Because our tour had ended, today we slept in. Not super late,
obviously, because we didn't know how long breakfast would last, but I
don't think we went down until 9AM? 9:30AM?
Regardless,
today we were heading to Berlin!... at 7PM at night, so truthfully we
technically still had at least half a day left to wander around Venice.
My sister, who would not be joining us in Berlin, was leaving by train
to head to Rome again at 11:25. Due to this, and the fact that we didn't
need to check out of our hotel until noon, me and my brother spent our
entire time using the internet downstairs because for once, it was very
fast and very reliable. My sister left, my parents went to see her off,
my mom managed to buy a pair of (what looked like very warm) boots in
the process, and me and my brother sat there like the young generation
we are glued to our electronics. Then it was time to go. We left our
suitcases at the hotel, checked-out and then went out to walk and find a
place to eat lunch.
We found a place
eventually, a nice little restaurant that was very empty.We found it
interesting how people in Venice would literally stand near the door and
look for people who stepped close to the restaurant, and as soon as
they spotted someone, would open the door and try to get them to come
inside. At least it provides things for people to do when the
restaurants are empty? But anyway, so we found a place (my dad insisted
on finding a place with a tripadvisor sticker and cheap--we managed
despite having no map or internet to guide us). At the restaurant me and
my mom shared a very large prosciutto and mushroom pizza, that wasn't
bad. By the time we left it was 2PM and apparently, we had booked a taxi
to drive us to the airport at 3PM (this is an important fact) so my dad
started rushing us back to the hotel despite the walk being.. barely
15min tops. Along the way though we did stop at Alessi and another store
with odd goods and things, as well as a clothing store to see if my dad
could buy some dress shirts (he couldn't, he's too small). Then off we
went, back to the hotel to get our suitcases, and then off to where the
taxi's were waiting.
I should reiterate. Our flight was
at 7PM. Our taxi was at 3PM. It took us - I am not joking, 10 minutes
to get to the airport. We had arrived at 3:15PM and we realized we
couldn't even check in because we had arrived four hours early.
Sometimes, my parents really frustrate me. Because of this, we had to
wait outside the gates until we were actually allowed to check in to our
flight at 5PM, then as we went through we realized our flight had
actually been delayed until 7:30, so we actually had a good amount of
time to stop and eat dinner and that's what we did. The airport had a
sort of... cafeteria and so my brother, my mom and I ordered a plate of
fettucini in tomato sauce and my dad got steak. Our pasta was sorely
disappointing. It was dry to the point of being painful to swallow.
Thankfully I was hungry so I was able to eat 3/4, but my brother, who
normally is able to devour everything, could barely touch his. That
should be a sign of how disappointing the pasta was. We also got a bowl
of fruit and bottle of water with our meal though so... I guess that is a
bonus?
A small hiccup occurred where our flight
actually got bumped up a bit earlier and, although we had finished our
dinner my parents had gone to the washroom and the flight had apparently
began boarding so we had to rush a bit to our gate, but of course, we
made it on time. Hilariously, at our gate we bumped in to a father and
his daughter who were also heading to Berlin from our tour group. It was
kind of funny because apparently they had taken the 9AM bus provided by
our tour company to head to the airport and so they must have been
sitting there from 9AM to the morning until now. How sad.
Our
flight occurred, it was nice and smooth. We landed in Berlin... and
then proceeded to wait 5 years for our luggage. I'm not sure what was
causing the hold up, my glasses aren't actually the correct prescription
so I couldn't read the screen from where I was standing (near the
wall). The entire time though, there was a lady who was standing beside
me and my mom who was ridiculously chatty. As soon as I stopped next to
her (because that was where my brother left the luggage) she began
asking me where I was from, what I studied, and asking me what good
Chinese restaurants there were in Vancouver... thankfully my mom showed
up a couple minutes later and I transferred the lady on to her (poor
mom). She really was a very chatty lady though. She was from Berlin
apparently, and so were her husband (her ethnicity was Asian though),
but they had moved to Atlanta over the years and so on and so forth.
Very chatty. Very. We had arrived at 9PM or those whereabouts, but our
luggage probably didn't show up until 10PM.
This was
also kind of bad because I have a friend who was meeting us and would be
staying with us in Berlin, and I hadn't given her the number to the
apartment we were staying at. My parents have become accustomed to using
airbnb nowadays rather than stay at hotels, and I had told my friend
the address, but not the actual apartment number. She was also taking an
overnight bus and was supposed to be arriving by 7AM--which meant she
was probably leaving around midnight if not sooner. Due to the slowness
of our baggage though and the actual drive to the apartment (which
actually wasn't too long because we were staying right behind The Berlin
Mall near Potsdam Platz), we didn't arrive until somewhere close to
11PM.
Also when we arrived, we met the lady who owned
the apartment and she gave us the keys, but she also stayed behind to
explain how the house worked and what not and overall was a very great
host. We've used airbnb a few other times and most of the time the
people just gave us the keys and that was that--but this lady was
amazing. She even had documents and newspaper clippings prepared with
lists of restaurants to eat at on "rainy days" and "sunny days" etc.
etc. and overall, just... wow. She was very prepared for guests in her
home. Sadly, but the time she had finished talking, it was very late and
although I sent a very hurried skype message to my friend... I doubt
she got them. But that is something I will talk about tomorrow.
For
that night--in a long while, I ended up staying awake past midnight
until about 12:30 and oh boy what a mistake that was because I ended up
not getting much sleep that night. :(
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