Berlin: If it was clarity I wanted, I is what I got. I am currently on a train to Prague after one of the most trying and emotional times that I have had. If you have been at all in contact with me via Facebook, you may already know a bit of the story. But I will get there.
Walking around close to where I was staying, it was freezing out, but I managed to take some killer pictures, see (and sign!) the Berlin Wall remnants, and finally hook up with a 2-day bus tour of the city. Sights were seen and moments were had all by myself. Berlin is quite epic, and I need to come back when I have a bit more stability financially. I am staying in a hostel WITH people this time, and I have two girls from Italy and one from Sweden in the room with me. They are all younger, so we will see how this goes. Per Facebook: "Yeah, they are intense. From Sweden and Paris. My old hostel roommates were from Italy. All of them rowdy 20-somethings. This morning we compared bruises. They had stories that went along with theirs. Mine are only mysteries from hard livin'. :)"
Per Facebook, "Nadja Wiesrecker has been located! And I didn't even have to go to her cross streets and yell her name all day and night, which was my backup plan."
In Berlin, I was able to find my friend Nadja from AMDA days (musical theatre school) and we were able to hang out for three evenings in a row. It was so good to catch up with an old friend, and finding her was epic. Another friend I am in contact with, Bruno, who was a foreign exchange student from Latvia at the time, now lives in Leipzig, as does a guy named Stephan, who stayed with my relatives back in the day. I found this all out along my journey, and Bruno was key in locating Nadja. Nadja has no real online presence, and doesn't have an answering machine, and her information for contact was nearly impossible to find. However, I had a phone number and started calling it before I even left the USA. To be embarrassingly honest, I had no real idea how to make an international call at all, so Bruno, an almost-local was able to call and locate Nadja for me, and left her my name and number. Through this, we were able to do the following:
1. Karaoke night which lasted until 5am and included a nice dinner in the hostel and a rare inclusion of pole dancing as people sang their selected tunes. I have now officially sung in Copenhagen and Berlin. Basically, I am on tour. I'm big in Europe. My karaoke selection left a bit to be desired, but Nadja's was supreme. I was able to videotape it, so pending its quality audio-wise, maybe she won't mind an upload of it for her fans, of which there are many. The karaoke DJ went by the name of Monster Jonson, and his attire really lived up to the name. He looked like he stepped out of the case of the Partridge Family, which a nuvo-Euro flair, complete with a flippy blonde mullet, big gradient 70s glasses, and very short shorts. He was like a really bad accident. I couldn't look away. Before that, per Facebook: "Turns out, a man can really win me over by singing "Gangsta's Paradise" at karaoke in Berlin, Germany. Who knew?"
"Karaoke Master is named Monster Jonson. Hot damn, Berlin. Hot. Damn."
"Turns out, pole dancing and karaoke are a great combination.......Genius."
2. A nice sushi dinner and driving aimlessly around Berlin, only after Nadja helped me navigate planning my supposed train journey, which originally included a layover in Leipzig to visit the aforementioned Bruno, who went to high school with me for at least one year. Nadja handled the negotiation with flair, and was highly instrumental in negotiating a great deal for my train ride, which never happened as planned (more on that in the next post). Also, I discovered Berlin thrift, which was pretty incredible.
Per Facebook during the day:
""Taking a bus tour through Berlin. The tour guide is a near-twin of my ex-boyfriend Will, from high school, which makes sense because he was German too. Really strange."
3. The most mellow night together, perhaps, Nadja came to pick me up in Berlin, and we again had dinner together, and looked at our mutual friends' pictures and info on Facebook. I don't think she realized how people missed her, even though over the years she has missed them. It was fun to share Facebook fun with her, and at times, I admit, I peer-pressured her to join.
Per Facebook:
"Staying for one more night in a hostel in Berlin. Tomorrow to Leipzig for a short layover, and then to Prague! The women in my hostel room are all here for a rollergirls tournament. They are young, rowdy, and loud. Specifically when I am trying to sleep. But they are all hell on whells, and I'm a lover, so I won't bring it up. I could cut a bitch if I have to, but why?" The Italian girls moved out, two wild gals from Paris moved in, and the beat went on
All in all, Nadja had a great time catching up, discussed parts of Germany, discussed history, discussed an insider's view of WWII, which always fascinates me, and talked of our mutual sense of inherited guilt for the actions of the Nazis, even though we are generations removed. For her, it is a reality she grew up highly aware of, and Berlin, as divided as it was until the 1980s, has really made an effort to own that horror and wear it on its sleeve. There is no shortage of tributes and monuments, oftentimes painting the Germans in an awful way, of course. But they own it. They atone for it. The generations afterward feel the sting and the shame of their ancestors. It was poignant, beautiful and horrific all at once. We took pictures, laughed, I got flipped off a lot, and all in all, I came, I saw, I learned, and I rekindled a friendship that I had valued so long ago. Incidentally, she really looks the same as she ever did. We both mourned the grey hairs that are starting to appear, though. She is aging more gracefully than I, and her voice is still fantastic, of course.
Then I packed with every intention of leaving for Leipzig and Prague in the morning. But fate had another plan, and I had no choice but to obey.
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