18:45 local time
birkenstraße, berlin
day 2. immediately, i am sitting in the roommate, peters, room, while my former roommate, luise naps before we go to her friends for a new years party. Guten Rutsch, so the germans say. it is pretty cold, but that was to be expected, right?
yesterday, i was met at the airport by rike, a friend from lüneburg. we took my things to leave at dino and rachels door and went to wander around hamburg. there is a giant, almost normal (read: american) mall there where we had thai food for lunch. then, we went to her apartment and a little laters i met rachel at the main train station. when i met rachel, we went to her apartment where we were greeted by dino (another friend from lüneburg. ask about him, cool story). they live in st. pauli, a young, somewhat crazy neighborhood that has some really awesome apartments, which we saw on ou way to dinner. i had apfelschorle (apple juice w/ sparkling water) and salami pizza. we came home, watched napoleon dynamite, and i went to sleep. and got the best sleep ive had in probably three weeks--9-10 hours!! amazing!!
this morning, we had breakfast and rachel took me to meet my train for berlin. it was 35 minutes late--crazy--especially for a german ICE (fast) train. i was sent on my way with some pastries, most notably, a berliner!
>>evidently, a german new years tradition is to have berliners and pass them out and whomever receives one filled with mustard instead of jelly is supposed to have a year of bad luck!<<
apparently, it is customary, when a train is very late in germany, to get a fere tea or coffee. the unusally friendly girl in the seat next to me went to get ours, but the line was to long so the effort was retired. also, the conductor was pretty funny. the whole train laughed when he spoke, another unusual thing. perhaps everyone is in a good mood because it is a party evening. its really neat, though.
things of note:
°lovely luise: always the hostess, she is keeping me for the night and tomorrow, too, probably, and she made dinner, too! and she is taking me to a new years party in potsdam.
°no travel companion, as yet. thomas couldnt come, and i was waaaay bummed. he says maybe in weimar on saturday? i hope so!!
°new years fireworks. normal, but a little strange to hear in berlin, methinks.
lieben grüßs!...sarah
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