So here I am in Berlin and what a truly interesting city it is... - TopicsExpress

So here I am in Berlin and what a truly interesting city it is... but Im getting ahead of myself... Let me tell you about getting here... So traveling on Christmas Day is kinda weird because you barely think about the celebration and focus solely on making sure your case is packed, you get to the airport in time and you dont forget anything... and yes I did. I always do. So our bus delivery to the airport ended up running nearly an hour late ( and yes, I had booked the earlier bus to take any possibility into account) but we arrived in plenty of time and checked in. Then after boarding, we sat at the gate for another hour due to paperwork issues and when we finally left, we were STARVING as it was nearly 11pm... This was a LOOOOOONG flight so I fitted in a heap of movies and 6 sketchy hours of sleep... I watched Guardians of the Galaxy ( not bad), How to train your dragon 2 ( 5 stars) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ( also pretty good) and slept/ate in between... Have to say that Emirates was awesome and will choose them again. So on arrival at Dubai I couldnt fathom how it could possibly take 15 minutes to get from the plane to the terminal... but oh yes, it does... and standing up on a cramped full bus to boot... They park a LOOOOONG way out. But OMG what a mind bending array of Duty Free... first stop was the electrical store - our neighbour on the plane sat on Millies headphone jack and snapped the converter for her noise cancelling headphones clean in half... I wanted to cry for her... they are an essential for every flight from now on... - crying babies? no problem... pop on those headphones and its little more than a whisper in the background. Love them with a capital L. A swarthy looking gentleman approached me while I was taking photos to use my phone to call a friend... yeah right... not going to happen. Then the shiny stuff drew us like a magnet... and despite not actually visiting Dubai, we needed stuff... Then Millie topped up on Maccas - the plane food was not to her liking - and we boarded the flight to Munich. 6 hours, one screaming kicking 4 year old and Transformers 3/The Maze runner later - we arrived in Munich. Again, a long commute to the terminal where we went through immigration and down to our domestic flight to Berlin. Sheesh... seriously did we get a taste of the German security.... Millie got the complete Bertha pat down and then we both got roasted for not taking out our cameras for them to check they all turned on and even my extra lenses had to be de-capped and held up to the light to see if they were real ... Bit daunting to say the least. Jackets off , shoes off... I havent been put through taht kind of security anywhere - even LAX. So off we trotted to the gate where the flight was announced in only German so when they boarded in zone order we had no idea so with a rolling of the eyes they let us through when we clearly were out of sequence... While we waited for the hour long delay it started snowing and it was the most magical thing to watch the ground get a white velvet coat. I thought it was dust or ash or something until some stuck to the windows and it was clearly ice. As we boarded to the sound of Bing Crosbys White Christmas, we couldnt help think someone orchestrated that little bit of serendipity.... Then after waiting in the plane another half hour for the runway to be de-snowed, this massive washer sprayed the whole plane down with goopy anti-snow stuff that left streaks on the window for the whole trip - meaning no photos. Berlin would have to be the most beautiful city from the air at this time of year, it literally sparkled with christmas lights all over the city.... Im so used to seeing the golden glow of street lighting, but this was something magical with all the colours of Christmas lights sparkling everywhere. Security at Berlin is not the same as Munich - Seriously... we could have brought anything into the country we wanted because when we claimed our baggage and got into the customs line and neither of them spoke english they shrugged their shoulders and waved us through without a backwards glance. Who knew our hostel was such a long way from the airport... anyhoo, given we were now arriving in total darkness rather than late afternoon as we should have, we opted for a very exy taxi to our Hostel and soon collapsed into bed. 37 hours from home and exhausted.