Get Lost

(This was written in early April, shortly after I arrived.)
After a pretty busy first few days, we got a couple days off and the ‘Three Americans’ went out in search of downtown Berlin, backpacks, street maps, and cameras in tow. Alexanderplatz was our end goal, a central market area within walking distance to the historic areas and museums, and it seemed an easy enough destination.
But, like a kid who gets the cool Christmas present and wants to play with it sans direction reading, we left our place of residence, Hotel Kolumbus without really doing any homework on the metro routes.
And, of course when we got to the bus station the lines, symbols, and words on the metro line map were like Hieroglyphs to us Yanks. We tried a couple different buses and zigzagged around our East Berlin berg for a while, but for fear of getting lost in the sprawling unknown, we admitted defeat and walked back to our hotel to watch YouTube clips.
The next day we set out with a different mindset. Pick a bus or tram, and ride it out. The previous day’s end goal had completely tunneled our vision; we need not get to Brandennberger Gate today; the whole city is just as new to us, if not more. So we hopped on the M-6 with eyes, ears, and mind open.
On the third stop we gave up our seats to a new mother and her stroller, and exchanged a few sentences, but mostly smiles and nods of appreciation. A fifty-something American woman heard our accents and introduced herself, telling us her story, the last seventeen years of which taking place in Berlin. And my favorite: three small schoolchildren who were riding public transportation home from their day. It turned out there English was about on par with my German; I am’s, you are’s, he is’, and a handful of adjectives and verbs. They corrected my pronunciations a bit, and then enacted a scene right out of Kindergarten Cop as the three boys accurately and jokingly described each other in anatomical terms. I looked around to see if anyone else was offended by the talk, but no one seemed to be paying attention, and we all laughed together in human.
After a meandering ride through different parts of town we even found ourselves at Alexanderplatz Station and got out to walk around and see some of the sites of Berlin, which are as good as advertised.
But while Brandennberger Gate was pretty cool, my favorite part of the day was the adventure of the unknown, of happening upon the treasures of this ancient city like archaeologists after wading our way through urban jungle maze. Sometimes not knowing where you’re going is just a little bit more fun.