, as far as i could tell, is one big store, not a mall in the sense of pacific centre on vancouver where there are a bunch of individual stores in one huge building.
good lord.
it was all going well until i got off the train at charlottenburg. which i was sure i was suppose to. then i walked to a small mall and asked the info woman how to get to the big huge ass mall. she gave me directions and i was off...no biggie. i went to the subway she had told me to go to and it all seemed wrong. so i went back to the info booth and asked her again. she said i had gone to the wrong one and that i was to go outside and take a left and up the street five minutes was the underground i wanted. so i did that. well over five minutes up the street i was now in a whole new zone and no new underground. i then reverted back to my 'look at their hands when they speak not what they say always' mode and backtracked to the small mall and then up the street five minutes and i was at the right underground and, after asking for the correct train, on my way to the big as mall.
after going in and conducting my business i decided i would try another currywurst to see if it was any better in this part of town. nope. it wasn't. as far as i can tell, currywurst is just a big wiener with ketchup on it. period. if you like that sort of thing, you'll love it.
then it was back on the underground and i knew i could go one stop back and get to the zoo station, famous from the movie 'christian F' and the scorpions song 'the zoo' and U2's album...anyways. i asked a woman on the platform if the train i was about to get on took me to the zoo station, she said yes in english.
well, it didn't. it went the exact wrong way. so i had to get off and then wait for a train going the other direction back to the zoo station and then connect to a train to my main stop near my hotel.
holy cow...
after all that i was done. i watched a little BBC and sky news and called it a night. i had thought about going to see the second lambchop show but it was sold-out and the night before prices had been very high to buy scalper tickets and i didn't have it in me to negotiate with a german ticket hound. i had also thought of going back to the taco joint for a little dinner but the wind and rain kept me from that was it is quite a walk from here.
so bed early and up early as i'm off to the airport soon and back to england where i have a hotel near heathrow booked and will catch my flight back to boston sunday morning.
i think, for me, five days in berlin was about right. i saw a lot of very interesting sights - museums, parks, stores, etc. walked a ton. ate some good and weird food. saw lampchop. met kurt. ate some berlin tacos. met some dudes from the netherlands. it was well worth the trip.
now. some packing. some breakfast. and one more train ride to the airport.
auf wiedersehen
g. xo
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