[Preface: The following journal writing of two days and two nights in Berlin Germany in January 2017, is presented here completely unedited, as it is written directly from my Eighth journal book. It is [13] hand written pages.]
Wednesday January 18th to Friday the 20th, 2017 - three days.
I want to start this story from the night before - Tuesday the 17th, I worked until 8P.M. and we had a staff meeting at work that went on until some time after 11P.M. My co-worker Marianne drove me home. We hadn't had any snowfall but there were severe ice warnings for the roads and the E6 highway. On the drive home, on the E6 - in the Northbound lane we saw that a semi truck had slid off the highway and overturned onto it's side. I didn't get home until 11:40P.M. I still had to pack for the trip, and I called to order a taxi to take me to the Sonsveien station - I had my alarm set for 4A.M., my flight was Wednesday morning at 7:45A.M., the flight bus from Sonsveien out to the airport was at 5:17A.M. I ordered for the taxi to pick me up at 4:45A.M. by the Apoteket in the center. It was around 12:30A.M. by the time I went to bed, with my alarm set for 4A.M. that would give me three and a half hours sleep, yet I couldn't sleep. I probably got only two to two and a half hours sleep. I got down to the Apoteket right on time at 4:45A.M. to catch my taxi but it wasn't there. I called the Follo taxi company right away to make sure it was on the way. The lady I talked to told me that even though I had ordered a taxi and was told it would come - it wasn't coming - because of the severe ice warnings for the roads and highway, and taxi orders were suppose to be cancelled. I got pissed. I couldn't miss that flight bus or my flight. My trip to Berlin was extremely important. It was personal family business. I had an interview at the Swedish embassy - my wife and I are planning to move back to Sweden from Norway. On the phone with the lady from the taxi company, I got so pissed off I switched from speaking Norwegian back to English, going off on her, yelling that it was the worst customer service, that if the ice warnings were so severe and taxi orders weren't suppose to be taken then I should have been told so. I ended up hanging up on her. I started to really freak out - nervous breakdown - bordering on a panic/anxiety attack and almost wanting to cry. It takes thirty minutes - a half an hour to walk to Sonsveien station. I had exactly thirty minutes. The ice really was severely bad on the streets and sidewalks, I wouldn't make it, but I had no choice. It wasn't an option to have Elin drive me. I didn't want her to risk an accident or anything else bad on the icey roads. I tried to run but I was slipping all over and fell once, yet I kept on. The crisp cold air burned in my lungs and made my chest hurt as I took in deep breaths when I tried to run. I began coughing harshly. I hoped that a car, any car, would just happen to drive by so I could try to wave - flag them down, get them to stop so I could beg the person to drive me to the station. Somehow, like some kind of miracle, it did happen. Coming from behind me, I turned to see headlights. I flagged the car down and it turned out to be a Follo taxi, yet it actually was not the taxi I had ordered. I got lucky. I begged the guy to take me to the station, he reluctantly agreed but didn't seem too happy about it - almost pissed in fact. The taxi fare was 150 Kroners. It was just after 5A.M., I was at Sonsveien station, I had made it. About five minutes later another Follo taxi drove up, the passenger got out and so did the driver, the driver walked over to me and asked if I was Kyle Stone, I said yes and tried to apologize and explain what happened, but he just turned around, mumbled some words, threw a hand up and waved me off. I think he got a bit pissed off as well. The flight bus was right on time - 5:17A.M. I was at Gardermoen airport around 6:30A.M. My breakfast at the airport was a slice of cheese pizza, potato chips, and a Coke.
