Deutschland, Deutschland

thursday morning at 3am, anna and i were dressing silently in the dark of our hostel room, trying not to wake our hostel roommates.

actually, we weren't dressing. we went to sleep in our clothes.

why this early wake up call? well, a month ago, anna and i found a FREE flight from dublin to berlin. well, free flight equals 6:05am flights, but it was still "cheaper than a cab from the upper east side to battery park city" and less than our taxi last night home from emma's apartment in berlin...but i am getting ahead of myself.

getting to this early flight should not have been an issue. after all, there is bus that runs once an hour from only a 15 minute walk from our hostel directly to the airport. now, let me clarify some things about dublin public transportation. it would APPEAR that dublin has great public transportation, but you would never know because there are no comprehensive schedules and no map. anna and i were baffled by this. its not so much even that there are no maps for tourists; there are no maps or schedules for people who live dublin. i don't get it. the bus that we were supposed to take to the airport came once an hour, but did anyone know what time? no. we asked the following people: the concierge at our hostel and the fancy-schmancy hotel where the bus stops, the central bus station, and a bus driver on one of the airport buses. no one had the same answer, and no one seemed to know for sure if their "answer" was the right one.

not helpful. so anna and i woke at 3 in hopes of catching a bus by 4:15. in the end, getting nervous, we shared a taxi with five others and spent half as much money, making it to the airport in good time. in the end, anna and i think that we spent time awake, in city center dublin, for every hour except 6-7pm when we napped both days.

ryanair did NOT loose our luggage, thankfully, and we arrived in berlin, city of my heart!, to find aya waiting for us at the baggage claim. after hugs and excited, we bought tickets for the bus and headed back to her apartment to nap (we were a little tired, after our early morning adventures on the streets of ireland's capital). around 1, we woke, showered, and prepared a picnic lunch for ourselves, imogen, and willy's family at a little park only a block or two from aya's apartment.

it was this beautiful little palatial park, with sloped lawns and neatly groomed hedges, and it was so lovely to see willy and imogen and aya and to meet the rest of willy's family (i had met his dad several times before). there was something about it that made me feel full and warm and gushy inside...maybe it was the nutella and strawberries.

later that night, after dinner at aya's, the three of us went to emma hagendorf's to watch the germany-portugal game in the european cup. it was an incredible game, well played by both teams, and incredible to be in germany again during Serious Soccer Season (SSS). During SSS, the germans cover themselves in facepaint, wear only "schwartz, rot, gold", the colors of the german flag, and run around singing songs with lyrics as poetic and thoughtful as "deutschland, deutschland, deutschland, deutschland." we naturally joined it, dancing around the apartment every time the germans scored, air fiving the super cute 7 year olds who were also celebrating across the street in their window, and screaming every time someone set off a firework or shot an air gun--which seemed to happen a lot, irregardless of what was happening in the game.

germany won 3-2, which caused a lot of yelling and celebrations, including several that stopped traffic in emma's neighborhood. despite the rain and the forced taxi ride because the s-bahn had stopped running, it was a night of elation.

i fell asleep hearing the chants of the germans ringing in my head. "deutschland, deutschland, deutschland...."