Back to Berlin

So the flights went well. Both left on time and arrived on the ground on time. My baggage arrived and I flew through customs and security on both ends :)

I was wearing a lot of layers so I was relatively sweaty for parts of the journeys, but surprisingly comfortable! I was allowed to check my bag .5 kilos over with no charge, and bring in a big purse with crochet hooks and tiny tubes of toothpaste with no plastic bag. I was actually surprised nobody gave me crap for the tubes not being in bags since they were standing there handing them out at Heathrow yelling to put everything into them.

The first flight was hilarious. The captain was funny, and had one of the smoothest take-offs I'd experienced. Food was good. One of the staff members was feeding me extra mini wine bottles and I ended up half drunk before stretching out on my three seats to try and sleep! I crocheted a dishcloth and helped another staff member with understanding her knitting pattern :) The staff were encouraging me to take more wine with me but I had to catch that connection and it was over 100ml. I didn't need it anyhow.

I only had to wait about 30-45 minutes for the next flight after clearing security and finding my gate. The flight was full, but arrived 20 minutes early (the first one was 10 minutes early too!). Unfortunately there was another plane in our exit spot so we had to sit in the plane for ages outside Tegel. That drove me absolutely nuts since I was hungry, had to pee, and was anxious to clear the border and see Floh.

I had to tell the Immigration guy I had a visa, and he looked at me and said I didn't need one for up to three months. He looked though, and when he saw it he went all smiley and started reading it aloud. I'm not sure he had seen many like mine though because he ended up asking why there was nothing listed under "duration of stay", and I had to point out the end date of the visa which was right above it. He then suggested that when I go to the Foreigners office I should ask for a new one, a residence permit, because this one is "only for the one time". Now this I was confused by. I just said ok because I wanted my bag, but I will ask the people when I register what the deal is. I know I can only get one Youth Mobility Visa at a time (you can do the program twice, but have to leave) but it says right on the visa MULT under # of entries, so I assume that means multiple entries? Maybe the guy didn't see that part either??? He stamped right ON the visa too. I think mult means mult but I will ask about this residence permit thing today. 


Floh was at the airport with my foxes (there is a baby one too!!) and a rose!! He watched me try and exit through the wrong door. I was super happy! I was so distracted I swung my backpack a little too forcefully after the toilet and pulled a muscle in my left shoulder which is pretty sore. My suitcase from Value Village decided that it didn't want it's left wheel while we were already on Floh's street. Poor guy had to carry my 50 pound suitcase about a block :( Luckily I won't have to move the stupid thing while I am at Flohs :)


Sleeping was interesting. I fell asleep early enough, but I don't think I slept too long and I had serious problems this morning. I tried reading my "Conditions Manual" to put me to bed twice. I was reading about conditions of the head and neck and made it to Stroke. Maybe if I keep failing at sleeping I will get a really good refresher of pathologies :)


It's snowy here and was -5 upon arrival, but I was wearing so much I didn't feel it. This is the yard thing taken from the kitchen window...