Blisters in Berlin

Nicole (l) and Stephanie with a map of Berlin on the wall behind. 

Yeah, baby!  Walked a lot today and have my first blister - on my right heel.  Went to the university today to sign my contract and get all sorts of good info from Stephanie and Nicole.  Good to meet people you've been emailing for months.  They were very helpful and fun and also directed me to the closest shopping mecca for me to stock up on some goodies.

The long walk started with me taking the wrong route from the train station (U station from now on).  After I've walked about 20 minutes I decided to turn back and start again from the U station.  Surprised to actually find my way back!  And then found it very easy to get to the right place.

This part of Berlin is incredibly beautiful and I had a lovely walk among the trees on cobblestone roads. I took the picture below  to try and capture the mood.  The semester only starts on 17 October, so there are very few students around - probably why it's so quiet.



After the meeting walked a km or 2 to get to a bus stop to take me to Schloss str where I could do some shopping - find a sim, adapter for the euro plugs and food.  One sees interesting things while waiting the 4 minutes for the bus.  Look at all the airplane thingies in the air. Or at least, that's what I think these are.  A lady at the bus stop looked at me funny - probably thought I was taking pictures of a lamp post.

Here's a picture of a street scene close to the university.  The Germans also ride on the wrong side of the road so I am likely to die while crossing the road - still look right then left.









The neighborhood I'm staying in at the moment is/was apparently quite Jewish.  Everywhere there are these signs with a bread roll on (I'm not sure yet why a bread roll).  At the back of the bread roll is a law that discriminated against Jews.

This law from 1940 said something about Jews only being able to buy groceries between 4 and 5 pm.  In the same street is a sign that showed a law that said Jews are not allowed to sing during meetings.

This copper plaque is paid for by some private citizen and there are apparently many more.  Each one commemorates a Jewish person who died during the war.  It is cemented into the cobblestone pavement. These things reminds me of our apartheid history in SA and I wonder if we will see these sort of things in 60 years in SA?

Tomorrow I'll meet my research supervisor and go sign my accommodation contract.  Fortunately all in the same area that I went today and I have a map, so sure I won't get lost again.  Want to go sight see a bit afterwards and find a pocket German-English dictionary.  Hard to buy groceries when you're not sure what the ingredients in cans and plastic containers are.   Talking of - food here are quite a bit cheaper than in SA. A whole pack of mini-croissants that I know are more than R20 in Woolies - about R10 here for example.  I bought a pomegranate for about R10 too.  Lots and lots of cheeses and salamis.   Njam.

Interesting how many bakeries and pastry shops there are in Berlin?  Why aren't all the people here obese because those cheesecakes look incredible!!!  I'll have to embarrass myself a bit more and take some pictures to prove my point.

Today was exciting and I could take a nap, which means I feel a little more up-beat even if I'm still travel weary. I woke up about 3am in the morning, seriously homesick.  Read Ps 103 and reading about God's character comforted me enough to have a good sleep until 8am.  Hopefully I can have a good night's sleep tonight.