Willkommen Sie am Berlin!!

Wow… that was a very exhausting flight… 14 hours non-stop from San Francisco Int’l to Frankfurt. Arrival date… couldn’t have planned for anything better. Arrived at Frankfurt Int’l on December 26th, was very excited and anxious for months prior to my arrival. Once in Frankfurt, I made my way through immigration, and after that, the first thing on my list was to locate a public phone from which I could call my cousin, who was supposed to welcome me at Tegel Int’l in Berlin. I phoned him around 10AM giving him plenty of time to get to the airport. Once I managed to get off the plane and retrieve my baggage, or at least half of it… one of my bags did not arrive, I tried to locate him… little did I know. He couldn’t make it. I phoned him and he claimed to have been sick, however he gave me directions and told me he would meet me at Alexanderplatz. I hopped on a bus… I looked as if I was moving to Berlin with furniture and everything on my back, I was carrying four bags… constantly bumping into people. I felt so embarrassed and sorry for them, yet I was happy because it was also the beginning of my European adventure. Once at Alexanderplatz, it wasn’t too hard for my cousin to spot me because I was the only one who looked completely lost. He met me there and helped me carry the bags to his apartment… man it was a slippery walk. It was my first time walking while it was snowing and I was constantly fearing I would fall because of the ice on the roads. Warm weather at last! Minutes later found out the bag which did not arrive contained my clothes for the cold weather, great inconvenience, had never experienced that kind of weather before and was not prepared for it. I foresee some unplanned shopping expenses.