take a left at the third 'apple light.'

It took us a good 7 hours to make it to Berlin.  7 hours in a tiny rental car.  Being the only one who knows how to drive stick, I piloted us the whole way - pretty smooth sailing until we got a bit - well, not lost per say, but rather, not exactly en route.  A few stops at gas stations proved ineffective due to my lack of any german language knowledge.  One woman who didn't speak a lick of English recognized my plea for "Zentrum! Berlin!"  She pointed me onward with drastic 90 degree angle arm movements and a kind hearted severity.  So we continue on our merry 3 am exhausted way.  Thank god for humor and Lady GaGa or I think our moods would've been a bit less jovial.

We stopped again where a very nice gas station attendant, who kept apologizing for his "not so good English," which was in reality our saving grace, but he continued to sincerely ask for our forgiveness for the fact that he couldn't speak my language fluently enough to guide me around Berlin.  Honestly, I hate my underdeveloped language skills.  Throughout my time here, I've met so many people who speak 2, 3, 4 or more languages and it's a completely understated ability.

Why of course I speak Norwegian and Arabic and spot on Spanish; I'm a native Dutch speaker, but I'd be more than happy to translate to English for you.  Jesus.  My inadequacy at it's finest, I'm often embarrassed by the fact that I can only speak English and a comically simple vocabulary of French.

But regardless, we made it to Hostel #1, where at 3:30 am the receptionist told us we were too early for breakfast.  Right.  Then we headed up to our room wherein we shared bunk beds with a few men who seemed to find pants superfluous, and a few others who remained clumps of blankets.  Welcome to Berlin.

Berlin was just a cool city.  So much history.  We wandered around, through the Brandenburg gate, went to a few museums, saw Checkpoint Charlie...strange to think what is now a tourist attraction, complete with street vendors boasting flasks with the communist logo, was once a divide in the Berlin wall, separating East and West.  My friend's mom was in Berlin, and at the time of her travels, the wall was still standing.  Crazy to think of - I can't even picture it, or imagine it.  But I suppose it isn't so unimaginable - bombings in Moscow, boats blown up near North Korea...times are different, but I guess a divided city and fast spreading ideologies is not such a wild idea after all.

We next stopped and stayed at a tiny town called St. Goar right on the Rhine river, under a castle.  That's correct, a castle.  The friendly receptionist greeted me with the true spelling of my last name - Löffler, and told us there probably wouldn't be anything open in town for dinner.  We managed to find one place to eat - Asia Kim.  They basically re-opened the place for us, so to reciprocate, we had ordered a few sake bombs, some german beers, and some very, very tasty meals.  Decided to pour hot sauce all over my rice.  Breathed dragon-like fire for a while.  Saw an old castle the next day, wandered around passageways and dark tunnels, and drove back into Belgium.  Another great adventure to talk about.