It was a fast one and a half hour flight from Oslo to Berlin. I had my iPod and headphones, cued up some Hip-Hop - Boot Camp Clik's General Steele, and tried to get some sleep on the plane. From Schoenefeld airport I caught the 9:44A.M. train into Berlin city to the Zoologischer Garten stop, and from there it was one subway stop to Wittenbergplatz. When I got up the stairs into the main entrance hall of the Wittenbergplatz subway station I recognized the murals painted on the walls. And when I walked outside the station and looked around, I realized I knew exactly where I was. This was my fourth time to Berlin after all. The Wittenbergplatz area was where I stayed, with Elin's brothers, on my first trip to Berlin in the Fall of 2012. In fact, on this trip, the hotel - The Air in Berlin - where I was staying was only one block over from the Ambassador Hotel where we stayed in 2012. It was sometime around 11A.M. when I checked in to the hotel. I got myself settled in my room, I was exhausted, I turned on the T.V. - the only two channels in English were BBC and CNN - so the news it was. I got myself caught up - current - on the politics - Donald Trump's presidential inauguration. I figured what the hell, so I took a beer from the mini-bar. I laid in bed, drinking my beer, watching the news, and passed out - falling asleep for a few hours. I awoke in the late afternoon and figured I should get out of my hotel room and go do something. I just wandered around aimlessly, snapping a few photos with my iPhone of random street art, and the old Kaiser Wilhelm church which was bombed out in World War II and is now a memorial. I had visited the Kaiser Wilhelm before on that first Berlin trip in 2012. I walked around for a few hours. I needed to eat. I found a burrito joint called Dolores, the place was straight up a "Hipster" spot but it was real good. They had a killer vegan burrito, they only had two kinds of beer - a Dolores home brew and Augustinerbrau Munchen - both brews were damn good. I ate dinner at Dolores on Thursday as well. On my walk back to the hotel I hit up a grocery store to buy some snacks and more beer. Both Wednesday and Thursday - the evenings and on into the nights, I just stayed in my hotel room, laying in bed, drinking - a bit drunk yet not wasted out, watching the news - BBC and CNN - president Obama's final press conference and Trump's inauguration. I had thoughts of Hunter S. Thompson.
Thursday January 19th
I had my alarm set for 9A.M. My interview at the Swedish embassy was scheduled for 1:30P.M. The girl who worked the reception desk at the hotel had printed out a map of directions for me from Google Maps. From the hotel it was a ten minute walk to the embassy. I found a Dunkin' Donuts and had my breakfast of two donuts and a coffee there. With a few hours until my interview, my plan was to hang out in the city, walk around, find something to do other than just sit in my hotel room. I did wander around for a little while, but the weather wasn't so good. It was cold, overcast gray, a bit foggy, the streets and sidewalks were icey - it was just the same like it was back home in Norway. So, I did end up back in my hotel room, watching the news. I got restless. I became anxious, maybe even a bit nervous about the interview. I hated just sitting there waiting. Knowing it was only a ten minute walk to the embassy, but being a little unsure of exactly where the embassy was and not wanting to end up getting lost, I decided to just go - this was at 12:20P.M. I sat and waited for an hour in the main lobby at the embassy. I had been informed via e-mail that the interview could last anytime from an hour and a half up to three and a half hours long. For some reason I kind of expected it to last that long - around the three hour mark. Going through the interview sure felt like three hours, but when I was done, and left, I checked the time - it was 3P.M. - my interview had only been an hour and a half. And it had gone well. I walked from the embassy straight to the Zoologischer Garten station and took the train to Alexanderplatz. I wandered around that area for a short while, by the T.V. Tower, hit up Titus skateshop. At Titus I found the February 2017 issue of Thrasher skate magazine with my old friend, Yonnie Cruz from Tampa, on the front cover. By now I was getting hungry and wanted to eat but I wasn't finding anyplace in the Alexanderplatz area I wanted. I took the train back to the Zoologischer Garten/Wittenbergplatz area and went to Dolores again.
I was up at 6A.M. Friday morning. My flight home was at 9:50A.M. My two days and two nights in Berlin were over with, time to head home. I settled up my mini-bar tab, checked out of the hotel, and walked to the Zoologischer Garten train station to take the train back to the airport. I landed back in Oslo around 11:30A.M., and had forty minutes to wait for the 12:10P.M. flight bus back to Son. A little over an hour later at 1:15P.M. I was at Sonsveien station. Elin was working and I didn't have anyone to pick me up. The next local bus into Son center was at 2:05P.M. I had no cash on me and I knew I couldn't pay with a credit card on the bus, and I didn't know if my flight bus ticket was transferable to be used like the train tickets are. I waited for around ten minutes then just figured I'd take the thirty minute walk home along the icey sidewalks.
