I arrived in Berlin on Saturday, March 2nd, five days into my trip. Jet-lag was affecting me more than I remember it ever affecting me before. “They” say – you know “them”, those people who know about such things – that it takes one full day to adjust per time zone. Berlin is 6 hours ahead of Boston so I was hoping that I would be feeling better by Sunday, March 3rd. The Saturday night cocktails did help me fall asleep but I was wide awake by 4 am Sunday. It was an improvement in the right direction from my 3 am wake up in Amsterdam, but I felt out of sorts. I was determined to do something with the day, regardless of how I felt. This was a perfect time for a Hop On-Hop Off tour. I like those bus tours because they help me establish some mental sense of the local geography as well as getting the major tourist stuff out of the way – you can say that you saw “it” at least. Ted told me that Berlin is about half the area of London with a third of the people. As the bus made its way around town, I could see that regardless of the areas of the two cities, there were simply fewer people out and about. Some of that I thought might be due the day – it was Sunday, after all; it reminded me of Boston area during the year end holidays when the students and a lot of other people are not around town. There was a very smooth relaxed feel to the city. As the bus traveled, I noted the name of subway stations near things I’d like to visit like the Berlin Zoo or Natural History Museum. My hotel and the tour bus stop was located near the end of the tour. We’d reached the beginning of the circuit so since the driver had a 20 minute break, I thought I’d find lunch in the area.

I decided to pass up Pizza Hut and McDonalds; I ended up at a restaurant, Peter Pane. I was eating alone so it was easy for me to sit at the bar and not among the families in booths. The bartender, Taylor, and I got into a long conversation about travel – places to see, solo versus accompanied travel, RTW planning, school studies, the nature of friendships and of all things, the Boston Celtics (AGAIN!). Taylor is a tall young man who likes to play basketball and learn kickboxing. He’d recently returned from a trip to Africa with his mother, a dance teacher. We talked about what he had seen and experienced there and his acute awareness of his privilege. His job, bartending, was one of four things he was doing in his gap year: tutoring immigrant kids in computers, working another job and trying to start a business with a friend. He’d been on a science track at school and we talked about careers in the US – I really couldn’t say anything of substance about careers in Europe. He worked. I ate. We talked. I’d thought that I’d have a 40 minute break for lunch before returning to the tour, but it was more like a 90 minute conversation which I was reluctant to leave. The food was good, yes, a really good burger on a tasty salad without a bun; but I wanted to stay because Taylor was fun to talk with. The restaurant started to get busy and a table of twenty was due to come in so we said our farewells. I think we both enjoyed the surprise interaction.

The rest of the tour was interesting enough; I took some photos. But I think Taylor had been giving me heavy wine pours to keep me talking at the bar. I was pretty tired from doing absolutely nothing when the bus returned to the hotel.