Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:59:22 -0800 (PST)
Subject: GUTES NEUES JAHR!!!
Guten abend, (or gutentag depending on where you are),
Or just hallo,
As I said in my Paris email I didn't get much sleep on the train ride to Berlin
(voluntarily, but thats beside the point).. And luckily, when I reached Berlin
and checking into my hotel, the room was ready! I didn't have to give them my
bag and come back later in the afternoon to check in!
So I went straight to my room, set my cellphone alarm for 2:00 PM, and fell
asleep.
The alarm rang, went to auto-snooze, rang again, went to auto-snooze, rang
again, went to auto-snooze, etc etc I dont know how many times! Point is, I
didn't wake up, and the cellphone ended up draining the entire battery!
I woke up at 5pm.
Took a quick shower (mmmmmmmmmm hot water!), piled on several clothes, and
stepped out for my hmm -- I guess you can call it "brunch"? After that I walked
over to Brandenberger Tor -- and stayed there for the rest of the year. Along
the way, there was a quick stop at a huge ferris wheel that turned out to not
have the great views I had hoped for! But I didn't mind... I was looking
forward to the big party at Brandenburg Gate!
It was crowded. Expected, since Berlin is one of the "bigger" new years eve
parties in the world, and before leaving I had watched on CNN that the expected
crowd would be about 1 million. That's one million people all jammed into
Tiergarten park (for those of you who know the city) -- roughly about 2.5
square kilometers!
I had also checked the weather forecast before leaving the hotel, and it said
34 F (27 F with windchill) and light snow expected 11pm.
It was cold, but because of all the crowds and having to push and shove my way
through people everywhere, I didn't really feel that cold! Must be all the body
heat generated by everyone! And my feet were completely away from the wind! So
it was fine...
There was a concert going on in front of Brandenberg Gate, and that was fun,
although none of the "big names" that I knew. But I did have some great views
and my face even flashed on the big screen once!!! That was my 1.5 seconds of
fame tonight!
The atmosphere was fantastic -- everybody having fun, jumping and dancing and
not a lot of "rowdyness" that I had seen in Paris and Rome in years past...
This was more like Sydney on Dec 31 2004... just a million people having a good
time!
So I got into it too, jumping and shouting whenever whoever was on the stage
turned the mic to the audience, and to completely honest, it was also a way of
staying warm and even relaxing my feet from standing continuously. I had a
small bottle of Chardonnay with me, and was drinking that throughout...
Midnight came pretty quick (right after 11:59), the last 10 seconds of course
counted down by everyone in the crowd, I even heard a couple of people behind
me counting down in spanish... so I counted down in english... basically a lot
of screaming and shouting from everybody and nobody cared what anyone else was
saying or doing!
The fireworks were terrific too -- down the width of Tiergarten, and lasted a
good 15 minutes or so... and strangely, even now there was NONE of the crowd
being naughty!!! I remember in Paris and Rome I was actually worried about my
safety, and especially in Paris I even got in trouble with riot police for
something I didn't do! Nothing like that here! Everyone is well-behaved, which
is amazing considering the number of people there! It was just..... "a million
people having good fun"!
Sydney and Berlin -- I'll remember these two :D
Well, after the fireworks ended I didn't feel like staying out in the cold much
longer, so started walking back to the S-bahn (metro) station. Part of this was
around the Reichstag buildings, where there was another bunch of people
exploding mini-fireworks... HERE the crowd was rowdy! Lot of empty champagne
bottles being tossed in the air just to see them come crashing down... and of
course a lot of broken glass on the ground... It was an obstacle course! :)
I was originally planning on taking the metro train back to my motel but there
was such a huge crowd going that way I decided to walk -- its not that far,
maybe about 1 1/2 miles. And along the way, a slum area.... but I survived that
too! :-)
Now I'm back in the motel, defrosted, and finishing up a bottle of Fanta
thinking about scrapping my plans to go to Dresden tomorrow.
I dunno...
Anyway, its been a memorable year for me, with many "new" countries including a
new continent, hopefully 2008 will be more of the same! If only the FAA/DOT
doesn't keep introducing new limits on carry-ons on flights! (grrrr... I just
read about the most recent one!)
So... I want to wish you all a very happy 2008, (especially the couple of you
who had a crappy 2007, hopefully '08 will be much better -- it can only get
better right?) ... and GUTES NEUES JAHR and FELICE ANO NUEVO and FELIZ ANO
NUEVO and .... "Blue skies!" ;)
Auf weidersehn!
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| Dec 30 | Contents | Jan 1 |