Today was my dad’s birthday. I decided to surprise him, so I did not tell him, that I would be in Berlin for the weekend.
I normally do the usual tourist things while I am in Berlin, therefore spent the morning walking around. Since I could see the new central station from the flat, I just walked outside and tried to reach it. I failed miserably and got horribly lost. Later on, I found out that I took the wrong turn and that there was a river which I could not cross anyway. With a delay of 45 minutes, I finally reached central station. I could not see many changes since last year, I guess most of the work was done underground. Continued to walk towards the Chancellor’s Office and through the tiergarden further along till the Potsdamer Platz. The “United Buddy Bears” have vanished. Looks like they are on their way to Istanbul now.
Stopped at the remainings of the Berlin Wall - it still touches me when I look on the symbolic line - that is all that is left now. Did the mandatory quick tour through the sony center and shopped at a book shop for a birthday present. Found a book that I hope my dad likes. Decided to walk to the Alexanderplatz as well. Stopped at a Starbucks and got a reviving Frappucino for the insane amount of 4 Euros. Headed for a shopping center at the Alexanderplatz to get a new pair of jeans since I left my good pair on our clothes line in Bonn. (Note to myself, don’t pack at 3am in the morning). Managed to find the darker version of my ultra comfortable climber denim bigjeans in my size and was ultra happy. Returned to the flat with a new package of t-shirts as well and got dressed for the dinner. Decided to leave a bit early since the greek restaurant was supposedly in the outskirts in Berlin.
The public transport information system did not let me down again, all trains were on time. I had to switch trains in “Friedrichshagen” and got on a really, really old tram for the last part of the way. Arrived at the station around 6:30pm. Since I had no idea if my dad and his family were already inside, I decided to call him on his mobile and just congratulate him and tried to find out, if they were already inside or still on their way. Well, they were stuck in a traffic jam. I decided to wait patiently near the trainstation and wait for their car. After waiting at the trainstation, walking around (well there was not a lot to walk around, it was a really small village, consisting of one main road, a restaurant and the trainstation) and more waiting at the trainstation for 45 minutes I thought that I had seen them going inside. So, I followed “them” shortly afterwards. The restaurant was quite intransparent, lots of artifical trees, so I was not sure if they really had arrived or not. Waved at a water and asked him, if they were already there. Well, turned out they were not. Since I did not want to wait outside again, I asked the waiter if I could wait at the reserved table. They had reserved a table for 4 people, so we had to find another table. Thankfully they served ouzus one a regular base, so passed the time with drinking a couple of them. After 20 minutes I finally heard them and hurried to another table and hide behind a menu. I waited till they all sat down and then got up. Thankfully my dad was indeed suprised, so my plan had worked out. I am not too crazy about greek food, but it was alright, the atmosphere was great and it was really busy. There were around 10 other families celebrating birthdays there, so it was a bit odd since everyone was singing “happy birthday” constantly. Decided to have a sleepover at my dad’s place, so chatted till midnight and went to bed relatively early again.