Berlin, Germany
So I decided to have an old phone shipped to me with delivery estimated Wed. morn by 9am, my flight from Madrid was at Wed. 12:40pm. hmm cutting it close, better play it safe and have it shipped to Berlin and it’ll be there waiting for me.
Getting to my Berlin hosel with no phone was no easy feat. I was able to get train ticket to where I needed to go (very proud of myself), I assumed it would have the platform number on the ticket, it didn’t. I walked around aimlessly for a while then finally found someone who told me it was at platform 15, nowhere did it say that on the ticket?? How is someone supposed to know? Very confusing!
Once that was complete according to google I was close to the hostel. I managed to remember the “directions” to the hostel (left, left, left, right, right) (seriously those were them), well that didn’t work. Luckily I was close enough to see the name of the hostel (PLUS Berlin) on a building right down the street of me. So I finally arrived, what a mission! Now to check in and get my phone. I couldn’t wait to check up on my Instagram and Snapchat to talk to some friends. Well they said no package, wtf. I immediately tracked and it said it was “being held at customs for export invoice for duty relief???” New estimated delivery Friday (ok not great but not bad I was in Berlin till Sat so should be good). Ended up doing more hostel organized events such as a pub crawl, I figure they’ll be semi responsible for making sure I get back to the hostel (again no phone) and luckily there were a bunch of people form the hostel so either way I was in good hands.
Saturday came no phone, same message in UPS. So do I stay in Berlin another day or 2 to wait for this thing or just F it and leave Berlin without the phone……Well I waited to book my train and hostel till Sat morning to see if anything changed. No change, no phone, I’m outta here. So still no phone and now no plans to get one (well at least not the one that was shipped to me) crap. Oh guess what I found the last night in Berlin at the hostel, someones iPhone just laying there. I didn't really even think twice and turned it in but come on man. I figure if I cant get a phone at least i can help someone find theirs. Karma
PS check the water label before ordering from vending machine. Nothing worse than being thirsty as all hell and you get a water from a vending machine and its sparkling water! WFT they literally have the same label as normal water but says natural or still on it to tell it apart. Well natural to me sounds like no bubbles. Well still is without bubbles, geez. This happened once to me in Italy but I forgot about that stupid option. GRR
The good: amazing techno clubs open till 7am and some even 24 hr (yikes), had decent food like Donor kabab (the closet thing to a gyro I've found yet). Berlin wall has some really cool graffiti (I think I'm gonna do some kind of graffiti book or album or something- I have all kinds of graffiti pics from all over the world)
The bad: cold, rainy, poor weather, hard to get into clubs- they screen you to see if you're a tourist (they don't like use I guess)(keeping it local I get it). They drink sparkling water lol
Prague, Czech Republic
So I made it to Prague, now for the journey to the hostel. Still no phone. No maps at the train station…well I walked outside to a bus stop in hopes to find a map, no luck. I see a bridge though, ok I’m near water. I had the location of the hostel on my laptop only I didn’t have the location of myself. I found a Mcdonald’s nearby, jumped on wifi and boom got it. Seems like an easy metro ride to my destination. OK feeling better. Go to buy a metro pass, only accepts coin…and not euro coins….crap. I remember seeing an ATM at the original train station, so I went back there got cash, went back to Mcdonald's, bought something to get change, back to metro, successfully got ticket. Geez. According to the map it was just a right for about 10 min and I should see the hostel. Well I did, thank god. No lockers in this hostel…. or keys….hmmm. Decided to do another pubcrawl bc i had so much fun at the last one and its a good activity to meet people and also not worry about getting lost. The pubs were stone inside almost like the inside of a castle. Pretty cool! There's one thing that I still cant get over every time I hear it in a club, 90's American music blasting! USA clubs would never play this, but I actually really enjoyed it. It's like karaoke night and everyone sings along. I did a free Castle walking tour also which was pretty cool, Prague has the largest Castle in the world located here so I had to check it out.
PS I got a phone in Prague that was compatible with my drone so I am started to feel whole again, although when I got it I felt weird looking at it with people, like rude. Even though thats what everyone else does, I just got used to not needing it.
Good- The food was dare I say better than Italy?? Some of the best lasagna I've ever had really. Homemade pasta and recipe from Italy. Bars were very lively and almost underground like.
Bad-very windy, rainy almost everyday, don't use euros
I am currently at an 8hr layover in Dubai (I don't know what I was thinking or if I even saw it). I think the last few weeks being without a phone, poor weather, no drone, really didn't leave me much to do but go out and party lol. It really drained me and I'm really looking forward to what SE Asia will offer. I have very few plans, but I do plan on relaxing, finding some me time and reflecting on the last 4 months traveling. I think this will be a good "last leg" to my travels where I won't be as pressured to "see everything" bc even if I came home today, man I've seen a lot. Well thank you for putting up with my grumpiness the last few posts, and I assure you things are looking brighter. Some family (and a friend actually) told me that without the pain you can't know joy, and the first 2/3rds of my journey were really painless so I guess this is a reminder of the 2 sides of the coin.
Check out my Europe photos here!