Ich Habe lust auf Berlin

Today I took the Deutsch Ban from Windach to Berlin via Munich. What was suppose to be a 7 hour train ride turned into a 9 hour ride, as I missed my connection in Munich. To be fair, the platform my train was leaving from was under construction, the clock was broken and I hadn't yet figured out how to distinguish the different trains. After asking for the time in very broken German to the few old ladies that still wear watches (Slavic looking sports fanatics also wear watches...but are less approachable) I figured I should see if I could trade my ticket in for a later train. The Bavarians who sent me off assured me that everyone spoke english, that the connection would be very easy and there would be more than enough room on the train so i didnt need to reserve a seat. Bah! true on NO accounts. I love Bavarians. They are not in a hurry for anything, not aggressive or tense (although I did learn the word "Spiesse" today from my hostess-meaning something like "square" in english...conservative suburbians who are constantly watching their neighbors and mowing their lawn. I hear this is a common type in Bavarian villages) ...They don't need constant motion...which might be why they have not been into the northern German cities by train in some time... I figured out that reservations are always the way to go on long distance trains. I learned this by getting kicked out of my seat nearly every stop by people who had reserved said seat for however long they were traveling. I ended up sitting mostly on the floor near the exit door....reading travel books on Germany, eating delicious sandwiches made for me by my incredible Bavarian hostess and watching the tops of trees and houses fly by. upsetting only because of the hefty price of the train ticket. 125 Euros. gahhhh! I made friendly eye contact with quite a few Germans and wished I weren't the asshole American I am, who showed up in Germany not knowing any German... I could tell they wanted to talk with me... I asked one girl who was sitting by the door with me if I could use her phone to make a call (I was going to be two hours late to the train station and had no way to contact my hostess-i had no phone-no internet-no numbers...only the number of a friend of a friend of a friend. Ha!) but she responded in a very long German form of "no".  I must say, Germans on the whole have been extremely helpful and kind. The initial answers to my broken requests are "you're too late", "it is impossible" etc. But I think the various train employees etc that had to deal with me and my non existent German today saw that I meant well, was use to being considered a fool, impossible to anger and soft spoken enough to gain some form of sympathy. Upon reaching my destination in Berlin, the employee at the information desk who initially sent me away to find internet in an unknowable place chased me down with Euro coupons to be spent at any cafe in the station, offered to help me with my bags and guided me to another information center whose phone I could use.... Thank God I'm a young woman with an average build, a calm exterior and a very subtle, very practiced apologetic gaze...that is all I have to say about that.  I figured out how to take the bus to my new hostess's house and arrived after a majestic night bus ride to a very welcoming family. The husband is a professor of art at a university; the mother is an artist of all kinds and their two daughters are beautiful bohemians. We stayed up until 3am discussing music and art and making plans to put on a concert of our combined musical talents! this building is in the middle of a Turkish neighborhood, mainly filled with artists and musicians..A violinist from the Berlin Philharmonic lives across from me! Tomorrow I buy a phone, visit my language school, have lunch with Jane and start to piece together the city. Birgit tells me she will take me on a bike tour of the area and show me where the prostitutes hang out (upon my request :D) I think this is going to be a beautiful trip :)

Salami sandwich compliments of my hostess. Looks simple. the quality is just beyond what I can squeal to you...

second sandwich. Fresh cheese and a sprout like vege called gardenkrase.	NOTE: one of my last meals with the Bavarians consisted of a beer called "Hell" and bread called "soul". So I can now say I have drunk hell and eaten souls with the Bavarians! BAYAM!

My view from the floor of the train. Can't figure out what the graffiti means...there was actually excellent graffiti on the city walls in Frankfurt and further north.