First (half) day in Berlin!

Today was the day Juli and I headed to Berlin. We had to wake up at about 8am, having packed all of our bags. We took our bags... All 5 of them and drove into Cölbe to the butcher and then to Marburg. We went to Edeka to get food for our 7 hours train trip. We bought coke, baby bell cheese, bread rolls, lollies, chips, chocolate and little sausage things...

We drove to the train station and carried all of our bags to the platform. Luckily, our train wasn't delayed. It came at 10.21am exactly and we said goodbye and got on it. We got a 4 seater straight away and sat around all of our bags. We started getting our food out and putting it on the table. It actually looked ridiculous, we were surrounded by food and people seemed to think it was entertaining.

Our first stop was Kassel, so we got off and had to walk to the main station then got more to drink for Julia and walked to our platform. We sat for only a little bit and then our train came. It was an old one, but it wasn't very full. We got a 4 seater with another man and he thought the amount of food we had was hilarous. I also finished my book on that train trip... :(

The next change over was at Sangerhausen... No one knows what is actually in that little city. We had to wait out in the cold for a little while until our train came. Finally it came and it was tiny with only one 'large' carriage. We all squeezed in and every seat was full, only a few people had to stand. There was graffiti covering all of the windows, so we couldn't see out of them. That train ride was about 1.5 hours, then we had to change again.

We got off at Madgneburg... Something like that. We had to walk to another platform and there were a lot of people waiting for the train. We stood there for ages in the cold. Finally our train came and Julia and I rushed to get seats. We found a 4 seater and were very happy. We filled it up with all of our bags. Then 2 strange ladies came over and wanted to sit, so we moved everything and they sat down. They were speaking half English and half German... It was a very strange conversation. That train trip was about 2 hours and it was very cramped. We got off at the Hauptbahnhof in Berlin and met with Julia's mother's uncle, Peter.

To get back to the flat we were staying in, we had to catch the S Bahn, then the U Bahn... Berlin's train system is a bit weird, but I think I understand it now. We walked through the snow and to the flat. It was basically right in the middle of Berlin and close to everything. We went inside and unpacked everything, then sat down with Peter and planned things we could go for our time here. Soon after, Peter's son, Linus came home. We were staying in the flat with Linus while we were there and Peter was staying with his partner. We sat around and I looked through their music collection, which was really good. I got to choose what to put on too.

Peter's partner, Ursula came over and after a while we all walked a bit down the road and went to dinner at this Route 66 restuarant, whcih is set up like an old American diner. We all ate and then walked home. We sat around in the lounge room and planned what we were going to do the next day and how to actually get there with public transport... We listened to music and then talked about art. Both Peter and Ursula are artists, so it was really interesting.

I looked through a book with art by Pierre Soulages, who paints mostly with black. Then they had an Annie Leb. book about American music and that was also interesting. Peter and Ursula left, then Julia and I got ready for bed because we were both a bit tired. We slept quite early, which is strange for me, so I didn't sleep that well and kept waking.