Travelling

One of the neatest things about traveling is that you come across so many different languages. As you all know, when I got to Israel, the whole blog got shifted because I decided I did not need the whole page to be translated into English like I did in Georgia, because my now, I know which buttons to click. In Israel, this made for a very Yiddish/Hebrew style writing, that was so funny, I had to keep it. Well, as I write today, there is yet another language on the page Google is offering to translate for me. German. Yes, I sat in Poti preparing to sleep the vacation away, and thought, hey, my grandparents from NY are traveling across Europe... Wouldn't it be fun if I surprised them in Berlin! Ok, so with slightly more planning than that story suggests (but not that much) I am now in a hostel in Berlin down the street from Bubbe-Zeyde's gorgeous hotel.

Last night, I went to the hotel before they checked in and walked up to them with video camera in hand (tonight I will see about getting the video into the blog-DONE!)

and did not kill them, as many in the hostel predicted I would do. We had a very fun evening and today, we are going to spend the afternoon doing something. 

The best part of this is that I have people here at the hostel to hang out with a explore with when they are busy with their tours, but who I can leave when they become free. Yesterday, I hung out with a few people from Australia and we visited Checkpoint Charlie, one of the checkpoints between East and West Berlin.

We also went shopping and created a great pasta using cottage cheese which we bought thinking is was cream cheese, which the Australians had discovered was very good as a cream for your sauce at a previous hostel. We discovered that cottage cheese is really good in pasta and veggies too.

I LOVE seeing new places and meeting new people, but I am starting to get really sick of the act of traveling. I love getting on a plane and take off and landing, but the whole getting to go on the tarmac isn't really novel or cool anymore, and flying through the night and getting no rest is not my favorite way to travel. I got to Berlin thinking I would take a nap and being scared I would sleep through the night. Luckily this hostel, Helter Skelter, is a really cool place with people to meet and hang out with everywhere.

Let's review. In the last week, I have been sunburned in Tel Aviv, food poisoned in Tbilisi, taken care of in Poti, stood up by a train in Poti (a story I might tell in a post about transportation in Georgia), Marshutka-ed to Tbilisi, spent a four hour layover in the Kiev Airport (an airport that is INSANE), taken the Bahn in Berlin (also an insane experience with no map!), and surprised grandparents in Berlin. Not a bad week at all...