Goodbye Berlin

Our last day in Berlin, Rob took some time to himself

and headed out for the day.

I gave him the address of a shoe store

I had found the day before,

shopper extraordinaire that I am, where I located some really boss

yellow sneaker type shoes to replace his beloved pair he

got 3 years ago, but have sadly seen much better days.

I got a text from him a few hours later, saying that he had

been to the store and bought not only the yellow pair, but

a black pair that he selected all on his own!

What a shopper!

I wonder if he has a spending problem?

Rob was quite happy tromping around on his own

we came to find out later.

That left me and the kids to our own devices. First task of the day

was to find some boxes to ship all that crap to Italy that filled up my 3

suitcases. We were going to being flying to Italy the next day on

Air Berlin and I had neglected to read the fine print on free

baggage allowance. Seems that this airline is a bit stricter than most,

you are allowed one free checked bag at 22 kilos, and then any additional baggage is

10 euro per kilo!!!

I nearly had a heart attack.

I had about 30 + kilos in excess weight,

so that was going to be about 300 euro, or $400 to be exact,

for me to get all those

outfits to Italy.

Hmmm, this was a very serious problem and not one that

I wanted to share with Rob just yet.

So I waited til he went off on his solo man adventure

before I started problem solving.

I had been keeping my eyes open for cartons

being recycled on the sidewalk in front of stores,

but so far, nothing.

I don't know how or where they dispose of them.

I tried to engage Jesse and Corey in my task.

I forgot momentarily that they aren't toddlers anymore

and they are pretty hip to my shenanigans.

The adventure of looking for shipping cartons held absolutely

NO allure for them whatsoever.

Not to mention it was allready about 900 degrees out at 9am.

So I bribed them with coffee and pastry, they

grudgingly accompagnied me.

We set out for the Kaiser supermarket down the street.

Nothing there but produce boxes with the large airholes in them,

not suitable for shipping and mailing.

So I had to think quickly on my feet and ask myself;

"What kind of retailer would have daily deliveries that would always have an abundance of boxes on hand that they would

need to dispose of?

A pharmacy- an APOTEK,

why, I had seen them on just about every corner!

Yup, sure enough, there was one across the street from

Kaiser Supermarket.

I parked the kids at the caffe on the corner with their coffee and pastry bribe as they were quickly losing it.

I entered the Apotek and explained to the pharmacist what I was after.

I speak NO german, and she didn't speak much English, but somehow

she was able to understand me after a lot of pantomime and words like

POSTE...

She went in the back room and brought our a magnificent carton, heavy duty,

that could withstand high impact and it was the size of a suitcase.

But it wasn't enough for my 30 kilos of outfits and assorted stuff.

So I had the gall to ask her for another carton.

She kindly went in the back again and this time

brought out a carton of equal size and durability.

This one however, had not been unpacked of its contents.

She patiently unpacked all the bottles of drugs, etc. and gave me the box.

Her kindness was so appreciated.

I thanked her profusely.

She was my Apotek angel that appeared in my hour of need.

Now I would not need to burden

dear Rob with my excess baggage problem.

Back to the kids and their coffee.

The next step in this adventure was getting 30 kilos and 2 large empty

cartons to the post office which was over a mile away. Jesse at this point

was completely melting down (he doesn't do well with this kind of fun)

and Corey was up for the adventure since he had just downed several

double espressos. So we sent Jesse home and Corey and I hailed

a cab to the Deutsche Post.

Easy.

8 euros and 4 minutes later.

We enter the Deutsche Post which is hyper organized and extremely

efficient. Corey comments how we need to find a "workstation".

We select a part of the store that is devoid of people and plenty of room

to spread out the 30 kilos of stuff and pack it up.

I taught Corey how to pack a box

and surround it with many meters of shipping

tape. Actually, what I hope that I taught him

through the experience was how to be

resourceful, think on one's feet, and solve

the problem at hand. I think he enjoyed the experience.

The morning was great fun and one of my treasured

travel experiences with my kids.

And there it goes,

30 kilos of junk all for the price

of 75 euro as opposed to the 300 euro it would have cost on Air Berlin...

I feel so accomplished!

But wait, I am feeling so light and airy, no

excess baggage to be weighted down with and

on the way back to the apartment, I see an oil

painting on the sidewalk in front of an antique/junk store

that leaves me breathless!

Corey, l must have a look!

I bargain with the gentleman,

get the painting for a song,

take it off the stretcher bars, roll it up, and trot off

happily to pack it in my recently arrived at 22 kilo suitcase.

We collect Jesse and hightail it over to to meet Dad at Hackescher Market area,with his new shoes.

We then run into Wolfgang and Marie, who happened to

be driving by and noticed us looking like befuddled tourists

with our maps out.

We made a tentative plan to get together for dinner and I got

to take my family to Marie's Doll Kingdom.

Even Corey and Jesse were impressed with the glass eyeballs.

Wolfgang, Marie, and Udo took us to a local outdoor

Beirgarten close to their neighborhood.

It was a very festive atmosphere, hundreds of long communal tables

with people feasting on fresh sausages, corn on the cob, beer and

I cant remember what else.

We all enjoyed ourselves tremendously and loved

our new Berlin friends.

A delightful evening was had by all and we said goodbye, but promised to

return soon.

The next morning, the day of our flight to Italy,

it was torrential rain, and

we had our newly packed 45 lb. suitcases to navigate

to the taxi cue about 10 minutes away so we could get to the airport.

No umbrellas.

Rob and I did some makeshift rain gear.

Rob bravely made his way to the taxi stand.

We made it to the airport with time to spare,

the Air Belin clerk barely glanced at our

22 kilo bags and all was well.

I was sad to leave,

Berlin was fantastic and I loved it all.

It is a very creative, artistic, avant guarde

city, and I barely scratched the surface.

The people that I met were so kind and

hospitable and I know that I will be

back before too long.