Day 13: Ringing in the New Year and Starting Somewhere New…

Day: 13

Countries: 4               Cities: 7

Berlin, Germany à Amsterdam, Netherlands

Ringing in the New Year and Starting Somewhere New…

Day 13

Friday 1 December 2015

I woke up this morning, just in time to ring in the New Year anew with my family staying up late half way around the world back home. After spending a short night wrapped in a sheet with my head propped up on my scarf and sweatshirt, hugging the edge of the bed and trying not to kick Gracie at the foot of the bed in the face (hazards of trying to split a bed for two among four girls, but it suited just fine...).

We didn't end up making it all the way to Brandenburg Gate for the main New Year’s celebration last night but we managed to metro last minute to Alexanderplatz and rang in the New Year among a crowd of people, in the midst of firework-smoky air, jumping at each pop and crack and bright light from crazy amount of fireworks being set off every which way on the street—even just from the bare hands of the people that surrounded us.

It was something to behold for sure.

After we'd had officially crossed into 2016 (hmmmm, I guess this was technically the shortest year of my life since I rang it in in the US at the beginning of 2015 and then said “so long” a few time zones earlier in Germany…. So 2015 was technically 7 hours shorter than every other year I’ve lived… hmmmmm… maybe the hours make up somewhere…anyway…)…. After we'd had officially crossed into 2016, a little prematurely or not aside, we made our way back to the hotel, the excitement and fireworks continuing all along the road, from one year into the next.

When we got back upstairs to our room, I was trying to organize my stuff and thought I'd lost my phone charger cord. Turns out I didn't but I spent a good hour looking everywhere except where it was and trying not to fret about it. Found it this morning in a last minute sweep/let's-just-make-sure-I-don’t-have-anything-in-this-side-of-the-closet, and lo-and-behold-lookie-here there's my cord! Sigh of relief. Ufda.  Is it weird that those moments of frantically searching and fretting into the next morning was a practice in handling how to lose things better? If that makes any sense at all… anyway.  That could probably be another blog post for another day, but back to our journey…

Anyway. That was the rest of our New Years night. Four girls dodging fireworks in the streets of Berlin then curling up four to a double twin bed trying to sleep through the sound of fireworks. But not a bad night.

This morning Gracie and I woke up, got our stuff together, then got on a train. There wasn't much open in the station so we ended up (again!) only eating train station bread and chocolate for a majority of the day. Whoops…

Our train ride was kinda long but not bad. A little chilly. Some fog covering the passing scenery. Green fields. Square buildings. Miniature horses. Slept for a bit. Organized/planned/wrote some postcards. Made some resolutions (hmmmm, how well am I sticking with those 2 and a half months in?? I should go back and check/reflect/evaluate/maybe renew….). Listened to music…

And then we got here to Amsterdam and it is such a neat city! I had a good vibe like an “I-kinda-really-like-this-place” kind of feeling. We trammed to our air bnb, a small but nice attic in a little apartment in a good part of town. We walked the mile and a half from there to the main restaurant/going out neighborhood. A nice walk: down and over and down and over again and again. Cross the canal then turn right for a block then turn left and walk past three canals, turning along the fourth. See the canals lined with houseboats. So cute! Let's live in a tiny house!

We tried to go to the Indonesian restaurant recommended by friends, and thought we'd found it and made our way there, but then realized it wasn’t the same one after the fact.  Ah well. We had a delicious meal. A variety of dishes to try a little bit of everything. Rice. And peanut sauce salad and chicken skewer. And soy sauce pork. And chicken curry. And spicy beef stew. And these little crunchy straws band fried bananas for dessert. And then after dinner they brought us out a whole pitcher of water for free and it was cold. And the wait staff was nice and attentive. A refreshing and surprising change from the abrupt German waiters we'd had the last week or so. So that was dinner.

And though it was only like 630 we were kinda tired. We walked around the area and sat down for dessert (mini pancakes with ice cream and toffee sauce. Pforfetjes or something like that). We made a gameplan for tomorrow. Said goodbye to our little mouse friend (who’d come out from underneath the booth kitty corner from us to say hello and grab some crumbs for dinner...). And then we walked back. Stopped at that little homey homemade shop on the way back. Got a ginger soda that wasn’t my favorite. Showered. Caught up here. And now we are watching Netflix. Another good day. Two weeks down. One full week to go. Woo! We are in Amsterdam!!! :) 

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