whew, this has been a blur!
it is the eve of my return to italia, to roma, and i am curled up in bed in one of the cutest boy-flats that i have ever had the pleasure of nesting in. this has been one of the coldest weeks that berlin has ever known, and thank god for marion and mimi and their insistence that i buy some decent shoes, because i seriously would not have survived without them. the snow that came down in beautiful shiny sheets just days ago has now been crushed under the soles of so many a german boot that the ground is icy and white, tremendously trecherous. "i love it here. these people are beautiful."
so...where was i...
marion brought me to the duisburg train station early on a monday morning, and we had a teary and precious goodbye, and i was passed off into the hands of three complete strangers. germany has this wonderful thing where people who are taking road trips post their schedules, and then other people can pay them tiny amounts of money to share the ride. we found a car going form duisburg to berlin that morning for 25 euro, which is a quarter, at least, of what it would have cost to take a train. the woman who was driving was this sort of frightening butch lady, who claims to have taken english lessons for twelve years, though i saw absolutely no evidence of her language skills other then when she very suddenly asked me "do you want a toke?". she meant of her cigarette, which was in a package labeled "black devils" and they smelled like tar and i shook my head violently and said "oh, haha, no thank you" and commenced breathing into my shirt. we rode all the way to berlin with her music, sub-gwar meets metalica scary stuff, blarring and i couldnt take my eyes off the one, single, solitary childs high top that sat on the dashboard. the shoe was dirty on the bottom, not just a hood ornament, an actual childs shoe, and i couldnt help but wonder...
arrived safe and sound and she deposited me right at the door of my dear costa, who stood grinning at me from the door of his apartment as i struggled and heaved my 400lb suitcase up the four flights of stairs. his foot is broken, so im sure he would have helped me if he could. we immediately went for a lovely sushi dinner and then crashed back into the apartment, rubbing our numbed cheeks and watched the office for a long, long time.
surprise visitors came a little while later...both the baggett blondies, Katherine and Ann Marie, decided to pop in for new years eve. since their dad is a pilot they can fly for free anywhere that US Air flys, and ann marie was already going to france to visit her friend brandon, so katherine, my dearest angel, decided shed tag along and come stay with me and the germans. costa, who is clearly one of the most generous and patient men that i have ever known and adored, was gracious enough to let us wild american girls crash in his flat, and KT stayed with us here for about a week.
new years eve was one of the most incredible nights of my entire life. the girls and i got ready, and the theme for our outfits was grey, and we wore earrings with ribbon decal (seriously, we all matched, was cute). costa and his friend toby took us to a little party that the girls and i dubbed "bizarro athens", lots of guys sitting around playing guitar hero. was incredible boring, except it didnt even matter, cause AM, KT, and i had months and months of things to talk about and costa and toby are hilarious and we all just piled onto a couch together and giggled and sang and talked about our neuroses like not being able to eat food in front of people or having a hard time walking across crowded rooms and then toby had us launch fireworks from the balcony and it was just great. about half an hour till midnight, costa led us out into the FREEZING cold, where we snuck into an apartment building across the street and headed toward the roof. picture berlin though, on this night of nights: its dark outside and so so cold and people are on the streets, on balconies, in windows. from every direction firecrackers are popping and whizzing and the sidewalks are trecherous and theres hooting and hollering and with every minute the energy mounts. we make it up onto the roof, with 5 minutes to spare. this in itself was quite an adventure, with costa being on crutches and all, and there were about 30 people with us, and the ladder was this terrifying rickety wooden thing. was impressed as hell when costa flew up that thing on one foot; he knew the roof top experience was going to be too good to miss, broken foot be damned.
from the roof top we could see berlin in all directions, and in the dark of night it all looked positively endless. the girls and i hudled togetehr for warmth and sang aerosmith songs at the top of our voices, the boys shot off fireworks and people were dancing. 5 minutes till midnight the chaos began: firworks were launched and the singing was coming to our ears from all directions and when midnight struck, you could seemingly hear everyone in the city let out a collective yell of glee and the sky exploded in fireworks. blasts of red, blue, green. pink, whizzing, twirling fire bombs of celebration in literally every direction, a panoramic explosion, and i turned around and around and everywhere i looked colors soared and people were singing and champagne bottles were popping and the sky was bright and full of balloons and paper lanterns flying on the fuel of tiny candles and chards of confetti rained down on our heads and in our eyes. we stayed on the roof about 30 minutes, all hugs and laughter and bottle rockets, and then one by one we climbed back down the ladder and wandered out onto the street. berlin from street level resembled a wartorn, bombed city, except the smoke was from fireworks, thick in the air, and people milled through the streets running and skipping and swigging champagne. there were used bottle rockets and colorful paper all over the icy ground and you couldnt see too far in front of you for the smoke but the air smelled sweet and happy and KT and i held hands and ran through the fog and led our little group to a tiny bar where we thought we could warm up. the bar turned out to be a great choice, as it was packed and there was a little dance party in the back room. we all danced and thawed out and i met some italians which made me ridiculously happy. late that evening, about 3 i imagine, the girls and i decided we wanted to go dance. we hailed a cab and sweet costa hobbled over and told the driver in his precious german some directions to somewhere, we couldnt understand a word, we just smiled and thanked him and blew kisses and reveled in the idea of being sent into the abyss on a new years eve in berlin, no idea where we were headed but knowing we were in good hands. we ended up at a giant warehouse, a giant disco village, where KT argued her way past the 25euro entrance fee. the place was sprawling and hd a vast number of rooms, each with different DJs and themes and people were in costume and evrything glowed. after an hour or two of marveling at the happy chaos and a little dancing, we settled down for a nice grilled cheese some guy was making at a lttle booth (he gav me mine for free in exchange for the last sip of my beer) and decided that we had better head home- ann marie was scheduled to leave for france in 3 hours. made it back to costas warm flat safe and sound, all giggles and picking confetti from each others hair and, KT and i at least, settled in with costa for a long sleep.
TBC...
oh, and roma is beautiful!!
No comments:
Post a Comment