The time was approaching us and as it got closer and closer we had the drab task of packing our past year’s life into boxes and posting it all home. This was such a weird surreal feeling. I think it just felt as though we were getting to really know this amazing, intriguing city and now it was time to go! I think we thought we would be here a lot longer, but with the recent events that had occurred, we needed to be home to celebrate our new lives together with our close friends and family. And also time to be a grown up and stop gallivanting around the world (Not sure how this will work for me but I’ll try!).
When we got all the boring important bits out of the way, we were left with a few days to enjoy our favourite things about Berlin and go out with a bang and celebrate New Years with our Berlin Buddies and some friends who came over for the last hoorah!
Now New Years in Berlin is an oddity to us. The days prior (I think it was around 4 days earlier) shops pop up around the city selling legal fireworks to be exploded and let off on the day. The idea of this was very exciting yet I don’t think I realised the enormity of it until the day. I had this image in my head of random little kids randomly letting off firecrackers and you would hear a pop here and there – well, this was not the case! As soon as the countdown began we rushed downstairs of our friends’ apartment in the city suburb of Prenzlauer Berg which sits on the hill on top of the city, allowing for a great view of the firework display put on by the city. Once downstairs though, we realised that the streets had turned into mayhem as children, teenagers and adults all got involved and started letting off their personal stashes of fireworks. The combination of feeling the drunkeness and not being ready for the noises and lights and colours that were being launched right there in the streets, off balconies, into the S-Bahn, this was like the real life Apocalypse, it was insane! In the end, we decided it was safer inside and to let the party go on until the daylight came through the windows and let us know we had definitely brought in 2012.
We said our teary goodbyes to our friends, to our favourite places, to Berlin and jumped on board our flight to Istanbul to start the journey back to the motherland. There was so much I was going to miss from Germany – the cuisine, the cheap beer, the easy going life-style, the roast chicken at Görlitzer park, so many things! But don’t get me wrong, everyplace in the world has amazing things on offer, and while it may not be the best, cheapest bottle of beer I’ve ever tasted, I’m sure that there will be exciting endeavours to look forward to outside of Berlin!
No comments:
Post a Comment