Travel Awakenings

2015:  You can say a lot about the place where the Berlin Wall stood, now not more than a tourist attraction visited, I'm sure by millions. Although I arrived too late to visit the Checkpoint Charlie museum, I did spend time at this remembrance, sitting with a cappuccino at Einstein's Kaffee, watching all the tourists. It was a great place at the high back stools at the window counter, providing a birds-eye view of the checkpoint and tourists. All and all, I was not too impressed and kept waiting for a sign of something more significant. It came in the form of a small collisions with a young man. When I apologized in English, he smiled and said "No it was my fault." It was in that moment that I was spurred to ask a question about the Berlin Wall.  The tidbit he shared was not in any guide book and I was grateful to receive it from a perfect stranger, a local. I knew that the wall was most probably close to the checkpoint and I was right, although I could not se...

It was an amazing journey to Berlin. I got off the train at the main station,  Berlin Berganhaauf, standing there i n awe. I was also a bit overwhelmed and lost, having no way to knowing exactly which way to turn, but just decided to just wing it as I tried to make my way to my hotel. Going with my gut landed me on an S-Bahn going the long way around, but I paid it no mind and just smiled thinking what an interesting way to immerse myself into the culture as I watched the locals in their daily routine. I got a seat next to a very nice elderly German woman who knew only a few words in English. She was so kind, giving me her station map that explained the way.  My small detour proved fruitful as I connected with this beautiful human being. It was the  Apple City Hotel that I booked because of its close proximity to local transport and that fact that it was minutes back to the main train station for me to head toward my next destination  in the morning . The h...